There was no pain quite like a broken heart. 

Perhaps the knowledge of that was what kept Grace as an eligible bachelorette, even as she reached the age where many young women began to search for a husband or wife. However she was also the kind of person who struggled to remain committed to one lover for very long, even in the select few times she found herself genuinely caring for someone. 

Xiangling had been a pleasant distraction while she was in Norwich, but frankly even if Lihua had not meddled in her relationship, Grace was fairly certain she would have moved on shortly afterwards. Now over three months had passed and Grace had spent more time with Yuxi than any other girl. 

I have no idea why I’m so obsessed with you. Grace thought as she pulled the curvaceous young woman a bit closer to her in order to nuzzle their hips together. Somewhere lost in the bundle of soft, velvety sheets was their entertainment for the night. Pretty little specks who squished nicely beneath the bodies of the two giantesses as they rolled around in bed. Maybe it’s because you are so hard to read? Whatever the case may be… I don’t feel the allure of any woman but you.

Grace blinked and realized she was gawking. She stifled a chuckle at her own weakness and slipped out of bed for a glass of water in the kitchen. Normally she would have moved on by now, yet here she was admiring Yuxi like some lovey-dovey schoolgirl. 

Love was something that Grace was admittedly uncomfortable with. She had seen firsthand how disastrous a broken relationship could be, whether it was romantic or familial. Jisoo had wasted away for a year because of what happened to her adoptive family, and now the same thing could happen again with Eren. 

That wasn’t the future Grace wanted for her beloved cousin, or her dear friend who had formed dangerous thoughts that would have certainly gotten him killed. She wanted them to be happy together. It was what they both deserved after a lifetime of pain. 

Eren isn’t perfect yet. He still makes mistakes from time to time, but Maeve always catches him and holds him accountable. She’s such a darling. Grace thought as she poured herself a cold glass of water then sauntered over to the couch. 

There was a pile of clothes that Yuxi had not put away yet, while the maid was doing chores Grace had dragged her away for a bit of fun in the bedroom. She could always get around to it some other time, and Grace was not terribly particular about laundry.

As she thought, Grace aimlessly stared at the pile of clothes as she drank, preoccupied with her thoughts for several minutes until she eventually determined she was not tired enough to sleep just yet. 

I need some fresh air… I’m sure Eren and Maeve would appreciate the same thing. Grace thought and rose to her feet to get dressed. Rather than risk returning to the bedroom which might wake up Yuxi, she instead picked a random top off the pile of unfolded clothes the maid left behind.

She frowned as she felt something brush against her torso for a brief moment. It was subtle, almost too subtle to tell but Grace swore she felt something hard slide against her skin on the inside of the shirt. Certainly not part of the soft fabric or even a designer tag.

Out of curiosity, Grace pulled the shirt off over her head again and fumbled with it to see if she could locate whatever she had felt earlier. Eventually she felt something on the bottom of the shirt, near the seam. It was a tiny, hard little thing that her finger kept brushing against. 

What is this? 

Grace blinked a few more times and allowed her vision to sharpen in the darkness. Her eyes were much more powerful than an ordinary person’s, but a consequence was that she normally perceived even a dark room as brightly lit. It took training to learn how to undo that so she could ‘turn it off’ whenever she needed to sleep. 

As her perception increased she quickly recognized that the small foreign object was some kind of tiny electronic. It was around the same size as a single grain of rice. She narrowed her brow.

Is this… No way is this what I think it is… Grace thought as she stared intently at the device. After a few moments she considered what this could mean, before gingerly returning it to the shirt where it had been neatly hidden into the woven seam where it normally would have been completely invisible.

…That can’t be the only one.

Eren heard the booming footsteps approach in the middle of the night and woke up groggily. He blinked several times and remembered where he was, then looked across the terrarium to find where Maeve had also just woken up. 

The lights never turned on. Instead he felt the presence of a humongous person enter the room, then glanced upwards to see Grace with a peculiar look on her face. A chill ran down Eren’s back.

D-Did she find out me and Maeve were bluffing? How would she~? Before either speck could say anything, Grace raised her index finger to her lips to silence both of them. Obediently, Eren said nothing as her massive hand entered their terrarium. 

Maeve looked over to him in concern but also remained quiet. They could both tell that Grace was looking for something, but had no idea what she could possibly be after. They didn’t own anything they had not been provided and were not foolish enough to sneak in anything that might help them escape, so there wasn’t anything for her to find as she turned over their beds and checked beneath the carpet.

The only thing she could possibly find would be… Just as Eren realized it, it seemed Maeve had the same idea and both looked towards the metal hinge which latched the terrarium shut. Grace noticed the subtle movement and narrowed her eyes, then carefully inspected the hinge.

It only took her a few seconds to locate the listening device that Eren knew had planted there months ago. The same kind of device that was in Grace’s shoes and some of her clothes he occasionally found. 

Why is she so surprised to find the bug? Does that mean Grace never knew they were there? He realized. Yuxi… she must have been the one to do it. Grace was never spying on us, Yuxi was spying on everybody.

A small drop of moisture suddenly fell into the terrarium. Eren looked up in confusion before his heart skipped a beat when he noticed the tears slowly beginning to roll off Grace’s cheeks and into the enclosure she kept her pets in. Her eyes had become watery and she was staring aimlessly at the wall. 

What felt like hours passed before she finally set the listening device back where she had found it and sighed deeply. “…What a shame.” Grace murmured before she turned on her heel and left the room. 

In the highest mountain peaks on the planet, it was unsurprisingly very difficult to procure many fresh ingredients for meals. However, one of her mother’s favorite hobbies was gardening. She struggled to get anything to grow at this altitude, but Jisoo was able to scrounge up some spring onions that looked decent.

After a thorough inspection of the pantry, she also found some flour and salt. And in the cellar she found yak butter. It was more than enough to make something delicious. 

Normally when she cooked, Jisoo listened to music. However she did not have a speaker or any means to play anything, so she instead simply listened to the ambience of the Himalayas. The wind cresting over the peaks and rushing through the rocky outcrops, the gentle chime of bells in the monastery grounds, and the crackling of the fire she had prepared. 

It’s peaceful here. Jisoo thought as she gently kneaded the dough. Even when she was in her normal kitchen she never used measurements. It felt wrong to reduce cooking, an artistic expression into such strict parameters. Her intuition was a far better judge of what a dish needed.

“Did your father teach you how to cook?” A gentle voice asked from the kitchen doorway, followed by footsteps. Her mother stepped into the room and glanced over her eldest daughter's shoulder to see what she was making and what ingredients she had readied.

Keqing smiled fondly. “Cōngyóubing?” She mused as she observed the process. “Byung-ho was always very fond of this dish. He often made it several times a week.”

“…It’s the first recipe from him that I mastered.” Jisoo replied softly. “He loves scallions so I always add a little extra.”

“I once teased him about that. His breath often smelled of spring onion.” 

“Does Suji ever cook?”

“Unfortunately she takes after me and can hardly scramble eggs.” Keqing chuckled while Jisoo covered the kneaded dough to let it rest. 

Jisoo glanced outside and noticed that the sun had gone down over the horizon a bit faster than she anticipated. She had wanted to have everything ready for dinner within the hour but would probably need a little more time than that. Hopefully the rest of the monastery inhabitants would not mind. 

The idea of feeding dozens of people with so few ingredients had frightened Jisoo at first, until she realized with the exception of her mother and sister, every single one of them was a speck. That made it much easier to feed so many. 

“Xú never wants you to leave. He says he can’t imagine life without your cooking anymore. It’s the first time I’ve seen him smile in quite some time.” Keqing noted and passed her daughter a towel for her to wipe her hands with. “The people here really like you, but you seem very distant at dinner and never speak with anybody.” Her mother mentioned.

I’m not comfortable with how they look at me. With smiles and a complete lack of concern. Jisoo thought to herself. “I’m grateful for the hospitality. But I’m still getting adjusted to how things work around here and just want to focus on what we discussed earlier.” She explained. “Please don’t take it the wrong way.”

“You have a very long road ahead of you. There’s no point in rushing through your healing process.” Keqing replied. “Some of the people here have been here for decades and still can’t sleep at night. Nightmares of their past sins keep them up and every day they experience remorse.”

“I don’t have that kind of time.”

“Both you and Suji are still young and are in such a hurry to sprint to the finish line that you refuse to see what harm that does to yourselves.” Keqing observed with a sigh. “But it’s your choice to determine how long you stay here, of course.”

I still don’t see why you are so… relaxed. With everything our family is trying to do to the world in the coming months why aren’t you doing anything? Jisoo thought but realized there was no point in trying to change Keqing’s mind about Operation Deliverance or the Amrita Corporation. In a way, not preventing Suji from interfering was an action, even if indirect. “It’s not dinner time yet, how come you aren’t still meditating?”

“I wanted to see if you needed any help getting dinner ready, but looking at how efficient you are I believe I would only slow you down.” Her mother responded. “And I also just wanted to spend a bit of time with you like this.”

“…I really appreciate that, mom.” 

Around an hour later and a bit past the time when dinner was usually served, Jisoo had fried up the scallion pancakes and prepared a dipping sauce for the dozens of monastery denizens. Suji returned from further down the mountain with some additional firewood and took a break to eat as well.

The two sisters and their mother were the only normal sized inhabitants of the monastery, but sat on mats placed outside in the center of the village near the temple alongside the others. As usual, Keqing altered her size to fit in rather than lord over everybody as a two hundred foot tall titan.

‘It’s a form that brings us a little closer to our true selves, but when not mediating I don’t see a reason to exacerbate the differences between myself and the people who trust me with their lives even more than I already have.’

‘What do you mean by ‘true selves’? I know me and Suji are reincarnations but~?’

‘Meditate on what your power means to you, and what you have done with it in the past. Knowing all of that, what will you do with it in the future, unbridled by what the Amrita Corporation wanted of you?’

The more time Jisoo spent with her mother and sister, the more she realized how much more their bloodline was capable of. Suji could shrink people into practically any size she desired with a thought, and evidently was much stronger physically than even top-tier assassins like Grace or Suyin. 

And her mother frankly seemed more comfortable as a titaness than a normal sized person, but could alter her size to seemingly anything she wished. They both scratched the surface of the divine that for such a long time Jisoo had thought herself heir to~.

I’m not a goddess. I have powers ordinary people don’t, but that does not give me the right to belittle their lives or place any value on another person. Jisoo snapped at herself. The strong should protect those who cannot protect themselves, and they should always strive to use their power to help others. No matter how terrible they may seem, everybody deserves a chance at redemption. 

And that includes myself. Jisoo thought as she heard her mothers wisdom ring inside her head. It was true that for the past two weeks since her arrival she had kept to herself despite frequent attempts by others to know her better. 

She had still thought of herself as an irredeemable monster and it shattered her worldview when they looked at her with empathy and kindness. Every person in the monastery was also guilty of heinous crimes in the past. Murderers and scoundrels who a mere year ago, Jisoo would have happily slaughtered and called it divine justice. 

Now they lived simple lives as they tried to repair themselves and find courage to forgive themselves for what they had done under her mother’s guidance. 

Jisoo glanced over her shoulder where the others had congregated. As per usual at dinner, she had picked a quiet spot away from everybody after she served food and would typically leave early. Suji, in contrast, loved the communal gatherings and shared jokes with everybody present.

You are trying to improve, but you’re still afraid to trust yourself around other people. You think that given the slightest provocation, you’ll snap and go back to your old ways. The voice had not gone away inside of Jisoo’s head. Although sometimes nowadays she could not tell whether it was her real personality trying to claw its way outside of the cage the Amrita Corporation’s training had built around it, or if it was just her normal thoughts articulating her conscience more sternly.

Either way it had not led her astray so far to listen. She mustered the courage to stand up and gathered her food, then sauntered towards where everybody else was seated to join them.