On receiving no reply, Oris began to sing, knowing she would get her answer soon enough. It had been so long since she had let herself go like she was about to. It was hard enough staying alive as queen without anyone being close to her. There was no way she could have hired a scholar to teach her more music and dances when almost everyone in the court wanted her dead.

As a result, the only songs she knew were the ones she had learnt as a girl in her village, especially the ones that used to be popular outside Orse. Oris enjoyed learning the dialects of foreign songs. It gave her an edge over the other singers in her village and got her more rewards during festivals.

Being a queen had only helped her fine-tune her singing of those song because of the nights she spent learning the languages of other states for the sake of diplomacy.

While she might not have been completely fluent in other languages, Oris was proud to say she could sing their songs like an homegrown native.

She raised her hands above her head and let out a breath, her voice carrying softly across the cell. "There are no gods in this land but the god of truths and lies. I nurse a buxom babe who grows to wield both sword and knife. . . up on the frozen battlefield, catch him when he falls. Oh won't you, dear god of truths? When he is up against the enemy's iron spear and shield?"

"For our homeland,

For our nation,

For our people's pride,

Our darling boys and girls

Grow up to die

"Sacrifice love for

The greatness of

The Kingdom's fate

"Sacrifice family for

The sun and snow

of enemy terrain

"There are no gods in this life but the gods of truths and lies. Our daughters sent as gifts to win the love of the despised. . . with beauty in her eyes, catch her when she falls. Oh, won't you, god of lies? When she takes in poison wine and no one is there to hear her cries—"

Oris eyes flew open at the sound of rattling chains. She leapt out of the way just in time to avoid her cellmate's body as they fell against the bed. They had lunged at her.

Laughter spilled out of her mouth before she could help it, her arms back at her sides as she pressed herself against the bars that kept her imprisoned.

"Don't tell me that my singing has gotten that bad?" she asked.

"Who are you?" they snarled. "Who are you?!"

"That is what I should be asking you? Who are you? And why do you not like my song?" Oris clicked her tongue and played the fool. "But seeing that it is too dark for you the appreciate the accompanying dance, I can understand your grievances."

"You speak like a Naritan Royal."

"I have never been to Narita," Oris said, feigning annoyance. "I already told you, I am from the Eastern States."

"How do you know this song?"

"My mother taught me," Oris answered. It wasn't exactly a lie, seeing that she and her adoptive mother had heard it at the same time.

"She—"

"She passed," Oris cut them off. "I do not wish to speak of her."

"Why are you here?"

"The Empress Dowager wants me dead," Oris said then crouched and started feeling around the hay-covered ground. "Where's the gruel you promised me?"

"The Empress Dowager?" they repeated, as though tasting the title on their tongue. They dragged their body onto the bed. "Why?"

"She doesn't want me to marry her son," Oris said, just as her fingers grazed something cool to the touch. Clay.

Her cellmate snorted. "I doubt that."

Oris pulled the two clay bowls to a spot by her feet. "She accused me of rebellion just as I was about to enter the palace gates. I'm the last woman needed for the selection of the Emperor's wives to begin."

"Has it begun?"

"Yes."

"Then you are no longer needed."

Oris paused for a moment to raise the bowl of gruel to her lips. "I am aware."

"You shouldn't drink that. If the Empress Dowager wants you dead as much as you claim she does, it is most likely poisoned."

"Is that why you didn't drink it?"

The chains rattled loudly. "Even without poison, that gruel will kill you faster than torture will."

Then it is just what I need right now. Oris held her breath and tipped the bowl back, drinking the cold and lumpy gruel in the same way she drank bitter medicine.

"Wasn't so bad—" the bowl fell out of her hands when the taste hit her.

Oris clapped her hand over her mouth and took deep breaths to stop the gruel from coming back out. When she was sure that it had settled, she set her hands on her heaving chest.

"You were right. It is atrocious."

Yet despite saying that, she reached for the second bowl.

"Girl, are you mad?"

"How can you even see me?" Oris wanted to laugh but the slightest attempt caused the gruel in her stomach to creep up her throat.

"Years in the darkness makes your senses more attune to it."

"Are you from Narita?" Oris asked, sensing a change in her mysterious cellmate. "Is that why my song upset you?"

"Narita was a land of the free yet because of greed, her king wished to conquer more territory. Sons and daughters were sacrificed for his ambition, and for what? Narita, in the end, was conquered."

"That song. . ." Oris trailed off, pretending like she didn't already know.

"That song was considered treasonous. Anyone who sang it was beheaded by the King's guards."

"I didn't know," Oris lied and held the gruel closer to her chest. "But I always think of a story when I sing it, one that I once heard in the marketplace."

"What story?"

"The story of a queen from Narita," Oris replied. "The stories say that she was the most beautiful woman to walk the surface of the earth, that she was knowledgeable in all the Four Arts and knew how to wield deadly weapons. They say she seduced the most powerful king in the world and had his child. Then the child became a never before seen figure in history, a legend. But afterwards the queen disappeared as though her only purpose had been to give birth to such a powerful being.

"I always thought that the first half of the song was about her and her son and the second half was about how she died. I guess that had been foolish of me."

For a moment there was silence, then the chains rattled.

"What other stories do you know?" they asked.

"I know all of them. That version was just the most romantic one," Oris admitted.

"Tell them to me," her cellmate said. "All of them."

Oris smiled, one step closer to her goal. "As you wish."

~