Three days passed in the pale grey room.
Seren wrote the letter to her mother. Rewrote it. Threw away the first version because it sounded too false, the second because it sounded too desperate. The third attempt was bland enough to be believable. She was fine. The work was demanding. She'd write again soon.
A servant collected it without meeting her eyes.
Food came three times a day, always delivered by different servants who wouldn't speak to her. She tried asking questions. Where was she exactly? Could she send another message? The servants left without answering, eyes fixed on the floor like she was dangerous to look at.
Maybe she was.
On the third morning, footsteps approached her door. Multiple sets, moving with purpose. Seren stood from the bed where she'd been sitting, trying to read one of the books someone had left on the table.
The lock clicked. The door swung open.
Princess Elowen swept in like a cold wind.
She wore pale blue today, her hair pinned up with silver combs. Two guards flanked her, hands on their sword hilts. She looked around the room with barely concealed disdain.
"So this is where they've hidden you," she said.
Seren bowed her head. "Your Highness."
"Don't." Elowen's voice was sharp. "Don't pretend we're following protocol. There's nothing protocol about any of this."
"I don't understand."
"Of course you don't." Elowen walked slowly around the room, trailing her fingers along the furniture. "You're just a simple servant girl who got caught up in things beyond her comprehension. Is that the story?"
Seren said nothing.
"I asked you a question."
"I don't know what story you mean, Your Highness."
Elowen stopped in front of her. Up close, her beauty was cold and perfect like carved ice. "Let me be clear, since subtlety seems wasted on you. My brothers have taken an interest in you. I don't know why. I don't particularly care why. What I care about is making sure you understand your place."
"I'm a servant."
"Are you?" Elowen tilted her head. "Then why are you in a guest room instead of the servants' quarters? Why has my mother's medicine woman been told her daughter is on special assignment? Why are there guards outside your door?"
"I don't know."
"Liar." The word came out soft but vicious. "You may have fooled my brothers with your wide-eyed innocence, but I know exactly what you are."
"What am I?"
"An opportunist. A clever little nobody who saw a chance to climb above her station and took it." Elowen leaned closer. "Let me tell you what happens to servants who get ideas above themselves. They disappear. Quietly. No one asks questions because no one cares. Do you understand?"
Seren's hands curled into fists at her sides but she kept her voice level. "I understand perfectly, Your Highness."
"Good." Elowen straightened. "My brothers are distracted right now. The succession. The funeral. The politics. But eventually they'll remember you're here and they'll ask themselves why they bothered keeping you. And when that happens, when they realize you're more trouble than you're worth, I'll make sure you're dealt with properly."
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a promise." Elowen smiled, cold and sharp. "Stay in your place, little servant. Don't speak unless spoken to. Don't look at things that don't concern you. And maybe, if you're very lucky and very quiet, you'll survive long enough to go back to scrubbing floors where you belong."
She turned and walked toward the door. The guards moved to follow.
"Your Highness," Seren said.
Elowen paused.
"I never asked to be here. I never wanted any of this. If you could convince your brothers to let me leave, I would be grateful."
Elowen looked back over her shoulder. Something flickered in her expression. Not sympathy—calculation.
"I'll consider it," she said.
Then she was gone.
Seren released a breath she hadn't known she was holding. Her legs felt shaky. She sat on the bed and pressed her hands against her face.
The princess was right about one thing. This situation made no sense. They should have killed her or let her go. Keeping her here served no purpose except to create questions.
Unless the questions were the point.
That night, something small hit her window.
Seren looked up from the book she wasn't really reading. Another small impact, like a pebble striking glass. She went to the window and looked down.
Lysa stood in the garden below, partially hidden by an overgrown hedge. She waved frantically when she saw Seren.
Seren glanced at the door. No sound of guards. She carefully unlatched the window and pushed it open just wide enough to hear.
"Are you alright?" Lysa called up in a harsh whisper.
"I'm fine."
"You disappeared. Your mother is worried sick."
"I sent her a letter."
"A letter that said nothing." Lysa moved closer, stepping into a patch of moonlight. "Everyone's talking. They say you've been assigned to the royal wing but nobody's seen you. What's really happening?"
"I can't tell you."
"Can't or won't?"
"Both."
Lysa stared up at her, expression tight with worry. "The triplets. It's about them, isn't it?"
Seren said nothing.
"Gods, Seren. What did you see?"
"Lysa, you need to leave. If anyone finds you here—"
"I don't care. You're my friend and something's wrong and nobody will tell me anything." Her voice cracked. "Just tell me you're safe."
"I'm safe."
"Are you really?"
Seren wanted to say yes. Wanted to believe it herself. "I don't know."
Footsteps sounded in the corridor outside her room. Heavy boots, moving fast.
"Go," Seren hissed. "Now."
Lysa hesitated, then disappeared back into the shadows.
Seren closed the window and turned just as her door opened.
Kael stood in the doorway. His eyes swept the room, then fixed on her. "Who were you talking to?"
"No one."
He crossed to the window in three long strides and looked out. Seren held her breath. But Lysa was gone, nothing visible in the dark garden.
Kael turned back to her. "You're lying."
"I was talking to myself. It gets quiet here."
"The guards heard voices. Plural."
"Then the guards are mistaken."
His eyes narrowed. He moved closer, studying her face with the same cold assessment he'd used during the execution. "You understand what happens if you try to contact anyone outside this room?"
"You kill me."
"No. We kill whoever you contacted." He said it matter-of-factly. "You we keep alive. But anyone else becomes a security risk."
Ice flooded Seren's veins. "You wouldn't."
"We've killed for less." He took another step closer. "So I'll ask you again. Who were you talking to?"
"Myself."
They stared at each other. Seren forced herself not to look away, not to show the fear crawling up her spine.
Finally, Kael stepped back. "The guards outside your door have been doubled. If anyone approaches this room without authorization, they'll be detained. If you try to signal anyone through that window again, I'll have it sealed. Clear?"
"Crystal."
"Good." He moved toward the door, then stopped. "And Seren? The next time you lie to me, make it more convincing."
He left. The lock clicked into place.
Seren sat on the bed and buried her face in her hands. She'd put Lysa in danger. Put her mother in danger just by being here. Everything she touched turned poisonous.
The next morning, Theron brought her breakfast himself.
He set the tray down and studied her with that same curious expression. "Kael says you had a visitor last night."
"I didn't."
"He also says you lied about it very badly." Theron sat in the chair across from her. "Want to try again?"
"No."
"Stubborn. I respect that." He picked up an apple from the tray and bit into it. "For what it's worth, we're not actually going to kill your friends. Kael likes to threaten people. It's his primary form of communication."
"And you? What's your primary form?"
"Charm." His smile was sharp. "Is it working?"
"No."
"Give it time." He finished the apple and stood. "Aeron wants to see you this afternoon. Try to look presentable."
"Why does he want to see me?"
"You'll find out."
He left before she could press further.
Seren picked at the food without tasting it. Her mind kept circling back to Lysa standing in the garden, worried and confused. To her mother receiving a letter that probably raised more questions than it answered. To Princess Elowen's cold promise.
She was a liability. She knew it. They knew it.
So why was she still alive?
That afternoon, a different servant arrived—an older woman with kind eyes who didn't speak but gestured for Seren to follow. They walked through passages Seren didn't recognize, climbing stairs and turning corners until they reached a set of doors carved with wolves.
The servant knocked once and left.
"Come in," Aeron's voice called.
Seren pushed the door open.
The room was some kind of study. Books lined the walls from floor to ceiling. A massive desk dominated the center, covered in papers and maps. Aeron stood by the window, hands clasped behind his back.
"Sit," he said without turning.
She sat in the chair facing the desk.
"Kael tells me you had a visitor."
"I didn't."
"He also tells me you're a terrible liar." Aeron finally turned. "I'm inclined to agree."
Seren said nothing.
"Here's what's going to happen," Aeron said quietly. "You're going to tell me who came to your window last night. And I'm going to decide whether or not they're a problem."
"And if I don't tell you?"
"Then I assume the worst. I investigate everyone who might have access to that garden. I question them thoroughly. Some of them might not survive the questioning." He walked over and leaned against the desk, close enough that she had to look up to meet his eyes. "Or you tell me now, and I handle it quietly. Your choice."
Seren's throat tightened. "It was my friend. Another servant. She was worried about me."
"Name."
"Lysa. She works in the guest wing."
"And what did you tell her?"
"Nothing. I said I couldn't talk about it. She left."
Aeron studied her for a long moment. "If she comes back, you'll report it immediately."
"Will you hurt her?"
"That depends on what she does." He straightened. "You're not a prisoner, Seren. But you're not free either. The sooner you understand that, the easier this will be."
"Easier for who?"
"Everyone." He moved toward the door. "Kael will escort you back. And Seren? The guards outside your room aren't there to keep you in. They're there to keep others out. Remember that."
Later that night, as Seren lay in bed staring at the ceiling, she heard voices in the corridor.
"—staring at her through the window gap—"
"Then blind them. I don't care." Kael's voice, sharp with anger. "She's under our protection. That means eyes down and mouths shut."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Footsteps retreated.
Seren pulled the blankets tighter and tried not to think about what under our protection actually meant.
Or why the thought made her heart race for reasons that had nothing to do with fear.