Abrial’s eyes shot open. Okay, what was going on here? Why…was White Mask holding her tight and pressing his sword against her throat?

Oh, shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

This—this was just the worst!

If she could raise her hands to cover her face in shame, she would.

How fucking embarrassing!

Dying by the blade of one of history’s most famous blade fighters was brave and glorious, but this?! Being held hostage like a damsel in distress?! No way, no way, no way!!! Abrial wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere and hide for ten years until the humiliation subsided. Unfortunately, there was a sword to her throat, and there were no holes in sight.

“Lower your weapons! Cease fighting!” White Mask called out in his melodious voice. It wasn’t clear who he was speaking to, but everyone in the clearing looked over, pausing their battles.

His ice-cold sword exerted a firm pressure against Abrial’s throat.

“I order the Emperor’s guards to retreat. Do not harm anyone else. I will be taking this person — ”

Whizz.

A knife-sharp shard of ice shot towards White Mask’s face. He just barely shifted to the side to dodge it in time so that it embedded itself in the stone wall of the prison instead. Everyone looked to where it had come from.

Finley stood near the outer wall, an icy blue aura emanating from her entire body and rolling off in chilling waves. The look in her eyes sent shivers down everyone’s spines, whether they were raiders or guards. It could not be described, but the closest description to it was something like the flashing of ice as sharp as butchers’ knives, or the smoldering flames at the very core of the sun. It was a look so cold it seemed to burn.

“Release her.”

Finley’s voice was even colder than her eyes. It made every single person present freeze. “Before I grant you an eternally painful death, release her.”

“Hey, old man,” came another sharp voice. It belonged to Niklas, who had long since sprinted to Instructor Wei’s side and was now propping his limp body up protectively. All pretenses of joking had evaporated from his voice. “Believe me when I say that today, I vow to be the one who cuts your head from your neck with my own sword for ambushing the raiders of the Wei camp in such a cowardly way. Today won’t be forgotten. And for injuring Wei Guang, I’ll make sure to — flarhajsdfh!”

Suddenly, Niklas’s words turned to gibberish, his eyes rolled back up into his head, and he keeled forward and promptly began to snore like a grizzly bear. It was like he’d been knocked out by an invisible force.

“Enough!” Everyone froze. Finley’s voice had lashed out, silencing Niklas and shocking everyone. Judging by her finger that pointed at Niklas, she was the one who’d shut him up by sending him into sleep, probably because he’d been changing the topic in a disadvantageous way. “Speak of revenge later. You — return Abrial. Let go of her, now.”

White Mask kept his blade pressed to Abrial’s skin, unphased. Abrial craned up her neck to try and see what expression was in his peculiar brown eyes, but she couldn’t look that far without slicing her neck open, so she gave up.

“I am afraid that I cannot do that.”

Abrial’s face twisted halfway between a scowl and a gape of shock. Why…did White Mask actually sound…apologetic? Again?! What, was he really sorry for holding Abrial hostage? Why didn’t he just let her go, then? Seriously!

“Hey, Blue Mask Guy!” she scowled. “You’ve already embarrassed me enough by holding me hostage! That’s fucking embarrassing! If you don’t let me go, you’re not gonna have a hand left to fight with!” To prove her point, she tried to lift her hand to grab his wrist, but found to her dismay that she seemed to have been magically or medically immobilized. She couldn’t move anything below her face — it was all stiff and limp like metal.!

White Mask hardly reacted. He pursed his lips, the apologetic expression never leaving his lips. When he spoke, his voice was kind.

“Unfortunately, I am afraid that I have no choice but to bring you back to the imperial capital. My apologies. Retreat!”

Abrial was pulled backward suddenly, that sword still pressed against her throat, and the uninjured guards all around the clearing seemed to come alive, rushing towards the prison.

Great. So he wasn’t going to let her go. How irritating! This idiot…how much was he planning to embarrass her?! Now she was getting dragged out at swordpoint, unable to move?! Abrial bared her teeth, trying to figure out how to viciously bite the arm holding her, when a series of sharp whizzing noises filled the air.

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Was it…hailing?! No — those weren’t pieces of hail raining down in a white curtain and hurtling towards them like arrows…Those were thousands of pieces of jagged glassy ice shooting towards White Mask’s face like a cloud of icy daggers!

White Mask abruptly stopped, careful not to pierce Abrial’s throat with his sword. Abrial’s heart rose — there was no way he could dodge all of those knives of ice! Once one of them pierced through his mask, he’d let go of her, and then she could turn around and slash him with a dagger, finishing off the notorious White Mask who had almost beaten her master and the Wei raiding regiment once and for all!

But…why wasn’t White Mask moving?

“Are you even gonna dodge?” Abrial muttered, incredulous. White Mask didn’t answer. It seemed there was no need to.

A moment later, the knives of ice sliced down on his face one by one, like glass birds of prey diving in for the kill — but not a single one of them touched his fair skin. Every single one shattered into powder on impact, as though some invisible barrier encased White Mask, Blue Sword’s skin. They dissipated into nothing, leaving both him and Abrial unscathed.

“You coward!” a raider bellowed accusingly. “He’s been under a protection spell this whole time! Who’s been protecting you, huh? The Emperor? Jeez! How low can you go? No wonder Master Wei wasn’t able to defeat him! He had an unfair advantage!”

While the raiders seethed about this, Abrial made eye contact with the pair of stormy hazel eyes glowing across the grounds. It seemed Finley had already recovered from sending those icy knifelike shards, and by the look in her eyes, she was gearing up to send something new and even more deadly.

White Mask seemed to notice this as well.

“It’s no use,” he said grimly. “Nothing can pass through this protection charm. You can try, but you’ll only waste your spiritual energy.”

With that, he turned to retreat again, pulling Abrial gently along.

“STOP!”

Finley’s voice rang out, hoarse and harsh, brimming with pain and hatred. At her next words, Abrial froze.

“Take me instead.”

Up to this point, Abrial hadn’t felt all that fearful. Perhaps it hadn’t set in yet that the Emperor’s right hand man was dragging her away on the direct orders of the Emperor, which was super peculiar and perplexing, and meant that terrible things could be in store for her. But, hearing those words spoken in a cracking voice…

Take me instead.

Something boiled up inside of her, hot and furious and a little afraid, like a roaring dragon. A million things occurred to her at once, none of which had not crossed her mind before: things like slow, maddening torture, memory-altercation, and painful death. If a magician was captured by the Emperor's men…who knew what horrible things could happen to them? Who knew in what ways they could be ruined, driven mad, cut up and beaten and killed?

That pale figure in even paler robes stood so resolutely across the grounds, her robes swaying in the dry breeze, hazel eyes glittering like jewels. Finley was like a jade statue, her eyes resolute.

Meanwhile, Abrial felt like her throat was seizing up. She stared at Finley, memories flashing behind her eyes…

Just the idea of Finley being punished for letting her escape from her parents’ house had been cripplingly painful. It had been months and months, but she still hadn’t forgotten the tearing feeling when Finley had blasted her away on a gust of wind over the garden walls; she’d only pushed it down so she didn’t have to deal with it. She could absolutely not let Finley be taken. No. It could never happen. It couldn’t be allowed. Even the barest thought of it made nauseating fear shoot through her veins.

“No!” She blurted suddenly. “Don’t take her instead. Finley, I’ll be fine! I swear! I promise I’ll escape and come back, okay? Just stay with the camp and don’t get into any trouble! They probably don’t want to kill me, they want me for…some reason! Right?! Don’t worry, okay?! Just leave it!”

Finley ignored her entirely, seeming to float across the battlefield calmly towards White Mask, Blue Sword and Abrial. Her face was utterly expressionless as she approached.

When she reached them, she dropped her dagger and raised her hands.

“Let go of her. Take me.”

“Finley!” Abrial hollered, exasperated. “ Jeez, I said to leave it, seriously! What don’t you get?!”

Everyone on the battlefield shot each other raised-eyebrow looks. What a rare scene; were these two young women really arguing over the position of hostage?

“What is the reason the Emperor requested you to kidnap Abrial?” Finley asked White Mask calmly, continuing to ignore Abrial’s various pleas. “If it is for her spiritual energy, I have an exceptionally vast supply. If it is for another reason…perhaps I can provide some insight she does not have. I was raised by someone of interest to the Emperor, who taught me many things, including ancient fortune-telling. You must know the one who raised me. Would bringing me instead not be to the Emperor’s interest?”

“Hey!” Abrial burst, highly irritated that she was being ignored and feeling somewhat panicked. Whatever Finley was saying, it sounded potentially convincing. Of course it did. Finley had always had a way with words! “Don’t listen to her, Old Blue Man! She lies all the time! Seriously! For real! And if you want to take me away, why are you still standing here?! Aren’t you taking too long? Hurry up and leave already!”

To everyone’s surprise, White Mask, Blue Sword sighed deeply, even though his grip on Abrial didn’t loosen. His warm brown eyes glinted with a faint hint of sadness.

He didn’t answer Abrial or Finley. He just turned, and disappeared.

More specifically, he leapt up to the top of the rocky prison in one floating jump. Like a fairy, Finley leapt up after him, the wind carrying her all the way up to the top of that high tower. When she landed, she took in the sight before her and fell straight to her knees, trembling.

On the stone ground of the tower-top, there was a teleportation array — the kind that only the most powerful shadow magic could produce. It had already been used. Both Abrial and White Mask were nowhere to be seen, already transported to the imperial capital hundreds of miles away, and the array couldn’t be used again.

Silent silver tears streamed down Finley’s cheeks. Their trails were thinner than needles.

In front of Abrial, she had never cried.

Now, tears flowed like rivers down her cheeks

Who knew what was going through her head behind that expressionless face as she cried? It is as they say: the one who is worth your tears will not make you cry. Now that Abrial had been taken from her, there was no one to bring a small smile to the corners of her lips, and so tears flowed down like rain.