Lewd didn’t stop running until she found a quiet corridor.

  Not the mess hall.

  Not the throne room.

  Some place where the stone walls didn’t feel like they were listening.

  She ducked into a shadowed alcove near a tall window, moonlight pouring across the floor like spilled silver.

  Her hands were shaking.

  She clutched Blight Vain to her chest like it was the only thing keeping her ribs from cracking open.

  Lenora followed a minute later.

  Not rushing.

  Not cornering.

  Just… there.

  Like she refused to let Lewd disappear.

  “Lewd,” Lenora said softly. “Talk to me.”

  Lewd didn’t answer.

  Her ears pinned back.

  Her shoulders trembled.

  Lenora stepped closer anyway, slow enough not to spook her.

  “I’m not here to judge you,” Lenora said. “I’m here because you ran like your heart was bleeding.”

  Lewd finally spoke—voice rough.

  “It was the mindscape.”

  Lenora blinked. “The… place you and Derpy got pulled into?”

  Lewd nodded once.

  Hard.

  Like admitting it hurt.

  “I didn’t tell anyone the full thing,” Lewd said. “Because it’s embarrassing. And because it makes me look… crazy.”

  Lenora’s chest tightened.

  “Lewd—”

  “No,” Lewd snapped. Then immediately softened, like she hated the snap.

  “I need you to hear it. Because I can’t hold it in anymore.”

  Lenora held still.

  Lewd stared out the window so she wouldn’t have to look her in the face.

  Her voice came in fragments at first, like broken glass.

  “I appeared in there like a breath becoming a person.”

  Lewd kept going, faster now—like if she slowed down she’d choke.

  “I ran to him. Hugged him so hard I thought I’d crush him. My arms were shaking. And he… he didn’t push me away.”

  Her fingers tightened around the grimoire.

  “He hesitated. Like he didn’t know if I was real. Then he hugged me back.”

  Lewd swallowed.

  “For a second it felt like home.”

  Lenora’s throat bobbed.

  Then Lewd’s expression twisted.

  “And then it broke.”

  Lewd’s voice sharpened with remembered anger.

  “I pulled away and I yelled at him. I was furious. Because he let Sinister Derpy out.”

  Lenora’s eyes widened. “He let him out?”

  Lewd nodded, face tight.

  “We made a fail-safe. We made a promise. Everyone’s hands on the book together—like a vote carved into our souls.”

  She looked at Lenora now, eyes wet.

  “And he broke it.”

  Lewd’s jaw clenched.

  “He told me it was supposed to stop both of them from going too far. But he made a bargain anyway.”

  Lewd’s voice dropped.

  “He said Sinister can’t hurt anyone physically. Like that makes it fine.”

  Lewd continued, words spilling faster.

  “Then Blight started training me. Shield. Sword. That stupid skull shield—heavy and judging—like it knows I don’t belong holding it.”

  Lewd’s hands shook again as if she could still feel it.

  “I couldn’t hold my footing. I couldn’t grip right. I kept messing up.”

  Her voice cracked.

  “And Blight called me worthless.”

  Lenora flinched like she’d been hit.

  Lewd nodded, furious at herself for reacting even now.

  “And it… it opened something in me. Like an old room full of panic.”

  Lewd’s breathing sped up—she forced it down.

  “Derpy stepped in. He stopped her. He didn’t yell. He didn’t punish me. He just… crouched by me and said he wasn’t leaving.”

  Lewd’s voice went small.

  “I was shaking so bad I couldn’t breathe.”

  Then—her cheeks flushed hot.

  And she looked away again.

  “Lenora,” Lewd whispered, barely audible.

  Lenora leaned forward slightly.

  “What?”

  Lewd’s throat worked.

  “I kissed him.”

  Lenora froze.

  Full-body freeze.

  “It was— it was quick,” Lewd rushed. “Desperate. Like I needed to know he was real. Like I needed proof he wasn’t going to vanish.”

  Lewd swallowed.

  “I pulled away right away and I thought he was going to shove me off, or look at me like I was poison—”

  “But he didn’t,” she said, voice trembling. “He went still. Shocked. But he didn’t reject me.”

  Lewd’s breath hitched.

  “He said we’d talk later. Not because it was bad. Because I was shaking and we were in training.”

  A beat.

  “And he said… ‘I’m here. Still.’”

  Lenora’s face had gone red.

  Not anger-red.

  Flustered red.

  Lewd noticed.

  “…Why are you blushing?” Lewd asked, suspicious and embarrassed at the same time.

  Lenora jolted like she’d been caught stealing.

  “I’m not—”

  “You are,” Lewd said quickly. “Lenora.”

  Lenora’s mouth opened.

  Closed.

  Opened again.

  And then she sighed—like surrender.

  “…Because,” Lenora admitted, voice small, “I… like him too.”

  Lewd’s entire body went still.

  “What.”

  Lenora’s cheeks were bright red now.

  “I didn’t plan it,” Lenora rushed. “I didn’t want to make it a thing, and I wasn’t going to tell you because you were already hurting—”

  Lenora rubbed the back of her neck, flustered.

  “It’s stupid,” she muttered. “But I care. And when you said you kissed him I— I got—”

  Lenora exhaled and finally said it.

  “Lewd… it’s okay.”

  Lewd blinked.

  Lenora looked her straight in the eyes, still blushing.

  “It’s okay because… I already kissed him too.”

  Lewd’s jaw dropped.

  “…You WHAT?”

  Lenora threw her hands up immediately.

  “It wasn’t like that!” she blurted. “It was the contract. When we first met. It was a condition. It was— it was a binding thing.”

  Lewd’s ears stood straight up.

  Her face turned bright red.

  “YOU KISSED HIM FIRST?!”

  Lenora looked like she might combust.

  “It wasn’t romantic!” she insisted. “It was— it was magic politics!”

  Lewd stared at her.

  Then, very slowly, her expression twisted into something deadly.

  Not rage.

  Humiliation.

  Jealousy.

  And disbelief.

  Lewd covered her face with both hands.

  “Oh my god,” she groaned.

  Lenora’s voice came out apologetic and panicked.

  “I didn’t know you liked him then!”

  Lewd peeked through her fingers.

  “I didn’t know you liked him!”

  They stared at each other.

  Both red.

  Both flustered.

  And then—because the universe had no mercy—

  Lewd let out a short, broken laugh.

  Lenora laughed too, breathless, half-nervous.

  Lewd dropped her hands slowly.

  Her voice turned serious again.

  “But still.”

  Lenora sobered instantly.

  Lewd’s eyes hardened with the real problem underneath all of it.

  “I need to talk to him,” Lewd said.

  Not now.

  Not soon.

  Just… true.

  Lenora nodded once, firm.

  “Yeah.”

  Lewd swallowed.

  “I need to fix what I broke.”

  Lenora stepped closer.

  Not in the teasing way.

  In the soldier way.

  The friend way.

  “I’ll be nearby,” Lenora said quietly. “If you need backup.”

  A beat—then Lenora added, practical and grim:

  “And until Vaeloria decides we’re allowed within breathing distance of him… you’re not doing this alone in your head.”

  Lewd’s grip tightened on Blight Vain.

  “…Thanks.”

  Then she hesitated.

  And added, smaller:

  “But don’t tell anyone about the kiss.”

  Lenora stared.

  Lewd’s eyes narrowed.

  “…Which one.”

  Lenora’s face went red all over again.

  Lewd’s ears flicked.

  “…Both,” Lenora admitted.

  Lewd groaned into her book.

  And the corridor, for one heartbeat, didn’t feel like a cage.

  Just two girls trying to hold their hearts together while the world fell apart.