Heirs to a Nothing Throne

Chapter 4

I awoke.

Sweat clung to my body. I sat up groggily, making a face. I seemed to be the first one awake. I turned my head to look at Jasmine. Even unconscious, she seemed happy.

She looks so peaceful. She looks as if she's in a good place; as if, in her mind, she's not here, imprisoned. She looks to have not a care in the world. Even though her hair is messy and slightly frizzy, we're all in bad shape. She looks...

My legs shook as I rose from bed. Alone, I paced in a circle around the empty room. It wasn't long before noticed Andrey also returning to reality from his dreams. I wondered if there was any hope of his being happy ones.

It seemed unlikely. His eyes sparkled with tears, which he wiped when he saw me.

"Morning, Stephan," he said, slurring his words.

"Good morning... Andrey," I replied and watched him walk over near me. "Andrey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I was just dreaming."

"About what happened?"

He snorted. "Yeah." He paused a moment. "About how I should have done things better."

"Andrey, there's no way you can blame yourself for anything."

"Not even for Lexa's death?"

I hesitated. It wasn't that he could, it was such a hard topic. But I was resolute. "No, Andrey. And we're all here, we all lost people, and even if you hurt the most—"

"But I promised to protect her."

"What?"

"You know, she didn't really want to get on a ship—one of her little fears. But the night before, when she was nervous, I told her it'd be fine, I was there." He shook his head, and cut me off when I opened my mouth. "I know! It was a stupid little thing to say—pillow talk, and we laughed at how cheesy it sounded. But afterward, I remembered, and it mattered."

"Andrey, she wouldn't—"

"She wouldn't, but I am. I didn't take my own words seriously until... now. Now that they're broken and she's gone. Are you gonna say any of that is wrong?"

I tried, I did, but in my heart I couldn't. "Then for her sake, stick by who you have left. All of us."

"If that's what I have left..." He was looking away. "Without Lexa, if that's what I have left, then maybe."

An hour later, everyone was awake.

"So," Jasmine said, "Who's this 'Timore' guy?"

"I have no idea," was my mumbled reply, more to myself than her.

"He's their leader, right?" said Angelique.

"Yeah, or at least, they talk about him that way."

We discussed the topic for a few more minutes, until Jasmine spoke up from behind me.

"I'm hungry," She said suddenly, surprising me.

"Yeah... me too," Andrey said. "I'm starving."

"What's with that?" Angelique shouted at the walls. "They give us bed and a bathroom, not even breakfast?"

Immediately, a long table with exactly five chairs emerged from out of nowhere. We stared at it and then each other. "I guess... they heard you?" Andrey shrugged.

We took our seats hesitantly, Jasmine teasingly pulling out the one at the head of the table for me. She sat on my right with Eva, Andrey on my left with Angelique. A fine array of foods sat there for us. We didn't really wait to begin eating, ignoring unspoken concerns regarding the danger. After all, why bother killing us with poison? Why not just kill us outright? They almost did yesterday, anyway. We ate to our stomachs' content with little conversation. The moment we finished, the table and chairs suddenly dropped back to wherever they came from, and we hit our tailbones on the stone floor. A single plate remained, flipping up into the air and crashing on the ground.