I couldn‘t believe my life got spared by the prince. I obviously knew who he was but we never talked nor had our families any kind of good relations. Why would he use his veto for me? He doesn‘t know that I am innocent.

Before I could even start talking to my father, two guards took me out of the court. I still had so much anger in me and I wanted to express it to him. All of this still seemed like a long, bad nightmare. Being exiled meant that I would be thrown into the outer world. It is unusual for royal women to leave the castle except for fests and tournaments. Where should I go? My blonde hair will stand out and they will all know that I am from the royal family. They will hunt and torture me.

I spent the remaining time in a cell - again. The guards stripped me off of my clothes and gave me a dark, distressed robe. It was big enough to cover my body. My bare feet touched the cold, dirty ground as they even took away my shoes. I felt the eyes from the other prisoners piercing through my back as I turned away so that I didn’t have to see their disgusting, rotten faces. Unlike me, those were real criminals. It was so unfair that I had to share a place with those creatures. I was relieved that I was at least safe in that cell. The prison was on the lower ground of the castle. It had slim windows to let through air but at night it would be cold.

Only those awaiting their sentence or their verdict would stay here and will later be brought into the Kingdom’s Prison south of the capital. I had to somehow get through the night as the date of my punishment awaited me tomorrow. Sleeping was impossible as I never felt this uncomfortable in my life. My feet turned numb from the cold ground and those other prisoners just didn’t stop growling at me. I bet they never saw a woman. So I just had to somehow overcome the night.

Loud and heavy footsteps woke me up. I somehow managed to fall asleep but the guards entering the prison alarmed me. They were two again, but this time, someone accompanied them. As they turned to me, my anger overcame me once again. This face, I just wanted to crush it. Levla really had the guts to visit me and guard me to the gate. I clenched my cold, dry hands into fists and took all my energy one last time. I ran towards the cell door and hit it. I knew I was too weak but I wished I had the strength to break it and choke her to death.

‘I hate you! I will kill you one day! Remember that!’ I screamed on top of my lungs. The other inmates seemed surprised, more afraid as they didn’t expect a girl like me to act like I just did. 

‘I am worried about you, Evera. You are ill and I really want to help you.’ she calmly answered. 

‘Why did you do this?! Why did you lie?!’. 

She looked down and didn’t answer. I questioned myself how she could even be a human. As she turned around and left, I hit against the prison door - more and more. My pale hands turned red and were covered with blood coming out of my knuckles. By the time the guards opened the cell, I was too weak to defend myself but I wouldn’t have stood any chance anyway. They dragged me out and guarded me to the outer gate of the castle. I had no plans on what to do or where to go.

‘As soon as you leave the property, head south. You will find a small village.’ I heard from the right. I turned my head to make sure I heard correctly. It was the guard. I could see his young face beneath the mask. He wasn’t much older than me. Why would he give me a hint? Why should he mean good for me? I ignored him and tried to prepare myself for what was about to come. 

The huge gate was already opened and I could see nothing but white through it. It was deep in the winter and snow fell like rain. My father waited there alongside the other kings and guards. The prince who gave his veto was not present. As I stood there, it was quiet. I gave my father a last look. 

‘Is this how you will let me go? Just like that?’ I thought. His look was cold, filled with anything but emotions. He really felt no empathy for me. At that moment, I realized that he never even believed in my innocence for even one second. This nightmare seemed to be infinite.

‘From this moment until the end of your life, you are exiled and banned from entering the castle again. In addition, your status as a member of the royal family will be withdrawn from you.’ my father announced with a monotone voice. After that they all stared at me, waiting for what I would do. Did they expect me to beg for forgiveness? On my knees? For what? I did nothing wrong. 

Without saying anything, I just left. The castle was located on a high hill covered by a large forest. I only knew I had to follow the dirty path which led down the hill. But there was none. The snow covered it. I kept running down until I finally saw an end to the forest. My feet were burning from the cold snow laying thick on the ground. 

All this pain I was suffering flamed up my anger again. Why did I have to go through this? My mind was racing as I was running through the snowy dark scapes of the Kingdom. There was nothing in sight. No village, no farms - nothing. 

After some time I found myself in a dark forest again. I must have been running for some time since the sun was already setting. I lost my coordination completely by that time. All this anger slowly came back as I wandered around the forest. At one point my legs gave in and I couldn‘t walk anymore. My feet were sore and full of bloody scratches. I let out screams out of desperation. I heard water flooding from a distance and slowly walked towards the noise. 

I reached a cliff with a waterfall. From this point I had a view of the flat lands of the kingdom. Single farmer houses and barns with their roofs full of snow marked the landscape. This place seemed nice. It was the perfect place to end a life in peace. I sat down and soaked in the quiet, harmless atmosphere. At that moment, where I was just by myself, I was fine with myself for the first time. I stood at the edge of the cliff and looked down. Now that it was almost night, I couldn’t see the ground.

‘What are you doing?’ a young voice said. I got scared so much that I tripped and almost fell down.’ A young boy standing in the woods looked at me. I wonder how long he stood there. He annoyed me. I was fine with ending it all but now that this little brat interrupted me, my anger turned up again. I could sense my inner body heating up.

‘What the hell do you want?! Don’t you have any parents, brat?! Leave me alone!’ I screamed. Suddenly, my head felt really heavy and I was hot. Everything turned dark and…