Ashfall: City of Shade (UNDER EDITING)

Chapter 24 | Insight

GRETA

Adler's guards took the time to begin putting up the mirrors in my chamber. I have not spoken to him since dinner yester-evening. 

Bubbles scatter ahead in the breeze. Leaping from rock to rock, I carry my fibble across the stones outskirting the over-grown temple.

My Fluff leaps ahead igniting my laughs as we round the bend of the great structure. It leaps up the temple's steps and pulls me into the expanse of the pool room.

Someone is already bathing in the fountain. Shadows of the water ripple and shine across their muscular back. It must be a man. My face burns. I step back, tugging my Fluff with me.

Water splashes as they leave the big fountain. I have been spotted.

"Greta?" Brommy asks in a deep voice.

With a blush, I step back quickly behind a column. The bathing pool is not very deep where he stands. He is still dressed in his tunic but has it tied at the waist.

"Sorry, Brommy. I didn't know it was you. I will be going now-"

"Just a moment."

Stiffly, he turns away leaning back against the ledge as he adjusts his tunic properly. It is hard to look at Brommy now and not see Adler. His hair has been cut very short just like Adler's. Their stature is identical.

"Do not worry," he assures me in a quiet voice. "I am not angry. You didn't know I was here," he mumbles slightly above the trickling of water around us. "Why did you come here?"

"To bathe my limpnut."

"And not yourself? That pet of yours is quite pampered. Come on in. It is why you came, isn't it?"

Reluctantly, I hop in the bath to wash my pet.

"Now your tunic is soaked," he chides slowly while turning to face me. My tunic drifts up around my legs like a blooming flower. His voice rises, "Oh, by the gods, you should not be in here with me, Greta."

"Why not?" I laugh at his reaction. "We are only standing in the shallows together-"

"Yes, Greta, but the hospice keepers consider this sacred water," he articulates, cold. "I do not think they would want a desert rat swimming around it any more than young people. I was hoping to avoid attention."

"Okay," I whisper.

I don't share my shock with him or the awful tight feeling in my chest. Sometimes, I do not understand why he gets so annoyed at me. He can be very condescending, but he is not my caretaker anymore. He can't be that much older than me anyway.

Suddenly, my Fluff leaps from the ledge and onto his arm. It runs up onto his shoulder. Brommy twirls around. We listen to my pet squeak in excitement, not long after, the dark look on his face disappears as he pets it.

"I think you are beautiful," I say without much thought.

He becomes still. 

"Beautiful? Would you call Adler the same?" he asks. The shadows lining his face darken as he leans toward me. "You think I am just like him, don't you?"

"No, why are you saying these things?"

Hues of silver shift slowly around his pupils like the small fish circling around us. He pets the short strands of my hair at the side of my scalp.