The Blog of armine

The next morning, guards were sent to fetch both Klarissa and Zamiel. After being whacked with a hefty fine (for trespassing on private property), Zamiel was allowed to go free but Klarissa was ordered to stay. Zamiel was not allowed to see Klarissa before leaving; as he was escorted away from the palace grounds he wondered when he would see his friend again.

If he would see her again at all.

He wandered slowly away, thinking only about Klarissa and how he could see her again...

Meanwhile, a bleary-eyed Klarissa (she had not slept well in her cell) was meeting with her father in a sealed-off wing of the palace dungeon. He was standing behind the cold iron bars of a prison cell.

"I am going to get you released", Klarissa promised him most sincerely. "I don't care how she feels about you - she cannot do this to you!"

Alger stared solemnly at his daughter from his place behind the bars. "It is a misunderstanding", he said, "and I will do what I can to convince your mother that she is wrong about me".

"She is being so cold, so unfair!" Klarissa exclaimed, glancing at the poker-faced prison guard watching her with great scrutiny.

"I have always loved Marelda", Alger confessed in a bittersweet tone of voice, "and no matter what may come between us, I will always be her prisoner in my heart".

Klarissa was unmoved by her father's rare display of emotion. "She owes us both an apology - and she needs to release you from this cell!"

A second guard came into the room and laid a firm hand on Klarissa's arm.

"Frau Maschke will see you now", said the guard.

"I am speaking with my father", countered Klarissa.

"Go and see her", Alger told her. "It will do no good to keep her waiting".

Klarissa leaned forward, the guard's grip still firmly holding her arm. "I will be back for you", she told him in a low voice. "I will have you released as soon as I can. I promise you this".

With that she left the prison chamber in a hurry, the impatient guard guiding her along by the arm...