CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Dawn arrived earlier in Jin's chambers than it did in most of the city. The altitude of her chambers made it so that she would often receive as much as an hour more of daylight than the goodfolk. Jin had heard droning philosophers speak of that fact to support various positions. Were the Algaras more fortunate, favored, or even avaricious to receive a greater portion of light? Or, was it one more thing driving the Highest Kings to work longer and harder for their people? As it stood, Jin saw it both ways, and she disliked it no matter how the academic types chose to interpret such inane details. Because, a single dot of sunlight managed to snake its way through two layers of drapes and the silk surrounding her four-poster bed to land precisely upon her eyeball. Jin was displeased.

She groaned tiredly as her hand went to her chest. It momentarily disoriented her to find no one using her as a pillow. She quashed the sadness as it welled up and turned onto her side so her back was to the window. Jin searched the blankets around her and eventually found her plush megarach. She pulled Edwyn into a tight hug and buried her nose in his fur. The old and familiar scent from childhood calmed Jin's turbulent emotions before they could fully arrive.

It reminded Jin of Nikos and his dreams. Of how one smell could mean so much. It never ceased to amaze Jin, how much of reality could become clear by spending a little time away from it in dreams. Perhaps Tarlus was the wisest in the family.

The spot of sunlight made one inch on the back of Jin's head uncomfortably warm. She would've hidden from it beneath her blankets, but then she would find the air stifling. Jin despaired of getting comfortable again, so she made noises of ill content as she slithered her way out of bed.

Sitting on the edge of the bed with her feet on the cold floor, Jin winced as a light stab of pain shot through her midsection. She lifted the hem of her nightdress above her waist to get a look at herself. There remained a slight discoloration on the right side of her torso, but when she touched at it, there was only a remnant of discomfort. Whatever potions and spells the surgeons administered, they appeared to have left her almost entirely mended.

Jin frowned at other things she saw. She was unsure of how many days had gone by since her confrontation with Vintus, but judging by the hair on her legs, it was past time for some personal care spellcraft. Jin stood and went to her washroom, and she vowed not to come back out until she was groomed to her satisfaction.

An Algara princess' washroom was the envy of any noblewoman in the world. Jin's was white porcelain, alabaster and silver fixtures, and lavender pigments. The decorations carried an angelic motif, a holdover from Jin's younger days when she harbored a fascination for Melcia in general and Adeyemi's eldest daughter in particular. Her bathing pool was carved into the shape of a pair of feathered wings, and the mirrors were even capped by golden halos. Looking at it now, Jin felt it to be excessively juvenile, but she wasn't about to change it. The decor was still pretty, after all.

"Essence of all spirits," Jin muttered once she got a look at herself in the mirror. Her hand went to her hair and the ragged mess she'd made of it. The right side looked as if it'd been shorn off by dull scissors rather than a sword. Jin gasped in horror.

Deebee saw her in this state. Of all people. The dragon she had always strove to look as collected as possible in front of, and Jin talked with her while looking like a cur with mange!

"Unacceptable," Jin muttered. Her hands went to the shears beside the washbasin.

It was all the more galling because Deebee hadn't said a word. Though, thinking back on it, Jin had noticed Deebee's eyes being drawn to her hair. The silver had been too kind to say anything, winds bless her.

A melancholy fell over Jin as she clipped off lengths of hair. It was less for losing something she took pride in and more for her mother of the heart. If Fate was kind, their paths would never cross again, because Jin could only expect one situation in which they would. Were that to happen, Jin didn't know if she had the strength of will to face Deebee in battle again.

Jin looked up into the mirror and saw a fiend staring back at her from over her shoulder. Fetid, oily skin and jagged teeth. Eyeless. Jin only saw enough to get that spare impression before its fangs sank into the back of her neck with blinding, piercing pain.

She screamed.

The next thing Jin knew, she was on her knees in front of the washbasin. Her sense of the fiend was gone. She gripped the shears in her hands and held them to her breast as her entire body trembled. Her breaths came out in a wheeze. Jin heard a thin whimper escape her throat as she looked around the washroom.

No sign of the creature. It hadn't manifested itself into the real world. She must've imagined it.

All in her head.

"Your Highness?"

Jin startled.

The voice came from outside Jin's bedroom, in the main chamber. A woman whose voice Jin didn't recognize right away must've been standing just outside the door. She was familiar, but Jin couldn't immediately place a name to her by voice alone.

"It is nothing," Jin called out in response. She licked her lips to give them moisture. "I am well."

"As you say, Highness." Whoever it was seemed worried but willing to let the matter go uncontested. "Should you need anything."

"Of course. Thank you."

Slowly, Jin pulled herself upright. She hesitated to look into the mirror again, but when she did, only her own face was there to greet her. With shaking hands, Jin returned to her work.

Throughout, she avoided meeting eyes with herself.

More than an hour later, Jin emerged from her washroom. Her skin was clean, her legs were smooth, and most importantly, her hair was even again. Jin cut it to a length well shy of her shoulders. She mourned the loss, because Jin had always secretly envied how long and beautiful Maya's hair was. With this latest tragedy, it would be many months before Jin could grow hers out to the length she wanted. Nonetheless, shorter hair was more practical for an assassin. Less of it to get caught or grabbed. Jin decided this was for the best while the Continent was at war and let the matter go. She couldn't have dwelled on her hair even if she wished to.

Her thoughts remained with the fiend.

It attacked her when she was weakest. It made itself known whenever her resolve grew soft. The answer then must've been to remain strong. Resolute. Jin had promised herself and the Queen Founder that she would stand defiant against Althandor's enemies no matter the cost. It was an oath she meant to keep, no matter who she had to kill to do it.

Forgive me, my Storyteller, Jin thought. If you come again, you are my enemy.

With that thought alone in her head, Jin put on a dressing gown and began her day.

A trio of maids went about with dust rags in the main chamber when Jin left her bedroom. The women halted their chores and gave deep curtsies.

"Your Highness," the youngest of the maids said. "Is everything alright?"

Jin took in a deep breath before replying. This was the girl who called to her earlier. She'd been assigned to Jin's rooms for at least the last few years. Her name was Sharra, Sharra Carpenter. Jin inclined her head in greeting.

"I merely slipped in the washroom," Jin said. "I am alright."

A maid's livery was mostly white linen, with small splashes of silver and cerulean to mark them as in service to the royal house. The neckline ended well above the throat, and every effort was made to conceal feminine curves. It was a highly conservative uniform, though one with a great deal of lace around the sleeves, bodice, the skirt's hemline, and on their shawls. The livery also made it difficult to distinguish one maid from another unless they stood just ahead. Jin disliked that lack of individuality, but she couldn't recall ever thinking so before.

Sharra bobbed another curtsy. "As you say, Your Highness. We're nearly finished in the main chamber. Shall we see to your bedroom next?"

"Please." Jin crossed the chamber towards her personal armory. "If you would, remove the sandalwood oils from my dressing room."

Sharra bowed her head. "So the gowns do not take the scent. Of course, Highness. We've placed the oils out only every other month, and only for a week at a time. Your collection was our priority in your absence."

Jin felt a pleased smile appear on her face. "My thanks. It came as a relief to see them well-cared for."

Before she could enter into her armory, a middle-aged maid approached Jin with a stack of letters secured together with ribbons. This was Lety, who'd been on Jin's personal staff since her earliest memories. "Your correspondence, Highness."

Jin stopped in place and accepted the stack. She secured her dressing gown closed with one hand as she thumbed through them. "Any of note?"

"Few, Highness," Lety said. "A good many are invitations to events that have already taken place. One, however, is a personal request from Mistress Cloetta of the opera that you attend the premier of her latest production."

"The Sorcerer of Parnaia?" Jin asked. "Has that not yet premiered?"

While the maid spoke, Jin skimmed over the contents of a few letters. As Lety said, they contained little beyond the usual sort of pleasantries that passed between nobles and royalty. She did, however, raise an eyebrow at how a letter from Lady Claryss Deveaux was in the mix. It seemed to have arrived shortly after Jin's return to the Spired City.

"No, this production is new," Lety said. "The Lady Penitent, I believe it's called. The mistress thought the narrative would appeal to you in particular."

Jin laughed softly. "Which is to say it features a romance between a lady knight and the noblewoman she serves?"

Lety smiled while offering a shrug.

"Cloetta knows my tastes well. I wish I could accept the invitation. Perhaps when the current troubles are over."

Jin handed the stack of letters back, all except for the one from Lady Claryss. That one got tucked into the sleeve of Jin's dressing gown. There weren't any among the others she felt needed a prompt reply.

"As you say, Highness. I'll ask your scribe to see to these."

"The standard polite refusals and excuses," Jin agreed. She entered her armory while Lety returned to her dusting.

Jin made it halfway through the armory to where a ready and mended outfit of studded leather awaited on its rack before she realized she'd been followed inside. The armory door closed. Jin spun around to find a short and stocky elderly maid huffing at her with arms crossed.

"Would you terribly mind raising a privacy ward, Highness?" Hana asked. She had the sort of tone that turned a request into a demand.

Jin scowled, angry with herself for not recognizing Hana as being among the maids sooner. Dratted nondescript livery. Nonetheless, she complied and erected a ward against eavesdroppers. "Maid is a demotion from steward, is it not?"

Hana flicked her wrist dismissively. "So many liveried women in this place, no one comments on an extra pair of hands with a dust rag."

Jin was dubious. "Unlikely. You give the Algara staff too little credit. Each were chosen for their diligence and discretion."

"If you must know," Hana sighed, "I offered one of your girls for me to take her place for the week while she visits her mother in Northrun. It hasn't drawn comment, seeing as the rooms for the two princesses have been rather deserted as of late. The staff's gotten used to the pair of you being abroad."

Somehow, Jin doubted even that was the whole story, but she was more concerned with why Hana was taking pains to facilitate a meeting between them. "I take it you want to know what happened in Eastrun."

"Partially. I gleaned most of what I need from gossip. An errant prince returned from the grave, a demon on the warpath, and an army of monstrosities set loose on your city. No, Highness, that much has been made painfully clear to every soul in Althandor by this point. What concerns me is what House Algara means to do about it."

"Even if I knew," Jin said, "you are, by your own admission, a spy for one of the armies approaching to attack us. You've made plenty of demands for what I know, Mistress Hana, but you've offered precious little that I do not already have."

Hana drew herself up as much as her stocky frame would allow. "I admit that what I've brought you hasn't been as valuable as I would hope."

"So tell me," Jin said, advancing a step towards her. She didn't care if it was seen as a threat, because she was near to intending it as one. "Why should I not reveal you to my father?"

"Because..." Hana swallowed and raised her chin high. There was a slight anxiety in the way she clasped her hands in front of her. "Because I'm begging you, Highness."

Jin narrowed her eyes.

"If the executor and my sortha-son fail, I'll... I'll have nowhere else to go."

"Fail what?" Jin asked. "You've spoken of how Hagen and Ku Ji Min want to be rid of Garret, but you've not given any details about how they mean to do that. If you truly seek asylum with Althandor, you must tell me."

"I can tell you how you can help them," Hana said quietly, "but you won't like it."

"I've no doubt," Jin growled. "Speak."

"You haven't been privy to your father's councils these last few days. I'll tell you what is known to him and things he isn't."

Jin gestured for her to proceed.

"The assault on the City of Althandor will begin in seven days," Hana said. "It begins at dawn on Twenty-First of Flame. The Tiger King and the Teulite Horde will pour out of the Senwood for Northrun. The Altieri Lords' Alliance will attack Southrun. The Espallan hallah will attack Westrun from the ground while the Jade Armada supports all three forces from the sky. The stratagem means to take advantage of new alliances made in the western Five Kingdoms."

"Shan Alee," Jin said.

"Yes," Hana said. "This is what your father doesn't know, and what the executor wants passed on to you. The Arcane Knights are being given the most dangerous and among the most crucial objectives in the coming battle. Before the cannons begin to fire, the Aleesh will strike first to strip the Spired City of its most potent defenses."

Jin forced her breathing to remain steady. "The most dangerous? I thought the Jade Empire wished to assimilate Shan Alee, not use them as fodder."

"It was the Dragon Empress' own wish. Her hatred for Althandor is boundless and unquestioned."

Jin turned her head away from Hana. She didn't think she could keep her expression passive. "Enfri has ample cause."

"Highness, I don't speak of Enfri."

Jin turned back to face her and frowned. "What are you saying?"

"Enfri was deposed," Hana said. "Weren't you informed? Empress Elise now rules Shan Alee."

"What?" Jin shouted. It was loud enough that she was grateful there was a privacy ward in place, else the maids would've surely barged in to see what was the matter.

Hana rubbed her forehead. "Of course. You've been convalescing. It wouldn't have reached you while you were shut away to recover. Forgive me, Highness. I shouldn't have told you this so tactlessly."

Jin was unconcerned for the apology. Her mind raced. Would Deebee have known this? Or, had she been as much in the dark as Jin was? Had she not yet found out herself and returned to Shan Alee to find her home metaphorically on fire?

"Winds save the woman who harms Enfri from the wrath of dragons," Jin murmured. "What happened to her? Is she..." Jin couldn't stop her throat from closing on itself. The mere possibility couldn't leave her mouth.

Hana seemed to recognize Jin's distress and spoke gently. "Princess Enfri Alinwé remains the Lady of Opals. She hasn't been taken into custody. If what Hagen tells me is accurate, she has been allowed her freedom for the most part."

"Enfri... Alinwé," Jin whispered. It put a foul taste in her mouth just to speak it. It also didn't make sense with what little Jin knew of usurpations of thrones in the past. Previous sovereigns weren't just readmitted into the line of succession like that.

Not unless the line of succession was critically short on membership to begin with.

"Elise is keeping her as insurance for the Alinwé dynasty," Jin surmised. "The moment there is another choice, Enfri is as good as dead."

"For now, that appears to be the case," Hana confirmed. "The new empress has been announced as the Glorious Emperor's betrothed. They are to be wed following their victory over Althandor. The princess has been relegated to heir apparent of Shan Alee. Until the birth of Elise's child, that is. After that happens, I cannot say."

"Elise's child? She's pregnant?"

"I don't know that for sure, but it's been said. So little comes in or out of Sandharbor while the armada flies over it, what rumor does make its way to me can't be separated from wild speculation."

Jin was inclined to believe it even as the very idea made her sick. Elise had been desperate enough for Enfri to provide a treatment for her barren womb that she gave over Adar and Chaya Domun. But for her to go and bear the child of Master Deveaux... Winds, even Jin had thought better of Elise than that.

Still, it seemed far too early to be announcing pregnancies. By Hana's testimony, it was Fourteenth of Flame, and Elise couldn't have stolen Enfri's throne any sooner than the Eleventh. Things were moving too fast for it to be believed, but that may have been evidence that Elise's coup had been in the works for some time.

Jin had doubts that was so. Much of this appeared... too convenient... for the Jade Empire.

Could it be? Jin wondered as a wild thought occurred to her. She gave her head a shake. No, Fate has never been so kind.

There was a part of Jin that felt disgusted with herself. This was the scenario she'd been working towards when she betrayed Enfri. Elise was in power. While it did mean Jin could fight Shan Alee with fewer reservations, it didn't feel like the victory she convinced herself it would be.

An empire was so much more than its empress, and Jin had grown to love the people beneath those green and silver banners.

A sensation of fangs drawing towards Jin's neck startled her back to the moment.

"You said there was something I could do to stop Garret," she said. "Something I will not like."

Hana nodded. "There is. You can allow Everwood to fall."

"Everwood?" The unexpected subject made Jin blink. The town in question was a settlement just ten leagues west of the Spired City. It was heavily fortified by a keep maintained by House Merovech in the past, but who controlled it now was unknown to her. "I know little of the current tactical situation. Why is Everwood important, beyond it being the first obstacle the armada has to cross to reach the capital?"

"I will let your advisors tell you that," Hana said. "Convince your father to abandon Everwood Keep by sundown the day after next. My sortha-son will need it with ample time to spare to enact the executor's plan. He will stop the Aleesh from interfering, but he needs you to stop the Althandi."

"I need more than vague promises," Jin said. "You're asking me to allow possibly hundreds of my people die. I won't do it."

Not without good reason, she thought, and she hated herself for thinking it.

"Hagen means to affix Jade cannons to the keep's battlements before the Twenty-First," Hana whispered. "When the armada passes overhead to reach the Spired City, he will open fire on them from below. He intends to destroy the Hammer of Glory and kill the emperor before the attack ever begins."

"That's suicide," Jin said quietly. "Even if it works, the armada will seek retribution. They'll bombard the keep and everyone inside it to dust."

Hana kept her expression as stone. "As you say."

"Would it even work?" Jin asked, more herself than Hana. "Carinae might not be stopped by Garret's death."

Hana shook her head. "If nothing else, it will weaken the armada. You will stand a better chance against what's coming. My sortha-son believes that alone would be worth his life."

Jin considered. She looked Hana in the eye and saw a resolve to match her own.

"Killing even one of the old masters may be enough to make the other five hesitate," Jin said. "Just one setback to their plan could give Althandor a chance to turn the tide. Very well, Mistress Hana. I will work with you."

If Jin didn't know Hana any better, she'd have said the old steward had just wilted with relief.

"Thank you, Highness," Hana said quietly. "If it pleases you, I will send word to Hagen immediately."

"I've not yet succeeded," Jin warned. "My father may not take any of my suggestions into consideration, let alone act on them."

Hana turned to leave the armory, but she paused to favor Jin with a smile before she opened the door. "I've no such doubts, Highness. If I learned anything as that dear girl's steward, it's this. Jin Algara can do anything. I know I can place all my hopes in you."

Jin had difficulty facing Hana. She averted her eyes. "I've done very little to earn such faith."

"Is that so?" Hana asked lightly. "Somehow, I think you see something very different than the rest of us when you look in the mirror. People like you can be so irksome in that way. Smart enough to know true talent when you see it, but too humble to attribute it towards yourself. Very irksome."

Jin scoffed and prepared to argue, but Hana had already closed the door behind her. It reminded Jin of one of the reasons she and Enfri had lived in fear of that woman in Ecclesia. Mistress Hana had the most irritating habit of always getting in the last word.

"That woman's a menace," Jin grumbled. She then turned back around and set to getting into her armor.

She was pleasantly surprised to find that not only had her armor been cleaned and repaired, but the armorer had given it a few adjustments to make for a better fit. Jin had hardly noticed that her armor had been getting a little too loose over her midsection and tight around the hips. That did, however, lead Jin to frown over the idea she'd lost muscle mass in the last six months. Her exercise routine had been followed religiously even while on the march with the Empress' Legion. Her only consolation was the belief that her body could've just naturally changed as she got a little older.

As she left her armory, Jin looked around the main chamber. Hana, Lety, and Sharra were gone, but Jin could hear them in her bedroom. Jin absently ran fingers through her shorter hair, wondering if she should try styling it somehow, then opened her main door and exited into the tower halls.

Jin had a full day ahead of her, so she was almost grateful the sun woke her as it did. Before she got to any of it, she supposed it would be appropriate to wait until she'd collected her handmaidens before setting out. That would take some getting used to, but Gillwyn and Cana had proven themselves worth the effort. They were surprisingly competent, and much braver than Jin would ever have expected.

It took a special kind of young woman to leap out of a spire on faith alone.

Making her way down to the next story, Jin was able to find their quarters easily enough. Their doors were across from each other at the end of a short corridor directly beneath Jin's suite. Unsure of which girl belonged to what door, Jin picked the one on the right hand side and gave a firm knock. She waited for a count of ten without hearing a call or movement on the other side until she knocked again. It was still relatively early, so the girls might've still been abed.

The door behind her creaked slowly open with a definite sense of timidness.

Jin turned, expecting to see one handmaiden or another peeking out to see what the knocking was about. It was mostly accurate, but a few major details gave Jin cause to raise her eyebrows.

Discovered, Cana sheepishly pushed her door all the way open and stepped out. She was still in her nightdress. Her hair was wildly disheveled, which somehow managed to make the quarter-nymph girl look even prettier, and she clutched at her collar to pull it up above her throat. Cana blushed so deeply she almost appeared the same shade as Teulite grass, and her eyes were fixed on the carpeted floor between her and Jin.

"Highness," Cana whispered meekly while giving a curtsy that was barely a bend at the knee.

Gillwyn appeared behind her in a similar state, only her nightdress hung much too loosely, as if the stitchings received some rough treatment and got stretched out. Her blush was, if anything, even deeper than Cana's.

Neither looked Jin in the face.

"I can come back," Jin said, and she took two steps back down the hallway in retreat.

Cana bolted across the hall and through her door. It slammed behind her.

"We..." Gillwyn began. She cleared her throat and tried again. "I mean to say, I..."

Jin held up both palms to forestall unwanted— and unneeded— testimony. She backed up another step.

Gillwyn turned increasingly redder, and she kept up attempting and aborting a dozen different explanations.

"It really is not my business," Jin said.

"We rendezvoused!" Gillwyn shouted.

Somewhere on the other side of Cana's door, Jin heard a mortified shriek.

"I mean almost," Gillwyn amended. "We... we... There was... I don't think what we did really counts, but..."

Jin considered teleportation as a viable means of escape. "Truly, Gillwyn, it is not my business. Please, stop talking."

"Strictly above the smallclothes!"

Cana's door burst open again, and a distressed feyling all but tackled Gillwyn and pressed a hand over her mouth. "Shut up! Shut up!"

With Cana's hands occupied with stifling Gillwyn's ravings, the collar of her nightdress dropped to uncover her neck and shoulders. There were a few light bruises on her neck, ones with distinct tooth impressions in them. In Cana's panic, she didn't seem aware of how the evidence of her... first excursions... with her paramour were exposed.

It bothered Jin that she was now blushing, too.

Cana flinched when Jin's hand fell on top of her bruises and manifested a minor restoration spell to clear some of the discoloration. Jin removed her hand and endeavored to pretend she'd done no such thing, and Cana appeared more than willing to pretend along with her.

Jin let out a heavy sigh. Things had moved past the point she could withdraw with anything near dignity, so she was forced to address the matter before it worsened. "You are both of age-" Jin didn't say that it was just barely "-and are mature enough to make your own decisions. There is nothing wrong with you sharing a bed under these circumstances."

"That's all it was," Cana insisted quickly. "I didn't want to be alone at night in a new place, so I asked Gill to keep me company. That's all."

"I'm not your mothers," Jin said with a touch of exasperation. "Just... be careful with each other. And with yourselves. Don't get blinded by... enthusiasm... and let yourselves lose sight of the fact that this is a new experience for you both."

Cana slowly let her hand drop away from Gillwyn's mouth. The anxiety in their postures lessened as they took in everything Jin said.

"You'll make mistakes with each other," Jin continued, but she couldn't bring herself to look them in the eye. "You can't avoid that, but if you can step outside your own heads and check in with each other now and then, you'll at least be able to tell whether this is what you both want. Find out your boundaries now and don't assume they'll stay the same. Talk, be honest, and don't be afraid. I can't promise it'll stay this way, because you might yet grow apart in ways you can't foresee. Even if it does end, it can end in a way you can live with. It won't have to mark a parting, just a return to friendship. Then again, you might relearn why it is you love her, each time you open up to her. Romance should grow and change form along with you. It may get stronger as it evolves to something greater. Just please, don't make the same mistakes I did."

Jin wasn't sure at what point in her little speech she'd started crying. It was probably around the part she asked them not to be afraid of each other. As soon as her tears appeared, Gillwyn and Cana forgot their embarrassment and came forward to put their arms around her. Jin's hands went to the back of their heads and held them to her shoulders.

"Yeah," Gillwyn said, "we will, Your Highness."

"We promise, Highness," Cana agreed.

Jin sniffed quietly and regained her composure with middling success. "If you don't mind, could you use my given name whenever we're in private?"

Cana nodded. "Alright."

"Sure thing, Jin."

She pulled away from the two of them and kept her gaze averted. "I must go. I've much catch up on."

"Winds, that's right," Cana gasped. "How are you feeling? I'd never seen anyone so banged up before."

"Like what you've done with your hair, though," Gillwyn added.

Jin gave a soft chuckle. "Thank you. I am well. The rest did me some good, though I must return to my duties. Could you meet me in the royal stables in an hour?" She looked at their nightdresses. "Make that two hours."

The handmaidens exchanged sheepish glances and nodded their agreement.

"We'll see you there," Gillwyn said.

"Only," Cana said with trepidation, "where, exactly, are the stables?"

"Below, on the lowermost skybridge between this tower and the central spire. Come armed, because we may have to go out into the city."

"As you say," they said together.

Jin gave her farewells and withdrew. There was indeed much she had left to do, but she believed she could see to much of it before meeting up with the girls again.

As she made her way to the nearest steam lift, Jin felt strangely better. She'd shown weakness in front of Gillwyn and Cana, but it hadn't drawn another encounter with the fiend haunting her. Jin imagined there must've been a reason why that was, and she believed it had to do with Gara. The Queen Founder was once as human as anyone, and Jin supposed even she must've needed an occasional moment to shed her weaknesses as tears. In the end, it could only make a woman stronger for the trials that lay ahead. But, more than anything else, Jin felt relieved that she had finally taken a pair of handmaidens into her service.

Whether a princess or an assassin, everyone needed the opportunity to release their pressure valve once in awhile.