Neera was curled underneath the thin covers of her bed. Her shivering body was drenched in sweat and her face contorted in pain. This was the third day she lay in a fever.
It had all started a few hours after dinner. Alea had walked her back to her door before leaving for her own quarters to rest. When she entered her room, new bandages had been laid on the bedside table, along with the ointment the maid had applied on her wounds before.
The girl undressed herself while pondering about everything that had happened that day.
It all seemed like a dream. It was hard to believe that just hours ago she had been trapped in the basement, subjected to all kinds of horrors and without any hope of escape. Now, she had a warm bed, warm food and warm clothes. Her living standard had risen even above what it had been before she arrived at the castle.
Still, the two years of pain remained vividly in her memory, subduing her contented state as the bandages slowly came off. The life she had lived until that point was also revealed. That man had given her all of this. The room, the clothes, the warm dinner, along with the countless wounds that now covered her body, and even more old and new scars that varied in color from a soft pink to a shiny white. These where all his doing.
She felt thankful, but at the same time, the mere notion of thanking that man made her nauseous.
Sucking air through her teeth, Neera bore with the stinging as she applied the ointment on herself, following the traces the woman's fingers had left in her memory. It was significantly more difficult to reach her back, where most of the lacerations were, so she had to go painstakingly slow, twisting her torso and arms in odd directions to reach every cut.
After she was done, she hurriedly dressed herself in bandages, wore her clothes and gingerly laid on her bed. It was cold inside the room, but compared to the basement's freezing floor, this was nothing for Neera. Resting on her side, she blew out the candle on the nightstand and closed her eyes to sleep in -much to her enjoyment- a soft mattress.
By morning, her breathing was heavy and the covers where drenched in sweat. A maid woke her up with a food tray, so she sat up only to scarf it down, returning the empty plates to the dumbstruck woman and falling back asleep. This process repeated at lunch once more, but by dinnertime Alea was the one to wake her from her stupor.
The small lady immediately noticed her ill complexion and proceeded to instruct a maid to bring her dinner the next two days. Neera deeply thanked Alea, but the latter had only smiled and said:
'It is actually quite a smart strategy. We can avoid meeting the Lord and the rest of the harem if we pretend to be ill in bed. No one will notice because no doctor will come to check on us either way.'
After that, she had not seen the young lady again. She was probably laying just like her in her own bed. In the times where the haze in her mind cleared enough for her to be capable of rational thought, Neera felt a little lonely without her new ally. These moments were scarce though, so she opted to sleep as much as she could.
That day the fever persisted, but it was subtler than before, allowing her to wander around her room for a while. She took her time in washing herself with the water that had been placed in a basin on top of the nightstand, changing the dressing of her wounds after cleaning them as well.
After breakfast, she heard the sound of a pebble hitting the glass of her window. Neera looked outside to see Alea crouching behind some shrubbery.
"Open the window! Hurry!"
Startled, she did as she was asked and let her in.
"Geez, it's freezing outside."
Alea brushed some leaves from her blonde locks.
"Anyway, how are you feeling?"
"I'm better. What where you doing outside?"
As if she had forgotten about her bizarre entrance, the lady gasped.
"Ah! Right... Well, I came to show you something. Follow me."
Both girls jumped out of the window. Neera's movement was still quite limited, but she didn't want Alea to leave again, so she endured the pain, hiding it as best as she could.
The cold air stung her lungs, prompting her to wrap the shawl tighter around her body.
"Come over here."
Alea guided Neera through the unkept part of the castle's garden, where bushes and undergrowth spread wildly, covering them from view. No maintenance was provided since the people who resided here were considered to be irrelevant.
"This is what I wanted to show you."
Pointing to a small trapdoor on the floor, the lady added:
"This will be the key to our freedom."
----
"Hey, little rat! Are you there?"
"Young Master Elron, please refrain from speaking so loud. If we are found out, your tutors will force you to do all of this by yourself."
Next to the window, a now eleven-year-old Neera stood perfectly straight while holding a heavy stack of papers, a couple of books and a leather-bound notebook. Her head was bent down to avoid the young boy's eyes, but her gaze was calm and emotionless.
Elron felt inexplicably irritated at her countenance. She had always looked at him as if he wasn't there, which prompted him to call her names and pull her hair out of anger, but he never managed to get a reaction out of her, no matter how much he struck her body.
Although he was two years older than she was, their height was practically the same, and she had always appeared more composed and mature than him. It had been like this ever since the first time they had met.
Around a year ago, Elron had been walking through the gardens while avoiding his strict teachers when he came across the shabby child. Initially he had thought she was pretty and approached her, but the moment he saw her frigid eyes he stopped in his tracks. Neera bowed swiftly.
"Young Lord, I wasn't expecting to see you here."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Neera, Young Lord. A woman of the Lord's harem."
He hadn't noticed the way her fists clenched at the recognition of her own despairing situation. A smug smile stretched his lips.
"So, you're a slave."
Neera didn't answer.
With a newfound sense of superiority, Elron began mocking her with the intention to see her cry. Her unresponsive face irked him, making him want to get a reaction out of her.
"You women are nothing more than playthings for my fa-"
His monologue had been cut short when Neera interjected.
"I have a proposition, Young Lord."
"Hey! Don't you dare-"
"I heard you have been struggling with the assignments the tutors have given you. I can help you with that if you let me."
Elron was about to slap her insolent face, which was now staring straight at him, when his mind registered what she had said.
"I don't have any difficulty with my assignments, you impertinent wench! Just wait until I tell my guards about this, and they will beat you black and blue!"
"Oh no, Young Lord! I never meant to say you were incapable! I just believe all these tedious tasks are above you. I can't understand why the next Lord of the house must be confined in an office doing homework all day when the management of the fief is done elsewhere. Specially in a warring kingdom like ours, what a future duke needs is practical knowledge, learning in the field."
"Practical knowledge...", he muttered. As much as he hated to admit it, she had struck the nail in the head. He had always felt that those assignments were a waste of time. He pondered for a minute before asking:
"What do you propose?"
"Well, Young Lord, since you still need the theoretical knowledge, how about you let me sit by the window during your lessons and lend me the books for the homework afterwards? That way I can work on them for you while you have more time for implementing what you know. You can leave these menial tasks to me. I can replicate your handwriting if needed."
Seeing his suspicious face, she explained further.
"Of course, I am not doing this entirely selflessly. My goal is to become someone you can trust in the future, Young Lord. The Lord's side is too solid already to make my way in. Besides, I belong to a new generation, the one you will lead. I want to become one of your people, but I understand that I need to prove my worth first in order to do that."
One of his people. One of his own at very last. He had always been told how all the dukedom would be his someday, but the shadow of his father still hid him from view in the hearts of everyone around him. Neither the servants, the knights, the court or the harem saw him as anything more than their master's child, and Neera once again managed to precisely strike where he was most uncertain.
"So, what do you think, Young Lord? Are you willing to give me a chance?"
"I will allow it. But from now on, you will refer to me as your master."
This was how their agreement had come into existence. Neera listened to all his lessons before retrieving the textbooks and returning them hours later along with the completed assignments, while Elron followed his father and his counselors around the castle as much as he could. Initially, the work had been mediocre, but in just a couple of months the girl's results had been so outstanding that Elron was called by his father along with his tutors in front of the whole court to congratulate him for his impressive learning speed.
Neera had done what she promised so flawlessly that he didn't even know if he would be able to maintain the teachers' expectations after the ridiculously high standard she had set.
'I have to make sure she doesn't realize how severe my situation is, or the power she holds above me. I must make her know that no matter how intelligently she presents herself, a rat is still a rat. She'll never be anything other than a slave.'
The young man sheltered himself from his insecurities in his higher standing, using it as a mean to keep her pride and ambition subdued.
"Did you finish everything this time as well, rat?"
"Yes, Young Master. The assignment is complete."
After that initial conversation, the girl had kept all their discussions short and practical. He understood the need for secrecy, but the way she answered, so cold and mechanically, made him feel uncomfortable. His nose scrunched up every time he saw her, and his shoulders instinctively squared up like an animal backed up into a corner.
These changes were not unperceived by Neera. With avid eyes, she had learned to read every small change in his complexion, every flutter of his lashes to perfection. This was only possible because she was not an ordinary child.
It had taken her some time to understand the features that separated her from the rest of her peers, like Alea. She had an extremely good memory. It was in fact so excellent that she never forgot any event that had developed in front of her eyes. This was both a gift and a curse, as she could use her recollection to her advantage, but at the same time, she could relive every single second she had spent in the cold, stinking alley and in the dreaded basement.
Being unable to forget forced her to face her trauma head on. At times, the images became so overwhelming that they made her physically sick, keeping her in bed for days. Still, this forged in her a strong, indomitable will, along with the tempered character that now permeated her, which disturbed her immature master so much.
Neera handed the papers to the boy.
"Since I don't want to disturb you any further, Young Master, I shall take my leave."
She bowed and turned at his nod of approval. Elron followed her silhouette through the trees until her brown tresses had disappeared entirely behind the foliage.