On the way to the Holy Maiden’s chamber, Hedi wore a black nun’s habit, her face set like a moon behind a veil.

The solemn, quiet outfit, draped over her petite frame like night silk, turned unexpectedly adorable.

The skirt fell to her ankles and swung like a pendulum with each angry step.

Her white Peter Pan collar echoed her gray ponytail, a soft note answering another, making her look gentle yet lively, like spring light on water.

“You’re so... cruel...” Selina murmured, eyes wet, her voice a puddle, “and you hit me that hard!”

“Who told you to pour water into it!” Hedi’s words snapped like a twig.

“You told me to try another way—” Her protest fluttered like a moth.

Hedi spun and glared, her gaze sharp as flint sparking fire.

Under that look, Selina whimpered like a puppy, soft and pleading, tail between legs in her voice.

“Sigh.” Hedi rose on tiptoe and patted her head, a leaf brushing a stream. “Does it hurt?”

“It hurts!”

“Don’t ever do that again! You even made me change clothes!” Her anger puffed like steam.

“You look really cute in it...” Selina’s praise landed like a candy drop.

“Ha! Ha!” Hedi’s laugh was two hard knocks on a door.

Selina forgot the pain and let a bold thought bloom like a rogue flower—then wilted, sensing a scold.

“What scheme now?” Hedi’s question was a net cast wide.

“Nothing.” The word hid like a fish under a rock.

“When you’re plotting, you go quiet.” Hedi’s eyes narrowed like shutters.

“If I say it, you can’t get mad!” Her tone held up a paper shield.

“Mm-hmm.” Hedi’s hum drifted like smoke.

“You look cute in a nun’s habit...” The compliment trailed like ribbon.

“That’s it?”

“Mm—” Selina studied Hedi’s face, hunting for cracks before the storm, ready to bolt like a sparrow. “Could you... pray devoutly, like a nun?”

Hedi didn’t catch the undertone, but when she saw Selina’s curved fingers, her eyes widened like lamps turned up.

Her small fist lifted high and thunked against Selina’s back, a drumbeat.

“You! You! You!” Hedi’s imagination flashed a scene and her shame burned, her words striking like stones. “Pervert! Total pervert!”

“I meant—pray with you.” Selina’s voice was a feather.

“Nonsense!” Hedi’s retort slammed like a door.

Selina held out both hands and showed her: the left five fingers curled one by one like supple vines, wrapping the right fist tight. “Like this,” she smiled, mischief glinting like stars, “where did your mind wander?”

“Ridic—ridiculous!” Hedi’s voice tripped like a pebble down steps.

“It’s fine. I like you, so I’ll forgive your thoughts.” Selina’s warmth spread like tea.

Hedi bit her lip, a rose thorn pressed light.

If she kept talking, Selina would tug her by the nose-ring; none of it had actually happened, and the path ahead called like a beam of light.

She shot Selina a look and headed for the room at the corridor’s end, her steps tapping like beads.

Then a fingertip skimmed down her spine, lightning-quick, and goosebumps sprouted like millet; her body tilted forward and she spilled a string of sharp “ah, ah, ah,” like startled swallows.

Selina hid her laugh behind her hand, a fan closing—then took a hard smack, pain blooming on her forehead like a bruise-ink blot.

“You actually... hit me twice...” Her voice drooped like a wilting petal.

Hedi flushed, hunching, loose strands hanging at her cheeks like tassels; she looked like a cat suddenly bristled, her anger bare as claws.

Selina tried the puppy routine again and got a fresh barrage of knuckles, little hammers thudding, so she wiped her tears and sobbed low, a brook under stones.

“Cry again and I’ll keep hitting you!” Hedi’s warning cracked like thunder.

“Uu—” The sound quivered like jelly.

“Stay like that.” Hedi’s tone pinned her like a hairpin.

“Uu—waa—” The cry rose like wind through reeds.

“So noisy!” The Holy Maiden, unable to bear the clamor outside her door, pushed it open, her movement clean as a blade, and saw Hedi watching Selina cry.

“What are you doing? Make her stop!” Her command rang like a bell.

“Why?” Hedi’s question hung like mist.

“Don’t you find it annoying?” The Holy Maiden’s brows knit like threads.

Hedi thought, her mind turning like a millstone, then chose action: she lifted both arms and kneaded Selina’s cheeks like soft clay, teasing, “You ate, yet you cry with no strength?”

The Holy Maiden understood and sighed, a reed bending in wind. “Fine... you may vent here for a while.”

“You’re the best.” Selina edged closer to the Holy Maiden, like a moth to a lantern.

Jealousy flared in Hedi like vinegar in a hot pan; she grabbed Selina’s arm and pressed her head to her own shoulder, staking claim like a banner, then faced the Holy Maiden and changed the topic. “We’ve troubled you in too many ways, and we came to say thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Her reply fell like calm rain.

“One more thing—when does my confinement end?” Hedi’s voice was a knuckle on wood.

“Confinement?” The Holy Maiden touched her chin, fingers pausing like a pendulum. “I don’t recall ordering you back into confinement.”

“Looks like the nuns acted on their own.” Hedi’s words rustled like paper.

“You can leave the Sacred Cathedral anytime.” The allowance opened like a gate.

Hedi soothed Selina and spoke, her tone steady as a bridge. “Ending it now will only cut your reputation; shaken faith is a frightening tide.”

“Think it through. Confinement should be at least a month.” Her guideline stood like a pillar.

“I can’t wait that long. I have to be back before next weekend.” Urgency flickered like a lamp low on oil.

“Business?” The question flicked like a fish tail.

“That’s... none of your concern...” Hedi’s answer slipped like shadow.

The Holy Maiden fell silent for a breath, the pause deep as a well. “You’d better leave now.”

“I can’t let you—” Hedi’s refusal rose like a wall.

“It’s not about reputation.” The Holy Maiden’s words cut like a clean blade.

Hedi felt something off, a grain of sand in the gears. “Did something happen?”

“Not yet.” The answer perched like a bird on a wire.

“Just a feeling?” Hedi’s doubt floated like dust.

“After you left, the nuns grew fearful. I thought it was crying breaking routine... now I don’t think so.” Her voice walked a foggy path. “I can’t put the feeling into words. It’s like an animal sensing danger by instinct.”

“So mystical?” Hedi arched a brow, a bowstring lifted.

“Maybe it’s a mistake. I live inside routine, and your companion not eating gave me some anxiety.” Her sigh fell like husk.

Hedi rubbed Selina’s cheeks again, playfully, like kneading dough. “See? Not eating troubles everyone around you.”

“It’s because of you...” Selina’s protest pouted like a plum.

The Holy Maiden lifted her arm and, slowly and solemnly, tidied her hair, each stroke a ritual. “Professor, you’re not one of us here; you don’t need to carry others’ moods.”

“Relax. I agreed to confinement not for you.” Hedi smiled and shrugged, a leaf let go. “I just need time to cross a ridge inside.”

Selina looked up at Hedi and muttered, prickly as a thistle, “You just said ending confinement would hurt the Holy Maiden’s—ah! You hit me again!”

“Cry. Don’t butt in.” Hedi’s tap landed like a pebble on a drum.

“Since that’s settled,” the Holy Maiden raised her voice, clear as a trumpet, “stay in the Sacred Cathedral for a while.”

“Confinement, then...” Hedi’s answer wavered like smoke.

“Something will happen.” The Holy Maiden’s certainty stood like a stone.

“It’s only a feeling. Don’t scare yourself.” Hedi’s calm spread like balm.

“My intuition’s pretty sharp—” The Holy Maiden looked toward the window, gaze long as a road. “Without a strong sixth sense, I wouldn’t be the Holy Maiden.”

Hedi followed her eyes to the outside.

The sky lay like a thick gray velvet curtain, with a single white line slashed across the middle, like an airship tearing cloud and leaving a breath of plume.

On the ground, nuns gathered in twos and threes like clustered sparrows, faces tight, whispering about someone’s disappearance—something heavy was drawing near.