Feng Mian could not believe the amount of security in the inner city — or rather, she should say, the lack of security.

    It had taken her a grand total of ten minutes to penetrate the two inner city walls and sneak past the completely oblivious guards. In the outermost ring, the guards had been blatantly disregarding their duty as they partied in the inner city brothels, happy that they could share courtesans with high end aristocrats. In the second ring, at least the guards were at their posts — albeit asleep. It was ridiculous, and nothing like what she remembered from her early childhood. 

All the better for her.

    As she dropped down from the third and final wall into the palace grounds, she landed in a crouch and quickly melted into the shadows. There were no rooftops here to run on, save for those of the palace itself. Keeping to the shadows, she quickly and silently knocked out any guards in her way with a quick series of well placed jabs to the pressure points. Silently, she made her way to the servant’s entrance. A food cart was entering through the doors just as she slipped inside. 

    A guard stood watch at the entrance, his dark eyes going wide when he saw the intruder. He opened his mouth to yell for more guards but before he could let out a peep she sent a tranquilising dart his way and the guard tumbled to the floor almost instantly. She silently grabbed his legs and dragged him to the food storage closet and tied him up before she left.

    She ran through her head the maid’s directions on how to get to the treasure room. According to her intel, it was almost constantly empty, the priceless treasures which the king had deemed not of his liking gathering dust and forgotten.

    Making her way through the scarlet red corridors, she passed grimacing gilded dragons which s their way up the wooden columns which held up the roof above her. She cringed at how well lit the inner hallways were and crossed through the dark courtyards whenever she could, slipping past any patrolling guards. 

    It was then she heard voices rounding the corner in one of the inner hallways leading away from the throne room. She scanned her surroundings, looking quickly for someplace to hide. Glancing up she saw what she was looking for and jumped, gracefully swinging herself up onto one of the wooden beams of the rafters. She pressed herself flush against the roof, careful that her shadow didn’t show on the floor below. 

“More and more of them die every day, Your Highness. If something isn’t done soon enough to alleviate the drought, the numbers will rise into the thousands.”

“I know, you know, everyone knows! My father just won’t listen!” The other voice groaned.

“I have tried to make him listen, but he just won’t! He seems to think them to worthy of his aid and lets them die by the hundreds.” The man’s voice rose louder and louder with every word.

“Lower your voice, Your Highness, we may not know who might be nearby," warned the other voice. 

The other man toned down his voice a bit.

“Tell me, Fang, what is the death count today?” The man sighed.

“932 by the official counts, sir. Intelligence suggests the number is much greater.” A harsh silence fell over the men.

“I have an allowance. Use it to send aid to the outer sectors that need it the most.”

The other man sighed. “I will arrange it so that it does not trace back to you.” 

    Soon enough she heard the two men pass below her. She didn’t dare look down to see who they belonged to in case they happened to look up in that moment. It was then that she heard the footsteps stop abruptly directly underneath her, one of them shushing the other. 

“Is something amiss, my liege?” one of the two voices asked to the other. He was simply shushed again and a tense pause ensued. 

    The other man's response was lost to her due the sound of blood rushing in her ears and her heart thumping loudly against her ribcage. Thankfully, the footsteps soon resumed and she exhaled heavily as she heard them round the corner. She waited until they disappeared completely before she dropped down from the rafters and continued towards the treasure room. 

    The maid’s information had been correct, and she soon rounded the corner to find an unassuming pair of plain mahogany doors — just like she had been told — and opened the door just enough for her to slip in noiselessly. 

    It did not take her long to find what she came for, and she bris