"How is it? Tasty?"
She asked with a sweet smile that curved her pale lips, though her crimson eyes watched me with an intensity that made my skin crawl.
I swallowed the cold, mushy pulp, forcing a bright expression onto my face.
"It’s the best food I’ve ever eaten in this world!"
I replied with absolute conviction.
And I wasn’t lying.
Technically, this was a gourmet meal compared to the horrors she had served me previously.
The black soups made of writhing void sludge. The salads composed of screaming moss. The steaks carved from beasts that were still regenerating on the plate.
Every single meal she had provided before this moment had nearly sent me straight to the afterlife.
If not for ever stoic teacher Zephyr forcing me to build a high immunity to lethal poisons back at the academy, I would have died foaming at the mouth on my first day in this tower.
Hearing my praise, the Mistress beamed with joy. The suffocating pressure in the room lifted slightly, replaced by a radiant, albeit terrifying, warmth.
"Thank you, dear."
I continued smiling.
"Let’s sit."
I then gestured to the plush velvet chair beside the window.
She glided over, her movements silent and graceful, settling into the chair like a queen taking her throne. The shadows in the room seemed to gather around her feet, acting like loyal pets.
I sat on the edge of the bed, facing her. I leaned forward slightly, adopting the posture of an eager student.
"Can you teach me again today?"
I asked, pointing to the thick, leather-bound tome resting on the small table between us.
The Mistress paused. Her crimson eyes drifted from my face to the book, a flicker of reluctance crossing her pale features. Her fingers drummed lightly on the armrest.
"Again?" she murmured, her voice sounding like a soft breeze through a mausoleum. "We have studied so much recently. Perhaps we should just rest..."
"Please?" I pressed gently, widening my eyes just a fraction. "I want to hear your voice. I want to understand the words you speak."
She hesitated for a moment longer, her gaze searching mine for any sign of deceit. Finding none, thanks to my maxed-out acting skills, she finally sighed and nodded.
"Very well, dear."
She reached out, her long, pale fingers flipping the heavy cover open.
"Thank you!"
I beamed at her, shifting closer to get a better look at the twisting, chaotic script on the pages.
She began to read, her voice weaving a hypnotic, eerie melody as she explained the complex grammar of the Nemure tongue. Nemure was the actual name of their world.
I listened with rapt attention, nodding at the right moments and asking questions to show my engagement.
However, beneath my innocent facade, my mind was racing, calculating every piece of information she dropped.
In truth, I hadn’t spent the past two and a half months idling away in this gilded cage.
While playing the part of the fragile, compliant companion, I had been working tirelessly on the most crucial step of my escape plan: Communication.
When I first arrived here, the language barrier was absolute.
Her voice hadn’t sounded like speech to me back then. It was a chilling, alien resonance that bypassed my ears and vibrated directly against my skull, cold and incomprehensible.
I even thought she was threatening and cursing me, and only relaxed after she did nothing harmful.
However, I knew that ignorance was death in this place.
So, I had to improvise, to adapt.
For the first two weeks, I survived solely on body language and crude signs. I showed her the sign language I knew, but she didn’t understand it. Guess it was different in this world, or there was none.
Gradually, we established a baseline.
She picked up a few human words, and I began to decipher the strange, melodic phonetics of her tongue.
Once we could exchange basic sentences, I made my move.
I used every ounce of logic I possessed. I reasoned with her, explaining that if she truly wanted us to be close, mere gestures or a few words weren’t enough.
Later, I also told her that silence would eventually breed boredom, and that to truly understand each other, I needed to learn her world better.
At first, she had been reluctant. Perhaps she preferred a pet that remained blissfully ignorant.
But eventually, her desire for a "deeper connection" won out.
She started teaching me.
Day by day, I absorbed the Nightmare Realm’s language: listening, reading, writing, and speaking.
And now, after months of grueling lessons, I had almost mastered it.
I could read the books on the shelves.
I could understand the faint whispers of the shadows outside the door.
And most importantly, I could finally begin to uncover the secrets of this tower.
"Swip."
Eventually, she closed the heavy leather-bound book with a soft thud.
"That should be enough for today."
She leaned back in her chair, her crimson eyes gleaming with a mixture of satisfaction and scrutiny.
"Now, tell me. How would you ask for ’water’ in the formal nemure dialect, and what is the correct honorific to use when addressing a chaotic spirit?"
It was a test.
I didn’t hesitate. I straightened my back and answered fluently, my pronunciation mimicking her eerie resonance as closely as a human vocal cord could manage.
"You would say ’Vahl-koreth’, and the honorific is ’Xul’."
She stared at me for a second, then a wide, genuine smile broke across her face.
"Perfect," she praised, reaching out to pat my head. "You really learned well, dear. Your adaptation speed is frighteningly impressive."
"It is only because I had the best teacher," I replied smoothly, leaning into her touch(don’t misunderstand, this was her way of rewarding me, and I had my reasons!).
And for once, I meant it.
Despite her terrifying nature, she was surprisingly an excellent educator.
She never lost her temper, never used harsh words, and patiently corrected every single mistake I made until I got it right. If she weren’t a calamitous entity holding me hostage, she would have made a great professor.
"You flatter me, dear," she chuckled softly. "Now, we should rest. Studying consumes a lot of mental energy."
She made a move to stand up, likely intending to guide me back to the bed or simply leave me to my "nap."
I shook my head immediately.
"Did you forget it?"
She paused, tilting her head to the side, her white hair cascading over her shoulder like a waterfall of starlight.
"Forget what?"
"You promised me," I said, looking straight into her eyes with an expression of pure, unadulterated anticipation. "You said you would take me out. You promised to show me the castle today."
"...Did I?"
She blinked, looking genuinely confused.
"Yes," I nodded firmly. "You did."
"This..."
She looked conflicted.
Her gaze darted to the heavy oak door, then back to my eager face. I could see the gears turning in her mind, weighing the risks of letting her frail "husband" wander against the desire to please him.
She looked at my eyes, shining with expectation.
Finally, her shoulders slumped. She let out a sigh that sounded like the wind rushing through a canyon.
"Alright."
"Thank you!"
I jumped up from the bed, masking my relief with excitement.
She stood up, her shadow stretching across the room to envelop me.
"But you must stay close to me," she warned, her voice dropping an octave. "Do not wander off. The Spire... is not always kind to guests."
"I promise."
I knew the horrors of it already. Or the tip of it.
She extended her hand.
I took it. Her skin was cold, like polished marble, but I held it firmly.
Together, we walked to the door.
Click.
The lock turned with a heavy sound, and the door swung open.
We stepped out.
I took a deep breath, tasting the stale, charged air of the hallway.
This was the third time I had managed to leave this suffocating room in two and a half months.
However, the previous two times had been failures. She had only allowed me to walk a few meters down the dark corridor before ushering me back inside, citing that I looked "tired" or that the air was "too heavy" for me. But I knew she meant to protect. Just thinking about those heavy, dreadful gazes and my own sluggish and weird movements, make a chill run down my spine.
But today felt different. Much more.
As she led me past the point where we last turned back, my heart began to hammer against my ribs.
I was finally going to see the rest of this cage.