Asthenosthene was walking back and forth in her room, biting her thumb. The uneasiness she felt couldn't be shaken away. She heard footsteps from outside the window and so, she walked towards and looked through.Chaol was heading towards the garden.Malice swarmed in her head like locusts. Her eyebrows furrowed in distress as she knew that Chaol's intentions to head in the basement- were unknown to her.In her heart, she wondered if he was still the same man she gave her heart to, before.Nay' Chaol was never the man she believed him to be."Asty?"She jolted in surprise and opened the door. Othello was standing behind it with a stern expression on his face."Why are you still awake?""I... I can't sleep.""Is there something bugging you?" he asked her and entered her room. "You look pale. Are you feeling alright?""I'm okay." she nodded and sat on her bed.Asty was irresolute. She didn't know whether her troubl

There was a deafening silence at the dinner table.Everyone's mouths were closed as they stared at the plates of their meals, minding their own businesses. The Night Hallows, nor even Yvonne had the courage to make noises. The consternation rises drastically, Asty felt suffocated as she brings the pieces of food inside her mouth. She felt her throat harden when she swallowed. She felt like she was eating stones.The dinner ended as if it never happened in the first place. Asty remained in the table, her thoughts full of doubts. She wasn't still capable of absorbing everything. Lana just observes the woman's dead eyes as she picked up the plates on the table."Are you okay?"Asty didn't respond. Lana reaches out to her and poked her cheek. "Hey.""Oh, hey."Asty finally answers."You seem to be in deep thoughts, would you mind telling me about them?"Asty pulls out from the chair and shook her head at her. "No, it's fine. I'm going to h

"Are you alright?" Errol caressed her back gently with his calloused hands.Asty's face was pale and her entire body had halted as if she had witnessed something so despicable before her eyes."Thinothel was a friend of mine." Robynn started and took a deep breath. "And before I was locked here, I used to serve him.""Serve my father?" Asty grabbed the male's wrists. "Why? In what way did you serve my father?"Robynn was skeptical about telling the young woman. He realized how his next words could potentially hurt her, and he had no heart to do so. After all, in his thoughts, he didn't need to involve himself with the feud between the young girl's family background."Don't you think you should leave?" Robynn told her in a monotone. "The maid will surely find you here.""I want to know how you knew my father!" Asty demanded. "It's been so long since I've crossed paths with someone who is acquainted with him!""I know that you are overw

Opening his eyes, the unwanted stranger lifted himself up while coughing heaps of blood from his mouth. His disheveled outfit became drenched with his very own blood. He looked around him only to find himself in a sea of pages with had brownish to maroon stains. "Ugh..." he slowly straightened himself into a rod, nonchalantly- as if he just woke up early in the morning. He yawned and then stretched his tired limbs in the dusty air.A smirk escaped from his lips before standing up, when suddenly, he heard a voice speak to him."Hey man."He shifted his head to the corner to see nobody. His eyes squinted warily, until he realizes that whoever was speaking to him was apparently above. "You finally woke up." Othello lunged from the top of the remaining bookshelves and landed on both feet flawlessly. He gives the man a pleasant smile, which of course- was something very deceitful. "Things were rather very lo

Asty unlocks the door to the basement and shifted her head at the back to look at her brother Othello. His eyes were fixated on the basement door as he remembered the time when Lana prevented him from going inside."Brother..." she called out to him to get him out of his trance. "Are you okay?"He nodded at her. "I am. Is this it?" he pretended as if it was his first time seeing the path to the basement.Othello had remembered everything about the basement. He had grown and lived in the castle ruins during his entire teenage years."You told me before that there was a passage in this place that you did not recall the entrance would be. This is the passage you're talking about."He nodded at her. "Have you been going in here alone?"Asty lowered her head, Othello heaved a sigh. "Next time do not go in these kinds of places without me, do you understand?"