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FEW HOURS LATER

Kalmin stared down at the silver tray carrying loads of mush on it. Is this even edible? He thought to himself leaning in to take a whiff of it. Why am I doing this again? He muttered to himself. He knew so many things he could be doing instead, helping with the paperwork in the military room due to the ongoing war, talking to the palace ceremony team about their prince's return ceremony, yet here he was walking down into the dungeon about to care for someone whose head should be on a platter by now. Surrounded by an eerie silence, a cold draft brushed against his coat as he walked down the narrow passageway beside the jail cells trapped underneath the castle for over a hundred years. Kalmin examined the cells beside him, iron bars rusting from years of housing animals no longer trapped inside them. It was just row upon row of cells leading him deeper into the belly of the castle, the air getting colder with every step.

Kalmin descended another flight of stairs into a room where the walls had frost gripping onto them, freezing whatever warmth the room could offer. There, the last cell at the end of the long room, was Claudia huddled into the far corner of the room, under the only window in the room hoping for the tiniest bit of sunlight to bounce off her cold skin.

"How is it over there?" Kalmin asked, his voice echoing down the room so loudly he felt that the room could fall apart at any moment.

Claudia looked up at him, her eyes clouded from the call of sleep, pulling her in and out of the day, providing her with the only way for her to slip out of reality, giving her warmth in the 30 minute session of sleep she forced herself into every hour and hope that every time she closed her eyes it would be the last time she would stare at the rusting bars. But yet somehow the room managed to keep her there in limbo, hanging onto the thin line separating her from life and death, her hands glued to the rope of life by the cold of the room preventing her from letting go.

"Hard to talk?" Kalmin asked, looking down on her as he stood in front of her jail, "I'm sure there should be a rude comment somewhere in there."

There were so many things Claudia could say back to him, but they sat frozen on the tip of her tongue like the room had frozen her lips shut.

"Here," Kalmin sighed sliding the plate under her iron bars, "food, I'm sure you know what to do with this."

Claudia's head sharply turned to the tray as it slid under the cage, it sounded like a whistle, waking her slow mind. She lounged at it, placing her hand directly on the same place Kalmin had touched, tightly gripping it, hoping to feel the warmth of another human.

Kalmin stared down at her as she held on tightly to the tray and wolfed down the mush that was thrown onto the tray, licking every grain and drop of the trash he wouldn't dare to consume. How comical, He thought to himself. The same girl who had schemed against the king dared to raise a sword to his head and threatened to bring his kingdom to crumbles now scrambled at his feet, an animal looking for every way to survive, licking and treasuring the trash and remains of the beings above them. How ironic, he thought to himself again, yet a smile could form on his face. Something in her desperate erratic movements, her pathetic acts to keep her sane and alive, something in her craziness reminded him of himself. How… He held back the sensation to throw up, nostalgic