"I wondered where I would find you, in the dungeons, or locked away in a tall tower, but I admit, I didn't expect I would find you in the rooms of the King's beast." She glared daggers at him.

"I'm afraid I can't go with you to see Queen Aine, I'm a little busy."

"You don't look busy?" he motions to the room and me on the bed.

"You seem to forget that while you have a Queen you serve, I have a King I serve."

"Really, you serve that monster willingly?"

"Look who's talking. I have heard tales of the atrocities Aine's Warriors commit on her behalf, I could say the same of you're Queen."

"Yes I have committed Atrocities, but never against my own innocent people." She stares daggers at him and for a moment she thinks she might see a flicker of pity. She doesn't want his pity.

"Get out." It was an order and she honestly didn't care if he ripped out her throat for it.

"Get dressed for training." It was a challenge and she stared him down until finally-

"Fine, but you are waiting in the hall."

"Gladly." He huffed and stormed out of her chamber, this was going to be a long day

"You know, I've been taught how to fight before, right? Killing is kinda my job." They were circling each other, swords out, in the practice ring. She lunged left and swiped up but he guarded easily and snorted

"From what I've seen so far I wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't ever held a blade in your life."

"Well I suppose when you have centuries to perfect your craft, only ten years of practice looks like nothing. But I can tell you that Other than Alonzo I am the best warrior in the castle, in the Empire."

"You're an arrogant little princess aren't you." She glared at the title.

"You can't call me that."

"What arrogant? It's the truth isn't it?" He was baiting her and she knew it, but she let herself fall for it, if only to distract herself from the gaping hole inside her.

"No one but Alonzo and the King know, and if you tell anyone, I will kill you." She stopped standing up straight and looking him dead in the eye.

"I don't think you could if you tried, Princess." Red, all she could see was red. The iron welded to her skin cut through the rising fire but the anger remained. She charged and slashed up with one sword and down with the other, he blocked both without a flinch and before she could blink he had disarmed her and pinned her to the wall with a blade at her throat. An expression of cruel amusement covered his face and she growled at it squirming and fidgeting to find a way free of his hold, but she was trapped. He smirked and crooned, "I told you Princess." He pressed the blade a bit harder into her throat before backing away.

She swore at him.

"So refined." She swore again before stocking out of the training room.

How dare he, how dare he presume to say those things. She slashed her blade across the man's throat and he slumped to the side. The man was tied to a chair. She had killed all the rest of his companions in an instant and knocked him out, then she had tortured the information she needed out of him. He hadn't known anything about Lythian, he and his friends were just spreading rumors for a rebellion she couldn't be part of. But that was always what it turned out to be when the king sent her after these groups.

The first time the king had sent her to track down the men that claimed that Lythian was alive she had been hopeful. She had gone to the warehouse hoping that the rumors were true, that they might help her escape. When she realized they were lies she had dragged their unconscious bodies back to the castle dungeons and tortured them for days. Sometimes she could still hear their screams echoing when she was down there, pained and agonized. She wished she could have made it last longer. The man in front of her, whose name she had already forgotten, had spread rumors that Lythian had been spotted in Hilkani, but had admitted that it was just a rumor the moment she pulled her blade from its sheath. Pathetic.

The blood spray had no doubt splattered all over her. Ben had once said her hair was so red and her face freckled because of all the blood, she had laughed and shoved him with her elbow. Sometimes it felt like that was true, like the blood truly stained her, even if those bastards deserved it. For giving her hope, hope in a world where wishing only got you a shallow grave.