Chapter 224: You are too old.
~Third Person POV~
The deepest part of the castle dungeon was dark and cold. No light came through the stone walls. The chamber smelled bad.
Landon sat on the dirty floor with his hands chained to the wall. The magical bonds were stronger than before. They glowed with blue light that hurt to look at.
Hellena sat next to him, tears running down her face. "We're going to die here," she whispered.
"No," Landon said angrily. "I won't let that happen."
"This is all that witch's fault," Hellena said with hate. "Ava destroyed our lives."
"She'll pay for this," Landon promised.
Days passed like this. The prisoners sat in darkness, eating bad food and drinking dirty water. Some of them got sick. All of them got weaker.
Then one night, something strange happened.
The dungeon suddenly got colder. "What's happening?" Hellena asked, scared.
A shadow moved in the corner of the room. It got bigger and darker until it looked like a person.
Then a woman stepped out of the shadow.
She had long black hair that fell to her waist. Her skin was pale like moonlight. Her eyes were completely black. She wore a dark dress.
They stared at her in shock and fear.
"Don't be afraid," the woman said. Her voice was soft but cold. "I'm here to help you."
"Who are you?" Landon asked.
"That doesn't matter," she said with a smile that didn't look friendly. "What matters is that I can set you free."
Hellena's eyes went wide. "Free? How?"
"I have my ways," the woman said. "But nothing is free in this world. You will do something for me in return."
The prisoners looked at each other. They all had the same thought, anything was better than sitting in this dungeon and rotting away.
"What do you want us to do?" Annabelle asked.
"We'll talk about that after I free you," the woman said. "But first, you must agree to help me."
"We'll do anything," Hellena said quickly. "Anything at all, as long as you get us out of here."
The woman's smile got bigger and more scary. "Perfect. But I can only free three of you."
Landon stood up as much as his chains would let him. Hellena and Annabelle did the same.
Jamie, Beatrice, and Christopher started to stand up too.
"No," Landon said coldly. "You're too old. You'll slow us down. Let the young ones live."
"What?" Beatrice screamed. "You're wicked! How can you leave us here?"
"I'll tell the soldiers what you did!" she continued.
The black-haired woman looked at Beatrice and smiled. She raised her hand and moved it through the air.
Suddenly, three more people appeared in the dungeon. They looked exactly like Landon, Hellena, and Annabelle. The same faces, the same clothes, everything.
"These will take your place," the woman said. "No one will know you're gone."
The fake puppets sat down and put their hands where the chains were. The chains moved by themselves and locked around the fake people's wrists.
"Perfect," the woman said. "Now follow me."
She walked to Landon, Hellena, and Annabelle. With another wave of her hand, their chains broke and fell to the floor.
The three prisoners followed her. They stepped into the shadow and disappeared.
The next thing they knew, they were standing in a different place entirely.
They were in a room with wooden walls and a warm fire. Through the window, they could see a busy street with people.
"Where are we?" Hellena asked.
"An inn in another part of Mesodomica," the woman said. "Far from the castle."
"How did you do that?" Annabelle wondered.
"Magic," the woman said simply. "Now, let's talk about what you'll do for me."
She sat down in a chair by the fire.
"In exchange for your freedom," she said, "you will go out among the city people and destroy Queen Ava's reputation."
Landon's eyes lit up with evil joy. "If that's all you want, I'll gladly do it."
"Good," the woman said. "Make them hate her. Make them fear her. Turn them against their queen."
"How?" Hellena asked.
"Use your imagination," the woman said. "Tell them lies. Spread rumors. Make them believe she's evil."
"We can do that," Annabelle said with a mean smile.
The next day, they started their work.
They went out into the streets and told anyone who would listen terrible stories about Queen Ava.
"She's the one who set us free," Landon lied to a group of merchants. "She came to me begging me to have her. She said she was tired of being queen."
"That's not true!" one of the merchants said.
"It is true," Hellena added. "She told us she hates the people of Mesodomica. She said you're all stupid and she wishes she could kill you all."
Some people believed them. Others got angry and tried to attack them.
But whenever someone tried to hurt them, they would disappear and appear somewhere else. The black-haired woman had given them magic to escape.
After a few days, something terrible started happening.
Children began going missing in the village.
First it was a little boy who disappeared while playing near his house. Then a girl vanished from the market. Then three more children were gone.
The parents cried and searched everywhere, but the children were nowhere to be found.
That's when the new rumors started.
"I heard it was the queen," someone whispered in the market. "She's stealing the children to feed her beast mate."
"That beast needs fresh meat," another person said. "Young meat."
"She's a monster," a third voice added. "We should have known."
The rumors spread like wildfire. Soon, everyone was talking about the missing children and blaming Queen Ava.
The nobles who lived in big houses heard the rumors too. Many of them had never wanted Ava as their queen anyway.
"We should make Lucien the king instead," one noble said at a secret meeting. "He has royal blood. He would be a proper ruler."
"Yes," another agreed. "The people would accept him."
They began making plans to replace Ava with Lucien.
But the common people, the poor farmers, the shop workers, the servants, they were different.
"I don't believe it," said a baker whose family had been starving before Ava became queen. "Queen Ava saved us. We wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for her."
"She gave us homes," said a woman who used to live on the streets. "She gave us food and work and hope."
"Whatever these rumors are, they're lies," said an old man. "Our queen is good. I trust her with my life."
The common people kept believing in their queen, even when the rumors got worse and worse.
But then a new rumor started spreading. This one was different. This one scared even the people who loved Ava.
"I heard House Lenica is back," someone whispered in a tavern. "They want the throne again."
"The old royal family?" another person asked.
"Yes. They say Lucien is really from House Lenica. They say he's come back to take what's his."
This rumor spread even faster than the others. Soon, everyone in Mesodomica was talking about it.
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