"Where is she?" the exasperated lord cried out. He had looked all over for his wife, but she was no where to be seen. "How difficult-," and then he picked up his butler by his jacket collar, "How bloody difficult is it for you to find the lady of this castle-hmm?"

The servant gasped, not so much for air but just for some calm from the lord, "Quite difficult, sir. Your castle is quite large, sir. I think she probably knows more about the little ins and outs of this castle even better then you do, sir."

"And why, pray, is that?" the lord growled, setting the butler back down again, "Could some unruly butler of mine have caused such damage, hm?"

"I certainly didn't tell her that sort of information, sir," the servant sighed. "Perhaps it's the fault of her maidservant, or perhaps she's simply intelligent, so she figured it out on her own, sir." There was a slight snap to the servant's final words, grating into the lord's ears.

The king snapped, "Why do you seem to sound so wise about my wife, eh?"

"I-I'm not sir," the servant sighed, "Just, pretend I said nothing at all."

"Okay, I'll play your game," the king sighed, "Anyways, you're going to help me bloody find her!"

-Meanwhile-

The Lady Rachel ascended the staircase leading to an old room. Once more she knew she could get away from her dull, saddening life, if not for just a few measly hours. It was better then nothing at all. She finally reached the top where the room was.

It was old and abandon, the floor boards would lift as you stepped on them, and the paint peeled from the walls. There was not much of anything kept in the room anymore aside from from a couple of dusty old coats scattered in an old wooden table.

This was her lady's haven, however. It was all she needed to forget the darkness for a while. No one knew about this place but Rachel, so the darkness could never find her here.

So, she turned the knob to the door, and immediately hopped right into the room. She cast aside her long lady's dress to reveal a smaller, almost iridescent gown beneath. Now all she had to do was pray...

Pray that she was would never have to return to the land of her pain.

"Oh, father," she cried, "Please, please take me away from this barren land... please, let me come home to you and mother, I'll marry the fairy king as you had requested, I-I'll be a good demigoddess."

See, the Lady Rachel was from a faraway kingdom-a land of gods and goddesses, a land of fairies and magic, a land of wonder and awe. Nothing at all like the land of humans she had been forced into-kidnapped into, more precisely. She was the daughter of the king of the gods, and one day, perhaps she could have been queen, but not anymore. And that's why the darkness came for her every night, because every night she would remember that this was not her home, she had a much greater land of return to, but only could pray that might even be possible.

Anyways, the Lady did not will to be a lord's wife.

But he willed her to be his bride...

"Oh, please father!" she cried out again, this time far more desperately, "Please, let me come into the kingdom once more..." She gasped as she heard stamping on the stairs, "They're coming for me, father, please!" She cried and cried, and closed hr eyes as she tucked her eyes away view. When she lifted her head, she realized she was in the middle of a field. Overhead there was the castle, and the drawbridge ready to take her in. "I'm home," she said with a sigh.

Overhead she heard voices crying, "Rachel! Rachel!" But she knew they would soon disappear from her listening.

The darkness couldn't touch her here, at least not very much.