I look at her, my eyes filling with anger, eating its way through me, consuming everything in its path, burning her where I stare, forcing her to look back at me. “Get up.” I say, my voice freezing in comparison to my eyes and the madness behind them. A disguise, a warning for what’s to come. A precursor of a sort.

I see her swallow from here, see how her legs shake as she rises even through the thick fabric of her skirt, ending just as it touches the floor. She doesn’t meet my eyes once she’s up, her hands fiddling with the flowers she’s managed to pick up.

“I-I’m sorry Madam. I don’t know what happened. I didn’t see you. I’m sorry.” Her voice gets weaker as she speaks, eyes drifting farther down, staring at my feet hidden inside the thick leather.

It’s a pathetic excuse really, working here means being vigilant of everything all the time, and if you can’t even keep yourself from running into someone, how could you expect to protect the Royals, if it were to come to such a fate. She should lose her job here at once, but a worse punishment needs to be in store for endangering us all.

“Name and number.” I say, looking down at her as she becomes smaller and smaller. At first I think it’s just due to the slouching, but I quickly recognize her as she whispers her name to me. Lidia #2265, ability: Biokinesis. She can alter her body.

I quickly flash back to about a year ago, papers sliding across the mahogany desk positioned against the left wall of my room. I’m sitting in the accompanying chair, studying the different candidates, preparing to present my parents with the reasons why I think they should choose who I think is best, preparing for the day when I can choose who will work in my own household. I remember her because she was one of the candidates I picked to work here. I saw a lot of potential, especially with her ability. She’s been training once a week with our teachers, trying to advance far enough to fight for her own land to rule.

I’m sad to see I was wrong. Mostly so because I’ve seen her many times before, mostly at training. She always seems so light-hearted and happy. It’s weird to see her this terrified now.

The normal punishment for this would usually be loss of job, and torture of a family member, or even worse, sometimes the death of one, for them endangering one of ours. But knowing from the paperwork a year ago, she has no one besides herself left, so that would result in her torture, or if she’s had other offences, her own death. It’s a cruel system, but it’s there to keep things from getting as bad as they were in the previous world.

I don’t know if I truly want to punish her to that extent though. I don’t know what the torcheres do, but I’ve seen the people who come out of there, and they never truly went back to normal. I don’t know what it is about her, whether it is how alone she is, or just how she would laugh so often, even when things are no longer worthy of laughter, but something about her breaks me a little bit.

I’m not going to send her to get torched, but I can’t let her off without punishment. I step closer to her, and grab her chin roughly, forcing her to look straight into my eyes. I hold her there for a little bit while I make my decision, releasing her and turning around to face the guards at the same time.

“Bring her to the holding cell. I’ll come back for her later tonight.” Two of them nod, rushing forward on either side of me, grabbing both her arms and holding her still.

She looks at me panicked, like I’ll help her, or tell her what is to come of her. I look back at her, my eyes hard again, arms crossed over my chest, a sign of superiority. I can’t tell her anything, because I haven’t been approved for what I want to do yet.

The guy holding her left arm reaches into his pocket, and pulls out a glass syringe, filled with a dark blue liquid. A liquid meant to disable one’s abilities temporarily, as well as knocking the person unconscious, it lasts for about an hour.

Lidia starts shaking as she sees it, starts begging. “Please! Please no! I promise, I’ll do anything! Please!”

Her begging gets more frantic as the cap is removed from the end, but she’s silenced quickly as the needle is inserted into the side of her neck, and the liquid is emptied from the tube.

She collapses almost immediately, and the two guards drag her away, towards the stairs that will lead down into the cells. Leaving me with only three guards training behind.