Liz's POV:

My name is Liz. I'll turn 14 years old next Monday and for 2 years now I was allowed to help my mom with her work in the castle. She is a great cook, so good that she was requested to work for the Blackhill's king, Leonard Strongline! Our very own ruler wanted to taste my mom's cooking!

Because she was a valued member of the kitchen staff, her superiors agreed when she asked if she could bring me to help. Since then I was doing various things in the royal palace - not only in the kitchen but in other places as well. Today I got a really weird and a little scary job to do. I was to bring a big pot of soup without any meat or vegetables inside it - only the liquid, to the prison cells in the castle's basement.

Why me?! It was the jail! Where they keep criminals! My hands were shaking a little when I was slowly pushing a cart with the big pot on it. I was concentrating so I don't spill anything. I would get paid less if it happened after all and I don't like it when my mom is scolding me.

There were 2 guards next to the stairs leading somewhere deep down into, what I imagined, Hell on Earth. Fortunately, I knew one of the knights there and the nice uncle smiled when he saw me.

-Hello Liz, what brought you here?

-Umm, I was told to bring a soup with no big pieces inside of it for the prisoners.

His face immediately got more serious with a tinge of surprise:

-They sent you to do this?!

-Eh? Was I not supposed to come here?

-Oh, no, no, don't worry. You're in the right place. I just thought they would send someone older but I guess you can also do it in this case. Since there is no danger.

-My mom was very busy so she sent me when she learned the job wasn't something risky. What am I supposed to do?

-We'll take the pot downstairs for now, you follow us. Don't be scared, there are knights in a room near the staircase, no one will hurt you. I will protect you if something happens, Liz. Ok?

-Ok. Thank you, uncle Glentin.

-Let's go.

The guards took the pot's handles and left the cart in front of the entrance. I could feel a different atmosphere almost immediately. Stagnated air and barely enough light to see where you're going, the place was eerie and claustrophobic. Random sounds of moving chains and coughing made it even worse.

-Don't worry Liz, your job might be unusual but it's not dangerous. There are a few people here under 'Paralyze' spell, no matter how much they want to, they cannot move. Because they can't even open their mouth wide, you should feed them the soup with a straw. If you put meat inside, they wouldn't be able to chew it - that's the reason for the weird request you got.

-Eeeeh?! I-I'm the one who will feed them?!!

The silver-haired uncle looked apologetic:

-I'm sorry Liz but someone has to guard the entrance. I will watch over you but it was deemed that this is not dangerous so someone else can do it. I would never think they would make a child do it though.

-I'm not a child!

-Oh. Of course, of course. Since you're a big girl already, I'm sure you can handle it. Just remember that I'm watching you, Liz.

Argh! Me and my loud mouth! Maybe if I said I'm too young, they wouldn't make me do this sort of work and now it's too late!

Wait a minute. Why can't they just...

-Can't you un-Paralyze the criminals?

-You think we didn't think of that? We asked the royal magicians and they weren't able to do it. The bindings are simply too strong.

-What? How is that possible?! Aren't they the strongest magicians in our country?!

-It was a powerful foreign mage that did it. He saved our princess Sabrina Strongline as well as the king himself from their death. I'm sure you heard what happened during the birthday party yesterday evening?

-Oh! Are they the culprits who almost killed our royal family?! Everyone heard of it already!

-Indeed, it's them. They deserved what happened to them, you'll see. This is exactly the reason why you were called here.

There was a long, wide corridor with cells on both sides of it. The big pot was placed in the middle of the passage and uncle Glentin started to follow a few steps behind me. The other knight returned upstairs to guard the entrance.

I poured the soup into a cup and took the straws out of my apron's pocket. I was wondering earlier why I would need it and I'm not happy about the reason. Like at all. But since I'm a 'big girl', I have to do it. I can't possibly start acting like a child now, can I? "Uncle, I'm scared of the darkness and the terrifying prisoners here!" Yeah, as if that would work after what I said before.

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I tried to calm down and stepped closer to the first cell. I could hear uncle Glentin's steady footsteps stopping right next to the prison bars. I waited on the side while he loudly opened the heavy, iron door with a big key and stepped aside to let me in.

It was even darker inside than I thought it will be, with the magical lamps only at the ceiling of the corridor behind me. I waited a bit until my eyes got used to the darkness in front of me and I immediately froze.

W-what is THAT?!

There was someone inside - that man looked to be in the middle of squatting down with his arms stretched to the sky and pointing his forefingers up. Nobody could normally keep this posture for a long period of time but this guy wasn't even trembling!

I felt a chill at my back when I heard a sudden voice begin me:

-This is that mage's work. More than half of them is like this and the rest is covered in cocoons that restrict their movement. Some of them are lucky and their whole heads are free while the rest are covered so thoroughly that we can't even feed them. If that magician won't come back soon, we don't know what will happen to them. I mean we can't even interrogate them like this!

-I...I see...

-And you have no idea how hard it was to put these guys inside of the cells! Especially the one with his arms and legs pointing in 4 different directions! We barely fit him through the door and I'm sure we hit his head at least 10 times in the process. It was like carrying heavy monuments! If they weren't so sturdy, they would lose some parts when we were squeezing them inside their cells.

I could hear the nice uncle's complaints behind my back while I approached the squatting man. His unmoving gave was focused on the wall on the right and the only reason I knew he was still alive was that I could hear faint breathing sounds. I was extremely nervous when I came closer and carefully put a straw inside of his barely opened mouth. He was looking sideways so I didn't feel like I was being observed. Otherwise, it would feel even more creepy than it already is.

I got a little scared when I heard that this unmoving person actually started to eat the soup through the straw! Slowly, my fast beating heart started to calm down since nothing else was happening. When the sipping sound stopped, I noticed that nearly all of the soup inside of the cup disappeared. Just in case he still wasn't full, I waited a little longer before taking the straw away. I turned around to see a smiling face of uncle Glentin:

-See, wasn't that bad, right? None of our wizards were able to release their bindings, so don't worry about a thing. They can't free themselves and I'm always watching you.

Reassured by his words, I continued my job. After feeding 4 more criminals that seemed to be posing for a very weird, eccentric picture and weren't allowed to move, there was finally one of them that was staring straight ahead. At me. It felt like he will start moving any second and try to catch me. My hands started to shake again and I had to focus on the big cup in my hands so I don't spill the content on the hard floor. Not only was this person's eyes scary, he was also frowning angrily and it felt like I was the cause.

I took a deep breath, reminded myself that he cannot move and I stepped into the cell. I moved to the side so I wouldn't feel his gaze on me anymore and carefully put the straw in his mouth. As expected, he started to drink the warm liquid almost immediately. I hoped he would hurry up so I could leave sooner but it was impossible without a normal spoon.

When he finally finished, I breathed a sigh of relief and got ready to leave. I took the cup and started moving towards uncle Glentin when two things happened at once: his smile froze on his face and I felt a big, rough hand closing itself on my neck.

I was already quite scared so I screamed as loudly as I could but the next moment another hand came from behind me and covered my mouth. Right after that, I felt someone's breath on my left ear and an unknown man's slow and terrifying words:

-Thaank youu for the meeal, little Laady. I now got enough streength to moove, ya knoow? Good food.

In my frightened state, I could see uncle Glentin reaching for his sword. Unfortunately, the criminal behind me noticed it too:

-Oy, you there! No tricks or the little Giirly here dies! I'm a maage, ya knoow? I can kill her in a moment, got thaat?

-Yes! I understand, please just remain calm and don't harm her.

-Oh I dunno, I might haave to if ya try something!

The man was talking in a weird way, sometimes taking longer to say some of the words and speaking normally besides that - that is only if you didn't count his manner of speech, of course.

-Now soome rules for ya, royal knight. Ya yell somethin' or alert your buddies in any waay, I hurt the Girly heere. Ya try to stop me froom leaving, the Lady here get hurt. See the tears in the little one's eyes? They saay 'Please don't hurt mee!' Ya got that?

-I-I understand. Please make sure you don't harm Liz.

-Liiz, ha?

The way he said my name was disgusting. Because he was so close I felt like I could almost taste his terrible stench of someone who hasn't washed for a long time. It almost made me gag. Just who said that this job wasn't dangerous?!!

- Gosh, I never saw such stroong Paralyze spell anywhere. I don't wanna meet that guy again, ya know? So I gotta leave fast aand you little Girly gave me poower for that. Thanks. It took a looooot of tries to unbind this daamn charm. Thought I won't make it afteer all. Gotta be persistent, not like your royal mages who gave up soo quickly. Now then. If ya try somethin', this little Laady will feel loots of pain, ya? I need soome space here, big guy, so moove! Freedom awaits!