Chapter 8: The little star in the sky
Chapter 8: The little star in the sky
The carriage ran for three days. Arja was watching the wall in front of her without understanding anything. Her memories were blurry and her mind was lost, somehow, she had the feeling of being wrapped in cotton. She had no notion of reality, of her own body. She didn't even realize she was still in the white dress stained by blood she had in the clinic.
Arja didn't move, eat, or drink. She didn't need any of these. She was completely absent. Her cheeks were hollowed out by the tiredness. She only had one pendant around her neck. The pendant was hitting her slowly with the bumps on the road. After so long hitting the same place it started to make her a light bruise.
It was a pendant of the goddess Yshnaa. In ancient times, Yshnaa was the goddess of noble immortals. She represented the strongest warriors, the purest women, and the most beautiful heir.
Arja was praying every day to have a nice husband that she could love as much as her parents loved each other. Now, she was watching the pendant with no glimpse of life.
The sound of the carriage was unchanging and penetrating her brain. She could only think about it, always the same music.
Suddenly, the carriage stopped. Arja didn't even raise her head. Her body was too heavy for her. She was immobile. A man opened the door, he took her hand and pulled her on his shoulder like a bag. Her legs were trembling, she was fainting to be moved in such a condition.
The man carried her inside, he was rapid and didn't pay a lot of attention to her. Her head was bouncing on his back at every step and she had no force to fight against it.
Her eyes were barely opened, and she saw the floor passing. The building was dark and there were no colors anywhere. The walls were gray stone and they smelt of humidity.
She felt heavy, her hands were falling, she had no resistance, no muscle to stay on the shoulder and the man felt she was sliding more than once. He had to put her back more than once. He then talked to her in an upset voice.
"Can't you keep yourself? So pathetic little princess."
Arja heard him, she felt hurt. It was another wound in her heart. Then, the man stopped to walk and threw her a straw bed.
The room was dark and she could not see what was around her. She could hear the breath of someone a few meters from her.
She saw a plate with food and a jug of water. She tried to stand up but she felt, she crawled to it to take it with all the force she had left. After so long, her mouth was dry, she drank a bit of water and couldn't swallow anything more. This effort was so huge that she fell asleep on the floor.
The warm light of the day hit her face. She opened her eyes and looked around. She understood at this moment that the place was not a bedroom but a cell.
The four walls were gray, she had one window and the wall in front of her had a massive wooden door with a little opening covered by iron bars on the top.
Arja grabbed what she could to raise herself and try to observe around. She only saw that in front of her cell was another cell. Tears ran down her face as she fell on the floor out of strength.
She could hear someone laughing at the end of the corridor and it was silent again. She felt an indescribable fear, she sat on the floor and ate all her plate. The fear of dying was stronger than recent events. When the night came, a person all dressed in black, hiding his face, entered her cell.
Arja wanted to ask questions but at the moment she couldn't open her mouth. The person put a blindfold on her eyes and took Arja's hand. She followed. After a few minutes, they stopped. Arja felt that something was placed in her hands. The person went on her back, slipped his arms around her, he placed his hands over hers. He lifted them up and then brought them down in front of them.
Arja had no idea what just happened. She felt the object in her hands and understood it was a saber. She felt the resistance, she smelt the blood. She understood she just sliced someone or something. Then the man around her went in front of her. He took the objects from her hands and took her away.
A while later, she was back in her cell. The man took off her blindfold. She was in a deep shocked state, she had no idea what happened and she started to cry without knowing why. She was terrified and trembling. She took the bowl they threw at her. She ate, slept, and woke up.
Someone threw clothes into the cell and she finally could get rid of her bloody dress. It was simple black pants and a black tunic. The fabric was harsh, far from what she could know all her life.
She used a bit of water to wash before changing into these fresh clothes. Her wound was not healed yet but surprisingly it had no complications. For sure, she would keep an enormous scar that will make her remember this day all her life.
In the evening the man came back and the same thing happened. Arja didn't ask any questions, she understood that nobody there would help her and she was somehow happy to be alive.
This was repeated, again and again, every evening, every day. The time passed and Arja had no idea for how long she was there. At some point, she tried to make a mark on the wall to keep a trace but this was pointless as there were too many marks on the wall.
The smell of blood became her routine, slowly she got used to it. Soon, the man had no need to keep her hands and she automatically raised and dropped the saber.
She was terrified by her environment, she knew from Ulrich that royal prisoners, and especially women, can be treated very badly and she was thankful that nothing of his stories happened to her.
Then, one evening, the man didn't come.
Two, three, four, five, six, seven evenings passed and he still didn't come. Arja was left alone in her cell. She waited, patiently. She realized she missed it, she missed the feeling of cutting something, she missed the blood smell. She missed this little power she still had in her life. She missed feeling a human presence around her.
She waited for a long time. A sweet craziness took her mind. She didn't know what she could be or what she would like anymore. She was needing it and she didn't know why.
Arja fixed the wall and banged her head on it. A trickle of blood fell from her forehead. She found it funny and did it again. Crying and laughing to herself. Deep inside, a rage started to burn as she was thinking.
"Look at you, Princess. Look what you became."
She watched through the window and she surprised herself by admiring one particular star. A star far from the others, a star shining less than the others. Arja was wondering if she was going to fade away. Was this star always present and she never noticed it? Night after night, she was looking at this star in the sky.
Imprisoned in the darkness for who knows how long. She thought of her family. Her mother to who she could not say goodbye. Her father sent her there without explanation. Her brother… Ulrich was all her life, a model of honor. He probably died now, she was only hoping he didn't die alone in this clinic.
She was hoping the enemy troops had no time to reach him. The image of her brother as a walking dead froze her blood for an instant. There were so many questions in her mind. Arja was obsessed with the face of the first dead she saw, the man in a white coat. A rage started to burn inside of her. A rage she would never experience before. Deep inside she was convinced that all of it was his fault. She was taking him responsible for the explosion, who else could organize such a terrible thing?
She hated him, she hated them, her parents who left her alone with Ulrich, the doctors, everybody. She opened her mouth wide to scream but no sound went out. She fell on the floor to her knees in front of this star and decided that she would take her revenge one day. She would find this white monster and she would destroy him. She did her first push-up in her cell, and tears were running down her face. She never did anything like this before and her body was in extreme pain. She raised her head as she forced her body, watched the little star, and thought with the strongest inside voice she could.
"See me, little star. I will not fade."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone