Ailith stalked into the room and waited for Elaine to gain consciousness. Startled upon seeing her at her wake, Elaine backed into the wall.

“Did I do something to upset you?” Elaine asked with worry in her voice. When compared to the ambassador, she was a nobody. The ambassador could easily have her killed. In fact, a single flick of her fingers or a command could have her identity cease to exist.

“I’m sorry if I did.”

“Yes, you did. You walked through the door at the worst possible time.”

She said this with such ferocity that if Elaine hadn’t known any better, she would have had no idea that this was the ambassador. Her attitude towards people changed drastically and she carried none of the ‘manners’ that ambassadors or high rankers often liked to portray. Who even kidnapped a person just because they walked in on them acting like themselves, cocky and arrogant?

“Are you going to kill me?”

Rather surprisingly, the ambassador replied,

“No. Instead-”

The relief that was about to pour from Elaine at that one word stopped abruptly. Of course they wouldn’t let her go.

“We’re going to place you in an asylum for the insane in Aharea.”

“WHAT?” Elaine jerked against her restraints: she was tied to a large column in the idle of a nicely decorated room.

“You heard me.”

“You can’t!” Elaine hated that she sounded so desperate in the face of this monster but she couldn’t hold it back. It would be a punishment worse than death. Being confined in what one could only describe as a hellish place with only 4 concrete walls to keep her ‘company’. The only connection she had to the world would be through a tiny window in the cell. No-one she could confide in, no-one to trust or listen to her. At least, that was how it was in Orbournth. Who knew how much worse Aharea, the nation of war, had set up their asylums. And her family, what would happen to them-no, she wouldn’t let them take her.

The ambassador clucked her tongue. “I wouldn’t think about escaping if I were you. It would be better for you to realize I hold quite a lot of power here.” She casually twirled a dagger between her fingers. “If you try escaping from us here or in the asylum, I’ll have your entire family killed before you have a chance to see them. Let’s call it...a robbery. Seems befitting for a class status like yours, doesn’t it?”

For the first time in 10 years, tears of anger pooled in Elaine’s eyes and her iris shimmered as it reflected the chandelier’s light. She grit her teeth as she glared up at the ambassador and growled, “I hate you. I’d watch my back if I were you because I swear to sky that if I ever get the chance, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

The ambassador chuckled, almost mockingly. “Trust me, that won’t happen.”