The Whispers of Shadows - Azriel

2

Aurora didn't sleep for the fifth night in a row. She swore there was a creature in the far right corner of the dark room, whispering things to her. When the soldier had brought her breakfast that morning, she had grasped his leathers and begged for him to kill the awful creature. He had just kicked her off of him, spitting onto her red hair.

Aurora believed it was nearing sundown, her eye twitching with exhaustion and the burn of not blinking as she stared into the darkness. It was only every few years that a creature would torment her, but this one seemed to speak things. Reach toward her with tendrils of shadows. Throughout the years, she had accumulated things in her personal dungeon. Rags and forgotten clothes of the soldiers' mates, anything that someone with empathy would bring to her.

During the centuries, she had not received care, healing nor beauty. Her hair had grown long past her waist, knotted and matted. Her skin was covered in layers of dirt that would only be cleansed on rare occasions that a soldier's mate would learn of her existence and bring her buckets of water and clean clothes on the darkest of nights.

Aurora was crouched beneath one of the two windows, nostrils flaring and eyes twitching as she stared at the darkness in one corner that seemed to shift forms every few minutes. She knew she had gone mad over the years, but all she waited for was the day a soldier would grow too angry and take a sword to her heart. Not a moment occurred. Not when they would take advantage of her weakest days by using her body for their pleasure, not when she'd howl at them to whither and die, and not when she'd curse the general or High Lord for never bringing her out of the dark.

Her brother never visited, never cared. For all he knew, Aurora was decaying in the cement ground of the basement. The walls were marked with her nails clawing up to the too-high windows, the floor branded by the words she'd carve in the night. One female, the mate of a lowly warrior, would come down into the basement during the night Aurora was younger and teach her of the world around her. She had learned of a new war, of three humans turned high fae, of the wall falling. She hadn't heard from the female in years, and guessed she had been figured out and slaughtered.

It had fallen to twilight before Aurora had noticed, her eyes snapping to the window to see the moon standing proudly in the sky. A shuffle, and her eyes went back to the shadows that seemed to mock her. They had been watching her for nearly a week now, far more intimidating than the hidden creatures of the past. She blinked only once, and the feeling of the hidden eyes fell away.

"Where did you go?" She whispered, a sense of dread filling her empty stomach.

Darkness seemed to sweep in faster than the night came, wind whipping at Aurora's hair. Her wide eyes snapped to the left side of the basement, a figure standing there. Aurora yelped, her voice rotten and hoarse from centuries of hardly speaking or screaming, no in between.

"Are you alone?" The figure spoke, a female voice echoing in the room. Aurora attempted to swallow, her dry throat restricting. Steel flashed in the moonlight, and Aurora felt her shoulders fall. It was either death or release, either was fine with her. The figure grew closer, dim light casting over golden hair and black leather.

"Are you okay?" The female spoke again, and Aurora stayed silent. She didn't remember the last time someone asked her that. Was this the shadows tricking her again? No, the light never teased her, but could it be her mind?

The figure drew in, kneeling down. Aurora squinted, making out a face in the dark. High Fae, clean, cared for. A female she had never seen in this court.

"Please, allow me to take you to my court. You'll be bathed, fed, watched over. You've been alone for centuries, I've heard. I wish to bring you to safety, to my home," the female cooed. Aurora nearly leaned into the sound. She stayed frozen against the wall, feeling her eyes twitch again. The female sighed, dropping her head before looking at Aurora again. "You may hate me for this, but we are leaving."