Three days crawled past, in which Rei and Nana were subjected to all the tortures the sergeant could think of. All to find out where the stolen marubu was, though neither had uttered a single word.

Fortunately for both, the sergeant wasn’t particularly imaginative and her methods mostly came down to hitting backs with sticks and Rei would’ve been able to hold out indefinitely. To her, the worst part was the mediocre slob they were brought thrice daily under the moniker of food.

Rei however, was about to break.

They had been returned to the stockade for the night, which, now that the rain that had battered them for days had ceased, had turned to a sweltering pit of mud and body odor.

“You know,” Nana said when the guards had left and they were left to their own devices, “I think this bee might not have a sting.”

“No kidding,” Rei complained in return, “All I’m getting is bruises on top of bruises! Can we go?”

Nana nodded.

“Finally.”

“You okay to climb?”

Sighing, Nana took her bonds and felt around the pole until she found a notch to hook the bamboo rope into. She pulled herself up, feeling the strain on her overworked muscles, then found her footing against the wood. Using the incredible strength in her upper arms, she tugged and pushed her legs away from the pole, as if she were trying to stand up sideways. She could feel the ropes fray and a moment later, she was on her back in the mud, listening if any of the guards had heard her struggle.

Unabated laughter in the guard post was all she needed to know.

She got to her feet, then ambled over to Rei to untie her, jerking her head to a gap in the stockade.

“We need clothes, tassi,” Rei moaned, rubbing her aching muscles.

“I’m sure we can find something,” Nana replied carelessly, taking Rei on her shoulders to balance the beaten body, “We’re leaving now.”

She led her through the gap in the stockade, then into the first alleyway she saw.

“There’s a clothesline on the roof,” she observed.

Rei shook her head, “I’m not climbing before I’ve had a night’s sleep, besides. We can get clothes without stealing.”

“You and your morals,” Nana said, rolling her eyes, then frowned at Rei’s eyes. Even though she was bruised, there was a bright sparkle in them and the pain her body seemed to be momentarily forgotten.

She followed Rei’s line of sight, then raised her eyebrows even higher. Above a door, a dead cicada had been nailed to the door frame.

“Local custom?” Nana wondered out loud.

“Widow,” was Rei’s response, “I hope. Either that or her child recently died.”

“...So?”

“So she’ll probably not be the most emotionally stable.”

“So?”

“So she’ll be more receptive to a sob story. Hide in the shadows and watch.”

“But she has a problem with stealing,” Nana smirked.

The naked girl stumbled across the road, then rapped the wood with her knuckles, making a racket that might wake half the neighborhood… and possibly draw the night guards towards them.

The only thing that happened however was the door opening.

It was opened by a woman with greying hair, who had dressed in a brown robe with two semi-translucent wings on the back, mirroring the dead cicada above the door in appearance. The middle aged woman was tying up her hair with two hair sticks as she entered the door and even in the low light of the night stars, Rei could see the red rings around her eyes. Her grief-stricken face turned to concern when she was a naked girl covering herself in front of her door.

“Ma’am,” Rei said, forcing a pout, “Can I please beg for your assistance.”

“Of...course?” the woman said, unable to mask her confusion and surprise.

“I saw your light was still on,” Rei said, even though she had seen no such thing, “And me and my girlfriend… we’ve been robbed.”

“Your girlfriend?” the woman asked, looking over Rei’s shoulder until she saw the other naked girl hiding in the shows.

She gestured them in, shaking the firefly lamp in the hallway until she could properly inspect the wounds on the girls. She tutted disapprovingly, then frowned at the two, expecting an explanation.

“We decided…” Rei started, putting a wail in her voice, “We decided to go skinny dipping. And then some guys tried to take our marubu…”

“And?”

“And we fought them off, but...but they took our clothes…”

“Oh, poor little butterflies,” the woman said, “We’ll have to get you cleaned up and to bed. I can’t send you home like this.”

The woman rushed out the back door, to run one the communal bath that were typical of the poorer hosseru quarters.

Rei glanced over her shoulder, stopped her crying for a moment to throw Nana a triumphant grin, then continued her act.

They found themselves wrapped in towels around the woman’s low diner table a few hours later, after each had been thoroughly washed and covered in healing poultices by the woman. She had served each bowls of steamed rice with grilled scorpions on the side.

“So,” she said, “Now that we have the bodily needs out of the way.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Rei stopped chewing the scorpion she had in her mouth, holding it by the tail and expectantly watching the woman.

“Are you girls not from around here or are you just really stupid?” she demanded.

Both had their mouth full, shaking their heads in answer.

“Going out at night during the curfew? Everybody takes a beating sometimes, but do you want your heads lopped off by the guards?”

Nana and Rei shared a glance.

“We must have forgotten,” she said softly.

“Well,” the woman said, standing up, “You’re staying here for the night. I’ll make sure you have somewhere to sleep and my son can bring you home tomorrow. Maybe I’ll go with them and ask your parents how they’re irresponsible to lose

their daughters during the curfew.”

“Understood, ma’am,” Nana said meekly, pretending she saw it as a problem to her plans.

The woman swept out of the room, “Enjoy your meal, girls.”

“Rei,” Nana whispered, “What curfew?”

“The foreign ship must be leaving,” was the answer, “That means there’s a curfew so nobody tries to sneak onto the ship and leave the empire.”

Nana nodded, continued to eat, then stopped in the middle of her mouthful.

“Something wrong?”

“We might lose our only lead tomorrow. I have to form a new plan.”

“Try to sleep, Tassi…”

Nana scowled, then grumpily continued eating.

Even though she had been exhausted from her ordeal in the stockade, Nana had slept restlessly and had gotten out of bed before dawn and paced around the room.

They had been given a small room, that once upon a time must have been the woman’s children’s bedroom, but now had that particular smell of a room that has been kept clean but hasn’t seen use in many years.

Nana wasn’t a fan of the smell and was glad to see the first rays of the sun sending the two moons to bed.

Rei was less bothered, who was a heavy sleeper at the best of times and now seemed to be in an even deeper sleep than usual.

Nana tried several friendly methods of waking her bondwoman, whispering in her ear, stroking her hair and shaking her shoulders. In the end, a swift kick to the backside was what did the trick.

“Hah?” was Rei’s good morning.

“We have sukaito to do,” Nana informed her immediately, meanwhile trying to get into the slightly too tight clothing the old widow had provided for them. She was fidgeting wit the belt, trying to get the folds in the clothes correct, but due to that also being too narrow, she ended up with a slender waist that showed off her hips more than she would have liked.

“Very enticing,” Rei yawned, trying to giggle as she did. She stood up and four her own clothes.

“Did the widow provide a palette?”

“She said she would,” Nana whispered, her tone indicating that’s what Rei should have been doing in the first place, “But after breakfast. However, I want to be gone before her son wakes up. I don’t want to have to hurt the poor fellow.”

“How unlike you,” Rei laughed, which ended in another wide yawn.

“We’ll take something from a store front if we see anything,” Nana said curtly, then rummaged through the drawers of a dresser in the corner of the room.

“Are you stealing from her?” Rei asked incredulously. She was playing with the buckles of her skirt that would go around her thighs to make sure the short thin arment wouldn’t be a victim of the wind and reveal what should be kept covered.

“No,” Nana shook her head as she spoke, “I wanted to leave her a message, but we’ll send her something later.”

Rei studied her outfit, shrugged at how hopelessly out of fashion it was, then looked over her shoulder, “What’s the plan?”

“We’re going to visit the foreigners.”

Rei’s face lit up, all traces of weariness forgotten, “Really? I’ve never seen one up close. Do you think it’s true they don’t have heels and that’s why they add little blocks to their shoes?”

Nana urged Rei to be silent, then realized what she had asked.

“...What?”

“Just something I heard.”

Nana watched her bondwoman for a few moments, cocking her head in confusion, then simply shook her head and opened the shutters that kept the window closed. She was relieved to find they opened outward.

She hopped out the window, nodded at Rei to follow, then closed it when she was outside as well.

Rei stomped her feet at the morning chill, waited for Nana to start moving, then followed her into the grey morning streets.

“Subterfuge really is an awful way to get things done,” Nana said calmly, “So we’re going for a slightly more open approach.”

She led Rei back to the stockade they had escaped from, where two guards were looking for tracks or other traces of their escaped prisoners.

Nana and Rei quietly dragged their feet past the crossing to the alleyway, covering the little that remained of their footsteps that were still visible to an experienced tracker. The low ranking soldiers stood no chance.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea?” Rei checked with her.

“Probably not,” Nana admitted, “But we’re in a hurry if the foreigners really are leaving soon. They might be our only lead.”

She turned around the guardhouse and threw the door open only to find herself eye to eye with the woman that had been beating her for the past three days. A woman who didn’t recognize her.

“Something wrong, citizen?” she asked, surprised to see people out and about. She stopped in the middle of applying her colors, “Just lost?”

She looked at her palette, then to the bare faces of Rei and Nana, “New kechi that lost your way back to the pleasure quarters? It’s up to your customers to get you home, but responsibility really is an issue with people these days….”

Nana swallowed a retort at the suggestion she was a prostitute, then put on her best official voice.

“You arrested two criminals the other day,” she said, “Their paint suggested they were snakes from the capital area.”

The woman nodded, “They escaped somehow, so I hope you don’t want to talk to them.”

“No, I want to see their weapons.”

The sergeant almost snapped her paintbrush as she heard the request.

“Under whose authority?” she asked, putting the brush down before she had a chance to it.

“The potential owners’.”

Frowning, the sergeant stood up and retrieved Nana’s blade, still unsure who she was dealing with. A moment later, Nana had the familiar feeling of her weapon in hand.

She made a display of unsheathing it and checking its condition, then returned it to its scabbard and removed a part of the velvet rope that covered the hilt.

“Familiar?” she asked, tapping a delicate finger against the weapon.

Under the string was a small silhouette of a dragonfly. The woman paled.

“I arrested…?”

“Me,” Nana replied, a soft smile playing on her lips as she saw the woman going through several emotions at once. Pale from fear, green from a sudden nausea and then a shameful red, in the end she landed on an odd mixture of all three.

“My lady… I’m sorry,” she started, dropping to her knees and pressing her head against the floorboards, “I...I…”

“Were just doing your duty,” Nana said calmly, “As am I. I hold no resentment, though you could use some pointers when it comes to interrogation.”

The woman rose her head.

“But enough shop talk, we have more pressing business to discuss.”

“Of course lady,” the woman said, kneeling and looking nervously from Rei to Nana, recognition finally dawning on her face.

“We need access to the trading post.”

“...It’s closed…” the woman said flatly.

“What’s your name, sergeant?”

“Fujiko, lady.”

“Right, Fujiko. I need to get in and you’re going to provide me with the clothes and paints we need to enter.”

“Can’t you just use your dragonfly cre…”

“No. We need to be quiet about this. As such, your search for the two missing criminals isn’t over.”

“Understood. I will have the corporal bring you interpreters’ clothes.”

“I’d prefer the listener uniform. As would my friend.”

“Understood, lady, and again...sorry about…”

Fujiko retreated out of the guardhouse, leaving Rei and Nana to their own devices.

“Poor woman,” Rei laughed.

“I’ll make sure to send her something nice from the capital,” Nana smiled, sitting down at the woman’s low desk and grabbing the fruit Fujiko had prepared for her own breakfast.

“Besides,” she continued after biting into the purplish apple she had taken, “She’ll serve us very well now that she’s terrified of us.”

“If you say so,” rei said, dropping herself down to the floor of the guardhouse.

“You okay there?” Nana wanted to know.

“Just going to close my eyes for a spell.”

Nana shook her head, swallowed her food, then closed her eyes, focusing the little energy she had to pray for a good outcome of her mission.