PeaceMaker

Claudia pulled the tray to her chest, hugging it with all her might trying to transfer the heat from the food she ate on the tray into her body. Her body seemed to calm as she felt the heat. She slid down the wall to the cold ground, curling into a ball to pull the heat closer to her. Kalmin looked away.

"How pathetic right?" Claudia muttered her voice barely over a whisper, "to see someone so high and mighty bow before you… pride, what a great feeling that must be, a feeling I will never experience.

"Yes, how pathetic," Kalmin muttered, more to himself than Claudia.

"I-" Claudia muttered, her lips starting to quiver as the warmth from the tray started to cool off, "I don't regret any of this."

"I know you don't," Kalmin cleared his throat and turned back to Claudia, "which is why I still wonder why he kept you alive."

"Death," Claudia whispered, a soft chuckle escaped her lips, "is more of a blessing than a punishment." She looked up at Kalmin, her eyes so drowsy she could barely look up for more than 3 seconds nevertheless make up his figure, "Don't underestimate him like I did."

Kalmin looked down at her, staring at her fragile figure, "you're not going to beg for me to free you? At least let me have some entertainment since I traveled all the way down here for you."

A sad smile lingers on Claudia's face, "I've already befallen my kingdom and was cast off to a cage beneath a flourishing kingdom I was meant to bring to my feet," She looked back up at him, "I don't have any more pride to sacrifice for you."

They stared at each other in hostile tension, "besides, acting according to order isn't exactly doing this for me."

"Then I guess you should've paid more attention to the plan, maybe after using your brain and acting according to plan you wouldn't be scrambling at my feet," Kalmin scoffed.

Claudia turned back to her tray as the last bit of heat started to cool off. She glanced at the pile of empty tries cast to the end of her cage, away from her line of sight to distract her from the warmth she had lost. "Is this fun?" Claudia muttered, she could feel her consciousness slipping away, a habitual tactic of going to sleep she had developed in order to delude herself that the heat she had felt was still there, "do you gain satisfaction picking on the bones of an animal that was skinned?"

Kalmin felt another wave of the impulse to throw up coming and immediately wished it away, closing his mouth for a bit to prevent an accidental spill. Do I gain satisfaction from this? He thought to himself as the impulse reduced. He wasn't sure. He felt the need to abuse her, to condemn her, to ridicule her. Everything in his mind was screaming to attack, to direct hostility at one that had already experienced the death of her pride. He hated her. So much that he wished he could sentence her to death, end her time living miserably, and save him from looking at her, after all, she had nothing to live for anymore. But he wanted to kill her so much, to shatter her life so ruthlessly that the mirror behind her that reflected himself in her would shatter with her too.

"Yes," Kalmin spat out, "yes I do."

"Ha," Claudia muttered, her words slurring as sleep wrapped around her neck, suffocating her.

Kalmin stared at her watching the familiar scene haunt her. This was the reason why wasn't it? He thought to himself. As much as he hated Claudia, she was right, he had underestimated his prince. He held back a smile, how clever Dominic, he thought.