Awakened

He looked at her unwaveringly for a full minute.

He then crossed his arms and said, "Okay then, thief. My father requests to see you tomorrow, at lunch. But be warned, it's not much of a request and do not try to run; we will find you."

Alicia grinned darkly. She supposed thief was an upgrade from slave anyway. The man turned to leave when she remembered she didn't actually know where she was, never mind who this man's father was. It was comical that a man as grown as him still did his father's bidding, but she kind of knew that if Mrs Jackson sent her to do something and she gave her that "if you dare disobey" look, Alicia would do it running.

"And how am I supposed to know how to find your father?"

"Just request the throne room."

"What do you mean the throne room?"

"Exactly that."

Alicia was starting to hate how curt and rude this man was. It was annoying to have to pull answers out of him. Alicia sighed, her eyes fluttering as she felt how lightheaded she actually was.

"Let me guess, your father's some sort of royalty here, isn't he? Working for that king of yours. Is he the general? The advisor?"

He walked slowly towards the side of her bed.

"My father, thief, is the king himself. His Royal Highness, King Maxwell Gordan. Any more rhetorical questions?"

Alicia folded her arms.

"Well if you told me everything I needed to know, I wouldn't ask so many questions."

The prince (she figured), turned his back on her and sat on a nearby arm chair and stared cooly at her.

"Like I said, you're in no position to make demands but please, ask away so I may take my leave."

"You're the prince then?"

He gave her that obviously look, and sighed.

"Everest James Gordan; crown prince of Narvíana, to your service. Anything else?" He said, plainly though he sounded bored and sarcastic.

"One last thing. Can you told me how I got here? I mean, last I checked, I was---"

"--sick, dehydrated and dying in the Great Zara desert?"

"I was going to say, I was....fleeing from Alfairia when I got kidnapped by those crude men."

"Those men are hunters. They hunt for beasts and slaves. You were on Narvíana territory, you're clearly a stranger, so you were deemed an intruder and thus, a slave to the kingdom. You're lucky they did not reach the main city, hotstop for slave trading, where you would have been sold to the highest bidder."

"I got sick, and they wanted to leave me there. You call that lucky?"

He blinked, almost lazily.

"Lucky enough. My men and I got to you before they could abandon you, I bought you and brought you here to the palace, where you lie and heal in our infirmary. Now can I go?"

"Doesn't it worry you, how you can so easily say that you bought someone without batting an eye? Savagery at its best." Alicia rolled her eyes.

"Think all you like," he stood and glanced at her. "I still saved your life, thief. Now rest and await your trial tomorrow."

"Prince Everest," she said before he let the room. He stopped without turning around, probably expecting another question. "Please call me Alicia, not thief. My name is Alicia."

She sat back and glanced out the window as he left.

Though she quite enjoyed the view of the royal gardens, Alicia realized she needed a plan. She smiled weakly at how ironic it is, to run from being held prisoner in one palace, only to be held prisoner in another. The way she saw it, if they believed that she was indeed a thief, she would either be handed to Phillips' clutches or treated like some kind of hero. It was the Great Crown, after all. The kingmaker trinket. Speaking of whom, now that she was no longer so sick, Alicia realized that she felt fiercly offended and betrayed that she had been told that Alfairia was the only active kingdom on the island. She had been told that the rest of the island outside of the greenery of Alfairia was desolate, desert, empty and small. But clearly, it was big enough to house another kingdom, Narvíana. Alicia wondered whatever they had been keeping from her. Had her entire education from Alfairia been composed of half-truths and lies? Alicia couldn't imagine a world where Phillips had accident forgotten to neglect that oh, there's another live functioning kingdom not too far from here, and she wouldn't pretend there was such a world. She had been deceived from the very beginning and she wanted to know why....but later.

And if they didn't believe her story, Alicia feared the worst for herself and her kingdom. If they suspected that she was in fact, Queen of Alfairia, she couldn't imagine what they'd do to her but it couldn't possibly be good. They wouldn't just let her go. Initially, her plan had been to come to Alfairia (not that she had a choice in that matter), to gather information from locals and to make a plan on how to expel the rebels from the kingdom by perhaps negotiating a treaty or something like that. Of course, she wouldn't have known this stuff if she didn't take Government at home. It had been one of the wisest decisions she had ever made. But still, Government didn't tell her what intentions the two kingdoms had for each other and she would have known this kind of thing if she had been told that Narvíana existed. She felt herself tense up at the situation and the lack of solutions.

Suddenly, Alicia was struck with an intense migraine, she clenched her teeth and closed her eyes. Maybe brainstorming wasn't the best idea right now.

The migraine was not soothed at all, in fact, it was getting worse. It didn't help that there was someone screaming while she went through this skull-cracking headache and she came to a few realizations all at once. First, she realized that all the glass content in the room, such as the windows and the lamps, was cracking real fast. Second, she realized that the room was shaking and that earthquakes had the worst timings in Narvíana. Third, she realized that she could feel the cracks spreading and she could feel the earth shake, which was plenty creepy. Fourth, she realized that the person screaming was her and finally, she realized that she was passing out, just as the doctor came back into the room looking as freaked out as she felt.

Nothing good could come from this.

~~~~~