The water caressed my skin as I tried remembering how his mouth had felt against it. Soft and gentle but still untamed and intense. He had known what to do, where to go, where to taste...
I caught myself before I could smile. The butterflies in my stomach multiplied by the thought of him, more of him. The water had gotten cold but I wasn't stirred by its unwelcoming touch.
It had been an hour, maybe, since his visit. He had left me, just before a maid came knocking, a delightful coincidence.
The maid came with yet another request from Aleron, to join him in the council room.
Expecting something formal, I slipped into a day dress provided by a dresser in my room. It was a long-sleeved style and I wouldn't have to worry about the tattoo.
The fabric was silk and dark blue, tight at the waist and chest but wide at the bottom, comfortable to walk in or even run.
I did nothing to my hair besides pinning one side up allowing my face to bare.
I walked the halls as I remembered them, through the corridor of a thousand candles, to the glass hallways, and finally through the black door to the throne room.
I knew where to go from there, through the door on my left, the door I had come through on my first night here, the one Xander had disappeared through.
I reached out, waiting for my fingertips to reach the wood but instead, they opened before I even touched them.
The light from inside was brighter and the air was tense, and as I walked inside I suddenly felt uncertain of everything I was taught.
They were all there, all seven and Aleron, looking at me, surrounding the table just like the first time I saw it.
"Eleonora, welcome." His voice broke through the silence that had befallen the room by my entrance.
It began.
"A pleasure to see you again, my lady." Cornelius Hawke, prison administrator.
"She looks as pale as the first night Sarvin brought her." Mockery. Irma Gooldin, bookkeeping.
"She is just nervous." Wearing plated armour, old, Elijah Barnes.
"Well, she has got nothing to be nervous about," Aleron said gently, rising from his seat at the end.
"If you would." He pointed towards the foot of the table, towards a chair.
I realized I had been frozen, in fear at seeing the people determining my fate all in one room. I slowly approached, sitting down with my hands folded in my lap. All I could do was study them all in my head. I had been unprepared.
"Why is she here, your grace?" Long black hair, scrawny, Montague Cordova, captain of the navy fleet.
"I figured Eleonora should see what it is she could be in for, in her near future." He simply responded.
"Your grace, what is to be discussed is not for sensitive ears. If it leaves this room..." Unknown, brown hair, heavy, wearing a thick gold bracelet.
"Eleonora understands the discrepancy, have no doubt, Klaus." Aleron dismissed elegantly.
Klaus Stack, administrator of the farmlands.
"I think it's only fitting for her to learn." The second unknown, reseating blond hair, not old but not young, wearing a tux, flashy jewellery hung around his neck.
"Of course, you would agree Jensef." Montague cut in.
Jensef? Jensef Luther. Rich, gambler, unreliable.
YOU ARE READING
My Darkening Ember
Adventure"This bounty is mine, Xander," He said. It was the first time I ever heard his name. Xander smirked, "Kill me first, then take her." He proposed arrogantly, a silver knife resting confidently in his hand. The man only nodded once as his hand slithe...
