The scorching heat.
The unbearable suffocation.
And the scent of ash.
Those were his earliest memories. Covered in dirt and not a penny to his name. Such was fitting for an outcast such as himself. Years ago, He was found in the outskirts of the town as a child, not an uncommon occurrence in his world, infants abandoned in back alleys was not a rare sight, so nobody batted an eye when a three year old boy was found. Being nameless, He had no one. To live he was made to work as a child helper in a cinder brick factory, the lowest step in the social ladder. No child labour laws existed in his world, he worked all day, taking breaks for only meals and a few hours of sleep. As such, he was always covered in ash. Eventually, the townsfolk gave him his name for this peculiar appearance of his. As the years went by, the boy accepted it.
Given name, Cinder.
Act I
He lived in what one would consider a twisted reality. Since times forgotten, an enchanted mist took over the earth, it was a sort of boundary between countries, people were separated due to the mist and contact between different areas of the world became impossible. After centuries passed, each area in the world developed in a different way from each other. So much that they would be considered like different worlds. This world in particular was one of the better ones, but not without its own issues.
The world Cinder lived in wasn’t much different from the other worlds covered in mist. The monstrosities appeared here too, after the Great Split occurred, although that too, took place uncountable years ago.
As the countries developed, they devised counter measures against the monstrosities, they purged them from the areas near civilization and barricaded their towns. They dedicated a special military force for the sole purpose of dealing with them, the House of Purgatory, they cleared main travelling paths and set up guard posts as a protection measure. Unless one was living in the wilderness or travelling by obscure paths, it was uncommon to come by a monstrosity.
The countries were small yet not a bad place to live in, same could be said of the town where Cinder himself lived, it was a town where middle to low class people made a living.
Years had passed since Cinder was first found, he was now nineteen years old. He had amassed enough coins for a nameless such as himself, that now he could afford applying for a less demanding job. Although, his only choices were physical jobs.
Fortunately, there was a job not much would apply for, unless they had no choice, but for Cinder it wasn’t that bad. Since all he had seen was hell since his childhood, so this new job was better in every aspect from his current workplace. The neighbouring town to his was the capital, Ferrawend.
This particular job was of a lowly castle guard. The wages weren’t that good, the job was time consuming with no reward, and so most people would not consider it. But for Cinder, this was a step forward. Although the mist surrounded the world, it was considerably less than other worlds. As such, there was very little chance of a monstrosity attacking the castle.
As for human threats, there were the more well-payed guards who protected the perimeter of the castle. Cinder’s job would be a lowly castle guard, one of many standing in the hallways inside, so the risk involved was non existent.
Cinder was in a better mood today, after all, he got accepted as a castle guard. He would be saying goodbye to the brick factory, and he wouldn’t be covered in dirt all the time now.
As he was exiting he saw the crown prince, Charltz IV enter the castle. A bright upstanding person, nice to all and loved by all. The polar opposite of Cinder, who was cynical and fairly anti-social. It wasn’t that he had a problem with people, it was just that since a kid he never had a proper opportunity to socialize. He just didn’t care for people and their petty relations.
If his world was a fairy-tale, then he would be just a character that doesn’t even make an appearance in the story, he would be just a nameless character that simply exists, and He himself of all people knew this and had accepted things as how they were.
“Ella, come down here right this instant!” Cinder heard a loud voice tearing apart his thoughts, and brining him back to his senses.
He was returning to the small inn in his hometown where he lived when he heard the voice coming out of a house.
“I’m coming”, another voice came, although not as loud.
“Ella, clean this rug, it seems to have amassed quite an amount of dust”, said the first voice.
“But I just cleaned it two days ago”, said the meek voice.
“Are you implying you know better than me, and talking back?”, the stern voice continued.
“No madam! I was jus-”, her voice was cut off.
“Then clean it”, the stern voice said.
“But it wa- ...alright I’ll do it”, the meek voice seemed to have admitted defeat.
“A wise decision”, Cinder thought, and moved on to his inn.
He, of course, knew the family that lived in this house, a middle aged couple and their young daughter Ella. Although the story was more than that, the couple had lost their young twin daughters to the plague ten years ago. To console her wife for the loss, the husband adopted an eight year old girl.
However, the wife had suffered serious mental damage and had developed an odd obsessive-compulsive disorder. Only God knows how much the girl had to take from that madwoman while growing up.
When Cinder was young, he was curious about that girl. They both were orphans, both were miserable, so perhaps he wanted to understand someone in a similar situation to him. But alas, one day when he passed by her, she gave him a look of contempt and hate not even the townspeople would give him. Some think that two miserable people might get along with each other, but usually it is the opposite.
It seemed Ella had not accepted her fate for what it was, and wouldn’t want to be categorized in the same group as Cinder. After that, cinder dropped the notion of talking to her.
Cinder entered the rundown inn he lived and closed the main door.
“Hey, how did the applying for job go?”, asked the man sitting behind reception desk.
His name was Selg, the owner of the inn.
“It went better than expected”, Cinder said with a smile.
“Well aren’t you in a good mood today, I don’t understand how that shitty job would make anyone happy”, sighed the man.
“Hey, it suits me”, said Cinder.
“As long as you keep paying rent on time as usual, its fine with me”, Selg turned his face away.
Cinder went to the dinning area beside the reception, and after finishing, he went to his room upstairs. He paid his rent on time because he had nothing else to spend on, he didn’t understand the concept of luxury; that and also he didn’t want to sleep outside in the alleyways like in his early years.
Soon after that he went to sleep.
He didn’t sleep comfortably and woke up earlier then he usually would. He had nothing else to do so he went out for a walk.
It was a few minutes before dawn, so not many people were up yet. He was lost in thought about his new job and lifestyle that would come with it. Before long he passed by the house he had heard voices from earlier.
It sounded like a whimper, like something was crying. As he got close, it became all too apparent that someone was in pain. Curious, he went around the backyard of the house and saw someone’s bloody hands from under the fence.
“Did that old hag finally went crazy and killed Ella?” He thought.
He peeked a little bit more and saw that the hands belonged to Ella.
“Did she injure her hands during her chores?” He wondered.
But the thing from which the blood came from was a small rabbit, perhaps a pet. Its body bleeding profusely due to it full of needles stabbed into it. The hands took a hammer and nail, placed it on the knee joint and struck.
Crack.
What resulted was a horrible, gut-wrenching sound of a bone being broken. The rabbit tried its best to move away by using its remaining limbs, uselessly trying to get away by digging the soil by its bloodied little paws.
However, the hands did not stop, they grabbed its hind leg and lower leg and started to pull on the broken knee joint from the opposite sides.
Crunch.
The sound of tendons, sinew and bone fragments tearing apart. The rabbit kept whimpering, but struggled less than before. The hands took two nails close to its eyes, as if to put it out of its misery by stabbing its eyes out.
Cinder moved away before he saw anything else. He couldn’t bear to watch it. As twisted as he thought he was, he had never hurt any living thing before for pleasure like this.
But it did not seem as if she was enjoying it, her face an expressionless mask, almost as if she was experimenting with a non-living thing. Cinder was taken aback, but not completely surprised. While not hurting anyone with her words or actions, He had heard her cursing others and the world quietly when washing laundry outside alone, this was from a time when Cinder was curious about her.
Ella was a delusional girl, still holding on to the delusion that her life wasn’t supposed to be like this. The stress caused by this fissure in her reality might have played a role in causing this inhumane torture. And after observing this spectacle, Cinder knew, this wasn’t her first time doing this. On the outside, being a meek damsel in distress, she was horrible inside, with a cold twisted heart.
Act II
Cinder had gone back to the inn and waited for breakfast before heading out to the capital. He was at the town’s outer stables waiting for a carriage when he saw Ella again. She was with an unknown elder woman. The woman was dressed extravagantly compared to the other middle to low class families of this average town.
“One of the very few upper class families I suppose”, He deduced.
“Why is the carriage so late?” the woman said worriedly.
“Mrs. Mather, Perhaps due to the increased carriages on the road today, due to the event tonight?” Ella offered an explanation.
An event, there was supposed to be a banquet thrown by the king today due to the prince turning twenty two years old. It was basically a masquerade party, with everyone wearing masks.
The woman was the wife of Lord Mather, Fergo Mather. Cinder, of course, knew about the event, however he cared little for it. That also explained as to why Ella was in formal maid clothing, that elderly upper-class woman probably needed a personal maid and for some reason couldn’t bring her own. And Cinder’s hunch wasn’t baseless, that morning the maid of the elderly woman had been assaulted, hit on her head from behind while shopping. So, she was in no condition to accompany the woman.
The noble woman was an acquaintance of Ella’s step mother. She asked her to let Ella accompany her for one night, and her step mother obliged. The two of them were making small talk as the carriage arrived, and the two got on the beautifully decorated carriage. The elderly woman was well mannered and educated so Cinder knew she wouldn’t treat Ella badly.
Soon after, His carriage also arrived, and he got on and headed for the capital. As expected, he was given a mundane point to guard in the castle, the garden outside the ballroom. Time passed and night came and the festivities started.
Prince Charltz was accompanied by his fiancé, Lady Allafio Für Everyln, daughter of one of the families only second to the royal family, three years younger than the prince. When Cinder had first seen her, he was at a loss for words.
“Beautiful”, that’s what he had thought.
He had never seen such a pretty woman before. Ella was not bad looking, however Ella wasn’t beautiful; she was only a bit above-average, if one had to say. Even someone as Cinder, who didn’t care for people, appreciated Allafio’s beauty. But her good points were limited to her beauty.
She was told to be very arrogant, prideful and harsh to others lower than her. Basically a villainess of the fairy-tale. And so Cinder didn’t care for someone like her, who puts others below her, mocking them. He despised these sort of people on their high horses who have only lived a privileged life and looked down on hard-working people.
As the night went on, Cinder kept his boring post in the corner.
Sometime before Midnight, Ella came out to the garden, perhaps she came to get some fresh air. Cinder was observing her from his post, when suddenly the door flung open and the prince came out, escaping from the huge crowd inside for a little while.
Ella, clearly startled by his sudden appearance tripped on her feet and fell on the bushes beside her. As she quickly tried to get up, the thorns on the vines of the bushes ripped her formal skirt, exposing her thighs and cutting her legs in a few places. The prince quickly approached her to give her a helping hand but stopped a few steps short of her. As he laid his eyes on her ripped up attire, he saw her exposed legs, for a moment he was frozen, as if stuck in time.
However, if one looked carefully, they would notice his heart beat rising, his face turning a shade of red, body temperature increasing and ragged breathing. The prince could not take off his eyes from her thighs, with fresh blood seeping out from small cuts all over them.
The prince was a deviant.
He was a voyeur.
One cannot be perfect without some setbacks, in other words, a hidden side people hide from others. The prince had such a strict upbringing, he knew nothing of worldly desires and pleasures when he was young.
One night, spying on a maid’s quarters as a prank, he saw a woman’s legs for the first time. And he was entranced, by the concept of beautiful legs. As he grew, he developed a strange preference for women with pretty legs. It might have been nothing more than a fetish, yet he considered it to be something far more pure. And Ella’s legs were the most beautiful he had seen in his life. Perhaps due to the balanced amount of exercise she put up with while doing her chores and her already naturally attractive legs, they made the perfect pair of legs for the prince.
He wanted to caress.
He wanted to take in the scent.
He wanted to relish the taste.
He kept gazing for some moments that seemed like an eternity, when someone from inside called for him.
“My Lord, Lady Allafio is calling for you”, the voice said.
The entrancing spell above them finally broken, Ella suddenly got up and ran for the exit.
“Tell Fio I’ll be there in a moment”, He referred to his fiancé with a nickname and took off after the running Ella.
Only Cinder saw the spectacle that took place in the garden, a tender moment the two of them shared.
The guests were all in masquerade masks so the prince didn’t get to see Ella’s face. No matter how hard the prince looked, he couldn’t find her. However, his search wasn’t in vain, for he found a bloodied shoe. This was his only clue, whoever fit the shoe was the person he yearned for.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
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“They say the prince is searching for a girl, whoever fits a damn slipper is the one he’s searching for!” Selg said to Cinder almost irritatingly.
“Wonder who the lucky girl is”, said Cinder.
“Well I’ll never get these rich bastards and their antics for sure”, Selg didn’t seem to be in a good mood.
Cinder was in his inn a few days after the banquet, when Selg brought up the topic.
The search didn’t take long, with Ella living in one of the nearest towns from the capital. She was inevitably found and taken to the castle, the prince offered her a place at the castle as a maid, perhaps for only getting closer to her.
However, as time passed by, the prince found himself falling for the meek and caring personality of Ella, finding it comforting and easing his exhaustive daily routine. Polar opposite of his fiancé, Allafio, whose strict personality only pressured him more and more.
Cinder had more than once seen the prince and Ella indulging in debaucheries on the castle premises. And this time it seemed like he wasn’t the only one. The gossip was spreading in the castle, and the news eventually reached Allafio’s ears.
She would try to stop him from his descent into plain out degeneracy, after all, that’s what it was. But the prince was entranced, he cared not for his reputation. As for Allafio, he never liked her in the first place, so these little conversations would turn into straight up heated arguments, which ended in Allafio’s humiliation.
She would then take out her anger on the meek Ella, since she considered it all to be her fault. This would result in the prince getting even more enraged and reprimanding Allafio. It was an endless cycle of hate and envy and it was building up, reaching its climax.
But the debauchery did not end there, Ella was rumored to have been getting intimate with castle officials other than the prince. The prince was one thing but Allafio could not bear this. And so one night the vicious cycle finally reached its climax.
“You damn harlot! How dare you tarnish the name of the prince?”, Allafio yelled.
“Bu-ut I did no su-”, Ella was cut off.
“Silence, Knave!” Said Allafio.
Eventually, the commotion reached the prince’s ears.
“What are you doing again? How many times do I have to tell you to stop harassing her due to your own insecurities and shortcomings?” Charltz intervened between them.
“Do you not see this woman’s plot? Not only you, she’s putting moves on others in the castle!” Allafio retorted.
“I didn’t d-do it! You always take your a-anger on me, even though I didn’t do anyth-thing wrong, how you can be so cruel?” said Ella sobbing.
“I have heard enough”, said the prince.
He walked up to Allafio and slapped her square in the face.
For a noblewoman of her degree, it was the biggest disgrace she could suffer.
“I really thought you were better than this, I hoped somewhere deep down you had some shred of goodness in you, but you’re rotten to the core”, the prince said.
“Our pseudo engagement ends here, I only kept being your fiancé due to family appearances and matters. But that ends today, now I have someone I truly want to be, not someone I’m forced to be with”, He continued.
“You, you would believe her rather than me, who has been by your side for all these years?” Allafio said with anger, tears in her eyes.
“Fine, I’m not unkind. One, even if one person says that they saw what you claim she does, I’ll give it some thought”, the prince lied, since he believed in Ella, and thought Allafio’s words to be mere accusations. “Otherwise, you will get out of this castle, right this instant!” the prince yelled.
At this point a crowd had gathered around them in the castle due to the commotion. Of course, among the crowd, many had witnessed Ella in her little acts, but no one would speak on the behalf of Allafio, that was akin to ending your life at the spot.
Allafio, looked at the crowd desperately, trying to find even one person who would support her, yet all she saw was people avoiding eye contact and snickering among each other.
“Serves her right”, they all thought.
She had a terrible personality to begin with, as such she never had any allies, only foes. No one would take her side for no reward and all risk. She was on the verge of tears now, yet no one moved an inch. Taking her side was like committing suicide to save a tyrant. Such a stupid person did not exist.
“I saw her”, Came one voice from the crowd.
It seemed such an idiot did exist, after all.
Given name, Cinder.
Act III
Why did he of all people took an action? He wasn’t sure himself. Cinder had also gathered, or rather made to go away from his position in the castle to check the commotion. For many moments, he had also watched the spectacle unfold before him.
“Well, she had it coming”, He too had thought that way about Allafio.
Yet, as the commotion reached its peak and she searched desperately for even one soul who would support her, all he could hear were faint snickers among the group, mocking her under their breaths.
Disgust.
That’s all he felt. Disgust for the people in the crowd, who when in a position of power were doing the same thing as those who were once above them. But above all, disgust for the drunk on charm prince, ridiculing someone from his high horse.
Since birth, all he had known was people ridiculing him. He despised this side of human nature. As he saw Allafio helpless, on the verge of tears, ostracised by everyone, He made up his mind. He had no right to interfere, he, who wasn’t even fit to be a minor character in a tale, nameless.
Yet he couldn’t let this be, in hind sight, he was probably pissed off, and pulled this stunt just to irritate the prince.
“Who said that”, the prince said startled.
Cinder stepped forward, “It was me”.
“Well if isn’t a mere peon, you claim you saw her, I say those are mere lies”, the prince said, clearly irritated.
After all, now he had just made a fool out of himself, due to his arrogant earlier proposal.
“It matters not whether they are lies or not, my Lord. You only required someone to come forward and support the Lady’s accusations, even one person, and you would consider thinking further about this whole mater, those were your words”, Cinder replied as he saw Ella’s face contorting in agony.
“Kh-”, the prince seemed to be at a loss for words. “…Those were my words and I shall abide by them”, the prince groaned quietly and accepted Cinder’s retort.
Cinder smiled faintly, and chuckled inside. He had lied, for the first time in his life, he had lied for someone else.
Watching Ella’s agonized face and the prince eating his own words was enough, he had won. Even if this single event could potentially ruin his whole life, he in his own mind, had won.
But all was not well, he was alone once again. All he had built in his lifetime had crumbled in a few moments. He was an outcast again and he knew this would not end well. Soon after, the crowd dispersed and everyone went back to their own posts.
Cinder was returning to his post when a guard stopped him.
“You have been called to have a meeting with the Lady”, said the guard.
Cinder was surprised, but he had no choice but to go.
“Damn stray dog”, the guard muttered under his breath, as Cinder walked away.
Cinder knocked on the door of the Lady’s room. He had not been to this part of castle before.
“Come in”, a voice came from inside.
There she was, the fair lady, in all her glory.
“Well, you look like a knave, through and through. You have such little presence that I could barely sense you coming in”, Allafio took a stab with her words.
“What a pretentious little bitch”, Cinder thought.
“You think you were being courageous by stepping forward, but all you’ve done is increase my troubles, well you did save me from imminent humiliation and prevented me from getting kicked out, but that was a temporary solution, my engagement is annulled and now I serve no purpose here in this castle”, complained the Lady.
Cinder didn’t understand, was she trying to be grateful or outright rude? Perhaps she was one of those people who could not be honest with themselves, He pondered.
“If I may be honest with you, I did not do it for your sake, Lady Allafio. It was just a stupid impulse and my idiotic ideals”, Cinder shrugged.
“Well, aren’t you an arrogant little knave, what is your name?”, asked Allafio.
“It’s Cinder”, He replied.
“That’s an odd name… well its matters not, I have something to discuss with you, knave, since apparently I have practically no allies left in this castle”, said Allafio.
Of course, there were never any allies to begin with, due to her bad personality. But cinder didn’t say that out loud.
“What about your family?” Cinder asked.
“Oh leave it, my family cares little for me, I might as well be dead to them since my engagement is annulled now, that is how Aristocratic families work, only reputation and rank matters to them, I cant return back”, sighed Allafio.
For Cinder, that was an unexpected thing to hear. He thought all aristocrats lived a care-free luxurious life on their high horses without any care in the world. However, it seemed like reality was much more stressful, always under the risk of becoming irrelevant.
“And there, I have an idea. I can’t trust others in this castle, now that my authority has gone. So, you are to guard my room, I appoint you as my guard”, proclaimed the Lady.
“I’m sorry but I already have a job”, said Cinder, he wanted no part in this political nonsense, although it might have been too late.
“Your job being uselessly standing in a corner of a deserted place in the castle?” she hit right where it hurt.
No wonder she wasn’t liked by anyone.
“Also this should be apparent to you, but you won’t be getting away scot free after that whole fiasco you pulled earlier”, Allafio reminded him.
“So, you have no choice but to accept this, knave”, she gave him a smug smile.
“Ahh, that’s a villainous smile, she’s definitely a villain”, He thought.
“Fine, I agree, I shall change my post to outside of your room” he sighed.
“That’s how it should be”, she smiled victoriously.
Her positive points included her smile and beauty, no, rather those were the only good points she had.
Later that night, Cinder was guarding her room when he heard a voice come from inside.
“Knave, I have something to talk about, come inside”, said the soft whisper.
Cinder looked around carefully and entered the room.
The lady was sitting on the bed, legs crossed, wearing a nightgown, revealing more to him than any person before in her life. Cinder vainly tried to connect the dots and in his mind and reached a conclusion.
“Oh, HELL N-” his thoughts panicked.
“I’m sorry while you are beautiful, I have my whole life ahead of me, and I don’t want to be execute-”, His sentence was cut off.
“Knave, what have you been blabbering about since a while, and how long are you going to shamelessly stare at me like an idiotic mongrel? Get out to the balcony and sit there, I have something to talk to you about, isn’t that why I called you here in the place?” she made a confused face.
Was she that self-centered? Cinder wondered. Nevertheless, he was relived he wouldn’t be executed due to infidelity, although somewhere in his mind, he was perhaps a little disappointed too.
“You don’t have to answer anything, I just want someone to listen to me, for once in my life. Pretend as if I’m talking to my self”, the Lady said from her room.
Cinder sat on the floor of the balcony, the view outside from here was gorgeous, more than any view he had seen before.
“I know what they say about me in the castle, I hear about it all the time, but never directly to my face, it’s always behind my back, and all these knaves don’t have the courage to say it to my face so they resort to their dirty little ways. Saying it to my face would be better you know, unlike these underhanded tricks they use. That way I wouldn’t be as much as disgusted about myself as I am now. That disgust would hurt me less, you know, that way I could turn it into anger and blame them, I wouldn’t feel this murky feeling of uncertainty, but as of now I only hate myself and that hurts”, she said with a trembling voice.
“Is she venting?” Cinder thought to himself.
“I am a human too, you know. I grew up in a household that didn’t care for me, all they care for is the name they have to uphold. Empty promises, empty words, that’s all they know about. As a child, just because I was the most beautiful among all of other branch families’ daughters, I was engaged with the prince. But I was happy about that, you know. Who wouldn’t be happy about marrying a prince? But even the empty words stopped after that, while my own family praised me, my friends from other families distanced them from me. No one would play with me, I was left all alone”, she genuinely sounded sorrowful.
Ah, so she was venting.
“That is when they started talking behind my back, about how pretentious and annoying I was. They called me words you should never call someone as a child. But I was still happy, I was going to be a queen someday you know. So, I ignored all of them, I pretended to not hear them. ‘It would all end eventually’ I thought. I had to become stronger, so that their words could not affect me. I made a shell around my self, I became a strict, prideful and arrogant woman. And for sometime this shell helped me live through my childhood. Unknowingly to me, this shell of a personality eventually overwrote my real personality. But I wasn’t bothered by that, all was for my prince. As long as he believed in me, all was well. But even after moving to the castle, the bickering among these lowly knaves did not stop. Although, they were now afraid of me”, she scoffed deliriously and continued.
“I believe in something I call the ‘Imperial Authority’. I believe that only strong people have the right to power. If power is given to a weak person; such as you, knave, they will not know what to do with it and end up destroying the country with it. Only a strong person knows what to do with power, that’s how it should be. The capital looks like its brimming with success, but that’s just a front. Ever since the current king came into power, the proletariats, the poor people, keep getting pushed into poverty. And the bourgeoisies, the rich people, keep amassing more wealth. It’s an unbalanced and unfair system, if this keeps up, eventually the country will be met with demise. I wanted to be a strong queen, you know. Someone who could change the land. Yet, now I’m nothing but an outcast and cannot even guarantee my own safety”, Allafio finished.
Cinder understood her story, he could relate to her. After all, his own story was somewhat similar to hers, like opposite sides of the same coin. However, he did not sympathize with her. Her situation was something she created by herself, while Cinder was born into it.
Although, another odd thing he noted was how she repeated the word “You know” a lot when emotional.
“Lady Allafi-”, he was about to say something when he heard a noise.
Bang.
The door flew open with a loud sound.
It was Ella.
Cinder got up and looked inside through the window. Something was wrong with Ella, she had an almost expressionless face, as if looking towards a non-living thing.
“You harlot! You dare intrude in my room? What do you want?” the Lady asked.
The damsel ignored her, she picked up an iron skewer from near the fireplace and threw it at her.
Clang.
The Lady dodged in time and the skewer hit the wall with a clang.
“Have you lost your mind?!” the Lady shouted.
“Everything belongs to us, you were supposed to get out of our way today, and we finally would have had everything”, the damsel answered.
Something was off putting about Ella, more than just her expressionless face, her voice was trembling, sounding almost inhumane.
“But everything was ruined by it, we hate it, that nameless filth”, she beckoned.
A skewer came flying and hit the damsel right in her abdomen.
“Not filth, its Cinder”, He had picked up the skewer she threw earlier and had thrown it back.
Yet she did not bleed. She took out the skewer out of her body, maintaining her poker face.
She lunged at Cinder, knocking down a gas lamp in the process, causing a big fire on the bed.
She tackled Cinder down and tried to poke his eyes out with her nails, but he defended himself with his arms.
“So, it struggles, even though it’s futile!” she cackled.
Even as a woman she was greatly over powering cinder. He saw the Lady giving him a signal, he nodded and kicked her in the abdomen with all his strength, the damsel stood up in pain, and as soon as she did, the Lady hit her on the head with a candle stand, causing her to fall into the fire.
“Now, run, we’ll jump off the balcony to a lower floor”, shouted Cinder.
The Lady ran to the balcony, suddenly her lower leg was pierced by a sharp object, she fell and Cinder gazed towards the fire where the object came from.
And in the fire, he finally saw the damsel for what it truly was. Its skin had melted, revealing a charred black scaly skin inside, its long claws now sharp and black, same could be said for her teeth, now seemingly razor sharp. Under its skin it had white teeth-like thorns all over up from its neck to down to pelvis.
A monstrosity in a humans clothing; that is what its true nature was.
Final Act: Curtain Fall
As the damsel gave an ear piercing screech, Cinder grabbed the Lady and readied himself for the jump to a lower floor, and as the monstrosity charged at him, he jumped. However, the Lady was hurt, her weight threw him off balance and he couldn’t make it to the lower floor and they fell into the river beside the castle.
Soon after the guards discovered the burning room, and an effort was made to put out the fire.
The next day, an official announcement was made regarding Lady Allafio, she seemed to have died after causing a fire, her intent being burning down the whole castle alongside her. Fortunately, the brave royal guards put out the fire before her evil ambition could take shape, and saved countless lives. In another news, another official announcement was being made. Prince Charltz IV was to be holding his marriage ceremony with the girl called Ella in a month. She would be adding the title of “Ferra” to her name, as was the custom for the queen of the land.
Name given, “Elferra”.
A royalty marrying a commoner; that was the talk of the town everywhere. Apparently the prince was in an abusive relationship with her now dead fiancé. She was driving him to the brink of insanity. That is when the girl called Ella appeared in his life, simple and meek, she gave the care and comfort the prince needed and saved him from madness. Of course, the envious fiancé tried to pry them apart, accusing the innocent and vulnerable Ella of infidelity. Yet she could not come between their pure love and met her ugly demise.
“So, that’s what they are saying about you in the papers, hey are you listening?” Cinder told the woman changing inside a hut on the outskirts of the capital. “You’re quite the tyrant according to them”, Cinder added.
“Well they are not wrong about me treating the prince like that, although they greatly exaggerated the facts, but at least they got one thing right, those knaves”, she came out of the hut. “More importantly, don’t you see these garments you got me? They are ugly, do you even have a sense of clothing?” She complained.
“Well excuuuse me, princess. That I don’t have a sense of clothing when you’re the one who is penniless, this is all I could afford”, Cinder shrugged.
“Enough with the excuses, knave”, she retorted.
“Well either ways, you’re naturally good looking, so you don’t look bad in these”, Cinder pointed out.
She looked around her body, judging her appearance.
“…Guess I will forgive your treachery this time, only because I am so forgiving, you know”, she said, apparently satisfied after receiving a compliment.
“What a childish and un honest bitch”, he thought.
“Anyways, lady Allafio-”, he was cut mid-sentence.
“Don’t call me that out here, are you that stupid, knave? In their minds I’m dead, and even if I’m alive, I’m a villainess who tried to burn down the castle. I won’t be spared, typical of the aristocrats, pleasing the lower class by killing off someone the public hated”, she bit her nail.
“Then what do you propose I call you?” he asked.
“Think of a pseudonym, a false name”, she replied.
“What about Fio?” he said.
“..No, not that, something else” she said, dejectedly.
“How about ‘Aella’, sounds good to me”, He pondered.
“Aella, hmm.., that will do”, she said, coming to a decision.
“Aella it is then” He agreed.
“So, Aella, what do you suppose we do now? You’re a criminal, I am literally nameless, and do you have any way of redeeming yourself?” He asked her.
“Worry not, my dear knave. I have a plan”, she said with a smug smile.
“And what is that almighty plan of yours that will cause your supposed redemption?” Cinder said sarcastically.
“I am going to start a revolution”
Really, how self-centered, planning to turn the whole land upside down just for her personal interest. At least, that is how it looked, but Cinder knew this tyrant couldn’t be honest and this wasn’t just for her personal gain. Selfish, yet bold and straight-forward. Well, Cinder himself did not exactly dislike that.
…And so beings the story of the pair, cinder-aella.
THE END