Seoyeon’s father never actually brought up her illicit visit to the library, but he seemed to sense that she knew he knew about it, and so Seoyeon didn’t dare tell him about how rude Captain Park had been to her on that occasion just in case he responded by ticking her off for being in the library in the first place.  She also didn’t dare go back to the library in case Captain Park found her there again.  While her father often doted on her, she wasn’t sure how he’d respond to her being caught somewhere off-limits twice in quick succession.  It was a huge shame, because she would have liked to explore the books further.

It did confuse her that such a magnificent collection of books was banned to the inhabitants of the fortress, and a couple of days later she summoned up the courage to ask Jieun about it.

“The library?”  Jieun stopped dusting the vanity, looking surprised.

“Yes, the library on the second floor.  Why is it out of bounds?”

“The joints and floorboards are rotten,” Jieun explained.  “That part of the building is structurally unsound because it’s so old, but the repairs required to put in a safe floor for the library are just incredibly expensive and so it’s never been done.”

Seoyeon was pretty sure that couldn’t be the actual answer, since the floorboards had certainly not come across as rotten when she was in the library and if it was genuinely that dangerous then the books, in all likelihood, would have been taken out.  Still, she didn’t get the impression that Jieun was actively trying to lie to her, which suggested that the maid didn’t know, and so she didn’t press the issue.

It took her a further couple of days to summon up the courage to ask anything of Jongdae, and even then, it was only because he called her out on it.  She had been reluctant to ask him anything in part because she didn’t know if he’d know the answers she was looking for (she didn’t think he’d tell her even if he did), and in part because after he’d spent practically the entire day in her room looking after her when she’d collapsed with exhaustion and she wasn’t sure how to comport herself around him after that.  Part of her reminded her that it was scandalous that she’d been alone in her room with a man who wasn’t related to her for an extended period of time, but the rest of her was struggling to get to grips with how kind he was, in his own blunt way — watching over her while she was unwell went well beyond the call of duty for a tutor.  She felt guilty for her initial bad assumptions about him, but she didn’t know what to do about it.  The combination of everything rendered her shy as she followed his instructions as diligently as she could.  Her meekness seemed to confuse him.

“All right,” he said, interrupting her as she was in the middle of sewing up an old leather plate so that it could be turned into a small backpack.  Startled, Seoyeon accidentally jabbed the needle straight through and into her finger.  “You’re very preoccupied.  What’s been on your mind these past few days?”

Biting back a very unladylike urge to curse, Seoyeon let go of her project and stuck her pricked finger in .  It was already bleeding.

Jongdae turned to a box of herbs, which he’d used in order to teach her that morning, and held it out to her, one eyebrow raised.  For a brief moment, she was tempted to scowl at him, but then she realised that he wanted her to put what she’d learnt earlier into practice, and she picked out a sprig of yarrow and a second plant he’d told her were good for treating open cuts and wounds.  With an approving nod, he set the box aside and reached for a small satchel he’d brought with him, holding out his other hand for the sprigs that Seoyeon had selected.  She watched as he worked quickly, mixing a few leaves into a poultice with a couple of other ingredients, and then cut a small length of bandage.  At his request, Seoyeon took her injured finger out of (carefully wiping away the saliva), and allowed him to treat it.

“Something’s on your mind,” he repeated as he worked.  “Care to share?  Is it your mother?”

Seoyeon gulped.  She still missed her mother hugely, but she tried not to think about the gaping whole her absence left in her heart and her life because it hurt so much.

For a few moments, she struggled with herself.  She’d barely even spoken to her father about it.

“I wish she wasn’t dead,” she admitted in a small voice.

Jongdae smiled sympathetically.  He gave her space to continue, but when he’d finished the small bandage on her finger and she hadn’t said anything else, he let go of her hand and sat back in his chair.

“You have questions,” he observed.  She stared at him, thoroughly taken aback.  “Well.  Can I answer them?”

“I… I don’t know,” she stuttered.  How on earth was she supposed to know if he could answer the questions she had?  She didn’t even know what he knew!  “Wouldn’t that depend on the question?”

He gestured for her to go ahead and ask.  More than shocked, Seoyeon gaped at him.  Whether or not it was intentional, everybody around Ximo seemed to be so secretive or oblivious when it came to the odd stuff that was going on that it was quite hard to believe somebody was willing to potentially give explanations.

“What—how—what’s up with this place?” she managed eventually.  “I don’t understand anything.”

“What do you mean by that?” he asked.

It was not the response that Seoyeon had been expecting, and she came up short.  What did she mean by that?  She slumped back in her seat, mirroring the way that Jongdae was sitting, and thought about it.

When it came down to it, it really wasn’t much.  There were the storms, which some people appeared to sleep through and others didn’t.  There was the intruder in her bedroom who’d managed to light a candle with just a word, though the more she thought about it, the more ludicrous it seemed.  There was the library, which clearly had something up with it.  And then there was Captain Park.

None of it was actually that solid a case.

“I’m going insane,” she mumbled to herself, staring down at her finger.

“Why do you say that?” Jongdae asked.

Seoyeon shook her head.  She had a nasty feeling that if she tried to tell Jongdae what she’d experienced at Xi