I closed my eyes for a moment. When I opened them again, the room had stopped spinning around me, at least. But I still felt sick, and like I was floating around isolated from the world around me.

Focus, I chided myself. I looked at one of the rings on my hand. It was a talisman supposed to protect me from poison, but it must not be strong enough. They wouldn’t use something weak to target me, and whatever it was had be pretty fast-acting.

I reached for my storage item, then paused. I had a number of medicines and pills in there, but nothing that would help without more knowledge. And no emetic.

I rushed over to the basin serving as a sink, glancing at the mirror hanging over it in passing. My face looked pale and there were a few drops of sweat on my forehead. I put my hand in front of my mouth and inserted two fingers, trying to reach for my throat and tonsils. That’s how you’re supposed to induce vomiting, right?

But before I’d even completed the motion, the door crashed open.

I whirled around, looking at the guard who’d just entered and now closed the door behind him. Kei Weriga, one of Aston’s most trusted subordinates. I didn’t like the look in his eyes.

In a moment, he’d crossed half of the room, looming before me. “Trying to spew it out, princess? That won’t work.”

I tried to back away, but not before he managed to grab my arm, pulling it toward him. Quickly, I gathered some darkness qi into my foot and kicked him, pulling my arm out of his grasp at the same time.

He let me go. But as I backed up a step, I saw I hadn’t hurt him. In fact, Kei was just finishing a technique that sent qi out to cover the walls and door. A sound barrier? Or something to block Mother’s senses?

“I’m an idiot.” The realization burned like an ember in my gut. How didn’t I see this? “In the forest, you recorded what I said, didn’t you?”

He smirked, apparently knowing what I was talking about right away. “I did.”

I cursed again. I’d even seen him watching me outside the sect, shortly before I spoke those words intended for a spirit. And during the war, of course he knew where I’d be. And he was the one who reported that the road ahead was clear!

I tried to center myself, pushing down the bile and bitterness. The shock seemed to have helped against the poison’s symptoms, but I didn’t know how long that would last. And he was in the fifth stage. This wasn’t looking good.

“Why? Why would you betray us like that?” I asked.

He didn’t know all of my defenses, but many, and could probably avoid or subvert enough. He didn’t even need to fight me, potentially triggering them; maybe he just wanted to wait and let the poison do its job.

“Your death is a regrettable but necessary sacrifice,” he said, his expression unmoved. “I don’t expect you to understand.”

“So you’re not just a traitor, you’re a delusional, maybe fanatic dupe,” I muttered. “Do you feel proud of yourself, poisoning your own charge?”

His expression darkened. “It didn’t have to be this way. But I knew you were starting to be onto us, so I needed to act.”

That means you might not have thought this through, right?

Maybe I had a chance. I started backing away a bit more, angling myself so that I could inch closer to the door. “Do you want to just wait for the poison to take me?”

Kei Weriga shrugged, not replying.

I snorted. If I survived this, I was going to have a hard time not giving him a torturous death. “You know this is high treason?” I asked. “You’ll die slowly and in a lot of pain. I think being eaten by insects is supposed to be gruesome. Maybe Mother will do some waterboarding first.”

He took a step closer and to the side, cutting off my path to the door. His boot thudding on the ground echoed loudly in my ears, joined the buzzing that was starting to take hold around my skull. But I didn’t hesitate. I stepped in, my fist swinging.

Of course, he caught it with ease, his palm clenching around my hand. But I managed to access my storage ring at the same time, taking out a weapon. The dagger’s long, curved blade caught the light as it streaked toward him.

He sidestepped. I pivoted, going for a kick in the diaphragm. He dodged and hit my leg himself. But I used his hold on my fist to anchor me, falling forward towards him.

He let me go, but not in time to avoid me completely. I felt the resistance of my dagger cutting into his neck before I tumbled to the ground.

He stepped back, and I sprang upward as quickly as I could. The room spun around me. I had to take a deep breath before I could evaluate the situation. Blood flowed from the side of his neck, but far too little. The cut was shallow.

“Do you seriously think you can defeat me?” he asked, cocking his head.

“Do you seriously expect me to lie down and die?” I retorted. But I was breathing hard. The poison’s effects were starting to make themselves noticed more strongly.

I stepped back and lowered the blade, glaring at the traitor. “How are you going to live with yourself, betraying not only the person you swore to serve, but the Empire? Your sacred duty, and your nation?”

This finally showed a reaction. “Don’t talk to me about sacred duty,” he growled. Then he shook his head. “I’m not harming the Empire.”

“Oh really? Do you somehow believe you’re doing this for the Empire’s greater good? Not for your personal benefit?”

He took a step closer, glowering at me. “Of course I’m acting in my people’s interest. But it also helps the world’s greater good. It’ll be better for the Empire in the long run, too, whatever the Empress may think she’s doing.”

I almost pressed him on that. It was getting hard to focus. But he’d just stepped closer again, and looked to be caught up in our conversation.

I shot forward again, my fist at the ready. As expected, he dodged, raising his arms in a counter. But I shifted the dagger in my hands, feinting a stab. I let him catch my hand. Then I used his grip on my arm to pull myself closer, pushing my right hand to the wound on his neck.

He twisted aside, so I didn’t quite touch. But I was turning all of my focus to my qi. It felt slippery, harder to control, but I bore down with my will and created my technique. The Void’s Nibble formed around my hand just as Kei Weriga tried to dodge. It spiked into the qi of his body and the wound on his neck.

For an instant, the shock of the attack stunned him. It was just enough for me to twist my other hand free and grab onto him, pulling closer.

He tried to struggle, but I pushed my hand and the technique to his neck, and his wasn’t a focused defense.

Every cultivator had infused qi into their body, strengthening them and shielding them against attempts by enemies to manipulate it. My technique was meant to devour the qi of my enemies. And his skin, the first major barrier, was already broken.

He flailed, but I tightened my grip, hanging on with everything I got. I could sense my qi wreaking havoc in this part of his body. Such a sensitive region. Did I break into his spinal cord? I gritted my teeth and pushed more and more of my qi into the technique, although I’d already given it a lot. The qi in my core started to deplete, but I didn’t care. This was my only chance.

His movements changed after the first few moments, becoming more coordinated. But it was too late. He’d grabbed onto my arm, but I felt how the strength left his arms, as he tried to pull me away unsuccessfully. His body twitched again, then his hands started to let go. His head lolled to the side.

Finally, he went limp, and I let him go. I almost fell down, my vision swimming again. I backed up until I reached the wall to steady me, trying to breath. My arm throbbed where he’d grabbed onto it, and it felt like someone was banging against my skull.

I slid down, then managed to focus on my enemy’s figure. Blood was soaking out of the wound. I must have at least nicked the carotid. He lay crumpled, unmoving.

I looked away, focusing on the sink and still taking deep breathes. I won. He was a stage above me, but he let his guard down. And my technique may be better than I thought.

When I tried to stand up, the room moved around me and my legs gave in. I slid down to the floor again, blackness threatening to take my vision. Suddenly, I noticed the nausea rising up, and the ringing in my ears that stopped me from hearing anything even if there was something to hear.

I retched, not fighting it but trying to expel what I could. Only a bit of bile came out. Then I rolled away, heaving.

Focus. Focus! I needed to leave, but I didn’t like my chances of walking out. Then sending a message? But the rest of the qi in my core was behaving like a stormy sea. I tried to grab some light qi, form a technique, but it slipped away. I lost it, and a flash lit up my view, searing my gaze. It went dark for a moment.

Pearls and gemstones lay strewn over the floor. My hairdo must have come undone at some point. They seemed to reflect the light brighter than usual, and I closed my eyes again to block out the dizzying swirls.

It was getting harder to form a coherent thought. Instinctively, I curled up a little, leaning into the coldness of the floor against my face. I kept breathing, and drifted off into the haze that surrounded me.

It must have been a few minutes before I was brought back to reality. A presence entered the room, both crushing and familiar. Mother’s voice cut into my mind. “Inaris!”

I blinked and lifted my head from the floor, looking up at Mother. She crouched beside me and lay a hand on my forehead. I felt a trickle of qi, then she withdrew it. She cursed, and I saw her gaze slide to Kei Weriga’s body.

“Poison,” I croaked.

For a moment, her presence grew overwhelming, so strong it pressed me into the ground and stole my ability to breathe. But it faded an instant later, her veil drawing over her aura more firmly. I felt a wave of qi washing out of her. A slight ripple showed that the barrier the traitor had laid over the room was broken.

“It’s alright,” she said in English, and put her hand under my head to help me keep it raised. “Just hold on.”

It was easier to focus now that I had something to anchor me. But my throat felt parched, I still had a blaze in my stomach, and embers in the rest of my body, burning me up. There was a ringing in my ears.

The door was ripped open again, and a few people rushed inside. They came to a stop in the distance. Probably guards? My vision was still hazy.

Then someone else pushed his way through and knelt at my other side, without even greeting the Empress. “What do we know?”

I recognized the wrinkled face and his voice. The palace’s chief physician.

“She was poisoned,” Mother answered, her tone clipped. “Probably around ten minutes ago or more.”

“Most of a glass of.” I coughed. “Red liquid. Tasted like alcohol. But not really.”

I croaked and mumbled, but they must have understood me. The doctor put a bag down and took out a few things. Mother sent out another two pulses of qi, although I couldn’t make out the details. But she stayed where she was.

“What is it?” Mother asked.

“I have a bad suspicion,” the physician answered, his voice sounding strained. “But in either case, this should help.”

He shook something in his hand, but I couldn’t quite make out what. Then he brought it to my face, and I realized he held a vial with a green liquid. With Mother’s support, I managed to drink it. It tasted like lemons and brussels sprouts mixed together, and I had to cough afterward. But I swallowed everything.

“For now, the princess needs to rest while we help her body fight through this,” the doctor said. “I’ll give her a few pills to get that started, then we should take her to a reasonably qi-rich location.”

He pulled out a few more pills and glasses of water, tossing them together. I didn’t complain, but tried to drink it all. Mother’s presence felt vaguely comforting, and helped me keep quiet. A few trails of liquid ran down my chin, but I got most of it.

Someone pushed a pillow under my head, and I sank down onto it. I didn’t like looking at the room from this perspective. But now, the burning in my bode eased into a gentler warmth. I felt like my mind was pulled into it.

My eyes fell closed, and I drifted off.