Claire sat up on what she now called her bed.
It was really just a block of stone with countless layers of blankets stacked on one another.
"Good morning, Claire."
"Hey, Pierce."
Pierce was one of the guards who were assigned to watch over her. Unlike the other guards, however, he was kind and spoke with her often.
The many years they spent together created a sort of unlawful friendship.
He wasn't supposed to.
She looked to the wall beside her and took a minute to look over the notches she made on the wall.
"Two thousand nine hundred seventy six days? Has it really been eight years?"
"Has it really?"
She nodded.
He walked over to the cell door and looked through the bars.
"That's... a lot of lines." he sighed.
The castle she was kept in was a small castle, built on a hilltop next to a small creek, hidden by trees and bushes.
After she was taken by the knights, they had locked her up in a cell, releasing her every other day to do whatever she wanted to do in a field, permitted the guards didn't find it suspicious.
After they had taken her, it was revealed that she was a descendant of one of the greatest kings of Vaequiles, so they kept her alive to respect him.
She spent all her time inbetween those days practicing her spells secretly, found in ripped pages left by previous prisoners.
Pierce personally didn't interfere. In fact, he stood aside, watching in awe.
He wasn't good at his job, far from it. But she was thankful he wasn't. Without his company, she might have gone insane.
It was to be noted that Pierce had developed a crush on Claire, but given their situation Pierce never said anything.
She slid off her bed and pulled out loose brick in the wall.
She used the space to hide her tomes inside of the cracks. There was another wall behind it, so the pages wouldn't fly out or anything.
She flipped through the pages and found an spell.
"Let's see if I got any better at this."
She scanned the page and found the one she was looking for.
This spell allowed a wandering spirit to enter and become figures of light. The creatures always changed, ranging from the shape of a phoenix to a caterpillar.
"Soulight!" she called quietly.
Pierce watched as a light collected into the shape of a bunny on the ground.
The impossible crystal-like bunny made from light hopped around on the floor and sat down a couple feet away from Claire.
"Whoa... I haven't seen this one before." Pierce whispered excitedly.
She laughed and held out her hand at the bunny.
Suddenly a door slammed open and a voice called.
"Hey!-" the guard paused as he saw Pierce against the door, his back to the voice, "What in the hell are you doing?"
She quickly placed her hand over the bunny, making it vanish and shoved the tome back in between the cracks in the brick.
It was Daris.
He was an old guard who owned the land the prison was built on. He was ordered to guard her.
"I'm just keeping a close eye on her. I'm trying to make sure I can see everything she does so she can't hide nothin'." Pierce spoke quickly, his face on the bars as if he was really keeping a close eye on her.
"That damn girl isn't going anywhere." he grumbled, "In the past eight years she hasn't done a damned thing under our excellent security."
Pierce rolled his eyes through the bars, but Daris couldn't see.
"Boy, look at me when I speak to you."
"But I need to make sure she doesn't do anything!"
"Fine!" he mumbled as he walked out. "Such a damn strange boy."
He closed the door as he left, and as soon as he left the room Pierce backed off and sighed in relief.
