Salt: A Ninjago story

14: What The Heart Wants

She had been sent to watch the jail. Read its walls and understand its movements. With one of her sisters, they read the people inside and found the Grand Masters favourite. A shadow of her former self, her mind lost in a spiral of despair and self loathing; they kept that news from him. The first time the Green Ninja had arrived, they had been there, watching. He could only be there for Harumi and her sister confirmed this. He had been called and informed of his enemies decline. Had he come to witness the fall of a great opponent? No. Her sister filtered the thoughts that cascaded through her mind; there was something else coming from the Green Ninja; confusion, regret, need, longing; a connection. She would keep this to herself also and a germ of an idea grew within her.

The Grand Master was planning a break out. She was the Ninja chosen for the task, his second best and his second favourite. This thought tasted like a spoonful of salt. She spat; Harumi would always be his prize and he thirsted for her return. Harumi had become the woman she was now because of him. She was his drive and his love, though she knew Harumi had never reciprocated his advances. As powerful and demanding as he was, their Master had never forced himself on her and still he waited in hope.

She and her sisters had been pulled from the streets and Harumi from a pit of despair. He had nurtured Harumi's pain but had thrown them into an altogether different pit; one filled with tigers; brawling scratching street kids fighting for their lives within a new hierarchy. The Grand masters vision for his prized child grew; a vicious embodiment of hate washed over with a childlike veneer of beauty that would fool both the Royal family and Ninjago. Now he was expecting a fallen warrior to return gratefully home to her master and no doubt he assumed she would come to him willingly and return his love for her. But he was wrong. She had seen it, night after night The Green Ninja had visited Harumi and she had chosen her lover. That gave her a small amount of hope; a gap through Harumi's veneer of perfection; a way in, to his heart.

Anger welled in the Shadow Ninja. In Harumi the master had mistakenly lavished his attention and hopes, but he had been wrong to do so. There was another he could train and trust and love, one who was more loyal; but he did not see what was obvious. Harumi had always been one step in front of her; one Katana stroke faster and the Master never took his eyes off of her. But now Harumi was weak from lack of training and she had seen the truth; Harumi was not his, never had been and was lost to him now. What would be the point of her returning? She certainly did not want Harumi back. It was her time to ascend from the gutter, her time to secure her sisters safety and time for their Master to appreciate her. It all seemed obvious as she sat watching in the dark. A perfect plan had presented itself. Harumi would die. Slain while protecting her lover. The Master would know that Harumi had disrespected him, spurned his love and died under a knife meant for the Green Ninja. He would turn his admiration to her and all that she had dreamed of would become real. But, the outcome she dreamt in the darkness was not the outcome she achieved. She had botched it and was now in fear for her own life.

She had fallen from the small window of the cell, disoriented from the shock of her wound. She had stemmed the flow of blood from her throat with her hand and kept moving. She would not, must not be caught. Reaching to swing to a higher level, she slipped. Fingers slick with blood, she found purchase, halting her drop to the ground below with a painful wrench. Adrenalin was her friend, it kept her moving, running as far from the scene and as close to her sisters as she could hope to go. Old tiles were slippery with moss and her feet slid for traction. Finally securing a foothold, she rested. So many falls in one night was not a good sign. Dropping into the courtyard of an unlit house, she washed her wound in a fountain and heard her breath mingle with the gentle sound of running water, but a wet gurgling came from within and she gasped at the air. Her thoughts turned to her sisters. They depended on her. She ripped her tunic and wrapped the fabric around her neck.She called to them in hope that she was close enough for one to hear. She was spent; her legs buckling beneath her, she dropped to one knee and then to all fours. The cold grass welcomed her and the blood soaked fabric slid from her neck. She would not make it back.