Epilogue

Drip drip drip

The dungeon stank of piss and sweat. A lonely jail cell contained a white haired woman, claire. Her hair spread over her face, unkempt. She laid there looking through the small hole in the ceiling, The only light from the outside world.

How long had she been here... 1.. 2 years even? How long would she lay here? Did it matter? Everything she ever had was gone. The only people she ever might've been able to trust, she betrayed.

Claire sat there in silence reflecting on how she would have done it differently.

"Perhaps I could've killed them sooner? Or maybe if I didn't get greedy and try to take agnir.... Everything was there within my grasp... I was so close." She whispered to herself.

She had a strange thought she'd never considered before. "What if I just stayed one of the dawn brigade? Then they might not hate me..." To even consider other people's feelings towards her seemed out of place... But they happened anyway.

She shook her head. Then she remembered the way she made torin scream. "That was pretty exciting though... Is that wrong?" She put her finger to her lips as she imagined kissing him in his despair.

Could she hold onto that feeling?

She felt a little conflicted now. Seeing how her dad treated everyone made her realize that maybe he was wrong. Maybe she didn't have to deceive everyone, maybe she didn't have to betray and backstab to get ahead?

After all, torin was powerless... Yet he stands above the rest...

She pondered on how torin could show mercy to her even after everything she did to him. She thought agnir was going to kill her. She thought torin was going to revel in her demise.

Instead he looked at her like she was somebody. A person, like him.

Maybe she didn't need to hurt him so much? Maybe she could go back and make things right? No she couldn't go back... Even if she wanted to.

Would he ever accept her after what she did though? Suddenly she was even more depressed than before. She rolled to her side and curled up into a ball.

The dungeon door creaked open.

Clack clack clack

Stilettos hit the cobblestone rhythmically. It echoed down the hall. Then they stopped in front of Claire's cell.

Claire didn't look, "you? How did you get in here? Surely agnir would've killed you if she saw you..." Claire didnt move.

The woman spoke, "my daughter and my lover are in prison... Should I not visit them?" Her voice was like poison that ran slow and cold. "Although I suppose you both failed so what good are you?" The woman smiled as she said it.

Claire glared at her, "what do you want Griselda?" She spat on the floor after saying her mother's name. Griselda was a beautiful thin woman wearing a white dress. The slit in her dress left one leg completely bare. Her long white straight hair fell over her shoulder.

Griselda had a devilish grin, "still got that nasty habit?" She sighed. "I heard they sealed your powers away..." She used her finger nails to scratch the iron bars which made an unpleasant sound.

Claire didn't respond.

"well I only came to wish you luck... The storm is coming... And without your precious dragon stone you won't be alive by the end of it." Griselda kicked some mud at claire. It splattered onto her face. Griselda grabbed the iron bars, "it's too bad you won't be able to witness it either," she gasped with ecstatic bliss, "oh how glorious the day will be when these wretched humans will regret what they've done to us!" She let go of the bars. "It's truly a shame you won't see it."

Griselda walked away. Claire stared at the ice that covered the iron bars.

"I could break those now... Escape..." Her eyes widened as she realized her opportunity for freedom.

Then another thought wormed inside her head, "or I could warn Torin..."