"So, what do you do for fun around here?" Oris asked her cellmate after counting to a thousand, a dozen times. By now, she was tired of the silence.

"You will get used to it," they said.

"I might die before I do."

Knowing the conversation was heading nowhere, Oris closed her eyes and continued counting. She had nothing better to do with her time.

The results should have been announced by now. She wondered where she placed among the others and if it even meant anything.

She couldn't change hearts or move souls from inside a cell. Would one Cassidy and two guards be able to free her? What if she threw in the handful of peasants she met at the gates?

Would any official stand up for her at the risk of their own daughter's place in the harem? She didn't think so.

She could only hope that Mayree and Andrea had gotten clues about who wanted to poison her and figured out what to do with it. In truth, she wasn't really worried about that. Once Seline and Keziah caught word of what had happened, they would think of a plan and hopefully it would be better than what she had in mind. She had no doubt that she would be rescued because they treated her life as theirs. They would rather die with her than let her die alone.

What Oris didn't know was how long it would take for the poison to take effect. She had drank a whole cup of tea infused with it so she doubted it would take as long as her assailant had planned. The symptoms needed to show soon to help speed things along but it seemed as though she needed to do something more drastic.

Once again, harming her person was the only way left to prove her innocence. Only this time she would not admit to it.

The Empress Dowager has pushed me so many times, let me show her how it feels when the favor is returned.

Arrested for rebellion? Was that a believable reason? Which bride candidate hadn't done something atrocious to gain the Emperor's attention? How many were arrested for it?

It was ridiculous, too much in fact, and that was what opened Oris' eyes to the truth. She was nothing to the Empress Dowager, so why did the woman spare so much effort to ensure her demise?

Had it been necessary to send an imperial decree? Asking a desperate servant to poison her or strangle her in her sleep would have been enough.

The crime of rebellion became the pivotal point in the her thinking process now. The accusation made it obvious that the Empress Dowager was using her to divert the attention of the court and cover something up. But what was it?

Humming a tune softly, Oris began to trace her steps back until she was in the carriage again in front of the palace gates.

The palace gates had been locked when she had arrived yet she knew very well that they were meant to be open after the hour of the first sun—dawn.

There were reasons why the gates would be locked. Seline had suggested that an assassination had occurred and Faeradaigh had claimed that the crown jewels had been stolen and the Empress Dowager's people were catching the thief.

What if there really was an assassination and the thief was the assassin? Or better still, maybe there was no thief at all and the Empress Dowager had someone killed under the guise of catching a thief.

With all the knowledge in the world, Empress Dowager Wei Wei could not have expected that Oris would arrive just as the deed was being carried out. What should have been an isolated incident had unexpectedly spread to the court because of her.

The palace gates should not have been closed but they had been. A bride candidate had been locked out. The crown jewels were stolen but where were the thief, evidence and report?

If none of those existed, wouldn't Wei Wei become a major suspect? Why close the gates if there was no thief? If there was a thief why use your people to chase them when the palace has a Ministry of Justice?

What if no one was meant to know that the gates had been locked? What if the story of the missing jewels had been made up by Faeradaigh on the spot to protect the Empress Dowager?

The theory had more holes than fact but it meant Oris had witnessed something she shouldn't have. It meant that she wasn't the only one in danger, her maids were too. Because whatever the Empress Dowager was hiding, she wasn't afraid to kill for it.

Rebellion was just an excuse, one that gave a legitimate reason for a beheading. And what was more distracting than hundreds of citizens crowded round a podium to see a criminal's head being lobbed off?

The Ministry of Defense would be swarmed with activity, keeping the crowds in check. The Ministry of Justice would be too busy with the paperwork for executing one of the Emperor's women to investigate what happened on one sunny afternoon when the palace gates were closed prematurely.

With little more than one memorable death, the Empress Dowager would be able to sweep her transgressions under the rug forever.

The mere thought of it gave Oris chills. No one who managed to climb so far up the social ladder was innocent, she knew.

How many officials would turn a blind eye to her unjust death? Who would stand up for what is right when they knew that the Empress Dowager ran rampant under the Emperor's nose?

Oris shot up and clutched her stomach, suddenly feeling queasy as pain rippled through her gut. Her eyes scanned the windowless cell before landing on where the two lit torches should have been.

"You slept for quite a while," her cellmate commented in the pitch black darkness.

"What is the time?" Oris croaked, fighting to keep the half-digested snacks in her stomach where they belonged.

"Sorry, I don't carry sticks of incense on my person," they said, and cackled.

Oris crawled away from the corner, feeling her way using the walls. She had fallen asleep on the bed, how did she get to the floor?

"You were thrashing quite a bit in your sleep. Quite a hard fall, I expected the pain to wake you up."

Oris would have replied but the nausea she had been battling won and she threw up, her fingers curling around the rim of the chamber pot she had found just in time.

"I hope you found the pot, it smells bad enough in here." Her cellmate sounded truly worried.

"You are quite chatty this evening."

Oris fell back on her heels, glad that she had gotten her veil out of the way. She used the back of her hand to wipe the sick off her lips. "Was anyone in here while I was sleeping?"

"Guards. Two bowls of gruel and a loaf of bread like stone," there was pause before they continued. "I took the bread and left the gruel for you."

"I appreciate it," Oris said dryly. The acrid tastes on her tongue did nothing to help her mood.

"Are you pregnant?"

"Yes, with the Emperor's child. That is why I was thrown in here."

"Really?" they asked, now equal parts surprised and concerned.

"No."

"So he doesn't have a child yet," they mused to themselves. "Might be afraid of being a terrible father."

"Who are you?" Oris asked, while folding the hem of her dress to her knees. "What did you do to get thrown into this cesspit?"

"Rebellion," they answered snidely, just when Oris managed to grasp the edge of the bed and pull herself up.

"What a coincidence," Oris smiled and stretched the free end of her gown against the bed's metal frame.

"The same goes for me." The sound of ripping fabric filled the cell.

"What are you doing?" The chains in the corner rattled, punctuating the anxiety in each word.

"Salvaging my dress," Oris replied smoothly and gathered the ripped cotton in her hands as a draft of wind blew against her bare calves. "Refreshing, really."

"You call that salvaging?"

"You wouldn't understand."

Oris stretched her arms above her head, her joints creaking with the motion. With one strip of cloth, she tied back her braids. Placing another behind her neck, she rolled up her sleeves and used the the cloth to hold them up before tying it off in a bow by her right breast.

"What are you doing now?"

"Keeping myself entertained," she said and gingerly pried her feet out of her slippers. With a graceful lift of her heel, she placed a foot onto the bed. When the other followed seconds later, she found herself balancing precariously on the edge.

The bed creaked noisily, as though begging to be let off.

"You are going to break your head and die, child."

"For someone who threatened to kill me, you sound awfully concerned," Oris said, her eyes closed. It made no difference, the darkness was the same, but she liked to think it helped her concentrate.

She began to hum, trying to remember words to one of the many songs she had danced to in her youth.

"I didn't threaten to do anything, you came to the conclusion yourself," her cellmate hissed to punctuate the sentence.

"That song. . ." they tried to inquire, but the rest of the question remained unspoken.

So you finally took the bait. Oris let out a breath, the remaining strips of what was once in her gown loose in her hands and grazing her thighs. "It originated in Narita but spread far enough to become popular in the Eastern States."

She turned to face the silent corner, a sly smile on her lips. "Do you know it?"

~