The Marble Tower

-28-

"Who do you think she is?"

"I don't know, Robyn looked scared when we brought her in, do you think that she knows her?"

"I think that he recognizes her, yes."

"You don't suppose she works for the palace?"

"I don't think so. Draco said the only reason he found her was all of the crying she was doing."

"Do you think that she's lost?"

The low voices quieted for a moment, but not for too long. Who were these people?

"Richard said that your tail was bringing attention to themselves. I think that she followed you from the palace."

"But you said that she didn't work there."

"No, she's in her nightgown Raquel. It's a reasonably nice one too. I say she lived there for a while. It would explain why Robyn looked like he recognized her. And not in the good way."

"He almost seemed confused, don't you think. I don't think that she's dangerous."

Another brief silence. She was in a bed. But not in her bed. What had happened? "She's not dangerous."

Another voice joined the conversation with a "SHHH! She's waking up!"

It was dark where she was. Was it night time? Aaly turned her head towards the only light in her new quarters. It was a lamp, a not very nice one either. It was rather grubby and cast weird shadows. "Wha..."

"Shhh. It'll be alright." Said the third voice from her other side.

She turned her head in it's direction, barely holding her eyes open she made out the form a girl, she was pretty, with dark skin and dark hair. She was wearing some sort of cloak over a style of cloths that she had never seen before.

Though she soon remembered that she had never seen this girl before. A fresh sting of panic gripped at her belly. She started sucking in faster breaths, trying her best to slide away. "Who, who are you?" She felt absolutely horrible. She didn't remember every feeling this weak before. It was strange.

"It's alright." The girl said gently grabbing her soldier, "You're safe now. I'm a friend."

And though that wasn't the answer she was hoping for, it did help calm her down, as she tried to ask again, "Wh- Who are yo- you?"

Her lips pressed into a tight smile, obviously a little annoyed at the repeated question, but she answered anyway, "I'm Iris." She said, and then she gestured to the foot of the bed, "And these are Mira and Raquel."

Aaly tried propping herself on her elbow, but it was shaking, and it hurt to lean on it. She didn't stay long in that position because of that. But she did manage to snag a glance at the two girls that were in the tent with them. They both looked rather similar, except the girl on the right- Raquel- looked more orange in the pale glow of the lamp light. They all seemed friendly enough. "Where am I?"

Iris allowed herself a tiny frown. "We'll answer all of your questions later. You should rest for now, you have a pretty bad fever."

"Am-" she paused for a minute, almost scared to ask the question, "Am I going to be okay?"

Iris looked at the others before responding. Though it didn't seem like they were sharing a lie between them, they were just... confused. "Of course, you're going to be absolutely fine."