1

The cabin attic had turned into a scene from a different land in the dim candlelight. No longer a simple shack shelter, or a holding cell, but a lair foreign and full of eastern mysticism. The den of the carnivorous hunter—Tarantula.

“How…?” Yuliana questioned in a gasp, staring at the woman seated in the back. “Shouldn’t you be at the Council? When did you…?”

Her voice trailed off, her tired mind struggling to process the chronology.

“Ahahaha~!” Sai-Lin laughed out loud at her majesty’s confusion. “Why ever would I be there, listening to the endless ramblings by those self-important clowns? I have no interest in their vainglorious ceremonies and posturing! No, I was never there from the start! The one sitting at the Council is but a dumb double, a hand of mine I dressed for the job. With only a bit of makeup and a few nifty charms, none of those blockheads can tell the difference! Oh no! On the contrary, they’ll only be happy I’m not speaking! So long as ‘I’ play nice and raise my paw whenever everyone else does, they have no cause to suspect a thing! Far be it from me to spoil their fun! I have much, much more important business tonight! Unfinished business with the Sovereign of the Western Continent! Yes, that means you, my dear—for the time being.”

“What are you talking about?” Yuliana asked, inching slowly towards the door. “Weren’t you only after me on Greystrode’s orders? He already got the war he wanted! Whether I live or die now will have no effect on the outcome. Your work is done! What more do you want from me?”

“You mean, you really can’t tell?” Sai-Lin replied, waving her pipe. “If that’s the case, then what a fool you are, little Empress! Did you earnestly believe I came after you only because Captain One-Eye told me to? Well, it might’ve been like that, at first. But my mind’s changed. Over the course of our brief and merry acquaintanceship, I’ve developed a more personal fascination with you. As I can’t, for the death of me, remember the last I met such a pain in the neck.”

Yuliana had heard enough.

Nothing good awaited her here, clearly enough.

Gripping the rusted old key in her hand, she spun around, to face the door. But her hand failed to reach the lock. Her arm brushed against something thin and sharp in the air as she moved. It was an almost transparent string, a wire, stretched diagonally from the floor to the ceiling. As she touched it, the bottom end was released. At once, the hair-fine filament coiled around Yuliana’s arm, and began to pull her with nigh irresistible force up and back. She dug her heels in the carpet and tried to resist, but while flailing about, she bumped into another, identical thread, which quickly wrapped around her waist. It began to pull her towards the opposing wall and she had to tense her back and abs to keep the firm string from digging into her stomach. The material the thread was made of was something softer than metal, a little flexible, yet much too tough to be cut by force.

Like an angered lion, Yuliana struggled to get free, but found the cramped room filled with those strange threads all over. Soon enough, all her limbs were tightly bound and she could no longer take another step in any direction, her feet barely in contact with the floor. Like this, she was left stretched and helpless before the enemy, to whom she now cast a resentful scowl.

“So you mean to kill me?” Yuliana questioned the villain. “Even if it divides the Confederacy on the eve of battle, even if it means losing your rank and perhaps even your life? Only out of a personal grudge? Do you hate me so much as to disregard personal interest? That doesn’t sound very pirate-like to me!”

“Wah-wah, bark all you like,” Sai-Lin replied with disinterest, blowing a cloud of smoke through her lips. “Stalling isn’t going to help. The King can’t leave his company. After the rambling ends, they’ll go drinking, as per the custom. Each man must treat the others at least twice, and refusing a treat would make for a mortal insult. By experience, I can tell it’s never over quickly enough. I’m afraid your hero’s hands are tied tonight. Neither can he afford to part with his pet dragon; he fears Greystrode’s influence too much to give up his insurance. Ah, and that annoying brat with the lute, he’ll be busy at the Winker. My crew will be sure to keep asking for an encore. Who else is there? No one who would actually care. The Navy is still days away. Want to cry for help? By all means, try. Maybe someone will hear it? Of course, I drew a ward around this hotel of yours. I hid it much better this time too. Not even a Divine can see what goes down in here. And do you know what that means, my dear?”

Getting up from the cushions, Sai-Lin marched over to Yuliana and leaned close, a wide grin on her lips, a mad gleam in her eyes.

“Yes! Precisely!” she exclaimed. “It means that you are finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally mine! Mine! All mine! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Hng…!”

There was nothing Yuliana could say to that. Gritting her teeth, she kept trying to pull free, but the wires only further tightened on her.

“Oh, I’d relax a little if I were you, sweetheart,” Sai-Lin advised her, tapping Yuliana’s cheek. “This thread is spun of the web of a Samtrean spider. A real chore to handle, but you could tie up an oliphant with it. Struggle too much and you’ll pull your arms right out of joint.”

“Release me,” Yuliana demanded.

“I don’t think so!” the woman gloated, inhaling smoke from her pipe and blowing it in the girl’s face. “Didn’t I promise I’d make you rue the day you made an enemy of me! The time came sooner than you thought, didn’t it? Now are you taking me seriously, dear? Not such a joke anymore, am I? Do you still have more kindness and good intentions to spare? Do you still believe in the inherent good of the fellow person? No? Thought not! Not even the greatest of Noertia’s rulers is beyond my grasp! There you stand, and has there ever been a more pitiable sight? Are you frustrated? Are you desperate? Gonna cry? Ahahaha! Verily, that anger suits your eyes so much better than the baby-like softness they held before! That’s splendid! Ah, this is too good!”

“Just hurry and be done with it!”

“Why, are you in a hurry somewhere? I suggest you get comfortable, your majesty. The night’s still young. I’m going to take my sweet time with you, of that you can be sure. Oh well, if you beg and beg and beg for it, I might just grant you the favor of ending your agony fast. How about it? ‘Please forgive me, Sai-Lin, it is my complete defeat’—only say those words and kiss my clogs, and I’ll set you free of the weight of living. I promise, you shan’t even notice when it happens. It’ll be like your dear mama tucking you into bed at night.”

“Do whatever you will,” Yuliana replied, pulling herself an inch forward, staring firmly back into Sai-Lin’s eyes, “but you will never hear those words pass my lips!”

“Tch…” In response, Sai-Lin’s painted brows contorted in annoyance. “I see there’s still a good deal of ‘high and mighty’ left in you, eh! We’re going to have to do something about that, won’t we? Let me tell you one thing, your loftiness; I don’t actually have any intention of taking your life here.”

Sai-Lin reached her hand in the folds of her outfit and drew out a strange object. It appeared sculpted of red-brown stone and polished clean. While it was roughly the length of a dagger, it had no edge, but was rounded all over, with a blunt end; a slightly curving pole with irregular lines coursing along it. The characteristics of its design made Yuliana’s face twist in disgust.

“Does this look familiar to you?” the woman inquired, watching her reactions with a highly amused smile. “Aye, it’s shaped like the man’s thing! Have you ever seen one before in real life, I wonder? Outside of family bath, that is? Oh, what a jest! Why even bother to fake such a maidenly reaction? As if anyone with a body as showy as yours could remain a stranger to men! But I assure you, this’ll be a whole new experience.”

“What are you thinking, you vile woman!?” Yuliana yelled, knowing her face had to have been bright red with embarrassment.

“You can tell by looking, can't you?” Sai-Lin laughed, tracing lightly the curves of the girl’s cheeks with that grotesque tool. “The job I was asked to do, as the expert—it was never to break your body, but your heart. Had only you obediently died, when I gave you the chance to, it wouldn't have come to this. Tough luck, it's too late now!”

“What...?”

“I could've let the crew take care of the proceedings, but since we’re running short on time, there’s no choice; I’m going to have to handle you all by myself. Rest assured, I may not be sporting such wieldy tools by nature, but I am still a professional all the same. No, as a woman, I should know how to be thrice as effective! My technique is widely considered second to none, if you allow me to brag a little. Add a few select drugs to the mix and I’m confident you’ll be a changed person by dawn. They may then drag the mindless husk that’s left back to your dear friends and followers. I’m sure it’ll do wonders to the Navy’s morale! Not to mention the people waiting for you in your wondrous Empire. What do you suppose the common rabble will think, having such a broken failure for a sovereign?”

“...Why go so far?” Yuliana asked in disgust. “Why trade your soul and humanity for the victory of barbarism? Why work so hard only to spread suffering and grief wider in the world? What do you imagine you’ll gain from that?”

“Why?” Sai-Lin repeated. “The answer is clear, is it not? We’re the same deep down, you and I—didn’t we agree on this? My own motivation is purely selfless too. I’m merely doing my humble part in turning the world into a better place to be. Humans learn best by their mistakes, yes? I shall ensure no more uneducated fools out there are lured to their ruin by the idiot nobles’ empty ambitions. You’ll set them the example on just what manner of a world we’re living in: that it’s each man for himself; that sticking your head out for brazen ideals, and following colorful flags to death and disaster, is plain old madness. What I seek to defeat is the inherent credulity of the human condition, which drives them to chase after stars they know are beyond them, and so be exploited. Which means that you, as the idol of all naive daydreamers, are the arch nemesis I must cast down. No matter what.”

Yuliana turned her gaze down, biting her lip. What wounded her most was not the intent itself, not the problems in her personal methods, or the shortcomings of her ideals, so much as the utter jadedness of the person saying such things.

“What makes ideals seem like foolishness is not their own quality,” she said, “but the misplaced determination of people such as yourself to ruin them at all costs! Was there ever a single thought that endured such enmity across the ages intact?”

“Now you’re getting there,” Sai-Lin replied. “If it’s so easy for ‘people such as myself’ to topple your noble endeavors, then what else were they but worthless rubbish from the start? The winners pen history. Only the principles that endure the test of time can be judged as correct. What little princesses call ‘evil’ and dread so is but the mechanical counter force of nature, which demonstrates the fragility of ideas. Defeat evil, defeat me, and your righteousness is be proved true. Be defeated instead and you are the villain, and so the world shall remember you. And no one will care what you really were like. That’s how the books go, yes? If all human principles fail in time, then wouldn’t that only mean none of them was above folly from the start, but only carried so far by the luck of the select few? Any notion of higher justice is only the losers’ empty excuse, to try and justify why they deserve to win, when they lack the means to. Don’t blame me; blame whoever first put that inane idea in your head.”

Operating the phallic object like a knife, Sai-Lin stuck it under Yuliana’s blouse, and wrung open the buttons with a downward yank.

“You’re wrong!” Yuliana cried, trying to lean back and hide her chest, but she was unable to move more than bare inches in any given direction. She squeezed her eyes shut instead, as if not being able to see herself sufficed for a cover.

“And where exactly am I wrong?” the villain retorted. “No righteous spiel ever did me much good. Unlike you, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I had to fight for every crumb and scrap. Friendship, loyalty, trust, love—I learned early that all the things old songs take for granted are very finite in supply, and they are expensive! They must be bought and earned with effort! Life itself is business, every breath has its cost! It was no beautiful ideal or a virtue that brought me to this spot today. I used everything I could get my hands on to survive just another day. This body was no exception. Do you think I made it this far only because I'm so wicked and have a way with words? Bullshit! I’m here, because I was willing to get down and dirty! I’ve sucked more dick than you know men by name! There’s no part of me that wouldn’t have been defiled and broken, and then remade, tailored to suit another’s fancy! They didn’t crown me royalty because I had some long-dead, inbred geezer’s blood in me! I crawled and clawed and kicked and cried and killed and fucked to get just one ship! Just one ship! And you dare tell me ‘all people are equal and precious’! No! People are garbage!”

In quick, halfhearted motions, the woman pulled off Yuliana’s sash, and shoved the phallos down the half-open pants, and paused to have a smoke. Yuliana felt the cold stone against her pubic mound and shuddered, barely able to breathe with how tight she hung.

“I hate you,” Sai-Lin told her. “I hate how you can’t even believe someone could hate you. And that’s why I’ll destroy you, even if it’s the last thing I’ll ever do.”

The woman took Yuliana by the back of the head and forced her mouth on the girl’s lips. She exhaled the fumes in her and molested her tongue, toying, playing, as if daring her to try and bite. Yuliana had no choice but to take in the smoke, let it pass through her lungs, while feeling the wet, snail-like thing invading her mouth. But she wouldn't surrender. She kept breathing through her nose, enduring the smoke and the shame, and responded, meeting the woman’s tongue with her own, fighting it, chasing it, not giving the opponent a moment of rest.

She viewed the deed as nothing more than a knight defending her territory, at first, but her impression soon changed. The close contact of the parts so soft and vulnerable, the heat passing through them, that oddly intense sense of touch—it lit a strange, ticklish flame in her chest. Instead of only resisting, she began to suck in the kiss, wishing to feel more of it, almost fearful of it ending too soon.

She wasn’t the only one affected by the heat. Sai-Lin could only admit things weren’t going according to plan. She tried to take distance, escape, but Yuliana pressed against the threads and chased her, prolonging the contact to its extreme limits.

“Haah—!” Sai-Lin staggered back and gasped for air, quickly covering her mouth and wiping the trail of saliva on her chin.

Yuliana felt the hold on her left arm loosen. She turned and forcefully tugged the string. At the same time, the pipe slipped from the surprised villain’s hold, fell on the floor with a clack, and began rolling towards the side wall. The pipe had been the key, the instrument by which the spider had manipulated her web. Now that the controller was lost, all the binds on Yuliana began to one by one grow loose. She swiftly yanked them, and got one arm fully free, which also opened up the wrapping on her waist. Instead of turning and running then, she lunged head first at the woman in front of her, tackling her onto the floor.

They went rolling on the carpet, and their roles had become effectively reversed. It was now Sai-Lin struggling to push Yuliana back, while the latter fought to get as close as she could. The piratess had the advantage in size and experience; yet, thanks to her knight training, Yuliana was not so easily overcome. Getting on top, she pinned Sai-Lin between her strong thighs and fell on her, her lips feeling with feverish heat the pale cleavage exposed through the kimono opening.

“Wh—What are you doing…!? Have you lost it!?” Sai-Lin cried, trying to peel the girl off her. She managed to push Yuliana at arm’s length and slapped her face, as though to snap her out of whatever madness had gotten into her. But Yuliana quickly caught the hand by the wrist and continued to kiss the open palm. Her hold was strong and tight, and not so easily removed.

“If only you could see it...” the girl muttered, her expression veiled by her messed up bangs. “If only you could see yourself the way I do!”

“What…?” Sai-Lin stopped, frowning.

The girl’s tone had changed completely. There was no anger or vengeance in it, but emotion far less easy to describe, distant and unfamiliar to the witch of the pirates. There seemed to be grief on the young Empress's face, but not that brought by fear for herself, or any injury. It was purely the heartache that ensued from overflowing compassion.

Holding Sai-Lin’s hand close to her cheek, like cradling a wounded bird, Yuliana spoke,

“I knew someone once, someone just like you. That person would do terrible things time after time again, insisting it was the rational thing to do. The way of the world. At first, I couldn’t understand her. I thought, ‘this person is broken’—beyond redemption, even. Something utterly alien and incomprehensible, worlds apart from myself. But in time, I grew to see better. I’d made a mistake. She wasn’t cruel because she hated or despised people, or because life had betrayed her. No, she saw the value and weight of every life. Even when she killed, she had fairness and mercy in her heart. It wasn’t other people she hated so, but her own self. She wasn’t deaf to wisdom, she had simply judged herself much harder than anyone else ever could, so that the criticism of others lost weight. The suffering of other people hurt her more than her own pain, so she sought to become a monster, to make for others the hard decisions that they couldn't. She thought it was her only way to make a difference and spare those she cared about. If only I had realized it sooner! She was not a monster, or a hero—she was a person!”

Small tears, like glittering diamonds, escaped the corners of Yuliana’s eyes. She leaned down, taking Sai-Lin’s face between her palms.

“I hear that person’s echo in your words,” she said. “’You can only commit evil, because you’re evil’, too far gone, only a warning example for others. You think so—but it’s wrong! Please see it with your own eyes: you’re much better than you think you are! Your success isn’t proof of my weakness, or the weakness of my ideals, or even the strength of evil! It’s testament only to your own excellence as a person, Sai-Lin! I wouldn’t ever think to make a joke of you, or laugh at you! Don’t call yourself filthy, or lowborn, or anything of the sort! This is the body you honed to survive! This is the proof of the painful things you’ve overcome! There could be nothing unsightly about you!”

She leaned down kissed the pirate again, lightly, trembling with emotion.

“Hn…I get it,” Sai-Lin mumbled in a subdued voice, turning her face away while showered by kisses and tears. Before she noticed, strength had left her body. Her fighting spirit was gone. “I get it already. That’s enough, you’ve made your point. It’s my defeat. I’ll leave, so get off me already.”

Yuliana wouldn’t stop but moved on downward, kissing the woman's bare neck, below the ear, setting off most awkward sensations.

“I said that’s enough!” Sai-Lin growled, grabbed the Empress by the buttocks, and tossed her to the side, trading places with her.

Panting, her face red and hot, Yuliana laid on her back on the floor under the woman, and made no effort to get up.

“Please use that toy on me,” she requested.

“Ha!?” Sai-Lin’s jaw dropped. “Have you truly lost your marbles? I already told you I’m leaving, so you can drop the act already!”

“I’m being serious!” Yuliana insisted. “My resolve is genuine! I want you to know that. I want you to have my first time, Sai-Lin. I have nothing else I can give you now, and we may never have another chance!”

“Do you even hear the things you’re saying…?” the woman replied with a perplexed sigh.

“Not everything in life is finite, or with a price to pay,” Yuliana insisted. “I want you to see that. I want you to know there’s at least one person in this world, who will always believe in you, and who wants you to find happiness, and to no cost at all. So, will you make love to me, Sai-Lin?”

“I should say there is quite a leap of logic in there…”

“You don’t want to?” the girl timidly asked. “Is it no good with another woman? Since you meant to rape me, I thought you would enjoy it, but…Did I assume too much?”

The appeal in Yuliana’s sparkling eyes and soft voice was such that it being only an act on her part was a rather incredible idea, as little sense as her being sincere made. Nevertheless, a suspicious person to the marrow of her bones, Sai-Lin couldn’t help but doubt her conviction.

“No shit, I want to,” she said. “I am a pirate, dear. I am a person of bottomless greed by constitution. And I don’t discriminate. Even if we’re women, even if we were dolphins, I would still consider the body of an Empress a treasure worth plundering. But my enjoyment isn’t so easily gained. I might end up testing the limits of your good will to the limit. Who knows, I might even brag about it afterwards. You’d better tell me now if any of that rubs you the wrong way, because I won’t hear any objections once that ship has sailed.”

“Do I seem to you like the sort of a fickle person who changes her mind ever so often?” Yuliana retorted. “When I make up my mind on something, I am more than capable of living with the consequences.”

“True enough, you seem to me stubborn as a deaf mule,” Sai-Lin answered. “To the point that you make your enemies worry for your future. But where I take you is uncharted waters for sheltered princesses. They don’t teach these worldly arts at the halls of silk banners and crystal chandeliers. Should you let me, I'll be sure to leave no spot of you unsampled, and there is a very real possibility you won't see the world or yourself the same again.”

“Sai-Lin,” Yuliana replied, tensing her arms, looking like someone enduring a great pressure. “I may be the Empress, but I’m still a human too. And I really might lose my mind, if you don’t undress quickly!”

“Honestly, I think this goes beyond the level of ‘proving a point’ already...”

Sai-Lin got up from the floor, turned away, and started to untie her obi, while Yuliana removed the remaining webbing and undressed as well. She undid her kimono and let it fall off her by its own weight. A brassiere she didn’t wear, and only a simple fundoshi for the bottom, which was quickly undone.

On her mind, Sai-Lin had to question what in the world she was doing. Her wrath had vanished somewhere along the way and she felt mostly only weird. Weird, like hearing total silence after years of constant noise. The warmth the girl had infected her with made her unsure and addled, like a bad drug. In the back of her mind, she instinctively continued to doubt some manner of treachery, though she couldn’t rationally conceive how or why.

Did it really even matter? All that was behind her, around her, ahead of her, was dark.

No amount of steps in any directions would change it.

“How unexpected.” Yuliana broke her daze, touching the older woman’s bared back. She traced with her fingertips the lines of the long, elaborate tattoo that curled across from shoulder to hip. “No spiders, but a dragon? Though you’re the Tarantula?”

“Hn!” Sai-Lin flinched at the touch, and scowled over her shoulder. “Don’t get carried away!”

“A woman scared of dragons wears one on her back?” the girl remarked. “Don’t you find it a little...ironic?”

“I hadn’t seen the real one yet when I got it!” Sai-Lin replied. “Nothing stranger than that.”

“But why this particular theme?” Yuliana asked. “Did you like dragons when you were younger? Even more than spiders?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Sai-Lin replied. “I got it to hide the whip scars. It was the only animal theme big enough to cover them all. I didn’t want the whole fucking zoo.”

Yuliana’s face clouded at the answer and her hand fell. Seeing it, Sai-Lin turned and raised the girl’s downcast face with a light touch on the chin.

“I didn’t think I’d ever use the word ‘kindness’ as a compliment. No, even now, I do think it’s more a curse than a merit. Being hurt not only by what happens to yourself, but by what happened to someone else…What is that if not a curse?”

“You'd pity someone you hate?” Yuliana replied. “I should think you’re the kinder one of us, Sai-Lin.”

“If you ever say you love me, I’ll kill you,” Sai-Lin answered.

Yuliana averted her eyes, her smile turning sad. “I couldn’t be that cruel.”

Both naked as on the day of their birth, they went to lie down on the cushions in the back of the room, under the little window which the rain battered. Every now and then, flashes of lightning illuminated the confines of the storm, but no noise could be heard. All sounds, both incoming and outbound, were muffled by the ward.

Yuliana laid on the bottom and pulled the woman close, arms around her neck. With how chilly the air was, any aversion to contact out of embarrassment was easy to overcome.

“Sai-Lin? Can you teach me how to kiss?” she quietly asked as their faces drew close. “In a way that feels really good?”

“Practice with your boyfriend!” Sai-Lin snapped at her.

“Please?” her majesty pleaded, her cheeks turning even a deeper shade of red. “I want you to like it.”

“...By all Hels! I never would’ve thought I’d hear such things from that mouth. Or anyone in real life. It’s not advanced witchcraft or anything. By what I can tell, you’ve already got the hang of it. Just hold your horses and don’t shove your tongue in my throat, it’s unpleasant.”

“Hmmmnn…”

For a time, they did nothing but kissed and kept close, enjoying the softness and small motions of their connected bodies.

“By the way,” Sai-Lin then spoke.

“Yes?” Yuliana opened her eyes.

“Was it true what you said? About this being your first time?”

“It was, though?”

“You didn’t mean, you first time with another woman, but first-first time, ever?”

“Yes? That's what I said?”

“That’s a lie, isn’t it?”

“I’m not lying,” Yuliana said, narrowing her eyes, rather insulted.

“You don’t need to try to impress me,” Sai-Lin told her. “Trust me, I’d be the last person to mind having experience.”

“I’m not lying!” Yuliana repeated, her voice a degree louder.

“No, first-rate merchandise like this going untouched past puberty would be a wonder on part with a dragon-controlling relic. It’s simply not happening. I don’t believe it.”

“As highly as you seem to think of my body, calling it ‘merchandise’ on such a tender moment is not the most charming thing I could think of,” Yuliana argued in answer.

“Oh, do pardon me for not whispering words of the Old Tongue in your ear, your majesty. Whether you are honest or not, I suppose I’ll have to ask your body instead.”

Locking lips in another kiss, Sai-Lin felt down Yuliana’s firm belly with her hand in circling, unhurriedly caressing sweeps, down towards her crotch, where only a few short, pale hairs grew on the mound above the genitals. And down from there, she paused again.

“...How are you already this wet?” Sai-Lin blankly asked, feeling the warm, puff, pulsating labia, slick to touch. “It’s almost like you were looking forward to this. For playing such a saint all the time, you certainly are twisted on the inside.”

“Hng! I can’t help it!” Yuliana muttered, squirming her hips in shame. “Everyone around me is always such a pervert, I’ve been holding back for so long…”

“I might feel just a bit better about this now,” the woman remarked with a hint of ridicule. “In fact, I was earnestly beginning to wonder if you were human at all.”

“I never pretended to be anything other but human!” Yuliana retorted. “I couldn’t feel this way if I weren’t.”

“So? What do you want, a medal?”

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t say that again,” Sai-Lin told her. “The Empress apologizes to no one, right?”

“It may be true that I was born into nobility,” Yuliana spoke with remorse, “and many things that are common sense to others are strange to me. I’ve always felt guilty for that. It's why I’m trying so hard to learn more about life.”

“Granted, I can see you’re trying. Can you fit a finger inside?”

“Inside?” Yuliana asked, blinking. “Where?”

“He-re!,” the woman said, circling the vaginal opening with her fingertip, causing Yuliana to yelp in surprise. “What? You’ve never touched yourself before?”

“Ah!...S-sometimes, I have...But I’ve never tried to put anything in there! Isn’t it dangerous?”

“Nothing more dangerous than what eventually comes out,” Sai-Lin listlessly replied. “Whatever do they teach at those fabled schools of yours? Try to feel it now.”

Sai-Lin took hold of Yuliana’s hand and guided down to her groin. Yuliana felt her slippery genitals, ticklish waves flashing through her hips and up her spinal column.

“Well? What’s it like?” Sai-Lin whispered, lightly biting the ear. “Why don’t you describe it for me in those sophisticated words of yours?”

“Could you not...tease me so much!” Yuliana replied, flushed and eyes tightly closed.

“Oh? You want me not to? When it rather seems to me like you’re loving it. Go on? Tell me how it feels?”

“It...sure is much more intense than whenever I did it on my own. Hng—!”

“Well, looks like your finger went in just fine,” the woman commented. “Your hymen is part gone. You know, the thing by which they can tell whether a woman is a virgin or not.”

“What?” Yuliana opened her eyes, startled. “But I really haven’t done it before! I’m—”

“—Yes, yes, I know, I know,” Sai-Lin calmed her. “You ride around a lot on horseback, don’t you? The saddle tends to do that. It was never anything more magical, this so-called virginity. But are you still sure you want to go through with this? If I stick this thing in you, it really will be all gone. Your superstitious future husband might not be all that pleased to find it missing.”

“What are you asking, after all this?” Yuliana replied, smiling. “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t hear any objections? Where is that greedy pirate now?”

“I just never realized how juvenile you were before...” Sai-Lin murmured, looking away with slight disappointment in her expression. Or was it guilt?

“Please do it.” Yuliana pulled the woman close, speaking in a gentle, quiet tone. “Marriage is the one impossible dream for me. Where I’m going, no one will be asking for my chastity, and I doubt I shall ever return. That’s why, speak no more. Set aside all your doubt and fear. For just a little while, forget about your worries and pain. You're safe with me. Only look at me. Tonight, if only for tonight, there is no world out there beside you and me.”

The girl’s quiet words carried shadows of a destiny extending beyond the battle that was to come. In her clear eyes were reflected remote shores, forbidden from the ships of the living. Even as her life and the fate of her Empire hung on the edge, her majesty had her sights set further still, towards cosmic trials no one else might understand, or share.

Seeing herself reflected in those bright eyes, as but one landmark on a road of immeasurable length and difficulty, Sai-Lin gained a sense of sobriety that took her breath away. She found deep in her being something she had thought was long gone, and which pushed aside all other thoughts.

“You…” She spoke, savoring that subtle warmth, lost for a moment in wholehearted admiration. “...You’d really make for an A-grade courtesan, as I thought.”

“In all seriousness, please shut up,” Yuliana replied with a smile of saintly patience and pulled the woman for another kiss.

From that point on, there were no more words exchanged between the two. Dedicating themselves purely for the pleasure of the other, they made love while the storm went on abated about the rundown cabin. Nothing they knew of the revelries outside, the bold declarations of war that were made, or the oaths of camaraderie that were sworn, or the music that was played, the dance, or the drinks. Like the last two souls left on the face of this world, they joined in pleasures that were not vile or deranged in the least, but closest to what could be called sacred on all mortal lands.