[attr="class","diana"]Everything began to grow blurry. It was as if Diana was being drawn into a slumber, being pulled away from this warm world. Her head swivelled between the two women, and finally, her blue gaze locked onto Remiel Calcifet’s. Instead of the ice she’d been carrying with her, he’d see something akin to the lake they would frequent together as children.

”No. I don’t want to leave. Please, wait-!”

---

Cold, hard floor was the first thing her senses recalled. The second was the ache in her body from sleeping on the concrete floor. And finally…

Tears. They were not like normal ones, thick and crystalline and oddly beautiful. They rolled down her face like a river, threatening to soak the previously clean outfit that had been provided to her. She touched her face, threatening to wipe them clean.

It was ameena abadi that made her stop. ameena abadi who spoke bravely to bring about hope in this nightmare. She wondered… how could she be so brave? Was she unfeeling, or was she just better at hiding these feelings than she was? Her glassy eyes trailed to luka chêne, wondering how she was faring.

”How can you be sure? How can Amor Rose be sure?” Diana asked quietly. But, even if she didn’t receive an answer, she decided to cooperate. There were other places she’d rather be than rotting in this prison, hoping for a wish she could barely taste and hold on to. She would have to trust Ameena.

---

As the week cycled by, Diana learned that the one spot she didn’t want to stand at was the LAUGHING HOUR. Laughter was pulled from her lips as each of her fellow ward members were yanked from their cells for humiliation. Her heart wretched, but she couldn’t stop the laughter. It was as if the toxins burned her from the inside if she didn’t, and the laughter was a source of relief for it.

More crystalline tears spewed from her eyes.

She could handle the pain and torture of work. Being struck by the equally terrified creature, clawing at the dark, was nothing compared to her turn at the LAUGHING HOUR.

Howls of laughter, fingers pointing at her, as Diana’s beautiful face was contorted into a series of outrageous figures and ridiculous masks. If she tried to lift her hands, they were pulled back to her sides as the laughter grew. She could hear her fellow cellmates laughing at her too.

”Look at her. She was royalty. Did you know that? She’s the ugliest princess I’ve ever seen.”

”No wonder she abandoned Galar. She could have burned it down with a face like that.”

”Do you think that’s why Remiel Calcifet left her?”

The crystal tears. They soaked her uniform as she sobbed, enduring the pain of humiliation and assumption for the hour. She attempted to scoop them into her hands, lifting them up as if her tears would be enough to become a sort of offering to FEZANDIPITI to make it end.

”Please, beautiful one. Make it stop. Look at the tears I’ve cried for you.”

In her heart, she desperately reminded herself of Ameena’s request: ”I need you to want to be free more than anything you have ever wanted.”

[attr="class","dianatag"]ameena abadi & luka chêne
- questions ameena's intentions but agrees to go along with it
- endures the LAUGHING HOUR (primary point)
- gathers her tears for FEZANDIPITI as an offering: "look at the tears i've cried for you"
- remembers what ameena's requested her to do