Chapter Seventy One

Kazia

I was sitting by the window, lost in thought, my eyes following the patterns that the curtains cast on the floor. It was the only relief I could find in this stifling existence. The room had turned into a cage of isolation, its silence wrapping around me like a suffocating shroud.

My skin still tingled from the recent treatment, the relentless itching now reduced to a mere annoyance. However, my thoughts and emotions continued to itch and fester, something no ointment or remedy could soothe. I was a prisoner in this opulent palace, and even my body's temporary affliction couldn't keep me away from the torment.

As I sat there, trying to piece together the fragments of my shattered thoughts, Aldana, the head servant, barged in without the courtesy of a knock. Startled, I snapped, my frustration bubbling over like a cauldron ready to spill.

"What in the gods' name are you doing barging into my room like that?" I snapped, my patience already worn thin by my confinement.

Aldana's fa