The Queen was feeling better the next day; I was not. 

All night long, I tossed and turned, anger and guilt battling within me, clawing my insides, keeping me awake.

I must have looked terrible, because the moment we were alone in her study, the Queen gave me a peck on the cheek.

“I missed you.”

I kissed her back on the lips. “I missed you too, Your Majesty. Is tonight…”

She smiled knowingly. She did not need me to finish the question, and I did not need her to answer. 

I had her tonight.

“What would you like to do for the day?” she asked. “Today, we will do what you want.”

My heart fluttered. The Queen always knew what to say when I was upset. Shoving my thoughts and exhaustion away, I mustered the widest smile I could manage. “Your Majesty, could you play the zither for me again?”

She lowered her gaze before looking back at me; her eyelashes were the wings of a butterfly. “Of course.”

As I got up to retrieve the instrument, the head palace lady crashed into the room. 

“Your Majesty!” she exclaimed, her words trembling as much as her knees. “T- Trouble!”

The Queen frowned. “What is it, Sanggung?”

“H- His Majesty, the- the King is here!”

“Again?” I blurted.

The head palace lady did not bother chiding me for interrupting. “Y- Yes, he’s here with the… the Bin Concubine…”

My mouth dropped. I turned back to the Queen, but this seemed to be as shocking to her as it was to me.

“Why would she be here?” the Queen asked.

“I… I don’t know…” the Sanggung mumbled. I had never seen her look this pale, this frightened. Was it bad for a concubine to visit her queen? Or was it bad for her to be here with the King?

 The Queen stood up. “Stay here, Seul-Ki. Prepare my zither.”

I nodded vigorously, moving aside as the Queen glided past me. 

After the two women exited the room, I scampered to bring the zither out of its storage and over to the Queen’s usual seat. I could not remember which direction the instrument should be pointing towards, so I spent the next few minutes turning it, wondering, and turning it again, taking care not to damage the strings. 

The zither was on its fourth rotation when the head palace lady burst into the room once again. Her face was even paler than before, if possible. 

“You… They…” It seemed to take everything out of the Sanggung to complete her sentence. “They… want to see… you…”

“The Queen?”

My heart sank when the head palace lady shook her head.

“No. The… The King.“

And that was when it hit me. Was this because of what I had said last night? Had someone overheard when I yelled at Seul-Na? But that could not be. It had been so late into the night. There had been no one around us. No one that I had seen.

I trudged behind the head palace lady, my heart hammering through my chest, my feet as heavy as my heart. Entering the Great Room, I dropped to my knees and lowered myself to the floor. There were a lot more people in the room than I had expected. The King and the Concubine sat with the Queen, while rows of maids, eunuchs, and guards stood to the side.

“Your Majesty, my King.” The greeting burned my tongue; he was not my King. “Your Ladyship.”

“Seul-Ki.” It was the Queen who addressed me. Her tone was sharp, but her question was what stabbed me. “Tell me, did you call the Concubine a monster?”

I froze. So this was about last night. Someone had heard what I had said. 

And they had snitched on me.

“Did you also,” the Queen added with a low whisper, “say you wanted the King to… die?”

The last word drew a collective gasp from the room—and drew all the air out of my lungs. I forced my stiff body to plunge downwards, slamming my forehead onto the wooden floor.

“P- Please forgive me, Your Majesty!” I cried. “I- I did not mean anything I said! It was late at night, I- I was not thinking, and- and it was a thoughtless slip of the tongue!”

“A slip of the tongue?” a high-pitched, commanding voice exclaimed. “You wished death on the King! This is treason!”

“No, please, Your Ladyship, I—”

“And don’t forget,” a low, gruff voice boomed, “you called my Lady here a monster too. How could such words be a mere slip of the tongue? Do you always speak such treacherous things so casually? Do you possess such a wicked mind?”

My body was shaking uncontrollably now. This was bad. What should I do? Oh, this was bad. I was going to die. 

I recalled that fateful day at the Kang estate. The massacre of my previous masters. The blood, the screams, the First Young Master’s lifeless face.

I was going to die. I was going to die like them.

“Please!” I slammed my forehead down again. “Please forgive me, Your Majesty!” Another slam. “I truly did not mean it!” And another. “Please!”

My head was pounding, my ears were ringing, my vision was blurring, but I kept hitting my forehead and begging. 

“Seul-Ki, stop.”

I stopped at the Queen’s command. I was still glued to the ground, and I was still trembling.

“Joo-Hyun, this servant of yours needs to be punished,” the King demanded. “Guards, take this maid away.”

“No,” the Queen said immediately. “She is my maid. She is my responsibility. I will punish her right now, Your Majesty.”

“Her crimes are unforgivable, Your Majesty,” the Bin Concubine protested. “She needs to be taught a proper lesson.”

“I agree. Unforgivable.” The Queen’s voice sent a chill down my spine. It was the coldest I had ever heard. It was almost unrecognizable. 

There were some light shuffling sounds before I heard her voice again—much closer this time. “Rise, Seul-Ki.”

And when I did, the chills intensified. Her expression was colder than her voice; her fiery eyes alone could drain my life away.

“Your… Your Majesty…” I whimpered. “I’m… sorr—“

She slapped me.

I crashed to the floor, stunned. I had to blink a few times before I realized the sharp pain in my cheek—and in my brain. 

“Get up,” the Queen ordered.

I barely got up to my knees when she slapped me again.

I fell over on the other side. Both my cheeks were burning now. 

“Your… Majesty…” I was crying. I could not help it. Of all people, I never imagined the Queen to be the one hitting me like this.

“Get up.”

It was a struggle to push myself up. As I lifted my head, I noticed the row of servants and eunuchs. They must be working for the King and the Bin Concubine. I had never seen any of them before, except…

I blinked my tears away and saw her.

Seul-Na.

Our eyes locked for a moment. Hers were widened with fear and… guilt. She opened her mouth as if to tell me something, but the Queen grabbed me by my chin to face her.

And she gave me yet another slap.

For the next few minutes, that was all we did. She slapped me, I got up, and she slapped me again. Over and over and over.

I was bleeding from my mouth. I was sobbing and blubbering. I could not speak properly; I could not even breathe. The pain was overwhelming, but the taste was worse. The disgusting blend of iron and salt.

But the worst of it all was the way the Queen glared at me. So angry, so biting, so cold. She was like a goddess of frost in the darkest winter.

I lost count of the slaps by the time the King stopped her.

“That’s enough, Joo-Hyun.”

The Queen peeled her eyes away from me. The King had grabbed her hand mid-air, but her other hand was still holding onto my shoulders. Some time during the ordeal, I had lost the ability to sit upright without support.

“She disrespected you, Your Majesty,” the Queen stated. “She disrespected the both of you.”

“Yes, but I… I think you’ve punished her enough.” There was a tinge of nervousness in the King’s voice. “Don’t you think so too, Soo-Young?”

The Bin Concubine’s previously indignant tone had vanished as well. “Y- Yes… Of course, Your Majesty…”

“As you say, Your Majesty.” The Queen let go of me, and I crumpled onto the ground. “I promise you, my King, that she will not do this again. I will watch over her.”

“Yes, yes, good, you do seem to keep this one under a tight command. Just don’t be too hard on yourself, Joo-Hyun. You are bearing a child, remember. My child.”

“I will, Your Majesty. I am well taken care of.”

“Good. Now, Soo-Young, I hope there’s nothing more to be upset about now. Don’t be so sad anymore, okay?”

The Bin Concubine said a few coy replies, but I was no longer listening. The rest of the world had dissolved around me. All I could hear was the throbbing in my ears; all I could see was the growing pool of red in front of me. And all I could feel was my cheeks—the searing pain, the trickle of warm tears, and the cold wooden floor against it.

The room was quiet, so quiet, until a loud, desperate cry pierced into my ears.

“Sanggung! Go get help!” the Queen pleaded. “Gauze, water, a physician, any help!”

“Y- Yes, Your Majesty!”

I felt my lips tug into a smile. Whatever coldness the Queen had in her voice was gone. She was back to being the sweet, caring woman I loved. She was back to being mine. 

I wanted to cry out in relief, but my throat was blocked with mucus.

“Seul-Ki… oh, Seul-Ki…” the Queen muttered into my ears. Her arms wrapped around my collapsed body. “I’m sorry, Seul-Ki, I’m so sorry.”

I did not reply. I could not. As she whispered her apologies to me over and over, the only thing I could do was sob.