The movement under the stretching skin became incredibly alarming. It seemed like something sharp was trying to move and roll in that belly as if something wanted to cut itself out. Or as if the baby was struggling inside.

Doussay never had seen such sight.

   Mai turned away. For some unimaginable reason, she wasn’t surprised at all, but the look on her old face was still horrified. Albert had awoken, and tried to shake the doctor’s shoulder to wake her up as well – she was still stunned.

   And the dad… he didn’t look at the black ooze at all, he only looked at his daughter’s face, and the way he smiled at her was spine-chillingly weird.

   Doussay stepped back as well. Her heart rate had risen up, and she did not want to touch anything here. Especially not that girl and the baby. She started to suspect something, and she didn’t want to believe it, but also, she didn’t want to be a part of this anymore. The horrible feeling that was growing in her chest seemed to be extremely heavy, it made her knees weak.

   She did feel bad for the poor girl. But this wasn’t Doussay’s job. When Albert asked her help, they were not mentioning any abnormalities, that occurred with the girl – if it was intentional or not, Doussay didn’t care anymore. If this girl had been her girl from the third floor, she would’ve wanted to stay perhaps, but now, she had no intentions of helping anymore, and she didn’t feel regret or shame about it. Only the urging sensation stayed – the urge to leave immediately. However, her foot was pinned to the ground, and she needed all of her strength to not collapse.

All of the base’s laws around birth control started to make much more sense now.

   Dora screamed from the top of her lungs, her voice echoed in the room. Her opening continued to stretch, as the girl pushed. The smells became unbearable. The metallic odour combined with the rotten egg and with some steamy presence in the air; Doussay maybe smoked too much, but her lungs were absolutely not a fan of this situation either. She tried not to cough a lot, but the feeling was there. Yet she couldn’t even turn away from the scene.

Once again, something changed.

   There was a head. The baby approached the entrance, and it seemed like – despite all the odds – it will be delivered soon. He – or she – came quickly, much faster, than John did back in the day, or any of the children at the base, whose birth she was there.

   But after a while, they noticed, something was off with the baby itself. The blackness of the hair was alright, however, as the head started to come out more, they realised, it was not hair. The skin was black. Or just so deep purple, covered with the blood and the black ooze, that it seemed very dark.

   The next few minutes burnt into Doussay’s widened eyes, and she was certain, she would never be able to forget this moment in her whole life.

   Just like always, after the head and the shoulders had reached the outside world, the delivery became much faster, as the baby’s body was significantly tinier than those parts.

   The “thing” that had fallen out from that poor girl was otherworldly. It was skinny as if there was no flesh on its bones and ink-black from head to toe. It was indeed a boy… but it seemed like his genitals and his umbilical cord were fusing together because he had nothing coming from his belly. His mouth was opened, and his eyes too – both were pitch-black all over. The “baby” also didn’t make any noise, despite how much he opened his mouth. He was nothing like a human baby; however, at least, he was just as helpless. He couldn’t move or do anything.

   Only the girl’s heavy breathing was heard, as she was shakingly lying on her back. She didn’t see the baby, and once she was able to talk, she asked almost desperately:

 “Wh… where is my boy? Is he alright?”

   No one answered, and this made her even more anxious. No… not even that, she swiftly became hysterical, and Doussay didn’t blame her for it.

 “WHERE IS HE? IS HE ALIVE? WHAT A FUCK ARE YOU SHUTTING UP?”

   Dora’s screams halted as she lost her power again. She screamed enough, her voice was cracking, and she couldn’t force herself to speak anymore, however, she did gather some strength, and while she was still moaning, she sat up.

   Then she froze in her movements, and stared at the black thing in shock for three seconds, before once again with replenished energy, she started screaming at the top of her lungs. Before anyone could’ve stopped her, she kicked the thing down from the bed. Doussay had enough reflex to roll over to the side of the bed, as the thing was flying towards her direction, and then it splashed into the ground with a wet and cracking noise.

   It landed on its head and face, and seemed like the neck was broken. It jerked a few times before it stopped moving.

   Dora was still screaming, she pulled her hair up, and continued kicking with both of her legs. Her dad tried to hold her down, while the other two couldn’t even move; they lost all of their thoughts in this terror. Even the self-proclaimed doctor couldn’t make a single move to sedate her or anything. If she even had such medicine on her.

   The girl clearly lost her mind, she was starting to scrap herself at the bleeding hole of hers, trying to get out all the remaining ooze, but she was scratching her own soft flesh, as her insides were rolling out from her body, and the bleeding didn’t stop either. Her dad grabbed her hands and shouted at her to stop, but for that, he only got a headbutt, and he began to scream as well.

   Doussay just then realised what had really happened: the girl didn’t headbutt her dad, she bit him, and there was a huge chunk missing from Dot’s face. He pushed both of his bloody, black-oozed hands on his own fresh wound, and fell on his knees.

The doc was finally giving in… she collapsed and disappeared to the other side of the bed.

   There was only one person, who was quick on her feet: Mai. Doussay saw the woman in her peripheral vision when she left the room without a word to anyone, and Doussay, after she took a last glance at the two other people, shouted at Albert.

 “Let’s go. Quick!”

   And then she fled too. Thank God, she wasn’t wearing her high heels now, and thank God, the road was lit up perfectly, so she could see the right path and Mai’s back, and just follow her up until they reached the entrance. The woman clearly had no interest in Doussay, but Doussay had no interest in her either at this moment – they just both wanted to leave as soon as possible. There was nothing they could’ve done.

   They both ran to the armored vehicle, and while Mai was jumping into the driver’s seat, Doussay was trying to get into the rear compartment.

   However, as soon as she got in, she almost fell off, and again the only thing that saved her was her quick reflexes, grabbing onto the door handle. The car started to move backwards at full speed. Doussay’s legs were still outside of the car, and all she could do was to hang on the moving door and keep herself up – if she falls out, the vehicle will immediately run over her body.

   She never knew she had so much strength in her arms. She was certain, she would die, if she let herself slip even a little bit, but nothing else could reach her mind just yet – for once, because the fast movement of the car was making her dizzy, and all of her strength went into her muscles, and for twice, because her mind was still reliving the scenes of that room. The smell, the screams, and the sight of that thing… she saw them everywhere on the road up to the crater’s edge. Every shadow they ran over seemed like that “baby”.

   Once they reached the top, the car finally was able to turn back, and the sudden movement change caused Doussay to fall into the deeper section of the car, and because the door was shut on her, all the little lightness that she got from the aurora disappeared.

   The strength that held her onto the door handle until now also had vanished. An iron fist held her chest, and she groaned while she tried to drink the oxygen. Both of her arms were shaking madly by the excessive effort she made to stay alive; she felt like something consumed her and spat her out in the end.

   The road was rough as well; the car was rattling, and her body continued to toss around every time they ran over a rock – when they came here, it seemed like a smooth way upwards. Maybe the speed was the reason. Doussay felt like they were flying.

   She wasn’t able to tell, how much time passed until her mind calmed down, and she gathered enough strength to push herself up in the vehicle.

As soon as she did, something suddenly occurred to her.

   Albert was not there. She had no time to think about him when they reached the car, she somehow thought, he might be in her tow, and jumped in the car, or was holding himself on another part of the car like Doussay was… But no. He was just simply not there.

   Doussay’s face felt cold, her mouth dry, and once again got goosebumps all over her body. Memories of Albert had come to her mind, the nice, giggling man, who liked to give her huge tips when he had a good loot after some of his expeditions. He was not really good at the bed though. So she really wanted to cut him off, and this trip should’ve been a good reason…

   Yet Doussay didn’t want him to die. It’s not like he was a bad man. She was just too fed up with this request of his. She didn’t expect that she would never see him again.

   But there was no remorse. She only felt a little discomfort now, knowing he was left behind. They weren’t that close… if there was anyone, whom she pitied, it was the girl. Doussay had no idea what was eating her up from inside. All the symptoms probably came from the contamination that she experienced.

   Doussay looked down and started touching herself. She was in shock, just like everyone else, so she wasn’t sure, if she got some of that ooze on her or not. Though she wasn’t injured anywhere, she still hoped, that liquid wouldn’t touch her either.

   Her black mercenary clothes seemed to be dry, apart from her own sweat on some inside parts of the shirt and pants. She still decided to take off at least the armor pieces that were weighting her limbs and chest. Only the stretchy suit was left on her, feeling already much lighter.

   Then she was tossed over again, falling on her elbow, as they ran over some rock or something. Mai probably wasn’t the best driver.

   There was nothing to talk about between them, yet, Doussay didn’t want to be alone, even if that meant they had to have some conversation with that woman. So she crawled onto her knees and arms and slowly crept over the driver’s cabin, which was opened now, and she saw the green lights coming through the windscreen.

   The cabin was much higher, she had to stand up, and even pull herself up to the passenger’s seat.

   Mai glanced at her but didn’t say anything, and Doussay was also silent for a long time after she seated herself. Finally a better position. She also fastened her seat belt, so now she felt much safer. She needed at least an hour before she could speak. They were already at the Flatland.

 “He was the father, right?”

Mai didn’t answer at first, just stared at the road for a couple of minutes.

 “Oh yes, he was.”

   Doussay felt sick again, even though it was certain, that Mai’s husband will not survive this night.

 “Why did you stay with a man like that? You knew… I know you knew. Even I knew, as a ten years old.”

   Mai pressed her lips together again and gripped the wheel. The back of her hand lost its wrinkles by the force she used.

 “Of course you would know.” She spat it out, like an angry viper. “You wanted that.”

Doussay crossed her arms and looked out the window.

 “Are you insane?” She asked back sarcastically. “Once again… I was ten.”

 “You were ten, but you didn’t even hide your appearance. I knew right away when I saw you at the adoption site, that you will be a problem for us, for everyone. I was twenty, you were ten, and you had bigger breasts than me. Your hair, your face, your attitude… you knew, how you looked like, and what that meant for a man. And look at yourself. You cannot deny it. What was the first place you fled to from us? A brothel! Did you entertain my husband there?”

   Doussay’s chest was aching slightly; she pressed her lips and teeth together, and dug into the mercenary suit with her nails on her arms.

 “Then why did you accept the contract for my adoption?” She asked in a bit raspy and hurried voice. “You could’ve just said to your beloved husband, you don’t want to adopt me. There was no need for you to bear with me.”

 “Why, why, because you mesmerised him!”

   Doussay grimaced, she wanted to say so many things… but for this one… she couldn’t come up with anything.

   She was a pretty girl. And she knew from the moment she arrived at the Outer City, that she was the only one with that look. She almost failed to recognise all the other girls, and she even had a problem with recognising the adult women. Some men were even better looking than them.

And she knew from the very beginning. She was very perceptive of their glances.

   Because from the moment she arrived, the women of the Outer City were looking at her with envy. In their eyes, the first emotion was always shock, and then it turned into uncertainty, and upon seeing her full body, there began the jealousy. And the reactions of men did not help at all. A lot of couples came to her at that time. They were all talking to her for a span of a few words. And while the women were always jealous, there was a totally different spark in their partners’ eyes.

   Doussay didn’t understand those sparks at first, until one year later, when she got adopted by this married couple, she learned the meaning of them – she fled on the first night as soon as her new “parents” fell asleep. Dot was touching her all the way home, and with that behaviour he instantly made Mai completely hateful towards Doussay. It was so bad, that they argued all night before going to bed. Doussay heard everything that they’d said about her, being a little slut, and how that man wanted to bed her. She was also threatened once again that her hair will be cut down. In that one year, while she was waiting for adoption, her hair didn’t grow a lot, but it was still progress – in the end, this was the last straw for her to leave her new home right away.

But where else she could’ve gone?

   She didn’t want to be a whore that people used for pleasure, but what other job was there for her?

   Thankfully, her “dad” in fact never searched for her, even if he knew, she was working on the third floor. But instead of him, there were tons of more of the same type of men. If she only knew… she might have tried to come out here, to the wilderness. Even if she never tried to change her path after she stepped on it, sometimes she thought about it, how different everything would be, if she was taking another direction that night.

   They didn’t speak after this interaction, but Doussay didn’t move back to the car. She preferred to see the wilderness. At least, it was not a bad scenery.

   They’ve spent one whole day with each other. Doussay fell asleep at some point at dawn, and Mai used this time to rest as well, so when they both woke up in the morning, they just continued their journey back to the base. At some point they encountered a swarm of mosquitoes, however, the bugs seemed to be chasing some prey, so after stopping for a moment in their flight over the flat plains, the mosquitoes gave up on the idea of attacking the car, and that was it.

   They didn’t reach the base in the evening, but this time around Mai didn’t stop to rest when they discovered, how little amount of water they had. Thanks to this sacrifice, they arrived at noon, the next day.

   That Doussay felt exhausted was an understatement. She almost fell out of the armored car, and her shoulders were curled forward. Every single muscle in her body, every bone and joint was screaming against the movements. She couldn’t even control her own pace, she dragged her right leg, as it was hurting too much, and she couldn’t even lift it up from the ground – only if Mai wasn’t tossing her from behind… Doussay almost thought the woman was being nice to her, guiding her to the line in front of the city gates. But Mai stayed behind her and continued to push and step on Doussay’s heels from time to time. She always murmured an apology, but of course, she wasn’t apologetic at all. But Doussay was too tired to fight, so she didn’t respond to these nasty little shenanigans.

   The line was extremely long and slow, and no matter how many times she looked up towards the walls, it seemed they were insanely far away. Or she was just looking up at them too frequently… her mind was also very dull, and she was fantasising about the black market, a portion of potato soup, a good shower, her bed… She wanted to sleep all day today. So the time they’d spend still standing in the line seemed forever until finally, they were in the first row. By that time, Doussay didn’t even care if she will be recognised, even if she wasn’t in her best shape.

   She stood in front of a Judge, who was standing at the gates. He had a clipboard in his hand, and he wrote something, then his gaze was falling behind Doussay.

He frowned under the brim of the hat.

 “You. What is your name and number?”

   Doussay hugged herself, and stepped aside to give space to Mai, however, the woman did not respond or step forward.

 “Answer the question. What’s your name and number? Stand out of the line, there.”

   Before Doussay really could understand the situation, she felt a strong grip and a sudden jerk on her head. She lost her balance, and looked at the pale blue sky; her neck was struck by pain, as it bent backwards completely. A heavy weight was disappearing from her head, and her steamy, moist strands finally escaped from the headpiece, as it fell down – the air felt cold under it, but she couldn’t enjoy the moment. As soon as her hair landed on her back, there was another jerk on her head, and this time her scalp was the one where she felt the little needles stinging into her skin.

   Many people were shouting around her, and she couldn’t recognise words, she had a hard time to even recognise Mai’s words, despite she was loudly screaming beside her ear. For the state her body was in right now after this torturous journey, and for the fact that she still hadn’t recovered from the mental trauma either… she couldn’t even get worried for herself at that moment, she just felt extremely uncomfortable.

   Until she sensed that a cold, sweaty hand was slipping into her pants, and grabbing on the dagger between her legs. The air stuck in Doussay’s chest immediately, and before she knew it, the pain began to pound in her valley as well. Her only weapon was deprived of her with a violent and careless movement, and she felt wetness on her thighs instead. Bleeding… she survived all these days without a scratch and now she was bleeding… Just when… how did Mai find out about the dagger, and where to look for it? Was she checking out her body while she was asleep?

   Doussay sheathed her dagger before the trip, but the sheath was now tossed away, and a cold and sharp edge was touching her arching neck.

   Doussay eyes widened, and she still looked up to the sky in her helpless position, being held by Mai’s strong grip. The one dagger that took a wannabe-Arbiter’s life ten years ago was threatening her life this time… She knew all along, that she deserved this. She took someone’s life, and she never paid for it… but now, when she was about to die, when the only thing, that stood between her life and death was that extremely thin, cold piece of metal, she started to shake violently, and her vision blurred, and tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. She didn’t want to die… not like this… not here, at the gates… she had many things to do if she gets home, she had to… had to… at least go back once… 

   No… no… everything should be alright. Judges and soldiers are there… they won’t let this happen, right? Their target is Mai, so if they can just…

   But when she struggled, and forced her head to turn sideways, she saw a corner of the gates and the city walls. The said Judges and soldiers around them were shouting and pointing their guns at Mai, but mostly at Doussay, since Mai held her tightly in front of herself, while she was threatening her with the dagger.

   No. That cannot be happening. Doussay’s heart went cold, yet it pounded loudly in her chest as if it was trying to jump out from her. They will shoot her and Mai together with ease… She needs to get away somehow… but none of her body parts wanted to do any self-protecting move anymore. How did Mai have such strength?

 “Look at this one, this is the infected one! She helped a monster to bring its imp to this world!”

   Doussay immediately froze upon hearing this. Until this point, she was certain, that if she can separate herself from Mai, she wouldn’t be a target. But now… this old hag… if she keeps exploiting her, there will be no hope for Doussay. They will shoot her intentionally as well.

 “Put down the dagger, and step away from her!”

 “If you don’t obey, we will fire at you!”

 “DID YOU NOT HEAR ME? She is the one you want, not me, she’s the devil, she’s a xenogenic!”

   All over the walls, there were huge weapons looking at her, with the bright sun in the background, which made her eyes sting again. This time the tears started flowing from her eyes uncontrollably. There is no escape anymore. There is no way that those weapons or the soldiers wouldn’t shoot her to take down Mai and erase another potential threat.

   Doussay closed her eyes. She was holding herself up for so long on that door handle. She almost laughed at herself for this thought now. What would’ve been better? To fall under that armored car, or to get shot by these machines? Or maybe if Mai slices her throat? It was so clear, that this woman wanted revenge for her bad life and bad choice of a husband, and she always hated Doussay.

   Doussay just wished that everyone could be a bit quieter. Mai was still shouting right into her ears, the soldiers were shouting at her to cover her screams, the Judges were shouting to outmatch the soldiers, and even the people in the waiting line behind them were shouting in anger and fear, it made Doussay’s head hurt.

As if someone heard her wishes, suddenly, everything went silent.

   It was so pleasant, that she almost believed, she died, just hadn’t noticed it. But it cannot be, right? Even if she dies, at least she would feel just a little bit of pain, before it happens… or was she shot by those big cannons? Maybe it tore her into sheds.

   But then she heard Mai’s heavy breaths and one specific sound of slowly approaching military boots. Someone was walking towards them in the silence.

   Doussay slightly opened her eyes. It was still very bright, especially having her eyes closed for a minute. She squinted for a bit, blinked out the remaining wetness from the root of her eyelashes, and then she noticed a black coat and a tall figure not far away from her.

   She had never seen that face – he was almost otherworldly, in the term’s totally different meaning as that black thing that was crawling out from Dora.

   Doussay saw a statue, a jade statue, which was white as snow and had fine, sharp yet eye-catching features. Every single piece of clothing was perfectly arranged on his shoulders and legs, and the hat he wore was just missing to cover his eyebrows, which were sloped and thinned out at the end; the hat was sitting on him like a crown.

Then she saw those eyes.

   The only Judge she was able to meet from close was Kyan. He had beautiful eyes too. Is that some kind of special ability that they had to have in order to get sorted into the Trial Court?

Then… a few seconds later, she noticed that something was sparkling on the man’s chest.

Doussay’s eyes widened.

And her panic came back in that same second.

The Arbiter.

   She never met this new one. She heard about him, but somehow this man was avoiding getting into the newspapers or being seen by people on the streets. Or maybe he just spent too much time here, at the city gates, which if you are not a mercenary or soldier, or Judge, you wouldn’t see often. Doussay had never been at the gates before, apart from the night when she was carried here on the train from the Main City, but that was different.

This young lad was the Arbiter???

   That cannot be. She heard he was very young, wasn’t even twenty when he was elected, but… she knew a lot of rumours that were totally unreliable, so she didn’t believe this one either. Now it seemed to be true. The Arbiter had to be twenty-one this year. In fact, he still seemed to be younger.

   His gun was pointing in their direction. Well, it was pointing at Doussay. From this distance, she was uncertain, if those green eyes, which were as cold as the wind at night, were looking at her or not… she believed that it was the case. Has he heard Mai? Did he believe her claims? Does the Arbiter think Doussay is a xenogenic? Can he tell? Or even… what if it’s true? If Mai was infected already, Doussay could be too. From the black ooze, from the closeness of this woman… there was no guarantee for her to be clear from infection. 

She closed her eyes again, without having second thoughts about her own death.

   She jerked in her whole body when she heard the sharp, loud explosion of the gun. Something small was flying beside her left temple, she felt some heat from that place, but right after she was dragged down by a sudden extremely heavy weight from behind.

   Mai was kneeling, and as she was holding Doussay, she had to kneel too. But then Mai was leaning against her back… and she heard the ringing noise of the dagger, as she dropped on the concrete ground.

Then the old woman’s body slipped sideways, and fell onto the ground as well.

Doussay was sitting on her heels, gasping for air, and looking at her left side.

   Mai’s soggy face carried a hint of shock, but it was… deformed. Her skin seemed translucent, and black blood vessels were running through her face like spider webs.

   Her forehead wore a new hole in it. It was bleeding, but the blood wasn’t red, it was black, just like that ink, which came out from Dora’s body. Doussay’s entire body shook, and instinctively tried to get away from that thing, crawling on her knees and palms. She was still unable to stand up.

   This was the point when she realised, the Arbiter had come closer. She froze in her place, and looked up with wide eyes, still shaking. It is her round now…

   But the Arbiter stopped not far away from her, and after he examined the body, that he just shot dead, the icy green eyes found Doussay. Now it was 100% certain, he was looking at her deeply. That gaze made all of her little, fine hair on her body stand up.

   The Arbiter showed his palm to her. She was startled, when he moved his arm, then just stared at his hand. Was something in there? She couldn’t see a single thing… She was confused, her brain wasn’t processing the scene before her. What is it?

Just when two soldiers came to her, and scolded her, just then she understood what it was.

 “What are you doing? Get up already, if you don’t need help! You are keeping the line up.”

   At the end, the Arbiter withdrew his hand, and turned away from her, looking at the line before the gates again. He did not say a word, but Doussay suddenly felt ashamed for not understanding his gesture, and wanted to say something, apologising, but one of the soldiers grabbed her elbow and lifted her up.

 “Come, Madam.” She heard the quiet voice, and as she finally looked away from the Arbiter, her eyes found a familiar face – this was a soldier, who had regularly visited one of her women, some even gossiped about how he fell in love with that girl. The fanciful thoughts were making Doussay unable to say anything to the man, just followed him to the side of the wall.

   She got seated there on a bench, and the man was kind enough to get her some water and a blanket.

   She took the glass, but couldn’t say a word. Just blankly stared at the place in front of her: the Arbiter’s profile, the soldiers, the Judges, the line at the other side of the wall… she was still shaking powerlessly, and had to adjust herself not to fall forward. Her body was absolutely at its limits.

   Just when another Judge approached her, she started to come to her senses. She was inside the walls, she made it inside.

 “You will stay here for thirty minutes.” The Judge said, and he neither was handsome nor kind, he seemed to be a bit disgusted by her, as if she was not a human. “The Arbiter himself will examine you, but you have to answer some questions.”

Oh… right.

   She wasn’t saved just yet. She still could’ve been infected now, from that black blood. They were all waiting for her to turn into a monster, but they couldn’t keep the line up for so long, so she was seated here, where she was not hindering anyone.

   She sipped into the water, and began to answer. The Judge asked her name, her number, when did she leave, and who were her teammates. She was able to name everyone, but then there was a slight break.

 “Are you a regular member of this team?”

Doussay looked up at the Judge from her lap.

 “No.”

   She glanced towards the Arbiter. He was standing just a few steps away, but it seemed he wasn’t listening. She only saw his profile, as he was observing the people in front of him.

 “Why were you with them then?”

Doussay faintly smiled at the Judge.

 “It was a task that I had to fulfil.”

 “Task?” The Judge asked back and spectacularly measured her from head to toe. “What kind of tasks are you doing in a mercenary team? What’s your real job?”

   It was not illegal for anyone to join any team, however, people who had normal jobs, didn’t switch too much, and they were definitely not volunteering on trips to the wilderness, if this was not their initial job from the get-go.

 “I work on the third underground floor.” She answered truthfully. She did have an alibi for this scenario, but after all those things happened, it was hard for her to speak. She had to swallow deeply to not start crying. “It was a last request from my client, who wasn’t planning to come to me anymore. He was a loyal customer, so I gave him a special service… he chose the place where it was done, and he chose to go outside the wilderness. I wasn’t pleased with it, but I kept my word as we agreed to it. Is that enough explanation, Mr Judge?”

The Judge frowned, and then his eyes were widening a little bit.

 “I know who you are. You are the leader of that brothel.”

 “Enough.”

   Doussay once again was shaken by the sudden voice. It was cold as ice as if she was bathing in a lake in the middle of the winter. It was the Arbiter who spat out that short order, but he was not looking at Doussay this time, but at the other Judge, who was interviewing her.

   The Judge slightly nodded, and he left them alone at a fast pace. The Arbiter looked after him, and then he just turned to the city gates again.

 “I apologise.”

 “T… there is no need.” Doussay whispered and hugged herself.

   Never… never before… no one, especially someone who hasn’t met her before… no one would try to defend her dignity, based on her look, or based on her job. Her customers respected her, but all the other people had different views on Doussay, and she never expected them to understand. But this… this person… The Arbiter caught her off guard. Why would he do such a thing? Is it normal for him?

   Maybe it was just because her body and mind were completely drained and at her limits… But she felt crushed.

   She felt like she was sitting behind a protective wall now, and she finally could let herself rest, letting down her walls, yet, she didn’t feel like she wanted to cry anymore. All she could do was to stare at the Arbiter’s back in awe – at that protective wall, that stood between her and the crowd and any judgment that others could’ve made about her.

~¤ß¤~

   Now, Doussay was sitting on the ground again, just like that time three years ago, looking at the palm of the Arbiter that he was offering to her. It was not the city gates, but the free market, however, maybe because he wore black, or because he was so tall, it seemed like the rays of lights were coming from behind him, just like back then, and hugged his being as a glory.

   She was naïve and dumb for not recognising his intentions back then, but… this time wasn’t totally different.

She couldn’t lift her arm to grab Lu Feng’s hand.

She was frightened.

   Not from getting shot by this beautiful man, but because she knew a lot more about him now – she knew, how precise this man was, how observant, how people were like an open book for him to read…

And she was frightened that he would see her feelings, if she would get so close to him.

And she would dirty him.

   Because in the last three years, she couldn’t think of anyone else. She was daydreaming, and she was thinking about him, while she had an intercourse with someone else, and she was even thinking about him when she hadn’t had a client. She never experienced this kind of feeling before. It was like she was infected by some strange monster, that gave her a heating period, but only when she was thinking about Lu Feng.

   She was totally lost against her own lust and love. Yes, she recognised, she was in love. No, she actually was obsessed with Lu Feng, to the extent, that she was risking the third floor’s financial status, stealing money from her own family, just to be able to buy a sex doll for herself, because only thinking about him wasn’t enough for her anymore.

   She never felt dirty for the work she had done. She never felt dirty for the document forgeries, for the information stealing, not even that much for the murder she did, even if she wasn’t proud of that one.

   But now… facing the Arbiter, who was in her dreams and daydreams constantly, she felt extremely dirty.

   And she wasn’t sure, what would happen to her body, if she would react in a certain way to the touch of Lu Feng.

   She was scared to touch him in real life. She felt like something would break in her, or she would break something, or that Lu Feng would disappear if she does that… or maybe she was just afraid, that Lu Feng’s name would be dragged down if they see him with the third underground floor’s Madam D, who was obviously the biggest whore in the whole Outer City.

   At least, every woman and higher-ups thought about her like that. So what would they think about the Arbiter then?

   Lu Feng withdrew his hand when she was just staring at him. Doussay’s stomach turned, and once again, she wanted to say something to clear up her lack of understanding – but the Arbiter turned away.

 “I apologise. Your lover was taken to the City Defence Agency. His crimes are serious. But if you have anything that helps in his case, you can go to the City Defence Agency tomorrow, and ask to testify for him. It perhaps won’t help at all, but you can try. His trial will be held in two days.”

   Doussay was confused at first, for she was totally lost in her fanciful thoughts. Then, when she realised, what Lu Feng was talking about, the Arbiter had already left, she was only able to catch his figure at the entrance. She wasn’t able to tell him, that John was not her lover, and this frustrated her a little bit, but at the same time, her heart was pounding so fast and so happily, that she couldn’t help, but smile. Her face felt very hot, and she hid her cheeks in her palms.

   Did this ever happen to anyone? Was the Arbiter so kind to anyone before? Did she even deserve such kindness?

   She didn’t know. The only thing she knew was that with this man, she never felt safer. He was the person, who allowed her to finally follow her own dreams. Beside him, she felt like she didn’t need to be the lioness, which she wasn’t in the first place. She never really wanted to be… but everyone was relying on her now. Only Lu Feng… only he was able to make her feel like she can be protected by someone, that she can rest and not worry about others anymore. For once, the lion protected the lioness and led the pack instead of her.

   Even if it was just a false fairytale that she created for herself, with many kinds of romantic ideas, with steamy and unspeakable ideas, with unrealistic dreams and goals in those fairytales, where she can have a child with this man, and they live happily ever after…

   She wondered if there was magic in this world, which would give a chance for her to get closer to this man. Maybe it just needs a catalyst. Maybe next time they meet she should touch his hand.

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