Broken: Day 13

Word Count: 78,009

Summary of Events:

Emil went outside shortly after waking up to see if Arina had arrived yet; she had, and was being gawked at by the nobility for her beauty. Joining the group, Emil got into a heated discussion with a nobleman about ethical hunting that was ended when King Sevastian came to let everyone know breakfast was getting cold. After breakfast Emil told Arina the plan, only to find out from Samuil that there were going to be guards at every door, but Arina showed them a long-unused door on the roof that she could sneak in through; Emil and Samuil agreed that was a good idea and then, for the satisfaction of their own curiosity, went inside to see where the door led . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

The double doors were boarded up. Emil looked at Samuil, who removed the boards and opened the doors, leading the way into another dusty and long-unused room, but this one wasn't a storage room. It was a bedchamber.

In fact, Emil was pretty sure it was an Issue Suite where one of the king's sons or daughters would normally live.

Considering that Isidora was the only issue King Sevastian had to this juncture, Emil wasn't surprised that the room was unused; but then why have it boarded up?

Inside, as Emil looked around, he got the uneasy sense that it hadn't been without a resident for as long as probably every other Issue Suite in the palace aside from Isidora's.

Clothes hung in the closet, books stood on the shelves, other things were laid out on tables that looked like whoever had last been in the room had meant to come back.

In the bedchamber Emil nearly vomited. The bed was unmade and the room was in a scattered disarray, but what sickened Emil was the white feathers scattered about the room, scattered as if they'd been flung there in a flurry of panic, as if they'd been flung there by a young woman who'd woken up one morning and discovered she was no longer a flesh and blood maiden, but was a feather-clad swan.

"This was Arina's room," Samuil whispered.

Emil merely nodded. In his mind's eye he could imagine Arina waking up and suddenly finding that her eyes were mounted on the side of her head, not together on the front, and then finding her hands and arms to now be wings, and finding her body so much smaller, her neck long enough that she could crane around and look herself over to realise that she was a swan.

In horror and panic, Emil was sure she flapped about, probably even unable to leave the room because she couldn't open the door.

He imagined a sinister laugh coming as the door was opened, probably by King Sevastian, possibly by Anastasia, but probably with both of them close at hand to inform her that she was now cursed to live as a swan.

Emil wondered if Arina would've been able to attack them, or if she would've been too uncoordinated, being unused to her new form, to be able to attack them.

If she would've attacked them she probably would've been stopped by Anastasia and taken outside in the hope she would leave. Emil wondered if King Sevastian would've been so calloused as to shoot arrows at her in an effort to make her go away once she was outside.

Rage filled Emil as he thought of Arina's fear, her terror, her hurt, her devastation as she fled for her life from what had formerly been her home, driven away by the man who had surely pledged to care for her until she was wed.