The servants working for Lord Miraz were treated as lower than dirt by their employer and lived in conditions not fitting to even the scummiest of folk. Your sister had caught a terrible disease from a rat's bite while in this service, and as you begged and pleaded Miraz for medical help of any kind to no avail, she wasted away to little more than a skeleton too quickly for you to even say goodbye. The day she passed, you cried and cried all morning, and when you were told to get back to work, you refused and thus were brought before Miraz due to your impertinence.

You spat at his feet. Miraz's nephew, standing beside his uncle, seemed almost shocked at the venomous look in your eyes, and you wondered just how much of Miraz's wickedness the boy (who seemed about your age) knew about. You might as well cause a scene while you still had the chance.

"The ones who deal the cards are the ones who take the tricks."

Miraz, who'd been about to scold or demean you, paused and instead said, as if he'd misheard;

"I beg your Pardon."

"With their hands over their hearts, while we play the game they fix."

Miraz gestured for his guards to take you away, either to the prison or to be thrown out, he didn't care, just as long as you and your impertinent riddles got out of his sight. As you were dragged away, struggling against the guards' grip on your arms, you locked eyes with Miraz's nephew- Caspian, you think was his name -and renewed your resistance to being manhandled to tell him this:

"And the ones who speak the words always say it is the last, and no answer will be heard to the question no one asks."

One last nod at Caspian and you were roughly pulled out of the throne room, the look in his eyes telling you that he understood your meaning: Ask the question, for no one else will.

Inspired by "If It's True" from the Broadway musical Hadestown ()