Three weeks. Three weeks she'd been there with the elves. Three weeks since The King had decided to keep her. She'd been kept in her room. Not allowed out. No sun light, no moonlight. It was driving her mad. All She had were books she couldn't read and elves that wouldn't talk to her. She was practically to the point of screaming with frustration. And she did at some points.
"I want to see the King!" She shouted at her guards from behind locked doors."I know your there!"Shepounded on the door. No answer. She groaned and threw a book against the door. She cursed the king. Cursed him in the most obscene and rude language she could think of. She'd pay for it later, but she didn't care. She was bored and tired of being cooped up. Her nerves were frayed and fraying faster. "I just want to leave..." A soft sob ended her sentence. She slid down the wall, looking up at the carving that she looked at so many times before. Salty tears ran down her pale face."I just want to leave!" Her face fell into her hands and sobs racked her chest. "I just want to leave..." Memories of her time with The Master rose up from the back of her mind. She shuttered. The Master and his disgusting sidekick. Late night parties where she was forced to dance or sing or...entertain. She shuttered again as she felt their greasy hands running over her bare skin. Their lips, their teeth, their..."No! Don't remember!" She gripped the side of her head, rocking back and forth. "I just want to be free!" Her voice trembled. The feelings and memories refused to fade away. They attacked her, battered her walls. She slammed up mental barriers to protect herself from the nightmares. The nightmares that came for her in the middle of the night, that gripped her soul with terror. Nightmares about cruel masters,about past wars, past terrors, past evil. Nightmares about future wars, future terrors, and future evils. Things that were, things that are, and somethings that have not yet come to pass.
She must have fallen asleep because she woke up in her bed, dressed in a fine grey gown and bathed. A small section of her hair taken from the front was pulled back and braided with little white flowers weaved in. She'd seen many elves with the same hair style.
"The King has summon you." Gaildren said blandly, the doors to her room unlocked and open. He stood staring ahead.
"Summoned me?" She scoffed, crawling out of bed. She stood there, looking in the mirror. She looked beautiful. Her skin was clear and creamy. A pretty blush colored her cheeks. her lips were plush and pink. Her long thin fingers trailed along her lips and jaw line. Her hair. Her hair was soft and shiny. She gasped. Her fingers ran through the silken locks. Gaildren cleared his throat."M'Lady?"
"...Yes...?" She answered slowly, staring at herself. She almost looked elvish. Almost.
"The King my lady." He said to remind her.
"Oh...uh-huh." She said, finally tearing her gaze away from her reflection. Her fingers brush past a book. She paused, looking down at it. It was one of the books she'd thrown at the door. Its smooth cloth bound cover was decorated with delicate flowers and vines. She picked up and hugged it to her chest.
"Alright, lets go."
The king as it was had thrown a party. Apparently he had a particular good taste in wine. She had never liked the taste of wine. It was too foul. The great hall was full of elves. All just as beautiful as the last. Except for the King. He sat at the head of the table, tall and majestic, calling attention without even speaking. Calling adoration. She pressed her lips together. No. She would not adore the man who stole her future away. She walked towards him. She felt the gaze of the elves on her. The gaze of a hundred elves weighed on her shoulders.. A heavy eyes flickered up to her face and widen just a bit, or so she thought. She stopped a few meters away and curtsied.
"Your Majesty." She said and looked up. He looked slightly pleased and then looked away. She smirked and then suddenly, chunked the book at his head. He managed to duck. The book caught his crown and sent it tumbling to the floor. He looked up in surprise.
"Your Majesty!" She scoffed bitterly." How terribly sorry I am. Must have slipped from my hand!" She said casually with a wave of her hand."Oh. Am i sitting there? Loved to!" She sashayed over to the empty chair by the king."Oh. Is this mine? How lovely it is to be out of confinement!" She picked up the king's goblet of wine, sipping it. She cocked an eyebrow and a smirk at the scowling king."So! Everybody, tell me how has the days been?" She kicked up her feet into his king had pressed his lips together to form a thin white line on his perfect pale face.
That confounded thought as he pressed his lips together into a thin line. What an irritating, impassable woman. He smoothed his hair back and stood up. Her gaze seemed to burn his skin. She was a fiery one, fiery and irritating...and beautiful. Which made his fury even greater.
"I...invited you to dine with us." His anger bubbled up into his speech." And you throw...a book at me!" he grabbed her arm and shook her. She still smirked up at him. Thranduil drew in a deep breath and then tossed her into her guards."Take her to the dungeon. I will deal with this problematic shrew later!" He jerk back his goblet, glaring at the ever smirking female. The hall had grown silent. All eyes were turned on them. The eyes of a hundred elves weighed on his shoulders. He slumped back into his chair, rubbing his an irritating, impossible, confounded, beautiful woman, he thought again. Her gaurds hauled her from the great hall. He looked up to see her profile just before she disappeared from sight. He saw something in her eyes...something that had not even begun. Something that she would experience much more in the future. Suffering.
Her world melted away before she had even left the great hall. She was forced into a living hell. A great evil looked upon her. Its gaze burned her skin. Her blood boiled in her veins. She screamed. The pain. Not her own, someone elses. Someone innocent. She was ripped away from the pain. She gazed at the scene before her. A great fiery eye glaring down at a child. Boils burst on his skin. Burns blackened his porcelain skin. She had felt his pain. The poor thing. Why did the innocent always suffer? What was the purpose. Evil. Evil knew no innocent. Or maybe they did and just found it amusing to torture them. Aysel could bear it no longer and looked away. "Please please please go away!" And it did.
Dungeons. A place further from the light. Further from freedom. Further from life. She slumped against the cold, damp walls of her prison. So many days. So many days in this place waiting for her punishment, or maybe this was her punishment. Locked away, forgotten, never to see the light again. Tears threatened her vision. No...Don't cry. What good would that do for you now Aysel? No good at all. A fine mess you got yourself in, all because you tasted a little freedom and forgot how to be a slave. Aysel sighed softly and looked down at her hands. They laid clasped in her lap. The walls around her began to shimmer and changed."Oh no, not this again! Please no stop it!" She cried out and threw her hands up over her face. Warmth touched her skin, she peaked around her hands to see herself laying on the ground, outside on a warm summer day in merkwood, but in a much healthier and safe merkwood. She was dressed in her hunting gear, an elvish bow and arrow at her side. Her hair splayed out around her, longer than it was now, and healthier. Age had been kind to her, but laugh lines crinkled in the corners of her eyes and around her mouth, exposing some age. Aysel stared at herself. She looked well and happy. Her future self looked up towards her past self. A soft smile crossed her lips. "Better wake up. He's already come."With a whoosh that world began to fade."NO!" Aysel grasped towards it."NO COME BACK!" Her hands clawed at what little light was left before the darkness collapsed around her.
She opened her eyes with a shuddering breath."So your a seerer? No wonder the master wants you back so much." The king stood in front of her. He looked so out-of-place in the dark dungeon. A creature of light in a place of darkness. He wore a mask of boredom but she could see past it. He was intrigued. Intrigued by her curse.
"Curse?" He scoffed and with a wave of his hand the guards hauled her up and lead her out of the dungeon. Her time in the dark had quelled her anger for the moment. She was just excited to be leaving it. She hoped she never had to go back.
"A seerer. I wonder what else had the master been keeping from me." The king poured two glasses of wine from a glass pitcher. He offered her one. She took it just to be polite."Tell me, what can you see girl?" The king sat down in a chair and crossed his legs. He waved for her to do the same. And she did.
"Um...well...everything..."She muttered nervously. She never liked to talk about her curse.
"Gift." The king said casually before sipping his wine,
"I...beg your pardon?" Her eyebrows furled together in puzzlement.
"Gift. Not curse." He said simply, glancing lazily at her.
"Well maybe to you, but for me...it is a curse. A plague that has tortured me for a very long time. I have lived the lives of men I have never met, felt their pain, heard their cries, watched them die. I have lived hundreds of lives. I have died hundreds of times. Death. never my own. I am forced to watch past deeds, forced to watch empires fall. Forced to watch all that was, all that is, and all that will be. It is a burden. A curse, not a gift." Aysel leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes.
"I have watched a thousand men love, never loving myself. I watched the world begin, I watched it end. No one should be forced to see what I have seen. And I only stay sane by forgetting. Forgetting that there is a past, a present, and a future. Please, I beg of you sir. Do not keep me here. Do not keep me your prisoner. Do not force me further into my curse. I beg you. I beg you sir! I beg for your mercy, your patience. You kindness. I beg of you for all that is good, do not force me further into the darkness. I can not stand it anymore!"Her voice trembled. The king sat still as she opened her eyes and gazed at him. Her eyes told the truth. She had lived so many lives and felt so much pain. He almost felt sorry for her. Almost. Life was unfair. A thing he himself had learned long ago. He would give her a choice. He would be kind to this pathetic creature.
"I'll give you a choice then girl. Be bound to me as a seerer, but have your freedom to roam. Or be my slave for as long as you live, free from being force to use your gift. Choos-"
"I will serve you as a slave." she said, cutting The king off. He tilted his head and stared at her for a moment.
"Interesting..."He said, sipping his wine, still staring at her."Very well. Come here...slave."
Aysel set down her untouched wine and stood, walking across the short distance between them till she stood in front of him. He slowly rose. One hand brushed her cheek."Drink slave."He said handing her his half drunk wine. She took it from him, her fingers brushing over his. Her lips trembled as she pressed the rim of the goblet to her lips and drank. The wine was sweet. Sweeter than any she had ever tasted. She drained the cup and then lowered it. The King stared at her with masked hunger. He took the glass from her hands and set it down. His gaze never leaving her lips.
He wants to kiss me she realized suddenly. A soft blush grew on her cheeks.
"Yes...I want to kiss you and I will..." His hands cupped her cheeks and he lowered his head. She suddenly felt afraid. Her heart beat wildly upon its own accord. She felt her own breath speed up. His lips were inches from hers. She could feel his breath, smell his skin, hear his thoughts. "Tremble slave. Tremble in my presence." He whispered into her mind before his lips descended upon hers and she did tremble. He gripped her shoulders harshly. The sensation of kissing an elf, an elf king at the lest, was a cross between the pure bliss one experienced when transcending into a state of zen, a place where trifle matters faded away and old worries laid to rest. A place of pure bliss and a place of pure terror. A place of terror where you can feel it in the water, hear it in the earth, smell it in the air. A place where it course under your feet, never showing its face, masked by the bliss. The unknown.
The wind howled in her dream land, tearing at her bliss, tangling her hair, pushing her close to terror. A great evil rose above her. She could feel its malice licking at her skin like flames. A cry echoed from her lips, coursing through the air. "Help me!" A cackle emitted from the great evil. It was the sound of a thousand innocent souls screaming out for mercy when none would ever come. The sound shook her like a thousand earthquakes, drowned her like a thousand tsunamis, suffocated her like a thousand cyclones. She dropped to her knees. her fingers clawed at her lungs. She felt her warm blood drip down from her face like tears. The sight was to great. To evil. "Your mine now girl." the voice said. Its voice was like a thousand serpents weaving evil charms and dark magic. She whimpered and fell into a prayer. The evil laughed again. Torment tortured her. She cried out for help again."Your life is mine. Your mind, mine." She closed her eyes and begged for death. But death did not grace her. Death passed over her, it was not her time yet. Aysel opened her eyes again and instead of the great evil staring down at her, it was the king. An expression of fear marred his perfect features. She knew he had followed her, or maybe she had dragged him with her but she slammed up mental barriers anyways. He had seen too much already. People weren't suppose to see what she saw. He had seen what she saw. With tremendous effort he sat down in the chair. She already on the ground. he rubbed his temples as if trying to massage the vision away.
"I understand now child..." He said after what felt like ages of silence."I understand the place where you are now." His hands fell away from his face and he looked down at her. "You suffered as a thousand had suffered before you and after you. And yet you are above the darkness...We have much to learn from each other it seems."