Rein didn't breathe for a moment. The chamber grew hot as she watched Jaska intently. His head turned toward her and Rein prepared to run, but then he stopped moving. Rein's taut muscles ached as she stood motionless like one of Jaska's marble statues. When the Grand Master snored again, Rein rubbed the sweat from her forehead and tried not to exhale too loud. Keep it together, she thought.
Then suddenly Jaska rolled over and Rein dove beneath a silver pillow. The cool satin felt relieving as she waited for confirmation that it was safe to emerge, but her heartbeat pounded painfully when she realized that Jaska had rolled over onto the key. She squirmed and wriggled around beneath the pile of silver, white, and gray pillows to make her way behind Jaska, and the weight on top of her increased her level of fatigue. Before she could emerge from the mound of cushion
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Rein scaled down the castle walls. The mysterious man watched as the tiny speck of light weaved about bushes and tall flowers, sneaking up to the ceremonial stand as quickly as she could without wings. Once Rein reached it, the mysterious man lost sight of her and had to find a new hiding spot. Fortunately, the city's residents were currently located in the Grand Master's courtyard, so sneaking about wasn't too difficult for him, though he did decide on a much closer refuge. He tucked himself away behind a tree and a few bushes where he could watch Rein execute her mission.Meanwhile, Rein shimmied up one of the legs of the stand and used her sword to saw away at it. She didn't want to saw all the way through, of course; just enough to make the stand fairly precarious for when they brought out the empress. As Rein did this, Cloid and Lazar hung the cauldron in place and started th
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Rein climbed above the cave where she and the empress had previously taken refuge and frantically scanned the island, trying desperately to remember where else she had stayed centuries ago, but her mind came up blank. Though, she realized that she could use a better, higher view of the island, and perhaps that could jog her memory. So she quickly climbed back down and dodged a few rabid creatures as she bolted to a tree and shot up its trunk. She nearly collided with a woodpecker when she got to a satisfying height, which immediately attacked her with its beak. After narrowly avoiding its savage strikes, Rein slashed its throat and continued to the cusp of a branch. Now that she had a better view, she scanned the island again and spotted a large black void approximately thirty yards away where nothing around glowed, shined, or gleamed. From what Rein could tell, it appeared to be void of wildlife as well. She didn't recall this spot fr
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This time the noise came from behind and goosebumps crawled along Rein's skin. She could swear that whatever it was rose tall above her head. She twirled around to make eye-contact with a king cobra as it towered over her. Before she could do or say anything, it snapped at her.Rein bounded out of the way and slashed its face with her knife. The cobra hissed and attacked again. She pounced onto its head and tried to slide down its body while slicing it open on the way down but the cobra jolted and she fell off, losing her knife in the fall. The snake struck at her once more before she had the chance to get up, but she managed to roll away and jump to her feet. She drew her sword and waited for the cobra's next move. The cobra hissed and attacked her, but she dodged again and moved to stab it through the eye. The cobra avoided her blade and knocked the sword out of her hand with it
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