“Sister, how could you be so depraved?” Elara’s voice piped up at the perfect moment. She ran over. “Sister, a woman’s virtue is her most precious possession. How could you devalue yourself like this?”
She was looking at me, but her eyes kept darting to Kael, gauging his reaction.
Kael seemed not to hear her. When he looked at me again, the corners of his eyes were red. He turned
“I’m going to kill you.”
I hadn’t expected things to escalate like this.
to
the proprietress.
The proprietress, ever the agent of chaos, just raised an eyebrow at me. “Little Cora
congratulations on your full initiation.”
From a balcony above, two figures, one in red and one in white, were watching.
“I stand corrected,” Zephyr’s voice drifted down, laced with a thick, sour note. “It seems that persistent clinging does have its uses.”
Lyren sighed in exasperation, then leaped down, landing between Kael and the proprietress.
“Lady Cora has not performed the rite with anyone. I can vouch for her,” he said. “As for her rapid increase in power, it is simply because the arts of the Crimson Cab- al are exceptionally suited to her.”
Kael slowly turned to Lyren. “Is that true?”
“A holy man does not lie.”
The drama should have ended there. But then Julian stepped forward. “Master Lyren, who gave me sachet hanging from your belt?”
I rolled my eyes, feeling faint. I had given it to him. I had just wanted to leave a piece of myself
but I made this sachet myself. It will help you see through the illusions of the Crimson Cabal.”
with him. But I had told him, “I don’t want to hinder your spiritual path,
I hadn’t actually thought he would keep it. His power was the most profound of his generation. They said had comprehended sacred texts that even his own mas- ter could not. He didn’t need a sachet to see through the most basic of illusions.
But he had accepted it that night. And he was wearing it.
How did things get so out of control?
Just then, Zephyr, his face a dark mask, leaped down from the balcony..
“You told me I was the only one who had one of these.”
Oh I forgot I had given one to him too.
I had no talent for needlework. I had only learned to embroider a few plum blossoms. So, besides the color, the two sachets were identical, right down to the equally ugly blossoms.
“Sister, did you get these wholesale?” Julian piped up again. Because not long ago, I think I had given him one too. He hadn’t accepted it, but still.
And even longer ago, I had given the same sachet to Kael. But that one had turned to dust in his hand.
All had to do now was deny everything.
What sachet? The ones Lyren and Zephyr have are just practice pieces I made. It would have been a waste to throw them away, so I gave them as wards against
Chapter 2
10:39
“What sachet? The ones Lyren and Zephyr have are just practice pieces I made. It would have been a waste to throw them away, so I gave them as wards against illusions,” I said with a straight face.
Zephyr shot me a dangerous look, and I smiled back. Lyren remained serene, seemingly uninterested.
I turned back to Kael, the man I had long since drawn a line with. I didn’t feel the need to explain anything to him.
The proprietress gave me a thumbs–up from the corner.
Sometimes, I really thought Elara was a character from a storybook, always showing up at the most critical moments to stir the pot.
“Sister, in the common lands, a hand–embroidered sachet is a gift a woman gives only to her family or her true love. How could you give them away so freely, and to so many? Are you in love with all of them?”
As soon as she said it, I could feel the atmosphere shift. This was a battle I couldn’t handle.
Kael pulled a sachet from his robes. The crooked plum blossoms were unmistakably my handiwork. But hadn’t that one been destroyed?
“Cora, I still have your sachet. If you are willing to come back, you will still be my apprentice.”
I couldn’t understand how, in the midst of all this, he could still say that.
‘She’s my apprentice now!” the proprietress shouted from her corner.
