[PS: I'll make up for Little Red Riding Hood's missing scenes in later chapters.]
Broken Rainbow had originally wanted to keep going.
She crouched in the shadows at the turn of the stairs, white hair spilling behind her shoulders, the light in her green eyes refracting like shattered glass beneath the dim yellow wall lamp.
She still pinched the back hem of Porsette's cloak, idly rubbing the edge of its red cross-shaped cloth patch between her fingertips.
Porsette stood before her, her gold eyes wet, moisture clinging to her lashes, her lips pressed into a line, looking like a little mouse cornered by a cat.
Her shoulders trembled, but only slightly, as though she deliberately controlled it so that only the outermost layer of fabric quivered.
Broken Rainbow tilted her head and leaned a little closer.
"What are you shaking for? I haven't hit you."
Porsette pressed her lower lip in again.
"Big sister... I really was just-"
"You walked down the third-floor corridor twice just now. The first time, you were looking for the stairs. The second, you were checking the wall lamps' positions." Broken Rainbow released her cloak and tapped her own temple. "You figured that wall lamp's switch was connected to the indicator light in Mother's study, so you deliberately avoided the route toward the front hall."
Porsette's pupils contracted for an instant.
It was too quick.
So quick that, if Broken Rainbow's Eye of Bewilderment hadn't possessed an innate ability to detect emotions, no one would have noticed that fleeting flash of panic.
Porsette's voice remained soft, as soft as if she held a mouthful of water. "I... I don't know my way around. You've misunderstood, big sister..."
Broken Rainbow smiled.
When she smiled, her pointed canines showed at the corners of her lips, almost dazzlingly white in the dim light.
She leaned forward, her forehead nearly touching the edge of Porsette's hood, and stared straight into those gold pupils with her green eyes.
"Do you think I can't tell you're lying?"
Porsette stopped breathing.
That feeling-the feeling of meeting Broken Rainbow's Eye of Bewilderment at close range-was like someone reaching into your chest, gripping your heart, and slowly tightening their hand.
It wasn't quite painful, but you knew it was there.
Porsette had seen eyes like these before.
During her days in Red Letter, she had seen Broken Rainbow look at others with those eyes.
Some of those people had gone weak in the knees, some had burst into tears on the spot, and some had stood motionless, as though their souls had been pulled out.
She wasn't afraid of pain.
What she feared was being seen through.
Being seen through meant exposure, and exposure meant losing all room to maneuver.
"What beautiful eyes."
Broken Rainbow's voice suddenly softened.
She reached out, stopping her fingertips half an inch from Porsette's cheek, as though admiring something.
"The fear in those eyes of yours is real. But the fear you're acting out on your face is fake." Broken Rainbow tilted her head, white hair slipping off her shoulder. "Do you know what that's called?"
Porsette's throat shifted.
"It's called-"
"Enough."
The voice came from above the corridor, quiet but even.
Jin'en stood behind the second-floor railing, one hand resting on it, his trench coat's collar turned up. The silver-gray streaks in his black hair were almost invisible in the dim light.
Broken Rainbow didn't know when he had appeared there.
Porsette knew even less.
Broken Rainbow turned her head and glanced up.
"When did you get here?"
"When you grabbed her cloak."
Broken Rainbow narrowed her eyes, the light shifting in their green depths.
She withdrew her fingertips from beside Porsette's face, slipped her hand into her pocket, and tilted her head at Jin'en.
"Going to interfere?"
Jin'en came down the stairs from the second-floor corridor at an unhurried pace, his military boots making dull thuds against the wooden floor.
He reached the first floor and stopped between Broken Rainbow and Porsette.
Broken Rainbow was half a head shorter than him. She looked up at him, that smile still on her lips, though its curve had diminished.
"Mother didn't tell you to interfere," she said.
"No. She didn't tell you to stop her, either."
"I wasn't stopping her. I was playing with her." Broken Rainbow's tone was airy. "She's our new little sister. I had to say hello."
"Your way of saying hello is making her walk up and down the third-floor corridor twice, then cornering her at the stairs?"
Broken Rainbow pursed her lips.
Jin'en stopped looking at her and turned toward Porsette.
Porsette still stood by the stairs, her cloak's hood slightly askew, revealing long, pale silver-white hair tinged with lavender underneath.
Her hands were still twisted together in front of her. She raised her gold eyes from beneath the hood's shadow to look at Jin'en, her gaze resting on his face for a second.
Then she did something Jin'en hadn't expected.
She stepped forward twice and threw her arms around his waist.
It wasn't a clingy, affectionate hug. It was an "if I let go, I'll fall" hug.
Her arms locked tightly around his waist, her face buried in his trench coat, the animal-eared hood atop her head brushing against his chest.
She pressed her whole body against Jin'en, like a vine that had finally found a wall.
Jin'en glanced down at her.
This time, her shoulders were truly shaking, much more noticeably than they had before Broken Rainbow.
Broken Rainbow stood beside them with both hands in her pockets, her head tilted as she watched, the curve of her lips turning a little subtle.
"Oh?"
Jin'en ignored her.
"You certainly know how to find yourself a backer," Broken Rainbow added, sounding faintly entertained.
Porsette didn't turn around, but Jin'en felt her arms tighten a little more around his waist.
Broken Rainbow watched for two seconds, then shrugged.
"Fine. Since big brother's actually going to play favorites, I'll be off."
She turned and headed toward the main corridor, her bare feet making almost no sound on the wooden floor.
At the corner, she turned her head, her green eyes curving.
"But you'd better think this through, big brother," she said, drawing out her words. "At least I'm only playing when I tease her. You know better than I do why Mother brought her to Red Letter."
She left.
Only Jin'en and Porsette, who was clinging to his waist, remained in the corridor.
Silence lasted a few seconds.
Jin'en looked down at the top of that red hood.
The stitching on its cross-shaped patch was slightly crooked, as though the person who had sewn it hadn't had steady hands.
"Let go," he said.
Porsette didn't.
"I said, let go."
"No." Her voice rose from beside his waist, muffled and slightly nasal.
It was completely different from the deliberately soft, sweet tone she'd used before Broken Rainbow.
This voice was huskier, quieter, and sounded more real.
Jin'en said, "How long are you planning to cling to me?"
Porsette said, "Until you leave."
Jin'en sighed.
He didn't pull Porsette off him.
He didn't know what to do.
Daffodil's hug back then had lasted only a few seconds. Broken Rainbow never clung to him like this, and Flora would only tug at his sleeve at most.
Porsette pressed her whole body against him. Even through his trench coat, he could feel that her temperature was rather low, like a cat that had spent too long in the rain.
"I can't walk with you like this."
"You can drag me along."
Jin'en fell silent for a beat.
"...Are you serious?"
Porsette didn't answer, but her arms tightened even more around his waist.
Jin'en stood there, his right hand hanging at his side.
The silver markings beneath his cuff remained quiet, without lighting up.
After a moment's thought, he raised his right hand and held it above Porsette's head.
He paused for a second.
Then he lowered his palm, resting it gently on top of her hood.
Just one pat.
Very light.
Porsette's shoulders shook once.
Then their trembling lessened.
Jin'en's voice was even. "The exits from the Scarlet Letter Mansion, the nighttime patrol schedule, the wall lamp switches' locations. You're planning an escape route, aren't you?"
Porsette's face remained buried in his trench coat. Several seconds passed before she stirred.
"Will you tell Mother?"
"No."
Porsette lifted her head.
Her hood had slipped back as she rubbed against Jin'en's trench coat, letting her long, pale silver-white hair tinged with lavender spill down. The end of one of her two braids had come loose.
Her gold eyes looked at Jin'en, their rims slightly red, but she wasn't crying.
A little moisture still clung to her lashes, the remnants of those few tears she'd squeezed out in front of Broken Rainbow.
"Why?"
Jin'en looked at her face.
That face looked far too sweet.
Round eyes, a little nose, a pointed chin, along with that animal-eared hood.
But the way she looked at people was wrong-when Porsette looked at someone, her pupils focused farther away than an ordinary child's.
"Because the places you've scouted are no use," Jin'en said.
Porsette blinked.
"The wall lamp at the front entrance is connected to the indicator light in Mother's study. You avoided the front entrance, but you didn't avoid the back alley." Jin'en withdrew his hand from her hood and slipped it into his trench coat pocket. "The back alley exit has only one lock. It's old. You can't get it open."
Porsette stared at him for two seconds.
"How do you know I checked the back alley?"
"Because you stood at the end of the second-floor west-wing corridor for ten minutes today," Jin'en said. "From there, you can see both the back alley exit and the direction of the front hall. You were comparing them."
Porsette pressed her lips together.
Then she released her arms from his waist, stepped half a pace back, and looked up at him.
Her expression changed.
That timid look, those reddened eyes, that appearance of being ready to cry at any moment-all of it vanished.
In its place was a kind of quiet.
Very quiet observation.
"You've been watching me," she said.
"I watch everyone in Red Letter."
"Why?"
Jin'en looked at her.
The Porsette standing before him now seemed like an entirely different person from the one who had been there before Broken Rainbow.
Her back had straightened, her hands hung at her sides, and her gold eyes shone clearly in the dim light, her gaze no longer evasive.
Jin'en suddenly remembered the day Inanna had brought Porsette back, the way she had surveyed the corridor from the entrance hall.
There had been a composure in that gaze utterly at odds with her age. Even then, he'd felt that something was off about this girl.
Now that feeling was stronger.
"How old are you?" Jin'en asked.
"Eight."
"You didn't blink when you said that." Jin'en tilted his head. "So you're telling the truth."
Porsette tilted her head. The motion resembled Broken Rainbow's a little, but it was smaller, more restrained.
"You observe people so carefully," she said, her tone barely fluctuating. "Even more carefully than big sister. She looks at emotions. You look at-"
She paused.
"Habits."
Jin'en didn't respond.
Porsette brushed her loosened braid behind her shoulder, moving gently. Her fingers paused when they reached its end, as though she had only just noticed it had come undone.
She glanced at that loose lock of hair. The corner of her mouth moved, but no smile formed.
"Why did you help me just now?" she said.
"I didn't help you."
"You stopped my sister."
"I stopped her because she was making too much noise." Jin'en leaned against the stair railing, his shoulder resting against the wood, and lightly tapped the toe of his military boot on the floor. "You could hear it from the second-floor hallway. If Mother asks about it tomorrow morning, you'll have a hard time, and she'll be in trouble too."
Porsette stared at him for a few seconds.
"So you were helping her."
"I'm not helping anyone," Jin'en said. "I just don't want to hear Mother lecturing people first thing in the morning."
Porsette's gaze shifted from his face to his right hand. His cuff covered it completely, but her gaze landed precisely where the silver markings were.
"Your hand," she said. "It lit up just now."
Jin'en looked down at his right hand.
Beneath his cuff, the silver markings were glowing. It was very faint, but a weak silver light was visible even through the fabric.
He tugged his sleeve down.
"You saw it?"
"I saw it." Porsette took a step forward and tilted her head up to look at his face.