A knock came on the door of Mai’s prison.

Of course, it was not a prison in some senses of the word; there were no chains, there were no bars. But there was a door locked on the outside, guarded by eight armed men. That was enough for Mai to consider her apartments a prison.

The knock was rather strange, as, considering Mai was confined. She thought for a moment, considering, as she stared out the window, magically sealed. Mai had maneuvered her chair so that she could sit, and enjoy the view of the early night sky.

The knock came a second time, louder.

Should I answer? Mai wondered. The door was locked from the outside, so she couldn’t even open the door.

Whoever wanted to see her had to know that.

This was all some sort of cruel joke.

Mai decided to stay where she was.

And yet the knocking persisted, louder, and louder, until it so irritated Mai she could not stand it any longer. She got up, and walked over to the door, not really expecting the knocking to go away, but hoping, nevertheless.

Mai turned the handle, and the door opened outwards.

Savel is Varad stood there, surrounded by stone-faced guards. “You certainty took your time, Princess. Whatever was the reason?”

“I did not believe this door would open,” Mai responded.

“And yet it has,” said Savel. “There was something odd I noticed about you. The door was never locked. The guards outside would have forced you back into you apartments if you tried to leave, but still, the door was never locked.” He paused. “And after I shut you within, you never tried the door, not once.”

“I simply realized that to try to leave would be pointless,” said Mai coolly.

“And yet,” said Savel, “you did not try the door to check it, not even once. You merely assumed it was locked. Why would you do that, I wonder?”

Mai prayed Savel would not be able to put the pieces together.

And yet, he did.

“You are used to such treatment,” said Savel, after a beat. “I was not the only person you were naughty with. Perhaps…your father and I shared more opinions about you than I thought.”

Mai suddenly found herself able to take no more. “My father was a good man!” she shouted at Savel. “He was the Emperor! You are nothing like him. Nothing!”

Savel took a step forward, into the room, and forced Mai a step back.

“If you truly believe that,” he said, “you are a sad, sad little girl. Daddy didn’t love you. Daddy put up with you, because he couldn’t get his real wife pregnant. What do you think would have happened, had the Empress provided her husband with a bouncing baby boy? You would have been thrown away like yesterday’s garbage. For indeed, that is what you are.”

“I am no such thing…”

“Of course you are,” said Savel. “If you really followed the Codes of Sara, you would have killed yourself by now. And yet, you did not, showing yourself to be the pathetic commoner bastard child that you really are. You can’t even attempt to follow a higher moral standard, can you?”

Savel looked at Mai, who by now had shrunk back a few more steps.

“I would slap you, but I would not dare sully my hand with your filth. Do you know something?” he asked. “In the past few hours, rumors have spread that the Makini have found a way to breach the walls, and before the night is out, Asan Paril will fall. And do you know who started such rumors?”

Mai took yet another step back, and she found herself nearly pressed up against the window.

Savel had conquered the room around her. Mai said nothing, her head hanging a little. Her hair, usually carefully combed back, spread across the front of her face. A bit came near her eye, but Mai didn’t bother to brush it away. She said nothing.

Savel seemed fine without an answer.

“The malicious lies,” he said, “with aim for nothing more than a general and unfounded panic, were traced back to their source easily, once I told my agents what direction to look in. The lies were traced back to rumors started by the servants at the villas of Ishad and Broken.”

Savel looked at Mai, and straightened, looking every inch a dignified noble.

Looking every inch like the most evil man Mai had ever seen. Varsis just wanted to kill her. Savel wanted to destroy her more completely than that.

“Your lover and your bodyguard seemed to think the best way to set you free is to incite unrest,” said Savel. “How wrong they are. Asan Paril will remain strong, until the Minsu come, and then, I will do with you what I will.”

“What is that?” asked Mai.

“There are some papers you will sign, some public statements you will be forced to make in support of Emperor Ehajdon’s government,” said Savel. “And then, when that is done, you will quietly disappear. Forever. That is your fate.”

Mai couldn’t even look at Savel anymore. She didn’t have the strength. Three days of being confined to the room, after everything fell apart, followed by Savel’s verbal abuse…

Mai just didn’t have the strength anymore.

“Another, if they heard that, would end their life, with all due haste, before allowing themselves to be used,” said Savel. “But I don’t need to worry about that, do I? You’re too afraid to kill yourself. You are a pathetic weakling, who has not the slightest clue about what things really matter in the real world. Noblewomen obey the Codes of Sara. You are not a noblewoman. You are a disgrace, and a traitor.”

Mai finally looked up again, to see Savel steadily advancing towards her. She had no idea what he intended to do, but there was a sadistic smile on his face.

And then, a white-clad guard rushed into the room.

Whatever kind of atmosphere had been developing, it quickly broke apart as Savel turned to the new arrival.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded. “You do know, if there is not a good reason for your presence, you will never step foot inside the Palace again!”

But then, Mai noticed something Savel did not. The man’s face was nearly as white as his attire.

A moment later, Savel noticed as much as well. “What’s wrong with you, man?” he asked, speaking not quite as hard as he had before.

“The Makini are here,” said the messenger.

“What?” asked Savel.

“They got past the walls, somehow,” said the soldier. “They’re in the city. Hundreds of them, and more seem to be coming with every passing moment.”

Now it was Savel’s turn to have his face turn white.

“There’s one other thing, sir,” said the man. “A note was tacked to the Palace gate, one that was found only minutes ago, just before the Makini arrived. It said, ‘now you know the lengths to which I will go.’ It was signed by one who called himself Broken.”

Savel took a jagged breath, and rocked in place for a moment.

He then, with the messenger, rushed to the door. As the messenger disappeared into the hall, Savel paused by the doorway, and turned back to Mai.

“I’ll be back for you,” he said savagely, and slammed the door shut, shouting, “Lock it!”

And then Mai was alone again. Confused, and curious, she walked over to her window, and looked down on what was below.

The Palace grounds were cordoned off, and within them there was order, but beyond, out into the city, Mai could here screaming. And below, even though no Makini could yet be seen, the streets were in chaos, with people running everywhere.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Mai didn’t know what to think. Somehow, Broken had found a way to get the Makini into the city, that much she knew.

However, Mai didn’t understand how Broken thought letting the Makini into the city would help save her.

She was startled out of her reverie by a tap at the closed window right before her. Mai looked up again. She blinked, trying to figure out if what she saw was real.

Broken hovered in front of the window, perhaps thirty feet above the ground. Mai looked at his waist, and gained a small bit of understanding, as she saw he was tethered by his waist to a rope that hung from something above.

But how did he expect to get through the window? It was still magically sealed.

Nevertheless, as Broken gestured her to open the shutters, Mai complied. The air breezed in, but Mai knew nothing organic could do the same. She was so close to rescue, and yet, so far away.

Broken brushed a black-gloved hand against the barrier, and, with a shower of sparks, he was repulsed.

But then, Broken reached into a pouch, took out a large bag of sand, and slowly poured the contents out over the invisible barrier.

As the sand burnt up against the barrier, it hissed, smoked, and, with a flash of blue light, seemed to disintegrate. Broken put the pouch away. He reached through the window again, and this time, his hand made it through.

“What was that?” asked Mai. “How did you…”

“Holy sand,” said Broken. “It doesn’t just disintegrate dark magic, it disintegrates any magic that isn’t holy. As I expected, that enchantment wasn’t blessed.”

Mai continued to stare. “If you could get me out all along,” she asked, “why didn’t you get me out sooner? Why did you let the Makini in?”

“So you know that was my doing,” said Broken, rather calmly, as he swayed thirty feet above the air, in the middle of a rescue attempt. He looked at her. “I needed a distraction.”

Mai was still incredulous. “Breaking the siege was your idea of a distraction?”

“Uh-huh.” Broken looked at her. “You coming, or not?” He held out both his arms, and Mai, moving through the large window, put herself in them.

As Mai looked down at the tiny ground below her, Broken held her tight, with a single arm. With the other, he began to pull them up, to the roof, where the rope was anchored.

A few minutes later, Broken was on the roof, and pulled Mai up with him.

Mai looked around. The roof here was flat, and empty. Stone gargoyles circled the parameter of the roof, and indeed, it was to one of them that Broken attacked his grappling hook.

As Broken ripped the hook of his chosen gargoyle’s ear, Mai noted that the only exit from the roof was a single set of stairs leading down.

She turned to Broken. “You rescued me, and now we’re going to escape by walking through the whole of the Palace?”

The stars twinkled around them, mocking.

“No,” said Broken, as he reattached the grappling hook to his waist.

Up from the set of stairs came two sentries. They saw Broken and Mai, and, clearly having orders, ran at him, drawing their swords. Broken drew his own.

As Mai backed up against a winged gargoyle, Broken rushed past her, and met the two men in the center of the roof.

Wind ripped all around as Mai heard Broken engage the two men. The wind made the noises of the clash of swords distant.

Mai didn’t know what Broken was doing. Doesn’t he have a better plan then just fighting every Paril soldier that he sees?

But what was odd about the fighting, was that it seemed Broken was being steadily forced back against the combined pressure of two blades, back in the direction of Mai.

Mai knew enough about swordsmanship to know that the two sentries were nothing special. After Broken’s performance against Savel, Mai would have thought he could have dispatched the two he faced now with much more ease.

It was almost as if he was waiting for something, before using his full abilities. Broken’s style was defensive. By now, the sentries had forced Broken into fighting within ten feet of Mai.

She turned her head elsewhere, not knowing what to do, and looked back at the set of stairs, as up from them climbed a single man. A single man Mai noticed very quickly to be no man at all.

It was Eton.

“Fancy meeting you here, dear,” he said to Mai, once he had fully ascended.

At that moment, Broken and the sentries stopped fighting, as all three heads turned as one to the newcomer.

Eton’s body blurred, and he seemed to move forward without walking, move forward at an incredible speed.

In an instant, he was right up beside Broken.

Broken backed away, for some reason sheathing his sword. The two Paril guards did much the same.

But it was too late for them. Far too late. Eton seemed insistent on finishing them off before he went after Mai and Broken.

He blurred up to one guard, just as that man reached the very edge of the roof, and pushed him off. Then he blurred over to the other guard, and, before the other man could react, did the same.

Mai was entranced in terror, but Broken was not. Moving rapidly himself, he did something Mai had never expected him to do.

As Eton turned to them, Broken grasped Mai around the waist, and, with her, leapt off the roof, to the cultivated Palace gardens below.

Mai had a perfect view of the ground when it happened. Now, they were even higher up than three stories. They had to be fifty feet above the tiny flowers, plants, and cobblestone walkways below.

Mai had no idea what Broken was doing, and so, as she fell, she thought she was going to die, right then and there.

She should have known better.

For even as they fell, even as the ground rushed to them, Broken was in action. In the split seconds that followed, he positioned his body in a certain way, readjusted his grip on Mai carefully, in accordance to a plan only he knew.

And then, suddenly, with a jerk, they were on the ground. Broken landed on three limbs, with one arms supporting Mai over his back. They had landed in a small bed of roses.

Mai rolled off Broken, and got to her feet, as he did the same.

She looked at the way up, at the roof, where a small figure, made even smaller by the distance, watched them carefully, silhouetted by night.

“How did you do that?” Mai asked Broken.

“I forced myself to,” he responded.

“But…that was fifty feet.”

“We have to go,” said Broken, and Mai saw that the small watching figure was now gone.

“It will take some time for Eton to get through the Palace, and get to us,” said Broken. “But we have to go now.”

And, so, almost simultaneously, they started running for the fence. Once they reached it, Broken was able to somehow catapult Mai over, and be there to catch her on the other side.

Broken then looked around the street, in chaos.

As he did so, Mai asked him, “Why did you wait on the rooftop?”

“I was baiting Eton.”

“What?”

“I knew the demon would come, and I needed him to chase us.”

“But why?”

“Because I need to lead him to a very certain place.”

Mai would have asked what that place was, but she suddenly found herself very preoccupied.

As the pedestrians on the street tried to flee, a thing turned the corner.

Not a demon. This didn’t look human in appearance. It was perhaps eight feet high, twice as long, and…was a giant glowing green spider.

Mai looked at Broken, horrified, but for some reason, he didn’t look the least bit surprised.

“What is that?” she whispered, as, while she and Broken just stood by the fence, all others fled before it. Left to right, the giant green spider was about to pass right in front of them, and yet, Broken stayed where he was, leaving Mai no choice but to follow his lead.

“Cave spider,” said Broken.

“This isn’t a cave!”

“They must have opened up the crack wider,” said Broken.

“What?”

“Long story short,” said Broken, “it’s my fault. And, no, it has nothing to do with the Makini.”

Broken seemed to be waiting for something, even as the spider drew ever nearer. Mai watched it fling up an Asan Paril guard with a leg, and chew him to shreds.

Sickened, Mai turned away, unable to watch. “Why are we just standing here?” she asked. “The spider’s coming, and the demon’s after us!”

Broken looked surprisingly nonchalant. “We’re waiting for just the right moment,” he said.

“What?”

Just as the green cave spider began to pass before them, completely oblivious to their passive presence, Broken scooped Mai up into his arms, and rushed at the overgrown thing.

Broken reached a leg, and somehow was able to hop from it to the thing’s back, and then, before the cave spider could do a thing to stop him, Broken jumped from its back, up to the roof of an adjacent building.

On the building, from her vantage point in Broken’s arms, Mai saw that Asan Paril was a flat and unassuming city. Behind them the Palace, loomed tall, and around them, so did the White Walls, but most of the other buildings, such as the one Broken was now on the roof of, were squat, box-shaped two story villas.

Mai had little time to look though. She turned her head back to the spider, to see an impossible sight.

Once second the spider was happily rampaging, the next, it was a burning carcass. Mai saw a tiny Eton put away one of his oft used vials. Then, the demon looked up, and spotted her.

Eton smiled, and rushed to a ladder leaning against the side of the building Broken stood on.

For a moment, Mai thought she had to do something, and quick, but it was only a second before Broken realized he had to move.

As Mai watched Eton clear his head over the roof, Broken ran forward, with Mai in her arms, even as she continued to look back at the pursuit.

As Broken reached the very edge of the roof, and had nowhere else to run to, he took a great leap, and cleared the distance, and landed on the next.

Mai realized how Broken intended to use the masses of flat-roofed houses to help them. They were set up like a massive board, a massive gird. And so, unimpeded by the chaos below, Broken could jump from one roof to another.

And that, it seemed, was what he was intent on doing.

Broken continued to run as he held Mai, run and jump from one roof to the next, and then the next. Behind him, across the rooftops, Eton blurred to catch up, but when the demon jumped from rooftop to rooftop in pursuit, he did so at a normal speed.

And so, Broken managed to stay ahead.

But only just.

As the demon caught up, got within five feet of them, and continued to blur forward, Broken leaped off the roof, and landed in a crouch on the street twenty feet below.

That would have been incredible, had it not been preceded by a jump from more than twice the height.

In the street, amongst the screaming people, and to the sound of distant rhythmic Makini marchers, Broken rushed from one side to the other, to a very particular villa.

Mai recognized it as his. Broken set her down as he calmly knocked at the door. Mai looked back through the crowd of people.

Eton was nowhere to be seen, but Mai knew he was coming. He was coming.

As there was no answer to the door, Broken set himself into a fighting stance, and pulled back an arm, as if he was about to punch the door of its hinges.

That proved not to be necessary, as a startled Ishad opened the door. As Broken immediately brushed past him, his eyes fell on Mai.

“You’re safe,” Ishad said. “I was so worried…”

But Broken broke off their encounter by yanking Mai within the threshold of the door. She looked all around. The entrance room had been cleared of all furniture, and it was dominated by a giant circle of sand inscribed on the floor. Within the circle were two glass jars, filled with more sand, and a small, leather bound book.

“Get to the far side of the room!” Broken shouted at Ishad and Mai, as he faced the open door, and set himself into a deep crouch fighting stance.

Even as Mai rushed around the circle, and huddled against the far wall with Ishad, she had to wonder what Broken intended. If he thought he could fight the demon, why hadn’t he done so on the rooftop?

And then, a blur moved to the open front door, and slowed.

Broken took a step back, and thus Mai could see the new arrival. Ever more horrifying than the scene of chaos on the street behind him, was what had just walked through that door.

Eton.