They found him in rather unpleasant company, a couple of levels above the cell. The Wardens had him surrounded with the expressions on their faces threatening not so much a beating, as other forms of punishment. Ways which he seemed to consider far more destructive than a simple physical altercation. Linda felt herself leap into action before she could think better of it. What exactly could she do against two women who were far stronger and taller than her?

But that didn’t seem to matter. Because she had recognised it. That look she had seen in her dreams could not be mistaken. She would take her brutal vengeance out on anyone who’d even thought about harming this gorgeous being.

The first Warden collapsed to the floor with the force of the kick Linda slashed across her legs, right in her shin. The second one looked at her as if she were seeing a ghost, but soon enough, she too was on the floor, holding on to the growing bruise on her right cheek.

The prince was curled up on the floor with arms outstretched in front of him in a useless attempt at defence. The girl knelt in front of him, grabbed his elbows with perhaps a bit too much force as she felt tingles run up her arm almost as if the tension in the air had turned into electricity.

"Whaddya think yer doin’, blondie?” She barked in his face when she finally managed to lower his hands from it. “No, you know what? I really don’t want to hear it! Let’s go before these two’s colleagues come find us.”

He remained staring at her a moment, as if he couldn’t decide whether to try and respond or admonish her in turn for treating him with such disrespect by pulling him so forcefully to his feet. But because she was still exuding disappointment and rage with enough kick to bring down a beast of burden, and was also squeezing his elbows enough to bruise, Fye contended himself with pouting and huffing in indignation.

"Give me another stubborn snort and I’ll leave you here for the Wardens to find”, she spat over her shoulder as she started dragging him towards the exit. “I’m sure they’ll have their way with you regardless of the type of sounds you make...”

“These be no Wardens”, said one of the twins and Linda almost jumped a foot in the air, before remembering where he came from.

“Whatever they be we don’t need any more of them right now”, the girl said, nervously rubbing her ribs where one of the armoured women had kicked her. “We need to find Wint and get the hell out of here.”

“Wint who?”, the prince asked suddenly, as if electrocuted.

“Tempaiah Wint, one of the last remaining windstorms”, Linda replied, trying to imitate to the best of her ability the dramatic undertones of the woman’s voice when she’d introduced herself to the girl what seemed like ages ago now.

“Take me back to my cell.”

All of a sudden, Fye had dug his heels in with enviable strength and resolve for a boy of his frail build and Linda almost crumbled to the floor, trying to get him to move. She spun around to face him and took in a deep breath, trying to fight the desire to grab his shoulders and shake him hard.

"Listen here, Your Highness...”

“No you listen here, my lady from another planet”, he interrupted. ”Tempaiah Wint is a wanted criminal and rapist. And if you’re travelling with her, you’re likely not too different.”

“Alleged rapist, I’ll have ye know”, Linda almost jumped in the air again, this time from the booming alt of the woman, rapidly approaching her from behind. “The lad was far from complainin’ at the time if memory serves.”

“W-Wint...”, she heard herself stammer for the second time today. “What the...”

“And for the criminal stuff, ye might be right to some degree...”, the windstorm continued, as she came to stand next to Linda and gave the prince a good once over. “But I guess ye can’t be complainin’ too much yerselves, for if I weren’t as criminal as ye claim, there wouldn’t have been someone to hack into the camera feed and see ye trashin’ about the place. So how’s about we make our exit now, cuz as soon as they discover I’ve disabled their intercoms, we’re in for it.”

And all of a sudden Linda got it. Wint wasn’t trying to get rid of her. She had just found a way to get into the security systems of this place and had managed to find out that Fye was also there. All of a sudden, the girl a mixed wave of awe and quite a bit of fear wash over her as she regarded the woman by her side. How much more did Wint know about whatever was going on here?

"I won’t come with you!” The prince raised his voice, but one could tell he was still trying to avoid attracting unwanted attention to their small group.

“Well stay here then”, Wint shrugged, being her typical diplomatic and empathic self. “After all, with a mommy dearest like yours I reckon yer better off being tossed and turned by rich aunties around ‘ere than for her to burn your troublemaking fingers off.”

For a moment, Fye regarded her in shock, as if she’d just told him gravity had stopped working.

"Wait an instant... so you’ve come to take me back to my mother?”

"Ah, he’s landed, finally!” The windstorm gave him an ironic clap. “Who d’ye think summoned us to run over the seas and find you on the double? And where would we place ye if not with ‘er? It’s not like ye can... ye know – blend in.”

"I blend in just fine, I’ll have you know!” The boy puffed his chest out, but less than a second later shrank again. “But I do hope we can come to some form of understanding.”

Wint gave him another once over with her trademark icy cold, analytical stare. She then smiled ever so slightly and turned on her heels to start walking towards the exit. She made a few steps, then turned her head to them again:

“Right this instant, Yer Highness, I want ye to come to the sole understanding that we need to get out of ‘ere as soon as possible and the rest we can discuss when we’re far away. Aye?”

***************************************************************

Among the very difficult things to do in this Universe, you could easily place convincing a group of people, who consider themselves powerless, that change is entirely up to them. No matter what you tell them, it sounds like some form of farfetched abstraction, which their psyche struggles to comprehend.

With some effort, he remembered he used to be like that, if not worse, a long time ago. Ironically, he found strength in the thing which ages ago he wanted so passionately to be and to have and which now seemed like he would never get. He saw himself in each and every one of the men around him who despite their innate passiveness had still made it to the meeting. They had made that first step which had took him years of fighting with his own sense of shame and the derision he faced from others.

No, he thought with a smile as he was gathering up the rest of his equipment off of the quickly put together stage, these men were no longer weak. He had seen in their eyes that flame which burns only in those who have become masters of their own destiny. And despite the women in power sneering down with ill-concealed contempt at his endeavour even they would soon have no choice but to face that simple truth.

After all, since he’d manage to convince even the lads on the Recreation Isles to push aside their fear of getting punished by their ladies, anything was possible. Possible, and just a matter of time before it became undeniable fact.

No, he thought, with the wide grin still across his lips, as he was walking out of the underground chamber into the sunlit street, nothing could sour his mood right now. And then he saw her...

For a moment, he managed to convince himself he had the wrong person. Still, the more the small group in front approached him, the clearer it became that it was exactly her. His brain jumped into high gear, frantically searching for a hiding spot or a way to shrink from existence or at least from sight...

“Ah, brother Ma’ala, ain’t ye a sight fer sore eyes!” He was hoping the anxiety he felt hadn’t found its way onto his expression upon hearing the woman’s deep alt.“What brings ye to these sorry parts?”

She still seemed to have no idea who he really was. Of course, likely because each time he travelled he drank enough of the Herb to brighten his eyes beyond the point in which even his own mother could recognise him. A small, yet annoyingly persistent part of him was mildly disappointed by this.

"Lady Tempaiah!” He exclaimed and bowed his head, slipping instantly into the role Wint was used to seeing him in. “Our Order provides solace to the boys here for years – a way for them to get in touch with the glowing love of Our Great Mother. We do what we can to ease their carnal suffering.”

Wint’s nose crinkled in disgust as if she wanted to say a couple of things to the effect that being roped into a cult could hardly constitute an easement of any type of suffering – carnal or otherwise. To her, religiosity in and of itself constituted a form of prostitution, but thankfully, the wind storm decided to keep her overwhelming opinion to herself for once.

“That’s yer business, I guess”, she snorted instead and made another step towards him, which in turn had him mobilizing all his willpower not to shy away. “In any event, we be headed yer way, so I hope ye can take us directly with ye from here on out.”

“Y-you’re coming to the Island?” The young man stuttered and his large, sparkling blue eyes widened suddenly. “But...”

He wanted to ask why. He wanted to be able to just turn around and go. And then his eyes fell on the tallest of the three boys the women were dragging behind. Fiery blond hair, despite the dirt which made it cling to his temples and neck, sharp, aristocratic features of the face and gorgeous golden-brown irises. Of course, the Recreation Isles bordellos offered a wide variety of companions, among which were quite a few fire tribe boys – these came in high demand as they were still considered amongst the most attractive men on Alaiah. But this kid... there was something about him. Something special, something strong. Something regal.

Mali had no way of knowing if he was right, before he had a chance to speak to the boy alone and the only way for that to happen, without rousing the women’s suspicion, was to take them with him to the Island. By the Kriyan devils...

"Of course, lady Tempaiah, I’d gladly take all of you with us”, he said, finally breaking the awkward silence. He sincerely hoped they hadn’t noticed his gaze shift between the boys and the wind storm.

“I...”, the tall blond boy began, in the typical fire tribe accent.

“Ye’ll be silent for the time being”, Wint cut him off abruptly.” Or if ye can – in general. We thank ye, brother Ma’ala, ‘dis was what we wanted to hear. Now take us to yerol’ boat so we can be out of ‘ere, before they find us out.”

***************************

Admiral Tar leaned back in her command chair and started drumming her fingers against the armrest.

“What do you mean they aren’t responding?” She drawled out finally, her tone reminiscent of the rumble of an incoming landslide.

“We tried all the available encrypted frequencies, all three cyphers, even the general’s personal comms, admiral.” The young woman’s voice was so taught with tension, it didn’t even get the chance to quiver. “No response.”

“And this has been going on for the past few day star rotations and I am finding out only now because...” the commander in chief urged.

The young sergeant paced nervously on the spot for a while, desperately looking around for some inspiration in the cabinet’s interior.

“Ww-well... Actually, m’lady...”

“Ww-well... Actually...”, the admiral repeated mockingly, trying to rail in the rage which roared like an earthquake at the centre of her chest. “What’s with all this mumbling, lieutenant sergeant Cenk? Are you a warrior or a little boy? Act more like a female and answer me this simple question – why didn’t you notify me sooner about the fact that general Shankh’s squad isn’t responding to our attempts at reaching them?”

“Because we assumed they would need some time to regroup, m’lady!” The sergeant roared in response.

“To regroup?” Tar echoed, this time without a hint of irony in her tone. “For three whole rotations? No, lieutenant sergeant, there’s something else at play here. And I expect from you to find out what that something is as soon as possible, is that clear?”

“Ma’am, yes ma’am!” Cenk hit her left shoulder with her fist, bowed low and executed a perfect 180 turn on her heels before leaving the cabinet.

Tar’s eyes remained fixed on the now closed door for a while. In her head, a million thoughts a second were racing around, but none of them stuck. None of them seemed to satisfy her mind’s desperate search for firm ground.

She shook her head suddenly. She wasn’t doing herself any favours acting like this. There was no way to know for sure what had happened to Shankh’s squad, before the proper investigation had taken place. All Tar could do now was to see it through and to hope and pray that the Goddess wouldn’t abandon her most capable servants in their time of need. She had to believe. There was no other way.