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Edited by RaceProUK

The crowd of people witnesses Milla and Kai being sent directly to the royal palace for questioning with two of the soldiers carrying the canines' weaponry. The escorted dogs finally reach the center of the city consisting of not only the royal palace but also several monuments, libraries, courts, government buildings, houses, gardens and even a temple.

On entering the palace, Milla and Kai find themselves in a scarlet hallway, lined with pillars of a similar hue, decorated with golden swirls; the guards escort the canines along the gilt-edged purple carpet that runs central to the white marble floor. As they approach the golden door at the far end, it opens slowly, revealing the throne room; the room is decorated similarly to the hallway, with the addition of plants arranged along the walls. At the center of the opposing wall of the throne room is the throne itself, resplendent in gold and flanked by two large fountains.

Sitting uniformly on the throne was a female red panda wearing a violet dress with a few pink sashes, pink shoes, a golden choker and earrings decorated with amethysts. The woman had red fur with white markings, ginger hair and purple eyes. Next to the red panda was a grey rodent wearing a blue robe with black shoes, he was holding a clipboard and seems to be a member of the royal council.

The lead guard who escorted the two canines begins to speak, "Introducing her highness, Empress Yasmine Wang of Qin!" the guard announces.

Milla and Kai bows down in respect, Kai attempts to give the empress a good first impression "It's an honor to meet you Empress Yasmine."

The empress responds "Um, thank you."

Milla and Kai is left surprise with the empress' informal response, Kai begins to think to himself, What kind of Empress addresses her subjects like that?

That was a pretty informal thing to say and she didn't seem very confident, is she even qualified to even rule an empire?

The people inside the throne room hear commotion just outside the throne door.

"What is that noise?" The empress asks.

The rodent next to her makes a faint smile, "It's our third prisoner" he enlightens.

Milla and Kai are left stunned, "Third prisoner?!" they say simultaneously.

The large golden doors open once more as two royal guards are seen restraining a panda girl by the arms; the girl was wearing a purple sleeveless shirt and skirt with gold outlines, dark purple boots and two bracelets with red gemstones; the two canines however recognizes the girl's face, it was Norah.

"Let go of me!" Norah protests "Let go of me you perverts! Have you ever heard of tying someone's hands behind their back or something you brutes!", Norah begins to swear as the two guards drags her to where the canines were.

Kai restrains himself from laughing at Norah's misfortune, Milla makes a disappointed expression.

One of the guards holding on to Norah makes an annoyed expression, "Geez, this girl have a colorful vocabulary…"

The other guard responds with a sigh "At least we're finally here…"

Norah is put next to the two canines, she's surprise to see the hound and husky with her, "So what are you in here for?"

Kai makes a response "I think that council member is about to answer that question for you."

The rodent coughs to grab the attention of the three children, "You three are here for your crimes against the Qin Empire, I am the head of the royal council and personal advisor to the empress, Kongzhi Dong."

"Mind if I ask what is she doing here?" Kai asks referring to Norah.

"She is here for attempting to steal from our royal treasury."

Both canines give the guilty panda girl a stern look which seemed to have successfully make Norah uncomfortable, the panda girl tries to defend herself, "In my defense I was only going to steal one thing, surely one gem won't make much of a difference."

"It doesn't matter what you was going to steal, thievery is still thievery." The rodent retorts.

"But-"

"No excuses! As for you two, I would like to know why you assaulted one of our guards." Kongzhi continues focusing his attention towards the two canines instead.

"Your guard was wrongfully attacking an innocent man, he had no right to treat him the way he did." Milla argues.

Yasmine makes a distraught face, this was the first time she heard of any of the guards being abusive towards the commoners; just when the empress was about to speak, Kongzhi advises against it, she remains silent as her advisor speaks for her, "Surely the royal guard you speak of had a reason to confront the person. Our royal guards will never commit such travesties otherwise they would be met with severe retribution; besides who do you think you are to commit such actions?"

Another guard walks up to Kongzhi and whispers in his ears, the advisor is surprised but displeased with what he heard, "So, one of the so called 'heroes of Avalice' stands before us, Milla Basset."

Milla is caught off guard by the advisor's sudden knowledge of her identity, "How do you…"

"Dear girl surely you should know by now that you can not hide who you are, especially as someone of your notoriety."

Kai intervenes "Notoriety?! I think you mean fame, she did save this planet from certain doom."

"Nonsense, this whole story about aliens and sentient machines is nothing more than propaganda from the origin kingdoms not only to defend grievous actions of Shuigang and their prince but also to allude people of Shang Mu's and Shang Tu's mistreatment of the Kingdom Stone."

"You can't be serious, those machines are ravaging your land and attacking your people, how can you deny their existence?!"

"Those machines are nothing more than abominations created by the origin kingdoms to convince us of this nonsense, this girl and her friends are frauds, simple as that. Now that's all said and done, all three of you will now be sent to prison for a very long time."

"Wait what?!" Norah protested "You can't do that!"

"What are you talking about?"

"She means that only the empress can make such orders, she's the one whose ruling this empire and therefore her word is law." Kai explains.

"Yeah, she should be the one to make that decision, she doesn't have to listen to you!" Milla continues.

"So what'll it be empress?" Kai asks.

Yasmine is surprised by the children's faith in her, she ponders for a moment.

"Surely I can trust you to make the right decision, your highness." Kongzhi says.

Yasmine takes another look at the three hopeful youths, however she knew they couldn't be freed, at least not easily…

"Give them a refurbished cell, tomorrow they will be sent to the arena and will fight for their freedom." the empress finally announce.

The rodent remains silent and submits to the empress' choice, he was obviously displeased with her decision, "As you wish your highness, I suppose we can cancel the speech. We will inform the citizens of this development, though I suppose we can allow them to stay in the aristocratic district."

The guards escorts the three children to their cell.

The prison cell was a round room with white walls, granite floors and a single reinforced window, they saw three twin sized beds at the center of the room surrounding a round table with a blue candle on top.

"Great, that was helpful!" Norah complains sarcastically.

"Actually, she did us a favor." Kai explains "She knew we had experience in combat so she figured that we'll at least have a chance at the arena."

"I guess you're right, though why couldn't she just let us go?"

"It wasn't the best action for her to take, she is the empress and letting go of three criminals out of pity wouldn't look good on her image."

"At least she gave us a nice cell."

Milla ponders a moment, she finally asks Norah about how she got arrested "Norah why did you try to steal from the treasury, also where is Vix?"

Norah responds "I needed to steal a valuable royal gem so I could sell it for about five thousand gems but Vix felt that it was too dangerous, I didn't listen. Vix stood behind, he's going to have a heart attack when he sees me in that arena, he's such a worry wart.

"The serves you right! You shouldn't steal from others!"

"You don't have the right to call me a thief, especially when you're traveling with him!" Norah points out the red scarf wrapped around Kai's arm.

Kai interferes "I'm not a kleptomaniac, you know!"

Milla remains silent unable to counter Norah's argument, she changes the subject "So what's with that symbol on your shoulder?"

Norah takes a quick look at the Chinese 火 symbol on her right shoulder, she responds "It's nothing, just something I got a few years back." Norah continues "Ironic how your heroism got you arrested like me, though."

"What do you mean my heroism got me arrested?!"

"Well you did attack a royal guard just for one man."

"Th-that doesn't mean anything! I had to help my friend!"

"You see! There's your hypocrisy; you know what, leave me alone!"

"Fine, then you leave me alone!"

Kai observes as he sees the two girls sits at opposite ends of the room, Well, this is going well…

I just hope they cooperate at least at the arena tomorrow.

After a few hours, the three eventually fall asleep.

It was midnight and two cloaked figures met at one of the courtyards inside the palace.

One of the cloaked figures begin to speak "I know that it's… Ironic for me to ask for your assistance, but the empress is beginning to get too curious for her own good."

The other cloaked figure whose light purple eyes glowed through the obscurity of his black cloak responds "Is that so, and why should I help you?"

"Because, an old 'friend' of yours happens to be here and tomorrow she will be sent to the arena along with some friends. The empress may think that they are safe in that arena, however little does she know that she've given you a chance for redemption."

"Who exactly are we talking about?"

"Milla Basset."

The yellow eyed figure begins to make a sort of maniacal laughter after hearing the familiar name.

The other cloaked figure continues "Just remember who maintained your anonymity and provided you with your old 'toys'."

"As you wish."