Abrial’s back hurt, so she shifted to lean against the wall away from White Mask. A sharp inhale came from behind her.
“Where did you get that robe?”
“I’m not talking to you,” she grumbled.
“...Were you given that robe?” The strange, retrained desperation in his voice shocked Abrial. She scowled, despising this repeated changing of mood. Such an emotional guy! One minute he was cold, the next he was warm, and the next he was desperate!
“It’s none of your business! It’s from a friend. She made it for me, all right?!”
Silence from White Mask. What was he doing—staring coldly at her back, or gazing peacefully out the window again all of a sudden? Whatever! Abrial didn’t care. Let the guy have his mood swings!
A tired sigh sounded behind her.
“...It is a magnificent robe. I admire the weaving. It suits you well.”
Abrial shot White Mask a dark scowl over her shoulder and returned to hugging her knees. She wasn’t going to accept a compliment from him!
No one stopped them when they passed through the grand, imposing city gates, as they werre in an imperial carriage. But through the slit between the curtain and window, Abrial saw lines and lines of scarlet and steel-dressed guards standing like statues as they passed by, swords in their belts and bows on their backs.
Her mouth tasted revoltingly sour.
An uncomfortable feeling of guilt bloomed in her stomach. When Finley came to retrieve her — no, if Finley came to retrieve her — it would be extremely difficult to get even past the gates with this many guards. How could any Wei camp magicians expect to make it past the security of wherever she was being taken, then? They might just get captured, too! And then, what would happen to them?!
The thought occurred to her for the first time that…
Maybe she shouldn’t be rescued.
Maybe she should find a way to communicate with Finley, or Instructor Wei, or anyone, and tell them not to come. She could promise to escape by myself. Then they’d all be safe, at least! And if she found a way to communicate with them…she had to make sure that Finley absolutely wouldn’t come. Otherwise, something bad might happen to her, and she couldn’t let that happen…
“Did you not want to see the imperial capital?”
“Huh?” Abrial startled from her thoughts. Her eyebrows shot up with excitement at White Mask’s question. “Oh! The capital! Right! We’re inside! Hey, Mask Man, can you open this curtain a little? I can’t see.”
White Mask pulled the curtain back slightly for her to see, but not wide enough for her to stick her face out. She couldn’t do that anyways, with the burning protection charm and everything. Abrial put her eye to the gap, and it immediately shone with awe and wonder.
“It’s amazing!”
As it was the earliest point of dawn, the capital’s curfew was just lifting, and almost no one was out and about on the streets. So, Abrial had a completely unobstructed view of the legendary, mythical, revered divine magnificence of the capital.
They seemed to be riding smoothly and briskly up a line of extravagant shops. Every shop was constructed with the most polished, beautifully carved planks and eaves of wood painted in divinely attractive colors, so that they looked more like little palaces than shops. The shop signs were gilded with gold, and Abrial caught a few of them:
Cosmetics
Apparel
Instruments
Original Texts
Jewelry
“They should really make the shop names more interesting…” Abrial remarked. “Just saying what’s inside is boring, don’t you think? Maybe more like, Godly Amazing Divine Cosmetics, or Luxuriously Luxurious Apparel, or The Mythicalest and Rarest Texts Ever, or something like that. That’s much more interesting! I’d go if they had those kinds of names.”
“...”
Despite the plain shop names, everything was so lovely and expensively constructed — each building, each little shrine between alleys, each inn and each residence as they grew closer to the center of the capital — was so magnificent and costly-looking that Abrial decided, if someone had paid to build this city in one go, it would have cost about a thousand pouches of a million heavy gold coins. More than anyone could ever gather in a thousand lifetimes! Seriously — even the streets were paved with the occasional gold-gilded stones, all smooth as the surface of a crystal pond!
Suddenly, the curtain dropped back down, nearly burning Abrial’s nose.
“Hey! What was that for? I wanted to see those big courtyards! The fountains were crazy!”
“Pardon me, but I must blindfold you now.”
“Huh! What for?”
“It must be done. It is procedure for criminals who are to be taken into holdings in the Imperial Huo Palace to be blindfolded to make it more difficult for them to escape.”
“Huh? But I’m not a criminal! And wait, I’m going to the Emperor’s palace? Whoa! I’m gonna get to go inside?!”
“...Yes. Please turn around.”
Abrial hmphed grumpily, still enthralled by the idea of seeing the imperial palace. “Fine. A blindfold is no big deal for me. I can still fight with my eyes closed if I need to, so watch out!”
After Abrial was properly blindfolded, she sat grumbling and punching the ground for some time. Something strange gradually happened as they drew nearer to the Emperor’s Huo Palace — an intriguing choice, to name it the ‘Fire’ Palace. A sense of dark foreboding, like misty, unnerving storm clouds, seeped into Abrial’s chest, prickling through her entire body. A heaviness formed in the center of her chest.
As the looming feeling grew, Abrial thought to ask at last:
“Hey, White Mask. You still haven’t told me why I’m being detained as a criminal in the Emperor’s palace. What does the Emperor want from me, anyways?”
Silence from White Mask.
“...Hey, White Mask! What does he want, huh? I swear I don’t have anything to give him, so if you think I have some big secret to share that’ll give him a ton of power or something, someone told you the wrong thing! Does he want to punish me for being a part of the Wei camp, like a representative? Am I going to be…” Her voice faltered suddenly at the thought. “...Am I gonna be…tortured?”
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Finally, an answer:
“…I am sorry, but I cannot ensure anything. His Majesty’s temperament is unpredictable. Just see that when you speak to him, you speak as little as possible and as respectfully as possible. That way, you might be sentenced to a life in prison…or a quick death…rather than something like torture.”
Abrial thought she’d heard wrong. She laughed.
“Ha! You’re joking, right? My options are to be sentenced to a life in prison, death, or being tortured? And you’re putting death as a better option than torture? That’s funny, haha! I didn’t know you had a sense of humor!”
“...”
After getting out her laughs, Abrial felt sort of sobered up. The meaning of those words actually hit her—like a ton of boulders
Prison, death, torture…
Prison, death, or torture?!?!?!
“Wait, are you serious?! B-but…that’s not faire! White Mask Man, I’m completely serious when I say I have no idea what I could’ve done to deserve that kind of thing, or a personal kidnapping! I’m…seriously confused. And I don’t want to die!”
White Mask was quiet when he spoke again. “...Perhaps your being a magicians is enough to warrant death and torture in His Majesty’s eyes.”
“What?! What a bunch of baloney! More importantly, what about all the other raiders back at Hwayeom prison? They were all magicians. You didn’t take any of them! Why was I the only one taken? It’s like you went there specifically to get me!”
Silence from White Mask.
Abrial cursed and crossed her arms, leaning against the wall away from him again and pushing down a growing feeling of panic. How annoying! She was being completely serious now, and a little scared. Looks like he wasn’t the type to answer reasonable or unreasonable, serious or unserious questions no matter how urgent! It was like talking to a rock!
For a short time, she sat silently fuming while White Mask did whatever peaceful/moody things he was doing. At last, the carriage came to a smooth stop.
“Please take my hand. I will lead you out of the carriage.”
“Hmph.” Abrial remained sulking and hugging her knees in the corner. White Mask sighed, reaching for her hand. When she felt his cold touch, Abrial swatted his hand violently away. “I’m not holding your hand! I can get out fine on my own!”
“...”
White Mask went out first, then stood outside to catch Abrial if she fell flat on her face on the smooth stones lining the palace grounds. Abrial bashed her nose into the carriage door frame a few times, grunting, but refusing to make any exclamations of pain. Eventually, she stumbled out the door, almost crashing down and breaking her wrists, but catching her balance at the last moment. When she was sufficiently steady on the ground, she straightened up smugly and crossed her arms with indignation while White Mask looked on with a mixture of exasperation and helplessness. He sighed tiredly.
“I am going to remove your weapons now. Please hold still.”
“What?!” Abrial immediately shifted into a fighting stance. Beneath her blindfold, her eyes flashed menacingly. “No way! Dohyun and Jiho need to stay with me!”
“I am afraid it is necessary. Prisoners are not allowed to keep weapons.”
“Try and take them, then! I swear I’ll stab your eyes out first!”
Shink!
Abrial drew both of her daggers, poised to chop off any hand that came close. “You kidnapped me, blindfolded me, paralyzed me, told me I’ll probably be killed, and you won’t even tell me why you’re doing all this! No way are you taking my daggers, too — !”
All at once, a cold finger touched down on Abrial’s neck, and her limbs went limp like noodles. She slumped forward, caught in a gentle pair of arms.
Her first instinct was to start hollering and shouting, but this time, even her mouth wouldn’t move, so all she could do was make furious gibberish noises!
Infuriating!
“Margh! Arguh! Rafgh!!! GRAHHHHHHHH!”
A rough translation:
“That’s no fair! I didn’t even feel you coming! Let go of me right now! Where are my daggers?! YOU ASSHOLE!!!!!”
“Please excuse me. I will carry you inside.”
“RAHHHH!”
Translation:
Either “Don’t fucking touch me!” or more likely just a random noise of extreme frustration and fury.
Gently, White Mask carried her for what seemed an eternity, since every moment Abrial couldn’t move and had to lay like a slaughtered lamb in White Mask’s arms made her exponentially more furious and contemptuous. She was at the point of internally combusting into madness when he placed her down at last on the hard, cold ground.
“I will be leaving you here. Food will be brought; please sleep. Do not try to escape. There are many guards in this area of the palace, and stationed outside of your door. It would only harm you to try. In the morning, someone will retrieve you to see the Emperor.”
“Blaugh?!” (“The Emperor?! I’m seeing the Emperor tomorrow?!”)
“I am sorry — I cannot understand you. The spell will lift as soon as I leave the premises, and then you will be able to remove your blindfold. Goodbye, Abrial.”
Abrial lay limply on the ground like a sack of rice or a very large, very angry fish, so fuming that she hardly heard White Mask’s light footsteps recede away, or the close of the door and the clank of a lock being lowered over it. Low, muffled voices came from behind it — it sounded like White Mask was giving some kind of order to someone, probably a guard, standing just outside of the door.
For the next five minutes or so, Abrial imagined stomping on White Mask’s pretty face a thousand times until his mask was powder. Even if he wasn’t the reason she had been brought here, he had humiliated her enough in the past few hours to fill the entire imperial city with her hatred towards him and her mortification. What! A! Stingy! Unfun! Moody! Weirdo! Crazy! Bastard!!!
A tingling sensation spread over Abrial’s body from her chest outwards, sparkling through her thumbs and down to her fingertips. It was like little stars were warmly bursting in her veins. When the sensation fizzled out, she found, to her joy and relief that she could move again. Immediately she sat up and shouted at the top of her lungs, not caring at all whole could hear her:
“YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE, OLD MASK MAN, I SWEAR I’LL STRANGLE YOU TO DEATH ONE DAY! AND I’LL STICK YOUR SWORD IN A PILE OF HORSE SHIT! I’M GOING TO DO IT, YOU JUST FUCKING WAIT! GRAHHHHH! RAHHH!!! ARGHHHH! I HATE YOU!”
Only after getting that out did she look around the room with a heaving chest. She raised her dark eyebrows.
“Isn’t this…nice for a prison room?”
Indeed, it was.
While the room wasn’t particularly large, it wasn’t so small she couldn’t walk around in it a bit if she wanted. The hard place White Mask had placed her down on she saw was a (annoyingly hard) bedroll completely with a blanket and a ceramic pillow, and in the middle of the room sat a wooden table with nothing on it. There was a rather large, curtained window by the bedroll, which let in muted rays of morning sunlight. The curtain fluttered in the breeze.
This…what not what she’d imagined. Whenever she thought of where White Mask was taking her, she automatically thought of a dark, dank cellar with maybe a few rats and a lot of mold. She could only come to the conclusion that, since this was a part of the palace, it had to be nicer than a normal prison. It definitely was extremely bare and ugly for a room in the great Emperor’s palace — all plain walls with almost no furniture, and the wooden floor panels were scuffed and cracked in places. This must just be a desolate part of the palace prisoners were kept in, or something. It was way nicer than a real prison, but way worse than what a grand imperial palace room should look like.
Comparably, it was also much worse than…
Abrial paled.
Much worse than her room at the house.