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Day 1
The first thing I heard was my Lady's scream.
Oh how she screamed among her father's cursing. It was if they could shatter the world together. They didn't want to admit it but they are so much alike, their faces etched from a bronze colored world. They had an emptiness in their eyes, something forgotten of a dream.
And sometimes it made me weep for them, to be set free from chains would be a risk I believe my Lady would take.
She hates being a princess, and I, but a maid, must serve her as she thrusts fists against her duties.
But this time I know she has crossed the invisible line her father drew the day she became eligible for marriage.
The palace becomes quiet and the echo of footsteps and sobs fills the air as I shiver in my thin shoes. Winter has come and though a heat still lingers in the air a chill still runs up my spine as a knock on my door makes me jump up from my bed.
"Ah, good, you're here."
"My Lord." I say with a gentle curtsy. Dressed in luxuries beyond compare of gold and crimson and decadent jewels.
"I have a proposition for you." He says running a hand along his jaw.
"Yes, my Lord." I say, looking into his green eyes, face filled with a few lines and black hair pulled back into a low bun.
"You are the last maid in this palace, and I do hope you don't refuse, but would you stay in a tower for seven years with my daughter until her soul softens?"
His words fill the cold air and shake me a little as I ponder what he has asked. To be trapped for seven years in a tower, alone mostly. And am I truly the last maid?
I glance out the window beside me, the sun setting and the stars glistening just above the burnt orange and yellow colors.
"And if you accept, you will be rewarded your weight in jewels and gold after the seven years of course."
Seven years.
But maybe after all that is over I can leave, and with some money. I could go back home, and look for my family. If they're still alive.
It's only seven years I say to myself.
"Yes." I reply with a nod of my head, and his jaw loosens.
"Excellent, you will be leaving as soon as the sun rises."
"Thank you my Lord." He nods to me and I curtsy back. And without another word I have sealed my fate.
●●●
My Lady had asked me to leave, and when I came to her room I found her to be weeping on the floor, her hair disheveled and clothes barely covering her body.
