Frances blinked. She stared into Hye-Sung’s eyes. The mage stayed on her side, pulling the blanket tighter.

“You sure you won’t get angry?” Hye-Sung asked.

“Haa. It's not as though you haven’t invaded my privacy.”

It was just a few hours ago when she wanted a private talk. Hye-Sung waited outside Roy’s room, and attacked once Frances left. Predator, and prey.

The mage pinned the empress to the wall. Her face seemed so forlorn. As if hiding a deep and crippling secret. She didn’t know why, but it reminded her of something. It was something she saw once in a movie, so long ago. An actress was playing a French woman, hiding a jew from the Nazis. Though it was focused on the French woman, Frances was reminded of the wanted man instead. Fear, concern, guilt perhaps. But she snapped back to reality. No more dwelling on the past.

“I haven’t been entirely honest with you.”

“Never expected you to be. I keep my secrets too. Shit, I’m sure my wife’s hiding stuff. Katalina, everyone’s not being entirely honest.”

“You don’t know the extent of what I did.”

“Is that right. So what did you do?”

“When I told you that I was tracking your cycle, you looked so... Different. Not the usual cool, composed person.”

“Wonder why.”

“I only did it out of habit. If you’ll permit me to share... Being a woman without any backing of the major parties in the criminal underground is dangerous.”

“That would make sense. To be fair, without Ashley’s help, I would have gotten swallowed up in the underworld.”

“It's great that you can understand. I had to do all these. Checking for any illnesses, addictions, STIs, the sort. Blackmail is important. There was a mafia man that threatened to have me offed for knowing he had hep C. You know why?”

“I know nothing about that disease. Enlighten me.”

“Hmm. Men infected with hepatitis C often have one thing in common, gay sex.”

“And he doesn’t want people to know that?”

“Yeah. I don’t know the details around it, though.”

“He should’ve come to us. Our consigliere’s openly gay. Even hit on me once, much to Ashley’s hatred.”

“We lived in different worlds, Frances.”

“So that’s it? Apologising for taking all my data without my knowledge?”

“That’s not all. I drugged you to get your measurements as well.”

“What’s part of those?”

“Your three sizes, height, weight... Um, your other sizes too.”

“And those ‘other sizes’ are?”

“Do I really have to say?”

“Yes. Everything.”

“Um. Pretty much everything of interest to me. Especially those that you might have not cared about as a man. Or had.”

“Ah. So you plan to blackmail me by releasing my information?”

“No, never. I wouldn’t do that to you. I like you far too much.”

Frances sat up from the shared bed. She made her way towards the open window, and motioned for Hye-Sung to follow. They gazed at the stars.

“So is that it?”

“There’s more than that.” Hye-Sung turned to face her directly. “You remember how I said I drugged you?”

“Yeah? What, did you take blackmail pictures of me or something?”

“It's worse.”

“You implanted a bomb in me?”

Hye-Sung shook her head. She seemed to struggle with her words. Her eyes darted across the room, before landing squarely on Frances’ body. She stared at her chest, and turned away.

“What did you do?” Frances narrowed her eyes.

“I think it may be considered rape...”

“You raped me? What the fuck?”

“I had permission from your wife. And she also ordered it.”

“So many questions, no answers.”

“Let me start from the beginning.”

“Hold up, what and why?”

“I think it may be easier to demonstrate.”

“You believe that, instead of explaining yourself, you’d rather demonstrate how you raped me.”

“Look. Empress Haein, your wife, is fucked up in the head. I’m not asking for forgiveness. I know I’m in the wrong.”

“Christ. You know, I’m pretty sure we’ve both noticed this by now. None of us, especially us, are normal. Haein is obsessive, and also thinks of people as pawns. You’re you. And I’m the mess here. Iris is psychopathic, desensitised, and thinks nothing of murder. Noah locked himself up in a room for a thousand years.”

“You haven’t mentioned Katalina.”

“Because she’s the most normal. A battle fetish, sure, but by far the most usual. We’re the exceptions to the rule.”

The mage sighed. She reached out, and patted the empress’ head. For some reason, she seemed far lonelier than usual. Perhaps not lonely, that was the wrong word. Distant. Hye-Sung was a contradictory person. She was close, yes— Frances really would not have minded if she did anything— but at the same time she sealed herself away. The times when she shared her own feelings and past were a rarity.

“We’re all fucked up in the head,” Frances concluded. “So? What did you want to show me?”

“Your wife asked me to find your sensitive zones.”

“No wonder she was suddenly so much better at sex.”

“I found your zones. Would you like me to demonstrate?”

“No, I’d rather not climax in front of you.”

Even saying those words caused her cheeks to blush. Hye-Sung seemed unfazed, though. She caressed her head, and came close to Frances’ ear. The empress could feel the soft breathing tingle the skin.

“You’ve already done that in front of me.”

“Christ.” Frances grabbed onto her for support. Her knees buckled. Everything felt strange and unnatural. Her body heated up. The mage in front of her seemed far more charming than what she used to be. “Just how far have you gone with me?”

“How far do you think?”

“No, before that. You have no right to be as seductive as you are right now.”

“Oh, right. I may have slipped something into your wine. It's just a little something, nothing big.”

“You fucking drugged me again? And an aphrodisiac at that?”

“I’m gonna need you to make some noise. There’s someone there.”

Frances rolled her eyes. Her heart pounded against her chest as Hye-Sung just threw her back onto the bed. With the force of a determined woman without anything stopping her, they worked into the night. And though it took a while, the window smashed open. As though she saw the future, Hye-Sung pushed Frances down onto the bed.

“What’s that?” Yohnas shouted from below.

A crossbow bolt lodged itself into the wall. Shards of glass spilt all over the floor. Frances lay in shock and exhaustion, her body still quivering. Frances tried to sit up, but Hye-Sung pressed her back down. Instead, she directed her eyes towards the window. The closest building was at least 300 metres away.

“I’ve got you, bitch!”

A bolt of light shot out from Hye-Sung’s index finger. Zipping through the broken window, it zapped a mysterious person quite some distance away. There were quite a few of them. Perhaps 3 to 5 hooded people sulking on the roof of the closest neighbour.

“We’ve got a sniper there.”

“What about the person tracking us?”

Hye-Sung poked her head up occasionally. Much like an old western shootout, she fired a few, and received waves back. Though, Frances could only guess. She seemed to be able to intercept the crossbow bolts as they flew, and shot a few return bolts back.

“I can sense their mana. They’re still nearby. There’s traces of the detection magic, Elisat, too.”

“Can you shoot a gun?”

“Never shot one.”

“Fuck, why’d you have to do me like this? I’m still not even used to this euphoria.”

“I wasn’t anticipating snipers. Oh. Got one of them.”

Someone kicked the door down. Hye-Sung spun on her heels and pointed her magic bullet at the invader. Yohnas put his arms in the air.