Dwyn's POV

That first evening locked in the pit seemed really bad then, but we would soon realize that it was the least awful to come.

True, I was in a dress, a white one, but I had managed to get into a comfortable one since I'd known I'd be walking around the village. The worst thing at that point was that I couldn't walk about. Any other circumstances and I would have been pacing, but this small confined cell was going to drive me mad, as all I could do was bounce my feet on their heels, hardly a good thinking stimulation.

In the few hours we'd been captive, my white dress had become permanently stained, and my inner queen-hating self mourned the loss of one of my few comfy attires.

Hours dragged by, or were they minutes? Everything began to slur together like drunkard speech, and before long, I stopped talking to Caeli and she to me. We weren't even given dry food, and at first, my stomach growled, but as more time passed, it silenced. Like it knew that no food was coming whether it made noise forever or not.

There was no way to sleep, and soon, I felt my eyes begin to sink into my head and my eyelids fall permanently half closed. My body trembled constantly all over from the dank cold, and the only way to survive was to get as much dirty water that ran down the walls into our mouths as we could.

How long had we been here? How long since we'd left Kosak? Surely, our people noticed our absence by now? After so many months gone…

Or had it been a day?

We had no way of knowing.

I only knew that I felt like I was dying, and I probably was.

Which meant Caeli was as well.

However long it was, I soon began to fade in and out of consciousness, the cell around me blurring in and out. No sleeping, however, this was as close as I came to sleep.

After many more immeasurable spans of time passed by, I heard, for the first time, voices cutting through the constant haze that now surrounded me. For a moment, I thought that perhaps insanity had finally crept in through the cracks of the hunger thirst, and darkness. But then, I strained to bring the cell into focus, groaning at the headache even this slightest twitch had brought on. Alas, the voices weren't in my head. It was the two monks speaking softly and excitedly to one another.

"Yes, burnt it to the ground they say…lit the first torch with his own two hands…"

"Did he really? It serves the blasphemers rightly…"

"If you ask me, they all need burning…"

"They'd never have survived without their Queen anyway…"

"Well, the Lord is working on her now…"

Suddenly, I realized that they could only be talking about one place…Frantically, I tried to move to a crawling position, but found that my arms and legs had not moved in so long, sharp pain shot through them and they refused to hold me up. But I had to know…surely they hadn't slaughtered all those innocent people…my people…because of me…

I moved along the floor, feeling low and impotent, like a worm, and I looked like one too…

Finally, I reached the bars, and clasping my fingers round them, I pulled myself up, each muscle screeching in pain.

"Please…" I tried to say, but only found that nothing came out. I swallowed furiously, trying to wet my throat, then tried again. "Please…" My voice came out barely above a whisper and raspy, like nails crawling up my throat, the points digging into my vocal chords. "What town? Where?"

The monks looked at me, then began walking slowly over, wicked looks on their shadowy faces flickering in the torchlight.

"Yours, your Highness. Your beloved brood of blasphemers have been taken care of accordingly." He spoke coldly, and with a sick note of happiness in his voice.

"But…how could you?" A tear rolled down my cheek at the thought of my entire kingdom, my people, a charred ruin beneath the black sky. "They were innocent people! Your quarrel is with me! The Queen! Not the people!"

"You are no longer a queen!" He shouted back. "And your quarrel is with God now! Mercy on your soul!"

I fell back and managed to crawl back to the same place I'd been before, sobbing quietly. But the God-forsaken pit was so empty that the wound rang from wall to wall.

I never knew death had an echo.

Note: To the person who keeps reviewing anonymously. This story is already finished, so we can't change anything. We felt it necessary to establish our characters and give them background and personality before throwing the Knights in. You're the only one that's complaining, and we're not changing anything. Get an account if you want to discuss it with us, but don't give us one-way comments that we can't reply to to tell you what's going on. P.S. the knights come in in the next chapter, happy?