Alice leaned closer to her breath-taken guide, who could but didn’t push away her client. The waterfall perfumed tiny, sparkling vapours that tainted this dim valley in a luminous green shade. Glowing vines coiled around slanted trees while fluorescent mushrooms covered the land.

Sweats ran down Iris’s cheeks. Her client’s warm breath tickled her nose. There was an inviting scent, an odour that heated her chest. Even the murmurs of the splashing waterfall failed to suppress the devilish whispers in her ears.

“You’ll get a cramp if you tense that much,” Alice said. “Am I too close?”

“I . . . don’t mind. I’m just unprepared. Something about you confuses me.”

“If you do not know what to do, you can always leave it to me.”

“To do what, Lady Alice?”

“In this place, I’m no Lady. I’m Alice, your Alice.”

Iris swallowed. She became conscious of her humid clothes, made uncomfortable by the floating vapours and her fuzzy body temperature. Her client did not move away, but she also refused to close that small yet significant gap. She hovered ever so out of reach, waiting for her anxious partner to take that final leap.

Against her code of conduct, Iris couldn’t bring herself to refuse this advance, this sugary trap from which she could never return.

She had only met Alice twice. How could she fall so hopelessly and irresistibly?

“Why are you so beautiful?” Iris shivered. “Please forget everything. I sound too foolish.”

“I can bring out your charm, if you allow me.”

“Your offer sounds like a devil’s temptation.”

“Maybe I am a devil. Would you reject me if that were the case?”

Holding her breath, Iris chose not to press on. Alice might have been a devil, but knowing the truth would change nothing when that devil had already gotten to her.

“Are you afraid of my charm?” Alice said. “You should’ve already ascertained my identity.”

“Would you truthfully answer?” Iris glanced away. Her other client sat at the edge of the hot spring, waving her legs in the swirling water while humming a tone muffled by the surrounding noises. She was unconcerned with what her mistress was doing with her victim.

Alice chuckled. “We’ve already shared a secret. More will only deepen our bond.”

“Do you want that?”

“Until we cross the line.”

Fragmented visions played in Iris’s mind. Her client’s gentle touch carefully gave her body an indescribable sensation while her buttons came loose and her uniform slipped from her figure. The knocked-over lantern illuminated only dimly, projecting an intertwined shadow against the dense forest.

She instinctively pushed away her client, her heart almost giving out. Her welling eyes looked everywhere but Alice’s face. That unearthly smile would take away her restraint and doom her.

“Did you . . . do anything to me?” Iris said. “Are you . . . a succubus?”

Alice moved away from her nervous yet excited guide. She fell on her back, the blanket cushioning her back. She lay unmoving, staring through gaps between thick overgrowth at the faint stars whose radiance fought back the twilight.

“My scent bewitches people in whom I’ve taken an interest.” Alice sighed. “I couldn’t control it, nor could I force anyone to obey me.”

A cold gush blew toward Iris. She curiously inhaled the fruity scent that muddled her mind and loosened her soul. She flushed upon realizing her action, but the shame no longer felt unbearable.

“What were you planning to do?” Iris pursed her lips and lay beside her client. “Did you really come here to enjoy the waterfall?”

“Could my objective be you?”

“It . . . would be surprising.”

“Would it be unacceptable, or expected?”

“I am but an orphan with a small circle of friends. We live a humble and mundane life, away from the mystic world of the supernatural and the magical.”

“Even if you spoke of my secrets, I wouldn’t fault you.”

“Displeasing her client is a sign of an inadequate guide.”

“What about giving her body to her client?”

Iris couldn’t answer that question. Multiple thoughts bubbled in her, but like the waterfall they crashed with her heart and burst apart as warm air coursed through her chest. She couldn’t bring herself to choose, not right now, not in this entrancing atmosphere.

“This is too sudden.” Iris too slowly lay on her back and stared at the dome of leaves and branches. “You’ve only met me twice, both professionally. I . . . am not the person you know.”

“Do you believe in ideal love, of soulmates destined for one another?”

“Do you, Alice?”

“We are not made incomplete, not made to fulfil another incomplete heart.”

“Then what is love?”

“This adventurous heart chooses its partners irrationally.” Alice reached futilely for the sky. “There are no missing pieces, only extra. We give away ours in the hope of leaving a piece of us with them.”

“A fragment of self is something precious, too precious to give away carefreely.”

“This carefree appearance is just as cultivated as your calm demeanour.”

Iris blinked as a faint pinkness appeared on her face. She covered her eyes with her arm, yet the glowing blue light from the dark forest still reached her pupils.

“I can’t give you an answer yet. It’s too soon, too formal, and too ambiguous.” Iris, tensing up, drew back her arm covering her embarrassment. “But we can make an effort to know enough other . . . more intimately.”

“In what way, Dear Iris?”

Iris dared not look at Alice, or at Antina who had already sunk into the hot spring, floating like a feather drifting to a dancing gale. The words echoing in her head loosened the chains binding her heart. She must tread carefully, or she might find herself overwhelmed by freedom.

The temptation became harder to ignore, harder to make excuses.

“I’ll tell you about the me outside of work, the me you haven’t met,” Iris said. “And you will tell me about yourself. Won’t you?”

“Our shared intimacy will get us closer, deeper in our relationship.”

“Please don’t phrase it so dubiously.”

“We can get rid of the ambiguity,” Alice said. “By fulfilling every sense of the words.”

A big splash rose from the hot spring. Transient pillars of water formed a palace wall before collapsing like parting curtains, revealing Antina at the centre. She held out her hands, above which floated a bat-winged pulsating eyeball. Its veiny pupils frantically darted around but failed to escape its captor.

She clenched her fist. An invisible pressure distorted the eyeball and splattered it as black inks that diffused in the air.

Iris gasped. The boiling emotion within her fizzled away like candlelight snuffed by a cold, mighty hand. She turned to look at Alice, who gave a satisfied smile at her maid before pouring her tender attention onto her nervous little guide.

“You may hug me if it becomes unbearable.” Her voice vibrated, dancing around her guide’s ears. “We’ve gotten a little closer, haven’t we?”

Iris deeply inhaled. The tightness in her chest returned, but she could still feel the sharpness of her clothes rustling against her back, her shoulders, and her thighs. Those disgusting eyes hid among the shadows, observing her, observing her clients.

“Is this a constant . . . in your life?” Iris said.

“Stressful, is it not?” Alice placed her hand on her guide’s palm. “Maybe this is why I need your company. Would you grant my selfish, dangerous wish?”

“Can I ever refuse?”

Alice covered her mouth and giggled. Her wavering motion, her slightest tremor, demanded all attention from her guide, who found herself instinctively holding her breaths.

The elegant lady, whose appearance resembled her, existed in a world outside her understanding, with temperament outside her imagination.

To don so serene an expression despite what had just transpired . . .

“Love cannot be forced,” Alice said. “A tie with me is dangerous; I would fault no one who doesn’t wish to join this hectic part of the world.”

Iris grasped her client’s hand. She was scared, but that alone couldn’t extinguish her ember.

“I was born somewhere on this earth, but my life only began in an orphanage.

“As a child I used to sneak out in the middle of the night. I would sleep under a large tree nearby. The twinkling stars and bright moon were like a play I could only watch from afar. They spoke of a thrilling adventure into a magical world where dreams come true.

“But I only enjoyed them as an audience. This peace is what keeps me safe and happy, although I sometimes imagine what it would be if I were to think otherwise.”

“Then why did you leave the comfort of your home and come to this place?”

“Is a magical attraction an acceptable answer?”

“Is it to you?”

“Maybe that child-like spirit within me still exists; I love this peace, but I cannot bear to live so monotonously through it. A contradiction, aren’t I?”

“Do you regret it?”

“Would you comfort me if I did?”

“Would you allow me?”

Iris opened her mouth before she resisted the urge to answer. She had no idea what her answer would be, but giving it so frivolously would be unwise.

Alice sat up straight. Antina slowly came out of the hot spring. A faint layer of steam enveloped her body until the last drop of water dissipated away from her swimming attire. She stopped in front of her mistress and knelt.

She drew her hand forward, revealing a grey iron cross snapped in half. Dark, shrivelled veins which infested its surface left only ash-like marks bearing an imprint of a clutched hand.

“Gentle Crown,” Antina said. “But there is also a hint of Eye of Masolis and Skull of Mystery.”

Iris got up to intensely listen to the names of these Evil Cults. She had heard of them in passing but lacked the knowledge about their influences and cruelty. Only her client’s calm expression gave her a sense of security.

“You’re much more special than you realized,” Alice said. “The eye isn’t something aimed at us; it tracked you, Dear Iris.”

“They . . . stalked me?”

“Have you been taking good care of my gift?”

Iris looked around before she unbuttoned her uniform, revealing a glimmering necklace, the green raindrop-shaped emerald that she adorned every day. She touched the gem lovingly and looked at Alice.

“I hope you don’t mind my making it into a necklace.”

“It’s already yours.” Alice grabbed the broken cross. “Keep it by your side, let it immerse in your scent, and it shall become truly a part of you.”

“The way you flirt is too strange, Alice.”

“I am serious. The necklace will wand against the harm that may befall you.”

Iris shook her head. “What did I possess that warranted their attention?”

Her ordinary life left no clue for her answer, except for her appearance, which impossibly bore the semblance of her client, her enigmatic, mystical Alice.

“Might you have known something?” she said.

“Only but an idea. Would you like to confirm it?”

Antina stood back up and swiped her hands to her sides. Dark purple waves of light followed her grace, flowing outward. The tide formed a dome enclosing the valley, keeping the three ladies separated from the outside.

Alice shifted closer to her guide. Iris closed her eyes, feeling a gentle touch on her neck. She became conscious of every subtle brushing, shivering and struggling to hold in her voice.

“Keep your eyes closed and relax. I’ll cast a spell that will take us into your memory, into the moment you received my gift.” Alice’s voice was too close. “Hold onto me if it’s uncomfortable. Tell me if it’s intolerable.”

Iris weakly nodded. Bright blue light pierced through her eyelids and flooded her body. Buzzing noises crowded her mind, chasing away all thoughts except for the image of her emerald necklace, held by Alice’s beautifully slender hands.

They looked so gorgeous.