She struggled with the leash which contracted as much as she tried to put it away. There were screams and voices of people in her ears which reached her mind but not her heart, voices she now doesn’t recognize, Voices that were once the life of…home...her home. She screamed trying to shut those voices a zillionth time, but they didn’t stop, she knew they were not meant to be stopped, they were meant to throw her into oblivion…into darkness until she gained her immunity to fight with those voices again and again and again.

She did not know her name, did not know what this place was, and did not know where she came from, what she knows are the voices in her head, voices of a female, maybe her mother screaming at her to do the chores as she rolled on her bed dismissing her with a bang of the door. She misses that voice.

Raiya entered the place…whatever place this was, and she stiffened, trying to hide as much as possible in the darkness of the corner. The catacombs were filthy, they made Raiya cringe. Every time she had to free a prisoner, she burdened that task upon someone else. But Laitza, she was different. Raiya still can't figure out why she comes everyday and at the same time to question her about something she doesn’t know, about something she doesn’t care, about something she did care. Raiya sits on the table and settles her elbows on her knees and leans forward.

“It has been long enough and you are not even looking up at anyone how are we even going to work?” she shrank even further and continued to gaze at the dirt in her nails.

“Laitza?” a name? A name someone used to scream with love, hate and agony, a name she doesn’t remember.

“Stand up” Raiya took one of her hands, the first time after a long, long time someone touched her not to push her even further down but to make her stand.

She stood up, Raiya was a good half-feet taller than her and Laitza's body, which now hung loosely underneath the rags she called clothes was in no comparison with Raiya’s muscle-y but feminine built. A body which was trained, beautified and nourished under the sun. She still gazed at her toes.

“A message from the deccans has come, the time has come, we are ordered to move there. I cannot leave you here, but before I take you with me, you have to talk to me and tell me everything. Only then I will take you with me.”

How can she tell her anything? Something she herself doesn’t know. She wanted to go with her, anywhere she wanted to go, because if there was a person in the indland who didn’t want her dead, it was Raiya.

At last, she lifted her gaze and what she saw was beyond this land.

Laitza. Her name is Laitza, Raiya hasn’t heard a more beautiful name in the 19 years of her life, in 19 years of devotion and faith. Laitza, when she was dragged from the main gates of the unnamed castle, remained unconscious for a day. All the people whom she was assigned to thought she was dead but the thumping in her chest told an unlikely story, they thought she will die in a day or two but the gaze in her golden-brown eyes screamed nothing but pain and life. When she woke up, she screamed until her throat went hoarse and she fainted on the bed with the ties on her wrists and ankles. She woke up again after 10 hours and screamed at everyone who tried to walk or as much as breathed in front of her, as if she was subduing the generosity of eating them alive.

Only after a week, she got to confront herself with human civilization and at last she stopped screaming at the sight of a mortal. Laitza was not a girl who cowered and sat in the corner of the room, she was much more than that. Raiya somehow thinks that she is punishing herself for something she faintly remembers. Something which is beyond an acceptance of Raiya and that is why she is not telling her, it has been more than 8 weeks after Laitza has been dragged in this castle but she has been kept in the catacombs, in the underground chambers since then, Raiya cannot imagine that she has been deprived of sunlight and fresh air for two whole months.

She cannot leave her here, even with the gold her parents have left could barely provide her, she has the wits to take Laitza with her, she will make a way for it, maybe Laitza knows a skill or two and who knows she could provide for her own self, but for now, she cannot leave her here. Not after seeing the gold and cower in the same eyes who used to shine with adore a long time ago. Raiya can sense it, the tug of belongingness, she can see the warrior behind those eyes, a warrior who has been maimed, tamed and tortured to vomit the truth out of her, she cannot let her walk through hell again and again, she will take her with them.

Raiya is again inside those catacombs, she has today touched Laitza for the first time and now she is standing up looking at her, her eyes pleading. How can someone be broken to this extent?

“I-I will go with you.” her voice is hoarse, strangled with nerve and anxiety.

“You have to tell me what happened with you.” she is again gazing at her shackles which makes Raiya gaze at those shackles. This doesn’t mean anything, Laitza is not a prisoner, and these are just for her own protection.

“I can’t tell you that, not now at least.” some hope crept up her spine one day maybe she’ll trust her enough to tell her that.

“Okay, we have to get you cleaned up, you look like a rag doll.” with that Raiya started unlocking her shackles with the key in her pocket. Oh lord, she wanted to do this for so long, when her shackles clanked to the stone surface Raiya felt as if her soul had been relieved because taking someone else’s burden of freedom on her shoulders or inside her pocket never gave her a sense of power.

“How did you find me?” Laitza asked innocently.

“I didn’t find you, the guards did. You were on the steps of the castle.”

Raiya walked up to the iron bars which led them inside the chambers and opened it and gestured Laitza to walk out, and she could swear she was trembling. Raiya locked the door behind her and touched the pommel of sword just to make sure it was there. She started walking in the right direction and without a word Laitza continued to follow her lead.

They reached the baths, the great baths actually, but since no one was there at this point of time Raiya told her to get herself clean in the stalls instead of the great pool. She stood outside the stall as if to guard her, and looked up to the stars, as they looked down on her.

After what felt like twenty minutes to Raiya, Laitza walked out in her usual rags but her face looked clean, her body looked clean and features shone in the moonlight.

“Why didn’t you change your clothes?”

“I don’t want to wear someone else’s clothes.”

“How do you know that?” Now she looked up to meet her eyes, despite the cower they shone quite brightly.

“I can smell them.” interesting, Raiya herself wouldn’t wear someone else’s clothes, not in this place specially.

“We didn’t think about that, but I’ll bring you new clothes tomorrow”

“Um…Okay” she said hesitantly

“Now you don’t have to go back to the chambers, you can sleep in my room.” Laitza relieved a breath.

“Thank you.” and they began walking again, while Raiya was hoping if she could snuck some extra food from the kitchens for her.

It’s more than what she expected Raiya's room to be. Laitza, that’s what she calls her, so that must be her name, enters in the guard’s room and gapes at the plush mattress which settles on a king size bed rather elegantly. And then she conspires her eyes to look straight and witness a satisfactory balcony with a glass door, left to her went a door, hoping it would be a restroom she looked back to Raiya and finds her smiling at her, for no particular reason.

“You can rest and I’ll be back in a moment.” Without waiting for a reply she walks out and shuts the door behind her. She looks at the mattress again, craving for the softness, she walks to the edge of the bed and stands there looking at a shelf in front of her which was not something she saw when she entered the room, taking in the quantity of the books which sat on that shelf royally. Even books know where they belong to… she recalls back for a sense of literacy or reading or books, anything that could make her more human, but found nothing else than the screams of someone she loved, someone she cared about. She doesn’t remember if someone killed that person or if she herself killed her. She doesn’t want to remember, because she doesn’t know that if she ever will be that person, who killed her or the one who watched in silence, she doesn’t want to be either one.

She looked at the room again and the one thing other than the mattress that attracted her was the balcony. The feel of the wind which flushed over her face to make it more human, softer, rested on her hairs, which reached barely below her shoulders. She remembers them reaching below her back. She could feel them there, some part of her wished that she could go back being that girl who she was long ago, she wished she could turn back into time, she didn’t want to end it like this way, she didn’t know that it would end this way. But if it has already ended, then she would have to deal with it, bravely. This thought still startled her; nevertheless she closed her eyes and let the wind fall on her face and blow through her hair.

Raiya came back after half an hour, and she was at last glad at the sight of someone. She looks at her while leaning on the iron grills and finds that she has something in her hands, a pot, in which people keep eating things, food. And a pair of copper plates, she walked up to her and took the pot from her hands and put it on the table and began taking the plates from her.

“I took some extra food from the kitchen for you, hope you’ll like it.”

“I am not in a situation to like it, I have to like it to keep myself alive.” Laitza has to have a filter in her mouth, but that is one thing which makes her want to be herself in times like these, at least she has food and a friend?

She started with a smile on her lips “Yeah, I know. Listen, tomorrow we’ll go shopping because we have to leave the day after tomorrow and Shrey will be with us but still we should be responsible for our own selves.”

“Oh…who’s Shrey by the way?” Laitza says while digging the rice in her mouth, the food is not delicious but it’s edible.

“He is my brother, don’t worry you’ll learn to tolerate boys with time.” she said after taking in the frown at her lips.

“Have you read all of these?” Laitza said, turning her head to the shelves.

“Obviously not, I don’t get the time between my training sessions, I have read a few books here and there, do you know how to read?”

Does laitza know how to read or write? She also wants to know the answer to this question, because she doesn’t remember. The rest of the dinner is completed in utter silence and they both go to wash their hands together.

“Let’s see if I can read.” Laitza says while drying up her hands on her rags. She walks up to the shelves, Raiya following her all the way when she takes a book out. As soon as she starts reading the first sentence fluently, they both start smiling and couldn’t stop, the rest of the night follows with Raiya telling her about her favorite books and novels and Laitza debates which to read first, they both manage to sleep on the bed.