<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/9/93/Lishin.jpg)</div><strong>Name :</strong>Judge Fu Li Shin<br/><strong>Element :</strong>Fire<br/><strong>Location &amp; Time :</strong>Palace, water clock tower<br/><strong>Tagging :</strong>Heini<br/><br/><hr/><br/>From the outside, the most remote tower of the palace bore no windows. Its crowning third story pagoda boasted a thin and delicate clock of hours, days, months, and seasons for admirers to see, its wire frame cradled by coiling dragons. Its complex inner workings were not for all to see. Reinforced walls kept the sounds within from disturbing the palace gardens, keeping the clacking of its huge water wheels and the groaning of its whole trunk axles claustrophobic. Judge Fu Li Shin was dwarfed by the water wheels to her left and right. The hanging lanterns were little light, consumed by the wooden webs of moving parts and quickly lost among the spiral of skeletal stairs. "So much to say, and none of it in your defense." She crowded close as Bao Er Myau lowered her to her own feet and disengaged the sasumata from her neck. "It seems you would rather tear down another than face yourself. Warden, bring us a mirror."<br/><br/>If it were even possible, the judge had slimmed down from her uniform. What was left was dark and clinging to the sloping curves of her body. The water clock left this place damp, and the mechanical energy warmed it up. Sweat brought no relief in the humid air. This place had a way of leaving workers panting for breath like dogs. "A thief will always return to her old habits, that's what they say. You were supposed to help me prove them wrong." The difference between the knowing of techniques Heini enjoyed and the rigorous dedication to just a small number was firm, unfailing strength like the wooden machines churning around them. Judge Fu Li Shin's shaolin hands read the stirring of muscle beneath the surface as she unfastened the manacles and fought for control over Heini's body. No witty remarks now, only one woman's instinct to escape and another's to pursue. Li Shin only paused when she was certain there was no escape from her arms.<br/><br/>There were no scary machines dedicated to restraining a body. It was a minimalist art. Along the back edge of one of the wooden stairs, two hinges unlocked and thin wooden panels pulled away to reveal the grooves of a hidden finger pillory. It was intended to keep a woman of average height reaching for heaven's forgiveness, her back to the open air for the whip's swing, but Heini was a little short for it. Li Shin slipped a cool ceramic pillow under her slight prisoner's toes so she would not be left dangling. No amount of twisting, though, could tear Heini's eyes away from the undersides of the water clock tower stairs to peek what Li Shin was doing. Her upstretched arms were kept too close to her head.<br/><br/>"You can still redeem yourself. We'll keep your indiscretion between us. This will be our secret."<br/><br/>A full-length mirror framed with golden cranes and river reeds arrived. It was placed under the stairs with Heini, a perfect match for the silhouette of her slender body. Now she would have something to look at.