The Jade City

Chapter 18: Into the Deep

Harumi's POV

I immediately woke up underwater and quickly brushed away the memories of my dream away to focus on my current situation. The water pressed in on me from all sides, and I knew I was completely wet, but other than that, it was no different from being above ground. Breathing was somehow still possible. Whoever had put me here definitely went through some trouble to keep me alive. Merpeople were my first guess. They had probably taken me in since the Shadow Knight ordered them to. But why hadn't they simply killed me? It would've been so much easier and would guarantee the Shadow Knight victorious.

So why?

I looked around myself and saw nothing but rocks and sand and seaweed. No fish, no people, no anything. I was strapped against a wall, from what I could feel, hands locked in cuffs, which were in turn cutting deep into the stone slab behind me. I could barely twist my head and definitely couldn't look down, due to my neck also being in some sort of metal ring, which was stuck in the stone, of course. So were my ankles. I wondered how pathetic I looked if someone came to save me. If.

My head started hurting. The Shadow Knight was doing something. Again. I was running out of time. Maybe he just wanted me stuck down here. Or maybe he wanted me alive so I could watch him destroy Ninjago... The thought sunk in. Yes. That must be exactly what he wanted. But what about Morro? But then... the Shadow Knight wouldn't worry about him, since Morro wasn't destined to save Jade City from the Shadow Knight...

I tried to recall the prophecy to pass the time, but I had forgotten everything by then. The "white-haired princess" part was all I remembered. How stupid. I stared off into empty space, but there was nothing to look at. The most interesting thing I could see was a crab scuttling across the sand in search of food. Almost as if it had noticed me staring, it scurried off into the depths of the water, making it impossible for my line of sight to follow it from there. I felt like I was wearing green-tinged glasses which blurred up my vision. At least the saltwater didn't sting. That was a plus. Whatever had put me here really did consider everything. As for why they even cared, I didn't feel like giving myself a headache in exchange for some theories.

My mind wandered back to the weird dream. Was that Lloyd? But that was delusional. There was no way or explanation for how he would enter my dream. It was probably a feeble imitation of him, a replica I created for myself to apologize to. He had said we couldn't be together. Well, the Lloyd in my dream didn't know about Jade City Lloyd. We were together and I would return to him. But surely this dream would still have a meaning right? It seemed so real...

I could think about this for hours and not be done, so I decided to think about something else.

None of this made sense. The Shadow Knight didn't want me to defeat him, right? Then why did he keep me alive? I could've easily drowned, yet he requested the merpeople to spare me. Why was that? Something told me this situation was much more complicated than I'd originally thought. First I realized that he didn't want Jade City. And now... he wanted me alive, even though I was supposed to defeat him...

He wasn't stupid enough to risk me defeating him by allowing me to live simply because he wanted me to suffer and watch him take over Ninjago. Or maybe he was. Hubris had a tendency to bring people to their doom.

But I'd already learned that underestimating my enemies never played out in my favor, so I had to take into account the possibility that the Shadow Knight was smart...

I suddenly understood. The Shadow Knight somehow needed me to enter Ninjago. Maybe. But definitely something of the sort. He would've killed me otherwise. Which meant... if I somehow disappeared, he wouldn't be able to go on with his plan...