Winter has arrived, out in the lurking of Wasteland wintry, the realm-barricaded walls shivered by tyrant creatures stomping their claws through the endless wilderness far ahead. Silence hung in the air, punctured only by the churn of the tides separating Baerysian’s border from miles of heavy thickets; its currents clogged with sticks and stones and the residue of decay continued lingering.

  Somewhere within the North Capital Wall, Alice reflected on memories of Johnathan's words set deeply inside her mind. Her heart beat at an inhuman pace as if everything was trying to force its way out. And the whispering. My god, the whisperings, even the sound of children laughing and people talking way, way off in the distance, could be heard loud and clear, driving her into complete madness.

  Alice let out a displeased grunt, covering both her ears in fright once the wind started churning harshly outside the broken window. Till it became so scaringly strong that the latch suddenly broke wide open, letting in an intense storm of cold breeze come trapesing inside. Only then did her bold eyes shoot open, and she felt gravity taking back its hold, creating a deafening thud that echoed repeatedly into the silent night.

  When Alice fell onto the dense mattress, breaking the bed frame in half. Her head felt dizzy with a slight fever and numbness all over; for a moment, she lay inert in the mattress. The pungent medical incense was suffocating to breathe in, and with eyes quivering in the strange darkness, she felt a blanket placed over her waist was warm and reeking of sweat. Alice forced herself to roll over, still trembling from exhaustion. Everything was blurry before it became clear under a half-burnt candle left gently faltered by the draft weaving past an open window.

  “Uh…” Running a hand through bundles of loose hair on top of her head, but it was shorter than she had remembered, Alice frowned at herself with dismay and glanced furtively across the crowded room, but when she swung both her arms and feet one at a time only to find it being skinnier, almost frighteningly scrawny to be exact. For a moment, she had mistaken this for another dream when she felt the still intact neck to be the only clogging reality, until her foot hit against a cold object that made Alice quickly retreat onto the broken bed; She finally realized this wasn’t any usual circumstances.

  Everything felt different yet familiar and as she squint those tired eyes a bit further; Red brick wall covered the circle room, side to side everything was stack in bundles of mostly bottles, red liquid potions and wet yellow papers scattering all over the floor like a squall of rain had just passed through and that was the last thing she saw before her vision once again gone blur and the deafening voices returns.

  No matter how much Alice aggressively scratched and rubbed it continuously for the past few minutes, as she wiggled her fingers in front of her face, felt the air move swiftly, and saw nothing. All the whispering was sensitively louder; the frequency of individual molecules arranging through every living being in this world and their movements started to overwhelm her one after another. The tickle of warm liquids began dripping from both her ears in heavy drops before the faint coppery scent reached the air.

  “God,” Alice whispered, feeling the thick fluid flow out between her fingers.

  Fighting the urge to vomit from dizziness, she staggered across the room in desperation for anyone’s help, She fumbled in the blur of nothingness and with hands swept in panic onto a nearby table full of porcelain jars, which she accidently swept onto the stone floor, breaking each one piece by piece underneath her feet. The hundred shards stuck to her skin, cutting way deep into her heels as Alice fell helplessly backward from the shocking pain, her head inevitably smack against the bed frame made of hardwood.

  Hunkered down in the darkness, Augustas and Johnathon's morph faces appeared like an apparition, sometimes she could hear only his voices too, but always from a long way off, and doesn’t matter if she ran after it relentlessly, it would grow fainter and fainter until it faded away and Alice was alone in the dark again. She hugged her knees tight against her chest and shivered constantly, waiting for someone to come and save her from this hellish nightmare that began eating its way into her consciousness. Suddenly, the bedroom door creaks open, returning a sort of warm ambiance in the damp room, cascaded only by the hallway lights.

  A female voice loudly whispered, “Young mistress?” Her soft tone cut through the quiet night of the forbidden tower.

  Alice raised her sharp eyes with her lip pulling into a thin line, unable to utter any words. But her mind ran like a wildfire; had they come to finish her off? She thought, keeping her heavy eyes wide open, hands gripping onto a piece of broken glass by her feet.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Mistress?” The voice asked once again, this time a bit louder, afraid that Alice hadn’t heard her correctly earlier.

  Reluctantly, Alice turns toward the direction of the blackout figure, still a bit shaken.

  The girl wearing a thin nightgown lowered herself inside, relighting the oil lantern hung on the wall in a quick hurry. Faint yellow lights begin to protruded across part of the dingy brick room, leaving behind still a hint of unending gloominess when deep horror started to set in the girl's face, as she took a few steps back upon witnessing her mistress lying in a puddle of broken glass, and beneath those pale feet now stain a discolor red liquid oozing slowly onto the stone floor.

  “Good heavens, thank god you're awake!” She yelped in shock, not forgetting to gently close the door behind her before hurrying over. Kneeling herself down to Alice's eye level to see the gentleness spark inside the lady's pupils now turn seemingly unnatural. She grabbed the mistress right ankle and placed it firmly onto her lap, soaking a puddle of blood onto the ghostly white nightgown, but the maid didn’t care. She tried to observe the harsh injury with her fingers before squinting her eyebrows in frustration, picking out each piece of glass carefully into a nearby pile. “What did you do to yourself?!” She asked while worryingly looking up every few seconds, still hesitating whether or not to ask more of her many thousand questions.

  “You.” Alice finally utters quietly, the body still trembling. “Where is this? Where’s Augustas?”

  “Who?” She asked mindlessly, still occupied by the mistress's bloody injury. “It’s just us here in this tower, miss.” The girl held onto Alice's bleeding foot as she continuously tried to pull away.

  Taking in a deeper breath, Alice jerked her head up, trying to understand the maid more clearly now. Though it was very rare in Clereta for someone to have the liquid accents of the Luzia Cities like her mother, most people who spoke them were deemed traitors half a world away by King Arthur. He has ordered an arrest for all Luzian upon his enthrone as a way of purifying the Aldebaran kingdom, but never had Alice thought she would be able to hear a woman speak this forgotten language again so clearly.

  “Who do you work for!?” Alice asked, almost out of breath.

  The maid ignores her question, picking out another piece of glass against Alice's struggle. “Please stay still, my lady!” She said bitterly.

  Alice reeks of desperation, and she hunches over the seam of her nightgown, tearing away threads like a bird picking at herself. That shame was a shambling thing behind her, chasing her onward, striving her to do the worst.

  “Name,” Alice said firmly, her tone rigged with agitation, she held onto the piece of broken glass, that was still in her hand from earlier and pressed in toward the maid's neck.

  Confusion once again hit the young girl's face like a slap of cold water, she look up in horror as Alice started leaning closer and with her bare hand, she reaches toward the maid's collar, yanking it slightly upward for their eyes to align; Even though Alice couldn’t see clearly, the girl rapid heartbeats stick out like a sore thumb.

  “Your name.” She asked again more erringly, still holding onto the sharp weapon.

  Tears began filling the maid’s eyes sockets as she said shakingly with a frown, “It’s Ida, miss, it’s me. Have you forgotten so soon? Please put down the glass!”

  Ignoring her cries, she lingers her grasp around Ida’s collar, Alice says defeatedly. “How can I forget when I don’t even know who you are? I need to know where this is.” She continued to question the unfamiliar girl; “Tell me, where is Johnathan?”

  Ida held her breath, the maid deny in worry, “I swear mistress, I’ve never heard of such a name in this tower before,” her eyes strained looking at the mistress in distress.

  Alice grew impatient and gripped her collar more firmly and grunted. “I want the truth!”

  Ida stuttered, “Maybe c..could you possibly mean by one of Grayan’s guards?”

  Alice's grip tightened, and feeling the blood coursing through her fist, she asked. “Who is that?”

  The maid's eyes widened, and her voice became weary and distraught, unable to speak when she felt the atmosphere lower down rapidly to the point Ida could see her breath linger in the dry air. While the floor beneath them felt solid ice, she shakingly said, “It’s you.” Hot tears came down in heavy streams, along with snot dripping from her nose. “You’re the mistress of the castle, Alicea Grayan. They work for you; we all work for you.” Ida corrected herself with sullen eyes.

  She halted in her grip and eventually let go of Ida. Alice dropped the weapon from her bleading hand to slumped down against the bed frame and stared at the candlelight by the entrance in emptiness. The flame flickered and swayed, the shadows moved around them, and the room seemed to grow darker and colder, but her body was already burning up. A draft of cold air blew past her cheek; only then did the voices grow fainter until everything around her turned into complete darkness.

  Poor Alice, couldn't possibly know at this very moment, all of the people she has trusted with all her heart are now raising their glasses to celebrate at a banquet filled with superficial nobilities in Clereta, as a woman said in a loud cheer:

  "To the death of the Valentinas and in memories of my departed, dear sister, Alice!" The innocent young girl who was supposed to be dead along with her family are now beaming with a healthy sinister smile across her face, she look over at Augustas standing with an awkward smile before continuing. "And to a new nation reborn be under King Authur Maddon!"

  The surrounding cheers of drunken people awaken the lonely night, everyone was ecstatically dancing and drinking except for a gentlemen with white hair sitting within the dark corner, hidden between the crowd, with only a black cloak to cover away his identity.