Like father, like daughter

"So Queen Envano is behind this?" William asked incredulously.

"Yup." Grace replied shortly.

"Why?"

"Because of your shortcomings in retrieving the Staff of Light." She replied, turning back to face her father. William paled at the mention.

"Oh," He replied, positively deflating. "Looks like my failure was worthy of being labeled a traitor."

"What do you mean?"

"When Her Majesty Queen Envano came here to Asharia, she brought with her a very draconian set of laws, set out by her father the former King of Thoasia, and one of those laws is that if one member of a family is labelled as a traitor, then the rest of the family is exterminated as well." He explained, taking a deep breath. "My next question is, how did you survive?"

"I was at work." She replied. "I wasn't there, but that didn't mean that my absence wasn't noticed. The Grey Tears left their calling card for Falael and I to find."

"I should have been there." William replied. "I'm sorry I wasn't."

"It's not like you had a choice to fail." Grace replied. "Her Majesty gave you an impossible task."

"Food time!" A guard called as he clanged against the metal bars. Grace groggily blinked up at him as she tried to untangle herself from her spot on the bed. She didn't know how long she had slept, there were no windows which let enough light in to accurately tell the time. "Eat up." The guard said, pulling her attention back to the food. "Her Majesty will want to meet with you shortly." He said as he left to deliver food to another prisoner. Grace made her way over to the tray of food.

It wasn't much, but then again, she hadn't been eating a whole lot since she, Falael and Rinomve left Penrith for the answers on the murder of her family. And now here she was, finding out that the person organizing their death was none other than Her Majesty herself, and all because her father dared to fail. And now here she was, without her friends and trapped next to the very father she had thought had abandoned her and her family.

She quickly finished the simple meal, and the guard came back around to collect the plates. He came back to her cell carrying a bucket of water and what looked to be a clean set of prison rags, and handed them to Grace once she had given him her bowl.

"Get yourself cleaned up." He grumbled, apparently affronted by the fact that he had been required to do such a menial task. "Her Majesty has demanded your presence in half an hour." Grace picked up the rags and bucket and brought them to the center of the room, stripped naked and bathed before dressing in the rough spun garments and bringing the bucket back to the side of the doorway that separated her from freedom.

"Any ideas on why Her Majesty might want to speak to us?" She asked her father, who had been given the same message by the guard.

"I expect that there will be some amount of verbal abuse thrown at me, some taunting, and an interrogation as to where your travelling companions are." William replied, leaning against the wall of bars that separated him from freedom, just like her.

"She knows that I didn't travel alone?" She asked, terrified of the consequences.

"Yes."

"Why does she want to know where my companions are, if she has me?"

"Most likely, they also did something to piss her off, and the fact that they are still running around is just making her even more angry."

"What will happen to them if they are caught?" Grace asked, desperate to keep her friends safe.

"That depends on whether or not they are useful to her." William said, straightening up as the guard started to approach their cells. "If they are valuable leverage, like we are, they will be thrown into one of these cells. Otherwise, they will be executed immediately."

I certainly hope that Falael is considered to be valuable, she thought. I don't know what I would do without him, I certainly wouldn't have known why Mother, Riker and Addalyn died.

"Hands out, Melarin." The guard ordered as he unlocked William's cell. Her father obeyed, and what sounded to be cuffs made of Osmium (the densest metal in the world) were locked to his wrists and ankles, a long chain between them linking them together and giving the guards a leash to lead him out of the cell, as a maid came behind them and collected the bucket of water and discarded rags, before the cell was locked behind them. "You too, Miss." The guard said as he unlocked her cell. Nervously, she held her hands out, but when the cuffs were locked around her wrists and ankles, she was surprised at how light they were. They must be iron, she thought. Whatever they were, it didn't matter now as she was pulled out of her cell and down the corridor.