POV: Maya Chen
Seven minutes left.
Rachel's pulse is thread-thin. Her lips are turning blue. Whatever poison they used, it's shutting down her organs fast.
"More charcoal," I bark at Elara. "And cold water—we need to slow her metabolism, buy more time."
Adrian watches from the doorway, his scarred face unreadable. The candle burns down. Six minutes.
I force more activated charcoal down Rachel's throat, then pack cold compresses around her neck and wrists. It's basic emergency medicine—slow the body down, give it time to process the toxin.
But I don't know if it's enough.
"What poison causes these symptoms?" Adrian asks suddenly.
"Could be dozens of things." I check Rachel's eyes—pupils dilated unevenly. "Nerve agent, maybe. Or something that attacks the heart. Without modern testing equipment, I'm guessing."
"Then guess better." His voice is hard. "Five minutes."
My hands shake as I mix another solution—this time with milk and egg whites to coat the stomach lining, protect against further absorption. It's medieval toxicology, rough and imprecise.
Rachel's convulsions slow. Her breathing steadies slightly.
Is it working? Or is she just dying more slowly?
"Four minutes," Adrian says.
"I know!" I snap, fear making me bold. "Counting down isn't helping!"
"Neither is your attitude." But his voice holds something other than anger. Concern, maybe. "You really are trying to save her."
"Of course I am! That's what I've been saying—" I check Rachel's pulse again. Stronger. Definitely stronger. "Wait. Her pulse is improving."
I lift her eyelids. Her pupils are responding to light now, contracting and dilating properly.
"She's fighting it," I breathe. "The treatment is working."
Adrian moves closer, watching Rachel's face. "How can you tell?"
"Color returning to her lips. Breathing more regular. Pulse strengthening." I feel a laugh bubbling up, half hysteria and half relief. "She's going to make it."
"Three minutes left," Adrian says. "Don't celebrate yet."
But Rachel's eyes flutter open. She coughs, weakly at first, then stronger. I help her sit up as she vomits again—good, clearing more poison from her system.
"M-Maya?" Her voice is raw. "What happened?"
"You were poisoned. Don't talk—just breathe. Slow and steady."
Rachel nods, too weak to argue.
Adrian sheathes his sword. "You saved her."
"Yes." I meet his eyes, exhausted triumph flooding through me. "I told you. I'm a doctor. I save lives."
"Even when it costs you everything." He looks at me with something new—not trust, not yet, but the beginning of belief. "You broke out of a dungeon knowing it would make you look guilty. Just to save someone you barely know."
"Because it was the right thing to do."
"The right thing," he repeats softly. "Most people don't care about right. Only about surviving."
"I've been surviving my whole life." My voice cracks. "I'm tired of just surviving. I want to matter. To make a difference. To save people."
Adrian is quiet for a long moment. Then he turns to his guards.
"Arrest Lady Seraphina. Bring her to the throne room for questioning."
"Your Majesty!" Seraphina's voice rings out from the corridor. She must have been listening. "You can't possibly believe—"
"I believe," Adrian interrupts coldly, "that Dr. Kim was poisoned in quarters you assured me were secure. I believe Dr. Chen risked everything to save her. And I believe you've been lying to me." He faces her, and his scarred face is terrifying. "You will answer questions. Honestly. Or you'll join Dr. Chen in the dungeons."
Seraphina's perfect mask cracks. "This is madness! You're choosing a witch over me?"
"I'm choosing evidence over manipulation." Adrian signals to guards. "Take her."
As they drag Seraphina away, screaming threats and protests, Adrian turns back to me.
"You mentioned overhearing Seraphina with someone named Lisa. Describe her."
Finally. He's listening.
"Asian woman, my age, dark hair. Intelligent eyes. Moves with confidence. She's my cousin—the one who betrayed me in 2024. She's here, disguised as a noble, working with Seraphina to frame me."
"Find this woman," Adrian orders his guards. "Search every noble in the castle. Now."
They scatter, leaving just Adrian, me, Elara, and the slowly recovering Rachel.
"Thank you," Rachel whispers. "For saving me."
"Thank Elara," I say. "She's the brave one. She helped me escape."
Adrian looks at the young servant girl, really seeing her for the first time. "You drugged my guards."
Elara pales. "I—I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but Lady Mira said—"
"You showed more courage than most knights." Adrian's voice softens slightly. "You're promoted. Personal attendant to Dr. Chen. With appropriate pay and protections."
Elara's eyes go wide. "Your Majesty, I—thank you!"
"Don't thank me yet." Adrian turns back to me. "This doesn't prove everything. Lisa could have fled already. We might find no trace of her."
"Check the guest registries. Recent arrivals claiming noble status. Someone had to vouch for her—find out who."
"Already being done." He pauses. "You think like a investigator."
"I think like someone who's been framed twice." I help Rachel lie back down. "She needs rest and monitoring. The poison might cause delayed effects—organ damage, seizures. I should stay with her."
"No." Adrian's voice is firm. "You'll stay under guard. If Lisa is caught, we'll need you to identify her. And if she isn't—" his expression darkens, "—you're still the most obvious suspect."
"Even after I saved Rachel?"
"You could be very clever." But his voice holds less conviction now. "I've learned not to trust easily."
Before I can respond, a guard rushes in, breathless.
"Your Majesty! We found her. The woman matching the description. She was trying to leave through the servant's entrance."
My heart leaps. "That's Lisa!"
"Bring her to the throne room," Adrian commands. "Dr. Chen, you'll come too. If this is your cousin, you'll confront her publicly."
They escort all of us—me, Rachel on a stretcher, Elara—through the castle to the throne room. It's nearly dawn now, gray light filtering through the windows.
The throne room fills with nobles, roused from sleep, whispering nervously. Seraphina stands in chains, her beautiful face twisted with rage.
Then guards drag in a struggling woman.
Lisa.
My traitorous cousin, caught trying to flee.
Our eyes meet across the room. She stops struggling, her expression going cold.
"Hello, Maya," she says. "Still surviving, I see. You always were hard to kill."
The room erupts in shocked whispers.
"You know this woman?" Adrian demands.
"She's my cousin. Dr. Lisa Chen from 2024. The one who stole my research, helped frame me for fraud, and tried to kill me." I step toward her, years of betrayal fueling my words. "She's also a time traveler working with James Hartford to build power in enemy kingdoms. She killed Lord Balthar. She poisoned Dr. Kim tonight. And she's been using Seraphina to frame me for everything."
Lisa laughs. "Prove it."
"Your clothes are modern fabric," I say. "The weave is too fine, too precise for medieval looms. Your shoes have synthetic rubber soles. You're wearing a digital watch under that sleeve—I can see the edge of it. And you smell like modern soap, which has chemical compounds that don't exist here."
Adrian moves closer to Lisa, examining her carefully. He pushes up her sleeve, revealing a fitness tracker watch—dead, but unmistakably modern.
"What manner of device is this?" he asks quietly.
Lisa's confidence falters. "It's—nothing. Just jewelry from my homeland—"
"It's technology from 2024," I interrupt. "A fitness tracker. It monitors heart rate, steps, sleep. It's made of plastics and electronics that won't exist here for six hundred years."
Adrian removes the watch, studying it with scientific fascination. "Like Dr. Kim's communication device. Proof of your claims."
"They're working together!" Lisa shrieks, desperation cracking her composure. "All three of them—Maya, Rachel, that servant girl—they planned this to destroy me and Lady Seraphina! We're the victims here!"
"Then explain," Adrian says coldly, "why Dr. Chen saved Dr. Kim's life at great personal risk. Why she keeps preventing deaths instead of causing them. Why every piece of physical evidence—modern devices, poisoned food, attempted murder—points to you."
Lisa's face goes pale.
She's caught. Truly, finally caught.
But her eyes narrow, and I see something terrifying there. Calculation. Desperation. The same look she had before the lab explosion.
She's going to do something drastic.
"If I'm going down," Lisa hisses, pulling something from her clothes, "I'm taking you with me, Maya."
She holds up a small remote detonator. Modern. Electronic. Impossible.
"I planted modern explosives throughout this castle three days ago," she says, her voice steady with madness. "Insurance, in case things went wrong. This detonator triggers all of them simultaneously." She smiles coldly. "Everyone in this room dies in thirty seconds. Unless Maya agrees to let me walk out of here free."
The throne room freezes.
"You're bluffing," Adrian says, but his hand moves to his sword.
"Am I?" Lisa's thumb hovers over the button. "I'm a quantum physicist, Maya. I know exactly how to weaponize modern technology in a medieval world. Twenty seconds."
I stare at my cousin, this woman I once loved like a sister, now holding hundreds of lives hostage.
"Let her go," I hear myself say. "She walks free. No pursuit."
"Maya, no—" Rachel protests weakly.
"Fifteen seconds," Lisa counts. "Choose fast, cousin. Everyone here dies, or I leave. What's it worth to you? All these medieval lives?"
My mind races. She's serious. I can see it in her eyes—she'll really detonate.
But if I let her go, she'll join James. They'll continue building their empire, using modern knowledge to destroy kingdoms.
How many people die then?
"Ten seconds."
Adrian looks at me. In his eyes, I see the question: Your call.
Everyone's life in my hands.
Again.
"Five. Four. Three—"
"Wait!" I shout. "I have a better offer."
Lisa pauses, finger on the button. "What offer?"
"You want to go home. To 2024. I know you do." I take a step closer. "Rachel mapped the temporal rift. It appears in fourteen days. Work with us instead of against us, and we'll all go home together. Return to our time, where we belong."
Lisa's expression shifts. Hope, hunger, suspicion.
"You'd share that information? After everything?"
"To save these people? Yes." I glance at Adrian, hoping he understands. "We don't belong here, Lisa. We're destroying their timeline. Let's go home before we do more damage."
"What guarantee do I have?"
"My word," Rachel says from her stretcher. "As the scientist who mapped the rift. Work with us, and you go home."
Lisa's thumb trembles over the button.
Then she lowers it.
"Fine. Truce. Until we reach the rift."
Relief floods through me—until I see Adrian's face.
He looks betrayed. Furious. And utterly cold.
"You're leaving," he says to me. "Going back to your time."
"I—" The words stick in my throat. "We don't belong here."
"So everything—the marriage contract, the knowledge-sharing, saving my people—that was temporary? You were always planning to leave?"
"I didn't know the rift existed until—"
"Get out." His voice is ice. "All of you. You have fourteen days. Then leave my kingdom and never return."
He turns and walks away, his footsteps echoing in the silent throne room.
And I realize I just saved everyone's lives.
But lost the one person who was starting to believe in me.