As Mai slowly awakened, she remembered things.

Flashes.

A Nari had been coming at her, a Nari who had been Slytherayaim. The Third Guide.

And then, all of Mai’s anger and rage had been unleashed, and Slytherayaim had been blasted away by undying flames.

Mai had been a hero. She had defeated the monster. So where was she now?

Mai blinked, once, then twice, trying to bring all things into focus. She was in a room.

Of course she was in a room. Where else would she be? What kind of room?

A room with windows, curtains, and lush furniture. Of course. Savel only wanted the best, and that meant the best for his prisoners, too.

But then, Mai began to realize that she might not be Savel’s prisoner, anymore.

As sensations returned, she found that she was lying on her back. She was lying on her back on a table. How odd.

She felt herself, and looked, and realized she was wearing a dress. Not the dress she had worn, when she had defeated Slytherayaim. A red dress. How appropriate.

Mai leaned up, and slowly got off the sturdy, dark wooden table. As she put her feet on the ground, she felt that the floor lurched under her. She realized that she was in no condition to walk, too late, as she tottered, and would have come crashing to the floor, had there not been a nearby wall handy, to lean upon.

Mai’s head spun.

She realized she had no idea where she was, what she had been doing on the table, what she was doing in this room. Right now, for all she knew, she could be the guest of anyone in the Empire. Or she could be the prisoner of anyone in the Empire. Mai didn’t know.

A million things could have happened to her, after the Wrathful Waters had burned to a crisp. The inn, Mai thought, had likely fallen apart, leaving her unconscious body unprotected. She didn’t know if the inn had fallen apart, for sure, but she didn’t know what else it had been supposed to do, under the circumstances. For it wasn’t just fire that had blasted from her frame. There had been waves of energy, too.

For lack of a better term.

Mai braced herself against the wall, but it seemed the wall was moving, rocking, up, and down.

Was she on a ship?

Was she on the Ascendant?

As if to answer that question, the door to the room came crashing in violently, as if kicked. To Mai’s uncertain mind, the world lurched again. She stumbled away from the wall, and barely managed not to fall, but when she looked up, again, she saw that her question was answered.

It was Savel.

And pieces came together for Mai. She was on the Ascendant.

She might have saved her life, she might have defeated a Nari, but Savel had her once more.

Mai looked at him, wondering what he was going to say, now that he knew she was not helpless, that if she was provoked, she could call upon great power. Abstractly, she wondered why, knowing this, Savel had let her stay in such an unsecured room.

But instead of answering any one of those questions, Savel did something else, entirely.

He kicked her.

Viciously, in the chest, with the flat of his boot.

Mai had been barely on her feet to begin with. She came tumbling down, to the floor.

Somehow, from the smack against the ground, her head hurt even more. Mai hadn’t been sure that was possible.

And yet, as her first-person experience noted, it was.

In her state, Mai acted on her instincts. And, years of being a princess had not taught her to fight back. They had taught her to be indignant.

“Why?” she asked, rolling on her back, completely lacking any sort of energy.

“Because,” said Savel, kneeling beside her, and rubbing his hands together in a savage way, “you are cursed.”

Cursed? Does he mean because of my fire?

“What are you talking about?” Mai mumbled, out loud.

“Everywhere you go, you bring destruction,” said Savel. “You made me fight Broken, and I lost. You came to Asan Paril, and the city fell. And now, after I left you at an inn, for but a few minutes, your unluck brings the whole building down, and kills one of my best men. You. Are. Cursed.”

Mai was about to say that the first example rather paled in comparison to the second, and the third, and wanted to ask him just how egotistical he was, but, as her wits slowly returned to her, she thought it would be a better idea to keep silent.

And so she did.

Savel provided enough noise for them both.

“I don’t understand what is wrong with you, Princess,” said Savel. “And I don’t really want to know, either. However, you should be aware that I hate you.”

Something occurred to Mai as she lay there, as Savel whispered in her ear.

He doesn’t know.

Savel truly thought Mai was cursed, not gifted. He honestly believed what he was saying.

And with that realization, a small smile crept to Mai’s face. He hadn’t taken precautions against her, because he had no idea she had a gift. He didn’t know that Mai could do…whatever it was that she could do.

“What are you smiling about, witch?” asked Savel. He was yelling now, with full blown rage.

Savel grasped Mai, pulled her to her feet, and slammed her against the closest wall. His blue eyes were more intense than Mai had ever seen before.

“Look about this room,” he said, more sullenly, calming himself.

Looking around Savel, Mai did. As she had noticed before, it was a well furnished cabin.

“What is special about this room?” he asked, eyes gleaming.

Mai said nothing, for in truth, she wasn’t sure.

“There is no bed,” said Savel. “There are no bookcases. As the Ascendant, newly healed from our stop at Brajon, travels by means of the Great River, to Ehajdon and his city, you will be lacking books to read, or a place to sleep. You will feel tedium, and you will feel exhaustion.”

Mai almost laughed in his face.

No books, she could understand as a punishment, but no bed? The floor was carpeted, and the leather chairs were soft and smooth. Mai had no worries about being able to fall asleep in either of those places. Truly, Savel had lead a pampered existence, if he thought removing the bed from a room like this would be a substantial punishment.

But the point was moot, anyway.

For Mai was going to take advantage of another facet of Savel’s existence, and escape the ship.

Mai openly grinned, and called upon her power to blow Savel away, to the next life. She knew he deserved death, for what he had done to Ishad, and, hitting her, and standing in the way of her freedom, after all she had been through?

It was the last straw. Savel had earned himself a death sentence. Mai’s head was still sore, and the world still spun a little, but she promised herself that once Savel was taken care of, once she was off the Ascendant, everything would be thought through.

“What are you grinning about?” Savel asked, without the tiniest hint of unease.

Mai called upon the power that laid dormant deep within her, and imagined, in satisfaction, Savel’s limp body being blown backwards through the door, by a burst of fire.

Mai blinked. Her head throbbed all the more.

But nothing happened.

Savel stayed where he was, and no flame appeared.

Mai didn’t understand what had gone wrong, this time. However, she understood some of the implications.

Savel pulled back, and kicked her again, and once more, Mai found herself on the floor. Her body throbbed, and her body felt agony once again.

This time, Savel didn’t bother to lean down to her level. He spoke from his feet, from the sky.

“I suppose the three days you were out must have made you more than a little delusional, Princess,” he said. “But don’t worry. I’ll snap you into reality soon enough.”

He then turned, and strode out of the room, closing the door behind him, and leaving Mai on the ground.

He left a newly enlightened Mai, who understood his words.

That burst of fire that came from me, it kept me unconscious for three days?

Mai wasn’t sure if her power was really a gift, anymore. She was very, very afraid.

***

Days passed, as Mai lingered in her little cabin upon the Ascendant. Upon the Great River, the ship passed through the lands of the fallen Tachen, where warlords fought each other, for what little remained to be had.

Mai heard from the sailors, the day that the ship passed by the Imperial City. The Ascendant did not dare stop for supplies, in the place that had once been Mai’s home, Mai’s world, and everything she ever knew.

The sailors who brought her food said that the Imperial City was in chaos, controlled by mobs, gangs, and criminals. Even the warlords, who brought a minimum of security to the outlying Tachen lands, could not take the Imperial City as their own, however much each and every one of them tried.

The Imperial City, which had once been the beating heart of the Empire, the beating heart of Order, no longer maintained any sort of government.

That simple fact scared Mai.

But, as the Imperial City passed further and further behind them, Mai’s mind turned to other matters. As the days passed, Mai finally was able to keep her head from buzzing, and so, once again, she could think about things that required deep thought.

A prime example of such, was, of course, Broken.

He required much thinking.

Even in her room, without any books to read, Mai failed to be bored. Indeed, she had far too many things to think about, before she could even approach a semblance of such.

Broken was Casari is Koranor, the demon, the Nari had said as much, and Mai did not believe the Nari had lied.

And so, with Broken’s demonhood a proven fact, Mai went over and over again in her mind every last conversation she remembered having with him.

It was hard for her to believe, that Broken, at once so noble, fallen, and full of humanity, was in truth a demon.

But Nari did not lie.

The sudden anger Mai had had for Broken, once she had learned the truth about him, had long since faded.

She wasn’t so much angry, as terrified, horrified, and unwilling to accept the truth. And so, to while away the long, bookless hours, she tried to convince herself that Broken was indeed what the Nari said he was.

On occasion, she also tried to use her powers again, but every attempt came to naught.

And so the days faded, and passed, until the ship, upon the Great River, finally reached the seat of Emperor Ehajdon’s dying would-be Roseped Dynasty.

They had reached the city of Tarang.

Mai was escorted, dragged, might be a better term, from her quarters on the Ascendant, to a carriage. She was pushed inside, and the doors were shut behind her. With curtains draped from the outside, and the doors locked, Mai had no way to see the city of Tarang.

Once the carriage reached what Mai presumed was the Minsu Palace, she was pulled out, blindfolded, and dragged away. As she was pulled, she thought she saw the light of the Min, the great shining blue sapphire that had been dug from the ground, and placed in the grand chamber of the Minsu Palace.

But Mai only saw that light for a few seconds. The darkness was what persevered.