ᴛʜᴇ ᴠᴇɪʟᴇᴅ ꜱᴇɴꜱᴇ

Chapter II: When reality hits

It took a rather long time for Sylvia to fully regain consciousness. She was constantly slipping in and out of an awake state, as the bounding pain in her head would ultimately bring her back to unconsciousness. Once the healer was completely aware and awake she swiftly rose up to see what her current situation was. It seemed like she was in the back of an old, wooden caravan. She could hear conversations outside, it was most likely she was being brought into the kingdom for inspection. Once Sylvia realized that, fright ran through the entire course of her body. She changed her position to be on her knees as it was tough for her to try and stand up. Her head was in the most pain she had felt in a long time, the caravan was moving on an unsteady road and as a cherry on top of the cake, her hands were bound together by tight, coarse rope. There was nothing she could do except wait for an opportunity to make her escape.

After silently waiting for something to happen, the vehicle came to a halt and two people hopped on the ground, walking closer to the caravan's doors. The humans opened it up, letting light inside. Sylvia inspected her surroundings as much as she could, it was already early morning, the thin rays of sunshine now being very invasive to her eyes, causing Sylvia to squint. Her captors gave her no time to adjust to anything before grabbing her by the biceps and nearly throwing her out.

The humans were not saying a thing, only staring lifelessly in front of them as they began dragging Sylvia along with them. The elf studied their faces, contemplating if she should say something or not, but decided not to cause a scene for her own good. As Sylvia looked in the same direction as the men, she realized she was being brought into the king's castle, the very heart of Spaudan. Oh no, no, no, no. This is not good at all! she thought and wanted to break free from the humans' grasps, however she was way too weak to do so.

It was like at any moment she would burst out in tears, there's no way her body was going to be able to handle such an amount of stress. Sylvia's thoughts wandered everywhere. She wished she would've listened to her friend Elena, she feared what was about to happen to her. Were the humans going to torture her? Kill her? Make her their slave? She had no idea, and as far as she knew, she did not want to find out.

The captors and the elf were at the gates of the castle in no time. The doors were huge, partially made of wood, partially of iron. Once the doors were open Sylvia could already see the huge main hall, the Spaudan King Bruno Eshil sitting on his throne at the very back. Sylvia could already sense a smug smirk on his face and she gritted her teeth as the captors brought her towards him. At the very root of the staircase leading up to Eshil's throne, the humans dropped the captured elf, a loud thud echoing across the huge but rather empty room.

"I expect she is the captured Agrelan I have been informed about?" he asked in a very low voice as he eyed the woman up and down. Sylvia wouldn't dare to look up, she was frozen yet again.

"Yes, she is, my highness." the men replied in an emotionless, monotone voice. As if they weren't allowed to show any type of emotion. What infuriated Sylvia was the fact that they were talking about her like she wasn't even there, like she was a mere object.

"Hm, let me have a look at her. Look up at me, woman."

Sylvia nearly growled. She felt a gag reaction at the thought of obeying orders coming from this jerk's mouth, however she understood disobeying would have far more sinister consequences. Sylvia had to choice but to succumb to the king's wishes and slowly brought her head up to make fierce eye contact. She tried to look fearless and confident, she really did, but it was clear the human leader could see through her mask as his grin grew even wider upon the eye contact.

"Aren't you a pretty one? That's surprising. Most of you are.. mediocre to say the least."

This guy is out of this mind! Sylvia thought. This was no place for him to start judging her kind for their looks. It seemed like he was the type of person to enjoy making others frustrated for no reason, and Sylvia didn't want him to get to her.