GRETA

After the slavemasters bring us to Adler's temple, they are made to leave.

The other slaves walk away with their paired guards to be trained.

I'm waiting to be assigned someone to show me out, but my god has yet to give me someone to go with.

"Why won't you look at me, little pearl?"

I don't mean to not look at him, but I can't see his face anymore even if I squint.

The silver blur of his figure moves from the big chair and around the blazing white flames of the fire pit.

His icy hand grabs mine. He brings it to his face.

"Can you see me?" he asks.

"No."

My god traces a cold finger down my throat until it clings onto the fabric of my tunic. He pulls it back to look down inside it.

Adler's voice may be light, but beneath, it's laced with something malevolent, "What has he done to you?"

"I am a man now," I tell him firmly. "Please...please call me by Keon. I am no longer Greta."

"No, little pearl-"

"You hurt those people in your wife's new temple. I will not forgive you after witnessing your cruelty myself," I explain with a racing heart, "That is why you hate each other. You are the same as your wife. You two are exactly the same. You are not my god anymore. Enoch was right about you. I am...I am n-not your little pearl anymore either. I am Keon."

"You can be a man if you want to, Keon, but you'll always be my little pearl, even if you decide to change into a man."

Adler guides me away from the fire pit and to his chair. The seat is actually a lid.

When he slides it open, he pulls out a head-shaped item. It smells awful as he dangles it by the hair between us.

"I killed him, but Femke doesn't know yet," Adler whispers.

Silently, he drops Urdmin's head back into the hidden compartment and closes it back up. A moment later, he's seated back on top of it.

My stomach grumbles. The next thing I know, I'm peeled over wretching right in front of his feet.

Something twists inside me again. Deep below my stomach, it pulls tighter into an angry knot causing a dark liquid to travel between my legs.

"You are oozing like a ripened baargi fruit. If you want to be a man, you mustn't let anyone see an accident like this. You need more rags for your cycle, don't you?"

Embarrassed, I twist my legs together with a nod.

"I know I've scared you, Keon. I will respect your boundaries, but you can't do anything with your hands clamped together."

I hurry over to him the best I can, weak and lightheaded.

He undoes a strange contraption on my wrist clamps and then pulls me onto his lap. My blood gets all over his tunic as I struggle to sit on his leg with my tunic stuck to me because of the smelly liquid.

It's awful I have to get this close to him. Surely, his clothes are going to be stained.

"I can do it myself," I say after watching him begin to reach for the hem of my tunic. "I am not a child," I mumble.

"I'm sorry Greta-"

"My name is Keon," I pout.

"Keon," he laughs. "I just want to make sure Urdmin hasn't ruined anything...else. Is it okay if I check? I could have you sent the hospice too if you don't want me to look."

"Urdmin didn't touch me there."

"Good, that does bring me great relief. I'm sure you would have killed him yourself if he tried to anyway. Now, time to get you cleaned up. We can't have you walking around in your own bloody tunic."

I leap off his leg. "I'm going to the community bathing pool."

Adler walks around me and I pause near the column walls inside his temple newly blocked from my path of escape. Usually, his guards stand in the way of the entrances, but I don't see any guards here now.

"Oh, I was thinking..." he trails off. I could walk away now if I wanted because I don't like where this conversation is headed. Enoch has been right about Adler time and time again. There is a violent side to him. I'm not going to pretend there isn't anymore. "You could come to my bath since you're here already. If you're a man now, you shouldn't have a reason to let down such an offer. My guards are already inside the pool too."

Even though I know I shouldn't, I do really like his bath a lot. The water in the community pool isn't as luxurious as his and I have a lot of icky blood on me. Agreeing, I hold onto the sleeve of his tunic so he can lead us to the hidden door in the wall of black behind his throne.

He slides the stone door open. When we make it to the bathing pool, he stops by the edge.

"Go ahead in," he encourages.

Dark shapes wade around in the bath's center.

"Who are they?"

"My personal guards, Greta, I mean...Keon. They won't bother you."

Can't he see them watching us now?

"But they can see me!" I panic.

"They need their baths too," he explains gently while helping me out of my soiled tunic. Holding onto his arm, I step into the waist-deep area of the water. My other hand doesn't leave the side of the pool.

"Just stay near this edge and they won't mind you. You've been in the community bathhouse before. This is not much different. Will you be okay bathing on your own now?"

I nod my head rapidly. Gathering from what I can see, he intends to get his own bath too.

New voices approach me when I turn around hearing the material of his own tunic hit the ground. Maybe this is too much so soon. I may want to be a man, but I am not used to being around so many of them in a private place like this.

Adler doesn't turn them away. In the community bathing pool everyone minded their own business. Why is here any different?

The water splashes behind me when Adler jumps in creating a wave that sends me off my feet and under the warm bath water.

My breath catches feeling him grip my hips. He lifts me rapidly upward until I catch my balance.

Even though the wrap covers my chest, the water won't hide my lower half from the eyes of these strangers as they wade around us now.

Adler steps to the side and begins bathing himself while talking to his guards. They aren't really paying attention to me at all actually as they appear to be carried away in their discussions and roughhousing.

They splash and fight just like the children in the community bathing pool.

The only difference is they seem genuinely angry at each other.

Adler moves back in front of me watching the chaos unfold. To think he and all his guards are naked. Have they no decency?

I can feel him watching me wade further away.

"They are only fooling around," he assures me while dumping warm water over my head. "The water is going to get cold soon if you don't wash up. Greta? Where are you going, little pearl?"

I place both hands on the bathing pool's edge when my feet no longer reach the bottom.

"I want to be called Keon," I remind him feeling shy. "I'm going out," I add in a quieter voice feeling the water ripple behind me.

A warm hand grabs my naked waist. I tense up sensing my god right behind me. The heat of his body radiates onto mine making me rethink my decision to walk away from him.

"It's a long walk to the other side. Do you want me to come with you?"

"Thank you, but I should be going."

"Have I made you uncomfortable?"

"No," I begin, "I just have not been feeling well. Thank you for letting me bathe here, Adler."

Quickly, I turn away from him.

"Not feeling well?" he asks to my back.

I'm not certain if he is done talking, but it does not feel right to be here and I need to leave.

☁️