48. Came from the Future.

Winifred stared at Alice's retreating figure and she chuckled, knowing that she countered Alice's speech. She was also happy that she made Alice pissed that she didn't win her in the argument. "Love to see her lose to me, as usual." She muttered to herself. As she turned to leave, she was met with Martha's face behind her. "Oh my God!" She exclaimed as she stumbled backwards a bit as she touched her chest. "Guy, you startled me!"

"Why were you startled? You didn't expect anyone to be listening to your back and forth with the princess?" Martha asked her calmly, her arms akimbo.

"Oh, that." Winifred said and chuckled. "You loved how I gave her the replies, right? She would learn not to step on people's toes anyhow by fire by force. She annoyed me a lot." She smiled to herself as she finished speaking.

Martha on the hand didn't look impressed. She just stared at the girl before her and let her have her moment. When she was done fantasizing about putting Alice in her place, she spoke to her. "You know you're causing more harm to yourself than good, right?"

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Winifred asked her with raised eyebrows. "Did she not deserve what she got, I did nothing wrong, did I?"

"The whole scene you keep causing in this palace, Winnie. Don't you know you're only incurring more enemies to yourself?" She asked her, a look of worry obvious on her face. "Aren't you aware of the number of people that already hate you in the palace? And you still keep on doing it?"

"I am not doing anything, Martha. I'm only being myself and you know that. And besides, Alice was at fault this time, eveytime even. She never let's me breath, it's almost as if she's in some kind of competition with me. Why would she drag me that way in the first place? Is that even right?" Winifred defended herself immediately.

"Uh, did you really just call the lycan princess by name?" Martha asked with a look of surprise on her face. "You see, that's still one of the things I was talking about. Doing things like this will only make people put their eyes on you the more and you'll only gather more enemies, you call anybody and I mean anybody by name instead of what they should be called, the fact that they're letting you be doesn't mean they won't take any opportunity that arises to put you in your place and maybe them, nobody will stop them. You're simply gathering enemies, Winifred."

"I really don't mind, honestly." She shrugged in response. "Besides, Alice… uhm, sorry. The princess' face that is filled with blisters is not my fault. She failed to listen to my advice and now the outcome is what she's facing, and she's confronting me and disturbing me. She keeps accusing me that I made her face that way. Just how did I do that?"

"I understand that this might not be your fault in anyway, but you have to let her be. If you avoid her, she'll avoid you too. But if you continue to reply all her words and try to put her in her place, you'll only get into more troubles." Martha replied. "And I wouldn't want you to end up like her," she added softly, as if she didn't want Winifred to hear her, but she heard anyways.

"End up like who? The princess?" She scoffed as she said that. "Nah, I can't end up like someone like her."

"No, not her." Martha replied and sighed. "It's someone else. She's dead now."

"Ehm, what happened to her and who was she?" Winifred asked, curious to know who the person was, what she had done and what led to her death. "By the way, this place is a little noisy. Can we go somewhere else? Somewhere that we can have our seats."

Martha agreed as they gave the palace hall one last look. The ceremony was still ongoing, and the rituals to be done for both the groom and bride was currently going on. Most of the slaves stood behind their seated masters and Winifred could not help but wonder if Arthur noticed she was not behind him anymore. If he had noticed, he would have come looking for her.

She scoffed at herself as that thought came to her mind. "What do I even take myself as? Look for me my foot." She muttered to herself.

"Did you say something?"

"Nah. I was just soliloquizing." Winifred replied. She didn't notice that Martha had stopped on her tracks to look at her. She was about five steps ahead before she looked around and noticed that she didn't see Martha who was in front of her initially, again. "Uh, Martha?" She called as she turned around and sighted her standing about five steps back. "Why aren't you coming?"

"I am." She replied as she got to where Winnie stood and they continued walking to wherever they were going.

"Why did you stop initially though?"

"What was that word you said earlier? And what did it mean?" Martha asked, looking very confused.

"What word?" Winnie asked nonchalantly.

"So… sololoqui… something like that. I didn't really get the word."

"Oh, soliloquizing." Winifred repeated the word.

"Which means?"

"I was talking to myself. That's what I meant." Winifred replied with a small smile on her face. She found it amusing whenever she explains something from the future to Martha. Martha had accepted her fate over matter and had decided to listen all her stories about the future that she claimed she came from. Either it was true or not, she let it be.

"Oh, alright." Martha simply replied. They got to an abandoned part of the palace outside, and she paused. "What about here? Let's stay here. This place is more quiet and befitting. That's if it's fine by you too though."

"Of course. Yes, it's fine." Winnie replied as they both sat on a long of wood on the floor.

"So, the woman. She was just a woman like you," Martha started, but Winifred cut in.

"She came from the future too?" She asked with a look of curiosity in her face as her eyes went wide opened as if she had just won a lottery.

"No, duh. I haven't seen anyone that claims to have come from the future before. Well, except you though."

"That makes me special," Winifred said jokingly and winked at her, which made her chuckle a bit. "Why did you say she was like me though?"

"She was also a slave, just like you and I. The only thing different about her was that she loved to stand her ground and to talk back at people whenever anyone talks bad to her or about her. She literally has your direct personality, if you permit me to say so."

"Wow, that must have been cool. I'd have really loved to meet her if she was still alive." Winifred replied with a sincere look in her eyes. "Anyway, that's that about that. So, what happened? Was she killed because she always told them the right things and always stopped others from maltreating her?"

"It's an old tale, a common one at that. The lady was summoned by the king one day after one of her fellow slaves told the king that she had said some horrible things about him. Judging from the fact that she was known to say several things without caring what would happen, the king believed the slave who had reported her." Martha said.

Winifred scoffed as she heard the story. "So, she was killed because of that? People truly do not value lives in this path of the world. It's so sad."

"She was stoned to death. That is the punishment here if you talk horribly to or about any of the royals of the palace." Martha said and gave her a knowing look. "The main reason I am telling you is that you work with the icy prince. It would be so bad if you say something horrible to him and the news gets to the king. If this does, he'd ordered for you to be stoned to death. This was why I told you the story of that woman. I don't want you to end up like her." Martha finished and stared at Winifred who just stared at her in return, expecting her to finish her story.

"I understand. Besides, I didn't talk to the princess anyhow the other time. I just wanted her to get angry and to storm off from my presence and I wa glad she did. But then, I said nothing wrong to her."

"Just so you know, you're a treasure to me, and it'd be so sad if anything bad happens to you." Martha said looking concerned.

"It's fine. Thank you so much, and don't worry about me. I didn't mean any of the words that I said. I was just pulling her legs." Winifred replied with a smile.

"Just be careful, that's all."