Author's Note: Well, this is my latest story and I have to say, I'm pretty happy with it! But you know what'd make me even happier? Your comments on the story! Alright, so I'm probably being annoying here, so I'll just shut up and leave you alone so you can read the story. And to those that do review, thank you!

Chapter One

It was easier to pretend, when the doors weren't open and I couldn't see anything that laid behind them, that everything was alright, just as it was before I left. And my mind was quick to make up reasons why no one was outside, the guards had possibly gone inside to take a small break and the next shift hadn't arrived yet. And maybe everyone else had work to do and couldn't come out. It was easy to imagine that none of the world around me was real, and it was easy to think that so many things I wished hadn't happened just didn't. But I had been in that frame of mind for too long and one of the many reasons I was here was to step into the present time and stop creating more lies to live by.

The peaceful atmosphere outside was deceiving; the gardens still looked so well kept, the flowers weren't choked with weeds as I had half expected in the back of my mind, and the birds were as cheery as ever while the sun looked as if it had never been brighter. And then the castle... I suppose it looked the same, just as it had before, but it was missing the old sense of life that it had. I almost laughed at the thought. Of course it was missing the life it had before! There was no life left here. It was a place of death and dead hope.

I opened the wooden doors and stepped into the main hallway. And it was shocking, depressing, to see it as it was. It was so empty, the torches were all burned out and the only source of light was the small amount that came through the windows, though that would be little help if I decided to enter any of the rooms without them.

Automatically, I rushed to my old room. I threw open the door, revealing it unchanged, and yet it felt so unnatural to be in there. Instantly I was greeted by the sight of him, Travis. It was only a portrait; the artist had done a wonderful job capturing him in body, but not in spirit. The beautiful smile that used to come so easily, the mischievous glint he would get in his eyes at times that I learned to adore, all missing from the picture. It was if he had lost part of himself, but then again that seemed more like what he had become in a dulled down sort of way, than what he truly was. There was no way you could hide it, he had changed so much from who he was, and it was so hard to remember him the way I wanted to.

Not wanting to stay in there anymore since it seemed so much harder to maintain my thoughts of how he was with the picture right in front of me, I turned and left the room, soon after finding myself in the old ballroom. I sat down at the piano that I had so loved and tried to play one of the songs he had created, but while his version had sounded so painfully beautiful in it's own sad little way, mine had sounded so angry, so hate-filled. I started over and over again until it sounded almost like his version, but still, the sound of anger snaked its way into each of the notes.

I became so absorbed in the music, that I hadn't even noticed there were others there until an arm wrapped itself across my stomach and a sword was placed directly in front of my neck. Perhaps I should have listened to my instincts when they said it wasn't a good idea to come here.

"What did I tell him, Gabriel, what did I tell him? I said there'd be people still here, and guess what? I was right! What would he do without me?" said the one who was in possession of the sword.

"Without you Lord Jonathan would be much better off. You're always hassling him about one thing or another; just leave him alone. So, anyway, back to business. Who do you think the girl is?" said another with a voice much more soothing to the ears.

"I don't know who the girl is, and quite frankly, I don't care. But I do know what she will be. A dead girl. Pretty soon too. We can't have her running out on us now to tell all of her little friends so they can attack or something like that. She could be dangerous, you know."

"For Heaven's sake, Tom! She didn't even notice we were here until we were practically right on top of her! It didn't seem as if she was just waiting here so she could lure us in, her little protesters could jump out from behind the walls, and they could all hack at us knives until we died! I'm sorry, maybe other parts of Calland are still in working order, but everyone knows that the Linscott kingdom was the most powerful territory and ever since Aginor raided the castle, the civilians have been in such bad shape they're lucky if they can eat! So even if by some chance she did have some fighters with her, which I doubt considering nothing's come at us yet, what are they going to do? Hack at us with some dull kitchen knives? Besides she may have some information that could be useful."

"Go ahead girl," the one named Tom had said. "Go ahead and tell us everything you know."

I stayed silent, sure that if I talked the blade would cut right into my throat.

"Tom, lower your sword and let me take over. Be sure to keep a hold of her though; she can't escape," Gabriel said with a slight sigh. Tom lowered his sword and I was grateful he had listened to the other's words instead of following through with his earlier plans.

"Alright," The one named Gabriel said. "First of all, what's your name?"

"Faye"

"Faye, are there any other people here?"

"There's nobody left."

"Are you sure?"

"There's nobody left." Telling him that made the whole situation more real. I shouldn't have come here.

"You know, she and Jonathan would make a wonderful couple. They're both idiots. They could have stupid children who between the two of them would sound like a broken record and have such low intelligence they'd walk into walls. And they'll be the people who will be ruling the land. We're as good as dead. Or we're cursed." Tom interrupted.

We're cursed.

The words went through my head over and over. My eyes shot wide open and my body tensed up. We're cursed. I remember Elijah had said that a while before I left. And what laid around me now was proof to back up his words.

"Are you alright?" Gabriel asked. When he received no response he just said, "Tom, we're taking her back to the castle. Maybe later when she knows we won't kill her, Lord Jonathan can talk her, and so on and so forth. Just for once, do as I say, no questions asked."

And he did as he was told, roughly pulling me out of the ballroom, out of the castle, and eventually both of them took me out of Calland altogether.

When I got back to their castle both Gabriel and Tom left me with one of the maids, and needless to say, I wasn't sad to see Tom go. I said nothing, so the maid approached me first.

"Hello and welcome to Lisantor! My name is Annabelle. What's yours?" she said, a wide smile across her face.

"Faye."

"Faye? That's such a pretty name. I hope you feel comfortable here," she told me. I don't think she realized that I wasn't here on my own will for a nice friendly visit, but rather was forced here and was currently a prisoner.

"I'm sure I'll be fine here." I said.

"Well, I'll show you to your room now, if you'd like. It's sort of far away; this place is gigantic! But anyway, we can talk along the way. You'll be staying for a while, right?"

"As long as I'm wanted."

"I hope that means a long time! It's been a while since someone new has come here! I'm not annoying you, am I"

"No, why?"

"Oh, it's just that so many people just wish I'd shut up and go away. But it makes me so happy that you don't think that. Do you think we could become friends?"

"Possibly."

"Well, that's good. Here, I'll show you to your room now. I've wasted enough of your time already," she said, while gently taking my wrist and leading me out of the room.

We walked through the stone hallways for a while, just dodging all the people running around without any words passing between us before Annabelle said, "You'll like Lord Jonathan, he's really nice."

"You've talked to him before?"

"Yes, we talked exactly three times together. He comes down to talk to some of us servants, every once in a while. He needs to get away from everything, I guess. And you know he didn't grow up in the castle, right? I guess he's just not used to the constant stress and pressure."

"Why didn't he live here?" I asked, curious as to what her answer would be.

"I though that everyone that lived in in the country of Morian, or at least in the territory of Lisantor, would know why. I was wrong, I guess. You know how before everything got worse and they officially called everything that was happening between Morian, Aginor, Calland, and Farien a war? Well, things weren't that great then either, as you know. So the former king, Lord Alexander, sent Lord Jonathan and his mother, Lady Olivia to one of those nice, quiet little towns to get them away from the conflict so there was a better chance that they would live a longer life. But then Lord Alexander died soon after the horrible events of the Peace Treaty gathering and Jonathan was just pushed right to the throne. He never even knew he was a prince before that time. I feel sorry for him. Things weren't great before the Peace Treaty gathering and the Murderous King, but they were definitely better than they are now," she told me. She let out a little sigh before saying, "So how come you didn't know anything about this? I thought everyone did."

"My family lived right on the border of Calland and Morian in a small little town. There weren't any towns nearby really, so it was hard for information to get there," I told her casually, as if it was nothing. It was obvious that she didn't know I was from the Calland and had lived in one of it's most powerful castles. The lies just came so easily, even now I was using them to escape from myself when the whole reason I had ended up here now was from me trying to escape them. I'll just take everything one step at a time, I guess. It's better if she figures it out later and hates me then instead of now.

"Oh, alright. Well, here's your room. There's some clothes in the closet, I'll come back later to show you the baths. I really hope we can talk later and hopefully become friends! See you then!" she said, eagerness apparent in her voice. Was she really that lonely that she would want to be friends with me when she didn't even really know me?

The room was nice, not as nice as the one back in Linscott, but back then I was someone to the other people there, here I was nothing but a prisoner, who just so happened to have nice accommodations. They must be desperate for the information I have to give them.

I went over to the closet to see the clothes. They were pretty little dresses with simple little patterns on them. I held one up to my body and I could tell that they'd be a little big, but they'd do their job. I was grateful for how nice everything was for me here as of now. I hoped nothing would change. If it didn't, then I could definitely get used to living here. Definitely.

There was a loud knocking, no, make that banging, at the door. That couldn't be Lord Jonathan, could it? No, why would he want to see me this soon? He wasn't even at the castle this morning...

"Are you in there Faye? It's me, Annabelle. I said I'd show you to the baths later and I was on my way down there now so I thought you'd like to come along. If you're too tired to go today, that's alright, I'll show you tomorrow."

"No, I'm coming," I told her, as I rushed to the door and then opened it to reveil Annabelle with a slightly impatient look on her face which was soon replaced by a wide grin.

"Well, lets get going," she said, and then turned to leave as I followed by her side.

"It's really nice there, you know," she told me after a long period of silence. "You said you came from a small town and everything, so it'll be a nice change from the usual. At least you get to bathe everyday. I miss my family and all, but living here certainly has it's perks."

"You didn't used to bathe everyday?" I asked.

"No, why? Did you?"

"Yes, but we lived near a lake, so maybe that's the only reason why."

"Well, wasn't it hard to carry the water back to the house?"

"My brother and I had to carry it back."

"Your hands look so nice though. Look, they're so smooth while mine are all cracked and dry. And mine are that way only because of the constant exposure to soap and water while washing dishes. And here I am going to expose them to some more! Oh well, it's my own little luxery here, I guess."

"My brother did that most of the time. I only did that when he wasn't able to and that was rare."

"Oh, alright. Well anyway, we're here! Think you can remember the location?"

"They're... Public."

"Yeah so?"

"Oh, I was just hoping they had private little ones in castles, you know. I just thought they would..."

"No, only Lord Jonathan has that. But anyway, you lived in one of the towns lucky enough to have private ones? I should have caught on earlier. Sorry, sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake. Well, let's get in. We're lucky we came in later so there aren't any people here now."

And we did just that, but she was right, at least there weren't any people here now. I was embarrassed enough by the situation as it was.

"Tom said you came here to get a job as another maid. You're being treated awfully special for that, though. Any ideas why?"

"I'm here for questioning too. They think I might know some things that might be helpful to them." That was probably one of the few true things I had told since I had gotten here.

"Oh. And why would they think that?"

"I lived on the border of Calland and Morian, I guess they thought I'd know something. Unfortunately for them I don't have any information that would be useful."

"Oh well. Live like a queen while you can, I guess."

At that she closed her eyes and relaxed. She said nothing more and neither did I except for a small 'goodbye' when we left the baths and went back to our rooms.

There was a soft knocking at the door, meaning it probably wasn't Annabelle. I went to the door and opened it, only to find that Gabriel was the one behind it.

"Um... I wanted to talk to you for a while, if that's alright with you, that is. Can I come in?" he asked slightly awkward, not making eye contact with me.

I nodded, too shocked, moving out of the way so he could enter.

"Have a seat," I said quietly and didn't quite walk, but rather drifted to the chair so as to follow my own advice while he did the same.

"I wanted to apologize on Tom's behalf for how cruel he was towards you back at Linscott Castle. He... he can be like that sometimes, especially towards those from Calland. He doesn't seem to realize that not everyone from there's like that. Again, I'm truly sorry... Oh, and I was meaning to ask you, are there any questions you have or anything like that? Because if there is maybe I can answer some of them."

"I was wondering, why you're treating me so well when I'm only a prisoner. It doesn't make much sense in my mind," I said.

"Actually," he said, looking down and laughing slightly, "Lord Jonathan doesn't know you're a prisoner." I was confused by this, but he continued to explain. "The way he was raised, with only his mother in a normal town life he doesn't believe in taking them. His mother taught him the opposite of everything he really needed to know to become a leader that would strike fear into the hearts of our enemies. So we told him you were willing to give any information that you might know and that you also wanted to work as a maid. If you were just a maid you wouldn't get as nice accomodations, but since you're needed, you're lucky. And we needed some excuse to make you fit in; you don't want others to figure out that you're from Calland, so that's why we said you wanted to work. If you don't want to do it, that's fine."

"No, that's alright, I'll do it. You're right, I do need to fit in and that might be one way to do it. Is there anything else you wanted?"

"No, and it is getting late. I should probably leave now; I don't want to disturb you or anything," he said while getting up. I did the same and led him to the door where we then exchanged our goodbyes.