Genesis 018
Jan. 4th, 2006 11:51 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
annarti.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
yrae
Title~ Dungeons
Author~ Annarti
Disclaimer~ Still mine
Notes~ Genesis 018. Been meaning to do this for a while. More to it after this, but hey, only 500 words so what can you do? I'll prolly add on to it with another minific some time.
~ ~ ~
Nol stood silently on the threshold, squeezing his hands into tight fists. Countless times as a child he’d observed the dusty wooden door, with rusted, sand-scorched iron strips to make it that much stronger, that much more forbidding. He didn’t need Majesty to tell him not to go down there—no matter how much his curiosity pestered him, he wouldn’t dare—but Majesty told him anyway, whenever his eyes fell on the door.
Now, after so many years of being told very firmly not to go through that door, here he stood, flanked by two palace guards and with Majesty following behind him.
He took a deep breath as one of the guards unlocked the door and stepped inside, not bothering to beckon the prince to follow.
Nol set his brow in steely resolve, gave himself a tiny nod and walked through, his hands braced on the walls on either side of the stairs as he made his way carefully into the palace dungeons. Somehow, down here, the torches that hung on the wall to light the place didn’t give it the same warm, welcoming glow as they did above ground. A foreigner might not have noticed, but Nolryn was acutely aware that the walls were just that little bit greyer than the rest of the palace.
The guard gave him a welcoming smile when he reached the bottom, as though he were being invited into the guard’s own home.
“You’ll be perfectly safe wherever you go, Highness,” he told him, “Just don’t get too close to the bars and you’ll be fine. If anything should happen, we’re both archers, Forth Company, so we’ll be able to protect you from behind.”
Somehow, having himself just been accepted into the King’s Own, the reassurance didn’t exactly fill Nol with a warm, fuzzy feeling of well-being. It probably made it worse.
Nevertheless, he nodded and attempted a smile, then moved on with Majesty by his side.
A number of the inmates hurled insults at them, which Majesty ignored so easily he seemed not to hear them at all. Nol tried to do the same, wondering how Majesty managed to keep a calm face even when they mentioned Alurié.
Most of the prisoners just sat there, either with their eyes closed, or glaring hard at the passing royals. It was fair enough, considering Majesty had put them all here in the first place, but it still made the prince uncomfortable.
“Why’s that guy got his hands tied?” he whispered, but his words still echoed through the winding chambers.
Majesty frowned. “He must be the one they’ve been telling me about yesterday. It was hard enough to get the ropes on him in the first place, apparently. They didn’t think it worth taking them off for fear of him escaping, especially since he’s being put to death tomorrow.”
A shiver ran up Nol’s spine at the ease with which Majesty talked about the man’s imminent death. ‘I’m not going to end up like that.’
Author~ Annarti
Disclaimer~ Still mine
Notes~ Genesis 018. Been meaning to do this for a while. More to it after this, but hey, only 500 words so what can you do? I'll prolly add on to it with another minific some time.
Nol stood silently on the threshold, squeezing his hands into tight fists. Countless times as a child he’d observed the dusty wooden door, with rusted, sand-scorched iron strips to make it that much stronger, that much more forbidding. He didn’t need Majesty to tell him not to go down there—no matter how much his curiosity pestered him, he wouldn’t dare—but Majesty told him anyway, whenever his eyes fell on the door.
Now, after so many years of being told very firmly not to go through that door, here he stood, flanked by two palace guards and with Majesty following behind him.
He took a deep breath as one of the guards unlocked the door and stepped inside, not bothering to beckon the prince to follow.
Nol set his brow in steely resolve, gave himself a tiny nod and walked through, his hands braced on the walls on either side of the stairs as he made his way carefully into the palace dungeons. Somehow, down here, the torches that hung on the wall to light the place didn’t give it the same warm, welcoming glow as they did above ground. A foreigner might not have noticed, but Nolryn was acutely aware that the walls were just that little bit greyer than the rest of the palace.
The guard gave him a welcoming smile when he reached the bottom, as though he were being invited into the guard’s own home.
“You’ll be perfectly safe wherever you go, Highness,” he told him, “Just don’t get too close to the bars and you’ll be fine. If anything should happen, we’re both archers, Forth Company, so we’ll be able to protect you from behind.”
Somehow, having himself just been accepted into the King’s Own, the reassurance didn’t exactly fill Nol with a warm, fuzzy feeling of well-being. It probably made it worse.
Nevertheless, he nodded and attempted a smile, then moved on with Majesty by his side.
A number of the inmates hurled insults at them, which Majesty ignored so easily he seemed not to hear them at all. Nol tried to do the same, wondering how Majesty managed to keep a calm face even when they mentioned Alurié.
Most of the prisoners just sat there, either with their eyes closed, or glaring hard at the passing royals. It was fair enough, considering Majesty had put them all here in the first place, but it still made the prince uncomfortable.
“Why’s that guy got his hands tied?” he whispered, but his words still echoed through the winding chambers.
Majesty frowned. “He must be the one they’ve been telling me about yesterday. It was hard enough to get the ropes on him in the first place, apparently. They didn’t think it worth taking them off for fear of him escaping, especially since he’s being put to death tomorrow.”
A shiver ran up Nol’s spine at the ease with which Majesty talked about the man’s imminent death. ‘I’m not going to end up like that.’