The capital gates creaked as the mechanical levers pulled them wide open to let the overseer and his prisoner in.
Noises created by the old gates rumbled, and thunder rolled coincidentally in unison at the distance.
The dark clouds that hung above the gloomy skies had finally decided it was time to send their prolonged judgment.
Gently, slowly, the tears of the heavens poured down as it gradually turned into a crescendo of pitter patters.
The Ugly Pig marched forward, lifting the hood of his cloak to protect his head from the rain. The guard behind Elys prodded her to move, and the princess hissed at him.
The captured princess looked dead straight ahead, and then made her first step forward into the vampire capital.
She felt a prickly sensation at the back of her head and she turned around to see what it was that had sent that unpleasant feeling.
Unlike the downtowns, the vampire capital wasn’t as crowded in terms of buildings and other residential houses.
They were currently passing by one particular manor where trees had lined up along the high metal fences.
It was rundown compared to the ones up ahead, and it looked like it was a misfit out of all the shiny black stoned structures of the vampire capital.
A flash of golden eyes moved about in the gloomy place and the princess thought it must have been a vampire lurking in the dark.
She tried to look around, glancing here and there for a telltale sign of someone with golden eyes, but even her keen warrior senses couldn’t tell if there really was someone hiding behind the trees.
Perhaps it was just her imagination.
Elys decided to disregard the thought, and just focused on her impending dilemma.
It wasn’t far now as they paced faster to reach their final destination – the gallows.
She could see its platform come into view with each step she took.
Closer and closer, Elys was getting nearer to her doom but also nearer to the castle that sits on top of the whole western kingdom.
The residence of the pureblood vampires, the Ardorleans.
Finally, they arrived just in front of the gallows. Tall structures surrounding them and people were watching from their balconies – the show was about to start.
It would have been just any other day for the vampire capital killing one random insolent slave, but Elys wasn’t just a random person set to die.
She was a princess of the northern kingdom, a warrior since birth. Elys wasn’t going down without a fight, and she wouldn’t let an execution be the end of her.
Elysianne hid a smile as the thunders masked the clicks of her metal shackles.
The princess didn’t want to resign to her demise just yet – she was just waiting for the right opportunity to exact her plan.
With the use of a single hairpin.
All this time, the Princess Elysianne had actually been discreetly picking her way around the shackle’s locks with a hairpin she had hidden in her hair.
Elys succeeded in distracting the guards with her excessive talking and movements as they marched, that they didn’t even notice her picking at her shackles.
The thunders boomed in the heavens, and out of reflex, the captured princess looked up to see the dark castle of the Ardorleans just a few kilometers away.
She noted the shimmering things that adorned the castle weren’t actually gold as she had presumably thought of at first.
Elys squinted her eyes but she soon gave up trying to guess what it was exactly.
She had other things to take care of.
The Ugly Pig came down his horse, and nudged Elys quite forcefully towards the executioner.
"Get her up. And get it done quickly, I hate the rain." The overseer instructed the executioner.
The man grunted and then Elys felt big hands grip her on both sides of her arms.
Suddenly, she was unceremoniously hoisted into the platforms like she weighed nothing, her shackles and chain clinking with the movement.
The executioner was a burly man with a stature that screamed death. His clothes were tainted with the blood of his victims, and Elys was unsure if it was just for show or perhaps it really was his own preference to be so dirty.
There was a huge axe that was settled near a stump that Elys surmised was where her head would probably go.
Blood of the people that had the same fate as Elys stained the wooden stump, and Elys steeled herself for the things that were to happen.
The rain was pouring hard now, thunder rolled like a drum and lightning danced in the heavens.
It was the kind of weather one would have thought that made people curled up in their homes near a fire and sipping hot chocolate.
But apparently for the western kingdom, the storm wouldn’t deter their people from witnessing a slave being beheaded.
Aside from those that spectated from the buildings surrounding the gallows, one by one, people who wore dark cloaks gathered around.
Men, women, even little children who were barely two feet tall walked in the rain.
Elys couldn’t tell if they were blood servants to the vampires or perhaps vampires and nobilities themselves.
Underneath their cloaks, they had all worn masks to hide their faces – some were simple, while others had intricately bejeweled designs.
Elys thinks those ones were vampire nobilities.
"Kneel and put your head down." the executioner’s deep voice boomed.
The princess only smirked and looked the masked executioner’s eyes dead on.
"Make me." Was her feisty reply.