Chapter 4: The Gilded cage
1196 Words
Princess Elowen had expected hatred.
She had expected insults, humiliation, perhaps even cruelty.
Instead,
she was given silence.
The moment she entered the palace of Delmatia, servants escorted her through endless stone corridors lined with flickering lanterns until they reached a massive set of silver doors.
“This will be your chamber, Your Majesty,” one maid said quietly.
The doors opened.
Elowen froze slightly.
The room was enormous.
Dark blue curtains cascaded from towering windows overlooking snow-covered gardens below. Shelves lined one entire wall, already filled with books. A fireplace crackled softly near a seating area decorated with fur blankets and silver candleholders.
The bed alone was larger than the room she had grown up in as a child.
It was beautiful.
And it was a prison.
Because the doors locked behind her.
The sound echoed through the chamber.
Cold.
Final.
Elowen turned slowly.
The maid standing nearest to the entrance lowered her gaze respectfully.
“You are not permitted to leave these chambers without the king’s approval.”
The words settled heavily in the air.
Elowen stared at the locked doors for several seconds before asking quietly,
“How long?”
The servants exchanged uncertain glances.
No one answered.
---
The days that followed blurred together strangely.
Every morning, servants arrived with fresh clothes and breakfast trays. Every afternoon, lunch appeared precisely on time. Every evening, fires were restoked before dinner was served.
No one insulted her.
No one mocked her.
No one struck her for speaking incorrectly.
And yet,
she remained trapped.
Weeks passed.
Then months.
King Demitri never visited. Elowen had not seen Demitri since her carriage to the Delmatia Palace.
At first Elowen waited for him. Expected his arrival.
Then she stopped.
Sometimes she caught glimpses of him from her windows below in the palace courtyard. Surrounded by advisors. Speaking with soldiers. Moving through crowds with the cold confidence of someone born to command. He had that aura to him, the commanding presence.
But he never once looked toward her tower.
She was ignored.
Forgotten.
It should have hurt more than it did.
Perhaps because she was already used to being forgotten.
Back in Norwasia, loneliness had followed her everywhere too.
At least this loneliness came with warmth.
And food.
And silence instead of cruelty.
Elowen curled beside the fireplace one evening, absentmindedly tracing patterns across the pages of a book she had stopped reading an hour ago.
Outside, snow drifted softly across the gardens.
The room no longer felt unfamiliar.
That frightened her slightly.
Humans adapted too easily to cages.
Even luxurious ones.
A quiet knock interrupted her thoughts.
A servant entered carrying tea.
“You should sleep soon, Your Majesty.”
Elowen nodded faintly. “Thank you.”
The older woman hesitated before setting down the tray carefully.
“Would you like more blankets tonight? The north wind is stronger.”
Elowen blinked.
The question itself startled her.
Not because it was important,
but because no servant in Norwasia had ever cared whether she was cold.
“…Yes,” she answered softly.
The woman smiled gently. “Of course.”
After she left, Elowen sat motionless for a long while.
Strange.
The servants here bowed respectfully.
They spoke kindly.
No one sneered when she entered rooms.
No one intentionally ruined her belongings to amuse Princess Eleanor.
No one whispered insults just loud enough for her to hear.
No punishments waited for accidentally speaking out of turn.
No icy baths.
No nights kneeling for hours because Eleanor had cried to their mother over imagined slights.
Elowen closed her eyes slowly.
She did not miss home.
Not truly.
Sometimes she missed familiarity.
Sometimes she missed the palace gardens she had grown up in.
But she did not miss fear.
That realization haunted her more than the locked doors ever could.
---
It began accidentally.
One sleepless night, Elowen discovered that the windows beside her sitting room opened directly onto a narrow stone staircase descending toward the lower gardens.
At first she only stood outside briefly.
Breathing.
Feeling cold air against her skin.
Freedom, even tiny freedom, felt intoxicating after months indoors.
The next night she went farther.
And the night after that.
Soon it became routine.
Every evening after the servants retired, Elowen slipped quietly into the gardens below.
The royal gardens of Delmatia were nothing like Norwasia’s carefully sculpted perfection. They were wilder somehow. Pine trees towered beneath moonlight while snow-covered pathways wound around frozen fountains and dark hedges.
Beautiful in a quieter way.
Elowen often wandered for hours alone beneath the stars.
No guards stopped her.
No servants followed.
It almost felt peaceful.
Until one night,
“You continue breaking rules remarkably often for someone so quiet.”
Elowen froze.
King Demitri stood several feet away beneath the lanternlight.
She had not heard him approach.
Snow rested lightly across the shoulders of his dark coat, his expression unreadable as always.
Elowen’s pulse stumbled painfully.
“I…” she began carefully. “I apologize.”
Demitri’s gaze shifted briefly toward the staircase leading back to her chambers.
“You know you are forbidden from leaving.”
“Yes.”
“Yet you continue doing it.”
She lowered her eyes. “Yes.”
Silence stretched.
Elowen waited for anger.
Punishment.
Instead, Demitri simply looked toward the gardens.
“You should wear heavier clothing at night,” he said flatly. “Delmatian winters are harsher than Norwasian ones.”
Then he walked away.
Just like that.
Elowen remained standing motionless in the snow long after he disappeared.
Hus demeanor confuses her.
Because she could not understand him.
A man who imprisoned her,
yet allowed her freedom. If you can even call it freedom.
A man who avoided her entirely,
yet noticed when she was cold.
Nothing about him made sense.
The more she would think about it, the more enraged she became.
Unnsettling.
Why does he not acknowledge her.
Yet, the servants treat her like as their queen. or is it their nature to be kind.
---
Weeks passed again.
Then months.
Winter slowly softened into early spring.
Elowen spent her days reading, writing, and staring from windows while the kingdom below bloomed back to life. Sometimes she heard laughter drifting upward from the city beyond the palace walls.
The people here sounded happy.
Genuinely happy.
That alone told her more about Delmatia than politics ever could.
Elowen continued her midnight strolls, despite being discovered by the King.
She felt safe here, she felt safe with the king, who she did not dare call her husband.
she felt she could get away with the midnight strolls, as long as she was not discovered by anyone else.
This was a piece of freedom she could not let go.
One night, unable to sleep again, Elowen wandered deeper into the gardens than usual.
Moonlight spilled silver across the pathways as flowers began emerging through melting snow.
The palace behind her remained quiet.
Still.
Until she sensed someone nearby.
Elowen turned sharply.
A woman stood beneath the flowering trees.
Beautiful.
So breathtakingly beautiful that for one disorienting second, Elowen wondered whether she was dreaming.
The woman smiled softly.
And somehow,
that smile felt dangerous.
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