Downfall

Chapter 9

The new room the King had given her was way too pretty to be true.

Her sleep had been restful and, when she woke up, no more wounds covered her skin, gone, as if never there.

Had the previous day been a dream?

Evidently not, seeing the bed where she was still laying: queen size, soft and warm, silk sheets and feathered pillows.

A soft pink canopy covered it, the lilac and peach curtains slowly drifting thanks to the wind that entered at the side, from the huge windows that opened up on a gorgeous view: woods and rivers, grasslands and hills, together with what looked like the lake where she had come from, framed by mountains so high they looked unclimbable.

But what made it breathless was the light, the marvelous apricot shade of orange and pink that the sky took when the almost sun made its appearance, covered by those puffy clouds that resembled too much to cotton candy, covering the landscape in shadows of purplish hue, some reddish, some orange, an expanse of pastel colors merged with heat and fire, as if the horizon itself was ablaze.

The days had always been in dusk, but for the first time, she really stopped to wonder at that magnificent place, into her new accommodation that almost felt taken out of a fairytale.

What had changed?

A great deal of things, starting from the fact that she was now officially the King's private slave. But that was not the main reason.

Apparently, her eyes of a God were special for real.

Apparently, no one could see the glyphs she had been seeing.

It had taken all them aback when she said she could see symbols they could not, the language of the Gods, they had explained, some sort of way of their creators to leave clues that would have been impossible to find, if not for her green irises, the only ones able to notice what was invisible for everyone else.

The problem was she could not understand it.

Was that the real reason she was there, to put together what they could not? To help them understand what the Gods had left behind, in a joint cooperation?

What if she was not supposed to fight them, but help?

The door opened with a gentle creaking of wood, slightly echoing through the room, silenced by the pastel carpet and sofas, so stark against the dark stone of the castle with what was a semblance of pretty goth girl aesthetic.

"You're awake, good." Hearing his voice as first thing in the morning was weird. "We have much to do today. Go eat and come to my study as soon as you're done." Then he closed the door as fast as he had come.

Ase blinked, not sure of what had just happened. He had come to summon her? Himself?

The fact that her new chamber was on the same floor as his was a perk, but still, she did not expect him to be that obvious about his renewed interest in her.

Weird.

However a small part of her, so little she did not dare to acknowledge it, was happy, delighted of finally being treated with regard from him.

She never took a faster breakfast, eating as if her life depended on it, making up for all she had not had in the previous days, but excited for what the King had in store for her that morning. Not even Rirgen had slowed her down, downing her eggs and bread at speed light.

Yesterday's afternoon, when they had discovered her true nature, all three demons had been shocked, stating that she should have told them more, given them all the insights on the glyphs, but as soon as they questioned her, she had fainted again, her head and body too weak to keep up.