I counted 7239 seconds before the door creaked open. The taller one of the bodyguards entered the room.
"Dinner in five minutes." He threw the clothes that he had been carrying at me. "And my boss wanted me to tell you to change, she wouldn't want you to dirty the furniture."
I stared at the pile of clothes that landed near my feet. It looked nothing like what a prisoner would wear. The sleeves of the tunic were embellished with silver designs, the mossy-green silk seemed delicate, yet durable. My fingers lingered to trace the patterns woven on the side gore while my gaze traveled up and down the leather boots. If I sold this outfit, I could become a millionaire, I pondered. Looking up at the steel ceiling, my thoughts involuntarily flashed back to the wounded baggers outside the stone wall, their sunken eyes filled with exhaustion and despair. Suddenly, I could feel myself tremble, and I dropped the leather boots onto the marble floor, sending a deafening crash into the air.
"Are you okay?" Alvinne's voice traveled from the cell beside mine. "Did you smack your head on the wall again?"
I rolled my eyes, glad that she couldn't see what I was doing. "I am fine, thank you very much." I replied sweetly.
I picked up the boots again and was surprised to see how perfectly the lithium boots withstood the fall.
A series of footsteps echoed at the end of the hallway and I recognized the clunk of the same type of metal boots. They belonged to the two bodyguards.
I quickly thrust on the tunic and zipped up the lithium zipper over the tight leggings as the taller bodyguard, who I decided to call Giraffe, appeared in front of my cell. He tilted his head and stared at me as if I was the most peculiar thing he'd ever seen, but still gestured for me to get out.
Adjusting my eyes to the dim source of the chandeliers of the ornate, spotless hallway, I found myself staring at a royal purple evening gown with gold leaves and flowers surrounding the rim of the bodice and Maybel inside it.
"Ta-Da! My fairy godmother turned me into a princess." Maybel twirled around as the dress filled the hallway.
"Wow. That's a change…" I clamped my hand over my mouth tightly, trying not to giggle.
"Hey! Don't make fun of me, you should see Alvinne." She protested.
I turned just in time to see the dressing maid holding her head, with purple bruises starting to form under her hand.
"Stop! I told you to stop! I'm going out, okay?"
I heard screaming in the cell. Alvinne stepped out.
Alvinne was swathed in a steel-blue dress with a breast plate studded with jewels and rimmed with titanium just like my boots. She had layers and layers of transparent fabrics covering every inch of her body. Alvinne tucked her hand behind her back, nervously fidgeting the cape.
Blinking my eyes, it seemed unreal to me what I was seeing. It was the first time I saw Alvinne with hair pinned back into ringlets. I even kinda forgot she was a girl until a moment.
"You look… nice?" I suggested.
Alvinne rolled her eyes. "No I don't, I look like a big blue toad."
She turned to the two bodyguards, "Why do we even have to dress like this? I thought we are prisoners."
"Miss Salda doesn't take prisoners. You are her guests this evening," Giraffe said.
"Who's that?" Maybel asked while fussing with her necklace.
Salda, I thought? Why do I know that name?
Alvinne walked up to Maybel and slapped her away from the jewelry. "Stop that already. She's the woman we met a couple hours ago."
"How come I didn't meet her?" I twisted around to look directly at the Giraffe.
The bodyguard took a bow. "Because everything had to be ready for you, Mr. Samael."
I don't even remember how many rooms I passed by. There were no open windows, all the lights were lit from the inside. I felt like I was in the palace.
As we walked past the kitchen, I recognized a man who had been begging outside the walls of the city earlier. At that moment, he was feasting on roasted turkey and bread with a hundred other people that looked just like him.
Nothing made sense.
After a few minutes of walking, we finally reached a simple room at the end of the hall with white marble walls and a woman dressed in a simple black gown with maps spread across the wood table.
"Excuse me, Miss Salda. Here are your guests."
She looked up and beckoned us in.
Salda, I thought, the boss? I hesitated. "Why should I trust you when you are the one that kidnapped us here?"
"Kidnapped, my dear. I did nothing of that sort. I am protecting you from Issac Scollan. He's the one who wants to kill you."