I felt the presence of death as I sat on my chair. There was silence. Total silence. I knew not why, but I felt that my enemy was torturing me. Long ago I had made the fatal mistake of revealing my fear of silence.

So now I sat, in the iron chair, in the iron room, of the man with the iron heart.

The room was bare. Steel or something of the like. They had left to me only my clothing; even my headscarf they had taken. My knives were gone, so was my medic pouch. Even my belt had been taken, since it could conceivably be used as a whip.

Now I waited in the room. The silence was ringing in my ears. My heartbeat echoed around the room. My breathing was deafening.

To fill the silence, I began to sing a song. An old song. It was originally in Ancient Greek, but my father translated it, before he – no. If I thought of such things, it would weaken me. My father had translated it. End of sentence.

"Sleep, sleep, the sun is sleeping,

The gods are watching, night is coming,

Sleep, sleep, my child will sleep now,

Someone's watching over you."

And with the last word I began to weep. Sob, cry, whatever name. But the tears ran down my cheeks and I mourned the loss.

My loss, our loss. Everyone's loss. My people had passed and there was no new opportunity. My family was dead. And Calen and Garrett. They were gone, killed or trapped.

I was in a bare, silent room, crying my eyes out over the past. I shook my head. This pointless suffering was useless.

When at least an hour had passed, the door's locks shot back. Clang, clang, clang, crack. Clang, clang, clang, crack. Clang, clang, clang, crack.

And the door flew open.

Two guards marched in and took positions on the sides of the door. Two more took positions on the sides of my chair, swords out and at the ready. I considered the possibilities of battle. If I fought, would I win?

And then a fifth figure walked into the room. When I saw him, my breath hitched. If he was here…

It was. My enemy. The leader.

"Hello, Alyssa," he said. "You've been living in the cave all this time, think, and you'd run away from running water, heating and air conditioning, hot meals three times a day, and no one trying to kill you. Imagine."

I stared straight ahead. Nothing he said would shake me. I thought of something else. The snow outside. The back of my hand. The glint of one of the guards' swords.

"Won't you say hello to your old friend?" he said.

I started to speak, but stopped myself before my mouth opened. You are not my friend, was what I was about to say, but I realized how ridiculous that sounded.

"Well," he said, acting hurt, "I have someone who wants to see you."

"I don't want to see them," I said.

"Oh, but I think you'll enjoy their company for a bit," he replied. "But first, let's remember what started all this, shall we?"

He reached for me. I jumped backwards, knocking the chair over and landing on my feet.

"No," I growled. "Don't think about forcing that on me."

"Oh, but my dear," he said, with a smile. "I have. For so, so long. I've wanted to see your agonized face. Your attacks on my men have been most expensive, and I'd like some payback for that."

He reached towards me again.

"No!" I shouted, desperate. I couldn't go back. Not after these years of keeping my heart locked away. I swung at his face. His other hand shot up, catching my fist.

The four guard started to come towards me, but he waved them back. "I want to see how well she's progressed since last I saw her," he said. "Not much, I believe."

I shot my knee up, planning to hit him in the jaw.

Planning.

He flipped me backwards and jumped back, all in one movement. I landed painfully on my back.

He touched my forehead. "Let's go back seven years," he said, and we were gone.