To Snow, life was a game of minds, a checkered field crowded with pieces that moved and fostered tidal waves of repercussions. One misstep could end or start a life, so Snow kept her pieces close in her hands for as long as she remembered. But someone was threatening the balance and order on her playing field, and she didn't plan to just sit back and watch.

Two was a very peculiar addition to the game, a wild card that had no loyalty or moral, and Snow didn't like it one bit. There was no telling what Two could do. For all anyone knew, she could've grabbed hands with General Faelaux and started planning an insurrection right under Jungkook's nose. Honestly, that would be easier. What Snow soon learned was that Two was an assassin. Not any assassin, though: an assassin of the Dark Lotus.

The idea itself was laughable: allow an assassin of the Dark Lotus—of the organization that had sights on eliminating the royal bloodline—into the castle and ask for their aid. Jungkook was far from a fool—Snow, unlike most, acknowledged his intelligence—but his decision to bring Two into the castle was beyond her. And he wanted to let Two walk around freely until Snow advised him to form a blood contract. Imagining Two walking around Jungkook without any barrier to ensure his life sent shudders down Snow's spine. Fortunately, she succeeded in tipping the scales back into place before anything went amiss. That was until Jungkook suddenly released the seals on Two's elements.

It was the last straw. There was no turning back. Jungkook was officially compromised, so Snow had to deal with Two herself.

Her first encounter with Two wasn't memorable since Jungkook interrupted the conversation midway, but it was enough to tell Snow she was a problem. And her thoughts were proven ever so true when Jungkook informed her Two didn't have a name.

When Snow had heard it, she was bewildered. Jungkook was quick to believe Two, but Snow wasn't that naive. So on the same day, she had requested her close friend and confidant Nickelyn to investigate Two's upbringing and history. As Nickelyn busied herself with Two's past, Snow had observed Two's present actions during her first days in the castle. Admittedly, Two didn't make any attempts to attack anyone. All she did was stand on the balcony of the study Jungkook had cleared, watching the castle grounds like a hawk studying its terrain.

To anyone else, there was nothing wrong with standing on the balcony for hours upon hours—unusual, yes, but many people were. Snow, however, traced Two's line of sight and saw her watching Jungkook on the training grounds with Nickelyn, in the gardens by himself, and even in the library during Snow's lesson from a table on the second floor. There was no doubt about it; Two was planning something. And Snow was going to figure out what.

Based on what Jungkook had said about her, Two was powerful. Apparently, she had saved him the day the demon almost killed them in the alleys, but she had also nearly strangled him to death on the first night he ran into her. Taking her on with brute strength, then, was futile. So Snow resolved to outmatch Two with wits, expose her ill intentions with whatever means necessary, even if that meant watching her for hours on the balcony.

Snow idled around the gardens and training grounds, ignoring the clashes of swords around her as she fixed her eyes on Two from daybreak to noon when Two disappeared into her room. Snow expected to find Two in her usual spot at the library, but strangely, her chair was empty.

Only when Jungkook asked, "Is something the matter," did Snow snap out of her daze. She didn't even notice his arrival.

"Nothing," she replied, opening the history book in front of her. "Let's start with the Conquests of Light."

Two did not show her face anywhere the following day, so Snow visited her, knocking twice on her door to no response. After a long moment of silence, Snow reluctantly left, her nails digging into her palms as she muttered an oath under her breath to win this game Two was playing.

When she tried again later that night, she was met with silence once more, and the issue slowly drifted away. Her pieces were secure, and the field was calm. Out of sight, out of mind.

Another two days later, though, Nickelyn finished her investigation of Two's past and organized a meeting with Snow in the library to share her findings. Snow wasn't prepared to hear what Nickelyn had found.

"Nothing," Nickelyn had said, pretending to peruse a random book she had plucked off the shelf. "I couldn't find anything about the assassin. No family, no history, no nothing. It's like she never even existed."

That got Snow's mind reeling. "Not even a name?"

Furrowing her brows, Nickelyn frowned. "Nothing."

After parting ways, Snow contemplated the new information, biting her lips and cupping her hand under her chin. Her pieces were scattered over a blurry field, and control was slipping from her grasp. She scoffed. Immediately, the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality faded. Two was a problem, and Snow would settle the matter that night.

Before, when Snow stood before Two's door, it was daylight. But tonight, the moonlight glittered over her nightgown as she passed the night watch, her heels clacking across the marble and her white braid gently patting her back with each step. Nothing would stop her. This issue would be settled once and for all.

Two was more than just a peculiar addition to the game, a danger that must be curbed. Her enigmatic history and affiliation with the Lotus made it clear that she was a harbinger of great calamity, a blight that needed a cure. Snow had encountered many during her childhood in Umbra—typhoons that obscured the field, twisted the game out of proportions. And never again would she let another storm ruin her progress.

Jungkook's tower was dim, so Snow lit one of the candles on a table at the bottom and held it by the metal end of its iron holder that was cool to the touch. As she ascended the staircase, she passed the square holes in the walls that allowed in the translucent moonlight. And when she arrived at the only door on the first landing, she halted.

The tiny flame on the tip of the candle swayed and danced, emitting a low red glow that tinged the stone walls and the wooden door. Without a second to waste, Snow raised her hand to knock, but before her knuckles rapped on the hardwood, the door opened to reveal Two standing in darkness.

"What do you want?" Two asked, growling, her red eyes glaring under the candlelight.

To say Snow was speechless was an understatement, but squaring her shoulders, she started running over the words she had thought of for the past few days. "I don't trust you at all. An assassin in the castle. I don't know what you promised Jungkook for him to release your seal, but you better stop whatever you're planning."

Two's face remained expressionless. "Is that what this is about? A petty complex?"

Snow was taken aback. "Pardon me?"

Two braced a palm against the door frame, allowing her hair to fall over her shoulders. "What I am is of no importance, Lady Snowalaine. As of now, I serve the Prince of Lux until our coalition reaches an end, and from what I see, this matter does not concern you. So leave when I ask nicely."

A huff was all Snow could manage. Before Two shut the door, Snow forced it open with a push and entered the room. Two stepped back.

"I am here because you are a threat to Jungkook," Snow said. "You tried to kill him once, and don't try to claim that as water under the bridge. I heard you were the one that chased the demon away, but how did you even find us? You followed us, that's how, because you were already planning to kill Jungkook in the first place!"

Taking a deep sigh, Two crossed her arms, and Snow saw the clothes she was wearing for the first time, saw the leather vambraces on her forearms, the leather gloves around her fingers.

"I am fascinated by your methods of expressing your gratitude, but I would much prefer that you leave," Two said sardonically.

If she wasn't holding the candle, Snow would've crossed her arms, as well. "I am not grateful. Why would I be grateful to a rat that came crawling out of a hole while claiming faux loyalty? I don't know who you are or what you have done under the Dark Lotus, but I am not as naive as Jungkook."

Grim darkness flashed in Two's eyes. "Faux loyalty? That sounds hypocritical coming from your mouth when I am the one bound to the prince by a blood contract."

"Contracts can be broken."

"Then why set one in the first place? Faux loyalty? Water under the bridge? You know nothing about me. There are no bridges in my life; I burned them all, every single one of them. I am loyal to only those that have something I desire, and as of now, the prince has that advantage. The real question here is you."

Snow itched to slap Two. "You're deranged. I have served Jungkook for years."

Two's lips twisted into a smirk, sinister and deadly. She took a step forward. "An Umbran professing loyalty to the Luxian Crown? What a liar. If you are so loyal, then would you slaughter your own family in the name of Lux? When pitted between Lux and Umbra, whose side would you choose? Your family or a Luxian prince you manipulate like a puppet?"

Dumbstruck, Snow backed away from Two's towering form that inched closer and closer.

Two continued. "You're not here because of Jungkook. It was never about him. You're here because I am not loyal to you. I break your perfect illusion of control in this castle and threaten you. What do you want? To set the prince as a figurehead? You want the princeling to bow before you, not you before him, and there is something awry in that picture. Do not speak to me of loyalty when you are only loyal to yourself."

By the time Two finished, Snow was out of the room, while Two stood next to the open door. Nothing had changed.

"Leave and don't return. If you saw me as a threat, then you shouldn't have fixed me up in the first place. I have no qualms with you nor any desire to quarrel. Leave me in peace, and before you know it, I will be gone." Two turned but paused midway, adding, "And stop staring at me all day. It's eerie."

Two slammed the door shut, the wind pressure blowing out the candle. Standing in the shadows, Snow made no attempts to call her back. It was there in the silence she heard it: the beginnings of rain and thunder. In her hand, the melted wax of the candle tilted to the side, weighing down until it tumbled over the edge, hitting the stone slabs with a splat.

For the longest time, Snow's mind was blank, but she knew one thing for sure: there was a shift in the air, and it seemed as if her pieces were slipping from her grasp.

* * *

Two's first days in the castle were interesting in every way unimaginable. Waking up in what she later found out was Snowalaine's room and talking to Jungkook—who told her to drop his title—was only the beginning of absurdity.

She didn't know what to expect in the castle, but her imagination had run wild. Secret assassins, political wars, poison, murder, and the like. That was what she expected, what she was prepared to face. But reality was more jarring than anything a human mind could think of, and that, unfortunately, included hers.

The first sign something was wrong was when Jungkook himself came to see her. But the hints weren't transparent until he kneeled—begged—her to help him. Honestly, in her lifetime, she had never imagined making royalty kneel before her. In fact, the idea was distasteful, yet here this princeling came along and marked off an item in a list of lifetime goals she didn't even have.

But that wasn't the last of this madness that had become her life. She had then agreed to help him with his implausible plan. Why did she allow him to spill his struggles? Now she had a flimsy emotional attachment to someone she was supposed to kill. It was horrible, and all she could do was sigh as the autumn breeze blew against her hair.

She was standing on the balcony, listening to the clash of swords from the training grounds below. This was the only place in the castle where she could rest in a semblance of quiet and think. Everywhere else was like a miniature version of Clarica, busy and crowded and loud. So when she needed solitude, which was all the time, she escaped into her room and enjoyed the day on the balcony, thinking of solutions to the many problems dropping on her.

The main issue was taking Jungkook to the Dark Lotus. To put it simply, it was an idea bound to fail. There was one fact Two knew about Lucius: he hated the royal family. His entire goal, the whole reason he built the Dark Lotus, was to decimate the royal bloodline, but Jungkook wanted to meet him.

So she had to figure out a way to get out alive. She couldn't guarantee Jungkook's life, which meant she couldn't guarantee hers, either. If Jungkook died, she would die, and even though her life was shitty, she didn't want to say goodbye. There was nothing positive waiting for her in the After if the tales about virtue were true. So all of this added up to fighting her way out.

It was the best course of action she could think of. If Lucius attacked, all she could do was run with Jungkook and trample on those in the way because beating Lucius in combat was a death wish. Running was a plea for life, and if they were lucky, Lucius would be merciful.

What this plan relied on, though, was Jungkook's time element. She only experienced it once, but he could access Anilium, and if he could harness that power, escaping was practical. In that scenario, the only cause of concern was what she would do after Jungkook freed her from the contract. However, that was a worry for another day because there was a more pressing matter: Jungkook himself.

He was currently sparring with a female guard, and Two examined his fight patterns. For the past few days, she had watched and followed him, mostly because she couldn't help but worry for her own life, and it didn't take a mastermind to know Jungkook was quite helpless. Based on her analysis, he was an encumbrance and the key to the plan of escaping the Dark Lotus alive at the same time.

In a fight, Jungkook wasn't that strong. Even with the evidence from the past encounters, nothing spoke louder than what she saw on the training grounds. Jungkook blocked the guard's attacks with ease, but his form was horrible. His entire body screamed uncomfortable, and—what in the name of Caeluros was that!?

The guard parried Jungkook's strike and tripped him with one jab at his leg. It was so embarrassing that Two covered her face to shield herself from his humiliation. He was so helpless. There was no doubt about it, and all she could do was pray her combat prowess would suffice.

Two took a peek at Jungkook again to see if his skills had improved within the last second, but after another round, Jungkook was once again back on the ground. She just looked away, denying the obvious hole in her makeshift plan that grew larger every time Jungkook lost. And down he fell again. This time on his front with the tip of a sword pointed at his back.

Shaking her head, Two focussed on the gardens, where she caught the eye of Snowalaine glaring at her. She despised Two so much that she had visited the night before. Two didn't particularly like her, but she didn't hate her, either. And neither of them were in each other's good graces. Perhaps Two could fix that.

As a sign of goodwill, Two waved. Snowalaine frowned in return and spoke a million words of resentment with one finger. So much for getting on good terms.

From the overbearing Snowalaine to the prince that chucked his pride out the window, there was a screw loose in everyone here. For a week and six nights, Two had stayed here, and during that time, she had learned castle life didn't suit her. Perhaps staying in the study of Jungkook's tower contributed to her conclusion, but the sad excuse of a bed nestled in the corner of the room and the stacks of old parchments scattered all over the place wasn't a major cause of discomfort. She had spent nights in worse conditions.

The real reason castle life didn't fit her was that everyone was too kind. The moment the rumor that Jungkook had brought someone into the castle spread, everyone shied away from Two. Thinking about it, avoiding her wasn't necessarily kind, but no one attacked her. And that was all an assassin could ask for. The only person who dared to challenge her was Snowalaine, but she was easily repelled.

And that still stood true because now she was storming across the courtyard towards the castle. All because Two had waved.

However, despite the calm, everything here was fake. The peace. The bright halls. The smiling guards. It was all a lie, and even if it wasn't, no one would be smiling when news from Umbra arrived. That would pop this little bubble of harmony in a matter of minutes, and then the kingdom would be left in the hands of a powerless child.

Before all hell broke loose, Two had to get out of Lux, and that would happen once Jungkook met Lucius, once she escorted him home safely. After she was freed from the blood contract, she could go crawling back to Lucius and explain her situation. She wasn't the best assassin the Lotus had to offer, but that didn't mean she wasn't valuable. Lucius wasn't the type to throw his valuables away so quickly, and she had information about the insides of the castle. The worst he could do was send her to Medeia like he did Nero, and that was more of a vacation than an exile.

For now, her plans were set, and Jungkook's training had finished. So without more reason to stay on the balcony, she returned to her room and laid on the conglomerate of blankets, staring at the empty ceiling. No one knew what would happen in the future, not even the Oracles. That was a saying Lucius would throw around, and for the longest time, Two believed the statement to be true. But after experiencing the Royal Council and spending days in the castle with people who were supposed to be her enemies, she finally found evidence proving Lucius's statement false.

A war was coming. Two could feel it in her bones, and the last place she would be was in the middle of it. With her plan in mind, a future was visible. All she had to do was reach for it and make it happen.

And that would start tomorrow, so until then, she planned to rest, maybe even sleep, although that was highly unlikely. In the silence, she was undisturbed for the longest time. No one climbed the tower's stairs, and no one knocked on her door. It wasn't until nightfall that she was disturbed.

She was gazing at the stars from the balcony, enjoying the last night before she had to take Jungkook to Lucius. The beautiful view. It was one of the few aspects of the castle she liked. Unless she was standing in an open field, the sky in Clarica was blocked by the tall buildings, so she could only see chunks of the night sky, pockets of stars winking at her. But at the top of Lux, the world was hers, waiting to share its marvels.

Two envied Jungkook, who had access to such a sight whenever he turned around, and wondered if he appreciated the beauty he beheld. Humoring herself, she decided he probably was too preoccupied with his own affairs to even consider the existence of the stars. The thought molded an image of the snobby Luxian prince she had in mind before she met him. It acted as a lifeline to normalcy during these mad times, and she cherished it.

Absorbed in the twinkles of the stars, she didn't notice the presence outside her door until she heard a tentative knock. She didn't have the slightest idea who would visit her, but when the memories of her short altercation with Snowalaine popped into her head, she frowned. Heading for the door, she prepared for another bout of screaming, but the person standing before her wasn't Snowalaine. It was Jungkook.

He was shuffling on his feet, his eyes darting all over the place. "May I enter?"

Was refusing the prince treason? Since Two attempted murder and was still breathing, she presumed not. "No."

His eyes widened, and suddenly, he was waving his hands like he was trying to clear a misunderstanding. "Oh, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. We can converse out here if that is better."

"On the staircase?"

He nodded.

Two glanced at the stairs, at the gloom above and below. In the city, the streets had ears. The castle couldn't be so different. Moving to the side, she gestured for him to enter. "Don't waste my time."

Gulping, he hurried inside but stopped short, his eyes taking in the mess that covered every nook and cranny of the room. To save him from his dilemma, Two pointed at the balcony. He was quick to understand. When they were settled on opposite ends of the balcony—Jungkook messing with his nails and Two leaning against the railing—he finally cleared his throat.

"I wanted to ask what our plan of action is for tomorrow," he said.

An air of relief escaped Two's lips. That was easy to answer. Two wanted to stay as far away from Jungkook as possible because if he happened to get injured or start crying or whatever, no amount of excuses could save her from execution. The farther he was away, the more she was at ease.

"I'll take you to the main base, and from there, I'll show you to the leader," she said. "If the meeting escalates, then we'll run to safety with that." She pointed at the pendant hanging from his neck.

Jungkook bristled. "Why are you pointing at my pendant?"

"You can access Anilium with that stone."

He drew his hand to his pendant as if to shield it from her. "I didn't know you knew."

Before Two could remind him of their first encounter, she shut her mouth. "Well, that's the plan. You meet the leader, and we leave. If the leader gets hostile, we run."

Jungkook must not have had any standards because he was pleased with the idea. There were so many flaws in it, but he didn't complain. He was a complete contrast to what Two thought he was. And that became truer every second she spent with him.

Once the defenses he raised from her statement about his pendant dropped, he relaxed and averted his gaze to the glowing city. "Thank you for your help."

"I am just fulfilling my part in the contract." The rest of her sentence was implied. And I expect you to do the same.

For some reason, Jungkook seemed downcast. "Of course. The contract."

Two shouldn't care. It was in her training to not care, but she did. She always did. Seven years ago and now. She didn't change a bit, so she added, "But I'm glad I am at least of some service to you."

It didn't brighten his mood, though. Since Two wasn't the greatest at consolidation, she changed the subject, taking the opportunity to spill her worries of the past days. "Princeling, I am going to be honest, and I hope it doesn't become the death of me. This plan of yours is bound to fail. The leader of the Dark Lotus will not help you even if you offer him your throne. He believes his entire purpose in life is to destroy your family, and he detests your bloodline. I can't say what is best for you, but I do know that this attempt at an alliance is futile."

Jungkook considered her words for a moment, still gazing at the city. "It doesn't hurt to try."

No, he couldn't be more mistaken. It did hurt. In so many ways. There was a large part of Two that wanted to tell him how Lucius could kill them, how walking straight into Lucius's hands wasn't going to end well. And then there was a tinier part of her that wanted to tell him the darkest truth—that she saw his father die right before her eyes. That, any day now, a letter from Umbra would arrive, and the Luxian crown would pass onto him.

The last thing Lux needed was for him to die an unfortunate death.

The only thing Lucius needed was for him to die a brutal death.

But she said none of that and compromised. "You know I can't guarantee your life."

Jungkook paused for a beat. And another. His jaw clenched. "I know," he whispered.

Since there was nothing she could say to persuade him, Two said no more. If fate had decided, then so be it. All she could do now was reach for the future she had planned. So under the stars, on the balcony overlooking Clarica, they gazed at what they saw as the symbol of their desired futures—a dream so close yet always too far away to reach—as time crept onward and the doors of fate sealed closed.