Heart's Revenge [On Hold]

Ch. 14: King's Ire

The windows did, in fact, afford him a spectacular view of the sea the next morning. He was up before the sun, and he watched as the light from the north stretched across the sky, banishing the darkness and leaving him breathless at the array of colors the sky traveled through.

Velvety blue with a few faint stars to palest grey. Then white, fading into a pearly pink streaked with weak yellow. Light red clouds danced across the sky, which rapidly turned to an astonishing blue, brighter than he'd ever seen before.

And that was just the sky.

The ocean itself had gone from pitch black to a silver that would make even the most pious man greedy, then a breathtaking cobalt, the waves creating foamy white lines that he wanted to touch. 

He'd been unable to tear himself away from the sight. This was the first time he'd ever seen the ocean.

Once the sun had risen properly, he'd explored his rooms a bit more, having been too tired from the events of last night to do it then. He found a small door that led to a bathing room, but that was it. The books were a little more interesting. Stories as far as he could tell, nothing with history or fact within them, and Naqam couldn't stop himself from wondering if he really was allowed to read them.

After another moment of hesitation in front of the bookshelves, he'd turned back to the bathing room and cleaned up, finding a fresh set of dark clothes in a wardrobe near the windows.

He dressed with a small frown of distaste, resigned to the fact that he would have to wear dull black for as long as he was here.

A clock nestled amongst the books chimed out the hour, telling him it was now seven in the morning, and Naqam looked expectantly at the door to his room. Several slow minutes ticked past, his frown steadily moving down into a scowl.

After another ten minutes, he threw himself into a comfortable armchair near the bookshelves, grumbling to himself. The urge to open the door was unforgiving, and Naqam shook his head, wondering if this was another of Hatter's strange tests.

Well, if it was, he had no intentions of failing.

He stared out the windows for a few seconds, but the colors had long since stopped changing, and the view didn't hold his attention quite as well that way. His eyes flicked over to the books, then away.

Naktis had long ago convinced him that the only books worth reading were those that could teach him something valuable about defeating the Spades. The Jack had made him help burn every other kind of book present in Old Heart Castle to drive the point home.

Still, the various colors of the spines, lined up as neat and orderly as soldiers, continued to draw his eye.

Boredom had crept up on him long ago, and his fingers drummed an inconsistent beat against the arm of the chair he was slouched in.

Before he even really knew what he was doing, he had snatched a book off the shelf and held it carefully in his lap, staring suspiciously at it. It was red, which had probably been what drew his eye, with silver words embossed upon the cover.

The Raven and the Writing Desk

Naqam frowned, wondering what those two things could possibly have to do with one another. But his curiosity had been piqued and was rapidly becoming undeniable. Fingers trembling just a little, unable to shake the absurd notion that Naktis would come bursting through the door just as he began to read, he carefully opened the book.

The first page consisted of nothing more than a beautiful, intricate drawing of a raven perched upon a writing desk with a few bare sheets of paper upon it. A closer inspection revealed a writing quill made from the raven's feather, and an upset ink pot, the contents of which spilled from the edge of the desk.