Xina

There were no one-time happenings in the palace. Yusaphine promised she wouldn’t kill the innocent. That was her oath. Now two were dead. Two Solare lives. The very people Xina’s duty was established to protect. She must have done this before, but this time she had been caught. More questions sparked in Xina’s mind as she hung her head over the stack of Cardinal agreements. Did Yusaphine care? Why do this? Where did she draw boundary between word and action? No more thoughts, Xina reminded herself. This was not time to give to personal affairs. This time was for the people. For those that were alive.

No, that was just an excuse to dismiss what Yusaphine had done.

Xina snarled to herself, going back and forth in her head. Unable to determine what the right course of action was, she left to the palace menagerie. Nothing like nightglow refreshed a fogged mind. Too many nights she had spent doing this, and too many questions of greater importance had failed to be answered. Why was the date for Hel’s court of public trial canceled? By what magic was Heavens’ household elevated to the palace’s fifth floor? It was a good. Suspiciously so. Xina still didn’t fully understand by what nature the guards had let slip that indirect lip touching. The nymphaeum’s staggering silhouette sat like a gate to stars. Shanai stood on the edge, overlooking a lone group of Trustknights drinking at a circular table. Sweet wood smoke swallowed Xina. So did the wind’s gentle sway. Owls hooted loudly.

Xina folded her arms on the empty space of the balcony. “The investigations were dropped.”

“Amn... I come out here to relax and the wind of work just follows me right out in the form of you. Doesn’t it?” Shanai scratched the hunch of her back with her cane.

“Apologies.”

“Everything just washed away. The two Solare warriors dying. Hel’s little trumpet situation. Even what happened with Thalane. And did you hear of what happened with Heavens? That fight he had… No consequences.”

“The squabble in the halls? Who cares? What happened with Thalane?”

Shanai looked to the darkness behind them. “God didn’t give you eyes to listen to what other people say they do.”

The outlines of a young woman with her back to the garden shrubbery sat there. The shadow grunted, shrugged, then stood up.

“They let you out already?” Xina asked.

Thalane did not speak like a free girl. “Under the Songbird’s supervision.”

“I was surprised too, when Moon Jamal came along and told me to watch over the girl. There are things more powerful than Moons, Xina. There is bad practice at play in this palace.”

“Vyce?”

“Oh, it’s definitely Vyce. But I don’t know who else.”

“Who’s Vyce?” Thalane asked.

“Just a young and hairless cunt.” Shanai answered.

Thalane growled at being dismissed.

Shanai met her stare for a while. “I’m so worried I don’t know what I’m worried about.” She snorted, then laughed boomingly.

The screech of bending metal interrupted. Men cheered as one Trustnight pushed down the other. The one brought low was too heavy to roll or return. A spiked club of steel was driven into his head. More cheers. Xina watched in disgust as what made a man splattered onto pavement.

Shanai didn’t even turn to look. “First time?”

“So, it’s true. Trustknights do jump one another.”

“Each seeking to climb those one to two spots above for the slightly extra pay and so forth. A mountain of violence, elitism, and competition. Only 10,000 Trustknights can ever exist at a single time. The Moonking’s knighthood’s very best.” Shanai looked to a giant slab in the terrace square below, from their height, a tiny rock with unreadable names. “And the Reliquary of Champions? A scoreboard for power.” She shrugged. “Patriarchy at its finest. How is Solare different?”

“We’re more discreet.”

“Discreet is a matter of perspective.”

One of the Trustknights stood up and pointed to Xina. Fuck, Xina thought as half a dozen brutes armored head to toe for war approached them.

“Looking good.” One said.

“Why out so late?” Another asked.

The one with the bloodied club took off his right gauntlet for a handshake. “Xina, yes? I guard your office in evenings. I’m Idlestadt.” He introduced breathing ragged still.

“How pleasant.” Xina remarked dryly, completely unable to tell due to the fact that all their armor looked exactly alike.

A bunch of drones in overpriced toys is what they were.

“I just became number 69.” Idelstadt said.

The other Trustknights guffawed at that. 

Xina didn’t understand. “Is murder funny?”

“Your humor is doing you no favors, sweetheart.”

“Yes, I am quite dry.”

The other Trustknights laughed at that. Idlestadt grew quiet. He swung the club off his shoulder.

Xina took a step back, looking at Shanai.

There was no way this man had the audacity to attack her here, right?

Xina always left home with a dagger and a million Notes, just in case. She tucked her hand inside her jacket, striding backward, eyes on the man’s weapon. One of the Trustknights rushed at her with a sword, but he was smacked away by Idlestadt. 

“Who told you to move!” Idlestadt roared.

Half the Trustknights drew their weapons on the others. One began whirling a mace. Xina turned and ran. Screams and bellows followed. Chairs flew. Blood splashed. The sounds of iron gouging flesh. She had no idea what was happening and had no intention of being part of it.

That’s it. This was the last straw. Xina had worked in this palace for two years but she was going home if she survived this. Fuck these madmen wielding weapons the size of horses. She ducked as the chain of a morning star whipped the air where her head was. Debris went whirling toward her. Idlestadt blocked it, then parried a man that tried to strike her down. He was protecting Xina. 

The other half was murdering each other, the other half was trying to kill her.

One man charged Idlestadt down and threw him off the menagerie. He turned to Xina, three others cornered her.

Xina tapped her bongo, releasing 100,000 Notes. That was the cost and complexity necessary to speed up the frequency of her body. All the Trustknights rushed towards her, knowing it was do or die. She dodged every cut and bludgeon that would have come her way. All the knights stumbled clumsily at her speed. She kicked each one of them in the head. She tapped her bongo again. Another 400,000 Notes. That was the cost to inverting the frequency of steel. Half her net worth in Lunare was gone now.

All the Trustknights that attacked her dropped. It cost roughly 50,000 to kill each one. Blood, drool, and eye jelly dropped from their visors where the occasional brain had been impaled. A circle of bodies. Some might have still been alive but were without a doubt made cripples for life.

An arrow impaled Xina’s shoulder. She cursed, flying backward at the force and nearly over the ledge. A Trustknight from across the gardens was aiming a crossbow at her. She caught one bolt, then several more in quick succession. But the cost of her frequency of increased speed had finished. She didn’t have the time to tap her bongo and spend another 400,000.

Xina thought she’d die there, but Thalane came up from a bush and threw the man over the ledge. He screamed on his way down. Voice muted in permanent defeat as a thud followed several seconds later.

Xina stared at the bodies, raggedly breathing. She had never used Sound in a real fight.

She’d been trained in her childhood, but the level of power that transpired within her was not something she’d ever imagined real. Each of these men trained for years. And all she needed with no experience was to come along with a lot of money and tap a Divine-damned drum to end them.

Was it really that easy for wealth to kill?

Xina was half the woman she was before the fight began, but at least she was still a woman. She could report what had occurred to the Cardinals of the Sunqueendom and receive that money back. All of it would have been less than her own life.

Shanai stepped over the trail of men, stabbing the ones still alive with her cane through the neck. “I wouldn’t call this discreet.”

“They just… They just tried to kill me.” Xina swallowed, gripping at her throat where the arrows had been aimed. “We need to go.” She managed to balance herself. “We need to go right now. To the Moonking. To the Trustknightlord. Their spies. Their… They could have. We need to get out of here. I need to leave.” She made way for the palace and slipped on someone’s foot. 

Xina’s adrenaline spiked. Her ribs cushioned her stomach. Forehead knocking against floor. She looked at her feet. That was her own foot. Her entire ankle was gone.

Shanai uncrossed her scrambling legs with her cane. “It was unwise of you to betray the palace.”

“You… You did this?” Xina asked. “The trumpet kiss, the charges. They were you?”

“Ever since Thalane tried to steal from the Royal Athenaeum I realized there was a demon in our midst. Murders leave behind evidence, Xina. Why do you smell like the bodies of those that are gone?”

“You’ve gone mad. What could a delegate to the Sunqueen ever gain from killing her own people?”

“That’s why you’re not dead yet.” Shanai tapped her cane to the floor, a hollow whistle wavered.

The blood in Xina’s body burned. Her eardrums popped. A piece of her spine seemed to dislodge as she writhed in agony. She managed to tap her bongo. 500,000 to kill Shanai. Half a million. The cost to the frequency of fire. Shanai began to burn.

The pain ceased. Xina sprung up, checking her body for wounds and finding more than she could feel. A cane impaled her wrist.

Shanai still stood, speaking through gold and crimson, smoldering and unfazed. “Let’s stop pretending you actually know how to use Sound.” She twisted her cane, Xina screamed as the sinew in her hand knotted. “One million in one night. Now that’s stupidity only a Sunprincess could afford. Yes, that’s right. I know who you are. Who you cast aside. Those posh titles for a chance at the throne. Imagine that. A woman ruling in a land of men.” She wasn’t burning at all, a thin barrier of Notes waved off the boundary of fire.

It was barely any cost at all. Maybe a couple Notes. Insanity. So the Songbird could do more than Xina at a fraction of the cost. Winning was impossible. Xina let her drum roll into the pond. She had no money left anyway.

“You’re fucking mad if you think I want to rule Lunare. I threw my duties as a Sunprincess because my sister did the same. That’s all. No greed or nobility to it.” Xina gasped. “Nothing but foolish glorification. I just wanted to be with my sister.”

“I see. And Euthymia?”

“What about her?” The cane twisted deeper into Xina’s wrist, her whole forearms spasmed in agony. “I don’t know!” She screamed. “I don’t fucking know! Please give me a better fucking question that I can answer!”

“Being so close, sharing a bed, I thought maybe you would know why she dropped the charges.”

Xina breathed raggedly, confused at the question. “Are you mad?”

“I’m pretty happy actually.”

“I’d sooner hang myself then bed that woman.”

Shanai seemed confused, and so was Xina. They stared at each other blankly. 

The Songbird tapped her cane to the floor. It whistled.

All of Xina’s wounds healed. The broken bones mended. The dislocations clicking into place. Muscle and nerves unknotting and reconnecting. Even her foot was back where it was. Besides lightheadedness, all the suffering suddenly felt like a faraway dream. Like a nightmare Xina was thankful to have woken from. She looked at herself like an angel. Suddenly feeling blessed. She stared up at Shanai like a God. Godhood, all for the price of a sandwich.

“Don’t ever give a hemosear that look.” Shanai exclaimed. “You’ll make a monster.”

Soon, more Trustknights came to clean up the situation and replace the old ones. Just like that the menagerie was just how it was one hour ago. Xina was sure the Trustknights must have been worried, cleaning up the remains for former friends, but they said nothing. She watched them silently, playing close to what Shanai told her. It seemed Yusaphine had made a critical folly. She had eaten two women, then placed their smell on Xina in the Sound Rooms. The smell of blood was something Shanai was able to sense as a hemosear.

“Why do you smell like dead women?” Shanai asked.

Xina breathed. There had to be a way around this without giving Yusaphine up.

“I spent a night at a friend’s quarters.”

“Their name?”

“That’s what I ought to figure out.” Xina lied. “It was Yuting. The succubus must have replaced her.”

Shanai’s eyes bulged, she turned to the stars, quick to slurp a Sunprincess’ deceit. “The killings were premeditated, then. Interesting.”

Genius! Xina hid a smile. Yuting was one of the slain Solarians. Shanai had no way of confirming Yusaphine’s appearance. Forcing her to assume she took the form of one of the warriors would bring her to the conclusion that Yuting’s death was planned. That there was an incentive for Yusaphine to kill. It changed the entire narrative.

Success here didn’t change Yusaphine’s failure. Xina rushed to where the woman bunked illegally. In the unchecked and unmoderated Priestesshood housing. The door was locked, but the window never was. Xina slid in and heard the succubus munching in the kitchen. Her face began to burn. She rushed up to her and smacked the food out of her hands. The platter shattered. Chicken and potatoes splattered across the floor.

“What the fuck?! It’s my cheat day.”

“You’ve been using my fucking body to bed Euthymia?” 

Yusaphine’s mouth fell open, revealing a slop of potatoes on her tongue. “You never said I couldn’t.”

“I never-” Xina stopped herself as her head thundered. “I never said you could kill. I never said you could murder. Or dance naked in the halls! Or piss on the Sunqueen! Or knock down the fucking moon! I don’t have to say every single fucking thing you cannot do like you’re some sort of dragon child that knows not from right or wrong!”

“I’m really not liking your tonality. You told me to please Euthymia under any circumstance so long as I was not discovered. To tame her. To make the Pryshtan Guild predictable.”

“I-”

“I did in two months what you failed to do in two years.”

“That-”

“I know you think I’m some Devil woman you can use for sexual relief now, but I’m not.” Yusaphine’s face darkened. “You know who I am and why I’m here. Sorgr Rgros made my sister The Mangled and I’ll have my revenge, but first comes Lunare. First comes the people. Xina, you were my first. Euthymia was my second and I hated every second of it. I turned into you for one night. One time. I just wanted some freedom from what I had to do for you.”

“So, you turned into me?”

“Things are accelerating, Xina. She is your ally now. You can thank me later when the time comes. Just play along. Also, she likes the 69 position.”

Xina grimaced. “We need to get out of this palace. Look at what it’s doing to us.”

“What this palace does to us, we’ll do right back.”

Xina stared. “Are you going to continue being me?”

“No. I’m done with Euthymia. I’m done with transforming just for you.”

“Okay.” Xina didn’t know what else to say.

“I’m more than a monster. I’m a woman. I think you should start treating me like one.”

Their conversation for the next hour was silent. Xina climbed out of the window in defeat. Victory was close but didn’t feel victorious. The quiet was broken by Euphymia’s moans from the other house across. Yusaphine was the only one she was supposed to be bedding. She toyed with the idea of sneaking in, and to her surprise the front door was unlocked.

What she saw, horrified her.

How had this happened? Was this because of her? Had Yusaphine done this?

Xina was no child trader.

Maybe it didn’t matter.

Tomorrow the demons would come.

It was time.

As Xina snuck back down the stairs, Akemi was entering, locking the door behind. “Hello sister.”

“We need to leave.” Xina said.

Akemi smiled and swung. Xina felt her head smack the wall and her back collide with the ridges of the stairs. Then, her sister blurring, a face like a fallen angel’s.