Pinea

This was a part of the school I'd never been to. We were deep in the ground, under the more normal item creation labs and workstations. From a glance I could tell that this place was far more secured, and even then it looked like a few additional protections had been set up, along with a handful of guards brought in. It was clearly an impromptu prison or the like. Based on what I was seeing, it had been here forever, though based on the size, it probably only ever saw one or two people.

I was walked past what were clearly cells to a slightly nicer, if plain, room. There was a table and two chairs, and I was invited to sit, which of course I did, since that 'invitation' was clearly a command.

I waited in the silence, able to almost feel the presence of guards outside the door. It wracked my nerves something awful. I had nothing to do, nobody to speak to, just the silence and the small pair of candles that was set here for light. It at the very least wasn't cold, as one might expect a dungeon to be.

After a few moments a young man walked in. His full military attire stretched and moved with him as he sat down across from me.

"My apologies for the delay. I had another guest to attend to," He sounded as not sorry as was possible to be, like my waiting was some just punishment for some failing on my part.

Not so long ago I could have spit acid at him and raged, demanding he be punished for making the daughter of so high a house wait like a servant. Now though, that would be a fool's move. My house had fallen, and while we still had some power, it was no secret that we were being watched. That any attempt on our part to rebel or resist would be met with finality on the new government's part.

I looked up, this man could kill me if he so choose, and there was little to do about it. He knew, and I knew that with a word all manner of terrible things could befall me, or my family. So I spoke carefully, respectfully. "No need to apologize. May I ask for what reason I am here?"

"Of course, of course. You're aware of the incident between two of our esteemed academy's recent graduates?" He said with a light smile.

"Yes, my understanding is that there was an attempted murder."

"Quite so. That on it's own would be cause for alarm, but based on the perpetrator's words and actions we came to believe that there might have been some group involved. Would you know anything about that?"

"No sir, I have no desire to be involved with anyone like that." No matter how hard I tried, I knew that I wasn't succeeding in keeping a slight tremble from my voice.

His smile widened a bit. "I will be clear with you miss Pinea, I do not personally believe that you are part of any rebel groups." After my exhalation of relief he continued. "Nor do I think you want to be. That said, I do believe you know who might want to."

"T-t-there are a few who have expressed displeasure at Lord Durin's..."

"Emperor Durin's," he corrected, still smiling.

"A-a-apologies... at Emperor Durin's new rule." I didn't have to feign even a bit of fear. That little misstep was still a minor faux pas, but soon enough it might well be considered an insult.

When things had first changed, when the kingdom had fallen I had been taken to my father. He had told me many things, what he had done, why, and importantly, where we stood now. He had known our new Emperor before and so his advice was thus. I was not to bring his wrath upon me. If someone who I knew had done so to themselves I was to act as if I knelt before the chopping block, fearful, begging for mercy, but without even the slightest bit of resistance. Our new ruler was a hard man, he had said, but not one prone to harming those who were no threat, and not one who would seek to harm me without reason. If I gave up, surrendering wholly, it was likely that his blade would never fall. However, if it seemed that I might fight... there would be no mercy upon me.

"Ah, I have heard as much. Their names, if you would be so kind." He produced a pen, paper, and ink, sliding them across the desk to me

I looked at him. This was a test, a test of loyalty. While my father, and my family, had officially declared our allegiance to the new regime, I needed to do so personally. With a shaking hand I took the pen and began writing. I knew who was most unhappy and began there. Name after name did I write, people who used to be friends, distant relatives, those I'd known since I was a small child. It was painful, painful to know that I might be the end of them, but if they had turned against the new leadership... there was little I could do.

After a moment of thought I drew a line between the bottom part of the page. "The, um, the ones below the line seem unhappy, but they're not being particularly loud about it." That done I slid it back over to him.

"Why thank you." He said as he looked the paper over. "Nothing truly surprising here. Ah, we did have your quarters searched, I hope you understand. They found nothing of note, but you should be informed." He quickly rose and opened the door, motioning for me.

I did not have to be offered twice. Trying to keep everything together I rose and moved towards the door, eventually walking down the hall with the man whose name I didn't even know. About halfway down the hall I saw another person brought in. At first I couldn't tell who it was, until he came down the stairs far enough. There I almost froze looking at the eyes of the young man who might have once been my husband.

In an instant I watched those eyes harden to sharpened steel. "You bitch!" He shouted as he lunged.

The world seemed to slow for an instant. Almost everything moved at a crawl as I saw the glow of some spell form around his hand, drawing up to release it at me. The only thing that seemed to move were the guards, while all others looked caught in the moment they freely turned, and with a quick movement and the flash of steel the instant of us all being trapped in ice was over.

A line of blood splashed across my face and I screamed in terror, trying to flee backwards. I heard the thud of a head falling to the hard stone floor and the soft wet noise of fluids pouring out. As I turned a strong arm held me aloft so that I wouldn't fall, and couldn't run. The face of the man who'd interviewed me moved before my own, blocking my view.

"Look at me, look at me not at him. You don't need to see that." His voice turned hard for an instant. "You lot who made that mess, cover him."

"No, no please!" I begged.

"Calm, calm, you're perfectly safe. No one is going to hurt you miss Pinea. Look at me, you're safe." As soon as I stopped trying to run I was released, and the interviewer, whose name I didn't even know, handed me his handkerchief. "Don't look." He said as he firmly led me up the stairs.

"You killed him." I barely managed to speak as we left the lower area. I wiped my face, trying to get the blood off. Wincing as the cloth came back with crimson marks all over it.

"Yes, but that spell seems unlikely to have been something to tickle us."

"You killed him," I repeated.

"I did not want him to die. Sadly he did force our hand. I did not think he would have that type of reaction when I arranged for you two to meet."

"You arranged... why?" When I looked at him again he had a different smile, kinder, apologetic.

"I was hoping that he would admit something, say something we might use. I did not anticipate that level of hatred, please forgive me."

"What?" I was so confused, the stress, the fear, the disorientation.

The agent pulled out a small sheaf of papers form his jacket pocket, and handed them to me. As I read over each I got more and more alarmed. My habits were here, my favorite foods and places to eat. There was a section on the route my carriage took to return me home on my days off and the times I liked to leave. Another had descriptions of my favorite outfits, and several drawings to accompany them. All of my daily schedules and routes were listed here.

"We found those when we searched the young man's room, among other things. The reason we thought it unlikely that you were with their little conspiracy."

"He was..." I could hardly finish, but the evidence was all here.

"Probably planning to kill you, yes. Another reason we wanted you pulled from your classes, just in case he tried anything. Though I will admit the investigation was our main motivation."

"But... but why?" I asked.

"Why did he wish your death? Surely that is obvious." Sadly it was.

"Why did you even consider protecting me?" I clarified. The old kingdom might have done so, but I held no real status now. A commoner before would probably only have been followed, to see what happened.

"It is the duty of the strong," he began.

"To protect the weak." I'd attended enough civics classes that the answer was almost automatic now.

He walked me all the way back to the entrance to the girls' dorm, stopping with me at the ward. "Well miss Pinea, this is where I leave you. You should take the rest of the day off from classes to rest."

"Yes, I think I will." I paused and handed him back his soiled handkerchief. "Forgive me, but I don't seem to have caught your name."

"I didn't say it. Though there is no harm in telling you. I am Alowen, I would say it was a pleasure to meet you, but it seems in bad taste."

"Thank you Alowen, please be well." I tried to be polite, but in the end, I just couldn't concentrate.

It only took a few moments to make my way to my dorm. This section of the school was, for the moment blissfully empty, and so nobody saw me wandering blankly to my room. The banisters slid under my fingers as I slowly took the stairs, each step plodding, almost numb.

My maid was, in a small blessing, still not here. I closed the door and quietly made my way over to the waste-bin, where I fell to my knees and emptied my stomach. I retched and retched as all of the stress of the day hit me at once. My fingers gripped the receptacle until they hurt and tears flowed freely down my cheeks.

Once it was all over I rose on shaky legs like a baby dear and moved to clean my face at the washbasin. Several times I did this, washing the streaks away and spitting water to clean the taste out. As I looked in the mirror I thought, thought about how I'd nearly died, nearly been murdered by a former lover. That of course sent me right back to kneeling before the waste-bin, the smell overpowering as I retched heavily once more.

Finally, truly sure that I was done I gathered my things and headed to the baths. I needed to soak in the hot water and scrub everything about this day away.