To say Percy was sceptical about the food placed in front of her was an understatement; she was incredibly uncomfortable with it. Would it be like in the underworld that if she took a bite then she would be trapped or forced to return? Would it be laced with poison? The man in front of her ate his food with zero hesitation as he placed one bite after another into his mouth while the rest of his face was covered by the mask. Percy sat their moving the food around the plate the small scraping of her utensils against the porcelain plate made it seem like she was eating if you weren't looking at her and perhaps that's why the man did not question it for a while till her finally looked up his eyes focused intensely on Percy's actions.
"Aren't you going to eat?"he asked his voice deep, catching Percy's attention.
"Not hungry," lied percy, yes she was hungry but she wasn't that hungry she could deal without for a while.
"You know lying isn't very princess of you now is it,"
"Stop calling me that," growled Percy quietly, she really was getting angry by him constantly calling her princess. The only person who ever called her that was her father when he's teasing her, but the god of the sea would always call her seastar when he wasn't being irritating. She did get called that by some of the atlantean court when she was there, she had been spending a few days there every now and then as her father wanted her to get to know his wife and her half brother. She was indeed sceptical at first but she was pleasantly surprised that Ampitritr and Triton did not hate her and readily accepted her as one of them. Hell even Triton teases her by calling her Daddys little princess to which she always without fail sticks her tongue out at him like the young adult that she was. But the way this man said it made her uncomfortable not in the way it had been when people first started calling her it but it just made her skin crawl and she hated it.
"I'm sorry I didn't hear you. Care to speak a little louder," the man said, his words dripping with a threatening tone that made Percy's fear spike even more. She didn't know if it was her survival instincts or something else but there was no way she wasn't going to comply with his request.
"I said," percy began her words much louder than they were before, "don't call me that."
A sly smile graced the man's lips almost as if he was mocking her. "I will call you whatever I wish but if you don't want me to call you, I could easily call you something else. However I have a sneaking suspicion that you would dislike those names even more."
Percy was quiet, she knew what he was insinuating that was the nicest name someone could give her but no it felt wrong. She hated it but he was right it could be worse. Ohh how she hated this place it keeps playing with her emotions this isn't how she normally acts. Normally she is polite but snarky especially to those who wish to do her harm but she can't not here.
"Eat," ordered the man.
"I dont fancy it right now,"
"You will eat now or you will be forced to,"
"What does that mean?"
"Exactly what i said,"
Percy felt her blood run cold as she stayed still for a few moments willing every bone in her body to call his bluff but as soon as he went to stand her strength immediately faded as she quickly cut a bit of meat and put it into her mouth. It wasn't bad. The man didn't sit back down, instead he stayed standing watching as she ate. She didn't eat it all but she ate at least one third of it before she placed the utensils down and pushed the plate away from her praying that she had eaten enough to satisfy what he wanted. "Not eating any more," he asked.
"No,"
"Fine," the man walked over to where Percy was sitting. His strides were huge compared to the ones that Percy makes. Quickly she stood from her chair but clearly she wasn't quick enough because the man had gripped his large hand around her arm keeping her standing with the chair just beneath her, all he had to do was put pressure on her petite frame and she would be back in her seat. But he didn't. Instead he just kept her standing, he was huge compared to her, she was only about 5,4 and he was definitely over six foot which meant that in either scenario he had to look down at her. With a single sharp tug the man pulled her away from the chair and had her standing against the table as her body faced him still without removing his hand from around her arm. Slowly, he moved his hand towards the necklace picking up the object as it was around percy's neck.
"I have to admit you did that rather well, you followed every rule. Well done."
Percy didn't say anything for a few moments then finally she spoke her voice clear and void of emotion, "why am i here,"
"Like i said before Seastar, you will find out when i want you to not before."
Seastar he called her seastar, the very nickname her father called her. Could this man work for her father or could he work for Oceanus. Oceanus the Titan who had ruled the seas before her father the man was a tyrant was this some elaborate plot against her father.
"You work for Oceanus don't you," she growled.
The man burst out laughing but not a kind laugh, the type of laugh that would make you want to hide in a corner.
"Me work for Oceanus that is cute but no i do not good guess tho,"
He continued to fiddle with the necklace till finally she spoke again. "You are going to do something for me. You are going to copy out a letter that I have written and I will watch you do so."
"Is that it,"
"For now," he placed two pieces of paper on the table one had already been written on and the other was blank, there was also a black quill with an empty ink pot beside it. Percy turned around so her back was to the man she could feel him step closer trapping her between the table and himself.
"You want me to write this,"
"Yes,"
"Word for word,"
"Word for word,"
"Who is it for?" she asked, in the letter he wanted her to write out it didn't have a name for who was to receive it.
"Whoever I want to receive it,"
Percy's hand danced over the ink pot there was zero liquid in it.
"How am I supposed to write it if I don't have any ink?"
"Who said you don't have any ink," he said in a dark voice stepping up towards percy her back now pressed against his chest her hand in his palm, his grip was strong and every instinct percy had told her to run, she tried to pull her hand away forcefully but his grip only grew tighter and she felt magic that had been turned into ropes wrap around her bod keeping her in place no matter how hard she tugged she couldn't get free. He found her struggle amusing.
Then he grabbed a small dagger from his pocket, it looked like it was brand new and was incredibly sharp. Percy began to panic more to which the man said, "now keep moving like that and I may slip," it wasn't a warning, it was a sick game. He dragged the blade over percy's palm, the blade was so sharp he didn't need to put much pressure at all on it for the metal to cut into her skin, she was crying begging him to stop still trying to desperately pull away ash she watched as her palm coated in crimson blood. Once he had done his damage he squeezed percy's hand making more blood gush from it then held it over the ink pot. Percy's eyes were scrunched up but she could feel her blood dripping from her hand down into the pot becoming the ink this man was referring to. It hurt so much. Once he had stopped percy opened her eyes the dagger was now on the table her bloody staining the cloth her hand and his were covered in her blood. He pulled the blank paper closer to Percy and pushed her bloodied hand onto the blank paper. As he did so he pushed her body downwards so her other hand was resting on the table. She could feel the paper sticking to her bloodied hand, the pressure he was applying to her hand made it hurt more. She watched as he took the dagger from the table and drew it to her throat.
"Now I want you to remember what I told you this morning. But this, this letter will be a warning for whoever I want to send it to. Because their choices will affect you and I want them to know that. Especially if one of those happens to be a lover of yours. Lovers are more fun."
"I don't have any," percy cried.
"No well then it seems I'm in luck then. But how is it possible that a woman such as yourself must have admirers?" Percy wasn't even going to dignify that with an answer. She was in too much pain to think.
Slowly, the pressure the man had on her hand was released and he pulled the paper from under percy's blooded hand to reveal a tiny bloody handprint. As he held it up the heat in the room instantly began to dry it. Percy tried to get away from the man but he pushed the knife closer to her throat. "Try it, I dare you."he growled. Percy stood frozen.
Once the hand print was dry he grabbed Percy's bloody hand and wrapped it up in a bandage that he had simply had on the table. He pulled the cloth tight obviously to stop the bleeding. Then he dipped the quill in the ink pot that was full of her blood. "Write," he said, handing her the quill. Percy was forced to use her left hand as her right was in too much pain but true to his word the man watched as she copied out his letter word for word in her own blood while a dried up bloody handprint that belonged to herself sat on the other side of the paper. Once it was done he tied the blindfold around her eyes and basically threw her in her room where she just crumpled and cried. Who was that letter for?Why was he doing this? Is anyone looking for her?
Author Note
Hello everyone and thank you so much for reading this story. What would you guys like to see in the next chapters? Who do you think the letter is for? I'd love to hear your thoughts.