In Wild Wood it was a sunny afternoon. The wood-nymphs were brushing their silver deer - animals, which they often used instead of horses. Their hairs fell on the meadow and so it was all covered in silver. They called it the Silver Meadow.
Phyllada was grooming a silver deer and Lyssandria was observing her.
"I will teach you how to do it," Phyllada smiled. She bent sideways and under the deer in order to clean its hoofs.
Lyssandria still couldn't get used to her new life. Although everyone around her was happy, she did not smile often.
Phyllada's face appeared from under the deer,
"Don't you like grooming animals? We can do something else if you dislike this. Just let me finish here..."
"No," Lyssandria answered. "I like it. It's just... I still can't believe what is happening to me. Although I am here, my mind keeps returning to the moments I spent in the Dungeon... how the Queen interrogated me..."
"The Queen herself interrogated you?" Phyllada finally stood up. She was curious. She thought the Queen didn't normally interrogate prisoners. She wondered how many times it must have happened for Lyssandria to remember it so well. Lyssandria disliked mentioning this to such an extent she didn't even want to reply this question.
"What was she interrogating you about?" Phyllada wondered.
"The Moonlight Crystal," Lyssandria answered.
Whoa. That was a legendary object thought to be almost as powerful as the Seventh Fire. But there was no historical evidence it existed.
"Does it really exist?" Phyllada asked.
"I know as much as you do," Lyssandria admitted.
But still the Queen did not believe her.
As Phyllada was curious, Lyssandria shared some details. She had never spoken about this to anyone, but she finally figured she might feel better if she shared it. She remembered vividly the interrogations...
***
...Back then she was wearing clothes made of coarse fabric which but the poorest of peasants wore. However, thanks to her exotic features and sharp teeth one could still tell she was a vampire.
Queen Lyneanne had long feared that someone would usurp her throne and believed she must find the Moonlight Crystal, which according to some rumors had been last seen in the vampire lands.
No one knew why but the Queen had decided it was exactly Lyssandria's family who kept the secret of the mighty artifact's real location. This had caused many of the family's misfortunes. The Queen had murdered Lyssandria's mother before her eyes; later, she had falsely accused the whole vampire race of drinking blood. Her words had indeed had their influence, and as a result of her tricks, many people were disgusted with the "bloodsuckers". It was only Ademon, Lyssandria's brother, who seemed to be in Queen Lyneanne's good graces. Even more surprisingly, he had become Her Majesty's right-hand mage – well, not counting Archmage Aristhaeus. Lyssandria supposed he had betrayed his family and perhaps thus gained Queen Lyneanne's trust.
Queen Lyneanne spoke to Lyssandria quite often, convinced that sooner or later she would understand the Moonlight Crystal's location. Unfortunately, the vampiress was not inclined to reveal anything. Every time the Queen hissed insistently one and the same question. Then, full of impatience, she waited for the answer, but it remained one and the same.
The more Queen Lyneanne repeated "crystal" and "legend", the more Lyssandria thought neither the first nor the second actually existed but both were the figments of the Queen's morbid imagination.
"I remember no such legend," she repeated.
"Tell me whatever you remember!"
"Can't you realize this crystal… maybe it doesn't even exist! Neither does the legend!" the vampire said. The words escaped her lips spontaneously. It was high time someone told the Queen the truth, "And even the demon from these prophecies may be unreal."
"Nonsense!" Queen Lyneanne snapped. "I'm trying to protect Allyria and you are being obstinate just to hinder my plans! Why? Only because once upon a time your mother has died?! Well, mothers die, you should know!" Lyneanne said in a high, innocent and expressive tone as if she was talking to a halfwit.
"You killed her!" the vampire cried in indignation. In a second, the whole scene of the murder crossed her mind. It was true.
Queen Lyneanne spoke in a deeper voice, "Good memory."
"Such things are unforgettable."
"So is the location of the Moonlight Crystal!" the Queen stated, and her earrings, in the form of tiny black serpents with green spikes over their bodies, slithered as if they were alive.
"If I knew it, I would never ever reveal it to you! Never!" Lyssandria cried.
"It seems six years in the Dungeon of the Lost were not enough to bring you to reason," Lyneanne snapped. "Take her back to the Dungeon," and then again to Lyssandria, "You will rot there, Lyssandria. Mark my words… No one will remember that you ever existed…"
***
Phyllada was speechless. She'd known Lyssandria's life hadn't been easy, but she'd never imagined... it had been like this. It sounded like a nightmare.
It seemed Lyssandria had indeed been a very important prisoner in the Dungeon of the Lost.
"I didn't know you'd been tormented in such a way," Phyllada said softly. "But... then, aren't you afraid that the Queen's people can come here in Wild Wood to look for you? Why didn't you escape together with Elyre? You'd feel safer." Phyllada herself would have gone with Elyre if she wasn't the Princess of the Wood-Nymphs. It wasn't very convenient for her to leave the forest.
"Ah, no..." Lyssandria thought for a second. She sounded a little bit worried and unsure. "I think they are not going to look for me here." she said.