Episode Six
“Oh — there was a lock…”
I’d been too busy overthinking to notice it was even there.
Selene moved towards me without hurry, and by the time I registered it, the smile had already left her face. I didn’t have time to resist before I was pushed back onto the bed.
“Wait — I’ll make noise! A loud noise—!”
“That’s fine.”
Looking up at her from the bed, there was no trace of the White Witch left in her face. Only those unreadable eyes, fixed steadily on me.
“I know you won’t.”
My pulse was too loud. Selene is always different during the supply — but tonight she was something else entirely. Locking the door didn’t usually lead to this.
“Wait—!”
“I won’t.”
The words landed low and slow, and then a damp warmth was tracing the curve of my ear. Deliberately making sound — pressing and releasing — then tracing again with her tongue, softly. With each small wet sound against my ear, the strength drained out of my arms and legs.
Both arms pinned. Legs caught and tangled. No way to move.
“…Wait — please, I mean it, wait—”
My breathing had gone shallow. The mana flowing into me from Selene was moving through my whole body, carrying heat with it. It should have felt wrong — and it did, but not entirely. Something else was mixed in, and I couldn’t separate them.
…ah—.
The sound that had been close against me stopped, and a faint pain ran across my throat. Over and over, at each visible place, sounds and marks were left behind.
Hot. My whole body kept being hot. Whether the heat was mine or coming from Selene, I couldn’t tell. At this rate I was going to be overwhelmed by it.
“Wait — mana — it’s too much—”
My voice must have pulled something back into her, because Selene lifted her face immediately and looked down at me in quiet.
The sensation of heat moving through my whole body. My thoughts spinning loose. The moment mana is being poured into me — I have never, not once, gotten used to it.
Even while she waited for me to recover, her fingers were tracing each mark she’d left, one by one. Just fingertips touching skin — and yet my awareness narrowed entirely to those points, and I couldn’t hold back the small sounds that escaped.
She hadn’t come back to herself at all.
“…Selene. You’re strange tonight…”
I steadied my breathing and tried to hold her gaze, but my bravado didn’t reach her. She brought her face close again. The bed sank deep beneath me, and I felt as though every way out had closed.
“I mean it — this doesn’t make any sense—!”
The supply should have been done long ago. Even if this was for tomorrow — beyond this point, it was already—
Just as my toes were curling, Selene finally raised her head.
Her face, I thought, was faintly flushed too.
My breathing still wouldn’t settle. I turned my face to the side to hide it, and pushed out the words that had been stuck in my throat.
“What are you doing… This is wrong. Tonight was supposed to be just hands.”
“This way the mana goes in properly.”
“And we should sleep early tonight — for tomorrow.”
She said it without any change of expression. My words stuck again.
After all of that — with Selene right here beside me — there was no way I was falling asleep quickly.
“…None of this makes sense.”
I tried once more to look up at her and hold her gaze — and then something caught my eye.
“Wait. The mirror — where is it?”
Never mind my dishevelled clothes. I looked around the whole room for the mirror.
“There.”
She pointed toward the entrance. I shot her a look and went to stand in front of it.
“…Oh no.”
Just as I’d feared. The worst.
“What am I supposed to do about this… Selene…”
A scattering of pale marks across my throat. Each one still feeling warm.
If I let my hair down, it would cover most of them. But look closely and they’d still show — and wearing my hair differently from usual would only draw more attention.
“Hey — is it really all right for the Black Witch to be walking around like this?”
“It’s fine.”
The same flat voice as always.
“The White Witch and the Black Witch are close, after all.”
The corner of her well-shaped mouth curved, just slightly.
— Sion makes the most exquisite face when I’m giving her supply.
Yesterday’s words crossed my mind.
“Oh, just — the worst!!”
Normally I’d go back to my own room, fall straight asleep to forget all of it, and by morning the awkwardness would somehow have dissolved.
That was how I’d been getting by. But tonight I had to stay here until morning, right here beside her.
“Sion.”
Her voice, called with something almost gentle in it. Please don’t use that voice right now.
“The supply is a necessary act. Holding hands takes too long, and if the purity of the mana entering your body is low, it might affect the quality of your magic.”
“It’s something you need to live. You don’t have any reason to be embarrassed.”
As if none of what had just happened existed, she arranged a faint smile and laid out her words without a single stumble.
There were things I wanted to say back. But too many feelings were churning somewhere behind my thoughts, and I couldn’t pull them into order. The face in the mirror was flushed in a way that didn’t look like mine, and I couldn’t keep looking at it.
“…Fine. I’m going to sleep.”
I looked away from the mirror with a sigh and dragged my heavy body towards the bed. How many times had I sighed today, counting from this morning.
“One thing first.”
“Why did you leave marks like that? You’ve never done that before.”
I was glad, at least, that we weren’t in the capital. There were people who knew us there, and the Bulletin besides. Even here, Kiaran and Uno were under the same roof, and this wasn’t something anyone should see.
Selene appeared to consider it for a moment, then let her eyes soften slowly.
“I needed to make it clear that Sion belongs to me. There was something bothersome around.”
“…None of that makes sense. The mana — thank you. Don’t do anything strange tomorrow.”
I turned my back to her, pulled the covers over myself, and pressed my eyes shut. The warmth that lingered in the bed kept bringing it back, and sleep didn’t seem likely to come for a while.