This night it wasn't the nightmares or the dreams that kept waking me up.

First, I was awoken when I heard a group of people passing through the courtyard. When I raised my head to check what was going on I met Gelcaria's eyes, the nearest brazier's dying embers were making her lilacs eyes glow slightly in the dark.

She just calmly whispered: “It's just the princess and Hamy,” she yawned cutely, “They must be going back to her apartments. Let's go back to sleep,” she mumbled before tucking the whole blanket to herself.

Her senses were sharper than mine and were even more enhanced by her Chi overcharge training. The princess' living rooms and chamber were adjoining her training yard, so it wasn't surprising that she had to walk through here. The sky was pitch black since the moons were hidden behind heavy clouds, the celebrations must have gone on till late. I'll ask her to retell us all about it tomorrow or next morning, depending on what time it is.

I quickly fell back asleep. I just hope I won't snore because Gel's enhanced earring would trouble her a lot and I don't know how patient she can be in her Chi-intoxicated state. The wooden dummies' fates were deeply ingrained in my memory.

* * * * *

My fear came to reality when I'm woken up once more. This time Gel's hand is covering my mouth and she's pushing on my chest with the other. Her two purple stars are staring intently at me. She slowly leans down and for a second I think she's going to kiss me on the forehead but she changes direction at the last moment and brushes past my cheeks to whisper as slowly as possible directly into my ear: “Stay quiet. We are not alone, there are some trespassers here.”

She slowly lifts her head and listens intently to our surroundings. On my side, I can't hear a thing but my senses aren't as good as someone brimming with Chi. I gently tap on her hand to have her free my mouth. Instead of freeing me she whispers once more: “Shhh. Don't make a sound. There're two people walking towards the princess's apartments,” she hushes me. “They have weapons,” she adds after listening a bit more to what's happening behind our windscreen.

Our brazier is now on his last fuel and the few embers left barely cast light around us. I pray Shinpilo that we stay hidden in the darkness and do not attract attention. I just hope whoever is outside has duller senses than Gel.

The trespassers must have gone farther away because she frees my mouth and I can finally voice my opinion. “We need to go fetch the guards, now,” I advise sternly.

Not even a second after I finish my sentence, the fire bell of the northern wing starts to chime. It is followed by the howls of beasts and three more bells starting to ring furiously, sending the whole palace into a commotion.

“Shit, this must be a distraction, the princess is in danger, we won't have time to go seek for help, the guards must be rushing to the troubles zone.” I bitterly conclude. Our trespassers aren't alone and they have accomplices and are well coordinated. If we are to get out to fetch some help, chances are that by the time we come back in this commotion their deed will be dealt with.

“Then we need to support Hamy, now,” decides Gel without a second thought. I can barely catch her hand before she rushes to the rescue. I try to lecture her in a hushed tone, “Wait, are you crazy? These guys must be assassins. Do you even have a weapon?” I query and try to bring her back to reality, what can a little girl do against two trained fighters? If Hamy and the princess can't deal with them it is likely we won't be able to either.

I can see doubt and anger cross Gel's lavender eyes, this conclusion doesn't sit well with her. “I don't have a weapon yet, I'm not allowed to keep one for myself inside of the castle. I can't stay put either, we need to do something!” She urges me angrily.

I shake the grogginess of sleepiness away and try to think as fast as I can.

My barrel gun is nearby. I can get one shot for sure. There are two clay “grenades” too. There is a big stone pestle near my mortar, the one I use to crush all my powders. This is something Gel can use as a small club, better than being empty handed. I'm trying to think of anything more we could do but I'm interrupted by Gel's restlessness.

“Quick, I can hear struggle inside, they are fighting with Hamy.” she presses me on with urgency. I can tell she wants to jump to the rescue. I'm still convinced it is utterly crazy but if we don't act now or if we leave the courtyard who knows how things will unfold inside.

“Take this.” I pass the pestle on to her and start charging my gun. I'm strangely rushed yet my hands are as steady as during an operation. Time feels like it's stretching to allow me to keep my poise and the adrenaline isn't kicking in enough to make me tremble yet.

Once my gun is loaded with lead bullets, I ask Gel: “Can you tell us what's going on inside?”

She squints her eyes and tilts her head, trying to grasp any sound coming from the direction of the princess's chamber. “The fighting is over. I think the intruders won. I can hear them coming back our way,” she warns me. “I think one of them is limping or carrying something heavy.

There is little time to decide what to do. If we don't act right now, they'll just sneak away. Either we ambush them or we stay in hiding. As I'm pondering what to do, Gel cuts my reflections “I think they are kidnapping the princess.”

This leaves me very little choice, we need to intervene. I still think it is madness but I doubt Gelcaria would accept to lay low and if we don't act together, we are both dead. “Can you distract them for a few breaths? It is the time needed for my gun to fire. Then we'll have to deal with the last one somehow. I hope the sound will attract whatever guard is nearby.” I pray Husnd that we aren't facing high-ranking warriors or we are as good as dead.

Gel nods confidently, “leave it to me.” Before rushing towards the courtyard's entrance to hide behind a decorative bush. The lack of light should hide her well enough but we have no idea of the level of these trespassers. I believe they shouldn't be that keen because they didn't spot us the first time while we weren't even hiding.

I take position beside the brazier. I'll light my fuse at the last moment. I chose a long fuse and I should have around 3 sec to aim and hopefully hit something. I curse at the fuses I've got. I have yet to test them enough to have reliable timers. I just postponed it till now and now regret the procrastination.

I'll need to get as close as possible to make this shot a sure-kill, I can't afford to miss. I tug the grenades in my shirt, I'll use them as a last resort.

When the intruders come through the door, I can barely make them out in the darkness. They are fully dressed in black and with a shawl covering their faces, like ninjas of old. One of them is limping and carrying something on his back, probably the princess that they are taking to another castle. The other one is opening the way and the glint of metal in his hands tells me he has two knives or short swords.

I can tell Gel is about to jump in and I light my fuse right as she leaps out of her hiding spot to whack the limping man with her pestle-mace.

To distract the second intruder, I just charge at him while yelling “Feel the wrath of my gunpowder!!” I feel dumb but my goal is reached, it distracts him from Gel and gets me to close the gap between us.

The gap is closed too fast in fact. The man charges at me with unnatural speed, knives ready to dice and slice through me. As he is about to bump into me, a thunderous explosion stops him in his track and the recoil pushes me back to the point that I fall backwards. I aimed for his torso and hope I got him good.

As I struggle to get up I can hear Gel scream in pain. One of the knives of the second kidnapper is puncturing through and through her right arm, pinning her to one of the door's jamb.

The man has already turned his attention my way, attracted by the explosion. “Brother!” he yells when he sees his companion is lying still on the floor. His eyes meet mine and I know I'm in trouble. “You bratty magician! Go meet with Otik!” He throws the princess on the ground and starts limping my way faster than I could run on my best day.

I have no other choice but to light one of my grenades on the nearby brazier. I can feel more than I can hear or see, that the man is almost upon me.

A flash of silver points me at his blade and I instinctively protect myself with my right hand. The blade pierces through it like butter but I can barely take notice of the pain as my whole body is now saturated with adrenaline.

Following this strike, the man's knee meets my chest and shoves me to the ground. The shock brutally empties my lungs in a strange wail and leaves me breathless. This time, no amount of adrenaline is enough to dull the pain. This guy's as strong as a bull. The sparks on my fuse remind me of the ticking time bomb that's still in my left hand. I've held on to it as if my life depends on it, which might very well be the case.

I know time is running low and just shove it to the face of the man praying for the thing to blow.

Oreo grants my wish, an explosion shakes my left side an deafens me. Just like when you touch a very hot device and before the pain overrides all, during the brief instant when your thermal receptors are overloaded and sends you contradictory pieces of information; I feel a cold bite on my left hand followed by a burn and then the pain telling me that my hand is gone.

As the cloud of smoke slowly disperse, I can see that so is half of the man's skull. His right half is torn to shreds, bits of brainmatter are sloshing out of his skull. I can feel small burns all across my own face, either splash of blood, bits of flesh, or just shards of the clay pot.

The cold sensation just grows stronger and keeps creeping up from both of my hands until it reaches my arms and then my chest.

I feel surprisingly clear-minded. Enough to have an instant to think of all the blood flowing from the knife's wound and from my left stump. The alarm bells are still ringing in the back and a red light in the night sky either points to the break of day or a fire. The night is chilly but I shouldn't feel this cold, again I think of the blood flowing out of me. I know that a child's total blood amount is surprisingly low, I should have less than 3 liters.

I can't stench the red rivers' flow, no hands, no gain. I just have enough clarity left to lay down on my back and keep what's left of my hands on my chest to avoid exsanguinating myself.

From the corner of my eyes, I can see Gel struggling to take out the knife holding her right arm pinned to the door.

The thing must have been deeply sunk in the wood for her to struggle this much.

I want to yell at her to leave it where it is lest she'll start bleeding out too, it could have cut an artery and the humeral artery would empty her fast. Yet my body isn't responding any longer and the night engulfs me.