“Urrghhhh…” my head was pounding. I tried to open my eyes, but everything was black, I realized I had cloth wrapped around my head blocking my vision.

I wanted to steady myself but my hands were bound behind me, my feet were also tied together.

I closed my eyes and tried my hardest to listen to my surroundings. In my mind I made out a faint image of a dungeon, am I in the King’s castle?!

“Sounds like she’s awake,” a voice came from behind me. I couldn’t tell how many men there were, but it was at least more than one.

“You can go now, Felariu, I got this.” Another man’s voice, he sounded younger than the other man.

The other man chuckled, “Are you sure you’re not trying to get the first chance with her? Remember, we have to get information first before doing that to her.”

The younger man scoffed, “Don’t worry, I know how to do my job.”

“Alright, just give me a shout if you need me. Remember, don’t let her hands touch the ground, Lord knows what else she’s capable of…” I heard the crack of a large door opening and closing, It was just me and the younger man in the room now.

Footsteps approached me from behind, and I felt someone lifting the blindfold off of me. I blinked my eyes open and found myself staring right into the face of the young, orange-haired knight.

“Are you alright?” He asked as he kneeled beside me. I blinked up at him, anger and sadness filling up inside me. I tried my hardest to blink away my tears so I wouldn’t appear weak but to no avail. The tears welled up and started to flow freely down my face.

The young knight sighed and took a seat beside me, “What’s your name?” he asked.

I turned my face away from him, wriggling against my bounds; trying my hardest to break free.

“Don’t bother, those are bound with magic. It seems that you can use magic, but you’re not very strong,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Shut up.”

“Oh, so you can speak,” he chuckled. “Well, nice to meet you, my name is Carlsen.”

“I don’t care.” I continued to wiggle around, trying to break free but all I felt was the rough rope rubbing against my skin, causing it to tear and bleed. I bit my lip, how embarrassing to be caught like this.

I heard the clanking of armour as the knight stood up, “You’ve been captured by the Knights of Kranen. You are now our prisoner. Cooperate with us and nothing too awful will happen to you.”

“Go fuck yourself.” I turned my head towards him and spat on the ground. I watched as the knight rubbed his temples in frustration.

“Look, I don’t want to hurt you. The other knights here won’t be as nice as me, just cooperate and answer my questions.”

I turned away again, no way was I ever going to help these despicable knights. These so-called knights are supposed to protect their citizens yet go around freely murdering anyone who disagrees with them.

All of a sudden, I felt a cool sensation on the back of my head, the young knight had pressed a wet washcloth to my head.

“Don’t move, Felariu struck you on the back of the head back in the village to knock you out. It’s bleeding quite heavily and I don’t want you to die of blood loss on the first day of capture.”

This was the first time a human had ever touched me, it felt foreign and strange. It felt...wrong.

“GET OFF OF ME!!” I screeched and bucked my whole body, smashing my head into his hand and causing the young knight to fall backwards. Feeling the rage well up inside my body, my hands began to tremble and glow.

“AHHHH!!” the ropes bounding my hands snapped apart, but before I could act I was thrown against the wall of the dungeon. I tried to stand up but my head smashed into an invisible barrier above me.

I turned my gaze towards the young knight, he had his hand outstretched towards me. This young bastard can use magic?!

“Don’t move, you are trapped within my capture spell.”

All of a sudden, the door to the dungeon burst open and an older man came running in.

“Carlsen! What happened?” The older man turned to face me. I slumped towards the ground, bringing my palms down onto the cool, slimy cobblestone.

“Don’t let her touch the ground!” the older man bellowed, all of sudden I was flung up into the air hands first. The ropes that I had broken picked themselves off the ground and were suddenly wound around my wrists again. Now I was hanging in the air by my hands, I tried to use my flying power but found that my magic powers had been stripped.

I fell with a thump to the hard ground, the older man now standing over me.

“Come on, Carlsen, that was pathetic. How could you let her get her hands free?”

The young knight came over beside him, looking embarrassed.

“I’m sorry, Felarui, she surprised me.”

“Whatever, let her suffer for now. We’ll be back later.”

Both men turned to leave the room, the younger man gave me one last glance before closing the heavy, metal door. I was all alone now, bleeding and sore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days passed by without a single person coming by the dungeon. I was incredibly tired, sore, and thirsty. Whatever magic the older man had used, somehow managed to disable my magic.

There was a steady trickle of water that seeped down one of the corners of the dungeon, I had managed to crawl over there and lap up whatever water I could. I can’t die like this.

My hair was matted and covered with a thick layer of dried blood, at least the bleeding had stopped but my head wouldn’t stop pounding. I tried to call many times for the Sky God to save me, but it seems they did not want to answer my calls.

The Sky God was once a powerful ally to the Sister Earths, until the Black War when we were all deceived by the Water God. The Wind God was apathetic and had no patience for any of us, he simply sat up in the Holy Garden never giving us the time of day. The Sister Earths were considered as the Earth God, but now, I had no idea where any of my fellow Sister Earths were, or if they were even alive…

We were once the most powerful beings in all of the universe. Now to be so weak and pathetic, the Water God must be laughing himself silly at my shameful state. During the Black War, the Water God had stolen most of our powers and ran away to the Necropolis, none of us could figure out why.

My thoughts were interrupted by the clanging of the dungeon door opening. I whipped my head around to face the intruder. It was the young knight again, he was carrying a tray with a small amount of food and a cup of liquid.

I rested my head on the cool stone, I had no energy to deal with him. I would prefer just to be left alone and eventually wither away in peace if that was what the Sky God so wanted.

I heard the young knight come up behind me, “... How are you?” his voice caused my head to pound harder.

“Go away.” I croaked.

I heard him crouch down and place the tray beside me. “You need food."

I felt him pick me gently up off the ground and sit me against the wall. I had no strength to fight him and I couldn’t bear to look him in the eyes, feeling ashamed. He undid the bounds on my wrists, I looked up at him in surprise.

“Felariu took away your powers, so even with your hands freed I doubt that you are much of a match for me,” he chuckled as he said this, but his eyes betrayed a tinge of sadness.

The young knight sat down on the floor across from me, sliding the tray towards me.

“Don’t worry, it’s not poisoned if that's what you're worried about.”

Hesitantly, I picked up the bowl of food and scarfed it down. It certainly wasn’t delicious, but it would do for now.

The young knight watched in amusement as I devoured the food. I hope he doesn’t think that he’s doing me a favour, I don’t owe him anything.

“Here.” The young knight reached his hand out towards me, I tried to back away but at the same time, he dropped a small pill on the tray in front of me.

“For your head, I’m sure it’s not feeling very good from that wound.” He almost looked concerned.

I scrunched my nose up at the pill, I didn’t trust human medicine, but my head hurt too much at the moment to care. I swallowed the pill down with the water in the cup. I was feeling slightly better after the food, but I was still worried about what this knight wanted from me.

“Good, now it’s time for your bath.”

My eyes widened in surprise. Where was I supposed to bathe in this small dungeon? And why was this young knight treating me so well, perhaps this was some sort of trap?

“Don’t worry, I won’t watch. I’ll have the maids bring in a basin for you.” And with that, he departed from the room and two young women scurried in carrying a basin and fresh, clean water.

They filled the basin with the water, then as quickly as they came, they disappeared back out.

The door closed with a loud thud, and I heard the lock click.

“Enjoy your bath! I will be back later.” I heard the young knight call from the other side of the door.

I dipped my finger tentatively into the water, it was warm and had a pleasant floral scent. I noticed that the bounds that had held my feet were gone as well, when did he take those off?

I quickly stripped off my tattered and torn dress and stepped into the water, instantly I felt calm and the tension and fear that had gripped my body for the past few days started to melt away.

Once the water had gone cold, I climbed out of the bath and noticed that one of the maids had left a small towel and a fresh dress hanging on the doorknob of the dungeon. I dried myself off, got dressed, and braided my long blonde hair; now that I was feeling better I had to come up with an escape plan.

I kneeled and pressed my palms to the ground, but nothing happened, I guess that old man did take my powers away…

I slumped to the ground, feeling dejected. My next plan of action was to attack the young knight the next time he came into the room, grab his rifle and shoot his head off. I wasn’t sure how strong I was without my powers, but I couldn’t possibly be that weak.