Wait… Black prana! Was there supposed to be black prana?
Something felt off about that in his mind, but he was simply too addled to think straight. Where even was he? Was Maiya alright? Vir’s thoughts came haphazard and jumbled through the pain.
“He got what was comin’ to ’im. Lying about bein’ a ’risto’s grounds for execution. But we’re merciful folk here at Saran, so yer both sentenced to hard labor instead. Ten years.”
“What!” Maiya screamed. “You can’t do this to us! You can’t!”
We need to get out of here, Vir thought. His entire body throbbed with pain, and it was all he could do to endure it without blacking out.
“We can do whatever we want ta nobodies like you. S’peshully lyin’ nobodies,” the jailor said with a snort, slamming their cell door shut.
Vir heard his footsteps die away as a pair of soft, slender hands turned him around.
“Oh, Vir,” Maiya said, tearing off her sleeve to wipe the blood from his face.
Vir grinned, but as disfigured as he was, his expression scared Maiya, making her flinch. He gave her a thumbs-up. “I’m okay. Bruised, is all.”
“Vir, what in Vera’s name happened! What did they do to you?”
They’d been treated well enough, initially. Vir had taken a light slap to the face for daring to escape from the guards, but at the time, they’d considered them sons of Sawai aristocracy. The guards couldn’t do much beyond that.
Then they’d arrived at the city dungeon, and things went downhill fast. Vir never anticipated they’d have a literal book—a registry—filled with aristocratic names, both Hiranyan and foreign. After cross checking the Suvir name, they discovered there was in fact no such family.
And the penalty for lying about one’s status was severe, as he soon found out.
“Didn’t…” Cough. “Didn’t take my makeup off,” Vir said between hacking coughs. It boggled his mind how they hadn’t discovered his disguise through all the beating and bruising. The makeup must have been severely marred. He thanked Yuma he’d refused to wear a wig. It would have come off, revealing his subterfuge.
“That’s… Vir, I’m so, so sorry. If only I’d jumped up to the roof, back in the alley… If only I hadn’t negotiated as hard with those merchants, this wouldn’t ever have happened.”
Vir shook his head, gingerly sitting up. “Wasn’t you. We were framed. I asked them. Said there were mass robberies. Goods outright stolen by the crate. You didn’t steal a thing. Someone set us up.”
We let our guard down. After their run-in with the man outside Saran, Vir should have been more cautious. Maybe if he’d spotted the guards earlier, they could have escaped. At the very least, he should’ve had a contingency plan in case they were ambushed. It wasn’t a mistake he would ever make again.
“You protected me, Vir. You shielded me from all this…”
Vir had taken charge the moment they’d entered the jail. He claimed sole responsibility for his actions and actively provoked the guards to ensure their attention rested squarely upon him.
He grinned. “You really think I’d let them lay a hand on you?”
Of course, that meant his actions had gotten him beaten to a bloody pulp the moment the guards knew he wasn’t an aristocrat. Bruises covered his thighs and biceps. One of his fingers blinded him with pain when he tried to move it, and his left eye was swollen shut.
“Doesn’t look like they broke any bones at least,” he said. “I managed to deflect their attacks. Made for some good training.”
“You call this training?” Maiya said, tearing up.
She’d done everything in her power to clean up his wounds, but without a Life Affinity orb, there was little else she could do apart from cradling Vir in her arms, soothing him with her words.
Several moments passed in silence as Vir ebbed in and out of consciousness. Then, once he’d gained some lucidity, he bolted up.
“We need to get out of here,” Vir said, trying, and failing, to stand. He sat down on the stone cot instead, resting his head on Maiya’s lap.
“Believe me, I’ve tried,” Maiya replied. “I don’t think there’s a way. I don’t even think our katars would help if we still had them. I think… I think we may have to wait until they take us away.”
Vir shook his head. “They’ll have us in chains. Won’t be able to escape. Surprised we’re not chained up right now, actually.”
“I’ll keep looking for a way,” Maiya said, gently pushing on his chest. “You lie down and get some rest, Vir. Please?”
“Sure,” he lied, closing his eyes. If they wanted to have any chance of breaking out of this prison, they’d need an edge. Any benefit they could get.
And the only thing Vir had a lead on was Prana Vision. It had aided him in combat several times before, and if he could activate it on demand, that may give them exactly what they needed. Even just being able to see prana signatures through walls would allow them to slip past guards far more safely than if they relied on just their eyes and ears.
Vir turned his vision inward, keenly observing his prana flow.
He already knew that prana flow was locked to his blood flow. What he saw now only confirmed that theory—his blood moved in different ways now in response to the shock of his injuries. There was actually less blood flowing to his extremities—his fingers and his toes. But in return, his largest blood pathways had further opened up, pumping enormous amounts of blood around his body—especially to his heart, lungs, and crucially, his head.
Specifically, his eyes. It really is all related to blood flow, Vir reflected.
He’d already guessed as much, but here was irrefutable proof. The flow of his blood may have been different in response to fear versus pure exertion, but in the end, the concept was simple.
Namely, the more blood—and thus prana—that flowed to his eyes, the stronger Prana Vision became.
That meant it was just a matter of controlling the prana within his body. If he could grab a hold of his prana and move it to his eyes, it should have the same effect. The only question was how exactly to do that.
The thought had occurred to him before, but he’d dismissed it as an impossibility. He was sure he’d spend hours, or possibly even days, on this task. There was no way this would be so easy.
Vir took a deep breath and saw the prana going into his head, then reached out and, with every ounce of his willpower, forced it to stop. And the prana actually stopped! Vir’s eyes shot open, joy and surprise rushing through his body.
I did it? I actually did it! He could scarcely believe it. With this, he’d unlocked several options.
I can’t wait to tell—! Vir’s thoughts were cut short as pain erupted from his head.
Then he blacked out.
Some unknown amount of time later, Vir awoke to wracking pain.
What happened? he thought, cracking an eye open to find his head in Maiya’s lap. She had dozed off at some point.
She must’ve thought I’d nodded off, Vir thought, rubbing his aching head.
Vir righted himself, immediately regretting it. Even the slightest movement made him want to puke.
As the cobwebs cleared from his mind, he thought back to what could possibly have happened. He was such a fool.
He’d stopped the prana flow into his head. All the prana.
Since he’d never even once seen prana flow independently from blood, that meant he’d actually stopped his blood too.