“Would you give me a tour?”
Cassandra’s sudden question seemed to surprise her. She hesitated, eating some grapes while Cassandra grabbed the fur cloak.
“Now?”
“His Highness won’t be back for the night, will he?”
“No, he usually leaves for a few days when he goes to see his men… I’m just saying, it’s pretty boring out here.”
“I just feel like seeing more of the Castle, and I’ve slept too much already.”
She wasn’t really lying, but Cassandra’s real reason was that she actually felt pretty uncomfortable and alone in the gigantic bed. Nebora sitting on the floor next to her made her feel a bit awkward, too.
Standing up, she noticed how cold this room actually was, and wrapped the fur cloak around her shoulders. Nebora, too, was wearing a large wool shawl that went all the way down to her thighs. She stood up at the same time as Cassandra, but frowned, and pointed at her chest that wasn’t covered.
“You may want to hide that a bit.”
Cassandra looked down, wondering if the cleavage of the dress may have been too much. Her dress wasn’t the problem though. Instead, she noticed a dozen deep, red marks scattered on her neck and between her breasts. She blushed deeply and covered them instantly. They were obviously hickeys! How could the Prince have left so many without her even noticing? It was too embarrassing!
Nebora chuckled at her.
“Well, at least it seems His Highness had a good time…”
“Stop it!” exclaimed Cassandra, embarrassed to death. “Can we just go, please?”
Nebora took a second to stop laughing, and grabbed a few more cheese cubes and grapes for them to nibble along the way.
“Alright, alright, let’s go.”
The two women left the bedroom, each carrying a candle to light the way. It was a very quiet and cold night. Cassandra thought this Castle would have been a bit frightening to explore by herself.
As Nebora had said, despite its size, most of the Onyx Castle was empty and desolate. A few rooms had old furniture covered in dust, but most were completely empty. There were also some that the two women found locked and couldn’t open. In total, they walked down six floors to get to the main one. The different floors were separated by quite a lot of height, too. The rooms were so scattered and far apart, that when they finally returned to the kitchen a couple of hours later, they had only managed to see half of the Castle.
“His Highness only uses the top floor, and sometimes, the one below is used for guests, but that’s not very common. Aside from that, everyone lives on the first floor. We only really see him for meal times, and when he comes and goes.”
Nebora went to grab cups to make some hot tea to warm themselves.
“How long have you lived here?”
“I moved to the village near the Castle when I was fourteen. I grew up in the countryside, but I hated field work. There wasn’t anything else to do, so one of my brothers and I eventually left to find work elsewhere. Patrina recruited me around the same time as my brother got into His Highness’ army.”
“I’ve heard a lot about the Army of The East.”
Nebora smiled.
“Of course, they are the best army in the Empire; thanks to the War God. They became notorious after defeating the Eastern Republic and the Barbarian Tribes a few years ago. My brother was lucky to be a part of it then.”
Cassandra noticed how happy she seemed when talking about her brother. She couldn’t help but smile too. Nebora took a sip of her tea.
“Do you have siblings too?”
Her eyes immediately became a bit sad as she looked down at her cup.
“I had a younger sister… But she was sold too, years ago. I tried to look for her, but I couldn’t find anything about what happened to her or who she was sold to.”
“So you…weren’t born a slave?”
Cassandra shook her head.
