Micaiah entered the palace, feeling a bit uneasy. She slowly walked towards the library, her thin graceful hands clutching some books she had found in the library earlier. Just when she was about to open the library door, she tripped on her own feet and dropped all of her books. "Damn! What a stupid thing to happen," she thought to herself. She quickly picked the books up as fast as she could, but then heard a strange noise. "Footsteps…. Footsteps coming from the library." Suddenly the door opened, and Micaiah let out a shriek.
"Micaiah? What are you doing here?"
"Oh, Pelleas," Micaiah blushed, embarrassed for letting out that scream, "I'm very sorry."
"What are you doing here? I wasn't expecting to see you until tomorrow."
"Pelleas," she paused, "It's about the attack…Please, I beg you to reconsider attacking at dawn!" Micaiah felt a mix of fear and anger rush through her.
"I wish I could attack at a different time Micaiah, but," Pelleas fell silent for a moment, "but I can't."
"Because the senate wants you to attack at dawn," Micaiah knew too well that this is what was making the young King so upset.
"How did you know?"
"It was obvious. To attack at dawn would be foolish, and you know that, but the senate wants you to because they want us to die."
"That's right."
"You couldn't do anything to change the situation?" Micaiah asked this with a note of hope in her voice, but she knew that the answer would be no.
"I'm afraid I can't," Pelleas sighed, "The situation is out of my hands."
"I understand," Micaiah paused, "Here, I picked these books out for you. I don't know if there's any useful information in them, but I read a couple chapters, and it seems as if they'd have something of use in them." Micaiah attempted to smile, but the situation was too dire for her to do so.
"Thank you, Micaiah…You know I admire you, and your flawless bravery."
"Thank you very much, but I could hardly say I'm as brave as you seem to think I am. Still, it does flatter me, thank you very much, Pelleas."
"It's getting very late, I'd best be off to bed," Micaiah could tell that Pelleas was also attempting to smile, but couldn't, "Good night."
"Have a good sleep."
"You too." Pelleas walked down the long hallway and then disappeared behind the corner.
Micaiah left the palace with tears in her eyes, if only there was some way to destroy the blood pact, if only they could succeed before dawn so they wouldn't have to fight in this pointless war.
By the time she reached the camp, she was very tired, and decided the best thing to do would be to get some rest. She walked into her tent, dressed for bed, splashed some water on her face, and lay down on her mattress. Her white silk nightgown was recently washed, and felt very clean. It was a warm night, so Micaiah felt no need to get under the sheets. Looking at the ceiling, she couldn't help but close her eyes, and then she began to dose off into sleep.
