There has always been gossip about Bae Joohyun. She’s allegedly the most powerful being in the entire Kingdom. They have yet to see it. So, it’s not surprising at all when The Monolith chose her as its main target and deployed an operative to kill her first. It was a reasonable thing to do because if the gossip were true, Joohyun was some kind of mind-controlling superbeing. She comes from a family of psychics after all, direct descendants of the Ancient Gods, and to take down their reign, they would need to take her down first.

The thing with psychics is that they can control a person and that’s what makes them dangerous. It’s not only about power, but also money. Powerful people have money, but it doesn’t mean that wealthy people are powerful. However, they tend to be powerful just because they have the opportunity of association. They marry more powerful people, or they marry their kind to preserve their lineage.

Joohyun wakes up in pain, disoriented. She barely sees Seungwan’s features against the dim light in the room. Her eyes burn, her head screams and there’s a prickling sensation in her temples that informs her she’s bleeding. Hard. Again. Her shoulder is better thanks to the healer, but the stitches aren’t that good, and she’s groggy. She tastes bile in and vaguely remembers that she hasn’t eaten since the day before at lunch, and it’s almost four in the morning. At the palace, the sun takes more time to rise in the sky, so there are still a few hours left before seeing a ray of natural light.

“Seungwan?” Her voice is unstable, oscillating to the rhythm of her pulse. “Please, wake up.”

She finds the situation hilarious, asking for help from the very kind of people that wanted her dead and even saying please. The word burns her insides. The Ruins is still plaguing her head and she can’t shake the feeling that she has been treated like a fool by her own family.

Seungwan isn’t asleep, she’s meditating on her own life decisions that took her to that very moment. The Commander is going to kill her. She should have known better than risking her siblings’ lives. They need her since her father is old and he’s always too drunk anyways and she’s the one providing the food and everything else. She’s glad she’s not underage anymore since she can get better jobs now. They are still crap though. She can hear the raindrops hitting the window in a repeating pattern, a storm full of fury that could erase her pain.

“I’m awake,” she finally says, and her voice is so broken that it is painful to listen to. “I need you to listen to me. I will help you, okay?”

It’s an empty promise, but giving hope to someone has never been a crime.

Seungwan doesn’t see it, but Joohyun hesitates. She has a confession in trying to come out, but she doesn’t allow it to happen.

The sky is so dark through the window that they can’t see the moon. She briefly thinks the Gods are crying. The light flickers when a particular ray falls close to where they are.

Joohyun recognizes her surroundings as the guardhouse. She has been there a few times, but none of them were authorized since it’s mainly used for war prisoners’ interrogation. It’s a simple, power-proof room with gray walls and one window. There’s a faint stench of burnt rubber and she wrinkles her nose. The sole movement of her face makes her head hurt.

“Why are you helping me?” The princess asks again. Something feels off about the thief, but she doesn’t know what it is yet.

Seungwan doesn’t answer immediately, she takes her time to arrange her thoughts and ideas. She tends to be badly misunderstood and she doesn’t want a royal enemy in case the princess survives. Her head hurts too, which makes it harder for her to even think.

“I don’t know,” she says. “I guess I’m just used to helping people. Besides, being ignorant doesn’t make you a killer. Like your father, or your mother. My problem is with them, not with their daughter.”

Joohyun opens to rebut, but the crack of the door being pushed open shuts her off.

A man enters the room with two boys at his side. Seungwan isn’t sure if she has seen the tall man before, but he looks like a high-ranking military due to his demeanor, like a beast ready to attack.

He walks towards the princess first, who’s in front of Seungwan. Joohyun lowers her head, trying to avoid the man’s hand in her face. He slaps her so hard that Seungwan flinches away, despite not being the one hit.

“Look at me!” He spits. “Frederikt, start now.”

Seungwan doesn’t know what’s happening until she watches one of the boys putting his hands on Joohyun’s head. The princess tries to get rid of him, but she’s hit again by the man. Her face is covered in her blood thanks to the man’s beatings and her head injury, and Joohyun thinks that she prefers to die.

Seungwan knows what he is—an absorbent, but she and Jongdae like to call them spongy. There are very few of them, and they live in hiding from the crown. They can steal other people’s powers, killing them in the process, so they are a direct threat to the crown.

Joohyun should be dying, but she isn’t. Nothing comes out of her mind, no colored halo nor a ray, nothing. Frederikt tries again, with no success.

“What’s wrong?” The man, who’s the leader, asks. “Are you stupid?”

Frederikt tries again a few times, but the result is the same. Nothing.

“I… I don’t know what’s happening. It’s not working.”

The man hits Frederikt too, before shooting him in the head. It’s so horrible that Joohyun has to look away. She’s sure a part of his brain falls on her legs and she wants to throw up.

“Danniel, your turn. Be better.”

The boy takes a step forward and puts his hands above Joohyun’s head, just like Fre