A Court of Watchful Shadows

Defiance

Ziláa

~60 days since Hybern~

The cold floor felt more like home than it should have. My back pressed against the unforgiving wall, chains biting into my wrists, the rattling of them driving me crazy. The faint dampness in the air soaked into my aching joints, making me feel as though I were dissolving into nothing. I let my head loll back, staring at the uneven ceiling above me. It was around two months now. Enough for my body to weaken, my pride to splinter.

But not enough to break me yet.

I ran my tongue across my dry, cracked lips and let out a slow breath that fogged out in front of me. Ziven thought he could crush me, he thought the faebane in my food would strip me of my power, but power wasn't the only weapon I had.

I had my mind.

The faint scratched etched into the ground beside me were my salvation. A map of the dungeon I had pieced together from weeks of stolen glances and whispered observations. It wasn't perfect, but it didn't need to be. I'd memorised the guards who brought me food, memorised the footsteps of each guard when they had their shifts. Even Ziven's arrogance had worked in my favour, he didn't think I was a threat anymore.

Good.

The door groaned open, I straightened instinctively, making sure to subtly move over the map I'd etched into the floor whilst masking the cold edge of my thoughts beneath a vein of indifference.

Ziven stepped in, his boots clicking against the stone floor. He carried a tray of food, and though my stomach growled painfully, I refused to look at it. I knew what he'd put in it, something other than the faebane.

"Well, look at you," he said, his tone mockingly cheerful. "Still alive, barely." He crouched in front of me, his dead eyes scanning my face.

I didn't flinch under his gaze.

He smirked. "You're a stubborn one, I'll give you that."

Silence stretched between us, the only sound the faint click of my chains as I shifted. He hated my silence, hated that he couldn't draw a reaction from me.

He scanned the cell, pacing around a little bit before his eyes fell back on me.

"Move." He demanded.

I froze, if I moved he'd see the map and god knows what he'd do to me. I needed to stall him.

"I think you'll find that these chains actually prevent-"

"I TOLD YOU TO MOVE ZILÁA" he bellowed as he grabbed a fistful of my hair and dragged me halfway across the cell. I looked back in horror as his eyes fell on the map I'd made.

He had found it.

My salvation, my weeks of careful observation and planning, destroyed. And now, the consequences.

He got on one knee and brushed a finger over it, letting out a breath, a calm breath.

He reached into the pocket of his velvet trousers and brought out an icy dagger. A small part of me hoped he'd jam it through my chest but he began to erase the map I'd spent so long on.