5 - Where and When?

Time and Place Unknown

Nothing she came up with was good enough to satisfy her yearning to know what the actual hell was going on. Her thoughts were spinning, swimming, swarming, and yet nothing she came up with made any sense. This whole situation made no sense at all!

She was trying to get her mind to focus on something, anything, to help her through this crazy situation, which only seemed to be becoming more and more wild as time passed. How much time was passing? That was just added to the mystery.

She was also doing her best to avoid panicking, which was becoming more and more difficult.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Okay, focus - her surroundings: the robes and armour the men wore looked quite ancient, but that could just be the design. This was definitely an Asian influenced place. Whether or not it was indeed Asia itself was something she hadn't discovered yet. She hadn't exactly had a lot of time or chance to explore. And honestly, she wasn't sure she really wanted to, not with the Ten Rings lurking around at every turn.

She racked her brain, but that was as far as she'd gotten, as much as she'd come up with so far. She must be trapped within a branch of the Ten Rings organization, that much seemed official, but the question remained: how?

How? How had this even happened?

The million-dollar question.

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the scraping of metal, and turned to see two guards - different ones this time - unlocking and opening the cell door.

She scrambled to her feet. "Now what?"

They said nothing, just grabbed her by the arms and dragged her out of there. Right, it seemed only the leader could speak English. It was unlikely she would get any answers from these guys.

The bright sun pierced her eyes as they emerged from the darkness of the dungeon, causing them to water. The guards guided her back out into the compound and once again before a certain throne.

There was the leader once again. He sat lounging in his throne, peering down at something he was holding in his hand:

A pendant.

The pendant.

She realized she recognized it. She had completely forgotten about it, understandably, and she must have dropped it when first arriving - however she had done that, the arriving. And for the first time since said arrival, she suddenly remembered the piercingly bright light emitted from the pendant right before she had opened her eyes and found herself here, wherever here was that is.

A possible connection? She just wanted to know!

He didn't look at her while he spoke, his eyes locked on the pendant. "How did you come by this?"

"Um-" The truth? Not the truth? What was the best approach with this guy? "I was given it, as an assignment. I'm researching it."

"Given by who?"

"My boss."

"Your boss? And where is he now?"

"She." She was not liking this guy's attitude when it came to women. "I-I don't know, that's a good question - home, I suppose. But I don't know how she got hold of it. As far as I know it came with a large shipment of various artifacts-"

"What do you know about it?" he cut in.

"Not much. It's from Asia, and it came in a jade box, that much I do know. But that's about as far as I've gotten. I haven't gotten any specifics yet..." She trailed off following her unspecific answer.

"So you have been studying it as well." He nodded.

"Yes, you could say that-" Wait, he'd said as well. "Wait, you're studying it too? Is that why I'm here?"

"Perhaps."

"On that note, where is here?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

She scoffed. "So?"

"I've already told you: you are with the Ten Rings."

"Yeah, I know that, but where is that?"

"You are in my lands, but technically this is the land of the Ming Dynasty."

Ming Dynasty? Okay, definitely China, but that made no sense - the Ming Dynasty had ended in - she racked her brain once again. Well, she didn't know the exact date, but a long time ago, like hundreds of years ago, that much she knew.

"Wait, what?" She blinked back at him. "What do you mean?"

"I think I was clear."

His attitude was really pissing her off. "Well then what year is it?"

He chuckled, clearly finding all her questions and confusion amusing. "1640."

1640.

His words were like a slap in the face.

1640?!

Oh my God...

She had been so focused on where she was, she hadn't even considered asking when.

Duh duh duh! Haha! ;) I wanted to post this chapter earlier, but work has been crazy busy lately! But here we are!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed as always! :)