"Y-Your... Majesty..."
Kazimir stood up. "I understand, I understand. We all need some fresh air sometimes. It was about time that you had a proper walk to heal your mind too. Don't worry, I won't stand against your escape."
That doesn't sound an ounce assuring. Aefia stood still, clenching her fist at her sides as she tried to force out words.
"You shouldn't be standing out in the cold draft," Kazimir continued, his tone light and conversational, as though they were discussing the weather in a drawing room rather than standing in a subterranean dungeon cell at dawn. "Come in. Close the door."
Aefia didn't move. Her body remained locked in place, her boots heavy as lead against the cold stone floor. Her mind, usually so quick to weave intricate webs of deception, felt entirely paralyzed under the weight of his unbothered, terrifying calm.
"I said," Kazimir repeated, his voice dropping an octave into a low, smooth purr that carried a razor-sharp edge, "close the door, Aefia."
With agonizing slowness, Aefia reached back behind her, her trembling fingers catching the edge of the iron cell door and pushing it shut. The heavy latch engaged with a sharp, final clack that echoed like a executioner's block dropping into place.
Kazimir uncrossed his arms and took a slow, deliberate step toward her. The sickly, dark purple veins pulsing along his jawline twitched violently under his pale skin—a stark, silent testament to the agonizing damage her blood-spell surge had done to his internal pathways only hours prior. Yet, despite his weakened physical state, the sheer pressure of his presence filled the cramped cell until the air felt suffocatingly thin.
He stopped just a foot away from her. His cold, golden eyes swept down her appearance from head to toe with agonizing precision, taking in every single piece of incriminating evidence she had brought back with her: the dusting of powdery mountain snow melting on her shoulders, the pine needles clinging to the hem of her cloak, the faint smear of fresh guard's blood across her cuff, and the thick, blood-soaked linen bandage wrapped tightly around her right palm.
"Snow from the northern ridge," Kazimir mused, reaching out with one pale, thin finger to delicately brush a pine needle off her collar. Aefia flinched, but forced herself not to pull back. "And the distinct, iron tang of fresh blood. Tell me, my dear... did you find the mountain air refreshing?"
"It was... nice. Thank you, Your Majesty Kazimir," Aefia finally managed to force out, her voice raspy and tight, her teeth clenched so hard her jaw ached. She swallowed down the lump of dread in her throat, forcing her garnet eyes to lock directly with his. "But what are you doing here?"
"I came to check on my most prized investment, of course," he replied smoothly, a faint, mocking pout touching his lips. "Imagine my utter heart-wrenching dismay when I dragged my broken, burning body down to these dreary depths to offer you a second chance... only to find your cell completely empty. The iron lock untouched. The window bar undisturbed. A lesser man might have panicked, thinking his bird had flown the coop forever."
He leaned in closer, his icy breath fanning over her cheek, smelling faintly of bitter medicinal herbs.
"But I know you, Aefia," he whispered softly, his eyes narrowing into two dangerous slits. "You are far too stubborn to simply run away. You always have to strike back, don't you? You always have to leave a little parting gift."
Inside her cloak sleeve, Puppet was holding its breath so hard its fur were practically standing on ends, praying to God that Kazimir wouldn't notice the faint, lingering resonance of cyan and garnet magic humming beneath her skin.
Aefia felt her heart hammering against her ribs like a sledgehammer, but the sheer, absurd irony of his smugness slowly began to thaw the ice in her veins. He knows I left, she thought wildly, but he doesn't know what I did. I just above to wish he thinks I just snuck out to scout or fetch a weapon.
"If you know me so well," Aefia said, her voice stabilizing as her natural arrogance clawed its way back to the surface, "then you know I don't appreciate uninvited guests in my cell. Especially sickly ones who look like they are about to collapse on my cot."
Kazimir let out a soft, dry laugh, though it quickly devolved into a sharp, hacking cough that forced him to hunch over, clutching his chest as a spasm of agony racked his frame. The dark magic in his veins flared up in protest against her blood-essence, turning his complexion a ghastly shade of gray.
Aefia didn't miss the opening. She took a half-step back, folding her arms across her chest to hide her bandaged hand, tilting her head with a cool, mocking sneer.
"You look terrible, Your Majesty," she purred, throwing his earlier patronizing tone right back into his face. "Are you sure you shouldn't be in bed? I hear the royal healers are running around the central tower like headless chickens, weeping over your state."
Kazimir straightened up slowly, wiping a trace of dark residue from the corner of his lip with the back of his hand. His smile returned, wider and far more sinister than before.
"A temporary setback," Kazimir murmured, brushing off his velvet coat. "My body is simply adjusting to the immense power your blood provided. Power that will, by tomorrow night, fuel the complete erasure of the Archduchy's front lines. The transport wagons from the mountain reserves are already being mobilized as we speak."
Aefia's lips twitched upward into a quiet, dangerous smile hidden in the dim light of the cell. Oh, they are mobilized alright, she thought with dark, intoxicating glee. But seriously. What did my Archduchy do to him? Or is it just that he is suddenly greedy.
"Is that so?" Aefia replied smoothly, taking a step toward her cot and sitting down gracefully, crossing one leg over the other as if she were a queen receiving a subject. "Then I suppose congratulations are in order. You got what you wanted."
"Not entirely," Kazimir said, stepping closer to the cot and looming over her. He reached down, his cold, bony fingers grabbing her chin with sudden, bruising force, tilting her face up toward the weak dawn light filtering through the high window. "I still need you alive, Aefia. At least until the crown is officially secured. So... whatever little game you played out in the woods tonight... I will overlook it. Just this once."
He released her chin with a flick of his wrist, as if discarding something dirty.
"Rest well, Crown Princess," Kazimir said, turning on his heel and walking toward the cell door. "Tomorrow, you will sit beside me on the balcony and watch the beginning of the end of whatever you have created and taken care of so far."
He pulled the heavy iron door open, stepping out into the corridor. About five minutes later, the guard outside quickly locked the bolts behind him, the heavy iron gears turning into place.
Through the small barred window of the cell door, Kazimir gave her one final, lingering look—a look of absolute, arrogant triumph—before his footsteps faded down the quiet stone hallway.
The moment the dungeon returned to complete, dead silence, Puppet popped its head out from her sleeve, letting out a scream so high-pitched it sounded like a dying whistle.
"WE ARE ALIVE! WE ARE ALIVE! I CANNOT BELIEVE WE ARE ALIVE!"
Puppet squeaked, floating frantically around the cell before flopping face-first onto her pillow. "He didn't check the wagons! He thinks he won! He actually thinks he won!"
Aefia sat motionless on the cot for a long moment. Then, slowly, a low, quiet, troubled sigh escaped her nose. "We aren't exactly sure yet, Puppet."
She unknotted the linen wrap around her palm, throwing the blood-stained cloth onto the floor. Beneath it, her skin was completely smooth, fully healed by the cyan crystal, with only a thin, faint line of garnet magic swirling lazily across her palm.
"I doubt he was purposefully nice to me like that to get the truth out of me. This is all getting way out of hand if you look at it in one direction," Aefia whispered, staring at the locked iron door with eyes that held a bit of fear.
"Hah! Whatever... I still have to think about saving my throat." She slowly stood up, walking up to the window at the wall, and quietly released a butterfly.
Although, it immediately burned up and fell to the ground, shrivelling into dust.
Her face didn't hold a bit of reaction. "He has taken defensive measures too I see."
"Now what?!" Puppet shouted in fear. Aefia turned her head around, staring at the scared pet with a solemn gaze.
"Now... You hide." She whispered, almost hesitantly.
The little wolf grew silent.
"It is the only safe choice in hand right now. If you don't want to turn into dust that is." She turned her head away, unable to face it.
"But where do I go?" It asked again.
"...Go to Helio. He has Cindy."
"And what about you?"
"..."
"Aefia?" Puppet looked at her with an expression it had never shown before.
"I..." she breathed out, "have the Phoenix you had gifted me." A smile settling comfortably onto her face. One unlike how she used to show before.
Puppet looked down at the floor. "Take care then."
"You too."
The tiny red wolf turned instantly into smoke, dissappearing in a sudden burst of magic. Aefia looked down at the floor beneath her feet.
Without that little companion, it felt extremely lonely. Something squeezed her throat from inside her skin, but she still gulped it down and went over to quietly sit at the edge of the cot.
Aefia sat motionless on the edge of the hard wooden cot, her hands resting flat on her knees. The air tasted stale, heavy with the iron stench of the old blood-soaked linen lying abandoned on the cold floor. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, there was no squeaky, anxious voice chattering in her ear, no tiny plush paws clutching her collar, and no floating red shadow darting around her head.
The silence was deafening.
Over it, stood the risk she had stuck in one corner of her mind.
***
Drip... Drip... Plop!
One side of her vision was slightly blurred. Her head was throbbing loudly. A thick, dark crimson trail leaked continuously from her hairline, pooling beneath her chin before dropping onto the cold flagstones between her knees. Her arms were stretched taut above her, her wrists chained rigidly into heavy iron sickles mounted high into the stone wall. The cold metal bit deep into her raw flesh every time her posture sagged under the weight of her own exhaustion.
She wasn't fully knocked out though.
Kazimir didn't rush his words. He moved with a slow, deliberate cadence, the smooth shhhk-shhhk of steel against wetstone echoing rhythmically through the damp, airless cell.
"You really are quite brilliant, Aefia," Kazimir murmured, testing the edge of the pocket knife against the tip of his thumb. A single, thin bead of blood welled on his pale skin before he casually licked it clean. "Truly. The way you adapt, the way you maneuver... it is a genuine tragedy that you won't live to see your thirties. You had potential."
Aefia forced her head up, her vision swimming in double images.
"Why?" Aefia rasped, her throat feeling like it was lined with broken glass. She squeezed her blood-crusted eyes shut for a second, fighting back the nauseating wave of dizziness that threatened to drag her under. "I came back... I stayed in this damn cell... I haven't touched a single thing in hours..."
Kazimir let out a low, disappointed tutting sound. He set the wetstone on her small wooden cot and turned to face her, the pocket knife resting casually between his knuckles. Without a single guard standing at the heavy iron door, he looked entirely at ease, as if he were merely tending to a garden plant rather than torturing a bound Princess.
"And that, my dear, was your fatal mistake," Kazimir said smoothly, taking a slow, quiet step toward her. "You should have taken the hint when I was being nice to you this morning. A man in my position is never nice without a reason. Real intelligence knows when a tiger is offering a hand versus when it is sizing up its throat."
He stopped directly in front of her kneeling form. The faint, metallic stench of her blood mingled with the bitter herbal scent of his breath. With horrifying gentleness, Kazimir reached out with his left hand, grabbing a handful of her black hair and pulling her head back until her neck was completely exposed.
He pressed the razor-sharp tip of the pocket knife directly against the hollow of her throat.
The cold steel bit just enough to draw a tiny droplet of crimson, sending a violent shiver down Aefia's spine.
Yet, despite the throbbing agony in her head and the heavy chains pulling at her shoulders, she forced her mouth shut. She refused to give him the satisfaction of a scream. She simply stared up at him through her blurred vision, her garnet eyes burning with a quiet, lethal glare.
Kazimir leaned down, placing his lips right beside her ear, his voice dropping into a thrilling, skin-crawling whisper.
"You were so terribly confident, weren't you? Proud of your magic, proud of your royal lineage, proud of every clever little scheme you spun in the dark," he purred, a dark, twisted delight lacing every word. "You thought you were playing a game of chess against another ambitious royal of this world."
He pressed the blade a fraction deeper, chuckling softly at the faint hitch in her breath.
"You and I... we both came from Earth, Aefia. Don't even think about trying to twist it on me," Kazimir whispered, his breath freezing against her skin. "But you were just a normal girl, weren't you? A normal, fragile human playing at being a villain. No wait—the eldest daughter of a rich family whose father hated the idea of having the first child a daughter."
He pulled his head back just enough to lock his cold, golden eyes with her widening garnet ones, his smile twisting into something utterly monstrous.
"And me? Back on Earth... they called me Jack the Ripper."