Saydaa lay on the bed, staring blankly at the wall. She was in a small, but cozy bedroom, fully furnished not only with a bed but with dressers, a mirror, a table and a chair. A door led to a small and fully equipped bathroom.

Her captors had been polite so far but hadn’t spoken a single word to her. They delivered meals at regularly scheduled intervals but that was it. Otherwise, they didn’t interact with her at all, good or bad.

For all intents and purposes, she was alone.

…just as planned.

…ok not as planned, but the end result was the same, right?

She was Saydaa! The girl who survived the streets! Budding master of the mystic arts, magical being! Escaping this place is easy for her!

So she can leave anytime she wants!

Anytime!

She hadn’t screwed up!

She didn’t need any help!

She hadn’t left yet because…she didn’t feel like it.

She didn’t feel like anything, really.

Her stomach ached somewhat. Maybe they had fed her something bad.

Her heart pounded even though her body felt weak.

That was fine, she was just resting.

Just…resting.

Not waiting.

There wasn’t anything to wait for.

Why would she be waiting?

What would she be waiting for?

No one…nothing, that’s right.

She was just…taking a break. And then she’d get out of here. Easy.

The walls definitely weren’t warded against magic. She definitely hadn’t failed to break through, no matter how much power or subtlety she attempted.

So she wasn’t trapped here, at the mercy of these strange people she knew nothing about, all because she ran off on her own.

And she wasn’t waiting for anyone!

She didn’t need any help!

She hadn’t…messed everything up.

She hadn’t been rejected by…by anyone!

She had raised herself!

No family required!

In fact, she never had a family, so there was no one to abandon her!

Ever!

Ever…

She buried her traitorous eyes. The spotless room was…very dry. That’s right. Her eyes were just dry.

She curled up on the bed.

She was…tired. Just tired. So she’d rest…and then get to escaping. That’s right.

Saydaa lay in the bed…

But try as she might, she couldn’t sleep.

So she lay there…body weak and tired, heart pounding, and eyes…trying to moisten in the ‘dry’ air.

The next day, Saydaa was started by a knock on her door. She slowly pulled herself to a sitting position as a masked man walked through the door.

“How are you feeling?”

Saydaa just glared at him.

“Peachy. Just fine. Nice place you got, five stars. Now that I’ve had a good rest, I’ll be on my way.”

“I am glad you enjoyed our hospitality, but I must ask you to stay for a while longer. Don’t you wish to know why you are here?”

Saydaa crossed her arms and scoffed.

“I’m here because I want to be, simple as that.”

“Is that what you believe?”

She slowly smirked at the man as she uncrossed her arms.

“Yes.”

She swung her hand forward, firing a blast of red energy at the man.

The blast shrunk in the air, vanishing before it ever arrived.

The man chuckled.

“The hallowed halls have been specifically designed to absorb all sorts of magic. It was designed that way so we could escape notice from those who see with more than eyes. As a result…no magic works here, unless we take special measures to allow it. You have no power here, Saydaa.”

Saydaa took a step back, her eyes widening.

“Abandoned by her parents. Abandoned by the world. Abandoned by her friends. And now…you are truly alone, Saydaa.”

She glared at the man even as her stomach dropped at his words.

“Shut up! I don’t need anyone!”

“And nobody needs you.”

She subconsciously took a step back.

“That’s why no one noticed when we took you.”

Her heart began to pound and her eyes began to tremble.

“Y-Your wrong! I tricked them…I snuck away.”

“That’s why no one is coming for you now.”

Her eyes turned traitorous once more. She grit her teeth.

Not now.

Not in front of this jerk.

“Enjoy your stay, Saydaa.”

She gulped as the man left the room and closed the door.

Then she slunk to the floor, head buried in her arms.

Later that night, the cultists carried a sleeping Saydaa to a large stone chamber, illuminated by wall mounted torches. A large geometric formation filled with strange, curved patterns was carved into the floor.

The cultists laid Saydaa in the center of it, while others carried a large red gem to a chandelier resting on the floor nearby. They set the gem into the center of the chandelier, then pulled on iron chains to lift it high into the air, directly above Saydaa’s resting place.

Once all was ready, the cultists backed away, standing against the walls around the edges of the room. A large figure stepped towards an altar at the end of the hall, just in front of the edges of the magic formation. The figure was large and bulky, yet hunched over and far shorter than its bulk might suggest. A hooded cloak wrapped around them, obscuring their figure from view. They reached the altar and took a breath.

They raised their hands.

Hands with scales and claws.

And began to chant in a language no man nor history book remembers. A raspy language filled with hissing.

The green light stretched from the figure’s hands into the closest edge of the magic circle. Green light filled the formation, traveling along it towards the center.

At that time, Saydaa began to stir.

“Hm…where am I?”

She sat up just as the green light approached her.

“W-What is this?”

But the light had filled the lines surrounding her. Saydaa didn’t dare touch the light of a magic formation she knew nothing about.

And then the light stretched up to the chandelier.

The red gem began to glow.

Red light stretched out and began to fill the pattern in reverse, swallowing the green light as it went.

Two figures watched from a balcony in a far corner of the chamber. One, the masked man from before. The other, another hunched over figure.

“The ritual has begun, my master. With the power of a dragon’s heart, the girl will become capable of anything. Everything you wish can be achieved.”

Sharp fangs curled into a vicious smile on a scaled snout. The figure spoke with a raspy, hissing voice.

“Excellent. You have done well, my disciple. You’ve no idea what this means to us. When we were forced to slumber millions of years ago…and awoke to find the planet crawling with apes. Even the sleepers, those who gathered their power for millenia, were not enough to clean this infestation. The apes leapt into that which they did not understand, toyed with forces beyond their comprehension. We knew that open war…would lead to disaster. Those selfish, greedy, destructive apes would rather see the world burned than admit their inferiority.”

The masked man took a knee and bowed his head.

“It is as you say, master.”

“But we are patient. We lie in wait for as long as we need to. And we shaped the course of the world. The apes are unruly, but they are easily manipulated. So we broke their empires. We burned their libraries. Slowly, patiently, we divided them. We hardly needed to, for they were eager to split apart, to tear at each other's throats. Now, their nations are divided, their power unfocused, their lore and history forgotten. There are hardly a handful left with the knowledge to even understand our work here, much less to interfere.”

The figure hissed as the room was filled with red light.

“And now they run about, driven to madness by the forces they themselves unleashed. The consequences of their own arrogance, the end of the path they chose. It is so very like them to be so focused on one another that they remain ignorant to the true threat. For once the ritual is complete and the heart of the dragon unleashed in full, we will have the power to change the world, all in one fell swoop. We can wipe out the apes, and restore our civilization, all in one night. We can restore order, restore balance to this world the apes have twisted. We can set things right, put the world back on track.”

The figure lifted their hands, palms facing up into the air.

“For the time of the ape is over. The time of the lizard, has returned!”

No one noticed as one of the cultist shuffled in his position on the wall. A handful of tiny, robotic spiders dropped from the cultist’s robes and creeped towards the formation. Each had a tiny seal of Japanese characters written on its back, a work of great precision and skill.

The cultist heaved a sigh as he looked at the panicking girl in the center before he glanced at the balcony.

Lizard people are so annoying.