Sila had said that Guanyu’s ironclad ship was far faster than pretty much any vessel on the Mesogeonian Sea. If they got out to sea and made it past the Koini Isles in the east, there’d be no way to catch up with them.

Since then, the two had rarely spoken aside from Taya giving commands or Sila relaying information she found about their prey’s path, which was odd for her. Taya had never been in distress like this for such a long time since her years in her village. She didn’t exactly have a way to assure herself, aside from simply powering through this trial.

Taya looked out over the ever-expanding grasslands before her from a perch atop the only tree for miles.

Taya had been estimating how much ground she’d been gaining each day and if she was lucky, she’d gained enough to catch them after they entered the town of Dimale, whose stone buildings, clay tiled roofs and winding streets sat along a somewhat secluded beach that had been transformed into a harbor.

The prince was just about to enter the town under the cover of highly valuable light Shedim to make them look like slave traders.

Taya leapt off her perch and indented the dirt with her impact. Sila was waiting at the bottom atop their only horse.

The Khongirat woman appeared to not be suffering the slightest bit from sleep deprivation. Perhaps she was used to hunting someone for days on end.

“Let’s move.” Taya said.

Sila kicked her horse into motion as Taya took off on foot, equalling the mare’s gallop in her stride.

Taya’s foot pressed into the earth with each step, spraying dirt up in her wake and sending wind whipping through her hair and cloak.

She could see Dimale’s meager walls growing larger and larger as they approached.

“You take to the roofs!” Sila shouted, “I’ll ride after them!”

Taya nodded. The sound of her breath contested with her thoughts over dominance in her mind. She waited until her entire field of vision was filled with the grey of the wall before slamming her foot into the ground.

She propelled halfway up and took herself the rest of the way with a single pull. She slipped over the wall between two very confused guards and landed in a mess of shattered clay tiles. Taya launched herself from the roof onto another building before sprinting across it and leaping to the next one.

Her thigh flared with brilliant violet light as she covered the relatively short distance between herself and the docks.

Then she saw it. The ironclad.

It was unlike any boat she’d ever seen before. A new generation of Nikan naval technology that was supposed to replace the ever-prevalent sailing junk, according to Sila. The boat was built very much like a junk, sails and all, but the entire ship was coated in iron armor and was built with vents for propulsion using steam.

And right on its dock was Prince Gongsun Guanyu.

Taya launched herself into the sky, drawing her claymore from her back scabbard. She crashed into the dock, demolishing the wooden path between the prince and his boat. She hopped back up onto the still intact part of the dock and stared down at the very startled prince.

She glanced around him as Sila pulled her horse to a stop behind him and his followers.

The local population scattered in fear in her wake.

The prince summoned his glaive from thin air in a flash of bright green flames, “I thought we had at least a day on you.”

“You should’ve expected me to follow you without a wink of sleep. I thought you’d hunted me long enough for you to know at least that much.” Taya said.

“Nevertheless, you’re outmatched. It’s me and my Bane Knights against you. Your little companion has been little more than an annoyance to me for years.” Guanyu grinned.

Taya frowned. She counted three knights. The ones with control over flame, light and shadow. “Where’s the rest of your little party?”

“In a place you’d never suspect. Along with your favorite Shedim Masters.” Guanyu lowered into a stance, “Well? Don’t just stand there.”

Taya flourished her blade before settling into a stance of her own. “Tell me where my friends are and maybe I won’t skewer you on my claymore.”

Taya’s eyes glanced to Sila, whose face glowed green as she fired an arrow from atop her horse that landed right in the back of the flame Bane Knight’s knee.

The Knight cried out in pain, drawing Guanyu’s attention. Taya ran up and slammed the blade of her sword into his lamellar armor, not cutting him, but throwing him over the side of the dock with at least a broken rib or two.

She handled the other two knights with a sweep to the leg and two solid pommel strikes.

Taya turned as the water beneath them was disturbed. She turned to find that the ironclad had pulled up its anchor and was sending out small boats to Guanyu and his Bane Knights.

“Here’s where I finally end you, Sklaveni whore!” Guanyu roared as his weapon, swirling with verdant flames, swung over his head.

Parried the attack and shoved Guanyu into the water, but she wasn’t paying attention to him.

Archers appeared along the rim of the ship and showered Taya in arrows. Despite her ability, a constant hail of arrows would be too much strain on her, so she fled back to land and hid behind a building, where Sila shortly joined her.

“Son of a bitch!” Sila hissed. “Can you get onto that ship?”

“Not with all those arrows flying.” Taya said. She peered around the corner as Guanyu begrudgingly joined his Bane Knights in a rowboat.

“I thought you were invincible!”

“Invulnerable. And only to a certain extent.”

“Shit!” Sila muttered, “I can’t make them stop shooting.”

Taya took in her surroundings before an idea sparked in her mind. She sheathed her sword, then ripped a wooden door off a nearby building and held it over her head like a tower shield.

She rushed towards the docks, arrowheads piercing through the door, but never touching her.

Taya threw the door aside and leapt with all her might towards the boat. But while she was in the air, she quickly realized that the distance was too great.

Bracing herself, she dove into the sea after a long fall. She scrambled to swim downwards in unpracticed strokes to evade the arrows that were now being shot into the water.

By the time she could surface, the ironclad was too far for her to catch, thanks to her incredibly rudimentary knowledge of swimming.

Taya climbed back onto the deck, out of breath.

“Damnit.” she muttered to herself, “Damnit, fuck, damnit!”

“Now what?” Sila asked, watching the ironclad drift out to sea.

Taya sighed, “You’re sure nothing will be able to catch up with it?”

“Nothing on the Mesogeonian.” Sila shook her head.

Taya looked around frantically, “Well...what about a vessel from the White Sea?”

“Huh?” Sila frowned.

Taya pointed to a Northern longship docked a few yards down the harbor. “Those things are damn fast. Maybe they’ll be fast enough for us.”

Taya took off towards the longship.

A crew of large, burly Ascommani were unloading cargo from the boat as she approached.

She expected to have to stop them herself, but as she approached, the men stopped working, staring at her in surprise.

“I know you…” one of the Ascommani, a man with a build several feet taller than hers with unkempt brown facial hair, dropped his crate, “You’re one of the people who came into town with Stormtamer! Back in the Highlands!”

Murmurs started to spread amongst the crew, but Taya cut them off.

“That’s right. Bjorn’s been captured by a Nikan prince. I need for you to help me chase after that ironclad in the distance with your boat so I can rescue him.” Taya said.

The Ascommani looked between each other with confusion and uncertainty.

“What is it you want to do with my boat?”

The crew parted ways to reveal a woman with blonde hair and a vaguely familiar face on the deck of the longship.

Katla.

____________________________________________________________________________

Bjorn had given up struggling against the yoke that restrained his neck and wrists days ago. He would’ve given up on walking as well, had the other option not been to be dragged face-first through mud and horse shit.

He sat alone in the darkness of Guanyu’s brig, out of breath, every muscle aching and breathing fire.

They lined his restraints with some kind of clay that simply deflected whatever energy he could produce upwards or in towards himself. It had taken him a while to figure that out, and it had cost him a good portion of his energy reserves.

They were so low, he couldn’t afford to even provide a light for himself with his mark.

He flinched back as the reinforced door to his cell opened, letting in a dim torch light. To Bjorn, that light was as bright as the sun.

His vision adjusted enough for him to see that his visitor was a handmaiden, accompanied by two flanking soldiers.

“Her highness demands your presence and that you be cleaned before you are sent to her.” the handmaiden said in heavily accented Koini with far too much propriety.

When Bjorn refused to move an inch, one soldier stepped forward and grabbed the chain connected to his yoke and yanked on it, shouting something in his language, likely along the lines of “Get up, you Western dog!”

Bjorn staggering to his feet from the floor and allowed them to lead him into what this boat had for a washroom.

His hands were covered by large mitts of rubber that were tied around his wrists before his yoke was unlocked. His arms fell to his side for the first time in nearly half a week, causing a sharp stab of pain that accompanied the spasming, twisting muscle. Bjorn winced, but was promptly stripped by several handmaidens and shoved into a washtub before he could really dwell on it.

Bjorn found it ridiculous that he was being allowed to be out of his cell, supervised by only two ordinary soldiers. But he knew why. He was too tired and too weak to even fight back against the handmaidens as they scrubbed the dirt that had blackened his skin.

Layers of crusted over mud broke off in the tub, causing the water to quickly turn brown. They moved him to another tub once all the overtly visible dirt was off of him.

He wanted to ask what the point of doing this was, but he couldn’t find the strength to even make his voice heard.

The air tingled against his skin, his pores clearing up after days spent encrusted by filth.

After washing him, the handmaidens offered little more than a loincloth for him to dress himself. The only other piece of clothing, if one could call it that, they attempted to dress him in, was an iron collar.

Bjorn drew the line at that. He caught the maiden’s wrist through his rubber mitts, who gasped, dropping the collar. He turned to the guards, “Make me wear that thing and I break her wrist.” His voice crackled like gravel.

Even without his powers, Bjorn was still a powerful warrior. He could do...something. Couldn’t he?

The guards scoffed as the handmaidens snapped the collar around him, anyway. He had the impetus to resist, but... nothing came of it. The soldiers escorted him to Yahui’s quarters. They accompanied him inside until the princess waved them away.

She was sprawled out on silken sheets in a loose, red robe, reading a large tome.

“Care to explain the bit with the dog collar?” Bjorn growled.

“It’s fun making you squirm.” the princess grinned, putting her book down.

“Was dressing me like a cannibal in the mountains part of that?” he muttered.

Yahui shrugged.

“Why’d you call me here? What’s the point of this?” Bjorn asked.

“I’m here to make you an offer you can’t refuse.” Yahui said, “Your friends are going to die. That’s just a matter of fact. Our boat is too fast for Taya to catch you and you’re surrounded by Bane Knights. We will take you to my homeland and systematically slaughter or enslave you.”

Bjorn scoffed, “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“But you have a chance, Bjorn. You’re meant to be nothing more than a pet for me. But I can protect you. I can give you something greater.” Yahui said, “My father fears our kind. He hates Shedim Masters. All of them except for me. I can keep you from a life of slavery.”

“What would you get out of it?”

“All I ask is that you agree to fight for me. Serve me of your own will and we won’t have to make you.” Yahui kept up her imperious surface, though her words sounded desperate, as though she didn’t want him to end up as just a dog.

If he took her offer...perhaps he could make a better life for himself. The Ascommani certainly wouldn’t be eager to welcome him back. Besides...it would be easy to just go around killing whatever she pointed at.

Yahui crawled over to him with a sultry rhythm to her movements. She stepped off the foot of her bed and cupped his chin, “Be smart, Stormtamer.”

Blood rushed through his face, no doubt making him visibly red.

“A dog doesn’t get to do the same things with his mistress as a man does.” Yahui practically whispered. She released his chin and wrapped her hand around the back of his neck, pulling him in.

Maybe it could work with her. Maybe she would appreciate him. She wanted to keep him safe, so clearly she saw something in him. All he had to do was submit.

“Think about it,” Yahui whispered, “No more pain. No more ridicule. You won’t be an outcast. You’ll be a hero, Bjorn.”

A hero...at the will of the princess. Spared by the princess. At the beck and call of the princess. A...a slave.

There are more than two options. When you only have two options and in both you end up a slave, is that really a choice?

The only difference was the conditions in which he lived. Perhaps that would have mattered to him before. But part of him would rather die than accept subservience in any form. If he opted to forget his comrades and give himself to the people who had killed them, he would never forgive himself.

But then...he would die. And what difference would that make?

My life… Bjorn pushed his thoughts against his mind’s instinctual assumptions. My life is only worth as much as what I do with it. To submit for the sake of my life...that would be a death of its own kind. A worse death.

But realistically, what could he do with his life? Eat the shit the gods kicked at him and then die? Life was short. Would it not be wiser to spend his time enjoying the little things in life? Like her...

No. I won’t let my loneliness steal a greater purpose from me. My purpose. Mine.

Bjorn pulled away from her. He narrowed his gaze. “The only way I’ll be a man is if I never become a dog in the first place, by your hand or my own. You want to protect Shedim Masters? You want me to view you as anything more than a tyrant? Join me in my fight. I will never fight for your father until the day I die. I would welcome whatever torturous death you bring upon me than bow to the Nikan.”

Yahui’s nose scrunched in anger. “I’m trying to help you, you oaf! If you still can’t see the situation you’re in, you’re an idiot unworthy of my time.”

“I’m not a fool. I’m just someone whose will won’t be broken by some self-important genocidal maniac.” Bjorn spat.

“Do you like suffering, Bjorn? Because that is all you will get from this foolish display of rebellion. Would you give up on a life of love and luxury for some petty ideal?”

Bjorn scoffed, “Suffering’s embrace seems a lot more appealing to me than yours right now, given that little clause of subservience yours comes with.”

“Then rot by your own choice.” the princess muttered.

Yahui’s foot swept up in a lightning fast crescent, smacking him across the face and pinning his head to the ground, her sole pressing against his cheek.

“Guards!” she called, “Take this animal back to his pen.”

Bjorn maintained his conviction-filled glare as his yoke was clamped around his neck again.

“If you continue to resist me, you’re going to live the rest of your life on all fours and with your face to the ground, pinned down by my boot, dog. All because you were too weak to swallow your pride and make the smart decision.”

“Weak? You call that weak? You think me prideful? Hah! True weakness, princess,” he said, in a moment of clarity, “Is allowing fear to enslave you.”

A surge of coldness rushed through his veins in an instant. His Shedim manifested in a storm of clouds and miniature arcs of lightning.

“Spoken, are the words of Searing Breath!” a deep voice from his Shedim boomed, “Hot is the flame that leaves your lungs on tongue and wind! Imperishable are the charcoals that heat and harden the steel of your will!”

Bjorn screamed as pain shot through his Scars, flaring with blue light. The light extended beyond its former boundaries and scarred the flesh around the mark, down his arm and up his shoulder.

“Hear my kin and I, enemies of man!” the Shedim continued, “The Unbroken will descend from the skies, riding upon the storm, raging with lightning! Despair will weaken until the fear it inspires never takes another soul!”

The pain stopped as his light of Bjorn’s mark subsided.

Everyone in the princess’s room stared at him in shock and awe.

Bjorn felt the last remnants of Shedemic power be ripped out of him as his Shedim raised its hands up.

A crack of thunder came muffled through the walls of the ship.

______________________________________________________________________

Taya frowned at the grey sky that had abruptly appeared overhead, somewhat obscuring her view of the ironclad, which they were keeping pace with, but not quite gaining on.

Murmurs of confusion spread around the longship as the men tried to keep their rowing synchronized.

“I’m starting to think no amount of gold was worth this trip.” Katla muttered from beside Taya, “I mean, if this isn’t an omen, I don’t know what is.”

A flash of lightning came down from the blackened sky, a crack of thunder following it. The ironclad’s steam vents were eviscerated with that single blow.

The sky quickly cleared up afterwards.

“Bjorn…” Taya muttered.

“What?” Katla asked.

“That bolt of lightning. Bjorn summoned it.” Taya said, “We have a chance to catch up with them now! Speed up!”

“Don’t tell me how to run my shi-”

“Put your backs into it! We sail for humanity’s sake!” Taya roared over Katla, infusing her voice with her rarely used ability to encourage purpose.

Most of the men rowed with renewed vigor.

After an agonizing wait, Taya saw that the distance between the two boats was finally short enough for her to jump.

She leapt off the deck of the longship, much to the displeasure of those on the ship, and grabbed the edge of the ironclad’s deck. She pulled herself up and drew her claymore.

Nikan soldiers charged at her, who she was more than happy to throw off the deck with wide, sweeping arcs of her weapon.

She let the trickle of arrows from the few prepared archers to simply glance off her skin.

Taya slowly made her way to the door that led to below the deck and shouldered her way through the bolted door. She crashed through the trapdoors to the lower decks and made a bloody path to every door on that deck. She kicked them open, successfully finding Bjorn, who was practically naked, held down by several soldiers and the princess.

She lifted her arms to defend herself as Yahui leapt forward, Bonemerging with her Shedim into her partially fox-like form.

Taya let the princess slash at her with her claws as she took Yahui by the abdomen and slammed her into the ground. She raised her fist to pummel the princess’s porcelain face, but only received a face full of violet flames for that endeavor.

The Sklaveni backed off and moved to help Bjorn from his four wranglers.

She kicked one of them in the head so hard his neck snapped and threw two others off, leaving the last one as mere child’s play for the Ascommani’s lethal grappling skill.

She helped him to his feet and looked once over his muscled form.

“Nice example you’re setting.” Bjorn frowned.

“Remember on that island when we went and got our things back? This is the perfect opportunity to feel what it’s like to fight like a Sklaveni.”

Bjorn got the start of some witty remark when his eyes widened. Taya whirled around and elbowed Yahui in the shoulder as she was trying to attack them from behind. The princess collapsed in a heap, cradling her shoulder and hissing in agony.

“Where’re the others?” Taya asked.

“Hell if I know. Probably on deck so Guanyu can make some grand stand against you.” Bjorn said.

“Then let’s not make him wait.”

“Hold on. I’m going to go armor up and get myself a decent weapon. Can you handle Guanyu, his Knights and his soldiers?” Bjorn asked.

“I brought help. I should be fine.” Taya rolled a kink out of her neck.

As Bjorn ran off, Taya stamped her foot on the ground beneath her, shattering a hole in the deck that peered into the hold. She broke through to the top deck, wielding her blade.

The deck was a mess of flying arrows and soldiers fighting warriors. Bane Knights occupied three or four warriors each, holding up a large portion of her reinforcements from helping take care of the less important targets.

Sila was helping them, but her arrows weren’t consistently effective against their armor. It was more a matter of finding an opening for her.

Taya was inclined to help the warriors, but the fight drew her attention to her other allies, including Gustave. They burst through the fighting, helping take down Bane Knights.

“Where’s Guanyu?” Taya asked Ruhak.

“Don’t know!” Ruhak shouted over the sounds of battle, “We managed to pick the lock to our cell and escape, so we haven’t seen him! Let’s get outta here before he shows!”

Taya considered that. It was probably the safest option. Even though she wanted to stomp the little shit’s face in, Guanyu wasn’t her target. Her friends were.

“Alright. You guys get onto the longship.” Taya turned as the door to the lower decks burst open, Bjorn sprinting out of it, “Bjorn! Onto the boat!”

Taya grabbed Sila by the wrist when she saw the look in the Khongirat’s eyes that fully intended to stay.

They all jumped onto the narrow wooden vessel and were quickly followed by Katla and her Ascommani. Like a well oiled Nikan siege engine, the Ascommani got into position and started rowing away from the ironclad.

The boat’s archers barely pulled themselves together to fire a few stray arrows at the ship, but the oarsmen’s hung-up shields defended them.

Bjorn gathered his breath beside her and looked around in surprise, “Where’d you find Ascommani this far Sou-” His face went white as a sheet as his eyes laid on Katla.

Taya put a hand on his shoulder. “Look, I know you don’t like her much, but she was in Dimale. She was the only one who could keep pace with the iron-”

Bjorn paused for a second, then sighed, “What’s done is done. But...what did you have to give up to convince her to go after me of all people?”

Taya sighed. “A hundred pounds of gold. Or fourteen times that in silver. Payable within the next ten years.”

Bjorn’s eyes widened, “A hundre-”

A loud blast, cracking like thunder through the air, rang off from the direction of the ironclad. Black powder.

A solid metal sphere was right on track to collide with the center of the ship’s hull.

Taya roared, “Abandon ship!” She infused as much of her will into the words as her ability to inspire would allow. She took Bjorn to the floor as fire consumed the longship in a massive explosion.