For a long time, Edith simply stood in her cell, back to the heavy iron bars, silent tears running down her face. Eventually, after the tears had stopped, she slowly and stiffly stepped forward, collapsing into a seated position onto the wooden cot that had been pushed up against one wall. She looked miserably around at her surroundings with swollen eyes before her gaze drifted to the solitary sliver of a window that she was allowed. No more than 2 inches tall and a dozen inches wide, she could barely make out little more than a small slice of the sky and the cluster of weeds growing close to the building, but it at least gave her a sense of time. Slow and torturous it might be, but it was still time.

When the sunlight started slanting across the sky from The west and the colors started changing to orange, the first real activity since that morning occurred. A guard appeared outside of Edith’s cell, a tray held in his hands. His face was livid. streaked with red as he clenched and unclenched his jaw. Edith met his glare with one of her own. He snorted at her look of defiance before shoving the tray of food through a slot at the bottom of the door. But not before he spat in it first. Then he turned on his heel and marched away, not uttering a single word the entire time. Edith watched him go before eying the bowl of what looked to be broth and the crust of bread that had been given to her without a trace of interest for a brief moment before she once again looked towards the window. She had no appetite.

[I]’What am I to do now?‘[/I] She found herself thinking hopelessly, her hands unconsciously clenching into fists on her thighs. The guards clearly didn’t believe in The possibility of her innocence, so would there be a point to her arguing in her own defense? She had failed. In her mind, she as good as killed the queen in that case. But she hadn’t done it by her own hand...

...She wished she knew who had.