25: Fury

Nandi Kairen.

She stepped in, her expression calm and was almost motherly. She didn't look like a tormentor, far from what she was. She looked like a queen inspecting a disappointing servant. As if she had come to offer solace to the wrongly accused with a scent that smelled like sweet nothings.

She stopped a few paces away, observing Saphina's shivering and bloodied form with silent disdain.

"You've been quite the actress," she said softly, as if they were having tea. "A common maid… pretending to be kind… generous… brave. But what I see is someone hiding something."

She didn't want to believe what she had heard or seen about her, and even when she wanted to let it be, she couldn't bring herself to shrugging thoughts of it away from her mind.

Saphina coughed, blood spotting the corner of her lips. She tried to look up but her head drooped like a snapped flower.