Page 43 of Drawn into Oblivion

“I had a dream,” Mai admitted. Shumei stilled in the middle of placing a pin and glanced at Mai’s reflection. She moved over and patted the bench next to her.

“Tell me.”

Mai nodded and sat. Once she had her bearings, she described every detail of her dream that she could remember. Shumei stiffened when Mai mentioned the brothel and the two strange-haired men but said nothing. She frowned when Mai spoke of the man chained to the wall in the Damned One’s dining hall, and looked positively ill when Mai described seeing the Foul One holding the empress by her throat.

An oppressive silence descended once Mai had told Shumei everything. She wasn’t exactly one for idle chat, but she found herself wishing she could find something to say while Shumei stared at nothing and ruminated. How small and young she looked. Mai regretted telling her anything. It had been a dream after all, right?

“Poor Akiji,” Shumei whispered.

Mai was surprised the empress had drawn a name from her description of her dream, and her interest exploded.

“Shumei, please, if you know why Rosuke was in that room…” she implored, wringing her hands. “I know it in my heart that it has something to do with his past. He won’t tell me how he’d been cursed or how you lifted it. But the look on his face in that brothel haunts me, and I—”

“That is not my secret to tell. What happened to him will have to come from Rosuke and no one else. I dare not knowingly violate anyone’s confidence.”

Disappointment pressed on her heart, but Mai nodded. She didn’t want to put Shumei in an awkward position.

“Your dream was prophetic, I’m sure of it,” Shumei said. “Though I’ll admit the brothel indeed is a thing of the past rather than portent. As for your visions of Oblivion, you said Rosuke seemed to have already been in a battle. Was he dirty or wounded?”

“His uniform was dirty, yes. Whether it was mud or something else, I don’t know, but he was tired and disheveled.”

“Were there other people about?”

“It was dark and Rosuke looked to be alone, but I had the feeling he wasn’t.”

“You and I entered the Damned One’s fortress without him?”

“Yes. I didn’t see you at first, but I believe you were the one who tapped my shoulder when the doors were shutting us in. I just don’t understand why Rosuke didn’t join us. He didn’t look injured.”

Shumei made a pensive noise and was quiet for a long moment. In that brief silence, Mai remembered Rosuke vowing to protect her when she followed the empress into the Damned One’s domain. And yet, in her vision, he was forced to leave her side.

“Rosuke said there have only been nine campaigns into Oblivion?” Mai asked.

Shumei gave a tired sigh. “Yes, and all failed miserably.” She braced her elbows on the vanity and set her chin in her palms. “Believe me when I say Vallen and I and all of the officers are thinking hard about an alternative strategy. I don’t want to do as those before me have done.” Shumei then slid a sly smile at Mai. “‘Rosuke said,’ hmm? It’s not ‘Commander’ anymore?”

“We have grown closer,” Mai admitted. Divine One have mercy, she was already nervous and blushing. And for some reason she could barely hold back a smile.

“More than close. According to rumor, you two are quite intimate.”

Mai’s jaw nearly touched the floor. “But I was so sure we’d been discreet. I mean, we speak often a-and we’ve taken meals together, but I thought the rest was still a secret.”

Shumei laid her hand on Mai’s. “Relax, I was merely teasing. I did wonder if there was more between you, and I’m glad to hear there is.”

“You were teasing me?”

“I’m sorry, really.” She squeezed Mai’s hand.

“Well, now that it’s been brought up…” Mai looked at Shumei beseechingly.

A smile lit up Shumei’s face. “You want to talk about it?”

“There’s something I don’t understand.”

“I’m listening.”

“It’s about when Rosuke and I are…intimate,” she hedged, not entirely sure whether the empress wanted that kind of detail.

“Mm-hmm?”