He was cold; where were his covers? His eyes fluttered open and took in the dank cell he was in.

“Wait. Cell? What the–why am I in a cell?” He asked himself. His hands shook and grabbed onto the bars. A tiny shock ran through him and pulled away stunned. The electric mode was only for the worst criminals.

“W–What’s going on?” he muttered, trembling from the inner cold now.

“I was hoping you could tell us this,” Lithelios voice. It was sharp like a vibrating blade.

“I-I don’t understand,” said Zy grasping the bars again. Another shock made him wince but he held on. “I have done nothing except fall asleep in my bed.”

“Then why did the Sunbird escape? Asna tried to subdue it and told us to search you out.”

“That’s a lie. I only had contact with it yesterday and I told you all about it!”

Lithelios snarled. “So it was you. The Sunbird used your connection to the Dao to weaken its bonds. We lost Asna trying to get it back.”

Zy curled in on himself. “Asna’s dead?”

Lithelios growled, his eyes burning an eerie reddish emerald. “Yes, and it’s all the fault of someone who just doesn’t understand that the Sunbird likes to play tricks! Now it's free and Asna is gone.”

Lithelios sighed and glared maliciously at Zy, who trembled. “Think about what you’ve done, while I prepare your return to the Penitentiary. Your usefulness has ended!” He stalked away and left Zy a trembling whimpering mess. He slid to the cell floor and curled into a ball tears streaking down his cheeks.

“Trust in the Dao. I am not gone, son,”

Zy sniffed and turned his head. An urging to open himself to the Dao overtook him.

“Mom?” Zy asked, feeling his mother’s presence

“Yes. Believe in yourself Zyros. Your purpose has yet to play out,” her voice said. And just like that, it was gone. Zy got up, took a deep breath, and nodded. He closed his eyes and extended his hand. “Pa wa ba san fan, pa wa ba san fan.”

The door’s locks loosened, the electric current turned off, and the door slowly swung open. Nodding, Zy rushed out of his room. He saw a black robe neatly folded on the table; he put it on so he wouldn’t be cold.

Zy rushed towards the escape pods, but he suddenly stopped.

“Run, my child, run!” His mother’s voice echoed.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Zy muttered. “Wouldn’t I have felt something if the Sunbird did escape?”

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Zy could no longer feel his mother’s presence.

“Why would Asna tell Lithelios to seek ME out, specifically?” He asked himself. “And why would Lithelios lock me up in a cell if the Sunbird escaped?”

He gulped and raced towards the Sunbird’s cell. It was still there, still chained. He gasped.

“What?” Zy asked breathlessly.

“Leave this place!” His mother’s voice yelled. “The Dao wants you to live!”

“Let me go,” growled the Sunbird’s voice in his head. “I am no weapon.”

The cell doors swung open. In walked Lithelios, eyes wide in disbelief.

“It is here still?” he muttered. “How?”

“Th-the Dao,” Zy replied, gulping. “The Dao showed you a vision, and you might have mistaken it for the truth.”

“Impossible,” growled Lithelios. He ignored the Sunbird’s glare. “But to see the beast yet remains in Our grasp is a deliverance indeed. Come, my friend, use your connection to the bird, that we may yet write the future together.”

Zy gasped, looking between the Sunbird and the prince. He took a deep breath.

“I begged you to run,” said his mother’s voice, utterly broken.

“It seems I have met my destiny,” said Zy with a sad chuckle. “My Prince, I’ve but one thing to say to you. When you threatened to return me to the Penitentiary, you showed me where you think people like me stand. We are not tools for you to use, My Prince, we are people. I say we do not want you as Emperor.”

Zy turned towards the Sunbird, raised his hands, and with the Dao, freed the creature. Once released from its confines, the bird’s body became solar fire once more, burning bright like a star. With a screech, the Sunbird sent Zy and Lithelios flying towards an escape pod, allowing it to blast off to the nearest planet. The Sunbird grew in size by the second, tearing the ship asunder, killing all within.

As the Sunbird floated in space, now the size of a war cruiser, it began to fly off toward the central star of the solar system. The creature entered the sun’s atmosphere, uniting its flames with the stars, its consciousness once more one with the Dao.

The escape pod landed on a grassy field, miles away from any civilization. Lithelios and Zy left the pod, disoriented. When Zy saw the grassy fields and starlight sky, he sighed and nodded.

“My beloved Empire,” Lithelios whimpered. “My last chance to save it. Forgive me, ancestors…”

Lithelios turned towards Zy, who was staring into the sky, a small smile on his face. He felt the night wind dance in his hair, the grass beneath his bare feet, his robe fluttering in the breeze. A simple pleasure. His last.

Lithelios grabbed his dagger and stabbed Zy in the back in a fit of rage. As the young man fell dead to the floor, Lithelios’ rage grew and grew. He stabbed the corpse once more. And again. And again.

“Fool born of common stock!!!” Yelled Lithelios. “My mistake for trusting you!”

As he let those words escape his lips, he fell to silence. He got up and looked at the dagger in his hand, flushed with blood. He dropped the blade and whimpered.

“What a cowardly way to off a man,” Lithelios said to himself. He looked at his hands, now filled with blood. Horror filled his eyes, tears streamed down his cheeks, and he collapsed to the ground.

He then looked up to the sky. Every star, home to a system of planets, many teeming with life. Each planet, soon to be divided by different powers. The West of the Galaxy, soon to be ruled by a cabal of thieves. The East, soon to be drowned in a mire of incompetence. Just as the Dao showed him.

“I shall return,” the prince said, his whimpers giving way to fury and resolve. With his face filled with rage against destiny, he yelled out “We shall return!”

The End