I wake up in a small cell. My head is throbbing.
"So the weak princess has awakened." A commander looks at me, smirking.
I stand up, so as to not appear any weaker than I already do, disarmed, with chains on my wrists. And my outfit (a sleeveless black shirt, a yellow vest, yellow sleeves, and white pants) doesn't really help – all my clothes are stained with blood, although I can't tell where I was, or am, bleeding. The commander is holding a whip, and I notice stinging bruises on my arms. Who ever said the Imperial soldiers were humane? At least it was while I was unconscious, but then again, I was unconscious. He proceeds to whip me, more, until I fall down.
"This is what happens to traitors," the commander tells me. Like I didn't know that already. Maybe my life is flashing before my eyes. Maybe not. But it hurts, and it's blocking my vision. I involuntarily start to cry, but I force myself to stop.
Another soldier comes in. "Reporting for duty, sir."
"You," the commander tells him, "are going to watch her. And don't fall asleep this time."
I stop paying attention to time, allowing the chains to support me so my face doesn't fall on the floor, while my legs arrange themselves in a semi-comfortable position. However comfortable you can be when you are bleeding after being viciously whipped.. I hear chains unlocking, and my arms fall to the ground. At least if they decided to kill me now, I'll be in pain for a shorter amount of time. But they wouldn't do that. I look up, and see a man wearing a blue bandana. I stand up.
"Who are you?" I manage to ask, my voice stronger than I expected but weaker than I'd like it to be.
"I'm Locke," he tells me, "a Returner."
"A Returner… I used to be an Imperial general. Now I'm just a common traitor…"
He starts to leave, then looks back at me. "Why aren't you coming?"
"I – even if you managed to get me out of here, you wouldn't be able to protect me. No… I think I'm better off here." I can't think of a reason to put anyone else in more danger anyways. What's the chance he would do that to himself?
"I will protect you," he declares to me. Well, there goes "what's the chance." I follow him, deciding that if he thinks I'm worth self-sacrifice, he can try to protect me, at least. Then I stop.
"This soldier has something important on him," I say. The soldier is a light sleeper, but given that this man "Locke" has already managed to get in and unlock my chains without waking up, I'm willing to take a risk. While he attempts to steal the key dangling from the soldier's hand, I get my sword. I'm not completely useless and pitiful.
Well, he got the clock key, after the soldier almost woke up and gave him a heart attack (at least, that's what it looked like). We continue through the basement to a clock. I take the key and while "winding" the clock, I ask him, "Why did you rescue me back there?"
"You… you remind me of someone." Wow, great reason. Someone killed by the Empire, I bet. I almost ask him why, but I glance at him and something tells me not to ask.
A while later, trekking through the basement and fighting so many, so many Imperial commanders, and sometimes their dogs – why were they even there? – we reach the end of the basement and leave South Figaro. (It was a humongous basement.) We travel to the cave to, well, in this case from, South Figaro to go to Narshe. At least, that's what Locke said. After a bit of traveling through the cave, fighting monsters, although it's almost impossible not to fight monsters, we reach the end of the cave and a spring of recovery, which, when a person dips their hand in it, they are, somehow, completely healed. We exit, but the ground shakes ferociously and thunderously. I draw my sword, and a magitek soldier in heavy armor stomps into the small cave and starts to attack.
"You attack him. I'll draw his magic attack with my sword," I tell Locke.
"But won't it hurt you – or kill you?!" he screams at me.
"Just watch!" I tell him, not very concerned about what runic did.
When the magitek soldier casts Thunder, it is all drawn to my sword, and gives me more magic to use, although I couldn't hold any more at the moment. Locke is attacking the soldier's armor with his dagger, and I'm standing here using runic, over and over and over again. Apparently I have to choose between dying trying to attack armor, or not getting to attack the people who have hurt me so. But I'd rather not die, or let anyone else die, so I stay on the defensive. Eventually, the fairly uneventful fight ends, and we continue to Narshe.