Camrin's awareness comes in little bits and pieces. A red figure here. An armed guard there. The shaking of her fingers. The trembling of her eyelashes. The wind against her bare body. She registers it, she knows she does, but she's stuck. Somewhere deep inside her being, she's getting held captive. Slowly, her ability to blink is back. Then her sight. Then the voices start. Not the voices of before. It's the normal ones. A stern one.
"May I ask why the sacrifice has not been checked on?" A moment of silence. The princess paces herself in front of them. She raises her arms, a pale blue light moving through them, and the man Infront of her falls to the golden ground, dead.
Another blink. He's definitely dead. The princess stops then starts again.
"May I know why the sacrifice we spilled our resources into is not being treated as I have commanded? Are you disobeyed me now?"
"NEVER! YOUR HIGHNESS!" They answer in unison.
"So what happened here? How has she come to this state? I ordered her to be fed and clothed. She is a guest of the Eshika palace, and I expect her to be treated as such."
One guard hesitates, then, still training his eyes down, admits, "Your Highness, Sir Adam had declared her unsuitable. She has no use to our cause. We were under the assumption she couldn't fulfil her purpose and could be disposed of-"
"Did I say that Sir Henry."
"No, your high-"
"Then your assumption is incorrect and has severe punishments. Every soldier assigned to her care will receive three lashes. Any more disobedience and you might end up as Sir James over here." The Princess says mockingly, signaling for another knight to dispose of the body she took the life of. She turns around, ignoring the way they look at her. At the horror written on their faces as they disposed of their own comrades, dead with nothing but the princess's will.
Camrin finally wakes up, her arm supporting her body as they drag her away to same room, cleaned and organized now, but a prison all the same. Immediately she senses the shift in their relationship. The quality of her treatment and food increases drastically; she is even allowed, under the guards' eyes, to go to the servant's bathroom down the hall. But she trades it for the hatred and resentment in their eyes as they watch her, finding any way to push her, shove her, humiliate her, anything but putting the blame where it really belongs.
Four days into this new routine, boredom and tired and trapped as ever, she feels eyes on her. Not the ones in the forest. Not the ones before she fainted either. But another one. Another set of eyes. Why are there so many, so many that want her hurt and she doesn't even now the planet she's on yet. But this pair stays longer than the rest. Past the drying heat, and crippling sun, past the guards, and the servants, they follow her wherever she goes. They feel different. Normal. They must be a human. But they never show themselves. And so, by the fourth day, they fade from her mind.
But the boredom doesn't. And that night, while she spends her day staring and thinking about nothing, she falls into a deep sleep.
-----------------------------------
The leaves. They're crunchy, dried. They're a strange shade of pink. It is suddenly autumn again. She registers all of this. She somehow knows all of this. She thinks it all through in the span of a second, a breath, eyes snapping open. A sound outside. Something woke her up. Heart stuttering but breathing silent, Camrin crawls on the floor, hiding herself, bringing herself closer, with a scared sort of curiosity, towards the small window overlooking the unkempt servant's garden.
Not knowing what to do, not even knowing why she's doing it, Cam peaks through... only to look straight into the eyes of her creature. Well, not exactly her eyes because she still doesn't know where those are, but the absolute happiness and relief that spills through her does not let her care.
[Why do you cry, my human?] She's crying?
"Lilith. You're back. You left me. You're back."
[I'm back]
"Where were you? Why didn't you still me? Why did I not sense your presence back in my mind?"
[Keep your voice low. The night guards are still on duty. As for your questions, you know my answer to them.]
"That you can't tell me? Did you leave because you have bad memories here? Was that it?" A flash of blue grief pass Lilith's body.
[I have many things to my history, none of which concern you. You are not the cause of my sudden departure. You never will be. You are too great to my happiness. I did not leave because of you; I left for you.]
"Did this need to happen to me too? This hu-"
[No. This did not need to happen. But I had no choice. I would have helped you, in anything I would, I would have, but I was not there. I apologize my human.]
Camrin looks at her creature. A sort of happy calm settling in her presence, no matter the topic they are discussing or disagreements they're facing.
"Where are your eyes?"
Her creature turns her body towards her, and slowly, unlike the time with the wolf, shows her the extra limbs that form out of her. On one, there is a pearly sort of shape, covered with a thin layer of membrane. And they're moist, very wet. Camrin glances back at her creature, confused. But the expression on its face, its face without eyes or hears or mouth that she has gotten used to, she realizes its a sad, anguished face that is yearning for her presence.
[I cry for you, my human. Only you. I do not know what you call this on your world, but for us you are known as my bond. My bond. And you will never be anyone else's. My human. Trust me. Trust in me. If I tell you to swear an oath you don't understand, that you will not understand or fully comprehend the impacts of until years from now, will you do it? Will you give this? Your trust? Your whole life?]
Camrin breathes. Once. Twice. She doesn't know her. She doesn't even know where she was. She is a weak gullible human. She knew Lila for two human years, and she her friend still betrayed her...
And against all odds, against all logic, something in her chest pushes for it. It takes her a moment to realize the loud thumping coming this way isn't her heart. Stuttering, she whispers, "Quickly, quickly, they're about to come."
[Repeat after me. I swear by the humans, by the qestins, by the Sens, that there is no path I shall not take in my pursuit, in my bond, in my survival with this being. I swear to use whatever I have for justice, to stand when none will, to push past the limits of the entities at force. I promise trust, life, love, and eternal connection]
And although the guard's steps loom on her, Cam listens and listens and memorizes. And as she gets dragged away for her bathroom break, she repeats the words in her head, hoping that it's enough. Enough to do whatever Lilith wanted her to. Enough to put the power and determination in Lilith's voice into action.