Captive of Rialga Palace

By the time Sam regained consciousness, her spine had been thoroughly thrashed. While the foreigner had come to enjoy the bouncing and galloping of a loving Kukchi, experiencing it while hog-tied to the back of one was another story.

She had come back to reality at the crack of dawn. The world of Pandema had once again become exotic, with vast open plains of rock, strange cacti, and shrubbery on all sides.

"Hey, where are you taking me!?" She asked. "Don't take me near any people! I'll make you sick, and I'll kill you! Don't you understand!?"

But Kalin refused to say anything. Sam barraged him with threats, warnings, and cries for hours, but the man looked ahead with stubborn indifference.

As the morning went on, the warrior retreaded his footpath across the desert landscape and made it to the first outpost. The men guarding the checkpoint saw Kalin approaching with his mount and allowed passage immediately without slowing them down. The cracks in the land deepened and spread out, and Kalin descended one of the gaps to find a well-maintained tunnel. This was one of many entrances in and out of the capital, bringing the two into a land of green.

Rydia, the city in the shade. Built by tunnelers a thousand years ago, it was expanded onto a complex network of tunnels that bore subterranean farming and mining. Sam recognized multiple vegetables and plants from the manor passing through the outskirts, and the further they went in, the more industrial the planting was until sunlight reemerged to reveal a city under a rock. It was still hot outside, but people were out and about, bringing a market of many goods from the underground. Vegetation and animals from the above worlds and imports from other burrows intermixed in warehouses and markets that formed the pillars holding up the massive flat rock shading the city. It was easily a population of three million, and as Kalin led them down the smoothed streets, the crowd activated and surrounded them as if a god was in their presence. Food and drink were offered on the spot, and the hero had to keep from taking anything for free.

"Out of the way!" He called. "I have a prisoner here! She is dangerous!"

The populace still crowded their hero. The people were of different shades of green and yellow, similar to the Vinisoyas, but notably people from another region, more like Auntie, Yapul, and the others. Sam hated to admit it, but the common Pandemian was not as beautiful as Maed. It was the eyes, she supposed. Either way, this allowed Sam to say hello and stay away from me.

"Wow, the Captain caught a weird one."

"That's an automaton. I bet that hair's hot to the touch."

"She's so pale, it's scary. Do you not get any sun?"

"She's hideous!"

"Her hair reminds me of those suction cup fish."

Sam grimaced. Was Snu the only one who immediately trusted her? It was demoralizing. She must've been the most untrustworthy creature on the planet.

As the traffic jam continued, familiar faces peeked above the crowd to see the ruckus.

"My lords," Yapul blinked. "Kalin grabbed Snu's lover! That boy is heartless, I tell you!"

The crowd opened up to allow their hero through the city streets, and once Kalin had the momentum, they flew down the valley, over the river bridge, and up a grand stairway leading up the cliff face. Overlooking the entire city, the Palace of Rialga, once thought to have been the lair of Dozae-Rae himself, watched over Rydia. It stood alone on the edge of Rydia's great valley, as there was nothing but the endless sea of sand behind it.

Once Sam was carried up the steep stone steps and into the grand entrance hall, she was brought before an entire troupe of priests, soldiers, and cloth women. They ripped her from the bondage she had been held under and began stripping.

"Have her ready for the Emperor in three hours," said Kalin, eyeing them closely. "I want her in a presentable shape. No violating her, please."

This woke up Sam to a danger she wasn't expecting, and she covered herself from any potential monsters in her midst. The standoff was tense, but long story short, the priests were the most trustworthy men in the building and escorted her with the utmost efficiency.Her cleaning was tense. She was thrown into baths, scrubbed with sands that tore away her dead skin, thrown in the bath again, decorated with wildflowers, dusted up with a powder that made her complexion lighter, except it darkened her, so she had to be thrown in the bath again.

A doctor came forth and inspected her health. As pretty as they made her, her bruises and swollen cheek were concerning and very painful. He poked her and brought a pair of tweezers to pick at her wounds.

"This bullet wound is very concerning." He said. "Has this not been cleaned?"

"Yes?" Sam replied. "It's mostly healed."

"Does it hurt when I poke it?"

"Yes! Ow!"

"Huh, very resilient you are."

After achieving a clean bill of health, a fourth bath was necessary. This time, another girl her age scrubbed her down. A bit too hard for Sam's comfort.

"Your skin's so pink," she sneered. "You must be so fragile. It's embarrassing."

"I want to die," Sam replied, but she was already dead inside.

"Don't worry, my father will make quick work of you."

She hoped so. As lovely as it was to be pampered like this, Sam knew she was putting these people in mortal danger. If all of this scrubbing had restrained the amount of contagion emitting from her body, she'd be able to forgive herself. "Your father, yes? Is he an executioner?"

This question was met with a smack to the back of her head. "Idiot! I'm Uzalu, daughter of the Emperor. I'm your better! You're lucky I don't kill you myself, bitch. I'm not sure why Captain Kalin is making a big fuss about you, but you're in for it, Devolite."

In a single phrase, Sam's reality warped and realigned itself. Captain Kalin? That was Snu's father!? Sam thought he was a poacher at first, then later a member of the secret police, but Kalin? That didn't make sense, though. Vinisnu told her all about his father and how brave, kind, and forthright he was. If that was the case, why did he abandon his family? Why didn't he stay by their side to the very end unless-?

Sam had cried a lot since her journey started. Her soft heart had taken a beating for the longest time, facing tragedy after tragedy, danger after danger, but for the first time in so long, the tears from her eyes were brought by pure joy.

"Thank you, Uzalu." Sam wiped her eyes. "You don't know how much that meant to me."

"Um, what?" Uzalu wasn't sure if she had misspoken. Was this a cultural misunderstanding? "My daddy's gonna kill you, y'know."

"He is, huh?" Just a moment ago, those words meant nothing to her, but now Sam could properly reflect on them.

Sam didn't like what she saw. It assaulted her like a nest of hornets. What was she doing? This entire time, she had been fueled by her depression, her doubt, and her emotions. Never once in the last 48 hours did she ever think rationally. To be brutally honest, she was always an irrational, emotional child, maybe quick-witted, but never quick-tongued.

This had to change. The Emperor was a man of immense power, a major player in the story that was Pandema. They didn't understand. The Rydians haven't realized she's an alien yet! To them, she's a Devolite, and Sam knew the punishment for that.

She never met her great-grandfather before. He died long before she was born, but her father said he had the charisma to bring people to his side and the venom to poison his enemies with words. In a tight squeeze, he could deflect, threaten, and tell the truth all at the same time. This legacy needed to be passed down to her. There was no running out of this situation, no fighting, no begging. Sam would have to talk her way out of this trap. Snu may have been her first, but today was the day true first contact began.

"By the way," Uzalu leaned in. "I heard rumors that you were holed up in Snu's house. What were you doing there?"

Sam thought about it before answering. She cleared her throat. "I'm Vinisnu's loyal life-servant!"

Uzalu, a rather jaded princess, lit up. "What!?"

"But he's deathly ill, and he needs my help. Princess Uzalu, we must work together to save him because you're his bride-to-be!"

"Wait, how did you know that!?" The girl turned beet red. "Unless you did know who I am! Did Snu tell you!?"

"But I'm not aware of what's been happening in the outside world. I'm a poor mutant girl with a life debt. So please, as your future servant, tell me the history between Rydia and Ublaneth?"

Sam had only an hour left before meeting the Emperor, but her resolve had never been stronger. It was settled. So long as she drew breath, she would make her way back to Vinisnu, no matter what.