Once upon a time, in an enchanting land called Myst, there lived a family of royals. They were powerful and strong, but they were also kind. They were widely loved throughout the kingdom, and even well-known in other nations.

For generations, the kingdom prospered, forever grateful for their generous leaders. But then... disaster struck. Myst was taken under siege, and the kingdom fell.

The king of the other nation started a new family with the queen of Myst, Queen Raina, albeit the queen did so... unwillingly. The queen gave birth to two children: the eldest child, Camila Charleston, and the youngest, Cal Charleston. The queen taught her children to be kind, but the new king despised this. The new king, King Charles Charleston, taught his son to be ruthless, like him.

With Myst being led in tyranny by King Charles, it fell into despair, and much of the kingdom was impoverished. The people of Myst hated that this was their reality now, that the kingdom was in ruin.

Eventually, they grew tired of standing by and watching it all happen, and some of them decided to revolt.

The Kingdom of Myst, present time, 20 years into King Charles's reign

"Stand up!" The knight yelled, kicking Lynx in the ribs.

He grunted, pain searing through his left side. He did stand up, but not because he was ordered too. He stood up because he didn't want to look afraid.

The King didn't deserve to taste his fear. The King didn't deserve anything. Well, actually, he deserved a nice beating, but that would probably never happen.

Lynx straightened his posture, despite his bruised body obviously protesting. He looked directly into the King's eyes, hoping his own did not betray him.

King Charles sneered at him, like he was a distasteful pig. The King averted his gaze, now looking at his knight as he asked, "What did this..... peasant do?"

"Peasant? Ha! This man has no idea what I can do to him." Lynx thought, largely displeased with this trash they called their King.

The knight answered without delay, "He's one of the rebels, my King. We found him posing as a farmer, after we got an anonymous tip from someone."

"You wouldn't have gotten this "tip" if it wasn't part of our plan. I bet anything Mr. Langston gave you that tip. *Sigh*. He always wants me to go to the castle, "for fun". Yeah right. I know he just wants me to spy on them."

But, Lynx didn't say that out loud. If this was a part of their plan, he couldn't risk giving it away.

The King waved him away, seemingly disinterested, like this was an everyday occurrence when he said, "Take him to the dungeon. We'll get information from him tonight, after dinner."

The knights dragged Lynx to the dungeon, not bothering to stop when they scraped him against the hard, stone walls.

When they finally reached their destination, he was roughly thrown into the dungeon cell, and he winced when he landed on his right shoulder with a sickening pop!

The knights locked the metal barred door, giving the keys to the guards stationed nearby, who tossed them into a bucket.

Before they left, one of the knights made sure to tell Lynx, "You're about to have a really bad day."

...

Eriana readied Princess Camila's dress for after her bath, making sure there were no wrinkles or creases.

When the princess was done with her bath and changed, Eriana helped cinch up her dress, making sure that Camila was comfortable. For now, it was only Eriana and the princess in the room, as Isla- the head maid- had gone to retrieve a book for the princess.

Usually, the hall outside of Camila's room was quiet, but at the moment, there was a loud commotion that was accompanied by the bark of orders from what must have been one of the royal knights.

There was a thunk on one of the walls, and Eriana could hear a faint grunt coming from the other side.

"They must be taking someone down to the dungeons." Eriana thought, wondering who it was and what they were being punished for.

Suddenly, the door burst open, and Isla hurried in before quickly closing the door behind her. Her face was in shock, a mixture of emotions that Eriana couldn't comprehend. Her hazel eyes were wide, and her usually neat and tidy dark blonde hair was slightly messy.

Isla plopped herself on the couch, smoothed the skirt of her lavender dress, and looked up. "They've captured one of the rebels." She told us, her face screaming with worry.

"Isn't that a good thing? Why do you look so worried?" Eriana asked, her golden blonde eyebrows scrunching together.

Isla swallowed. Hard. "Because.... they want you to tend to him, Eriana."

...

After inspecting the bucket of water and the small tray of food that Eriana had brought with her, the guards led her down the long, winding staircase to the dungeon cells. The whole walk down, Eriana was pondering, thinking about this new prisoner.

"Who is he?"

"What does he look like?"

"How did they find him?"

Although, Eriana had heard that most of the rebels were middle-aged, so this new prisoner had probably lost his touch of stealth along with his young age, which would have made it fairly easy for the royal guards to discover him.

The guards stopped at the end of the staircase, and Eriana almost ran into them. The one guard turned to her before heading back up the stairs. "The dungeon guards will take it from here."

"Hey! Eriana! You're here for the prisoner, right?" Eriana heard one of the guards call her name as they came towards her, followed by another guard.

Eriana was confused, and she voiced her questions. "Oliver? Winter? What are you two doing down here?"

As far as Eriana was concerned, both of the boys were squires, training to be royal knights.

Oliver and Winter were right in front of her now. Oliver took the bucket of water from her hands as he led them down the hall and spoke. "Isla didn't tell you? Winter and I are down here for a week or so on guard duty as a part of our squire training."

They turned the corner, and Oliver set the bucket down in front of one of the cells. "Here you are. If you need anything, we'll be just around the corner!"

Eriana nodded, and as the two boys left, she turned to face the cell. She was not expecting the sight in front of her. She was expecting there to be a middle-aged man with a few gray hairs, but instead there was... a boy. He was around her age- about 17- with brown hair and piercing gray eyes.

The boy looked at her. "Are you going to keep standing there staring, or do something?"

"Oh, yeah. R-right." Eriana said, sliding the tray of food through the slot at the bottom of the cell door.

The boy shook his head and pushed the tray back. "You eat it. I'm not hungry."

She slid it back to him. "No, you need to eat it. I bet you haven't eaten in at least a day, right?"

He kept silent, which led Eriana to believe she was right. Still, he continued to push the food toward her.

"I told you, I'm not hungry."

It was like a war now, a war of who would eat the food. Eriana gave the tray back to him.

"And I told you to eat it."

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Fine. If it means that much to you." He tore off a piece of bread from the stale loaf on the tray, and ate it.

Eriana lay a small blanket down on the ground and sat on it.

It stayed silent for a while- the only sound the occasional bite of bread- until Eriana spoke up. "So... you're one of the rebels, right? What's your name?"

The boy looked at her questioningly. "Why would I tell you my name?"

She smiled. "So I can get to know you! You'll be seeing me for a while, and it'd be less awkward if we at least knew each other's names. Come on. I'm Eriana."

Hesitantly, he responded, "Lynx. My name is Lynx."

...

King Charles was a ruthless king. He ruled in tyranny, with no care of his people. Most citizens of Myst worked under the king, some even spending almost the entirety of their lives in his castle.

As of this moment, King Charles was eating his dinner, watching his court jester- Augustus Reble- perform.

The king wiped his mouth with the back of his hand once he was done eating, and shouted to his jester. "Hey! July!"

His jester turned to him. "It's August."

King Charles most certainly did not care what his jester's name was- or, what anyone's name was, frankly. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. You can go now."

August left as he had said he could, and the king stood up. "Guards! Take me to the dungeon! I've got a prisoner to question."

...

The birds were chirping and the sun was shining the next morning when Eriana got up. It was a lovely day, but unfortunately, she could not enjoy the sunshine just yet.

Eriana went to the kitchen to fill a pail of water, also grabbing a loaf of bread on her way out.

She knew her way around the castle, so she had no problem getting down to the dungeon.

Eriana expected to see Oliver and Winter at the bottom of the stairs, but they... were not there.

"What's... going on?.."

She made her way to Lynx's cell, careful not to spill any water as she walked.

This was... strange. She hadn't seen any guards in the dungeon yet, which was very weird considering the situation. Usually, there were at least 5 guards in the dungeon when a new prisoner was there.

Eriana turned the corner, and the pail slipped from her fingers, crashing on the ground.

"Oh no. Oh no no no. This is bad!"

The prisoner lay in a heap on the ground, covered in bleeding scratches and bruises, his right arm bent at an unnatural angle.

"Lynx!"