the Twelve-faced Moon: A Loona fanfiction

Chapter XXVIII

Jinsol III

The dark room floor stank of urine and faint smell of salt from the sea. There was no window, no bed, not even a slop bucket. she remembered walls of pale red stone festooned with patches of nitre, a grey door of splintered wood, four inches thick and studded with iron. She had seen them, briefly,half conscious, a quick glimpse as they shoved her inside. Once the door had slammed shut, she had seen no more,no more light. The dark was absolute. she had as well been blind.

Or dead.

Buried beside her mother she barely knew "Ah, mother..." she murmured,her groping hand touched a cold stone wall, her head and wrist throbbing with every motion. This dungeon under the pale red walled holdfast was deeper than she dared imagine.

He remembered Kenta,that damned treasonous Sun Islander,she helped him keep his title as Daimyo,she fought beside his men defending him from nearby invading Daimyo,now this is his reward? She knew that his clan was lacking in fund and he had to resort becoming a mercenary,a sellsail..but never in Jinsol's wildest imagination that he will stand against her. Had she knew this would happen,she would gladly put an arrow through his eye back then.

When she thought of her mother, she would have wept gladly, but the tears would not come.

How come? She never knew her, I kill her. Her heart wrench even harder when she unwillingly recall the tale from the midwives and handmaids that helped her mother's childbirth.

"Get out you monster! Get out!" her mother cried,clawing at her belly,for hours. 'Till there were a deathly silent and a loud squalling of a baby,golden haired and mismatched eye,brown and blue.

Of this,her father always deny those story whenever Jinsol confronted him about it. "I'm at your mother's bedside that day,these are not true" deny it all he wants,but Jinsol was sure these are the cause of Jinhyuk's hatred towards her. he could have a mother if not because of me.

When she kept very still, her head did not hurt so much, so she did her best to lie unmoving. For how long she could not say. There was no sun and no moon. she could not see to mark the walls. Jinsol closed her mismatched eyes and opened them; it made no difference.

she slept and woke and slept again. she did not know which was more painful, the waking or the sleeping. When she slept, she dreamed: dark disturbing dreams of blood from her mother's deathbed. Of Jinhyuk stabbing her with arrowhead,dying at his embrace he would whisper at Jinsol's ear.."Mother send her regard"

When she woke, there was nothing to do but think, and her waking thoughts were no more better than nightmares. The thought of his father and the Grand Admiral losing the war was as painful as a bed of nettles. she wondered where they was, what they were doing. The worrisome look of her half siblings,Yerim,Jungeun and the rest.she wondered whether she would ever see them again. Going to war is risky and unpredictable,Jinsol knew. in her ideal view she ought to be out there,bathing herself in glory,never crossed her mind not even once that she will be reduced to a mere damsel in distress.

Hours turned to days, or so it seemed. She could feel a dull ache in her left wrist,someone must've hit it with blunt weapon so hard so she couldn't draw an arrow anymore.

The only sound was her breathing. After a time, she began to talk aloud, just to hear a voice. she made plans to keep herself sane, built castles of hope in the dark.

Jinsol was half-asleep when the footsteps came down the hall. At first she thought she dreamt them; it had been so long since she had heard anything but the sound of her own voice. Jinsol was feverish by then, her wrist ached with tantamount agony, her lips parched and cracked. When the heavy wooden door creaked open, the sudden light was painful to her eyes.