CEPHINE

While my dear begins looking over his map, I pick up a spare tunic from the ground and find a set of glowing silver eyes staring back at me -- underneath our bed.

"A-Adler!" I cry out, pointing at the hiding whore, "She's under there."

With a bright smile he strides by me and kneels down. The woman begins shouting as he drags her out. Dried blood coats her disgusting, puffed up, knee.

"Dear Ashta," my husband gasps while eyeing her leg. He picks her up, carrying her limp body and setting her on the bed in panic. "My little pearl! I'm sorry," he whispers fiercely like a little boy as he takes her tiny hand in his.

Dark black circles rest under her heavy eyelids. She looks like a corpse. Albeit, a moving one.

Her hand moves out of his, trembling, she reaches for his chin and tries to push his face away from her own.

"She stabbed you!" I remind him. The little woman's eyes turn to slits on me. "Adler, she has committed treason."

Ignoring reason, he rips up the sleeve of his expensive tunic and begins wrapping it around her baby-sized leg.

"I'm sorry," he repeats after kissing her neck. My blood boils seeing her child-like chubby face light up from the attention. "Do you forgive me?"

She remains silent. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to process the fact that she was hiding all this time.

I cover my ears when he picks her up. She begins crying very much like a newborn.

"You're hurting her leg," I point out while watching some of his guards leave.

They return with Brommy.

He pushes a babalop decorated with crystals and old hardened weaved seaweed. Greta looks terrified as Brommy sets her upright inside it.

She grows quieter seeing my husband's spyrt light up. He clasps the shell strap over her lap to keep her from falling out.

"I'm taking her out," Adler tells me over his shoulder.

"Where?"

"Away from here."

***

GRETA

"You will love it here," Adler tells me.

Reluctantly, I step out of the strange seat he pushed me in all the way here.

Two days it took for us trek to this strange inlet of jagged rock. He never stopped to sleep.

A long path guided us here from the dockyard. It branched off in many areas, I wouldn't be able to follow it back.

No one told me my sisters were made to come live all the way out here.

My mouth hangs open seeing so many great, lush trees just on the shoreline, surrounding their forms as they emerge from the foliage. The tree limbs hang over us, reaching down and tickling my face as I limp over to eldest sister.

Some of my other sisters are filling basins of food Adler and his guards brought with us. More of my sisters wait in a covered marble gazebo by the water's edge. The sea is very still here. I do not understand how it exists when we crossed only land to access this...far off nook.

That is what Adler called it.

Anxiously, I follow him back behind the wall of lush trees. Above this area of the cavern, high up on the cave's ceiling, there are a few gaps letting in light from the sun above.

Is the desert no longer so dark?

Beyond the trees, wait paths of smooth rocks and the relaxing hum of a trickling spring. Birds chirp around us in strange tones I have never heard before. It makes me smile despite being taken here against my will.

Vines and overgrown floral plants lead up the marble set of stairs we walk. Where above, a steepled temple stands sheltering more of my sisters from the heat as they watch us approach. A statue of Adler is tucked safely within. The women sit at its base for a fountain provides free-flowing water.

"Good morning, sister Greta," one of my sisters greets. She rolls a large dead bird over the flickering flames of grey fire right outside the temple. In a large pot right over the coals beneath is a cluster of baked bread buns. Eldest sister picks me out a piece of the bread.

Adler picks me up, giving me a cold kiss on the side of my head. "Why don't you go with your sisters and take a swim. When you're finished, I'll be waiting in your new chamber."

He hands me to the old lady.

"Eat," she tells me seeing I have not bitten into my food.

I munch on the bun, unable to resist the delicacy as my sisters lead me further into the temple.

It smells of raw dirt. A fine layer of thin marble dusting still coats the floor as if the temple was recently finished. Some of the temple's columns have glass windows spaced between. Many of them are shattered and a great deal of foliage and plants have begun to grow into the pool having spilled over into the temple.

The ceiling is shorter than Adler's temple back in Ashtium. I watch as one of Adler's guards sets down my pet's cage.

"What is this place?" I breathe out.

"Our home, your home too now," Eldest sister chides in a monotone. The fountain inside is much bigger than I thought. It is like the size of Adler's bathing pool back in the city. Hundreds of strange circular plants float on top. "Do you wish to take a swim?"

"Yes!" I shout.

She carries me into the chilly water. I grab her shoulder tighter spotting big fish lurking beneath the strange water plants.

It is very deep. I don't know how eldest sister can hold me and swim at the same time. She is stronger than I thought.

The clear water lets me see the number of plants, far beneath us, on the ground. In a hurry, I tug eldest sister's tunic seeing a large-scaled creature following us in the water.

She swims right to Adler's statue. "Relax, sister," she tells me while walking up onto the circle of slate with me. "It is only our god's pet. Are you familiar?"

I tense up seeing Rog's snout leave the water as one of my sisters nearby tosses a limp fish in its mouth. So many teeth.

My voice echoes, "Why is it here?"

"Why, dear sister Greta, there is no place for it in the docks. Our god left it in our care for the beast is too large to fit in any meager dockyard pool."

"What about the sea?"

"It would swim away and never return," she answers impatiently. She watches her sharp fingernails from behind her veil. "It is time for prayers soon. We should swim back."

She takes me outside of the temple and down a smooth rock path where mushy plant grows between the cracks. Eventually, we reach a cluster of small homes built of stacked cut rock. I have never seen such structures. Many potted plants sit outside of the one beside us. More glass has been placed into the wall.

My heart thuds heavily seeing the tall silhouette of Adler standing just behind it. Eldest sister pushes me forward.

Reluctantly, I walk inside, feeling little pain in my knee. Adler did dump a bunch of salve on it before we left.

It's hard to hide my smile seeing many of the empirical guards placing gifts in my room. My old clout bed has been brought here too. Which one of them was tasked with fetching it from our ruined city?

Adler must have been planning this for some time. He had to have it before the cavern caved us in down here.

My Fluff lays on the beautiful puffy surface of it.

I've wanted to ask something though. "Why are you keeping my sisters here?"

I shiver feeling his cold touch as he lifts me up to his eye-level.

"They are safe here to worship me-"

"I don't worship you!" I panic.

"You are in danger though. No one will be able to find you here," he says in an even tone. He watches me laugh while tickling my chin.

I go quiet when he carries me to the glass.

"I'm sorry I dropped you," he whispers in my ear. "My heart still stings from the memory. My sweet, I was so drunk. Do you forgive me?"

"No," I answer flatly. "But I like my gifts...and I like it here," I say earnestly. His hand covers his face as he starts to cry. I don't know what to do. "You're creepy," I say, anything, to make him end his fake crying. It is painful to watch. His hand falls, revealing a twisted smirk that I'm sure would send many running for the hills. 

Bells jingle outside swinging against a breeze. The sound makes me feel very alone.

"No," he coos before carrying me to my clouded bed. When did the guards leave? He lays down beside me keeping me tucked in his robes. His lips form into a ridiculous pout as he taps my nose. "You know that's not true."

A familiar, tranquil voice rises through the air, "My dearest, how is she doing? I have brought my offering for her quick healing."

I swat Adler's hand away from my waist feeling like at any moment he could crush me. Before turning to face his wife, and the guards who enter with her, he rapidly unfolds his tunic from around me letting me roll onto the cloud bed like a fallen log.

"She just woke up from her nap," he lies while watching her. 

"Is that so?"

Gracefully, she walks up to him, setting a basket on my cloud before slipping her slender arms around him for a long kiss. The same woman shared his bed with those whores. I thought Cephine wasn't a whore, but I am not so certain now.

Abruptly, she slaps his face, making him stumble back.

"I will not be toiled with. I am your wife! How dare you even consider continuing to pursue a woman a hundred years your minor! It's disgusting."

Did she not come on her own will?

I'm surprised by how defeated he sounds, "...I know. Why do you think I have brought her here, my sweet?" 

Ugh. Of course, he calls her the same. I knew it. I am not special and I shouldn't want to be. Not after listening to his gross night with his own wife and those women sharing his bed. 

"So you can continue to spoil her," Cephine points out. "Leave her be now," her voice softens, "...so she can heal. What a pitiful sight she has become. We should not linger. Let her sisters take care of her now."

Frustrated, with my good leg, I kick her gift off my bed with an innocent face. "I do not need taken care of!"

Adler smiles down with admiration twinkling in his eyes as he picks me up.

"I'm going away for a while. When I return, you will treat Cephine as your mother, my hatchling."

"No!" I spit back. "You are not my family. You are all filth," I grit back in his ear. For extra measure, I yank a clump of his curls seeing his wife eye me with disapproval. I spit out the pearl he gave me, that at some point, I reacquired against my will for I do not remember putting the treatch on, right onto the luxurious robes of his wife. "Take it!"

Adler wipes the slobber dribbling down my chin and tucks my head into the crook of his neck as though I've done no wrong.

"Ew...w-what is this?" Cephine shouts. He sets me back on the bed, flattening the creases in my tunic. "Stop fussing over her and answer me."

Adler moves my Fluff beside me as though I am too helpless to retrieve my pet myself. On the ground, he finds the large blanket that spilled out of the basket and lays it over me making me sweat even more.

I squirm against the kiss he places on my forehead. "Goodbye, my little pearl," he whispers with an intense gaze. "This netting is heavy, but it will keep the bugs away while you sleep."

When Cephine leaves with his guards, he reaches into the depths of the creepy moving chair by the entryway that I had to sit in the whole way here. He pulls out a large, spiky shell and places it on the wooden box near my cloud. 

A strange hum leaves the shell. It rattles in place until I put my hand over it and pick it up. Adler holds another big shell in his own hand up to his ear.

Intrigued, I copy his movements, hearing his voice through the object as he speaks into his own.

"Will you miss me?" he asks while watching me. I shrink back a little hearing his voice leave the mystical shell in my hand. "Now you can call me when you wish," he explains. 

"Why would I want to?"

His skin darkens as he folds his arms. Does he think I have forgiven him so quickly? 

"Don't you love me...I thought-"

"How many people must love you until you are happy, Adler? You have many women. I was awake a long night when they shared your bed. The same night you dropped me. I will never forget that!" I scream feeling my throat sore by it. "Ever!"

His voice hardens, "I told you there is something wrong with me. I did not intend to drop you and leave you there...I love you," he finishes in a sad voice. "Many dreams have I had where we are happy together."

"You should only be dreaming of your wife, Adler," I grumble bitterly seeing her waiting outside my new home. "And I am becoming a man as I told you before. It is too late. I cannot change you. So I am changing myself. Goodbye."

Cephine enters, looking concerned by Adler's solemn expression, takes his arm and practically drags him out. 

I can see their silver silhouettes, just outside the entryway, standing together.

Adler's voice rises, almost sounding hysterical, "I think I should take her back with us-"

"No!" Cephine cuts back. Relief floods into me when she pulls his arm and makes him keep walking. "You are not her mother! We are leaving. She chose this life and should consider herself lucky you are placing her in this sanctuary."

☁️