Time passed.

I heard the sound of the drums from where I slumped on the bed. They were so loud they made the steel door shudder in its hinges. Grabbing a pillow I held it over my ears until it had died. And that meant they had gone. That Morté had gone, that Sephora had gone. My lover from the past, the woman I had hungered after until she gave in and fallen for me in return.

That had satisfied me. Quietly I lay, trying to sleep until I could no more. I rolled out of the small bed, going over to the desk where Regina had indeed left the books. I stepped over the manacles that had fallen off when I had closed the door behind me, then paused before I kicked them hard. They skittered and smashed against the wall. I ignored them, then grabbed a book and returned to my bed, to slump.

There I was for a few more hours, until a knock came to the door.

“Regina, not now,” I said, fouly. “If it's food, bring it in, leave it. If it's you brother … well you can fuck right off. I'm in a bad mood.”

I was trying to read a study by a one Derek Vareniski, who was an elf who was brother who a high priest of Raeaira, who had been told by the Raeairan gods of what they thought had occurred during the Great Calamity. It used it accounts, one from someone who knew a Thayne, and another from a tiefling who was the son of a demon lord.

“It's … I'm not …” it was a female voice. One I had not heard only once today, when she had greeted Morningstar's court. Soft, patient, and full of a thousand feelings that made my heart thump hard.

I looked up quickly.

There she was, at the grill to my cell door, finally away from her family. Black hair, like her mother's. Tall horns like mine, or her other father. Red eyes from who knew where, except from the depths of hell.

My eyes widened. I breathed out, shocked. Slightly, nervously, she smiled. “They said I'd find you here.”

I was even more stunned than I had with her mother. My lips remained parted as the breath rushed out of me, and my pulse quickened. It was just like Sephora. Unlike Sephora, however, I gazed at her right in the face, openly and without any need to break my gaze away.

“You helped me once,” she breathed, “once when … when he hurt me.”

Slowly I nodded, remembering that day. She had lain in my home, that had been little more than a hovel, for two long weeks before she had been able to move on her own. So many times in that time I had wanted to speak to her on subjects more than, “how are you my lady?” but … I had not been strong enough.

Now I knew I was.

“Yes,” I murmured quietly.

“I see your books,” she gestured to the table with the stacks. “You've always liked to read. Even in Rahl.”

“I … guess,” I replied, my eyes flickering briefly to them.

Quickly she nodded. “You showed me my first book. Ever since then, I've been reading and …” she trailed off, blinking a few times, her eyes looking at the bars of the grill itself.

“He keeps you in here?”

“I refuse to submit fealty to him,” I replied, quietly, closing my book now, “continuously. I'm not loyal to him, he cannot control me, but I am useful. This is our arrangement when I'm here.”

“I remember you defying Morté more than once,” she nodded, “he publicly flogged you a few times. Made us all watch. You could have stopped, but you stood for what you believed in and-”

“What has Morningstar told you?” I suddenly said, my brow furrowing.

Selena stopped. A tooth paused on her lip, and she stilled. “It might … might be better if I come in,” she murmured.

My suspicions began to rise, as my blood ran warm. She had said 'him’ and 'Morté’, not 'father’. Had Morningstar already sat her down and told her it all, what her mother had been hiding from her all these years, what should have been my right to say?!

What I would have kept from her.

I swallowed, sitting up straighter. “Selena-”

“I just want to talk,” she said quickly. “How do I get in?”

Anxiously I ran I hand through my hair, looking away and hating Morningstar in this moment. How could he? Clearly it had been my subject to speak of, my issue.

“... Ff-eh-Char?”

“Sliding lock and key,” I said, lifting my eyes back up to her. “You need to find an orc called Fallon, or ask Morningstar.”

She blinked, and nodded slowly. “I'll be back soon.”