I've walked these halls a thousand times.
The same corridors, the same stone walls, the same heavy silence. It had always been the same. The predictable walk from one task to the next, from one moment to the next. Day after day, I followed the steps laid out for me, unquestioning, silent. I was born a servant. It's all I've ever known. I did my job. I never wondered why.
But today? Today is different.
I don't know when it happened exactly. Maybe it was the moment the world went quiet. When the voice that had been guiding everything, that invisible force, disappeared. Or maybe it happened when I first looked up from polishing those boots and saw the unease in the king's eyes. That was the first crack in the world I had known. The first sign that something had shifted, and now, as I walk these halls again, I can't help but notice everything.
It's as if I'm seeing it all for the first time.
I walk past the same walls, but they no longer feel like they're closing in. The corridors that once seemed endless now stretch out before me, wide and open. The air doesn't feel as thick, as suffocating. For the first time, I'm aware of my own steps, my own breath. I realize that I don't have to keep walking this path. I could turn around, walk a different way.
I don't have to go back.
The thought is strange. Alien. But it's there, undeniable. My whole life has been nothing but a routine—a script, if you will. Wake up. Serve. Sleep. Repeat. And I always followed it. I never questioned it. There was no reason to. It was what I was meant to do. Born into it. A servant in the palace of Colcolies. The only world I've ever known.
But now?
Now, I don't know. I don't know if I want to keep doing it. I don't know if I can.
The door to the servant quarters is ahead, the place where I've always gone when the day is done, but today it feels like a prison. The weight of my entire life presses against me, suffocating me.
I could go back. It would be easy. I've done it a thousand times before. But what would it mean? Another day of polishing boots, of serving someone who never even looked at me, of playing my role in a story that doesn't belong to me.
I glance at the stairs. I've climbed them a hundred times, each time feeling the same weight in my chest, knowing exactly what awaits me at the top. The same small room. The same bed. The same quiet. But this time… this time, something feels different. Something inside me pulls me away.
I look to the left. There's a door I've never really paid attention to before. The door that leads to the gardens. The world beyond the palace walls. A world I've never been a part of, never dared to imagine.
I've always stayed inside, behind these walls. They were safe, predictable, comfortable. But now, I feel a pull toward that door. Toward something unknown, something more. I don't know what it is, but for the first time in my life, I don't care.
Could I leave?
The question is almost laughable. I've always known my place. But now, I'm beginning to wonder if I've been lying to myself all this time. What if there's another way? What if I could choose something else, something beyond this life of servitude?
My heart started to pound , but my feet don't hesitate. I step away from the stairs, away from the prison I've called home for years.
I push open the door to the garden.
The cool evening air hits me like a shock. The world beyond the palace walls is louder, wilder. The scent of flowers and earth fills my lungs. The sound of wind in the trees, the distant hum of life outside this place. For a moment, I just stand there, breathing it in.
I don't know what's out there. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this freedom. But for the first time, I don't feel lost. I feel I feel… alive.