"Don't worry, you can tell me what's on your mind," I said to him, trying to make it a little easier for him to talk about it. I noticed that the staff were already starting to look at us a little strangely.
"My sister... My older sister was supposed to be next in line for the throne. But she killed my mother and is now in prison," he said, not looking in my direction as he spoke.
She killed his mother? Her own mother? Something had to be wrong here.
"Where is the prison?" I asked the boy, who was trying to hide his sadness. He pointed toward a building that wasn't too far away. I went there alone, since he didn't seem to want to see his own sister. I walked step by step, not knowing exactly what was waiting for me. The door to the building stood wide open, and when I entered, I saw a few guards standing beside cells. But all of them were empty. I continued onward, and after about ten cells on my left and right, I saw some stairs leading down into a dungeon-like basement. Torches were placed on the walls every few meters. Down in the basement, there was only a single cell, furnished with a bed and a separate, hidden toilet area. A young woman was lying on the bed.
"Hey," I said.
I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
She didn't answer. I moved closer to the cell to see if she was perhaps asleep, but she wasn't. She simply ignored me and stared at the wall.
"What is your name?" I asked. I didn't even know why I was talking to her, but a feeling told me that I should.
"Amina," she answered in an uninterested tone. She didn't even look up at me.
"You're the daughter of the royal family, and the rightful heir to the throne, right?" I said, trying to somehow find out more about her.
"You don't know who I am, and you won't find out anything about me." This time, she sounded more annoyed than uninterested.
I thought about it. None of this made any sense. Since I'm already here, I'll try to help, I thought to myself.
I sat down opposite her cell, with the stairs to my right.
"If you don't want to tell me anything, I'll just wait until you do," I said with a sigh.
"You've already been sitting in this cell for quite some time, so it can't be that bad to do nothing." I looked at the floor and saw a few ants walking in a line. They hadn't found anything to eat, so they were probably making their way back down into their nest.
"I could tell you a little about myself, if it makes it easier for you to tell me your story," I said, looking up from the floor toward her.
I told her every detail about everything I knew about myself. That I had only started living a few days ago, that Fenrir had given me his ship after a fight, that I was a god, that I had no memories of who or what I had been before, and time simply flew by. She didn't say a single word, but I could tell that she was awake. After a few hours, I eventually fell asleep sitting there.
What woke me up was a ball. A ball that she was throwing against the wall so that she had at least one thing to do. The sun had already risen again, and apparently, she had already eaten. A dirty plate with dirty cutlery lay against the bars of her cell.
"So you're awake," she said, still in a disinterested and annoyed tone.
"You're really not going to leave me alone until I tell you my story, are you?" she asked.
I simply nodded. Suddenly, she sighed and began to tell me.
"I killed my mother. My whole life, she trained me and told me that one day she would lose control, and that I had to be prepared to kill her at that moment so that she wouldn't hurt my father or the citizens of this country. I had to keep this a secret my entire life. She trained me every day for this one purpose, and I couldn't tell anyone about it either. Three months ago, she finally lost control. She was simply unrecognizable, as if she were an animal. I eventually killed her, but the scene looked as if I had simply murdered her. No one believed me when I told them that she had gone mad. They threw me straight into the dungeon. The citizens wanted to see me dead, but for some reason, I'm still alive," she said.
After that, it became silent. I knew there was more to this story than her simply killing her mother.
"Amina, what is your dream?" I asked. This person didn't deserve to spend her life in a cell.
"My dream? My dream is to find myself a dream. A purpose worth fighting for," she replied.
After she answered, I stood up and left the building without saying another word.