Two months passed. Two months that stretched into an eternity of long nights and fake smiles. "The House of Violet Moon Blossoms" had become her new cage, a gilded cage that reeked of incense and cheap perfumes trying in vain to mask the scent of despair rising from tired bodies.

  Alene sat on the edge of a bed, which had become as hard and cold as a tombstone, and sank into her mind for a few moments before another night began. "Two months I've been in this place, huh..."

  "Alene!"

  Madam Su-Min's voice was as sharp as a blade of ice, pulling her from the fog of her thoughts. Alene stood up quickly, dressed in a blue silk robe that felt like a shroud.

  "Yes, Madam Su-Min."

  "How many times have I told you?" Su-Min said, puffing on her long pipe, the smoke coiling around her face like a gray serpent. "The customers don't pay for tea; they pay for the illusion. Make them feel like kings, that they are desired.

  Make them feel that you are alive! Even if a man's penis is small, you must make him feel he possesses a dragon's spear! The client you just had left no tip. Do you understand? I will deduct this from your pay today."

  "What? Please, Madam, I will do better..."

  "Get out," Su-Min said coldly, tapping her pipe to drop its ash into a brass ashtray. "I am angry enough with you. You have customers waiting. Flirt with them, make them feel wanted."

  "Yes, Madam."

  Alene returned to the main hall and put on her mask. She smiled, laughed at their stupid jokes, and poured them sake with hands that no longer trembled. She had learned. She had learned how to separate her soul from her body, to let it float in some distant, cold place while the body performed its role.

  She repeated words she didn't want to say, endured their touches on her waist and her ass, and felt herself slowly turning into a beautiful, empty doll.

  When her shift was finally over, she stepped out into the Chang'an night. She no longer saw the beauty of the hanging lanterns, but saw how they cast long, frightening shadows in the alleys, shadows like fingers trying to grab her.

  The gazes of men on the street were no longer casual; they were heavy and sticky, feeling like filthy touches on her skin, making her feel naked even as she wrapped herself in her ragged cloak.

  She passed by a noisy tavern and heard the whispers of soldiers talking excitedly about the impending war.

  "The Yu clan won't last a week against the power of the great Master Tai Gu!" one said.

  "We will rape their women and butcher their men!" She felt a chill. Not fear of the war, but fear of the chaos it would bring, and how women like her were the first to pay the price in times of chaos. "Damn the Gu clan, damn the Yu clan, damn everyone here, and damn my life," she muttered bitterly.

  She stopped at a small stall and bought a loaf of warm bread with the "tip" money she had earned.

  The vendor, a man with a protruding belly, gave her a lecherous look as he took the money, and she felt completely naked before him. She grabbed the loaf, its warmth seeping into her cold fingers. It was the only real thing in her fake world.

  Her new home was in a dilapidated apartment building on the edge of the "Sunrise Balcony," a place dirty enough to be cheap but not as dangerous as the "Swamp of Shadows."

  She hated this place. Its walls were as thin as rice paper, hiding nothing. She heard everything. Couples fighting, hungry children crying, and the sound she hated more than anything else:

  the sounds of women being fucked, muffled cries, some real, some fake like her own, echoing her daily hell in the one place that was supposed to be her sanctuary.

  She entered her small room quietly. Rio was sitting on the floor, playing with a wooden block. He didn't talk much these days.

  "I'm back, Rio," she said, sitting beside him. "Say hello to Mama."

  He remained silent, his eyes fixed on the toy. He had been like this since the incident.

  Suddenly, he looked at her. "Mama, where do you go every day? Like I told you, to work.

  Old man Jong in the next room said, 'Call your mom for me this afternoon, her ass looks delicious.' Are you really going to work, Mama? And what does the word 'whore' mean? I heard him shouting it."

  The bread froze in her hand. She felt the walls closing in on her.

  "Forget that, my son. It's just a bad word."

  "Okay," Rio said and returned to his silence. They ate the bread together, while a woman's scream from the next room ("Yes! That's better! What a cock!") pierced the wall.

  They slept together on the floor, huddled for warmth, while the echoes of the filthy world seeped through the walls.

  She woke to bright sunlight and the smell of semen and filth from the rotten building. She kissed Rio and left. At the door, she found old man Jong.

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  "What an ass and tits for a whore, huh?" he said with a smile. "What's your price?"

  "Go to the House of Violet Moon Blossoms and ask there," she said, trying to get past him.

  He slapped her hard on her ass.

  "Wait for me today. I'm coming."

  Disgust filled her. "It's all because of that damned Panyer. If he hadn't killed that bastard Yong, I would be in a lighter hell than this."

  The night was especially long at the House. She was forced to dance for hours, something Yong, Rio's father, had loved.

  It had been her strength, and now it was another tool of humiliation. She flirted, lied, and screamed damn words as Su-Min had demanded, and earned a good tip.

  But she knew the real nightmare had not yet begun.

  As closing time approached, he came. Old man Jong. He requested her directly. There was no change of clothes, no time for mental preparation.

  He took her to room number seven.

  "I've been imagining this moment for two months," he said, grabbing her forcefully and throwing her onto the bed.

  The hours passed like a slow bleed of time. He did everything to her.

  He hit her, and used every part of her body. It amazed her how expert he was with a woman's body, not to please it, but to humiliate it. She found herself learning things she had never learned before, a new alphabet of pain and shame.

  She was terribly late and wanted to go home, but this monster was not finished.

  When he finally left with the first light, she could barely move. She tried to leave, but Su-Min was waiting for her.

  "Where are you going? The man paid very generously. It seems you work better when threatened; I should have done this from the start. Now go, change into something else. The morning shift has begun.

  Madam, I have a child. At least let me go home for a minute.

  Su-Min screamed: "Who do you think you are? Am I your employee? Don't get cocky!"

  "I'm sorry, Madam."

  She got through the next day like a ghost, her body aching, her soul dead, her anxiety over Rio eating her alive.

  When she was finally allowed to leave in the evening, she was so tired she could barely stand.

  She bought some bread and cheese and walked the longest walk of her life.

  She entered the room and found Rio sitting there, tear tracks on his face.

  "I'm so sorry, Rio," she said in a broken voice

  . "Something came up at work."

  He started to cry harder. "It's all his fault! Because of that monster! Papa is dead because of him!"

  She hugged him. "Don't worry, my son. Look, I brought cheese today.

  Rio ate in tearful silence until drowsiness overtook him and he fell asleep in her arms, his small head resting on her chest. Alene stayed awake for a long time, listening to his quiet breaths, feeling them like the only anchor preventing her soul from drifting away in an ocean of despair.

  These quiet moments were all she was fighting for.

  In the middle of that night, she was woken by a violent pounding on the door, a heavy, drunken pounding like a beast trying to get in. Her heart leaped into her throat. She gently placed the sleeping Rio on the mattress and covered him, then stood up and faced the door, her hands trembling.

  She went out into the dark hallway to find old man Jong, staggering, the strong smell of liquor and foul breath preceding him.

  "Come to my room, beautiful," he said in a hoarse voice. "I'll pay you."

  "Go to the House," Alene said coldly, trying to hide the fear in her voice.

  He suddenly became angry.

  "You conceited bitch! I don't know why you think you're something special, huh? A damned whore!" He grabbed her, and before she could think, she felt the same hot, sharp 'Rei' energy flow from his hand into her body. It wasn't just force; it was like poison. She felt the cold, pure 'Mana' inside her writhe and fade, as if pure water had been poisoned with mud.

  He had paralyzed her magic, her only weapon.

  "I wanted you in my room because of your kid, so he wouldn't bother us," he said, dragging her toward the hallway wall. "But it doesn't matter. I'll do it here."

  She began to beg him, not for herself, but for the innocent sleeping behind that thin wooden door. "No! Please! At least not in front of..."

  But it was too late.

  The door opened slowly. Rio stood there, rubbing his sleepy eyes, his hair disheveled. Then he saw the scene. He saw the old man pressing his body against his mother, her hand pinned to the wall. He saw the fear in his mother's eyes.

  "Mama?" he said in a small, confused voice.

  Then his confusion turned to a pure, childish rage. "Old man! Leave my mom alone!" he shouted, and ran at him, starting to beat the man's massive leg with his small fists that couldn't even harm a fly.

  "Get lost, kid!" Jong growled, and waved his other hand dismissively.

  A short, sharp wave of 'Rei' shot out, not strong, but enough for a small child. Rio hit the opposite wall and fell to the floor unconscious, making a muffled, heartbreaking sound.

  "RIO!"

  Alene screamed, and in that moment, something inside her broke.

  She stopped resisting. She stopped everything.

  She sank into darkness. She no longer felt the roughness of the wall on her back, or the disgusting weight of his body on hers. All she could see was the image of her son lying motionless on the floor.

  All she could hear was the echo of his fall. He did what he did, and she was there, and she was not there. Her soul had left her body and crawled across the cold floor to stand as a silent guardian over her little son's body.

  An eternity passed, or maybe just minutes. When Jong was finally finished, he spat on the floor and left, muttering curses.

  For a moment, Alene didn't move. Then, slowly, painfully, she forced her trembling muscles to work. She crawled on her hands and knees across the floor, indifferent to the pain that was tearing her apart, until she reached Rio.

  There was a small, bleeding cut on his temple.

  She placed her trembling hand over it and whispered the words of a simple healing spell. She felt the last dregs of the polluted 'Mana' in her body gather with difficulty, like drops of water in a dry well, and flow from her fingers. The bleeding stopped, and the wound slowly began to heal.

  A few moments later, Rio opened his eyes.

  "Mama..." he said in a weak, dazed voice. "Did... did the old man go away?"

  Alene looked at him. She looked at his innocent face, at his eyes that had not yet known the extent of the filth in this world.

  In that moment, she made her decision. She had absorbed all the pain and humiliation of the world, but she would not allow a single drop of it to taint his soul.

  She quickly wiped her tears with the back of her hand and forced her swollen lips into a broken smile.

  "Yes, my love. He's gone."

  "Did... did you defeat him?" he asked, his small voice full of hope and admiration.

  The words felt like broken glass in her throat, but she said them in a surprisingly strong and steady voice, a voice she didn't know she possessed.

  "Yes, Rio. I defeated him. And he's gone forever."

  Rio's eyes widened, and a light of pure admiration sparkled in them. "Really?"

  "Yes."

  He hugged her tightly, burying his face in her lap.

  "Don't worry, Mama. When I grow up, I'll protect you from all the bad guys."

  Alene hugged him back, even tighter, and buried her face in his hair, inhaling his childish scent. And finally, she cried in silence. Burning tears he could not see, tears for the beautiful lie she had been forced to weave, and for the innocence she was fighting for with the last remnants of her shattered soul.