"Please put it in my palm... if you can come over. I... can't move," the Princess said softly.
Annan did not doubt her. Holding the Bone Flute, he walked to the center of the Square and stepped onto the dried pool of blood.
"I'm sorry you have to see me like this..." the Princess said apologetically.
"I like your hair," Annan said, looking at the gray hair trailing across the ground.
The Princess paused. "No one's ever said that before..."
"I have an eye for beauty."
Annan was only trying to comfort her. Thorns reaching out from the stone gate had pierced her flesh and wound around her, pulling one arm up into the air. Her other arm hung limp, withered and pale as a statue's.
Between the maggots in her eye sockets and the blood loss, an ordinary human would have died long ago...
Annan placed the Bone Flute in her suspended palm and took a few steps back.
The maggots in the Princess's eye sockets suddenly shrieked, twisted, writhed, and struggled until they dissolved. A streak of bloody tears ran from the depths of her empty eyes.
"Feeling any better?"
"Much better," the Princess said softly. "But it's still not enough..."
"How much is left?"
"Two restraints remain..."
Annan hesitated. "You mean I have to go through two more tragedies like that?"
The Princess did not know what Annan had experienced, but she could guess. Oddities were born of misfortune. "The ones truly suffering are them..."
"You're right..." Annan sighed. "They're waiting for me to save them."
If nothing else, he would do it for those who had died in vain.
"Come to think of it, couldn't I go outside and ask the Southern Kingdoms for help? Oh, no..."
Annan dismissed the idea as soon as he said