There was a week of shock. Maybe another few days of depression. Then the resignation settled in for no more than 20 minutes. It was quickly replaced by the firm determination that enveloped me now. I found the books lining the walls and the scrolls strewn about the tower the day I had arrived, but as I struggled to read them in the old tongues, I hardly felt like I would gain anything from their presence…
I didn’t know how I was brought here particularly. When I first arrived, I was transported while unconscious. As far as I knew, the king was unaware of my whereabouts. “He would have sent armies and bands of no less than hundreds of our subjects after me.” I said, almost pleading the idea to myself in hopes of keeping sane. That was assuming he had known where I had gone, but it likely seemed to him and the rest of the castle that I had simply vanished upon my nightly stroll through the castle grounds. It was far from abnormal for me to decide I wanted some fresh air, though the castle guard was never far behind as I wandered. And as far as I could tell, nobody was even looking. I could see the castle from the tower that had become my prison. I could see the castle and it’s grounds quiet, as nobody had gone searching from it’s grounds. Not an army. Not even a single soldier.
On the fourth day I had tried to scream. Even the hunter that wandered by the tower’s base could not hear me. I wasn’t even that high up! He had to hear me… unless there was some type of enchantment on the tower. There were other enchantments on this place for sure. One that came to be more useful, was the meals. Every day, three times a day, A plate would appear. It would always be something different. Something new. Some were simple while some where intricate and large. Some where local while others had been almost unrecognizable. The only similarity between each meal was the taste always seemed to be frustratingly tasty. The first day, I noticed the plate appear and had thrown the largest and most welcoming of the meals from the tower’s window. I hoped to make enough of a mess out the window that someone might notice and come get me. It had splattered on the ground before being whisked away by magic hardly an hour later, as all the plates have done after giving me the time and opportunity to indulge. It did keep me well fed and my schedule rather regulated, I had to admit.
After the first week, the depression made the food taste more bland despite the bountiful flavors of each dish. My king… No! My own father hadn’t so much as sent a party of adventurers to search the surrounding area! I knew this spoke of something truly wrong with the situation. Hells, my father adored me. I was his reason for reigning! King Alaric Silvercrest would never have left his perfect Princess Calistra alone to the wilds of Aetherion… Okay, maybe I wasn’t perfect, but he would have sooner died than leave me missing like this. Whatever happened to me, I don’t think that was the only thing to happen in the castle that day.
“But if he’s been taken too, the whole city would be rioting.” I whispered to myself. The realization building a pit deep in my chest. Another realization bubbled up shortly after. “I… I can see the castle from here. We’re even close enough I could have yelled without the enchantments, but I never saw this tower from the castle. I don’t think I’ve even heard of a tower in the woods…”
It had been well over a week now. maybe closer to two, since I had awoken in this place. No stairs to climb down. No secret doors or levers hidden in any of the book shelves, walls or sconces. I had tested everything in the area. And after all this time, the most terrible part seemed to me that the rags I had found myself in were FILTHY! “I’m getting out of this drivel, even if it means nudity” I said to myself, trying to distract my mind from the terrible wandering it would take in the loneliness. I stripped and quickly looked around, feeling perfectly comfortable in the climate. I was however, horribly exposed despite nobody being able to see the tower, let alone me in it. All of Silverhold would balk at my newfound audacity. I thought I might have seen a robe of some kind though. That should be enough for now. I opened the closet by one of the windows and pulled out the soft silky cloth. It felt good to wear something clean, but my body felt odd within it. Something I would deal with later. For now, I needed to bathe.
When I pulled the robe around my shoulders, I hadn’t realized what the oddity had been. “More fucking magic, huh?” Was my statement to the wind when I finally noticed. My hair quickly seemed to lose it’s sheen of grease and the dirt that had been building up on my skin quickly poofed away. “I would still rather a bath, you know. If you’re listening to my needs, maybe fill me a tub?” I chided the tower, but when nothing happened, I sighed and moved to the window. I watched the castle like I often found myself doing, hoping everything was okay. The days seemed longer here, but it was likely just my boredom. Thinking to myself that I had nothing better to do, I picked a book off a nearby shelf and made myself comfortable on the window sill.
The days may have been long, and the lack of hope may have been tiring, but the book was boring enough to tire me further. I had finally figured out some of the intricacies of the language that seemed to be used everywhere in the tower, and I was even able to understand most of the book, but it talked about magical theory of which I had no abilities in. In fact, it told of power that no wizard I knew could accomplish. Boring and confusing it certainly was, but I finished half the book before I realized it had gotten dark outside of the window I had been lounging in. I sighed and moved to the cot, placing the book back in it’s spot on the shelf as I walked by it. Sleep take me, I have no patience for this room anymore. “Maybe you can give me some good dreams, at least make me feel like I’m not held captive?” I looked towards the ceiling as I spoke to myself. “Or a friend. I do seem to be going quite insane on my own here.” a look that had to have made me look quite crazy crossed my face at that. It seemed like a half smile, but also partly made of frown. I began to think about my time here as I flopped on the bed. Day 12 was it? I don’t care how long I’ve been here. I just want to leave. I lay face down as I fell into a deep slumber more quickly than any previous night in my time here.
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