Passing through that weird array thingy was one of the weirdest experiences Abrial had ever experienced in all of her experiences.

First off, she was furiously attempting to chomp her teeth down on White Mask’s arm to no avail when he’d just jumped up to the prison roof like it was nothing. What was, he a cloud, or a bird, or something? He didn’t even use the wind! He just went, All right, gonna hop now! and did.

Her stomach reeled from that first jump. But then, there was that complicated array design glowing like blood on the rocky prison roof. As soon as White Mask carried her inside it, the whole world pulled apart like colorful clouds of cotton, fading into a swirl of unintelligible surroundings. Then, just as quickly, everything rematerialized — only, now they stood in a completely different place, surrounded by rolling green hills and shaded overhead by an ancient greeting pine. The air smelled crisp and clean, and despite it being dark all around and the sky above twinkling with diamond stars, the fresh smell of dawn permeated the air.

Only after gaping at the rapid change in surroundings for a good moment did Abrial remember that she’d just kidnapped. To her frustration, she still couldn’t budge an inch. She was just like a useless rag doll!

At least her mouth could still move. She inclined her head fiercely to glare up at White Mask, Blue Sword with the utmost contempt, baring her teeth like a rabid dog.

“Hey you! Blue Mask! Where are we? And what d’you want with me, anyway? I don’t have anything the Emperor wants! But if you’re gonna take me either way, I promise I’ll…make your life a living hell!...Or something!”

Surprisingly, White Mask smiled.

His smile was much more unrestrained than before, filled with warm humor and amusement. His brown eyes twinkled down at her.

“You have a big temper.”

…How was she supposed to respond to that?! Abrial bared her teeth threateningly. “Is that a bad thing?!”

“No, not at all. I apologize for immobilizing you, but it was necessary, seeing as you would probably have tried to escape. I will lift the spell shortly. For now, our transportation will be arriving soon.”

“Huh? What kind of transportation — ?”

As the words left her mouth, the sound of steadily approaching hoofbeats became audible.

“There it is.”

“Huh?! Where — ?!” Only then did Abrial realize that they were standing right by the side of a wide dirt path paved over the hills. In all the places she had visited in Gongkua over the past few months, she had never seen a path as wide or smooth as this, snaking out over the hills endlessly like the body of a long white snake. It…must be a path connected to a large city! As the hoofbeats increased in volume, a carriage came into view.

…Why would they need a carriage?!

“Hey, White Mask, what’s the carriage for? Where are we going?”

“To the Imperial City. Is it not far.”

Abrial scoffed. “Not far? I don’t see a whole city anywhere!”

“...It is behind you.”

Abrial craned her partially numb neck to see what he was talking about. Her eyes widened to the size of coins.

“No way…No way that’s real!”

In front of Abrial was laid out the vast imperial city of Gongkua that legends would be sung about for centuries to come.

It stood not too far ahead. It was…to say the least, gorgeous, and to say the most…well, it couldn’t be put into words.

Though it was surrounded by walls even taller and sturdier-looking than the hundred-foot stone and brick ones that encircled Abrial’s parent’s house, the part of the city that could be seen peeking up above the walls made Abrial’s eyes shimmer with awe. Roofs of structures, towers, and buildings that looked like palace architecture rose to the sky, everything glimmering in shades of blood scarlet and gold. In the first rays of dawn splaying over the city, all of it shimmered and glittered like a thousand rich man’s pouches, both a rare treasure and an outright feast for the eyes.

“The Imperial Capital…” Abrial breathed. Finley had once described it to her quietly, in the days when they’d both been back at the house. Abrial had forced her to tell her all the ways the capital glowed in the sun, how the magnificence of the buildings was said to mirror that of the heavenly realm, and how it bursted with life like an overrun market where gold rained from the skies.

It seemed Finley’s stories were true. Well, maybe not the raining gold part. But all the rest were. Even from this distance, the capital looked as glorious as an immortal city set atop the hill, waiting to be lifted into the heavens at any moment..

“I want to go there!”

White Mask raised an eyebrow beneath his mask, but didn’t say anything. Did this young woman…realize she’d been forcibly brought here? And yet, she still wanted to go and see the Imperial Capital? What a strange young lady…

Abrial’s eyes shone with the reflection of the city, gold and scarlet swimming in the glittering obsidian of her irises. “Ahem, I’m not that stupid!” She said quickly, as though reading his mind. “I know I've been kidnapped. But even so, for now, who cares? What can I do about it when I’m like this? You haven’t hurt me yet, and you seem nice enough, so I’m not worried about you. And if I get in danger later, or the Emperor wants to use me to find or get some evil thing, or someone tries to torture me or kill me, I’ll just have to deal with that then! And anyways, Finley and Instructor Wei will come find me for sure, so why worry? It won’t help! Since I’m here, I want to see the Imperial Capital! You’re taking me there, right?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

As she spoke, White Mask’s eyes shifted through a carousel of emotions, from surprise, to fondness, to admiration, to regret. The regret that appeared at her words, You haven’t hurt me yet, and you seem nice enough, so I’m not worried about you, lingered the longest beneath the other emotions, seeming to upset him. But Abrial was too excited about the city to catch any of these changes.

The carriage glided so smoothly toward them it seemed to be sliding on ice. Right in front of them it slowed to a stop, revealing something strange:

“Um…Why isn’t there a coach guy driving the horses?” Abrial puzzled. There was no one driving the carriage at all, it seemed — just two jet black horses, who reminded Abrial with a jolt of Dal.

“The Emperor’s personal carriages have no need for a coachperson. They are guided by magic.”

Abrial examined the extravagant carriage with a mixture of frowns and awe. Just like the visible portions of the imperial capital, this carriage was so large and magnificently constructed with black and scarlet wood and golden adornments that it looked like it should really carry some kind of god, and not just the two of them or the ridiculous, crazed Emperor. Engraved and painted with elegant golden characters on the front plaque of the carriage were the words,

Carriage of the Blessed Emperor, Son of Heaven, Immortal Ruler, His Divine Majesty

Abrial’s mouth went sour, and she snorted. She covered her mouth, glancing at White Mask. Oops…he was close with the Emperor, wasn’t he? Was he mad?

But White Mask merely smiled at her gently and tilted his head, as though waiting for her to speak. Abrial uncovered her mouth and pointed at the plaque.

“What’s up with all the flowery titles on the front? Is the Emperor that full of himself?”

White Mask’s expression went flat. “...It was not his idea. It was recommended by the court many years ago.”

Abrial quirked an eyebrow suspiciously. Why did White Mask, Blue Sword sound…a little frustrated? He had spoken calmly so far, from the first moment he’d appeared. Had she hit a sore spot?

She parted her lips to poke at this newly discovered sore patch some more, when something else occurred to her. While he carried her carefully into the carriage — which was extremely spacious inside — she wondered aloud,

“If the Emperor made everyone hate magic and magicians so much, how come people don’t get angry when they see a carriage without a coachperson in the streets with the horses guided by magic?” Scenes of angry townspeople spitting and vowing to capture her back in the town she had saved Shu Romy in surfaced in her mind. “People get so crazy mad at the smallest mention of magic! How could they keep calm seeing this? Wouldn’t they storm the Emperor’s palace and just try and kill him, too, like everyone else? It doesn’t make sense!”

White Mask set her half-limp, half-stiff form down on a very comfortably scarlet-cushioned seat that stretched across one side of the carriage. He sat across from her, his gleaming blue sword sheathed away.

“Bring us back.”

At his words, the carriage lurched gently, then smoothly accelerated in the direction it had come. The embroidered curtains hanging over the windows fluttered slightly with the breeze coming in, and Abrial saw that the hills were seamlessly passing by at quite a speed. Really, it was almost like they were flying instead of riding!

Engrossed by the godly workings of this imperial carriage, Abrial had forgotten her questions when White Mask said in a calm voice,

“Over the past hundred years, most of the empire, though especially the Imperial Capital, has come to believe that the Emperor is blessed by the gods with divine abilities. He is the Son of Heaven — so of course it would be acceptable, correct, and admirable for him to have powerful spiritual abilities that other mortals do not. I am sure you have heard that magicians are cursed and evil, bringing misfortune to all those surrounding them. However, there is another, more rarely mentioned reason for common people perceiving magic as evil. It has long been believed by many that to perform magic both challenges the authority of the emperor’s divine powers. Essentially, to your questions…while, if any carriage besides the Emperor’s were to function like this, there would be an uproar…as long as the carriage belongs to the Emperor, no one will bat an eye. They will consider it the Emperor’s divine right to use heaven-granted spiritual power to drive his carriages.” White Mask paused and looked up with a frown. “Abrial…Your name is Abrial, is it not? Abrial, are you listening?”

Abrial snapped out of her bored daze. She had heard the first part about people basically being okay with the Emperor using magic because it was thought to be his “divine, god-given, special special Emperor power”, but after that, it had all just slurred into blah, blah, blah this, blah blah misfortune, uproar, blah and blah. Completely ignoring his question, she launched into another question of her own:

“Hey, I’ve got another thing to ask. About what you just said. Do you believe that stuff, too? That it’s okay for the Emperor to do magic because he’s the Son of Heaven or whatever, but for anyone else who tries, they should be tortured and die?”

White Mask, Blue Sword looked out the window, and didn’t answer. He seemed to be lost in thought.

“Hey! Blue Mask! Did you hear me? Do you really believe that stuff? There’s no way, right? I mean, you’re using magic to immobilize me right now, and you’ve got a fancy unbreakable protection spell, and you probably do all kinds of other magical things!”

White Mask pursed his lips.

“...You are correct. I do not believe the same things about the Emperor as the people of Gongkua do.”

“Aha!” Abrial exclaimed, like she’d just made an extremely satisfying discovery. “It’s like I thought! You’re way too nice to be in real kahoots with someone as evil as the Emperor, so you must be secretly a double-agent! You’re pretending to be the Emperor’s right-hand man, but actually you believe he’s a murderer like us other magicians and you want to get rid of him — ”

“Enough.”

White Mask, Blue Sword’s voice was cold as ice. It shocked Abrial into silence. “I am not conspiring against the Emperor, and I would never do so.”

Abrial stared at him, eating her own words. Her insides deflated from their excitement. All right…so maybe he wasn’t on her side. At all.

That was…a problem.

For the first time, she realized that was a problem. She had sort of automatically assumed he didn’t mean her any harm ever since he’d brought her here, since he hadn’t hurt her one bit or come off as cruel in any way, even carefully carrying her and speaking kindly. Even though his demeanor was reserved and distant, there was something…warm about him that didn’t seem evil at all. Someone involved in the Emperor’s twisted schemes and murders wouldn’t act like that. And so she had been subconsciously depending on White Mask to keep her out of severe harm for now, until she could escape back to Finley and the others. But now…

Suddenly, she wasn’t so sure she could expect any protection from him.

Oh, well, she shrugged mentally, brushing off the sudden unfamiliar fear that crept into her chest. I’ll just have to get myself out of whatever comes, or take it. Doesn’t make much of a difference…right?