.

Lei smiled and then looked back at where she had come from. "I need to go now, but I promise I'll be back later. Tomorrow, maybe?" Alderia was silent. Lei looked back at the gutter. It looked like such a miserable place - and from experience, she knew that it was, indeed, a miserable place. 

"Alderia," Lei said, firmly. A hand reached out of the gutter in acknowledgment, and a soft voice said, "What?" 

"I'll be back. I'll fix all this. I promise." Lei said. She plucked a small flower that was growing next to the gutter and put it into Alderia's palm. The hand then disappeared into the gutter, and Lei got up, dusted her knees off, and slipped back into her room. 

The next morning, Lei woke up at a knock on her door. A fellow maid, with straight black hair, held out an envelope. 

"Please answer this by the end of the day. It will determine your position in our ranks."

Lei took the envelope, and soon enough the door closed. Then she grabbed her cloak once again and set off towards the gutter she had seen the day before. As it usually was in the castle, it was a foggy morning where the sun wasn't even visible, and everything was covered in a thin layer of frost. Lei's breath came out in plumes, and eventually, she hurried down the path until she reached the gutter again. 

"Alderia. I'm here again." Lei said, and a hand instantly poked out of the gutter. Inside it was still the flower she had given Alderia that day, now wrinkled and crumpled. 

"Do you have any medicine?" Alderia asked, and Lei shook her head. "I dont." A pause. "Then can you pick some dandelions for me? I usually make a paste out of them." Another pause, and then Lei said, "You do?" Alderia held a thumb up. "I do. It helps a lot, but I picked all of them as far as my arm could reach, so…" She patted the dry soil around the gutter for emphasis, and Lei started picking dandelions. "do you take the leaves too? Or just the flowers?" Lei asked, and Alderia reached her hand back into the gutter. "I take both." Lei nodded and put a small bundle of flowers into her palm. Almost instantly it closed hungrily around the herbs and disappeared back into the gutter. Lei watched through the bars of the gutter, in the dim light, as Alderia carefully tore a small bit of paper out of a notebook, put the herbs on it, grabbed a rock in the corner to grind it into a paste, and then slathered it in liberal amounts on many whip wounds all over her body. 

Lei had a large amount of them too, but she had never expected someone else to be suffering in her place. Especially someone she didnt even know. 

"Alderia?" Lei asked, and Alderia's hands stopped for a split second above a narrow cut. "What?" Algeria asked, carefully dabbing paste on the cut, and then using another piece of paper to bind it. "Do you hate me? After all, it's my fault you're here." Lei said. she was a bit scared of the answer, since, no matter what was said, she couldn't deny it. "I don't. If it hadn't been me, someone else would have been taken. I think you're brave to escape this place. I couldn't do it, after all. I dont hate you, Lei, I just … I'm happy for you. One of us should be happy at least." Alderia said, tying the paper carefully in a delicate knot, like a tourniquet. Lei blinked and then wiped her eyes. 

"No, it's not enough that one of us should be happy. We both will be. I'll put an end to all this, I swear."