"So... who are you?"
Zara found herself bound by the hands to the side of her bed.
"Do you think I'll answer that question, girl?" said the stranger.
She began rummaging through the room, finding some books and a quill, then promptly stuffed them into a bag she was carrying.
"Hey, that's mine!" The woman turned with a threatening glare. "But of course, I can share a little."
The strange woman looked around, as if searching for something.
"Girl, answer me quickly, and you'd better tell the truth."
Zara nodded several times.
"Where is the seal?"
"The royal seal?" asked the princess, tilting her head.
"Don't play dumb with me. You know which seal I'm talking about."
Zara blinked a couple of times and shrugged.
"What? You really don't know? The information I was given was wrong, then..."
The stranger looked around the room a little more, then began rummaging through the bag she carried.
"Well, the lady will have to settle for you alone," she added as she pulled out a handkerchief.
"Uh... Hey, no, leave me alone!"
Though she tried to protest, Zara couldn't stop the woman from covering her mouth with the cloth, tying it around her neck.
"You're coming with me," she said as she hoisted Zara onto her shoulder.
She crept slowly out of the room. Though Zara tried to scream for help, the handkerchief did its job well in preventing it. The woman continued forward cautiously, hiding from the guard patrols with great skill.
Useless guards! Your princess is being kidnapped and you don't even notice! Zara thought, somewhat angrily.
As they rounded a corner, Matilde's figure appeared turning the same corner. Quickly, the woman hid, avoiding the servant's view.
Matilde! If I can somehow warn her, she thought, looking around. I know!
Zara began to rock on the woman's shoulder. With her hands and feet tied, it was difficult, but she did what she could. The result was that she knocked over one of the nearby torches.
"Who's there?" asked Matilde.
"Tch. Stay still."
The woman ran off without giving Matilde time to investigate, passing right by her with great speed, leaving her stunned.
"What—who!?" As she spoke, she noticed Zara on the woman's shoulder moving away. "INTRUDER!"
A little further away, on the lower floor, the princes Callen and Olivia were engaged in a small debate with their father about their sister.
"Father, I think you've been a bit harsh with Zara," Callen spoke first.
"I agree with Callen," Olivia added, still seated at the table.
"No, sooner or later I had to say something like that. Her spirit is too hyperactive." The King looked with a melancholy expression at one of the empty chairs. "She greatly resembles her mother."
The prince walked until he stood before his father.
"You won't change my mind, son. Your sister has too optimistic a view of this world, and that could cost her dearly."
"Zara wouldn't go alone. I could go, or Olivia, now that the war is on pause."
"The answer is still no."
Olivia began to stretch back in her chair.
"At least you should go talk to her," she added.
The King glanced at her for a moment, then at Callen, who nodded. In response, the King let out a sigh.
"Yes, perhaps it's time we had a father-daughter conversation."
Olivia looked upward, toward her sister's room.
"She doesn't see you very often. It could be a good idea," said Callen.
They both turned to look at Olivia, who tapped her monocle a few times.
"Olivia?"
"It's strange. Perhaps it's broken."
"What's wrong, daughter?"
"I don't see Zara in her room."
The door burst open. The sound of numerous metallic footsteps flooded the place, but only one person entered the hall.
"My King!" The guard knelt as he spoke. "We have a problem!"
The King furrowed his brow.
"What's happening, soldier?" asked Callen.
Olivia began tapping Callen on the shoulder. When he turned, he noticed she looked frightened.
"Princess Zara has been kidnapped!"
Callen looked at him quickly before returning his gaze to Olivia once more. Olivia's confirmation made his face fall completely.
"I think... we have a very serious problem."
"Capture her!"
"Surround her from the other hallway!"
"Alert the entire castle, quickly!"
Closely followed by the shouts of the castle guards, the woman ran through the labyrinthine hallways without reaching any apparent end.
"Damn it, I should have studied the castle's floor plan better!"
A small group of guards blocked her path, but the woman leaped between them and continued her flight.
Rounding one of the hallways, she was surprised by a formation of guards wielding bows.
Upon seeing her, they all fired instantly. She barely managed to duck her head and dodge the arrows. One passed close to Zara, cutting the knot of the cloth.
"Stupid! You almost hit me!" Zara screamed as she spat out the cloth.
Another guard struck the helmet of the one who had fired the arrow.
The woman resumed her flight, taking advantage of the distraction, though to Zara's eyes, she was only taking random paths.
"Put me down now! I am Princess Zara, and as princess, I command you!"
"You're not in a position to give orders, little princess."
The woman passed between two guards but reached a dead-end alley. When she turned, several were already grouping to trap her. Leaping off the walls, she managed to dodge them and put some distance between them, but it was obvious she didn't know where she was going.
"Well, well, it seems someone doesn't know how to get out of here."
"Shut up child, don't distract me!"
"Child!?"
With her free hand, the woman brandished her sword against another group of guards, disarming them but killing none.
"At this rate, they'll surround you, and you'll have to hand me over. Surrender already!"
"Never! For my pride, I will leave this palace with you! I intend to carry out the mission to the letter!"
"You crazy woman! You won't be able to—!"
Zara stopped talking. Her mind focused on a single phrase: "I will leave this palace with you."
This woman wants to take me somewhere. I assume she wants me alive; if not, she would have killed me already. Besides, Callen and Olivia will arrive sooner or later wherever I am, the princess thought as a very risky idea took shape in her mind.
"Right."
Instinctively, the woman went right. Only afterward did she realize that the princess herself had told her which way to go.
"Don't turn here..."
The woman kept going.
"Next one, left..."
She turned left, just as she was told.
Zara began telling the woman exactly which hallways to use to keep moving forward. Though the kidnapper looked confused as to why she was doing it, she decided to listen.
After a few more minutes of pursuit, the moon made its presence known in the night sky. They had reached the inner garden.
"That's a problem I hadn't counted on."
In front of the door used to leave the palace stood Callen and Olivia. It was quite obvious they were not happy with the sight of their sister captured.
"Release my sister now, and perhaps I'll agree to spare your life," said the prince, his hands on the hilts of his scimitars.
"I'm afraid that won't be possible," the stranger replied.
Without another word, the prince drew both weapons. Then he charged at the kidnapper at full speed, delivering a cut that she barely managed to dodge, receiving only a small wound on her arm.
"Brother, please, help me!" Zara screamed from the woman's shoulder, with feigned drama.
"Stay calm, Zara! I'll save you now!"
"Why does it seem like you don't want to be saved?" the woman said almost in a whisper.
"Shut up, you'll ruin my act."
Callen launched another attack. Cut after cut, he continued attacking the woman without pause. She managed to dodge the attacks, but only barely.
The kidnapper tried to counterattack, but her strikes were blocked by Callen with great ease.
Suddenly, the prince increased the speed of his attacks, and the woman wasn't going to be able to dodge one. Instead, she lowered Zara just enough to put her in the path of the scimitar.
The prince stopped his attack mere inches from Zara's body, with his sister staring at him wide-mouthed.
"Bastard! You dare use a child as a shield?"
"I'm not a child!"
Right at that moment, the guards began to arrive. Callen was startled for a moment, and the woman feinted to dodge him, then ran straight for the door.
"Olivia, stop her!"
"Eh!? I'm not ready yet!" Olivia reached into her pocket and pulled out a small sphere.
The sphere emitted a violet glow that slowly changed to blue.
"Eat this! It's my newest invention!"
She threw the sphere into the air. As it turned completely blue, the sphere exploded into a large cloud of smoke that flooded the entire courtyard.
"Aaah, no! I grabbed the wrong invention!"
Olivia looked through the smoke with her monocle, noticing the woman running at great speed past her.
Quickly, she pulled something else from her pocket and threw it at the woman, hitting her. Though nothing seemed to happen at first glance, the woman escaped through the door, taking Zara with her.
The smoke gradually dissipated, and the guards followed, but Callen and Olivia knew it would be useless—they wouldn't catch her now.
"Damn it, she got away!" Callen threw his sword to the ground.
"For now, brother. For now." Olivia began making small adjustments to her monocle. "We're not as badly off as you think."
"Olivia, they just kidnapped our little sister right in front of us."
Olivia nodded.
"This is no time for games. Stop being so mysterious."
"I managed to place my newest invention on that woman before she could escape."
"What are you talking about?"
Olivia brought the monocle close to Callen. When the prince put it on, he could see a sort of red arrow pointing in a direction.
"Where is this pointing?"
"At that woman. I put what I call a 'tracker' on her. My monocle will be able to detect it."
Callen's face brightened a little, and the prince could breathe a sigh of relief.
"But we must act quickly. We don't know what she'll do to Zara," said Callen as he picked up his sword.
"Not necessarily. If she wanted to do something to our sister, she would have done it here. I suspect she needs her alive," Olivia added.
"Right, but Father won't like that as an excuse, I assure you."
"No, I understand his reasoning." The King arrived at the scene, surprising both princes. "But even so, I am disappointed in both of you. You are the best in your respective fields, and yet you were defeated."
Both looked away toward the ground, but they could feel their father's disappointment, as well as his suppressed fury.
"I will allow you to spend the night here. In the morning, I want you both to pursue her." The King stepped a little closer to both of them. "If you don't return with her, don't even think about coming back to this palace."
The King turned and walked away, but stopped before entering the hallway, observing them both over his shoulder.
"You'd better make sure nothing happens to your sister."
Both princes knelt.
"Don't worry, Father. We'll bring her back safe and sound."
Now, truly, the King withdrew from the place, leaving them alone in the courtyard.
The vast city was illuminated by the light of the Moon. The deserted streets and buildings with small lit candles suggested that the day for these people had ended hours ago, which diminished the possibility of finding the woman anytime soon.
"Now I must ask. Why did you help me escape?" said the woman.
"So this is the capital city. It must look better during the day."
The woman ducked into an alley and dropped Zara on the ground.
"Answer what I asked."
"Fine. I just wanted to leave the palace. Happy?"
The woman looked at her incredulously.
"Just for that? Are you stupid? Do you have zero survival instinct or what?"
"I look pretty intact, honestly."
"Aren't you afraid I might kill you now?"
"If you were going to kill me, why didn't you do it in my room? If you do it now, my brothers will tear you apart."
"Those fools who tried to stop me at the end? Sorry if I don't trust their combat ability, but I managed to outwit them so easily."
"They can't use their full strength in the castle—they might destroy something."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I warned you. It's not my fault."
The woman picked up Zara again and opened a nearby door, entering the building.
She climbed a staircase to a room, where she then threw Zara to the floor and lay down on the bed herself.
"You're going to sleep? Really?"
"I already told you. I don't believe in your brothers' strength."
That was the last thing the woman said to Zara.
"I'm sleeping on the floor?"
There was no response.
"Damn abuser."
Zara made herself as comfortable as possible and closed her eyes. As she turned over in her mind what she had just done, she wondered if it had been worth going this far for her selfish desire.