The stairs seemed to go up forever, but Chris hadn't expected any less.
They took her straight to the top, high above the others. Apart from the door leading to the stairs, there was nothing keeping her and Zeven apart. It was just a cut out of the wall, teasing where a door might have gone had this been an actual room instead of her prison cell. She had no way of keeping him out.
The "room" itself was closer to a broom closet than an actual bedroom, but at least this way, Chris could remember that she was in fact a prisoner here and not just visiting. A small twin sized bed was pushed into the corner with only enough space to just walk around it. A foot, maybe two, but no more than that. There was one window. It sat just above the head of her bed, small and round, it was no more than a mere peephole to the outside world.
Seeing the window reminded Chris of her last escape attempt and how horribly that had gone. But, at least for the moment, there was no need for her to escape. If she played Zeven's game, if she won Zeven's game- she would leave in less than a month.
Chris stopped for a moment to think of her own kingdom, she wondered how the news had been spread and if that fact that she was a woman had been let out to the public. Shame and anger burned in her chest as she desperately tried to feel anything other than aching sadness. Her whole life she had been groomed to become king and rule Ametade, even now it was the one desire she couldn't dismiss.
But becoming king, was hardly more than a cruel fantasy that chipped away at her soul. She could have screamed and yelled and fought and cried, but nothing would fix what had already been broken. Chris knew it was an uphill battle, and the only thing she could do was climb.
Chris began pacing in the small space between the wall and the bed. Two steps to the left, two steps to the right. Back and forth she walked trying to think of a way to prevent Zeven from getting his hands on her kingdom. Two steps left, two steps right. Chris took an extra step to the right and almost ran into the wall. But oddly enough the floor under her feet gave a peculiar sound. It sounded almost hollow. She took a step back, and got down on her hands and knees, padding the floor with the palm of her hand trying to find where the sound had come from.
And then she saw it. At the foot of the bed was a small latch. Hidden by the leg of the bed, she carefully moved closer to it. With one hand she undid the silver latch, and when nothing happened she scooted forward to get a better look. The bed was once again hiding the true nature of what she was seeing, and there being no more than the last few rays of sunlight to light her way, she used her fingers to trace latch and the gap that was to its front. Her fingertips traced the square shape gap, it fit completely under the bed, which kept it concealed. As she continued to feel, she noticed that one side was lower than the other. Making her way to the latch again, she had a fairly good idea why. Using the latch as a grip, Chris shoved the panel to the side.
It started to move with some effort, and with just a bit more force, Chris had managed to move it completely to the side. It was a black hole, she couldn't see anything but she touched what she thought might have been a ladder rung. Curiosity filled Chris as she debated whether or not to see where the hole led.
She turned around so her feet were pointed at the opening, she carefully scooted underneath the bed until she was down on the first rung of the ladder. Moving down the ladder, she made sure to test each step before putting her full weight on it. Easing herself down into the pitch black she thought of the places where it might lead. There was the small chance that whatever she found could be useful in her game against Zeven and that fueled her desire to know.
With a soft pat her left foot hit solid concrete, letting her know she had reached the bottom of the shaft. It was still pitch black so Chris used her hand to guide herself through the narrow corridor. It wasn't long before she ran into a dead end. But as she moved her hand she felt a door handle and taking a deep breath she prayed that whatever was inside would be worth her trip down here.
The door soundless opened and Chris's eyes were drawn to a bright light. It temporarily blinded her, and until she heard the shifting of paper she would have thought she was alone. But squinting through the bright light she looked around and almost immediately recognised the room, and the man sitting on the bed looking intently at a book. She focused solely on his face, which was scrunched slightly in concentration, but more so on the fact that he had a pair of metal rimmed glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose. They fit his face well, but completely destroyed his recklessly handsome look. In this state he looked more like a scholar than a prince, and from the way he read she could easily picture him leisurely spread out amongst a pile of books without a care in the world.
She had been so focused on his face that she had omitted everything else from her view. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and that was when she saw it. Zeven was spread out on top of the blankets with his upper body propped against the headboard. He was wearing a pink nightgown, the same pink nightgown that had been given to her to wear the day before. It was snug around his chest and came up just below his knees. It was a good color on him, making his olive skin look brighter. Chris had stared long enough that Zeven must have felt it, as he cooly looked over to where she was standing and smiled widely at her. He looked over his glasses which told Chris they were merely for reading, "Would you believe-"
She turned and walked back out.