Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen

• It was another day coming to an end. Winter was here, and the fire in Cynthia's room was shining brightly, sending little sparks into the air. Cynthia hadn't left her room; she was deep in thought about what happened just a few hours ago. It was evening when a maid, who often checked on her, knocked at the door, but Cynthia couldn't see her face. Still, she knew the maid's perfume so well that she could tell when she was around.
• That night, Cynthia decided to leave her door a bit open to catch a glimpse of who came in. Facing the wall with her back to the door and pretending to be asleep, she heard a knock but didn't get up. The maid quietly opened the door, saw that Cynthia was "asleep," and slipped inside to leave a meal and a note before sneaking out again.
• Once the door was closed, Cynthia quickly got up and went to the window to see who it was. Her room faced a big entrance where maids came and went from her and Ken's quarters upstairs. She only caught sight of the person's back; it was a male maid. Until that moment, she had thought it was a female. Now that she knew he was a man, her curiosity grew. She went to the meal and read the note, which said, "You need to eat to survive and fight."