Season 1
Episode 2 Outline
Morning Comes Quietly
Captive
Layla wakes up in a room many stories above ground, on a bed full of silk dressings. The pillows almost engulf her. A bed made for a princess. Her restraints are precise. Engineered. Functional. Heavy bands secure her wrists, forearms, shoulders, and torso. Not cruel, not excessive. Masterfully engineered and balanced to prevent leverage, rotation, and sudden force but allow enough movement to be comfortable.
Stone walls with small windows enough to see in all directions.
She realizes she has been nursed, bathed, dressed in a fine linen, and even scented with the finest scents. She slowly moves around to observe the details in the room, while discovering which movements create pain from her wounds.
As a prisoner, she is confused.
The Council Convenes
The room is fractured.
Some demand Layla’s execution. Swift, public, decisive. Others warn of martyrdom, of uprising, of legend turning against them.
Nassori listens without interruption.
When the arguments exhaust themselves, he asks a challenging question such as:
“What kind of kingdom must we become to reflect the world we are trying to build?”
No one answers. There is only the feeling that the king’s indecisiveness is intentional, and very measured.
The Elder Princess
Princess Imari meets with the king to request further instructions and inquire why he has made her so comfortable. She summarizes her findings about Layla. She’s highly proficient a killer with many blood stains on her sword, not just a soldier. She must be handled with extreme caution if she is not locked away in chains.
Imara also questions his reason for not locking her in a dungeon. This is not about Layla’s being an enemy or even her being a threat, but about what keeping her alive does to precedence and weighing if that precedent will hurt him publicly and offer a dangerous precedent for future leaders.
First Contact
Imara visits Layla with guards present.
Imara and Layla regard one another without hostility. Layla does not bow. Imara does not demand it. Imara speaks first, direct and composed, noting the absence of a defeated posture from Layla
Layla is not a woman asking to be spared. She is measured. Careful, but bold. Honest. Not broken. Almost too emotionless. Imara suspects this suppressed rage disguised as calm. Therefore, recognizing Layla is a serious threat.
Imari explains the rules of tenancy for Layla until the king decides what he will do with her.
She is not to venture beyond her quarters unless escorted with guards without express permission from herself or the king, and without restraints.
Resistance of any kind will have brutal consequences.
The World Watches
News of Layla’s survival spread unevenly. General Balogun is the one who leaked it to one of his sources outside the castle. We don’t know what his motive is. How dangerous he is. Just that he is involved in something secret. Greed? Treason? We don’t know yet.
Between Layla’s presence and the world’s gossip, the energy in the castle is changing. Imari and King Nassori are forced to make decisions that change things, sometimes making residents uncomfortable, all for an enemy prisoner who, according to the principles of their military rule, should have been executed on the battlefield after not surrendering. This energy becomes rapidly pervasive. Imari and king Nassori are divided and argue in private about it. But being the loyal captain and daughter she is, she always obeys.
Nassori’s Visit
Nassori visits Layla without ceremony.
No guards inside the chamber.
He tells her the war is over. Her status as enemy or friend depends upon her. Layla advised him to kill her because she will kill him with the first opportunity she gets.
Night in Zaramoko
That night, Layla stands near a window that overlooks the city.
Lanterns glow. Music drifts faintly upward. Families gather in celebration of victory, and their sons who returned home. Zaramoko sleeps without fear. Layla watches in silence, coming to grips that she will not experience that joy again…ever. For the first time since the fall of her kingdom, grave sadness overcomes her, sharing space with her rage.