Day: 184

Days Left: 5296

Lives Saved: 0

Queen Corinna sat on her bed. She pulled down her right glove, revealing her wrist that glowed a faint blue. It had been six months already. It didn't seem that long ago since the Warren-Earl-Best family had been dragged into the throne room to be judged for their crime of treason. But now, as part of the deal, she had made, one of them was to be permanently spared. If Corinna Warren ever dared escape the Eternal Abyss, then that person would be safe whilst the other twenty-nine would be executed.

The chances of Warren escaping were considerably low due to how resolute she was to save her family. But a part of the queen's mind was unnerved. It would not be long before Warren would lose all of her memories and thus her motive for staying in the Eternal Abyss. Of course, very few succeed in escaping the prison dimension, and even then they were all captured immediately and sent back down. But all it took was for Warren to escape one time and twenty-eight of her relatives and herself would be killed.

There was also the added factor of Warren being closely associated with The Chimaera, now more commonly referred to as Harmony. That prisoner was infamous for her escape attempts. Once Warren had lost her memories, would she join Harmony in escaping? The queen could not be certain.

She stared down at her wrist, at the glowing binding contract that she had made with Corinna Warren. Reaching for her electronic tablet, the queen scrolled through the profiles of the twenty-nine relatives. One of them was to be randomly picked and spared.

The queen stopped scrolling, her eyes falling onto one particular profile: Rhea Earl.

What if Corinna Warren were to escape? That would mean that Rhea would be executed too, wouldn't it?

That fear had remained with the queen throughout the entire six months, but only now did she properly acknowledge its existence. She had before merely dismissed it due to the low probability of Warren escaping, however, the more she fretted, the more that percentage seemed to rise.

What if Rhea was the one picked to be spared? Her safety would be guaranteed. But what if she wasn't chosen? Would Warren remain in the Eternal Abyss long enough until Rhea was chosen?

The queen calculated the chance of Rhea being picked first. It was low. Even the likelihood of her being selected in the next six months was still considerably low.

But what if there was a loophole, a cheat to make sure that-

Queen Corinna stopped herself. She wasn't sure why she was even fretting over Rhea when that woman had betrayed her. Rhea had rallied people together to defy her, yet somehow the queen couldn't imagine her in pain.

She remembered back to her childhood, to when Rhea was her nursemaid. She recalled the games that they had played, the songs that she would sing, the different voices she put on whilst reading her storybooks.

'Their happiness and safety rivals your own... you are happy so long as they are'.

Corinna Warren's words popped into the queen's mind.

But what if what would make them happy and what would keep them safe conflict with each other?

Rhea claimed that she would be happier if she was down in the Eternal Abyss instead of Corinna Warren, but she definitely wouldn't be safe.

So what was more important?

To be happy or to be safe?

Corinna Warren was also in the same situation. She would be happier to be in the Eternal Abyss if it meant her family wasn't. But unlike Rhea, Warren was younger and stronger, more likely to survive the Abyss' cruelties. Just because no one could die in that dimension didn't mean that they couldn't get hurt.

And if Rhea got hurt...

The queen paused.

She had to randomly pick one of the twenty-nine to be spared. She couldn't just choose Rhea.

Or could she?

Queen Corinna found a random name picker on her electronic tablet and set all of the names to be Rhea Earl. And who would have predicted it, Rhea Earl was chosen. She was randomly selected to be the first one spared.

The queen glanced at her glowing binding contract. It did not react negatively to this loophole. Both relieved and a slight guilty at abusing her power, Queen Corinna sent the order for dispatch to send the message to the Warren-Earl-Best family about the update.

Day: 185

The doorbell chimed and rang out through the Warren-Earl-Best Estate. Nathaniel Earl, being the closest to the front door, opened it.

He stood at the entrance, staring at the two uniformed men.

"Hello?" said Nathaniel. He then noticed the royal insignia on their capes and quickly bowed, unsure if that was the correct way of greeting.

The two royal messengers gave a respectful nod of the head. Then one of them retrieved an electronic tablet from a bag.

Clearing his throat, the guard began, "to the Warren-Earl-Best household-"

"Who is it!" yelled a voice. Bess Warren appeared in the hallway and gawked at the two royal messengers. "Are they from the castle?"

"Yes, I believe so," replied Nathaniel. He turned to the messengers. "Please, continue."

The royal messenger nodded. "To the Warren-"

"Hey, check it out!" Bess shouted, her voice resonating across the house. "There's royal messengers at the door!"

There was a slight pause before a stampede of footsteps. Several faces poked their head around the corridor to take a peak.

After giving Bess a scolding glare, Nathaniel urged the messenger to continue.

Clearly disgruntled, the messenger restarted, reading at a rather quick pace to avoid anyone interrupting him. Every time he glanced up, it seemed there were even more people lurking around in the hallway listening. Eventually, it grew to be a whole crowd, some of them pushing and shoving to get a better look.

The statement he read out at first explained something about a binding contract and the thirty people it involved, which the messenger had no clue what it meant. Then it continued that as six months had now officially passed, one of these twenty-nine people was to be 'spared' and no longer under threat of the consequences of the contract breaking.

"And the person randomly picked to be 'spared'..." the messenger paused. "Is Mrs Rhea Earl."

The hallway fell silent.

Everyone's eyes fell onto an old woman.

"No..." Rhea Earl shook her head. "No, that can't be!" She rushed over to the messenger and grabbed hold of his hand. "Please! It should be someone else! Not me! It can't be me! I might not even be alive after the fifteen years have gone! Please, let someone else be spared-"

"Apologies, ma'am." The messenger retreated back, gently taking Rhea's hand off of his. "I am not at all familiar with your situation, but as it is stated, you were chosen randomly. If you have any grievances, you will have to take it up with Her Majesty."

With that, the two messengers saluted and marched away.

Lives Saved: 1