The sound of dirt scraping against her heels resounded throughout the room. The only light that filtered in was from a barred window hovering below the ceiling of the grubby cell. Rats scurried across the floor as the heavy metal door trudged open only for Venus to be thrown in by a soldier in red. Closing the door behind him, he left her to her own devices to await the reason why she was really brought here in the first place.

Looking around the room, she stood up nonchalantly and sat in the lone wooden chair in the center. She sat there awkwardly while thinking, ‘I’m sure their king should be here soon. There’s never another reason for dragging me here without a word besides a marriage proposal. I wonder what reign he has over his people.’

Lost in her own thoughts, Venus didn’t really pay heed to the heavy metal door opening and closing behind her. From behind her, a man pulled black leather gloves from the pocket of his red jacket with gold tassels hanging down the shoulder pads. He slipped each glove on while perusing the damp girl in front of him who fashioned an out-of-town outfit that worked against her in this instance. Aside from her lavish dress, her olive skin made her stick out like a sore thumb around the people that lived on the docks.

He gripped the chair she was on and swiveled it around so that she faced him. Eyeing him up and down she thought, ‘I never thought another being could have such eyes as that man’s, it seems I’ve been under the sea for too long.” She looked over his coal-black hair and golden eyes once more before staring straight through him without a word to spare.

Walking around her chair, he bent down from behind her and whispered in her ear, “I know who you are.” He grinned from ear to ear waiting for her to ask ‘how’ but she never did.

She just kept staring hazily in front of her without a care for who he thought she was because she knew that no one knew. Turning her head she spoke in her mother tongue, “Αυτός που φτύνει ψέματα παίρνει τη γλώσσα του αποκομμένη από την αλήθεια.” She turned back without translating the lost language only she knew to this day.

Gripping her wet hair, he pulled her head back and snickered, “I guess I can’t expect you to talk to a stranger so I’ll be courteous and introduce myself.” Without letting go he seethed through his teeth, “I am Prince James Euline, Captain of the Murilian navy and successor of this land. Now…” Flicking his hand away from her head, he snarls, “don’t take me for a fool. I know you know English. Now, speak.”

She smiled and leaned toward him, “Vete a la mierda.” Venus changed languages just as he asked just not to one he loved being familiar with.

Clenching his fists, he tried to keep his composure but his personal feeling got the better of him. With a swift movement, Captain James smacked Venus across the face and yelled, “you dare use Arlain on my land? I know you’re to rule Arla one day but you should know your place while in my prison. Murila is a fine land, much more prosperous than Arla. You’re wasting your time trying to create a bond with them, my lady.” He straightened out his coat as he spoke without a hint of remorse for the woman sitting in front of him.

Maybe he didn’t seem worried for her for the simple fact that she didn’t hold her cheek in splintering pain nor double over with tears in her eyes. No. Instead, she sat stoically as she did before she chuckled at the lack of a man in front of her.

He wiped his mouth before settling, “alright. I’ve told you my name, now it’s your turn.” He circled around her waiting for an answer but in return he got silence. “Fine, fine. Let’s skip the formalities since it’s apparent that we’re past them.” He stood behind her while inspecting his glaves and asked, “where are you from?”

Venus kept her facade up as she decided on how to answer the beast circling her like the prey he thought she was. With all of the emotion, she could extract from her words she flatly answered, “η θάλασσα.”

A vein popped out of the captain’s forehead as he raised his hand to her cheek again. Any ounce of remorse filtered out of his hits as she continued to answer his questions truthfully in a tongue no one knew. Slamming his hands on the arms of the chair he demanded, “tell me why Caspien stopped at my docks today!”

“Δεν ξέρω,” she answered on the spot.

Crushing the wood beneath his fingers, James slapped Venus again. After each question, she would answer him honestly only to be punished for not giving him the truth he desired. This went on for a few questions more before Captain James noticed something strange and began to chuckle through his bated breath. He sighed and huffed with a smile, “I’m surprised a fragile girl like you hasn’t bled yet. You’ve taken quite the beating for not even showing a bruise.”

Venus tilted her head and squinted her eyes as if she was trying to figure out modern-day mathematics.

“What?” James asked unexpectantly. “You don’t know what it means to bleed?” He jeered at her thinking nothing of it until he saw her shift in the chair.

“I don’t,” she answered in perfect English.

Snickering to himself while reaching into his pocket, he pulls out a glinting pocket knife and clicks it open offering, “well then let me show you. I’ll be a gentleman and teach you what you’ve never given the pleasure of experiencing yourself.” His golden yellow eyes bored into her carbon-copy brown ones as he tried to decipher whether she was really clueless or if she was still not of age yet. Scanning her up and down from the way she sat, to the certain parts of her body even a jacket couldn’t hide, he figured she was just dense beyond compare.

Venus didn’t say another word after that. Neither did she pay any mind to the knife Captain James flicked open before her eyes. His smile is what puzzled her the most in this situation. She thought without giving it away on her face, ‘he’s threatening me with a smile. What a strange person, he reminds me of that man again from before everyone disappeared. But he doesn’t seem to know that I’m siren so he’s virtually useless to me. I shouldn’t spend any more unnecessary time here.’ While she was finishing her internal talk with herself, James stalked closer. Holding his knife up to her cheek, he traced it down without any pressure trying his best to enjoy the moment. He brought the blade down to her collarbone but stopped after seeing her chin moving out of the corner of his eye.

Before he can react, Venus gives him one of her will-bending smiles and begins to sing:

“Although you think you know what’s right,

your path and mine will collide.

Your will shall bend but do not break them

and I shall be your guide.”

Without being able to escape the metal cage he entrapped himself and Venus in, James’ eyes curled to the back of his head leaving them white as sea foam. The knife fell from his grasp while he stood straight in front of her waiting for a command.

“Αποσυνδεθείτε.”

Without hesitation, James untied Venus and didn’t object to her standing up and grabbing the silver knife that once lay against her cheek. Jabbing the small thing into his side, Venus watched him crumple to the ground with the same amount of emotion she held when he was smiling over her minutes before. She dropped the knife to his side, “This was fun but you’re of no help to me,” she looked up to the barred window and saw the sunlight still shining through as if no time passed at all.

Stepping towards the door, she heard men talking from outside and realized she was nowhere near the docks. Turning back to the captain, Venus rolled her eyes and realized she really did need him. Taking the blade once more, she slit down the palm of her hand and let her blue blood drop down over the captain’s wound. She uneagerly mumbled a spell and watched as the blood from his uniform seeped back into his stomach.

Venus lifted him up by his chin with a snide smile and watched as her newly born puppy followed her arm in arm out of the cell. His eyes glowed white as he nodded to his comrades and as they tried asking where he was leading the foreign prisoner. She just gave them all an innocent smile as James followed her guidance lawfully.

Walking into the small town again, Venus caught sight of guards in red lifting the limp drunkard’s body from the grass while others were taking statements from surrounding civilians.

“She was definitely a whore! There was no other reason for her to be in there with him, otherwise.” One woman was going off about how Venus was dressed scandalously and asking for it to all go wrong.

Walking by the witnesses without care, Venus headed for the docks to make sure no one would stop her from leaving this godforsaken land.

Meanwhile, Caspien hopped off his boat after sending his men out to fetch Captain James to have a talk with him. Turning on his heel to check how his order for supplies were coming along, he spotted a familiar blue dress deep as the sea flowing in the wind, worn by a dark-skinned girl that was on the arm of Captain James Euline. Stomping down the deck past his men, Caspien rummaged through his pocket as he stopped the two in their tracks accusing, “how could you run away without telling me?”

Venus feigned ignorance, “you must have me confused, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Closing the distance between them, he pulls a rusty orange and yellow earring from his pocket and holds it in between her eyes and smiles, “I know you and you know me. So let’s cut the shit and talk about this like civilized people, hm?”

At the sight of the single earring dangling in front of her, Venus’ sly smile dropped from her lips, rolled across the wood and plopped into the ocean. She thought of any explanation for him having it but only one memory popped up and it most certainly wasn’t a fond one. Fire and lightning flashed across her eyes before she snatched the old piece of metal and fabric from his hands and studied it carefully. One name came to mind when she remembered her past and it wasn’t one she was too fond of after years of searching for her family, ‘Vulcan. That son of a-!’