Kiso had later found Haia and insisted that what she asked for would be impossible, but he had eventually relented because of pressure from the other Olija leaders. They needed the Blood Pearls, and Haia had known this and used it to her advantage. After all, they wouldn’t have asked for the help of Golden Dragon’s most infamous criminal if they weren’t desperate.

But, now, Haia, too, was desperate. She needed the general to listen to her. Needed the deal to be changed.

Because if it didn’t, Kenji would die, and that was a reality Haia refused to face.

General Kiso huffed loudly, his breath misting in the cold room. No matter how much he hated it, the Serpent was right. She held the power in this deal. If he wanted the Blood Pearls, he at least had to listen to what she had to say.

“What is it you want to change about the deal?” he asked gruffly.

Haia smiled, knowing she had won. She had the general just where she wanted him.“I want you to kidnap Kenji first and bring him to me,” she said matter-of-factly, her fingers absentmindedly flicking the dim lantern above her head. “Then, I’ll hand you the Blood Pearls.”

For a moment Kiso stared at the thief in shock, his face blank. Then, in the same way a thunderstorm arrives without warning, the general’s face contorted into monstrous rage.

“ARE YOU INSANE?” he bellowed. “If we capture the Empress’s son first, then her Majesty will surely destroy us all before we can do anything with the Blood Pearls!”

“I don’t care,” Haia snapped, unfazed as she crossed her arms across her chest. “Get me Kenji. Or you don’t get your Pearls.”

The general sputtered incoherently, his anger far beyond the reach of words. All he could do was stare at the thief with every bit of spite in his ruddy face.

Haia wasn’t alarmed by his reaction, though. In her life, she had faced her fair share of anger— from vendors who had caught her stealing, to Mai, who had threatened her brother’s life just a few short days ago. The thief wasn’t scared, and she wasn’t beyond daring the general to tell her off either.

“Get out!” Kiso hissed, finally having controlled his rage enough to speak. He had no patience left for the thief’s shenanigans for she had crossed him one too many times—first by trapping him in an utterly dangerous deal, then by going back on her promise to deliver the Pearls the day she stole them.

The evening she had promised to meet him at their rendezvous location, the general had waited for hours and hours beyond their set time only to realize that the thief had stood him up. Instead of returning to the other Olija leaders with the Blood Pearls, the general had delivered to them the disappointing news that Empress Mai had found out about the robbery and had issued a secretive hunt for the thief who had stolen them.

The Silver Serpent had made a fool of Kiso, and every frustration that had piled on his shoulders since then finally exploded out as he marched toward the thief, now, snarling.

“I said. Get. Out! Or I’m handing you to the authorities, Pearls or no Pearls. The Olija will find another way!”

Haia pursed her chapped lips, contemplating her next words as she backed away from the seething general. She didn’t care about his empty threats to take her to the authorities. She didn’t care that he was willing to dismiss the Blood Pearls just to get rid of her.

Haia didn’t care about a lot of things, but she did care about Kenji.

Yet, how could she protect her brother if the general threw her out? How could she convince Kiso that she needed him to listen?

The thief was running out of options…and could think of only one way out of this. She sighed in defeat, fists clenching with shame as she spoke her next words.

“Mai knows,” she mumbled, her obsidian eyes glued to the floor.

“Knows what?” the general asked, his face still shaking with rage even as he stepped away from the Serpent.

“She knows I stole the Pearls. And she’s threatening to kill Kenji if I don’t give them to her.” Haia squeezed her eyes shut. Dragons, this was painful to admit. So, so, painful.

The general cursed, stroking his perspiring face. This was certainly unexpected…and it changed things…

“Did she take the Pearls back from you?” he asked gruffly.

The thief shook her head. “No. She tried, but I had already hidden them in a secure location. Trust me, they won’t be found by anyone but me. Only I have the key.”

The general cursed again. He scowled so deeply, his face turned red with wrath.

“And what do you care about Kenji Gozen?” he barked. Why was the Silver Serpent so fixated on that one boy? Why was a threat on his life so important to her?

“And don’t give me useless crap about him being your brother,” he snapped. “I did my research, and I know the Empress adopted him from a home destroyed by a fire. You think she’s heartless enough to kill the only son she’s ever had? She may be cruel to the rest of us, but I doubt she would kill her own son! The ‘threat’ on Kenji’s life is not enough for the Olija to kidnap him before you give us the Pearls.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Haia shook her head in disbelief. The general had no idea how much of the truth he was denying, and he certainly didn’t understand how cruel the Mai could be. “You don’t know the Empress like I do.”

“Please, enlighten me then!” the general scoffed.

Haia breathed deeply, looking down at her peeling, dry fingers. She had hoped that revealing Kenji’s life hung in the balance would appeal to the general’s better nature, but, clearly, he was willing to sacrifice the innocent boy for the Blood Pearls. So, the thief was left with one last secret to reveal, one that she despised herself for even thinking of using.

One that would surely bend the general to her will but tear at her insides.

“I saw Mai kill the man she loved most in the world right in front of my eyes,” Haia said slowly. She paused for a moment before continuing, the words slowly closing up her throat. “Trust me. I know that she’s more than capable of killing her son— the real son of the man she loved—to get back the Blood Pearls.”

The general’s face turned white as ash. No…no…. Mai had only ever loved one man….and that had happened years ago….could it be? Could she be?

“You’re…you’re Hiro’s daughter,” the general whispered in disbelief.

Haia nodded slowly, the truth finally revealed. Her insides burned, and her mind keeled as pools of blood and lifeless eyes flashed before her eyes. She shoved the memories aside, forcing herself to draw an uneven breath.

Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm…

“I am Hiro’s daughter,” she confirmed for the general, her breath shaking as she shoved her trembling fingers into the pockets of her pants. She didn’t want Kiso to see her struggling.

She was not weak. Would not be weak. Could never be weak.

“Kenji is my brother,” Haia continued, her words steadying more with each new sentence. “He has a star-shaped birthmark on his cheek. Just like Papa. You can check if you don’t believe me.”

The general looked at Haia with a somber expression, finally seeing her for who she was now, and she was right. Hiro had had a star-shaped birthmark on his cheek, and so did Kenji. Kiso had never had reason to make the connection before, but now that Haia was laying it all out, it all made sense.

The thief, too, had always seemed familiar to him in a strange way, but now he saw that it was because she had her mother’s looks— obsidian eyes, slender face, raven hair— and her father’s mannerisms. That swagger, that self-assuredness— it was the same as Hiro but in all the wrong ways. In the many decades Kiso had known Hiro and his wife, Jin, they had always fought for something larger than themselves. Hiro’s confidence and talent had been put to use for a good cause, but where had all that talent gone in his daughter’s life? They had gone into thieving, conniving, and conning instead.

But Kiso knew it was also no fault of Haia’s own that she had turned out the way she had. Circumstances were a tricky little thing, and for the first time, he did not see the arrogant Silver Serpent but the little girl who must have been terrified to see her parents murdered before her eyes. He couldn’t even imagine the heartbreak that Haia must have endured as a child when he, a grown man, had been devastated beyond belief upon finding his lifelong friends’ dead bodies in their charred home.

“We always thought you and your brother had died, too,” he told Haia, reaching to touch her shoulder, though the thief jerked it back quickly.

“I don’t want or need your pity. What’s happened has happened,” Haia said, scowling at the look of empathy on the general’s face. She hated when people felt sorry for her. What use was their pity when it would change nothing?

“I don’t pity you,” the general said, smiling sadly. “I’m simply happy to know that Hiro’s legacy lives on through his daughter and that both his children are alive.”

Haia rolled her eyes, allowing her irritation at the general’s meaningless words to replace the burning panic that had overtaken her body as she relieved her dark past. She was happy to feel anything other than the terrible, terrible feeling of liquid fire in her lungs.

“Spare me the sentimental comments,” she told the general. “Kenji and I won’t both be alive if you don’t do as I ask. We need to get my brother out of the Dragon Palace now. Mai has only given me a week to give her back the Pearls.”

Kiso nodded quietly, the gears in his mind turning, formulating a plan. He couldn’t let Hiro’s son die because of the rebel’s needs. Hiro had given his life for the movement, and his son shouldn’t have to do the same.

“Does Kenji know the truth about your relationship to him? How did you even find out that he was your brother?” the general asked Haia, eager to learn more. How had the thief even found out her brother was none other than the Empress’s son?

Haia shook her head. “No. I never had the heart to tell him. And, I’ll tell you later how I found out he was my brother. We have more pressing matters at hand, don’t we?”

“Yes, we do,” the general agreed. Kenji’s ignorance to the truth would certainly complicate matters. They couldn’t very well just waltz into the Dragon Palace and convince Kenji to leave Mai since she was the woman who had murdered his real parents. He would never believe something so apparently ludicrous.

The thief and the general stood in silence for sometime, neither voicing the troubles plaguing their minds, the challenges they needed to overcome.

Finally, it was the general who spoke first. “Alright, I have an idea.”

Haia raised an eyebrow, intrigued that the general had come up with something so quickly. “Please, tell me.”

“It may be insane,” the general started. “but it is an idea nonetheless. I don’t want to come under fire from the other leaders for your mistakes nor do I want to see Hiro’s son die, so you’re going to listen to my plan and do as I say. Understood?”

Haia nodded, resigned as thoughts of Kenji consumed her mind. Great Dragon, protect his soul, she prayed.

“We’re going to—“

“Rescue Kenji first?” she asked despite herself.

The general gave her a warning look. She hadn’t even let him get two words out.

“No, that won’t be necessary.”

The thief frowned. “How will we save Kenji’s life if we don’t rescue him first? I’m not handing over the Blood Pearls to the rebels until my brother is safe.”

“You’re not going to give the Blood Pearls to the rebels first,” he said.

“I’m not?” Haia asked, eyebrows arched in surprise.

Kiso shook his head. “No.”

“You’re going to give them to the Empress.”