“June!” cried the princess's brother, Bart. The prince ran to his sister, who was being led back to her room by the Prioress. The all too familiar grimace of pain on the princess's face marked the end of another painful ritual involved in extracting the visions that had seared themselves into her eyes.

“There's no need to yell, Bart. The pain is unbearable enough without the added trill of your screeching.” June's milky white eyes glared at the floor as the Prioress guided her to the inordinately cushioned seat by her bed. Without a word, the woman left, leaving the two in an uncomfortable silence.

“I'm sorry. I know it's painful whenever you come back from those… rituals. I just wanted to make sure nothing went wr—”

“No! You don't know! Don't act like you understand what I go through. Imagine having your vision violently ripped from you every time they want to spy into your head, all because of—” her voice lowered to a mumble, “—that bitch Macha…”

“Don't say that, June!” Bart stopped himself from raising his voice in panic. “We've been blessed by the Matron of the Maddened. We owe our everything to her.”

“You don't possibly believe I've been blessed, do you?” The words she spat were full of vitriol. “What Goddess would allow her chosen to endure such pain every time she wants to make her presence known? It is not worth the torture. Do you know what I did the last time my vision came back—right after I had that terrifying prophecy that I could not even make heads or tails of?”

“No,” he replied. “I imagine you took to admiring your pretty features in the mirror, right?”

June raised her head and faced the direction in which she heard her brother’s voice. There was a hurtful expression on her face that very minutely changed into a bittersweet smile. “I would kick you for that if it weren't technically true. But no, idiot brother of mine. It was after that. I ran out to the balcony there that they usually keep locked for my safety, except I secretly had a key made for myself long ago. I stepped out, trying to appreciate the view of beautiful Malachias, but the only thought coursing through my mind at that moment was the ground directly below. I regret that in that moment, I had the sudden urge to throw myself from the ledge then and there. They'd write it off as an accident. ‘The clumsy blind girl snuck onto her balcony and thanks to her overpowering curiosity, met her tragic end.’”

“June… Please don't say such things.”

“And then they can subject some other girl to their abject cruelty.” She sat up and deftly made her way over to her bed. “Does that make me an awful person? I wouldn't wish this on anyone, but if I ever somehow became obsolete to their machinations, they would discard me and probably find some other poor girl to experiment on. Even if she isn't cursed with these visions like I am.”

“You're not an awful person, June.” He walked over to her and sat on the bed with her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. Her body felt pitifully small in his embrace. Her slight trembling filled him with unease. “Anyone else would have probably broken by now. But you've stayed strong. No other girl could endure the kind of pain you go through. Your destiny is to be the conduit for our mad goddess’s interventions. It is something you just have to accept.”

“How can you say that?!” June ripped herself away from her brother. “Do you know what a nightmare it is to be a being without agency? To be simply a tool for this despicable militant country? I can’t stand for it anymore, Bart. That’s why I must leave.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That night. Out on that balcony.” She fell back into the deep confines of her mattress. “I had a revelation as I peered out amongst the city and its walls. It was the only thing that kept me from jumping, really. At first, I dreamed simply of running away, but then I thought back to my vision… Something about it left me visibly shaken—more than any previous time. That’s when I remembered the man in the mask. In my vision, he was watching the events unfold. The watchers. From previous experience with my past prognostications, it usually signifies a mastermind. The hands behind the scene. And that girl at the end. She’s special somehow. She appeared separately from all the rest. And only once. Her form was so clear to me. I’ve not experienced a vision like that before. I thought perhaps she could be the key behind everything. I… I decided I must find her and warn her. Before the church does. I’ve been stewing on these thoughts for days while they performed their invasive rituals on me, and my convictions remain the same. I have to leave this place.”

“Are you mad, June?” Her brother scowled. “No, of course you’re not. Because then you’d have the good sense of our Goddess to stay put. And how in D’mona’s infernal moon do you expect to even find this supposed key-girl? You can’t exactly recognize anyone’s face right now.”

“No…” She rubbed her chin while grinning a mischievous smile. “That’s where you come in!”

“Oh, Goddess. I’ve got an uneasy feeling about this. Where exactly do I ‘come in’?”

“You come in by coming with me!”

“I knew it. I knew it!” He raised his hands in the air, waving them comically. “Who do you expect to hold down the fort here then?!”

“Bart! You don’t actually expect me to be able to run away completely on my own, do you?”

He bit his thumb nervously. “I mean… A princess must have her own network of spies or some such nonsense, right? That are only loyal to her?”

“You’ve been watching too many cartoons, idiot.”

“You realize if we leave, we’ll be immediately hunted down by one of the Sacred Seven, right? Or worse, all of them.”

“Those seven are big softies.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Why, just the other day I forced Abhartach to share a pint of ice cream with me. Of course, he didn’t say a word the entire time we were eating, but I could tell he was smiling under that scarlet veil of his!”

“You frighten me sometimes, sister.”

“Everything frightens you, Bart.”