She doesn't believe that.

"Which rules will you hurt my people and not just me for breaking?"

"If you run, or if you cease responding to your own hurts, then I will hurt your people."

"I don't run away."

"Then they will have little to fear."

Shaky nod.

"Tomorrow, then." And she'll leave, shutting the door behind her.

Lily -

Intends to go exploring. Find the library. Figure out the layout, if the Demon Queen means it about how much freedom she has. If every door isn't secretly locked.

Instead, she finds a nook with some insipid statue, pulls the statue out and pulls an empty bookshelf in front, and squeezes in to curl up and cry until her body stops shaking and her eyes burn slightly less.

She dozes off after that, wakes up - she doesn't know when. She has no idea how to track when it's morning, what time it is - there's neither a window nor clock that she can find.

She has no idea how to be here when the Demon Queen comes to look for her, except by just not leaving.

Which.

Fuck that.

Lily refuses to live in constant fear of what comes next, what 'displeased' will mean.

She gets up, dries her eyes, straightens out her rumbled dress, fixes her hair into its braids, and sets out to find the library.

There's a covered tray on a cart next to a pitcher of water and a glass by the door.

She hesitates at it, uncertain, then pours herself a glass of water and checks what's on the tray.

Bread, cheese, ham, fruit, a small salad, kept chilled by an ice bed.

She'll eat quickly - the fruit, and some bread and cheese - and drink some water, then continue down the hall in search of the library. She leaves everything else (including the emptied cup) on the tray.

It's a big castle, in both horizontal and vertical space. And there's no helpful signage, though possibly the somewhat-regularized wall frescoes and the way they blend together at corners has a meaning.

She does her best to memorize and analyze those, though she's getting increasingly tired.

Still. She wants to find the library.

Even if she passes a window that indicates the sky is getting increasingly lighter?

Even then.

Well then, with persistence she will be able to find the open doorway that leads to a large room, filled with shelves upon shelves upon shelves of books.

Woah.

She hardly knows where to start. She'll look first for any signs of a category system, but if one doesn't present itself soon will look for an interesting but readable book and a moderately hidden place to curl up with it.

No obvious category systems, plenty of interesting books and blind alleys, but also an open sitting space in the center...

...that is occupied.

...Rude.

Though it means Lily isn't 'late' yet.

She's not watching herself enough to be quiet when she encounters the Demon Queen.

She turns a page. "Twenty-five minutes," she says idly, not looking up.

She stiffens. That's not enough time to read. But - "I don't have a clock," she grumbles, nose in her book. 

"Does that room not?" She hums. "You'd best stay where I can see you, then."

She makes a rude noise.

At least she has enough energy for that.