Bound- Red Threads of Fate Jaya AU

Invisible string

Nya bowed slightly to them. "I agree with your decision. Thank you for listening to us, and our wishes."

"Of course." Emperor Garmadon said. "Your opinions certainly helped us in our decision, for if you all support our plan, we have faith that the rest of your kingdom may as well."

"I think they will." She was telling the truth when she said it. "It will not be easy–we realize that, and the people will have to as well. But I trust you."

"That is good." Emperor Wu said. "As we previously mentioned, our chief strategist thinks this move unwise. But we have been trained in strategy as much as he, and, in my opinion, put our training into use a good deal more. And I have trained Pixal, and trust her to do what is right, if she accepts."

With that, they were dismissed, and before they knew it, they had started down the mountain again.

"Remind me again why we all had to go up there?" Kai complained to Skylor. "We hardly said a thing! They just told us their plan, and we left!"

"That's how the emperors are, sometimes," She told him. It doesn't always make them easy to live with, she thought, but didn't say.

---

That evening after dinner, they all parted ways. They had a lot to think about, to be sure, and they would all have to talk about it again, but they knew it was no use to worry too much at the moment.

"Come on, I found a place when I was exploring yesterday that I want to show you." Jay told Nya. She followed him down the hall past their rooms, which met another corridor perpendicular to it, with doors running down its near wall and windows down the far one. They turned slightly left down this, and Jay opened the single door in the windowed wall, leading Nya out onto a small balcony porch.

There was a bench pushed up against the palace wall at one end of the balcony, and Nya was ready to sit down, but Jay stepped onto it instead, holding out his hand to her.

She took it, stepping onto the bench beside him. "Please don't tell me you're about to do something dangerous."

He grinned. "That would depend upon your definition of dangerous."

Reaching up to grasp the edge of the roof, Jay stepped from the bench to the balcony railing, then pulled himself up onto the roof itself.

"You coming?" He asked Nya.

Nya surveyed the situation. It didn't look that dangerous, but a fall off the roof, although probably unlikely, might still be deadly. Although they were technically on the ground floor of the palace, since the balcony looked down on a sunken courtyard, with doors from the half-underground basement opening into it, it would be a two story fall if she were to slip from the roof, miss the balcony, and hit the courtyard floor.

"Of course." She said.

Since she was too small to get a good grip on the edge of the roof even from the bench, Jay held his hand down to her, and she held it firmly as she stepped first onto the bench arm, then onto the narrow wooden railing. Her heart beat faster as her brain registered her precarious position, but Jay kept hold of her left hand while she grasped the edge of the roof with her right, hoisting herself onto the roof with his help.

She sat gingerly next to him, bracing her feet against the sloping tiles. The view was beautiful–the sun had nearly set, and the pink and orange sky was turning to blue and purple. Still, Nya felt as though maybe they ought not to be climbing the imperial palace.

"Um, Jay, are you sure this isn't, like, illegal?" She couldn't help but ask. "This is the palace and everything."

He shrugged. "What the emperors don't know can't hurt us. Wait . . ." He furrowed his brow, looking adorably confused. "Can't hurt them? Anyway, I'm sure it's fine."