The moans of the cells only got worse. The walls ached of age but stood tall against violent rodents—both humans and rats.
"If only I had been clever enough to cradle the child more carefully in my arms — closely and with more love than I had ever given him — I would have been able to keep living in the palace and be a concubine nearer to the King than any other out there-" she spat out the last two words with the tongue of the snake that made her way up the food chain, and the loneliness of a lost doe that used to know life outside of competition and raw grace. "- I took everything I had for granted." The guardian turned around to look at the ex-lady's eyes, expecting to see vulnerability and perishability. However, the lady's eyes never held any of that. They held experience and nethermost flames.
'If it's like this,' the guardian thought, 'she might just survive. But there won't be any fun in that.'
"I agree with nothing you say"—The lady scoffed—"...except for the fact that you did take everything you had for granted. You deserve to rot in this hellhole."
"At least you're here with me."
