Hey again! I'm starting to catch up with myself, so I might not update twice a week anymore. I'll try to stay consistent, though. Your reviews are super appreciated! And thanks again to Addicted-to-GazettE for beta reading. Just one minor update: I aged Thalia up a year to make earlier events slightly less weird. She's now the same age as Sinbad. I don't know if anyone was trying to keep track, but I've been trying to make the timeline more clear when I edit the previous chapters.

The dungeon was a longer walk away than Thalia would have liked. It was outside the city walls, which meant she had to tromp through shifting sands until they arrived at the mysterious structure. When she laid eyes on it, she nearly cried.

More freaking steps. She decided her first act as queen would be to abolish staircases.

The entrance towered above them, near the top of the obelisk-like structure.

"That's it," she grumbled. "I'm already defeated. I can't do all these stairs."

"I believe in you, Thalia!" Mystras cheered.

"Thalia, may I speak to you?" It was Narmes. He pulled her to the side, speaking in a hushed voice. "I know we've only been on one date, and I don't know you that well, but even the strongest soldiers we sent in there haven't come out alive. I'm worried that you don't seem to be much of a warrior…"

Thalia shyly took his hand.

"I'll be fine. My friends are really dependable. Sin told you, didn't he? He's already conquered two dungeons. I'm sure he wouldn't bring me along if he couldn't keep me safe."

In truth, she was apprehensive, but she wanted to believe if Sinbad said it was okay, that it would be okay.

Narmes glanced at Sinbad, who was watching them intently. In fact, all their friends were. Upon being caught, they looked away, pretending not to have noticed the couple. Thalia quickly released Narmes's hand, her face burning with embarrassment.

"You really trust that guy, huh?" Narmes asked, referring to Sinbad.

"I trust all of my friends."

Narmes gave her a defeated smile.

"Come back, okay?"

"I promise."

She glanced back at him as she returned to her friends.

"What the hell was that, Thalia?" Mystras complained loudly as soon as she joined them. "You held that guy's hand!"

Hinahoho pat her on the back, a proud grin stretching across his face.

"It's good to see you expanding your horizons."

"No," Mystras asserted, crossing his arms in front of his chest, "It's not. You're a traitor to love, Thalia. A traitor!"

"Weren't you the one who dragged Sinbad to the brothel several days ago?" Ja'far asked warily. "I don't see how you can be upset with Thalia. She's just following my advice to start seeing people."

"You did this?!" Mystras blanched.

"Good job, Ja'far," Hinahoho chuckled.

Thalia watched this exchange unfold with apprehension. As much as her friends teased her about Sinbad, she didn't understand this sudden intense investment in her romantic life. She glanced over to Sinbad.

"Are you going to reign them in or…?"

He nodded curtly.

"Fight it out while we're walking. Come on, guys."

Together, they began their ascent to the dungeon.

Upon entering the dungeon, Thalia looked around her, disappointing by the mundaneness of her surroundings. From the inside, the dungeon appeared to be an ordinary building. She assumed the real adventure would start when they proceeded through the double doors in front of them. A part of her wanted to turn back, remembering her adventures so far had led to her becoming enslaved and witnessing the wholesale slaughter of bandits, but it was too late. She would either die here or her friends would conquer this dungeon.

"From here on out, we'll need to be careful," Serendine suggested, her hand on the hilt of her sword.

"It'll be faster just to cut through to the treasury," Sinbad corrected her, drawing his sword. A sigil glowed, bathing him in light. When the flash died down, his violet hair was a dark cyan and… was that a tail?!

So this was a djinn equip. From behind him, Thalia leaned over curiously, trying to get a better look. She'd heard about djinn equips, mostly from Sinbad's books.

"This is your first time seeing something like this, right, Thalia?" Sinbad asked.

He turned around and gave her a playful wink. That might have been enough to throw her off balance in itself, but…

How could battle armor show so much skin? From behind, he'd looked reasonably covered, but from the front, his chest and abdomen were on display for her viewing pleasure. As heat creeped up her neck and the stomach fluttering returned, she stumbled backwards into Ja'far .

"Watch it!" her smaller friend mumbled, pushing her off him.

She apologized, scolding herself for lusting after her best friend once again.

Sinbad's eyebrows arched at her reaction, but he kept focused on the task at hand. Turning back around, he raised his sword and began a chant.

"Bararaq sai—!"

Suddenly, Thalia crashed into something hard— the ground. She whipped her head around, trying to figure out what had just happened. The last thing she'd seen, Sinbad was about to use his djinn equip to tear through the dungeon walls. Now, she and the others were on some kind of golden island surrounded by water.

"Where are we?" Sinbad asked, scratching his head.

"This is the treasury," a voice replied. It was not one she recognized. she looked up to see a blue creature with a bloated belly speaking. "I'm rather attached to this dungeon. I'd prefer you not destroy it, so I bought you here. I am the djinn of spirit and puppetry, Zepar."

Djinn existed. Thalia understood that. After all, she had witnessed their power for herself when Sinbad showed her his metal vessels. Even with that knowledge, Thalia had never believed. This strange creature challenged her entire worldview. She gazed at the djinn with apprehension. Having reality called into question was… unsettling.

Zepar seemed impressed with Sinbad, but, as he explained, this trial would not be Sinbad's. This trial would be for his followers. The worried looks on her comrades faces made Thalia uneasy. She had never been in a dungeon before, but surely this was a straightforward task, right?

"So, the requirement of this test is that everyone passes, right?" Sinbad asked the djinn. He turned his attention to his followers. "Then what's there to worry about? I believe in the strength of every one of you. We've made it this far fighting together, because you guys are my friends and allies."

Sinbad's words restored Thalia's faith. Yes, she could do this.

"First up, I'll have your fellow allies fight each other here."

What?

All eyes turned to her. "This is bad. Thalia really can't fight," Mystras whispered.

She supposed she shouldn't be surprised that there would be fighting in a dungeon, but against her friends? She'd have a better chance against monsters. Once again, she felt like a kitten among lions.

Thalia timidly met Sinbad's encouraging gaze, and her worries melted away. He believed in her. She could do this. She resolved she would do whatever it took not to hold him back.

"You're right, but I'll give it my all anyway," she announced more confidently than she felt.

"I haven't even decided the pairings yet!" the djinn with the swollen belly complained. He pointed to Mystras and Hinahoho. "You two seem suited to fight each other."

Their fight ended in a draw, which disappointed Zepar.

"Next will be a fight to the death between Ja'far and Masrur," the djinn announced gleefully.

"To the death?!" Thalia exclaimed, horrified.

Sinbad was equally disturbed. "What the hell…?"

Ja'far stepped forward. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to refuse."

"You just don't get it, do you?" Zepar asked. "In a dungeon, the rules of a djinn are absolute. If I tell you to kill, you kill."

"Hold on," Thalia interjected. "We've all chosen to follow Sinbad, not you. We've chosen to follow him because he'd never carelessly ask us to lay down our lives for something as trivial as a test." She glared at the djinn.

"Ah, Thalia Alexandris, former princess of a weak nation doomed to fail. It must be hard, pretending to be perfect all the time. In reality, you're fraying at the edges, aren't you?"

The image of the broken bottle on the floor this morning flashed into her mind.

"Your friends don't know, do they? That every day, you have to walk past a person you hate, fake a smile, shove down your true feelings... When you look at her, all you see is blood, isn't it?"

Zepar smirked at the effect his words were having on Thalia. Her vision began to swim until at last she collapsed, grasping her head as though she were holding down the last bits of her fleeing sanity.

Yes, the one who killed her sister and her parents. Serendine. The girl who was standing right by her as though she hadn't done anything.

"Thalia, I don't know what exactly he was talking about just now, but I need you to get it together," Sinbad ordered. "Now's not the time to fall apart."

She nodded and stood up to find Ja'far and Masrur fighting.

"What's going on?" she asked weakly.

"Zepar has some kind of mind control over Masrur. He's using him like a puppet." Drakon explained.

Thalia immediately forgot everything else as Masrur pounded Ja'far to a pulp. "If they go on like this…"

"Ja'far really will die," Sinbad finished.

"Sinbad!" Drakon shouted, urging him to do something— anything— to stop this senseless violence.

Just when it looked like Masrur's victory was assured, Ja'far managed to turn the tables using Bararaq Sei to knock Masrur out. Still, Zepar was not satisfied.

Thalia, Sinbad, and Drakon watched anxiously as Masrur regained consciousness and spoke in hushed voices with Ja'far.

Drakon was the first to notice something was off. "Something's not right. The match should already have been decided."

"Then what are they doing?" Thalia wondered aloud.

Then, Ja'far turned to them and smiled. "Sin, I'll leave the rest to you."

Those of the group that were still conscious watched in horror as Ja'far plunged one of his knives into his own heart.

"Ja'far!" Thalia screamed, helpless to stop the young boy. The only thing keeping her from falling apart was Sinbad's words from earlier. Now wasn't the time.

Thalia's companions leapt to the island on which Ja'far's body lay motionless. She could not follow them. Her legs were strong, but they were incapable of making the jump. She was forced to watch as Drakon scooped up their friend and confirmed their worst fear. Ja'far was dead. He'd always seemed so lively, energetic. Now, he seemed small and fragile.

Zepar-controlled Masrur's maniacal laughter rang throughout the room, a sick eulogy.

"I just wanted to see how much pain you'd be willing to go through for your king. You pass."

What's the point of passing if he's dead? Thalia thought bitterly.

"The fight is now over. It was a good match."

"... A good match?" Sinbad's voice was quiet, like the calm before a storm.

"Yeah! Now, for the next match…"

"Quit fucking around." Sinbad immediately equipped Baal, prepared for a fight. "We're not your playthings. Can you lay down your life for your king? How much pain are you willing to go through for your king? If those are the things that make someone a loyal subject, I want nothing to do with them. I'll take it all upon myself! The pain, suffering… I don't understand your reasoning, but I'll make you regret playing around with my friends' lives."

"No," Thalia rejected his words. Suffering and pain? She would do everything within her power to make sure he never felt any of that again. "You're not taking on anything alone." She turned to Zepar, drawing herself upright in an attempt to seem braver than she felt. "Sinbad has earned all of our trust through his sincerity, but you? Playing around with the lives of children? You're pathetic."

Zepar scoffed. "What are you going to do, little princess? Fight me? It's pointless. Inside a dungeon, a djinn is..."

"Invincible, right?" Sinbad asked, raising his sword. "But what about against another djinn. Are you sure you'd come away from Baal's attack unscathed?"

"Geez..."

Thalia blinked with disbelief as a familiar voice complained.

"I said I'd leave things to you, and here you are throwing all my sacrifice away." Jafar sat up and spit up blood.

"Ja'far!" She collapsed to her knees at the edge of her island prison, reaching out to him futilely.

"That's impossible!" Drakon exclaimed. "Your heart had stopped! I confirmed it with my own hands!"

"It's simple," Ja'far replied. "I only appeared to be dead. I opened a small hole in my chest that drastically lowered my heart rate for a few minutes." He turned to Zepar. "I was dead, so your conditions were met. You can't go back on your word now."

Sinbad dropped his djinn equip, relieved that his friend had survived. The others began to regain consciousness as well.

"What the hell is this?" the djinn growled. "I won't accept this. I can't accept something like this. I won't acknowledge you as king! You'll spend the rest of your lives here in this dungeon."

Thalia didn't exactly want to do that, but she doubled down on her resolve to follow Sinbad. He would find a solution. He always did.

"Fine with me." Sinbad said.

What the hell was he doing? Was this his solution?

"We were only here as a favor to Heliohapt anyway." Ja'far agreed.

Ja'far was supposed to be the reasonable one. Why was he going along with this?

Sinbad held out his sword. "We'll force our way through."

Her friends all agreed to fight alongside Sinbad, and she understood. She had been wrong to doubt him. Of course he had a plan. Thalia resolved to contribute to the effort in any way she could. Everyone had agreed to fight along Sinbad— everyone except Serendine.

"Wait, Sinbad!" The Parthevian princess placed her hand upon her chest, poising herself pridefully. "Forgive our rudeness. Let's carry on with the trials."

Zepar crossed his arms in front of him petulantly.

"I refuse. I expect more from a King Vessel than what Sinbad has shown me."

"Um…!" One of Serendine's maids spoke up. "What if Serendine were to be your king vessel? Out of all the people here, she is the one who wants power more than anyone else! If she had more power, she could definitely take back the country she lost!"

Taking back a country… Thalia had thought a lot about repairing her country, but taking it back? How exactly was she going to do that? She would need an army, and the ability to fight. She would also need her own metal vessel, wouldn't she? Maybe now was an opportunity to claim one.

"Fine. There are two king vessels, so naturally you'll be the ones to compete."

No, this metal vessel was never hers to claim. As long as Sinbad still had a chance, she couldn't take that from him, no matter how small the chances of her actually passing one of this sadistic djinn's trials were.

"This fight is a showdown between your ideologies. In other words, a battle of the heart."

The first question was simple enough.

"How do you intend to use your metal vessels?"

Thalia found her admiration of Sinbad growing with his answer. He was incredibly idealistic, but Thalia believed that if anyone could bring such dreams to fruition, he could.

Serendine's response wasn't bad either. If Thalia didn't hate the woman so much, she might have found them to be legitimate criticisms of Sinbad's point of view.

Serendine wound her way to her point: "I would use the metal vessel for my country and my country only."

You mean to expand your power by destroying more countries, right? It took everything Thalia had to bite her tongue.

Serendine continued, "The most important quality of a king is blood."

Thalia scoffed out loud this time, the lessons from her recent history studies fresh in her ind. "Blood? What kind of history have you been studying? Did the first king of your bloodline seven generations back have royal 'blood' when he overthrew the previous monarchy and assumed the throne? Do you think the peoples you conquered respect your precious bloodline? Or will you admit there's more than one way to assert authority over a country?"

"You're a princess, too. You should know how important blood is to the peaceful transition of power and the stability of a country." Serendine snapped.

"I understand blood can have a tremendous sway over the public. But as you mentioned earlier, there are other forms of government where the leader is not decided by blood. This should prove that a pedigree is not a requirement for a true leader. Instead, I propose an alternative interpretation of your theory. What makes a king are the people who support him. No matter how far back his family history goes, without the support of the right people, it's only a matter of time before he's overthrown. Is that not what happened to both of our countries? For me, it was the wrong alliances. For you, it was a military coup."

The scale trembled and Serendine looked as though she were ready to pounce on Thalia. This was not unexpected. Serendine had always had a competitive side. She hated to lose, and it looked like Thalia's words had affected her.

"This is Sinbad's trial, not yours. Let him speak for himself." Serendine turned to Sinbad with a sympathetic expression. "Sinbad, don't be so particular about creating your own country. Isn't the company you have enough? You can never truly become king. Despite that, do you insist on wishing for a country with which to change the world?"

The scale trembled violently, but remained even.

Sinbad came back quickly.

"I don't need blood. I'll be the same as my citizens. I'll create a country of traders!"

Serendine's face remained impassive.

"What will you do about land?"

"If we keep looking, I'm sure we can…"

"Ridiculous! Sinbad, why did you decide to create your own country? Isn't it because you saw the condition of our homeland? In that case, shouldn't you be trying to save Parthevia?"

"Parthevia is on the way to recovery…"

"Don't be so naive. You think Barbarossa is such an honest person?"

Thalia's stomach dropped at the mention of his name. He was the only person she hated more than Serendine.

"He was the one spurring on all the wars in the first place! He had all the power! I can't let that man continue to violate my country. Sinbad, help me take back Parthevia! You can become the next figurehead to serve as the pillar supporting Parthevia. Become my husband! I can give you what you wish for… I can give you everything you want!" Serendine reached out to him.

Thalia felt something break inside her as the scale dropped. Sinbad had lost.

"Ridiculous," she muttered. A marriage proposal had done him in.

"Eh? She won fair and square." Zepar seemed extremely content with the results, reclining in mid air with his arms folded behind his head.

"Ridiculous!" she repeated. "Sin, how can you take a word she says seriously? Don't you realize who she is by now? What she did?"

"Thalia, this is hard enough on him without you giving him a hard time," Drakon tried to calm her. He put his hand on her shoulder and she jerked away.

"No!" She wasn't going to sit still while this monster took away the last thing she she had!

She began to march toward her fellow princess, only to be blocked by a barrier of light shooting up around her. Thalia pounded on it as it carried her and her friends out of the dungeon. She groaned in frustration, turning around to look at her friend. Sinbad was sitting forlornly on a giant bag of gold. Why did he look so sad? She was furious with him for losing to her mortal enemy so easily, for even considering a marriage proposal from that woman, but Serendine had offered him everything he'd ever wanted. He could marry her, a powerful princess, and he would be king, offered legitimacy by his wife's bloodline. Everything he'd ever wanted was within his grasp, so why…?

Thalia sat next to Sinbad in silence. She remembered her own political marriage she'd been desperate to escape and thought for a moment that maybe she understood. Then she realized she really didn't. Sinbad wasn't like her. He wasn't a spoiled princess who'd had no choice in his role. He'd chosen his dream and he'd spent his passion and energy pursuing it for years. After all that hard work, would he really just accept Serendine just handing a country over to him? Thalia didn't think he would. He wanted to earn his dream of his own right.

"Sin…"

He looked up at her as though he just realized she was next to him.

She rested her hand on his knee and gave him a weak smile. Now that she wasn't fuming with rage, she was able to properly take in her surroundings. Tiny glowing birds fluttered past them. Were those the legendary rukh? Beyond a barrier of light and rukh, stars sprinkled out in every direction, glowing debris in a vast sea of nothingness. And before them, bathing them in a dull blue light, a giant blue orb sat watching them. It felt sentient to her, as though it were protecting them on their voyage back to their world.

The feeling of something warm wrapping around her hand startled her. Sinbad had taken the hand on his knee inside his own. His gesture melted her long-frozen heart. For the first time since the incident, she rested her head on his shoulder. They were on Ria Venus Island again, under the night sky sharing their dreams in a secret corner.

If the others noticed the two friends' private moment, they never said a word.