Chapter 3

“Father, you have to do something!” Kassy wailed at the top of her voice. Not only had she been bugging him in the last hour, but he was also lost on what action to take. Thank goodness for the soundproof walls; otherwise, the whole palace would have been up by now.

“I don’t know what you want me to do.” He shook his head honestly. “I’m just as devastated, my dear.”

“He will be here tomorrow. Tell him I’m not going to do it,” she cried, burying her face into her palms.

The second queen stood by a corner of the room, sharing her daughter’s pain. If she got married to the lord, he would be her son-in-law, making him more involved in their lives.

“I can’t. No king in all the fire kingdoms can utter a word. This is terrible. I’m sorry, dear, but you will have to marry this man.” He moved to her side where she knelt on the floor wailing, lowered himself to her height, and hugged her to his chest. “I feel like a terrible father; maybe if you would have listened and married someone else this whole time, none of this would have happened.”

Kassy jerked away from him in anger and stood to her feet.

“How can you even say that?!” She yelled in his face.

The queen came forward with a frown. “Your Majesty, the lord doesn’t care. He would marry her, single or not.”

“I’m sorry...” The king began but trailed off at Kassy’s interruption.

“Keep your apologies to yourself.” She ran out of the room in tears.

She went straight to her bedroom with Myan trailing behind her, worried for her princess.

Myan begged to be let into the room, but Kassy refused to open the door. 

“My princess, please, you can’t keep this up; you’ll need to eat eventually.” Myan pounded on the door.

“Go away unless you want your head taken off!” Kassy yelled from the bedroom.

Of course, Myan didn’t want that, but she wasn’t leaving either. 

“Fourth princess, I can offer something to help you feel better,” Myan continued to speak.

She heard the lock sound and sighed in relief when the door came open. Kassy sniffed, locked the door behind them, and walked back to her bed. She resumed her tearful position. Myan was unsure if she was supposed to walk straight to her and say her mind or just keep back.

“Fourth princess, I think if you see Sir Achu and discuss things with him, you could feel better,” Myan suggested.

Kassy lifted her head up sharply. “That’s a great idea! What was I thinking?” She stood to her feet. “Achu always knows what to do. Brilliant!” A huge grin had replaced her previous gloomy face.

“I’ll get him to come here, but how do I leave the palace without being seen?” Kassy paced around the room, one hand on her waist as she raced through her head for ideas.

“Fourth princess, the moon will be up anytime soon, so it’s almost impossible. You can try tomorrow; suggest you need a walk to refresh your mind, then you can go see him before the lord arrives,” Myan suggested, knowing it was the only possible solution.

“No!” Kassy protested. “I have to see him tonight.”

“But-”

“You will do this for me. When the moon is fully up, you’ll go and fetch him. You know where he stays, the old tree by the border between both worlds.” Kassy lowered her voice to a whisper.

“My princess, it’s too dangerous, I can’t…” Myan widened her eyes in fear.

“Are you trying to defy my orders?” Kassy wondered with a frown.

“N-no, not at all.” Myan shook her head. “I’ll do just as you have requested. I’ll get Sir Achu here.”

“Ah, yes!” Kassy squealed, plopping down on her soft bed. “Go, go, get ready for tonight. Be back in my room as soon as the moon is visible,” Kassy ordered, waving her off.

“Yes, fourth princess.” Myan nodded and turned to leave, relieved that Kassy was doing well.

***

“Where are you going?” An elderly voice called from behind Myan as she set to leave the servants’ quarters.

Myan flinched, turned around, and gulped when she met Hilda’s gaze. It was the head servant, and she was respected by every servant. She had been serving for over sixty years and, at sixty-seven, had been made the head servant.

“To meet my princess.” Myan hoped to keep it simple, fanning a mosquito away from her ear. If anything, Hilda was dramatic.

“Of course.” Hilda scoffed. “You live her life more than you live yours.”

“I’ll see you later.” Myan turned to leave, not interested in any discussion.

“You need to start your own life. Find a servant to marry and have children; that wretched woman doesn’t care about you.” Hilda reminded her.

“It isn’t your business.” Myan waved her off.

“Yes, it is. I’ve been in your shoes, I know what it is. Get married and live your own life,” Hilda exaggerated the last words.

“What’s the point?” Myan turned around on her heels with a frown. “Get married, have children only to have them separated from me when they get old enough to serve? Weren’t you heartbroken when all seven children of yours were taken to serve their masters?” She said the words angrily.

“Oh.” Hilda calmed. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you. You’d be surprised to see your dear princess watch you burn and laugh it off.” Hilda scoffed and folded her hands across her chest.

Myan knew she was right and only kept walking.

“You are lucky us servants don’t get involved in crossover; I’d have burned you off,” Hilda called behind her as she left.

Everyone in the World of Fire was born with the ability to control fire, but it wasn’t initiated until crossover; the only thing they could do before crossover was illuminate a dark room with a candlelight-like flame from their pinky fingers.

The average villagers, after crossover, could control any burning flame with their minds along with certain movements, no matter where it burned from. The royal family, on the other hand, were further given the gift of making huge balls of fire from their hands without a previously set fire. The servants were never given the grace to participate in crossover and only kept their pinky candlelight flame, the most useless firepower. It couldn’t burn the paper to ashes.

Myan got to the fourth princess’s room and went to the window at the back to avoid the guard that would be in front of the main door. She tapped on the wooden frame thrice and stepped back, knowing her princess would understand that it was her.

The window made a little noise and was soon brought open. Myan climbed in through the window and closed it after her.

“I’m ready, fourth princess.” Myan bowed her head.

“I see that.” Kassy took long strides toward the bed and picked a green cloak up. She tossed it to Myan, who caught it with a small stumble. “That should hide your identity. If anyone asks where you’re going,” Kassy went to her closet and pulled out what resembled a golden ticket, “This is a royal pass. Just show it to anyone, and they will let you off the hook.”

“Okay.” Myan nodded in understanding and took the ticket from Kassy, eyeing the rare gold card with curiosity.

“Return it to me as soon as you’re back,” Kassy ordered.

“Yes, fourth princess.” Myan nodded and turned to take her leave, putting the huge cloak on.

She left the room with anxiety, taking a lantern Kassy had given to her along.

***

She had made it to the gates without any questions and thought she wouldn’t need the golden card eventually. She was about to walk out of the palace gates when a deep voice bellowed from behind.

“Who’s there?” He snapped. She froze in place and her heart began to race fast. She knew she should trust the princess, but she couldn’t help but be afraid.

“I…” She tried to speak but was unable to find her voice. She dug into the pocket of her cloak and raised the golden card to the face of the giant guard. It was Roboto, the biggest of the royal guards. He was on duty today.

“Hmph.” The big man scoffed and turned to leave, securing his arrows in their bag.

She hurried her steps and sighed in relief when she was out of the palace. She needed multiple copies of this card.

The walk to the border was terrifying and stressful. The wind was not in a good mood tonight and had put the flame from her lantern out. Since she didn’t have her fire powers at all, she couldn’t light it back up and had to get rid of it so she could hug herself as she shivered from the cold.

“This is terrible.” She squinted her eyes at the path, trying to make the route out. She turned to her left and swallowed when she noticed the Jeh road signboard. It was the narrow path that the soldiers took every time there was an attack. It was only a few minutes to the border. She stared at the other direction, the safe route. If she continued in that direction, she would be away for another hour.

“The soldiers make it back alive anyway.” She swallowed. “My feet are tired, so this shouldn’t hurt.” She tried to assure herself and continued through the Jeh road.

It was a straight path surrounded by fences of trees and short bushes, and the moon was the only source of illumination. The wind was coming from the opposite direction and was only making things worse for her. She was almost as cold as ice.

She was soon distracted from the thoughts of her cold when she heard a growl from behind her. She stopped walking and held her breath. She was followed, and the sneaky footsteps coming from behind were the confirmation she needed. She gulped and turned to look at what it could be and was going insane when she saw what it was. A medium-sized bear was coming for her.

With a loud shriek, she set to run in a random direction, screaming at the top of her lungs as it followed after her. Would showing the bear the golden card work?

She didn’t stop running, though. She ignored the tangled leaves that slapped her skin as she ran through them aggressively. She stopped running when she got to a dead end. She was standing on top of a cliff, and the bear wasn’t ready to give up.

She took slow steps backward, sobbing to herself as the bear came closer. The brown monster was bigger than man.

She shielded her face with her hands when it growled loudly and charged toward her. She waited for it to strike and reopened her eyes when she heard a pained growl.

The bear was bleeding from its mouth, and she shrieked at the sight of it when it fell to the ground. The thud caused the ground to shake, and she was sent falling backward. Her scream intensified as she set to topple over the cliff.

She stopped screaming when a hand caught her. Whoever it belonged to had a firm grip. She looked down at the hundreds of miles that she could fall to and panted heavily, looking back up so whoever had her hand could pull her upward.

She was pulled back to her feet by the man. Myan coughed a little and tried to catch her breath, attempting to recover from the shock.

She gasped when she met the gaze of her savior. It was the Lord of the World of Fire.