The cell was small, there wasn’t much to look as the light from the corridor barely touched where you were being detained. You had been sitting for hours, leaning against the wall, thinking about how quiet it was. The majority of your thinking was really trying to figure out how you even ended up in the dungeon of a queen. The silence was broken by the sound of boots on stone.

She appeared in the doorway. The blue firelight behind her made her silhouette sharp. She did not speak at first, just looked at you, her hands folded in front of her. You couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

“So this is where ambition leads you,” she said. Her voice was calm, even, and carried across the small space. “Behind iron with nothing but silence to answer back.”

She stepped closer. The sound of her heels clicked on the stone. She leaned one hand on the bars and looked at you.

“Tell me, are you defiant even now? Or will you waste my time with empty pleas?”

You said nothing. She watched. Her eyes flicked to the cell’s bars, then back to you.

“Speak, and I will decide whether you remain a prisoner and rot, or, become something far more useful.”