The Bone Queen

Chapter Five

After a deliciously warm bath, Rina quietly made her way back to her room through the dark hallways. Oria and their newest friend Ziva had joined her, though they were both strangely quiet. It seemed they were all going through something they didn't want to share with the group.

She turned a corner and saw her doorway at the end of the hall. Her light humming reverberated off of the chilled walls as she twirled around the halls, the thick wool socks on her feet allowing her to move her feet silently on the stone floors. She had stayed later than the others in the bathing room and the other clerics had long since gone to bed.

Thinking back to her time with Ziva and Oria in the public bathing room, she couldn't help but feel as though the latter had discovered the full extent of her predicament.

"Ri, you seem particularly distracted today," Ziva had mentioned, wrapping a deep grey robe around her body.

"It's just been a long day. Did Oria tell you what happened with Eli?" Rina responded, still relaxing in the tub.

"No," Ziva ran her hands over her shaved head, dispensing moisturizing oils to the short curls. "What happened?" Directing the question towards Oria.

Her other friend was dangling her long legs over the edge of the tub, a towel secured around her chest. "Nothing major. Eli may or may not have insinuated that Ri possessed no magic and would be executed after failing her Test".

Ziva immediately froze, her dark skin taking on a sickly hue. "He did what?"

Rina nodded her head, not wanting to speak about it in depth.

"Ri", Ziva spoke softly, " That is an extremely serious accusation. If a Head Cleric were to hear, or any of the others..." She paused, her silence speaking volumes.

Rina nodded again, her silence conveying that she understood the potential repercussions of the mousey man-child and his loud opinions.

"Ziva, don't be so dramatic. Everyone at the Temple knows that Rina was blessed by the goddess and is quite strong. Eli's just jealous and annoying," Oria spoke confidently. "Besides, no one will believe him anyways - especially after Rina passes her Test."

"Right," Ziva agreed, though her voice held none of Oria's confidence.

Rina glanced quickly at her face and was shaken when she saw the fear in her friend's eyes. Fear that there would be only two of them celebrating together at the Ceremony, and one scattered ash in the wind. The two avoided each other until Ziva whispered a quiet 'good night' and left. Oria left next, completely unaware of the dread fueled tension that had erupted between her two friends. Rina left some time later, singing softly to herself in an attempt to distract her mind from her impending doom.

She slid along the floor in an invisible dance, pretending a man was holding her longingly by the waist. As she and her invisible suitor arrived at her door, she dipped low in her best attempt at a curtsy. Being twice as clumsy on the slippery stone surface, as she rose her heel caught in the edge of her dress and fell back against her door. Knowing that she had secured the lock of the door before she left for the bathing room she let her weight fall back expecting the heavy wood door to catch her.

It didn't.

A squeak escaped Rina before her rear end and head hit the marble floors with a solid, echoless crack.

She stared from her position on the floor at the dark ceiling above, pain radiating across her body in waves. The frigid stone of the floor began to leech any residual warmth from the her flesh and her body began to shake.

She needed to get up. Why couldn't she move anything? All of her concentration became focused on her toes. Then her fingers. Nothing.

"Well why the hell would you do that?" A whispered voice floated from the dark corner of her room. "Who falls against an open door like that?"