The woman on the throne

'Uncomfortable…' Seth turned over to make himself more comfortable in his sleep when he suddenly opened his eyes and prepared to fight.

'Where am I?' he thought as he looked around.

Seth was in a dark room and couldn't see much more than several feet around him.

'The last thing I remember was that another golem appeared and knocked me out...' remembering his fight against the golem, which he abruptly lost when even giving his all he couldn't even harm the golem.

'Tsk, damned pieces of stone' Seth internally cursed both golems in frustration.

'Anyway… is this hell?' Getting up as he supported himself with his only arm, Seth began to walk forward slowly in search of anything.

Seth didn't make much progress before as if by magic, several chandeliers began to light up one after another. Illuminating and fully revealing the room where he was.

The walls were made of stone with false doors that only served as decoration, while the ceiling had a large window in the center of it and surrounding the window was a large map that Seth did not know where it came from or what place it was supposed to show. The French windows, although he intended to allow light through, for some reason all you could see was total darkness.

On each side of the room, 5 pillars supported the ceiling and between the pillars hung burgundy flags with a banner unknown to Seth.

The floor was made of tiles, which were of two different colors. Like a path through the room, the tiles were dark, light black while the rest were light brown and at the end of the room, there were circular stairs that ascended to a stone throne with a red armchair next to it. to the back of the same color.

The room Seth entered was a throne room, but this didn't surprise Seth as much as the woman who sat on the throne with her head resting on her hand and a curious look on her face.

"..."

"..."

Neither Seth nor the woman spoke for a few seconds before Seth broke the silence.

"You are the devil?" Since Seth thought that he was in hell after dying from the golems, he thought that the woman in front of him was a demon no matter how beautiful she was.

The curious look the woman had on Seth vanished in an instant before turning to a look of irritation.

"I'll be the devil if you want it so much" the woman said with a soft tone, but that Seth felt as if they were a death sentence.

Seth swallowed as he felt the woman's irritation that for some reason gave him a sense of fear like he had never felt before.

"I…I apologize," Seth said nervously.

"Hmmp" the woman just snorted in response.

'A pushover...' Seth thought as he easily extricated himself from the trouble he had caused. However, for some reason the woman sharpened her eyes as if she wanted to kill him with her gaze, causing a shiver to run through Seth's body.

"I apologize…" Seth apologized again for just the thought of him.

'Can this woman read my mind…?'

Seth looked at the woman who didn't react to his current thoughts, so he just thought that she had imagined things.

"You... irritate me" said the woman after a moment of silence.

Seth didn't dare answer as he watched the seated woman with a now neutral expression while he, for some reason, was sweating even though the room was cool, and he was several feet from the throne.

"I don't know why she chose you if you're so fucking different from him" the woman continued speaking but as if she wasn't addressing Seth specifically, as if she was talking to someone else.

"But hey... who am I to interfere in these matters, I'm just a simple woman locked up" I finish speaking.

'Simple woman my ass' Seth felt a penetrating look again that only lasted an instant.

"If I may ask…, who are you?" was the first question that came to Seth's mind at this moment.

He had been feeling murderous intent for two years so he could tell that this woman didn't want to kill him…for now.

"What's your name?" The woman completely ignored Seth's question and asked her own question.

Seth hesitated whether to answer or not, but he decided it was best to answer the woman's questions to speed things up and not fall on the woman's bad side, more than she already was.

"Seth" she answered sincerely.

"You're lying to me?" The woman looked back at him with menacing eyes, but Seth could only hold on while he responded.

"No... that's what I prefer to be called"

"Hmm, so Seth…"

"..." Seth was silent as he waited for the woman's question while she thought about her question.

"Why are you here?"

Seth could only tilt his head, not understanding the woman's question.

"I do not know…?" The last thing he remembered before arriving at this place was his fight against the golem and how another knocked him out, then he woke up in this place.

"I mean the forest…" the woman said irritably.

"Ah! Through a door…?" Seth replied again as he cocked his head again.

"Answer me one more time like that and I swear I will tear you into thousands of pieces"

Seth felt a chill in his body again and he couldn't help but feel that the woman's words were serious.

"I…escaped from a prison…"

Seth very quickly summarized the story of how she had escaped from the prison through the silver door while he played dead.

"Hmmm." The woman just fell silent as she looked at Seth.

'Too much of a coincidence…' the woman thought as she sighed.

"Okay..." the woman snapped her fingers and from behind two of her pillars two identical golems came out and knocked out Seth.

"Them!" Before Seth could react, the golems rushed towards him and nimbly pinned him to the ground.

"Ughh!" Seth tried to wriggle out of the golems' grasp without much success.

The woman who watched all this from her throne got up and went down the stairs as she walked with a noble bearing.

The woman reached Seth and with another snap of her fingers, the golems turned into chains that held Seth's 3 limbs, leaving him hanging a few inches above the ground.

"You!" Seth moved his arm and legs forcefully in an attempt to escape just as the woman with her index finger lifted Seth's chin and stared into his eyes.

Seth looked at the woman's face more closely noting her facial features, her brown hair that fell down to her waist, her equally brown eyes and her red lips. The woman was beautiful, but Seth was not to be impressed by her beauty.

The woman continued to look into Seth's eyes for a few seconds as if she were reading every part of him, until she raised her other arm and placed it on Seth's chest, which sent an electric shock through Seth's entire body. she.

"Ughh!" This didn't hurt Seth since he was used to lightning from him, but he felt very uncomfortable, as if they were probing inside of him.

"Hmmm." The woman released Seth and left him hanging on the chains before returning to the throne and sitting down again.

"Very young, but to be expected…" the woman whispered.

Seth stared at the woman curiously, not knowing what had just happened. He no longer had the strength to fight the chains that somehow drained the energy from him.

"I will give you a gift, although it is not mine, but I was entrusted to give it to you" the woman raised her hand and from her palm a light green orb no bigger than a ping pong ball came out and then she pointed her hand towards Seth.

The ball that seemed to be made of air slowly floated towards Seth and just as it came to a stop in front of him, Seth felt as if the orb was watching him even though it had no face or eyes.

The orb stood still for a few seconds before beginning to circle around him as if it were watching every part of his body before coming back to stand still in front of him.

"What's that…?" Seth looked at the orb more carefully and noticed that it was made of wind, although he was barely able to notice it, the orb gave off an air of freshness that made Seth feel relaxed.

The orb suddenly started moving rapidly towards Seth, which scared him, but he couldn't do anything before the orb smashed into his chest and disappeared into his body.

"Hey?" Seth was surprised when he saw the orb enter his body and stopped feeling the cool air emanating from the orb. However, even though the orb entered his body, Seth felt nothing beyond his energy that continued to be drained from his body by the stone chains that immobilized him.

The woman looked at all this in silence before looking at the window through which only pure darkness could be observed.

'This concludes our contract, I hope you are satisfied...' without receiving any response, the woman looked at Seth again just as he fell unconscious from all the energy that the chains had drained from him.

Suddenly, the walls of the throne room began to crack, revealing pure darkness equal to what was seen through the glass.

The woman just sat silent as she watched the room collapse before raising her hand, giving an instruction to the chains which released Seth and then a brown portal appeared in front of him, sucking him in before disappearing.

"Ugh, just 20 minutes it took me so much energy…" The woman closed her eyes as the throne room continued to collapse before being completely surrounded by darkness except that she was still sitting on the throne intact.

"Damn boy, I hope it was worth it" the woman growled irritably before going completely still and plunging further into complete darkness.

***

In a clearing in the woods, Seth was lying on the ground as he breathed in calmly before slowly opening his eyes.

Seth got up and leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree before covering his head with his one hand.

"Ugh, my head…" Seth rested for a while to lessen his headache before looking around him and whispering.

"What has happened?" Seth remembered the woman, the throne room, and the strange orb that entered his body.

Seth checked his chest, where the orb entered, and noticed a small light green tattoo right across the center of his chest.

"What is?" Seth rubbed his chest with his hand but didn't feel anything strange.

'First I have to get out of here'

Seth watched as the light that entered through the leaves of the forest slowly faded and he suspected that night would arrive in no time. He didn't know how long he had been asleep in the forest, but he thought at least a couple of hours considering that he went hunting in the morning and was only in that strange place for a maximum of 20 minutes.

Remembering the direction, he had come from and where the fortress left him, Seth ran before nightfall. Although he hadn't accomplished his mission by coming here, which was to get food, he felt that he had managed to get rid of one of his problems.

The golems.

He remembered what the woman who controlled them was like and although he wasn't completely sure, he suspected that he wouldn't see those golems again for a long time. Or long enough to be undisturbed while he was in this part of the woods.

With that in mind, Seth made it to the fortress before night fell and the shadows appeared to hunt him down, however he still had a food problem that he would have to solve by the next morning at the latest.