The morning light shines through the open windows of the Queen's Bedchamber, casting the silhouettes of Floryana Franheska Blumawar and ?nnywella Gekaryna Herst IV against the semi-transparent, red curtains of the four-poster bed. Floryana, as well as Enlynn Konst?nze Glisrynn and Ede Myna Heren had spent the past ten hours taking shifts of who is watching ?nnywella—mostly just Floryana, as she insisted only she would do a proper job.

  "An old pawnbroker was found murdered in her apartment yesterday, killed with an axe; I heard her head was split right down to her teeth." Sitting in the chair in front of the vanity table, Ede motions to the area above her upper lip.

  "Peasants are a different type of being; I am so glad my window faces away from the Commoner’s District." Enlynn leans against the front of a walnut wardrobe.

  "Her sister was found dead as well; she had nearly had her head taken off from the front. Do you think they will catch him?" Ede pauses. "Actually, when is the next public execution?"

  "If only you two spent as much time reading as you do gossiping, you would be smarter, and I would be able to focus." Floryana hisses as she rings out the cloth which she had placed on Gekaryna's forehead.

  Enlynn turns to look at the silhouette of Franheska. “Oh, please, Franheska. Anyone can do that—we could be doing that if you would let us, it should be easy—”

  ?nnywella awakes with a start, jolting upright in her bed. Breathing heavily, she frantically checks the hand, waving it back and forth, wiggling the fingers, but it is still there. With a relieved sigh, her breathing slows as she calms down.

  Floryana jolts back away from Gekaryna and drops the damp cloth onto the side of the bed, where it slides to the floor; the curtain flows shut around where she just was.

  The wooden chair she is seated in tilts onto its back legs. She waves her arms out beside her, hoping to regain the balance that she has lost—but to no avail. The chair falls backwards, spilling Floryana onto the carpet floor just before the door.

  She lies there for a moment gathering herself before reaching into the centre pocket of her dark-blue twill overalls, removing a book of white-coated paper and silverpoint stylus. She opens it, quickly writing:

  Subject: F 23

  Height: 150 cm

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  Weight: 44.3 kg

  Dose: 150 ml

  Misc: Subject unconscious for 10 hours and 37 minutes. Subject feels...

  “How do you feel, Gekaryna? as specific as possible—are you experiencing nausea or anything of the—”

  Dyder throws the door to the Queen’s Chamber open, quickly looking around the room and finding—Franheska—the source of the crash lying on the floor, tilting her head back to look at him. The four women all stare at him in bewilderment.

  “Dyder—fetch Kolaus; Mina—fetch for High Priestess Seliani, she was promised a room to stay for the night— she should be on castle grounds. We will meet in the Library Cabinet in an hour.” ?nnywella feels surprisingly well rested, despite the dreams; she slept well—if one could call that sleep.

  “High Priestess Seliani is in room 28 on floor seven,” Enlynn adds.

  Dyder turns on his heel and leaves the room, pausing just outside the door to wait for Mina—he wishes to speak with her regarding her sister.

  With a nod, Ede scurries to the door.

  “Konst?nze—fetch me some clothes. Fran—I am not your test subject; start writing this down.” ?nnywella begins detailing her vision to Fran, who quickly scribbles it down. She hears the quiet shifting of cloth and the scraping of hangers from her walk-in closet; it distracts her, she does what Fran would do in this situation, and covers her ears with her hands and closes her eyes. She begins to describe the visions.

  "Is that all?" Floryana asks.

  "Yes."

  Floryana stands and then rips the pages free from the notebook, handing them to Gekaryna.

  “Your writing is absolutely atrocious; if I didn’t understand your writing mannerisms, this would be illegible.”

  “You said, ‘Start writing this down,’ and that's exactly what I did.” Picking up the chair, Floryana sits back down.

  "Well, you could have taken the care to make it readable." Placing the pages down, ?nnywella crawls out from under the covers, sitting on her knees in the centre of the bed.

  "It is readable—to me. Now, how do you feel?"

  "Fine, surprisingly well rested, starving, and in need of a cigarette."

  Floryana writes this all down, even if it is not quite what she wanted to hear, she must make some for herself at some point and gain those answers for herself.

  Enlynn emerges from the walk-in closet, clothes in hand, and hangs them on the wheeled clothing rack, except for a cream chemise, which she passes through the bed hangings to Gekaryna.

  Quickly putting on the chemise, ?nnywella gets out from under the canopy. Immediately getting a cigarette from the bedside table, she wobbles slightly as she lights it.

  “You think you're so sneaky; we all know what you did there.” Enlynn hands Gekaryna a pair of black stockings.

  "I’ve got to help when I can." ?nnywella chuckles, sitting down on the chair by the vanity table to put on the stockings. "Ilsenyla and Dyder are quite cute." She stands back up and walks over to Konst?nze.

  "She should visit more." Enlynn plucks a thick, red wool skirt and a black wool turtleneck from the hanger and helps Gekaryna into them.

  "I think Dyder should go visit her. He is more than welcome to go to Sk?dstan for a few days if he wishes. I have many other guards." ?nnywella returns to the chair so Konst?nze can do her hair.

  The group then head to the hall for food once Enlynn is done combing out ?nnywella's hair.