The Primogenitor

"I Promise"

Short, and long of face, the Snake Prince clearly thought himself an independent man who held his cards close and his friends at arm's length. Maisie saw an insecure boy in a very tight spot. Certainly, the hasty way he slithered and looked over his shoulder suggested he was a snake in need of a good shedding. But whatever this thing was, it was important to him, and he'd inconvenienced himself multiple times for Maisie's sake. Beggars can't be choosers.

"What on earth did you tell him?" muttered Shig.

Sebastian struggled to keep up. "Can you tell him my name's Sebastian, and I'm very happy to be working with him?" She hadn't believed her luck when he'd asked for her. I guess it was wise to make that crack about the Chosen One's helmet...

"I told him that I wouldn't come if he didn't take you lot."

Shig snorted. "You just said you wouldn't do it?"

"Unless he took all three of us." Some were careful not to push their luck. Maisie was careful never to leave her luck untapped. Yet somehow, the little sad note in Sebastian's voice when he wished her the best, knowing full well he was stuck with the Chosen One and his skinning knife, struck a chord.

"And he just accepted that?"

"We're all here."

Shig laughed, like glass in a blender. Like his bald head, Maisie found it strangely ingratiating. "This day keeps getting weirder and weirder. What if he tossed you back to the flesh-eating butterfly?"

"I wouldn't die. He had a use for me. But I'm sure he'd do something horrible to me." she glanced at the other two the Snake Prince had brought with him. After the altercation, he'd seemed in a bit of a hurry to leave, and grabbed a random Primogenitor in the Mondana group. The first one he'd chosen had worked security in a mine. Maisie smirked. He'd probably thought that was very cunning. Security was all show, at least in Callorado. If the Chiefs needed something done, they'd call in the Barrelheads. More often, though, they were content with giving their workers extra spice and calling it a day.

"You risked all that on a Chief doing what you said." Her wrists were savaged, the ties gnawing into her flesh. She'd vowed not to complain.

"He was uncomfortable from the start, and he tried to stop the violence by choosing me." Maisie couldn't help but wonder where they were going. For such an important matter, there were surprisingly few escorts. She wondered if she could beat the Prince in a fight with just her feet. "A few blunt words forced him to either back down and leave me, or go all-in with me. I gambled that if he'd already fought when he saw the Chosen One whack me, he wouldn't let something silly like dead weight stop him."

"Ha! You learned all this as Chief of the Eastern Wastes?"

"My lifestyle required me to know people's tendencies." Yet she'd almost gotten a knife in the face from Platon. Well played, Maisie.

"Didn't know people lived in the Eastern Wastes, Nobody." Sebastian grinned. "What? I'm joking. I'm not an idiot, obviously they don't."

Maisie chuckled, mostly out of pity. "I was Chief of the Eastern Wastes. Make no mistake about it." Chief of stinking mud, oil, and broken machines.

The Snake Prince stopped. "What are you talking about?" his Mondana was flawless. Maisie felt ashamed. She'd learned some to deal with traders from the north. It was only by insane coincidence that the snakes apparently ruled Mondana. "We're joking about your cape, my Prince." The cape was plenty ridiculous without Maisie pointing it out.

He ignored it. "Promise me you won't run if I cut your bonds." Does he think I'm an idiot? What was the point in escaping? Where would she escape to?