[RainbowSky]

One

I wake up in a cold dark cell. I struggle to sit up. My hands and ankles are in heavy chains and these are attached to the slightly slimy grey bricks. The events of the previous evening rush back to me and I begin to hyperventilate in fear and worry. I try to take a deep calming breath and think back to what my mother told me to do when I have a panic attack. “Ground yourself. Remind yourself of the facts of who you are,” she whispered in my mind.

My name is Eleni Sophia Flora Perridi. I am the daughter of a Grecian princess. I am from Greece but live in Rome. I have lived here eight years. I speak Latin and Greek. My parents are… dead and… that’s all I know for sure anymore.

Despite the shortness of known facts, I feel myself calming immediately. I sit up a little straighter, proud of my heritage and who I am. I smile fondly at the memories of my parents. I try to think of more facts.

We fled Greece nine years ago, after an assassin attempted to kill my mother. She is the sister of the current Greek Queen and the heir to the throne. I suppose I’m the heir now. Living in Rome wasn’t without its difficulties. They don’t like foreigners here and we were treated with suspicion for months. Yet our neighbours grew to like us. Perhaps it was the way my mother and father both spoke Latin fluently that put them at ease. Or maybe the way they contributed financially to the upkeep and improvements of public buildings. Or perhaps the way that we didn’t have servants or slaves working for us. We were just a normal family. Normal but rich and upper class. My father had spent the last few years working his way up the government as and aide to important people. That’s also how my father knew about the attack.

I took a deep breath to steady myself before thinking over the events of the last few hours.

There is a lot of people who don’t like the Greek. And despite my families’ best efforts still don’t. The fact my father was high up and important and annoyed people. “How can a Greek man outperform a Roman?” they’d cry. But he did. My father overheard a colleague discussing how “they will get what’s coming to them tonight,” and knew we were in danger. But he was a good man and believed they could be brought. He had come home and told my mother to find everything of value and lay it out in the dining room. He told me to hide. Within three hours of his return, when the sun had set and it was dark. They came. And they were not easily bought after all.

I feel tears rolling down my cheeks. My parents had been killed because they were Greek. I am Greek. “What’s going to happen to me?” I whisper quietly into the darkness. Silence echoes in response. I sigh and drift off into my own mind; memories of Greece and of my family here in Rome.

It felt like several hours before I heard heavy footsteps coming from outside the cell. I shook my head once, clearing it of any thoughts of the past. All that mattered now, was here and now. How was I going to handle this?

Tell them who I am? No, that was just give them motive to threaten the Queen.
Beg for release? Could work but could I really let all of my pride go and beg?
Promise to flee the country and never return? More probable.

The footsteps stopped and I squinted in the dark. A dark shadow seemed to be at my door. There was a jangle of keys and the door swung open. I opened my mouth to speak but quickly closed it again when the person entered the cell and began untying my chains from the wall. I was shocked. Maybe they were just going to put me on a ship and send me home already, without me needing to beg. The chains slid out from the wall hooks and the person gently tugged at them, indicating I should get up and follow.

I struggled to my feet and shuffled along down the corridor after him. It was pitch black even outside the cell – how did he know where he was going? He was walking quickly, but with my ankles chained it was hard to keep up as I could only really shuffle forwards. “Hello, sorry, but could you slow down?” I ask in careful Latin. There was no response but he did slow a little so I could keep up.

At the end of the corridor was a spiral staircase lined with brackets and flames flickering within. I could see now that the person who had collected me was a man. One I recognised from the previous night, but not the one who had found me in my room.

He led me up the stairs and along another corridor into a grand hall. Sitting at the top of a long table was him. The man who had killed my parents and who had taken me from my home. He smiled widely as I approached. “Eleni! So glad you could join me. Take a seat, enjoy some food. We have a lot to discuss.”