God's Game

Chapter 13: On The Edge

Chapter 13

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I opened the door and the two guards laughing immediately stood at attention. "I'm just going to get a glass of water." I said. They let me through and I head down the steps to the altar room. I made sure to keep my head down to hide my face from the knights roaming the temple.

I made my way to the doors of the cellar, and went down its long, wide, winding staircase. It was poorly lit, with only torches that patterned the walls as its light source. At the end of the steps, barrels of water and ale greeted me. Spiderwebs decorated the corners of the storage room and insects were crawling on the barrels. The only thing that isn't covered in dust was the altar of Lord Levi preserved on the left side of the room.

From the storage room, I was about to turn to the right when I heard a knight roaming by the corridor of the dungeon. I immediately took cover behind a barrel before he could enter the storage room. He was walking back and forth to guard the cells. I was certain that she is in there.

I racked my brain to devise a way to lure the guard out of the hallway with the resources available in the storage room so I can sneak in. A light bulb lit on top of my head when I formed my plan.

I waited until the guard walked back into the hallway once again to initiate my plan. When the timing was right and he was deep enough the hallway, I used all my strength to topple over Lord Levi's marble altar. I pushed hard to bring down the heavy statue and altar of Lord Levi. With a loud thud, the marble altar and statue fell face first and cracked to bits on the dirty floor, creating a puff of dust. A loud echo reverberated across the cellar. I immediately hid behind the barrels and waited for the knight to investigate. He looked surprised and alerted as he inspects the shattered pieces of the statue. I used this opportunity to sneak into the hallway and find the woman's cell.

As I was creeping through the hallway, I saw the only room lit with a candle and I immediately checked in there. I let out a breath when I saw her behind the bars; her face facing the corner of the room, back turned to me.

"Greetings, my name is Arla Nasier." I introduced. "I am here to help you." With fragile confidence, I managed to say. I do not know why my feet brought me here, but I do know that I want to help her.

I find the abstract element of society known as Justice oddly alluring. Perhaps my interest on this particular subject is attached to my desire to be the next priestess of Hustasia; maybe because I just can not stand my own kind be mistreated and treated unfairly; or simply because I am just a good hearted person who cares about other's wellbeing. It's not the rift between my mother nor the resentment I have towards her that caused the unconscious movement of my body to go down here either, although, that is up for debate. What ever the reason may be, I am certain that I am still uncertain why my feet brought me to the dark depths of the dungeon but I am confident to say that my interest to justice is a part of why I smuggled myself haphazardly down here with only hopes of helping the woman who brought a dismembered head to the feast; caused a scene in front of Hustasia; and attempted to kill my mother.

The long silence that swooped in after introducing myself washed away the confidence and pride that I carried all the way down here leaving me weak on my knees. My nightgown was no match against the low temperature of the dungeon as it finally took its effect on me and made my hands cold and yet ironically made my body dripping with sweat. Nothing but a candle served as our light which caused the bars in front of me to cast a line of shadow on to my face opposite to the huge shadow that was highly detailed by the strands of her disheveled hair casted by the lady on the corner of the room. Despite her back against me, I could sense an eerie madness radiating around her through the bars that cages her in and sets me free.

"Arla Nasier," With a hoarse voice, she finally spoke. Her words popped off the air valve and deflated my lungs that held the air during that long silence. However, her mocking tone made me stiffen once again. "the prodigal daughter of the priestess." Her deep chuckle that turned to a menacing laugh reverberated through the halls and sent shivers down my spine.

I closed my eyes in hopes that would block out her mockingly creepy laughter and tried to control my breathing to compose myself— which I was unable to do. I counted to 10 in my attempt to distract myself from fear.

1...

2...

3...

4...

Before I could even reach 5, her laughter finally died down. I slowly opened my eyelids to scan the perimeter. To my surprise, the flame of the candle was put out and much like when I had my eyes closed, darkness enveloped the both of us.  I panicked; I could not see nor hear where the lady was nor anything around me except the torches at the end of the hallway far away from where I am.

I tried to use my olfactory senses but I was only able to smell the fresh smoke coming from the recently put out candle. No thoughts were running in my head so I used my tactile senses in hopes that I could touch the bars that separated us. I was scrabbling about in the sheer darkness, trying to find something to hold onto to feel secured that one of my senses is still working. When finally my hands fell onto something, my eyebrows immediately furrowed that I was not holding a cold metal bar but rather a rough sandy surface. My hands scanned it further and noticed that it was moving.

"Boo!" She yelled out. I let out a yelp as I fell back to hit my bottom on the dusty concrete floor, hitting my head on the metal bars behind me adjacent to the woman's cell. She let out another laugh, but this time it was a genuine teasing one as if she enjoyed what she just did. I could not see her, but I could hear where she was; right in front of me against the metal bars.

"Get up, your holiness." As soon as her laughter dissipated, she quickly turned stern again. It terrified me that I could only sense two emotions from her: madness and craziness. "Get y'er ass out of the floor. I need you to thank your god he brought you here."

All of the sudden, the pain from hitting my head was replaced with confusion. My God? I thought to myself. Brought me here?

"My god? Lord Levi? He is not your god?" I asked, trying to regain the confidence I dropped earlier.

"Princess, course h's. But he turned his back on us, see? The faith turned t'er backs on us. There ain't no justice for us." Despite the darkness between us, I could feel the smirk plastered on her face right now. I realized that I was still laying on the floor yet I do not possess enough strength to get up. I tried to decipher what she could have meant from her statement to no avail. She wasn't making any sense but I have to make something out of the situation, I did not come down here for nothing.

"I am here to help you. I can help–" I was cut off when she spat somewhere beside her. I did not feel the spit on me but I heard it land in her cell. I was taken aback; no one in the entirety of my life has treated me like this before.

"I don' believe you, holy girl. I don' believe anyone above me r'gh now." I looked up to the dark and dirty ceiling of the dungeon that was the floor of the temple realizing what she meant.

"But I'm not above you right now! I'm literally lying on the floor, and you are standing. Tell me who is on the power seat?" I asked, having enough of it. She needs my help more than I need her yet she is here spitting on the floors in an attempt to refuse my help. I feel as if I am disregarded.

"Then who's b'hind bars?" She asked followed by a deep silence. Her words pierced through my heart like how the knife she threw at my mother hit the wooden chair. She was right, how stupid am I to even ask that? I mentally slapped myself, I was being insensitive to my approach. If she's going to ask help from me, I need to be someone she trusts and not as the prodigal daughter of the priestess.

With all the strength left in my weak knees, I tried to get back on my feet. My nightgown was all dusted but I could not care less. I took several deep long breaths before speaking into the void once again hoping that it would reach her. "Let us try this again, shall we? Greetings, I am Arla Nasier, and I am here to help. Treat me as your equal, not as someone who is from the holy family."

I heard her chuckle. "Tough request ain't it, your holiness? 'Specially with Nasier ringed around y'er name." With much exhaustion, I sighed. I need to make her trust me so I could help her but that is not happening unless I do something about it. If she will not trust me, I will make her.

"I hate my mother as much as you do." I said and a pause ensued after. I thought if these are the right words to say to a complete assailant who just attempted to bury a dagger through my mother's chest and brought a dismembered head into a feast. But then I again, I rethought, she did say she's behind bars. "She pours her heart too much on Hustasia to the point where she has nothing left for her family. It was as if her duty for Hustasia weighs more than her duty for her family which is understandable but in a certain extent only. Yet, she's still my mother even if she is willing to send father to Havendell because we're lacking resources." I opened up to oblivion as if I was confessing my transgressions to an unseeable being, praying that it will somehow relieve the thorn in my chest. I felt as though I was talking to the vast endless night sky on a new moon with no stars in an attempt to see if I can get a reply from the other side. For a second, I forgot that she was even there.

"To Havendell? For resources?" She asked after the deafening silence. I could hear heavy breathing and the gripping of her hands on the metal bars from where I was standing. They somehow reminded that someone was listening to me. "Why now?" Meaningfully and with whole heart, I heard her whisper.

I was about to respond to decipher what she had just said, but the loud heavy clanging of the knights' armor descending down the steps to the dungeon interrupted me. "I need to go." I panicked. "Listen, your trial is in a fortnight. I will sneak here every night to help you, understood?" I slowly walked away, still waiting for her reply. "Trust me."

That was the last thing I said before running to the end of the hallway back to the barrels. The knights were about to reach the end of the winding steps when I thought of an alibi to explain why I was down here. I took a cup and poured water from the barrel. "Oh dear," I said when five knights came running down to the cellars to investigate the toppled altar. "I just got here to get water when saw this..." I gestured at the ruins of the broken statue on the floor. "...figure broken on the floor." I took a sip from my cup of water which tasted of dust and dirt.

I walked past the knights who looked surprised to see me down here, "Well, I best be on my way. Investigate on this thoroughly. May lord Levi forgive the person who destroyed his image." I commanded and ascended up the stairs. The nerve-racked expression that I was hiding finally revealed itself when I reached the end of the steps. As I passed through the doors of the cellar, it was like I walked through a portal to another dimension because the atmosphere of the temple was brighter and untainted than the dreary and caliginous dungeon. The walk back to my room was an oddly long one while I contemplate on my conversation with the woman. Though the corridor was quiet, my thoughts were noisily buzzing and pondering if I did the right thing of making a promise to the suspicious lady.

—

The following night, I devised a plan to sneak in the dungeon without having to destroy any more images of Lord Levi which made me more guilty than unwarrantedly creeping into the cells. After dinner, I went my way over to the steps of the dungeons willingly and in control this time and with the right mind. The broken altar was swept clean and left a vacant slot on the left side of the cellar. Two knights immediately stopped me from my tracks when I turned right to the dungeons.

"I was tasked by my mother to interrogate the woman for further information that could be used against her in the trial." I said confidently. I planned to use my power as a Nasier, like the woman suggested, so I do not need to sneak in and out of the dungeon every time I visit here. I decided to use the privilege ringed around my name for the better. "So, if you would excuse me." The two knights looked at each other and let me pass through. I took a torch hanging from the wall and smirked in success after walking past them.

When I reached her candle lit cell, she was facing the corner of the room once again. A foul odor of urine and feces lined my nostrils when I got close to her cell that made me scrunch my nose. I was not able to notice the condition of her cell yesterday but now I've noticed that her room was almost empty, only the candle and the hay bed she is forced to sleep on were the objects in her room. Her once white robe had turned to a pale gray because of the dirt that had accumulated in the cloth. Besides the rock scratches on the walls, nothing else could possibly keep her sane in this cell, that is if she even has sanity left.

"Y'er back." She started. I snapped out of observation, I did not notice that I was staring at her cell for far too long.

"I am. As promised." I say with great confidence. "Listen. Your trial is in a fortnight, I am here because I want to help you anyway I can. No one, not even criminals, deserve inhumane punishments."

"Criminals." She chuckled. "I ain't no criminal. Ya'll made me into one."

"That is not what the law says. You attempted to kill the priestess, disturbed a public gathering, and tarnished the name of the Lord, those are crimes, woman. Therefore you are a—"

"Criminal?" She said, tilting her head sideways giving me a side view of her face. Her back was still against me. "Y'er calling me a criminal 'cause I comforted the disturbed and disturbed the comforted."

I was silenced. I stared at her eye for a while and her shadow on the corner of the room in front of her. The flame of the torch was heating up half of my face yet I was not feeling anything. I was still processing her words.

"Tell me if standing up for my people is being a criminal, then I'd rather be one than to be ignorant." She said meaningfully.

"What does that mean? Who is your people? Hustasians?" I probed.

She let out a cackle. "Ya'll probably don't even consider us Hustasians."

I furrowed my eyebrows, and leaned in getting more and more curious. "Who are you even talking about? Every people who serve Lord Levi is a Hustasian. I cannot understand. Enlighten me." I begged. Like how the flame of the torch heating up my face, I was getting parched for answers heated by curiosity.

"Course you wouldn't know. You're way up high an' mighty in y'er temple." She said turning her head back to the corner.

"How would I know if you're not telling—" I was interrupted when she suddenly turned around and yelled.

"People on the edge of Hustasia, damn it!" She yelled. Her face full of anger, exhaustion, and dirt smeared all over her face. The bird's nest that was her hair was frizzy, unlike during the festival. Blood stains were prominent in her white robe too.

"We're starving, princess! The ruined cities near our villages have been bleached by y'er people inside the walls. We have nothing left, see?" She explained. My lips parted, for the first time, I saw a third emotion in her: desperation.

"But, help is on the way! My father is going to bleach Havendell for you, you didn't have to go rogue!" I reasoned, finally understanding why mother chose to send father to Havendell.

"Why? 'Cause the people inside the walls are starting to feel what we have been feeling for the past years?" She asked. "Is that justice for you?"

All of the sudden I felt stupid. In a snap of a finger, I was awake to the harsh reality outside the walls that mother was probably foreseeing. Now I could see why she wanted to bleach Havendell for resources, now I understand both sides, now I was dumbfounded. It was like a slap to my face that suddenly made my brain work to think beyond my feelings. My lingering curiosity was quenched but was replaced with a new batch of questions.

"Why assassinate the priestess?" I asked trying to steer the conversation.

"Princess, if I wanted the priestess killed, I would've." She shrugged and slowly struggled to sit down on the hay bed.

"Help me make sense of what you did, perhaps I could help you." I took a step closer to make my intentions clear but she just closed her eyes and leaned her head on the wall.

"If they wish to lock me here forever, let them." She said nonchalantly. It was as if she had given up on her life already. "Better to be in here fed every once in a while rather than to be out there. Name's Whylla by the way, nice to meet you, Princess."

"You're on death row, Whylla." I said with enough conviction. She opened her eyes to see if I was lying, surprised to what I say. She closed them once again after making sure I wasn't.

"Good. I'll finally get to see my husband." She said and laid on the hay bed, her back against me.

She had given up on her life, but not me. No way am I letting people oppressed by the system be killed by the same system that turned them into criminals and deemed them as such. I will not let you die on my watch, Whylla. You will get to experience the resources my father will bleach from Havendell.