Book One - The Dragonkin Empire.

Pieces

 Alice's side.

 Tick... tick... tick...

 Water droplets are still falling... The room is dark and I don't hear anything... I don't know how much time it has passed, maybe a few minutes or maybe even days,  my mind is still as blank as before, or perhaps even more than before, I just keep looking at the shallow darkness of my cell trying not to think, trying not to think how everything is messed up, not thinking in the Chief's bloodied head, not thinking about Lily, not thinking about the man that brought this upon ourselves... I don't know where he is but I don't care, I don't even care where my brother is anymore.

 Tick... tick... tick...

 My hair is completely wet, it makes my head feel heavy, heavy enough to prevent me from moving it. I don't the feel cold, the frustration, the numbness... I don't feel anything.

 I have no way of knowing if the guards have come in into my the cell, probably not.

 I sleep without dreams. I don't find comfort in sleep for if I sleep all I see is a hazy darkness and when I wake I have to look at the same hazy darkness that dwells in front of my eyes, lurking above me, swirling and making visions of itself.

 I'm just lying here, waiting for nothing, I am not even waiting for time to pass anymore.

***

 Voices echo in the cell, I know they're talking but the meaning of the words is lost even before the sound reach me.

 "At this rate she won't last long. The Chief wants you alive and well so take care her of her, would you?"

 I hear a loud voice but I only understand his mocking tone, that's all I'm willing to understand. I don't hear the iron bars when they are opened but I clearly hear how a pair of feet are dragged very closely to the floor along with the faint rustle of clothes that follows it, I am curious but I don't turn to look, I don't even have the intention of looking, in a few moments it doesn't interest me in the slightest anymore.

 I don't hear when the guards leave and after a while the echo of the voices grows faint until it disappears and everything falls silent again. My ears that are used to the silence hurt and I fall asleep without a thought.

 ***

 The sound of droplets seem to happen far away, before I slept I could clearly hear them, now I hear them faintly, faint enough that if I lose focus I stop hearing it.

 My head's no longer in the water, I was dragged deep within the cell making the darkness more dense, more threatening, now I'm shrouded in darkness... an oppressive darkness. I look at the darkness intently but before long I feel like the darkness will consume me if I keep staring. The sound of water droplets reaches my ears again, the sound soothes my mind, easing my unexisting fears, I close my eyes and enjoy the sound, my comfort is dispelled when a big rough hand moves me and the face of my disheveled brother appears in front of me, his lips move but no sound comes out, at least I don't hear him say anything, his lips move nonstop but I don't understand. he steps away from my field of vision for a moment before coming back with a bowl in his hands, I know what it has, food, he tries to give it to me but I don't eat, not because I'm not hungry and not because I don't want to, simply because I don't have the will to do it. Seeing me like this his lips stop and walks away from me again leaving me to soothe my mind with the sound of the water droplets.