Whenever Kenji Gozen felt stifled by palace life, he knew it was time for a change of scenery.

Sometimes, this change took the form of training his martial arts in the practice arenas outside of the Dragon Palace, while other times, it took the form of trips to the library to pore over books for hours on end.

Today, Kenji had decided that he would venture into the heart of Haan for a change instead, hoping that he would catch a breath of fresh air.

Too bad actual fresh air was a difficult commodity to come by in the smog-covered capital city.

As he roamed the streets, Kenji couldn’t help but choke on mouthfuls of smoke flowing out of the nearby blacksmith shops. Passersby gave him strange looks for his excessive wheezing, no doubt confused as to why a native of the city would not be used to the dirt and grime surrounding them. How could they possibly know that he was no ordinary citizen? He was dressed in commoner clothes after all.

“Sorry,” Kenji apologized as another coughing fit shook his body. He stumbled, slamming into a cloaked stranger wearing a straw hat.

The stranger said nothing, simply adjusting their cloak and moving on, but as Kenji lifted his head, he noticed that there was something oddly familiar.

That gait…that swagger…could it be?

But before Kenji could open his mouth and call after the stranger, they dashed into the crowded marketplace.

What were they running after? Kenji wondered.

The boy did not know, but he wanted to find out.

He leaped into action, slipping and sliding between the people crowding the market. He ignored the shouts of vendors haggling with their customers, the delicious aromas of steamed dumplings and rice, and the mischievous children tugging at his tunic. His focus remained steadily on the cloaked stranger.

A stranger who was not a stranger at all, Kenji realized, as they turned backward, eyes scanning the crowd behind them.

Kenji’s suspicions had been right.

It was Haia, but what was she doing here at this time of day? Didn’t she have her trading business to attend to?

“Haia!” Kenji called, tripping over his feet and pushing people out of the way as he chased after her.

Haia didn’t hear his shouts, however, for in his rush to get her attention, he had slammed straight into a horde of older women trundling toward their favorite stalls for shopping. As Kenji stumbled to the ground, they waggled their fingers, berating him for his carelessness.

“Watch where you’re going, boy!” they reprimanded him.

“Sorry,” Kenji mumbled as he tried to squeeze past them.

“Don’t you disrespect us!” they continued, tugging at his sleeve, demanding him to beg forgiveness. Kenji paid them no heed as he craned his neck, his eyes locked on Haia’s bobbing hat as she surfed through the sea of bodies. Curses! If these annoying old bats didn’t let go of him, he’d lose sight of her soon!

“Let me go!” he snapped, tugging his arm away.

“You dare talk back to us?” one of the ladies screeched. Haia’s hat had almost completely turned the corner of the street now.

Kenji grit his teeth, his eyes darting back and forth between Haia’s receding figure and the angry women circling him as he gave them his fake apology.

“I’m very, very sorry. Now, can I please go?” Kenji begged, bowing over and over, sweat dripping from his head. He was going to lose Haia if he didn’t leave right now!

“Mhmm, that’s better,” a lady in yellow griped, sniffing as she crossed her arms across her chest. Kenji didn’t wait for any more acknowledgments of his apology. He shoved past the old women again, now fully sprinting down the street, dashing past barking dogs, hissing cats, bleating goats and giggling children. He ignored the dirty looks from the people he unceremoniously knocked into as he skidded around the street corner.

He had just seen Haia turn here. She would surely be just a few paces away…no…no…

She was gone.

The narrow street was empty apart from a few people leaving their homes.

Kenji cursed, staring up at the sky in frustration. Where could she have possibly disappeared? Had she entered one of these buildings? Could she have—ah, there!

Kenji spotted Haia’s cloak billowing in the wind as she climbed up onto the shingles of the building diagonally to his right. Kenji followed her lead, running over to the building before gripping the wooden planks as he climbed up, up, up.

When he reached the rooftop, he realized that Haia had hopped onto a brick compound wall below the building that led to an even more dingier looking part of Haan.

Kenji frowned. Could this be where Haia lived? If so, he felt sorry for her. This place was chock full of putrid, open gutters, crumbling buildings, raucous day-drinkers and screaming orphans. It didn’t seem like somewhere anyone should live.

As he continued to follow Haia, ducking behind alleyways whenever she dared to glance back, he couldn’t help but feel guilty while passing by the starving children gazing at him, wide-eyed and hopeless. He wished he could do something, anything to change their sorry circumstances, but he knew what Mai would say.

“The Great Dragon gives us the lot in life that we deserve. We do our duty. We do not question His decisions.”

But Kenji couldn’t agree with that sentiment. Why would any omnipotent being be so cruel to some and so generous to others? Didn’t that make them evil? If this truly was the will of the Great Dragon, Kenji wasn’t sure He was worth being praised.

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“Hey, beautiful! Come ‘ere!” a drunken voice slurred through Kenji’s musings. The boy turned toward the source of the voice, a hobbling man with a bottle in his hand who was now leering at Haia, his hands grasping for her arm. Kenji bolted forward to his friend’s aid, but before he had even made it forward three feet, he stopped in his tracks—

Haia had a glinting dagger in her hand.

A dagger which was now at the man’s pulsing throat.

She smiled at the drunkard eerily, tilting her head like a curious cat.

“Beautiful, huh?” she purred, her voice deadly cold. “Why, thank you! I’ll take the compliment. Now scatter— before I take your life in exchange for your kind words.”

Kenji audibly gasped, his eyebrows raising in surprise. He had never seen Haia act this way before. Then again, they had never run into creepy men on even creepier streets. Did she come to places like this very often? Was that why she carried a dagger with her?

Curious. Very curious, Kenji thought as he watched Haia release the man, sending him on his way. Either his friend was hiding something or this was her much more dangerous doppelgänger. Regardless, Kenji was intrigued enough to continue following this new Haia through more criss-crossing, narrow, claustrophobia-inducing streets.

Finally, when Kenji felt like his legs would fall from all the running, Haia stopped. They had arrived at the dead end of an alleyway. Stacks and stacks of wooden crates lined both walls, giving Kenji a place to hide as he watched Haia’s obsidian eyes shift around, surveying her surroundings. When her glance came his way, Kenji quickly pulled back, his back against the crates, heart thump, thump, thumping against his ribcage.

This was much more excitement than he had signed up for this afternoon.

Only when he heard Haia’s feet shuffling again did Kenji dare to peek from behind the crates. He watched as his friend knelt to the ground, picking at the mud-stained tarp covering a patch of the ground. He squinted, trying to make out the shadows beneath her hand.

What was that there…oh, if only he could get a little closer…

Thump.

Kenji stilled, realizing his mistake too late. He had stretched himself too far, too quickly and his grip on the crates had slipped, sending one of the boxes tumbling to the ground.

Haia jumped to her feet at the sound, racing to the source, her hands grappling for her stalker, ready to threaten them at dagger point, ready to slap the sense out of them, ready to question them for their motives—ready to do none of that.

“Kenji?” she breathed in disbelief, her hands loosening their grip on the collar of his commoner robes.

Kenji smiled awkwardly.

“Hi, Haia,” he said, laughing sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to startle you, I— I was just—”

“Were you spying on me?” Haia thundered, her face tinged red from anger. “Kenji, do you have any idea what kind of danger, what kind of—”

“Danger?” Kenji asked, his eyes sparkling too brightly for Haia’s liking. The thief groaned, releasing her brother. How could she have been so stupid? She had been so wrapped up in her thoughts about General Kiso’s plans and her next steps that she hadn’t even been aware enough to notice her brother— her fifteen-year-old brother— following her. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Haia huffed, rubbing her forehead in frustration as she kicked a pebble against the walls. “Kenji, how did you even end up here?”

He shrugged, casually leaning against one of the walls, trying to appear nonchalant. “I followed you,” he said matter-of-factly. He didn’t want Haia to know how difficult it had been to keep her in eyesight because he was such a terrible stalker.

Haia raised an eyebrow, surprised. How had he even found her in the first place?

“You followed me?” she asked.

Kenji nodded. “Yes. I bumped into you when I was having one of my coughing fits and I had a feeling it was you because, you know, you have that swagger—”

Haia groaned. She had bumped into him and hadn’t noticed? She really did need to be more aware of her surroundings next time!

“—and you didn’t see me. I tried calling after you, but you move really fast and didn’t hear me, so I followed. Then I saw you tell that creepy drunk man off—”

He’d seen that? Haia blushed, feeling deeply embarrassed.

“—and then I followed you to this dead end. Which reminds me, what are you doing here? Don’t tell me your home is behind that dirty looking thing over there,” he said, pointing to the tarp that Haia had been picking at earlier.

“No, that’s not my home,” she told Kenji quickly, wiping her face in frustration. Great Dragon, what was she going to do with this boy? How could she tell him that she was going into Golden Dragon’s dangerous black market— the Underground— for something that could save his life?

“Then what is it?” Kenji asked again, stepping toward the tarp, trying to peek over her shoulder for a better look. Why did it look so dark beneath….

“It’s none of your business is what it is,” Haia insisted, trying to block her brother’s path. “Shouldn’t you be reading books or something back at the Dragon Palace?”

“Mhmm,” Kenji nodded absentmindedly. How could he get past Haia…

“Are you listening?”

“Came for fresh air…”

WHAM!

Kenji launched his right foot forward, sweeping it behind Haia’s leg in an attempt to trip her, but Haia had already seen the gears winding in her brother’s mind long before he made his move, so when he tried to swing past her, she slammed her forearm into his jaw. It would sting, but it wouldn’t bruise.

“Ow!” Kenji cried, stumbling into the opposite wall. He rubbed his tender jaw, scowling at Haia’s disapproving expression. Her arms were crossed across her chest as she shook her head.

“Don’t even bother trying that little trick again,” she said. “I’m going to only say this once and you’re going to listen to me or the Empress will not be pleased. Leave. Now. You have no business here.”

Kenji flinched. Haia’s sharp words stung more than her strike to his face.

“Why wouldn’t Mai be pleased? Why do I have to go?” he whined.

Haia glared daggers at him. Why did he have to be so difficult? “Because, where I’m going, if people find out that the Prince of Golden Dragon is roaming about— you may never return.”

Kenji inhaled sharply, his almond eyes widening—but not with fear.

“Really?” he said, his voice shaking with excitement.

Haia smacked her forehead. Dragon save this boy. He was going to get himself killed.

“Kenji, I don’t think—KENJI!”

In her momentary lapse of irritation, Kenji had slipped past her, dashing straight for the tarp. But before he could grab it, Haia yanked on his hand, her expression so furious, it could have incinerated him alive.

“Don’t. You. DARE!” she hissed, pulling him aside.

Kenji tried to jerk his arm away, though Haia’s grip was firmer than he had expected. So, he tried to kick her shin instead, but stumbled, his left foot slipping underneath the tarp.

“No—” Haia whispered, watching in horror as the tarp slipped open.

Kenji didn’t even have a chance to cry out as the opening in the ground swallowed him whole.