Illuminating the Dark Prince

The Dungeon

~Valarendrik~

The shrill screech of a weathered iron gate grated on my ears as a guard violently slammed it shut, unnecessarily caging Lucilia and myself inside a filthy old cell. Crimson mist swirled around the shackles which held my arms above my head, keeping me tightly chained to the blood-splattered stone wall. As long as the ensorcelled manacles were touching my skin, I was prevented from using my shadows and full strength... Annoyingly enough.

The level of silence which filled the dreary dungeon was highly unusual and unsettling. Only a few soft yet gruff murmurers of the guards and the disembodied chittering of spiders could be heard bouncing off the barren walls. All other prisoners had been put to death right before our arrival so they wouldn't bother Lucilia. Their listless and famished corpses, clad in tattered rags and weeping lacerations, littered the sticky blood-soaked floor just outside the gnarled bars of our cell.

"Are you alright?" I quietly asked Lucilia, who was shackled to the wall beside me, sobbing and trembling with the heavy smell of fear emanating around her.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine." She shakily whispered. "Wh-What are they going to do to us?" Her glistening blue eyes blindly stared straight ahead, unable to see in this level of darkness.

"Nothing. Cerindier will not harm you while my child grows within your womb." I firmly whispered back, feeling both immensely grateful and completely panicked by the fact that she'd somehow conceived. I was relieved that her safety was ensured. But also terrified because, holy fuck, what a disaster. "I have escaped from this dungeon hundreds of times before, and I promise that I will stop at nothing until you have safely returned to earth." My words seemed to only make her appear more upset, so I awkwardly slid my leg out to the side, just barely able to reach her tiny foot with my worn-out leather boot.

The chains rattled as she flinched in fright, not knowing what had touched her. "Shhh, it's okay. It's only my foot. I just don't want you to feel alone." I softly reassured her.

"Oh, sorry." Her voice quavered with a nervous laugh. "I can't see a damn thing down here." Tears trickled down her face as she looped her slender leg around mine, entwining our limbs in a comforting posture.

Silence enwreathed us for a long while after that, with unspoken words hanging heavily upon the tips of our tongues. Although we were side by side, it felt like we were worlds apart. There was just so much to say. So much to apologize for. And I was still trying to mentally grasp all that I had just discovered while internally freaking the literal fuck out.

...I might be a father soon... This doesn't feel like reality.

Despite how unfathomable the prospect of parenthood seemed, ineffable love was already swelling in my heart for our unborn child. Would we have a son or a daughter, I wondered? It was hard to imagine what a spawn of undead seed planted within a living womb would be like. But our child was created by love, and so I was sure that they would be beautiful regardless... If they survived, that is.

Guilt and shame clouded my soul like a roiling tempest of despair. How could I have ever been so stupid as to have trusted the crown? To have put Lucilia in danger like this? The revelation of its betrayal was like the untying of a blindfold. The violent shattering of an illusion, with the shards of truth cutting deeply into my naive spirit. Now that my eyes were open to its deception, I could plainly see that I'd been led straight into its sinister trap.

Wickedly maniacal laughter suddenly bubbled within my mind as the crown gleefully twitched upon m head. "You really are just a worthless fool... I knew from the very moment you listened to me about the tongue rooting spell, that she was the key to getting into that bright mind of yours." It cackled while malevolently caressing my head.