Andgiet Scinn: Oneirophobia

XXV

"She still isn't broken?" The voice had caused Altheia to wake up, she was wondering why she was laying down on the concrete ground. She could smell the foul stench of blood and rotting flesh, it made her want to gag.

Moving around she found herself bound to the wall. She was back inside the cells of a dark dungeon once again. Confused as she remembered she went to sleep in her chambers on a soft bed. So, how did she end up here once again?

"I think she already is. I heard she stopped screaming which is why Lord Myrkur brought her here so it'd be easier to extract information from her since he can use the people as hostages to find out what he wants." One of them said in a bored tone.

She heard a lot of them chuckle while some of the men sighed. She tried to get her hands free, but she couldn't move. The chains were too tight to offer any movements, her body felt sore and tender as though she had just taken a beating.

This was a dream, a bad dream. One of the memories she had from her torture in the past. That had to be it, all she needed to do was to calm down and regain herself. The dream would soon come to pass and she would find herself on her bed safe once more.

"With what she has been through the past weeks in Langen, I would be surprised if she still isn't broken." Another one said, she could hear the sounds of liquid being poured into a glass behind her. She could feel her heart thumping in her chest as they said those words.

"Wanna bet, first one to make her scream gets to go at her first?" One said his voice tinted with excitement, the others had agreed to what he said and she felt more fearful than ever. Even if this was a dream she wanted to wake up immediately.

She kept still as she heard the cellar door opening, and footsteps approaching her. She felt a kick on her back along with the sound of something breaking, she bit her tongue to stop a groan of pain from escaping her lips.

She made the wrong decision to open her eyes and see the men in front of her. They smiled as they watched her cough up blood, one approached her and pulled her by her hair to get her up. Resulting in Altheia closing her eyes in pain as she fought her tears not to fall. He dragged her across the floor towards and threw her against the wall.

She kept repeating to herself that this was a dream but her mind kept asking, if it was indeed a dream why did it hurt? Blinked her eyes in an attempt to wake herself up. Willing herself to wake up as she forcefully closed her eyes but when she opened her eyes she was met with a punch on her face that had left her in a daze.

She could feel the blood dripping from her nose as she looked up to the men and spitted the blood that accumulated in her mouth. Looking at the men with a glare.

"You punch like a child." She taunted them, one of them took that into offence and was about to punch her once more, until a man told them to bring her up to Myrkur.

They pulled her up to her feet and dragged. Not before one had punched her in the gut while smiling menacingly at her stating that they'll play again later. She then lunged her head forward to hit the guy on the face as she struggled for them to let go of her. One of knights just simply threw her over his shoulder as she struggled, upon reaching the chamber where Myrkur was she was thrown into the ground like a sack of rice. Unable to brace herself with the fall with her hands and legs tied behind her back, which made the fall much more painful than it really was.

She looked around to see that they were in a familiar chamber, this was the old throne room in Palais du Vitrolly. At the center sitting on her father's old throne was Myrkur.

"Be gentle in handling the princess. I hope you're alright my dear." He said with an empathic smile. As he walked towards her and assisted her to stand up. She simply glared at him and avoided his touch.

"I see you're still hostile towards me. Your torment is over, I already know where to find what I want. You're just going to help me get it." He said as he walked out of the throne room. She was soon dragged after him, she was growing weaker by the second.

It was until they reached the entrance to the catacombs did she only get what he Myrkur wanted. She struggled but they placed her at the entrance of the mausoleum, when she turned around their swords were drawn and pointed to her.

Myrkur looked at her with feigned guilt about the current situation. His eyes clearly mocking her and challenging her to do what she wanted but he spoke with a calm tone. "If you do not wish to lead me into the treasury, I am sure your people would understand why their princess would sacrifice them, right? One person for each time you refuse, deal?"

She was left dumbfounded with what he had said, slowly turning back to lead the way into the catacombs. One held a torch and followed closely behind her, when they reached the end she made a gesture to release her bonds but she Myrkur only laughed at her and asked what needed to be done.

Sighing as there was no way to trick Myrkur, she told them to pull down the lever. To which when they did they the wall gave away to show a new passage. They continued down towards the corridor until they reached the part with the golden gates and a dragon lock.

"You need to let me go for this one. Only my blood would be able to open the gates. Also only I can touch anything inside or else the entire cavern would collapse." As she said this Myrkur simply looked at her then ordered them to release one of her arms, two men still held onto her arms tightly though and one of them guided her hand into the lock.

Once the lock's eyes turned red and slowly opened revealing the inside. They all gathered in, Myrkur immediately headed towards the ivory stand seeing there was nothing there that made his blood boil.

"Where is it?" He said while walking towards her with a dagger in his hand, as he was about to hit her. Walking towards her with rage in his eyes as though preparing to kill her.

She then jolted up awake before he got to close, she was hyperventilating and sweating. Touching the sheets of her bed, the smooth and soft fabrics that surrounded her made her calm down a bit. Though she could not go back to sleep she went outside of her chamber to have a little walk around when she came across voices arguing in the hallway.

"Do not test me, I can erase your very own existence right now." Her eyebrow raised as she recognized that voice. It was Saxon's voice, but he was dead and who was he talking to

"You cannot even come to terms with your own creation. You made this realm in just magnificence that you cannot control your own creations because you gave us freewill to move about in order to deceive her." It was Aide's voice that made her more curious. She was indeed a descendant of the Fashi so it's understandable that she can talk to the dead.

"You have the heart back, why not use it to create a new reality for her?" When Aide asked that question she had the urge to look into the corridor, but she only found Aide alone and her cat Storm.

"Your highness, what are you doing here? You should be resting." Was what Aide said before Altheia can ask a question. She wasn't able to ask or say anything as Aide escorted her back to her chambers.