But I did not listen to Chrysanthemum Tower. I kept walking. Step after step. Even when the light of her lantern faded and I could hardly make out what was in front of me. It is not so difficult, though, to see in the dark. It is only a matter of patience.

I had no choice but to stop. The final cell was before me, the bars inches from my nose. I stood there, in my blue skirts, with my braided hair and green eyes and common gait.

An ordinary girl beholding the most extraordinary creature.

Episode 6: A Pyre In A Dungeon Beneath Tower Manor

A male pyre. His dark hair was matted. His white irises were set in a bed of gold. They glowed in the lantern light, drinking it in, even from where he hung. His wrists bound together, his arms had been strung up over his head so that his feet just barely touched the stone floor.

He did not reach or struggle as the other pyres did. He did not cower or tremble with thirst. He only looked at me. He only saw me.

I wanted to go closer to him. To be closer. The sensation was not urgent or desperate. It was obvious. As if I should be near him. Not as if I must.

There were bars in place that prevented this. And I did not have a key. So I stood and watched the same as he did. I wondered if I would stand there forever until I felt Vincent’s hand on my shoulder.

Quickly, my pyre guardian pulled me away. We were at the door to the dungeon before I could object. Chrysanthemum and the lantern light were gone. Still, I swore I could see his eyes gleaming from his cell, watching me. Seeing me.

Light flooded my face as Vincent pushed me out the door to the landing of the spiral staircase, where Chrysanthemum stood, swinging the lantern and carrying on. Sweat puddled from her neck, ruining the silk of her yellow gown.

“Aurelie, you might be the stupidest girl I have ever had the displeasure of knowing,” she ranted. “Do you know who they would have blamed for your demise, had you approached a starving pyre before he was broken in? Me, Aurelie. I would have been to blame.”

She would have been to blame because it was her fault. She thought it might be comedic to startle me in the dungeon. How could she herald my stupidity, when she was the creature who thought it opportunistic to show me horrors such as those?

I pushed past her firmly enough for her to shriek and stumble into the wall. I took the stairs quickly, though I wished I could move at speeds like Vincent’s. Already, he had vanished, gone back to whatever he had been doing before I endangered myself in the dungeon.