A Whisper of Night

15.3 || SCIROCCA 🍃

"I heard she has actual lions. She brought them, you know - Henrietta saw them at the marketplace - "

"Of course she doesn't! Lions are from Phaenos - it'd be impossible to - "

Scirocca leaned back against the wall, staring at the ceiling. Her handmaids had been talking about nothing but Queen Lleona for the last two hours. Apparently, the Lion Queen had come all the way from Scorvald to survey Slagvald...after all, she was to become its new queen.

And all because of me.

Bitterness welled up in Scirocca's throat as she turned the locket over and over again. It was an ugly metal thing, the size of her fist. She could hear the clink of glass inside when she turned it over.

She'd finally opened the locket that morning. Inside, she'd found not one, but three vials: one white, one black, and one gold. And beneath them, a note from Mossbeard, hastily scrawled.

Princess -

Within these vials are three different potions. The white one is the one you requested - it will wipe away all the most painful memories. Granted, this potion is risky - I would suggest you take it in small doses, if you are to take it at all. There is a chance that it removes a different memory, especially because there are no boundaries between memories.

The black vial will grant you a quick and painless death. I know that you are to be executed, but I believe that every man should be able to decide the method and time of his death. Ultimately, that is the goal of the Alchemists.

The gold vial will save a life. It is not a cure-all, but is powerful enough to destroy disease and heal flesh wounds. It will also negate the contents of the black vial.

There had been no signature at the bottom of the note, and why should there be? Scirocca wouldn't have known how to finish such a macabre letter, either.

She was to be executed tomorrow at first light. She would've ended her life by the black vial already, had they not sentenced her to death by blade. She'd always wondered how that would feel. Truth be told, she hadn't been cut by a blade in too many years.

Besides, it was only fitting that she'd perish in the same fashion as her father.

"Guys! Guys!"

A third servant had apparently arrived. They were outside the cell, cleaning up the hallway.

"She's coming," the handmaid said, and the other two gasped. "She's coming into the castle."

Of course she would, Scirocca thought, rolling her eyes. She scrunched up her knees to her chest, studying the cement floor.

Her cell was relatively comfortable - although the walls constantly dripped, her bed had been spared the coakroaches and lice that usually infested the mattresses of the castle. She suspected that rats would come soon, though - most of her meal trays still sat against the wall, untouched.

"But she's coming to the cells?"

Scirocca shot upright.

"Yes! She's - oh my god!"

Scirocca heard footsteps pattering down the hall, disappearing from earshot. Her heart hammered in her chest - why would Queen Lleona come -

A key turned in her door.

No, she thought, shooting to her feet. The locket hit her chest as she stood, bracing herself against the bed. No - I'm to be executed tomorow - is the Queen -