I swing my knife in Han’s direction as I glimpse him ducking from my attack with a step to the side. I do not intend to kill Han. I have to defeat him to the point of capitulation, and if making his arms bleed is the only way to stop the Nights’ advance, then I will do what I must.

“You haven’t fought in a while, have you?” He teases as he crosses the knives from hand to hand like a juggler at a carnival. “I can tell. You’ve become lax in your attacks.”

“You’re too easy,” I say as I spin the knife around my wrist as easily as if it were a pencil between my fingers. We are battling each other with our pride. Soon, he will lunge at me when my guard is down. I step back, creating enough space to evade. As I expected, his knife dives in and slits the hem of my shirt as I jump away and throw my own knife at him. The knife digs into the wall behind Han’s head. As I toss another knife, he pulls mine from the wall and charges me with a knife in each hand. I bend backwards and fall to my knees as he swipes the air where my torso had been. I kick his ankles, but that second of instability is not enough for me to damage his knees effectively.

With a leap, I position my hands forward, but he tackles me the moment my feet flatly hit the floor. We wrestle each other until his arms pin me down. My knives clatter beside my head as he uses his knees to keep me on the ground and arranges his two knives between the calloused concave of his hands. He begins to ram the knives to my face, but I push him enough that they hit the floor in a splintering wail. I boot him off of me, swipe my knives from the ground, and switch our positions so that I have pegged him underneath me.

He chooses that moment to laugh even in the midst of the strenuous brawl. “Who taught you to climb a high horse, Tao? I’m certain I was vigilant in keeping you tame.”

“I’ve never once thought I was the best,” I pant. “I only ever thought I was good enough.”

“You should’ve stayed that way – barely making it.”

“I grew up, Han.” I pocket a knife so that I only have one weapon pressed to his throat. “I found out that if I didn’t do it soon, someone was going to order me to do it. And I was tired of being ordered around.”

“So you couldn’t be controlled, is that what you are trying to convey?”

“What I want to say is this.” I lean in. The knife sinks a millimeter into his skin. “I don’t want to be remembered for how I die. I want to be remembered for how I live.” I stand up, although I keep my foot on his chest. “I’m not going to kill you. My fight isn’t with you. I’ve got more important things to handle.”

“Your mercy makes you weak.”

I hear a faint shout, reminding me that we are not alone in this war. “Where are the rest of the Nights?” His blood runs down his neck and onto the floor. He grins.

“Behind me.”

Before I can even think, my body pulls itself from the ground and leaps away as a knife simultaneously buries into the sole of my boot. In the shadows, dozens of Nights emerge like beasts rising from a fog. I turn, and behind me, the Capital’s own surge down the corridor with long, steady rods in their hands. For a breath, we stare at the frozen scene; and immediately after, the clamor of knives and rods, legs and hands, become tangled in a sea of sweat.

The Nights advance farther down the corridor with their sly attacks and quick judgments. It seems that the majority of the Capital’s own have never fought against a Night, whereas the Nights have observed the training regime of the Capital for years. That is the advantage of being an outcast. To be excluded is to be threatening.

“How many are there?” I say to a man who is struggling to push a Night’s knife away from his eye. I help him with a swift gash to the man’s stomach, which causes him to fall.

“Thank you,” he chokes as he scurries from the dead man. “We think they came in through the concealed passageway. There are hundreds of them on the first floor. We’ve placed more guards, but the Nights were too silent to detect.”

That’s because we wasted time on deciding my freedom.

“Behind you,” I say, and slide my knife in between the Capital guard’s arm and side. The Night who had crept behind him gripes at his pierced body. Meanwhile, the Capital’s own drops his rod in shock. He lifts his arm to see the hole in his sleeve while I kick the rod in the air and use it to swing at an incoming Night’s head.

“Being distracted won’t get you anywhere,” I say as I return the rod to him. Clumsily, he catches it. He’s still too dazed to notice his dangerous environment, so I have to disconnect the arm of one Night and kill another before the man regains himself.

“I thought you were protecting the Capital daughter.”

“She’s safe.”

He points behind me. “But her bedroom door is open.”

My heart descends to the floor when I look to confirm his statement. Her bedroom door is indeed open. In fact, there are Nights and Capital guards fighting in the doorway. I push my way past them to see that her bed is an empty wrinkle of sheets. Either she escaped, or she was taken away.

“Where is she?” I scream. One of the Capital’s own steals a knife from a Night and uses his weapon to decapitate him. I slam my hand on his shoulder. “Have you seen her?”

“Who?”

“The Capital daughter. Have you seen her?”

“No,” he answers, and drops the knife. “These things are brutal.”

“Surely you’ve seen her!” I nearly harass him. He winces. I think I pulled on his shoulder too harshly. Relaxing, I ask again, “What happened here?”

“A Night broke in. All I recall is that a group of us ran to fight them. I never saw her leave.”

“For the Capital’s sake,” I angrily grumble. “You’re soldiers. You should be attentive, not immersed!”

“It was chaotic.”

I pick up the rejected knife and clean it against my pants. “Where would she have gone?”

“I assume upstairs. The Nights have taken control of every passageway on the first floor. There is a slim chance of leaving there alive.”

A thought hits me. “Where is the Capital leader?”

“He came with us.” His eyes widen. “The last time I saw him was when he confronted one of the Nights. He had dark eyes, and his neck was bleeding. He insinuated the attack, I think.”

Han. I curse, and then I thank him before I run out to find the Capital leader. Nari is smart; I expect her to be safe. But for the Capital leader to face Han, and by himself, will be a calamity. After the truth I discovered, I do not doubt that Han is overjoyed to claim an opportunity with the Capital leader.

I search every room on the floor while protecting myself from the occasional attack. I have blood scratched on various parts of my skin – some from me, some from others. I head for the third floor, but when I think about what Han would do were he to corner his favorite enemy, I know he would guide him to a place where both his back and his front would be vulnerable.

I take the stairs down to the first floor, and it is on the last curve of steps where I find Han with a blade in his hand and the Capital leader with blood from his shoulder. They both stiffen when they hear me, but it is Han that greets me when I reveal that I am armed.

“Glad you joined us. Shall we continue our fight?”

“That’s your father,” I plead. I relax my arms, although all I want to do is manage a defensive stance. I hope that leaving myself open will appeal to his conscience.

“You of all people should know that a man isn’t made a father because of a child.” He wipes the blood from his neck with his sleeve. “It’s about earning your place. And he never earned his.”

“People make mistakes.”

“What immense grace you have,” he snarls. “I don’t remember your father being so simple.”

“Leave it be, Tao,” the Capital leader wheezes. I watch in horror as his arm oddly swings from its socket. “This is not your fight.”

“This is not about you!” Han lashes at the Capital leader. “Do you think I’m angry because you abandoned me? Why should I be? Look at me. The youngest leader of the Nights, unparalleled in skill. What business do I have in wishing for a future that was never mine? I wasn’t made for honor, king,” he mocks. “I was made for revenge.”

“I had an entire kingdom to consider.”

“No. You had your priorities. Your mistake was in justification.”

“Had you been me – “

“Oh, but I wasn’t. And what a blessing that is.” Han shakes his head. “It’s a curse to be your son.”

“I’ll fight you if you hurt him again, Han,” I warn. I inch closer to Han, but the Capital leader stops me with a cough.

“Find Nari for me.”

“Sir?”

“Find her. I don’t know where she is. I’m certain she’s in danger.”

The knife shivers underneath my grip. “But you’re hurt.”

The Capital leader actually smiles at this. “All of us have to make a decision between two seemingly equal options. You decide based not on gain or loss, but on ability. You measure your worth.” He groans as the pain in his arm causes him discomfort. “I overestimated myself, Tao. Let your future be different.”

“But – “

“I’m safe,” he replies, and although his body is old and weak, and his face is gray and weary, his eyes are as unyielding as the steel of my blade.

And because of that, I trust him.

“I’ll find her,” I say, and before Han can refrain me, I dash away from the debilitating man and toward a different future.