The minute Sao had heard of the Feared one’s plans, she knew there were other motives running amok through His head.

All throughout the negotiations, she had been conveying her suspicions and feelings to Han: They had their own plan of what was to occur.

Sao had seen the air currents. She knew of the protected island that lay below in a bed of sleepless waves. And she knew exactly what she had to do. So with Han and the Feared one on her back, she allowed a twisting side wind to veer her off-course, and reveled in the knowledge that the Feared One’s hands were bone-white and clenched atop her spine ridge.

Han feigned terror at hurtling towards the sea and, all the while flailing convincingly, nimbly slipped his hand in the folds of the Feared One’s cloak.

And what he pulled out made his blood run icy…