Seulhee wasn’t sure why her instinct was to go find the king. For all she knew, he had already been moved to a safe location and was no longer in his rooms.

However, for some reason, she had a feeling he was still up there, neglected by the conspiracy. At this point, he wasn’t really the priority, so likely they had simply thought that they would deal with him later. As she made her way toward that part of the palace, Seulhee became more convinced that this was so.

There were people bustling about, some servants, some conspiracy members. Probably cleaning the place out for any other people who might be loyal to the council. Or verifying that everyone was safe. Seulhee ignored them.

Surprisingly, she went on her way without being stopped or questioned. Everyone else seemed to be occupied with something else, and everything was in a state of chaos, so that one serving girl went unnoticed.

The stairs to the top seemed infinitely long. Seulhee was already short of breath simply from the nervousness and excitement of what had just happened—how had she not heard the fighting? That was mystery to her. Perhaps her own attention was so focused on the room that she hadn’t realized anything was amiss. Or maybe there was magic at work. She really only knew her own piece to the puzzle of the conspiracy, nothing more.

She climbed up and up, her legs beginning to grow sore from the exertion, until finally she reached the top floors.

The hallways were deserted, of course, but even more so than before, it felt empty and lifeless and eerily quiet. After passing through the first hall, she climbed to the next floor. It wasn’t until she reached the very top floor that she found a sign of light. A light penetrating the crack between the door and the ground, a door at the very end of the hall.

Seulhee hurried toward the light, her feet pounding against the flagstones. It hurt, but she didn’t care. In truth, she had no idea what the hurry was. The king wasn’t going anywhere, after all. Yet, despite this rationalization, she felt a strange sense of urgency that she couldn’t shake off, and it drove her forward.

By the time she reached the door, she was completely out of breath. She was about to knock, when she remembered to put on her veil. It wouldn’t be a good idea to offend the king with the sight of her face. That taken care of, she knocked. Three times, spaced out with about half a second between them.

There was no reply, no one to open the door. She wondered if the king’s servants were even around, or if he was alone, sitting in a corner and brooding.

When it became apparent no one was going to answer the door, she reached out and tried to open it, hoping it wasn’t locked. The catch gave way at her fingers. It wasn’t.

Her heart positively poundingly, Seulhee pushed the door open and stepped inside. Before she could part her lips to say a word, though, someone grabbed her from behind, clamping a hand over .

“Who are you?” a voice by her ear demanded. There was a softness to it that contrasted with the vehemence of the speaker’s actions. The girl with the missing memories thought the voice sounded familiar, as if she had heard it before, long ago.

Seulhee struggled against her captor, but he kept a tight lock on her limbs that prevented her from escaping.

Then, a moment later, the man let out a brief “ah” and said, “You are the deaf and mute girl, right?” The arm around her let go, as did the hand covering .

Seulhee spun around to see who it was. It was the king. There was nothing stopping her from speaking, now that she had accomplished her task, but she didn’t say a word, merely stared into the face of her kingdom’s ruler.

Even through her veil, she could distinguish his features. His dark brown hair fell to one side, and it didn’t look at all unkempt; in fact, it looked recently trimmed. He had a sharp nose, and a strong jaw, with cheeks that once held more fat, but had grown gaunter. His eyes were a deep brown, holding a history of a great deal of pain. But no insanity. They were clear, lucid…and a bit puzzled.

“How do you know I exist?” Seulhee blurted. Then, remembering her manners, she curtsied. “Your Majesty.”

“So you’re not so deaf and mute after all. Well, then.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I have been a prisoner in my own palace, but I have not been completely ignorant of the comings and goings of this place,” he remarked, sounding a bit bemused. “I have eyes and ears out there.”

That was news to her. For all she knew, the servants who attended to the king had been in the pay of the council men. Perhaps she had been wrong, or the men they had hired had not been so attached to money that they would betray their king.

“So you’re not crazed with grief?” The question sounded stupid to her, but she had been under the impression that the king was not completely in his right mind for so long that she couldn’t get rid of it so easily.

He snorted, a very undignified, less-than-royal snort. “Hardly. I grieved, but I moved on. But I found it convenient to put on the act of a madman, so people would think me harmless and leave me alone. It worked quite well, in fact. Except I suppose it did not for you.”

“What?” She peered at him, confused.

“You were there, that day, in the tower, were you not? I thought I heard something. No one else would have snuck around like that. If someone wanted something from me, they would have approached me.”

Was the king omnipotent or what? Seulhee wasn’t sure how he knew all these things. But if he wasn’t insane after all, then that opened the door to many possibilities that she hadn’t thought of. Evidently he was more aware of what was going on around him that she realized.

“So why are you here?” the king asked.

“Well,” Seulhee said. She began to fix her veil, which had come loose. The king reached out and stopped her. “You don’t need to worry about that. That was just part of the ruse of being mad, making strange and unreasonable demands. Also, it prevented the servants who saw me from figuring out that I wasn’t actually crazy.” He pulled the veil away to look upon her bare face.

At first all they did was stare at each other. The girl with the missing memories was sure she had seen this man somewhere before, but that was impossible, this was her first time meeting the king, in all her experiences with the three girls. Yet…

The king broke the silence. “Who are you?” His voice came out a hoarse whisper, filled with shock. It showed in his eyes as well, which were wide, almost b with tears.

“What?” This was all too bizarre. “I’m Seulhee. I’m just a girl from a village a few days away from here? Though I suppose I did play a role in bringdown the council…” In her flustered state, she was beginning to ramble.

“But you look so much like her…” the king said, his voice faint.

“Who?” She stared at him, still not understanding.

“Chunyoung,” he breathed, as if it hurt him to say the name. “The queen…who is dead.”

Seulhee took a step back, bewildered. Maybe the king was insane after all. “That’s ridiculous,” she replied, not sure why she felt so odd and frightened. “How could I? We’re not related at all.”

The king’s eyes dropped from her face to her neck. “That.” He pointed. She looked down. The chain to the necklace from Sungyeol rested against her skin. She wore it all the time, and barely noticed its presence anymore, until it got in the way.

“What about it?”

The king reached out and closed his hand around the chain, lifting the necklace out from beneath her clothes. “This belonged to the queen.”

“My friend Sungyeol bought it for me,” Seulhee countered. “It’s just a necklace he found in the city. It probably just looks like the one she had.” She was beginning to panic now, not sure what in the world was happening.

“No, it’s the one she had. It even has the same dent.” He flipped the locket over to show her. But she knew that dent. It had happened when she had tried to smash the locket after hearing the news from Sungyeol that he didn’t want her as a friend anymore. She had regretted it, but had no way of undoing it.

“How can something like this be?” she demanded.

The king took her hand in his and pulled her close to his side, bending forward to whisper into her ear. “You’re asking the wrong question,” he said, just before he touched his lips gently to hers.

And that was when the girl with the missing memories realized why his voice sounded so familiar. Just as the realization dawned on her, the world ebbed away into nothingness.