"You again?" Randolf said, fake annoyance lacing his voice. "It the monarch found out..."

"It is fine," Aldric said. "I'll just tell her that I like hearing the... screams."

"The monarch is okay with that?"

"She is more than okay with it. She would see it as me changing for the better."

Randolf leaned on the dirt covered wall. "So, what give you a reason to actually come see me today? Here to offer me more cheese?"

A look of guilt crossed over the prince's face. "I can't today. My mother and brother are coming, for a day of... what they call fun. If they were to smell it... I would surely be caught."

"So why are you here?"

"To warn you."

"Consider me warned."

Aldric took in a deep breath. "You shouldn't hold back any screams."

"What?"

"Scream your head off," Aldric said. "If you hold back screaming, it will make the torture all the worse. They like to hear screams. If you please them, it will be over faster."

"If I am too pleasing, I will be their favorite."

"If you are not you will suffer more."

Heave doors slid open.

"I must go," Aldric said, sliding a small pouch through the bars. "Hid this somehow, and when they are done, use this to ease the pain."

Randolf turned away from his friend to shove the pouch in a hole and cover it. When he turned back around, Aldric was gone.

"Aldric," A teenage boy yelled, leaping onto a lump in the bed sheets.

Aldric started kicking the boy though the blankets, "Get off me."

"Never," The boy said. "I, like many of your enemies wish to, will suffocate you."

Aldric made himself go limp, and stared straight into his brother's brown eyes.

The boy pulled himself into a sitting position. "Well I guess I could just contented sitting here till Eris shows up, all angry at you for making her fetch you."

"Or," Aldric said. "You could let me go now, and she won't be upset with you."

"She would never be upset with me. I am her older brother."

"You would also be in need of fetching."

"She would understand."

Aldric shrugged. "We'll see."

It took two minutes for a strawberry blond haired girl to rush into the room.

"Aldric you better get-" She paused her shouting. "Hemlock!"

The boy's eyes went wide as he scurried off the bed. "What? I didn't do anything."

Aldric spring up and of the bed in a flash, "Sorry Eris. I was going to get up, I promise. It was just-"

Eris ran and grabbed him, worry filling her eyes.

"What happened to you? Who did this? Were you attacked?" She asked.

She had his face at an uncomfortable angle, his job throbbed.

"Does Alde have a battle wound?" Hemlock said, his voice full of joy. "Will it scar?"

Aldric pushed his sister's burn scared hand away. "It isn't anything to worry about."

"Yes it is," His sister insisted. "You have a huge bruise on your face. Someone attacked you."

"No one attacked me."

"How do you explain it then? Did you run into your bedpost last night?"

"Mother."

"What about her?"

"She was angry with me."

"Oh."

Then, as if summoned, the monarch strode into the room.

"Hollow Morn," She said, a bright smile lighting her face. "Hurry down to breakfast," She said. "I have a day of fun planned for Hemlock and I. I don't want to waste time. Hurry."

As she left the room, she added, "Aldric, cover that nasty rash of yours, on one wants to see it."

Aldric's face became as red as his bruise.

Hemlock patted his shoulder as he left. "Tough luck dude," Then he smiled and walked off.

His sister gave him a sympathetic look as she followed behind them.

Aldric didn't go to breakfast.

Smiles graced the people of the great city as the soft candle glow was seen, and the dancing boy sang a new tune.

It was a happy sign.

It was a happier tune, that the boy sang.

The people thought that it meant that things were finally going to change for the better.

The people stayed with their smiling faces facing the softly lit window, hoping that things would be better now.