The prince within my princess

Part 2 : The Darkest Room

 When I gained consciousness again, something was pulling from my arms. I slowly opened my eyes trying to not make it obvious that I was awake. I was hanging strapped on a wooden x, with metal cuffs holding my arms and legs in place. The floor underneath me was made from black stone. In the reflection of a small puddle of water, I saw myself naked on the cross. Only then I felt the cold moisture burning on my skin.

I looked up at my only source of light to see a circular hatch made from heavy bars. I could see nothing other than the clouds in the sky. I looked around me in the room. Only darkness. I could not even see the walls. Where was I? Who attacked us?

My thoughts run to Blair. Was she here? Please lord, let her have escaped.

- Is someone there? I asked. No response but the echo of my voice.

A few minutes passed with nothing happening.

Suddenly a voice.

- Oh, good you are awake.

I heard a door opening and I saw a faint light moving in the darkness.

- Who are you?

The flame moved to my left staying in the darkness and lit up something like a torch on the wall. In the newfound light, I saw the face of a woman. Skin smooth and grey like stone. She went around the room lighting up each torch allowing me to see the room around me. I was in a small circular dungeon, with a single heavy metal door as the only entry and exit.

Where am I?

- Tch tch tch... such a demanding tone for one strapped on a cross don't you think? But sure, if you feel chatty let me explain a few things to you. I apologize for all the necessary violence that occurred, but it was well...necessary. You see what I was after was the neckless of the woman that you were about to be married to, but seeing how it was been held in the castle, I was unable to access it. If I were, we would not be here today and you would be probably already married and be doing whatever a fake king does. 

- I am not a... I felt my mouth paralyze. What was happening to me?

- You know, it is incredibly rude to interrupt one when they speak! So! As I was saying, I had to get it through other means. Means that required some...assistance. Now my associates are not interested in trinkets and they do not have a use for gold so how would I pay them?

I couldn't speak. My body just refused to listen to my commands. The panic was settling in. 

- Well surprisingly they were more than interested in the idea of having their very own princess. Now I did not ask why that is, but considering they are not very fond of the way humans have been running things, I would not be imagining anything pretty.

Oh, my lord! Blair no!

- That was the deal at least, until someone decided to kill one of them and help the princess escape. Now do you see the problem? I got what I wanted, but I have no way to compensate the people that helped me get it. Well...almost no way. I still have you, don't I? So here is the deal. We agreed on a princess, not THE princess and I have a prince. Prince is not what we agreed on. I find that to just be semantics but a deal is a deal... so how do we make a prince into a princess? Well considering what I was asked to make of you, I will not be sharing my trade secrets with you any time soon. So now that our little chat is over, time for me to get to work. The soonest I can finish their payment, the soonest I can get back to my own project. She pulled closer a small stool and a small table with knives, a lit candle, and bowls with strong-smelling potions. 

She grabbed a small knife and looked up at me.

- Oh, right, you may want to pass out again, this is not going to be pretty. Magic can only do so much.

And with these words, I saw her in terror placing her knife on my exposed genitals and starting carefully carving the flesh unbothered from the blood and my squirming. I passed out again and again only to gain consciousness time after time, getting glimpses of the stone woman working on my body, laying me on a table, draining my arteries from blood, covering my skin in one of the potions giving me another to drink until I fell asleep to never wake up again.