Upon opening the door, Judith saw Tsai standing a few feet in front of her, backing her. Within the second, Tsai turned to her, with a solemn smile on her face.
"You're finally done." Tsai said, with a hint of urgency in her voice.
Judith, now lost on what to say, do or feel, stood frozen. If Tsai was here, then it meant two things. One: her plans were ruined, and she would return to the maid's sleeping quarters, where she would return to sleep, only for the captain to slaughter all his maids to get to her.
Or two: the captain would jump in, kill Tsai right now, so he could get to Judith. Knowing the latter was more practical than the former, Judith acted on instinct and jumped Tsai.
Midway through pushing Tsai and falling onto the ground, an intense pain exploded in Judith's left arm which caused her to scream.
By the time she and Tsai had fallen on the ground, Judith had realized what had caused the pain emanating from her arm. With a groan, she grabbed the knife, unsure if she should pull it out or leave it in place.
"Judith?" Tsai said, as she laid on the floor confused. It had taken her a second, but when she saw Judith bleeding and a knife finely lodged into her arm, her eyes had widened.
"What…what…" Tsai stuttered her words, not even sure what to say.
"Run." Judith said, the words barely distinguishable from a groan.
Tsai sat up, while looking at Judith, who was trying to displace her thoughts from the pain, and onto what she should do.
Judith cursed inwardly as to why Tsai had to follow her. Fear began to creep into her soul, mixing together with the pain screaming within her to form a cocktail of insanity that seemed to overtake her mind at the moment.
With Tsai's safety at the forefront of her thoughts, she forced herself steady and looked at Tsai who was dazed.
"Tsai." Judith forced her mouth to speak the right words, so she could call her attention. When Tsai finally turned to meet her gaze, Judith spoke once more. "Run, now."
Tsai still frozen, hesitantly nodded her head in response, before getting up.
"I'll get hel…" Tsai didn't get to finish her words before the tip of a knife had protruded out of her neck.
In this moment, the world had slowed to a crawl, so Judith could see every minutia unfold before her very eyes. As Tsai stood, still unaware of what had just happened, blood began to drip from the tip of the knife, before coming out of her mouth.
Within the second, Tsai finally understood what the strange pain in her neck was, before turning to Judith with eyes full of fear.
She slowly fell to the ground, as a world of pain began to consume her.
Once she fell, her eyes fixated on Judith as her vision began to dim.
Judith, now frozen in place, did not know how to react. In that moment, she had completely forgotten the pain burning in her arm as she struggled to grapple with what had just happened before her very eyes.
As she stared helplessly at Tsai, a sudden pain began to bloom in her heart, before overturning to a roaring current, which ate Judith from the inside out. She still remained frozen, as she watched Tsai choke on her own blood, whilst becoming more and more lethargic.
Due to the realization that Tsai was dying before her, tears surfaced in Judith's eyes, so a streak drew itself across her nose bone and the side of her right eye.
"What a shame, she was such a nice girl." A voice resounded in the air as a shadow began to form from the side of the storage building not too far from Judith. It didn't take long for the shadow to step into the light of the moon, so the captain could be clearly seen.
He didn't stop walking and made his way to Judith, who had finally got a hold of herself and barely sat up, so she could crawl to Tsai's side.
The captain smiled, feeling more and more anxious, so he dashed toward Judith…or at least he attempted to, but was held in his tracks when he heard Judith speak.
"Lady Qui Lin, please help Tsai." Judith had spoke, whilst turning her gaze in every direction. This act had stirred up a well of confusion within the captain. At first, he assumed Judith had gone mad. But then, he gasped when he saw Lady Qui Lin appear out of thin air beside Judith.
In shock, he stood frozen.
"Step aside." Qui Lin said to Judith as she took a knee beside Tsai. Once she had settled in, the three rings orbiting around her arm had disappeared, then reappeared with slew of different symbols attached to them.
She hovered her hands above Tsai and in an instant, a purple ethereal glow consumed her and concentrated around her bleeding neck.
"When I tell you, pull the knife. Do you understand?" Qui Lin had said to Judith, who nodded with a sniffle as she tried to clean the tears out of her eyes.
The captain like a fool, still stood, watching in disbelief.
As Qui Lin continued to heal Tsai, she then remembered the conversation she had with Judith. It was during the moment that Judith had come to knock on the prince's room. After she had called out Judith on her lack of evidence and threated to kill everyone present in the Outpost, Judith did not keep quiet, but spoke back.
"You don't have to do that." Judith had said, falling her gaze. "Because the captain is who you are looking for." Judith said. Following this, Qui Lin meant to speak, but Judith spoke first. "You are already aware the captain will bring in someone innocent to take the fall for his crimes." Judith spoke, her tone confident and grim, which made Qui Lin listen. "One thing that will definitely show he is guilty, is the fact that this culprit," Judith had emphasized the word 'Culprit' before continuing to speak. "In which he will bring in, will be dead. So he or she could not answer any questions."
The more Judith had spoken, the more Qui Lin found herself believing — to a degree — what Judith was saying.
"But that won't be enough either, so Lady Qui Lin. I want you to do me a favor." Judith said, then raised her gaze so she could look Qui Lin in the eyes. "If you want to find out conclusively who was responsible for killing your prince. Then I need you to follow Qiao, once the Phoenix sets."