It hurt.

More than how she felt it did, it hurt. Terribly.

This castle was a hostile place and she despised it here because she was being held here against her will forcefully, and the people who kept her here did not treat her like she was of any importance to them, yet they would not let her leave. They did not make her into a servant but she was a prisoner, a prisoner of what? They would not tell her why she had been brought here and they kept talking strange sometimes. She, a princess taken from Dragonsbane and brought forcefully to Astaroth to come to do what exactly?

She knew that no one, in their right mind, would take someone away forcefully from their kingdom, to bring that person to another kingdom just to be kept in the castle. Maybe if she could find out why they had needed to bring her here, then she would have a reason. Had she been a peace treaty? Was she the price Dragonsbane had to pay to ensure peace between them and Astaroth? But since she had been staying in the castle, she had never for once heard of there being strife between Dragonsbane and Astaroth.

She curled up in bed and cried.

When she had woken up, she had woken up with a sore back and a slight headache, she had also noticed that the room she woke up in, was different from the one she had been first put in when she came. And then she remembered her little stunt, the one she had pulled earlier, the mess she had created and the havoc she had wrecked, and how she had been so bold, so fearless, so fueled by her frustration and anger, that she had actually stood up to Ryder. She had stood up to Ryder! the known ruthless tyranny Lord of Astaroth.

And then she had paid a price for that. The hostile-looking lady from earlier would pop up so often.

Every now and then, she would pop up in front of Lyra, alongside Xanth and Ryder, but without saying a word. This time she had shown action. She had only waved a hand in Lyra’s face once, and with enough force to tear a deafening slap across her face. But the lady had not touched her, it was merely just a forceful wave of the hand in front of her face, but yet, it had sent her flying back to the wall and had knocked her out.

Lyra had felt the force that lifted her off the floor and sent her crashing into the wall, she had felt it like a kick to the stomach, only that she had not felt pain where the force had hit her, but she had felt the pain from crashing into the wall. What did the lady do, and how was that possible? Who was she anyway?

She heard the door squeal open and she bolted upright on the bed, the pain from her sore back hit her but she chose to ignore that. Her body went rigid and her attention to the door to see who was about to come in.

Mavrek stepped into the room confidently, he turned his head to the left to see the girl on the bed at the far end of the wall and he smiled lightly, a kind of smile that said:”I come in peace”, but it seemed that the girl would not be letting her guard down anytime soon. She watched him with a tight frown on her pained face.

He stepped to the side and shut the door behind him, then proceeded towards the bed, very slowly.

“Lyra, right?” He asked like he wasn’t sure.

But the girl didn’t answer, she just watched him, all her attention and focus on everything he did, the way he moved, his careful approach to her one step at a time, his hands clasped to one another in front of him as he walked, his eyes watching her and hers watching him, the expression on his face. Everything.

“Right?” He asked again. When she didn’t respond this time, he just nodded. “Right.”

She kept numb because she knew that he knew who she was and that he obviously knew her name. Every one in the castle knew, and even if they hadn’t, the stunt she had played would definitely have spread around the castle by now. She knew how such things work and how news spread easily withing castle walls.

“What have you come here to do?” She asked him rather fiercely. She knelt on the bed and hugged a pillow close to her. “To tell me that I cannot leave? That I should not leave? That I would never be able to?”

“I’ve come to talk to you, Lyra.” He spoke as a man would to a wild and dangerous animal he was trying to pacify. She didn’t like that and frowned. “Can I sit?” He pointed to the dressing chair not so far from her bed.

She calmed down and sat properly on the bed. Mavrek took that as a yes, and he sat.

“You probably don’t know why you are here…”

“You probably won’t be telling me why I have been brought here.” She attacked his words without allowing him to finish.

He smiled. “I probably won’t, but I’ll tell you something else. Something probably useful.”

“And what could be useful right now other than a plan to escape?” She rolled her eyes and brought her focus back on him. “A detailed map of the castle showing all exits? A carriage or a horse waiting outside? A path away from the palace leading to Dragonsbane?”

He chuckled. “You really are determined to get away from this place, aren’t you?”

“Wouldn’t you be? If you were taken from here and held somewhere else against your will, in a place where nobody treats you like you’re someone of importance?”

“But you are someone of importance. You are important.”

She scoffed. “That’s not how I have been treated.”

Mavrek scooted closer and leaned forward. “Have you ever heard of Osyron? Or of the year of Osyron?”

She knitted her brows and shook her head, picking up interest in what he had asked.

“Well, that is the reason why you have been brought here. That is a legend of a god who was summoned some thousand of years ago, some death god of vengeance and chaos. It is something everyone here knows, but it is also something nobody here would tell you about.”

“And why is that? Why won’t nobody tell me about it?”

“Well my dear,” He sat upright. “That is because the role you are to play in this is not something that should be revealed before the right time. It could be dangerous.”

“The role I play or someone revealing it to me?”

He thought about that for a while before replying to her. “Both.” He stood up.

“There is a meeting going on downstairs between myself, Xanth, and Ryder, along with some other men of the army and it should take a pretty long while.” He looked out through the window. “The sun is going down, and there is s study you’re not allowed to enter, a study that holds the keys to this knowledge you should know about.” He faced her with a very serious expression on his face. “If you want to find the answers you seek.”

“Where is the study?” She asked him as he turned away from her, walking towards the door.

“If you want to find your truth, you would find a way to find that study. Without anyone knowing that you seek to find the study.” He threw the words over his shoulders and opened the door, he turned to her. “I hear Xanth is nice to you.” And with that, he smiled and stepped out of her room, closing the door behind him.

Lyra watched the door long after he had left, absorbing every single word he had said to her. The year of Osyron and her dangerous role, the half information was too pricking to ignore or to leave just uncompleted like that, and she was naturally a curious person. The study, he didn’t reveal to her on what floor the room was, he revealed nothing to her asides from the fact that she was not allowed in it, so she would have to sneak in undetected, but first, she would have to find out where this study was, and then she would find out about the Osyron legend.

What dangerous role would she have to play that concerned this god of death and vengeance? And how did she even…? She was a Dragonsbane princess for crying out loud, did he not see any other princess to go steal from their kingdom? Why come to Dragonsbane? And why her? Surely any other princess would have fit in to take up this dangerous role, she could reject it, couldn’t she?

“I hear Xanth is nice to you.” Yes, the man was. 

He was? Then he would also be nice enough to give her the information she needed? Discretely, of course.