Stormsidi (Chapter ?)

The girl sat in the windowsill, gazing out to sea as she did each morning. Fog rolled over the blue waves, and waves sprayed mist. There was a gentle silence as the light danced beams around the water and walls. She pulled her nightgown tight around her ankles and rested her arms on her knees.

The smooth, deep voice of King snuck in through the silence. She knew what he was going to ask as soon as she heard him. "Do you remember what happened the night we found you?" He asked. The girl turned her head to look at him with a reluctant expression and blew some hair out of her face, shaking her head with downward, insincere eyes. "Try. It's important." Her eyes focused on a distant point, and then flicked to his. A slight shake of her head. ".. I see. You know, maybe your memory would be stirred if I told you what we knew." The girl looked apprehensive.

"We were moving the Princess to a new safecastle. Our old one was compromised after our former head of security was killed." The girl's eyes narrowed slightly and she quickly looked out to the sea as King watched her. She bit her lower lip and looked back to him. His eyes felt piercing. "We heard gunfire on the path.. there was an explosion. We found you there. Our men saw several rebels fleeing the scene. Do you remember any of this?"

The girl sighed, and nodded slightly, looking up into King's eyes. "Do you remember what happened before we arrived?" She shook her head before he was even finished asking the question. "I see." This would not be the last time he asked this question, it was clear.


She spent the day padding barefoot around the section of the castle she was confined to, creeping about quietly pressed to walls and listening to people and sounds. The castle was pristine in the parts that had been cleaned, but many parts of it, especially those not in use, were full of dust and a strange musty smell that permeated the air with age.

Many of the doors available to her were locked, but she could see through the keyholes dark rooms of shapes. The door four doors down from her room was locked, but the lock fell apart after a few strong jiggles and led into what must have once been a royal pantry. The crates and boxes remained, but the food was long gone. The girl toed around stains on the floor and pushed aside boxes, climbed on top of tables and peeked on top shelves, blowing dust off.

There was a hole in wall behind one of the boxes. When she leaned down to inspect it, she could feel a cold wind blow through it, chilling her. There was a passageway.

She could just barely fit into the hole, and it took some scraping and bending. Her nightgown bunched up at the shoulders and she stopped, halfway through the hole, because she did not wish to tear it, and carefully adjusted herself until she could push through. The secret passageway was as wide as a man and remarkably clean.

There were small sources of light peeking in through the sides of the passageway, from the outside. Bricks that were glowing. The girl walked up to one and inspected it, and discovered that the brick was actually see-through and glass. She followed the wall and the bricks along, until she came to an old grating in the floor. There was some sort of duct in the floor. The air was cold and blowing fast in it. Some kind of air conditioning system? She wondered. She pulled the grating off and decided to chance exploring, sliding easily into the duct-space. It was big enough to comfortable crawl in, although it was quite cold.

She crawled until she came to an opening that peeked into a room below. It was a very small opening, not enough for even a child to crawl through, but she could still see into the room. It was an office, with plans and maps laid out on the wall. It seemed vaguely familiar to her. Inside the room was a strange man she hadn't seen before, but his voice she recognized from somewhere.

"I don't agree." The strange man said. He was dressed in dark blue, practical clothing, with buttons up his arms and short brown hair. "It's a big security risk."

"Everything is, these days." The voice belonged to King, though she could not see him. "It's your job to prevent anything disastrous from happening. If you think it needs a greater security detail than the guards assigned to the Princess.."

"I'm not saying that they're not up to the task. It's just.." The man ran his hand through his hair. "We don't know anything about her. And we can't find anything out about her. There's nothing on her. It feels obvious to me there's more going on here."

"I agree." King rumbled. "But until we know more, I don't see a problem with keeping her in the safecastle."

"I do!" The man exclaimed. "She could be a spy. She could be an assassin. If you'd just let me interrogate her-"

"The Princess has deemed that unnecessary. I agree."

"I don't agree with your trust." The man replied with a deep sigh. The girl studied his features carefully. His eyes were deep and heavy. He'd not gotten much sleep. He looked stressed out, the girl recognized.

"It's not within your authority to deny the will of the throne." King said.

"It IS within my authority to decide measures to protect the throne." The man said. "As your new chief of security, that is well within my purview. And this girl is an obvious risk. Adoral was killed because he trusted someone he thought he could trust, even when all evidence pointed against it. As his replacement, I'm not going to see the same trick played twice." He stood up straight, and looked firmly in the direction of King.

"...very well. What do you want to do?" King said.

"I want to interrogate her. Myself. How I please." The man said.

"No." King said, with a level of grit in his voice the girl had no heard before. She shuddered, and rubbed her hands together hard. It was so cold in the vent. "I do not allow that."

"You don't have the power to deny me." The man replied. "I am acting in the interest of the throne. You may be the Princess' servant, but it is not you who is chief of security."

"Perhaps. But we are both charged with protecting the Princess. You cannot do your duty long if you focus overly much on your own will. She has given you her will. The girl is not. to. be. harmed." King said.

The man was silent for a long while, looking at the wall. The girl adjusted herself slowly, looking into the vent until she could see King, who looked.. harried. Angry. There were lines in his face she had never seen until now. His eyes flicked up for a brief moment, and she pulled back, unsure if he had seen her. If he had, he did not express it in his body or words.

"Interrogate her if you must. But her recovery will not be interrupted." King said.

"Her recovery." The man said with an air of mocking. "How convenient, her silence. How arbitrary, her timing." He sighed. "Very well. Take me to her. I will ask her my questions, if she can answer them." He gestured to the door. They were coming to see her! If she was not in her room, or at the very least the hallway she was supposed to be confined to.. she squirmed in the vent and backed up slowly as the cold wind blew against her backside.

It took her precious minutes to scoot herself up to the grate that she had entered into, and she quickly pulled herself out, forgetting the grating and rushing towards the hole. She quickly pulled off the nightgown and tossed it through the hole, and threw herself through it, struggling mightily to slide through, scraping and slicing. Quickly, she blew off the nightgown and pulled it back on, and slid out of the room with all the quietness of a very quiet mouse.

The hallway was silent yet judging. She could hear voices coming from near her room. She calmed her heart as best as she could, smoothed out her dress, and stepped forward on bare feet around the bend of the hallway until the man and King came into sight.

"..not here! Who gave her permission to..?" The man paused, seeing the girl. She looked fearful and nervous, but slowly stepped forward. Her posture was that of someone who had known they had down wrong; shoulders slumped, movements slight, head slightly bowed. "There she is."

King walked in tall strides to her and quickly grasped her shoulder. He squinted slightly. "Cold. You're very cold.. and bleeding." He was looking at her shoulder. There was dirt and a small amount of bruised bleeding. "What were you up to? Come." He pulled her past the man into her room, and the man followed. King pulled out a fresh set of bandages as she sat down on the edge of the bed. As she waited, the man walked up to her, with a strange, cold look in his eyes, yet awkward nervousness in his posture, she noticed.

King dabbed ointment and disinfectant against her shoulder, and she cringed, but he pressed the disinfectant harder against her. Silently expressing his disapproval of whatever she had been up to, to obtain such injuries. He began to wrap the bandages around her as the man began to speak.

"My name is Michael." He said. "I'm the Chief of Security here. I've like to ask you some questions." It was clear from his tone the girl had no choice.

"What is your name?" He asked. She shook her head. "You can't give it, or you don't have one?" She squinted one eye at him and made an annoyed face. King looked at the man. "Alright, fine. Do you HAVE a name?" She shook her head.

"Okay. The night you were encountered, there was an intense firefight, that sparked off REMARKABLY close to us. Do you remember that?" She nodded, but slightly. "I bet. You got injured in that. Do you remember how?" She hesitated. She.. could she? Was it there? Or would it hurt too much to know? She looked to the side. "You do." The man replied. He leaned forward. "YOur throat. It was.. I'm told the healers had never seen such an injury. Someone didn't want you talking." She shrunk from his presence as much as she could. King tied tight the last bandage on her shoulder. "Why were you there?"

She looked at Michael with a hopeless expression. He pressed forward. "WHY were you there? It was late at night. In the middle of a firefight. You had plenty of time to escape. The rebels are careful to maintain perfect PR. WHY were you hurt?" He demanded, grabbing her shoulder forcefully. King looked at the man with alarm. "ANSWER ME!" She said nothing, biting her teeth and staring at the floor with wide eyes. Michael rose his hand and backhanded her, and in return King slid inbetween her and Michael with a sense of presence she had only guessed he had.

"That's enough." King said, holding his arms open. Michael looked at his hand, and sighed.

"I'm sorry. I lost my patience there." He said quietly. "You must understand the position you've put me in. You're an unknown person, with an unknown identity, and you cannot speak.. It is all so convenient." He stared at her intensely with those cold eyes of his, and then turned and left. She watched him go with King.

King turned to look at her with a sad expression on his face, but it sublty reverted to his normal, expressionless face. "You've made an enemy of him, I fear. I'm not sure he'll ever accept your presence. Not as the Princess has begun to.. you should rest. You are cold, and injured. You should refrain from exploring the castle so intently in the future. It will lead you to harm." He warned. King left the room, leaving her alone.

She slid to her pillows and rest her head on them, and stared, imagining terrible things.