Having been in the palace once before, August was still taken aback by the sheer magnitude of it's interior. Her footsteps softly echoed as she made her way into the throne room.
The graveyard of bodies she had left behind had been too much for her to look at. She hadn't wanted to kill any of them, in fact August had never wanted to kill anyone ever. But at the end of the day, no one was going to trust a rhyle in the palace. With power like hers, she either could hide forever or do whatever it was going to take to survive. Whatever it would take to save her princess.
Judging by the openness of the throne room, August guessed that the princess was far from here. She turned to start down the first hall she found. The energy from the palace seemed to be growing more intensely with each step, until finally August found herself adjacent to a closed door.
Whatever was inside seemed to be calling her, clawing at her own energy. Begging to be set free. After contemplating for a moment, August waved her hand and listened as the lock began to work itself open. The door swung ajar as she stepped inside.
The room itself was empty except for the dark burgundy stains that were pooled on the floor. And in the center of it all lay a single steel dagger. Forged many years ago by rhyles much like herself out in the forests and recently gifted to a princess.
August knelt down and let it's curved handle find a home once more in her hand. With just one touch the energy from it quickly transferred into her, nearly knocking her off of her feet. But holding the dagger in her hand had meant only one thing.
The princess was in trouble.
The darkness in her eyes began to spread further as August stood and faced the hall once more. She brought the dagger down and fastened it back to her thigh. She wasn't going to need it for what she was planning.
...
The footsteps were growing louder and louder before finally coming to a hault just before the entryway to the observatory. Isadora was frozen in fear as three hard knocks came from below. She had latched the door when she had first come up, but she knew that it would never effectively hold off another person. Especially not when the knocks turned into the person aggressively slamming into the wooden door before finally the latch snapped and loudly the door swung out onto the ground.
Izzy had quickly surveyed the area around her, but it had become very apparent that she was trapped. A fall from this height would surely kill her and the only way down was also the only way up. And unfortunately for her, it was currently occupied by the King of Aldham stepping his way out onto the observatory.
"Well well well," he snarled, "I guess you are my daughter than. Always having another trick up your sleeve." His eyes buldged slightly as he began to take another step closer to the princess. "No one here to save you now, huh?"
"Why are you doing this?" She pleaded. Her feet stepping back towards the edge, knowing there was not much space left.
"Because no one can rule the world with someone like you running around and ruining everything I've worked so hard to destroy. Look around daughter," he motioned to the empty skies around her, "All of it, every building, every heart and lungs, hell every rhyle will soon belong to me."
"You don't own anything," She spat.
"No?" He challenged, taking another step. "Every single thing obeys my rule. I practically tell the sun to rise. And once you are disposed of, well then there is nothing left to stop me from taking it all."
Her own anger rose within her as she realized the sadness of it all. This man, her father, the person she had trusted her whole life had been nothing but a liar and a traitor."She will come back for me," Izzy finally whispered.
