The sound of his footsteps was loud in his ears. The clacking of the heels of his winter boots as it made contact with the marble floor of the palace echoed loudly against the darkness of the hallway. It sounded hollow, bouncing off of the corners coldly. The shoes weren't even laced up properly. Just messily worn in his haste to get out of the room upon hearing the news. He barely had the consciousness to grab a coat if not for the cold that he knew awaited him. He was still wearing the same clothes he wore earlier, ruffled from his sleep, or was that yesterday already? He doesn’t know. He had long lost track of time. It wasn’t a matter of importance anyway. He doesn’t think anything is important at the moment. Just Gavin. His eyes briefly gazed out of the lone open window, scanning the outside surroundings. It’s dark. Ainar doesn’t really know the exact time. But it’s dark. The usual bright moon now hidden behind dark clouds. How long was he asleep? He passed by some palace helper

Pain. It’s the first thing his body registered when he gained consciousness. He wasn’t even aware of when and how he fell asleep again. But now he’s awake for the nth time, and he is once again enveloped in pain. His whole body is aching. It’s a cycle at this point. One that he had fallen into without a choice, ever since he was taken. Weird. That seems to be a trend in his life. To wake up in pain. That seems to happen a lot to him. Did he exist just to suffer? Does living means to suffer? Or is he a special case? The back of his head is throbbing from where he was hit by something hard. He thinks it even bled at one point. But the tightness he feels from it tells him that maybe it’s all dried up and gross by now. It doesn’t make it hurt any less though. If anything, he thinks it only hurts more. The ache in his body is different though. It’s not the kind of ache that one gets from being hit, like the one in his head feels. The pain feels more internal, reminiscent of his previ