Ashtium: City of Sun

GRETA

My arms and legs are sore from the exercises Brommy made me do in the enocrote. Before I walked back here to the hospice, I stopped in the market and bought some real food as Enoch calls it. My stomach has finally adapted to it and this bread tastes divine.

My new satchel will fit my other belongings such as my spare coins and food. I don’t have to come back here during the day to eat anymore now that I can carry my things in this bigger pouch.

I bought new powder too, but I’m not sure if it will stay on well.

My heart aches knowing my eyes are just getting worse. This optical lens is not helping me much at all. It was sort of strange to see so many groups of women wandering around together when I browsed the street vendors by myself.

Maybe Enoch will come with me next time.

I got him a special tart in a metal tin. It’s in the kitchen right now and my sisters know not to eat it. I found something else though. I’m not really sure if I want to give it away though. It’s in the shape of one of the flying creatures, but flat with its wings spread like it is ready to land or take flight.

The eldest sister told me it’s called a rune. She wanted me to get rid of it and acted as though it was an object of evil since it is carved from the bones of something.

The vendor wouldn’t tell me what kind of bones, but the necklace was on sale so I couldn’t turn down the offer. I may not be able to see its shape perfectly, but I can feel that it is unique.

Once I gather my belongings and put them back in my satchel, I head out of my room. In the kitchen chamber, I reach the shelf holding the tart and then set off into the night.

The market is quiet now as I slip through it unseen.

My feet feel like they’re ready to fall off by the time I make it up the steps to Adler’s temple. I don’t find him inside and consider heading to the palace. However, my eyes are bleeding again and I know I won’t be able to find my way.

It is easy to get here from the hospice, but the palace is much further.

“Hello?” I say while rounding the diffused fire pit. “Adler?”

I don’t think he’s here. I clutch my satchel to my chest while walking back behind his chair. A dark shape moves away from the wall.

“Hello?”

They don’t respond. The silver blur of their figure moves to the other side of the wall. Stone scrapes sharply as they open the door.

I walk quickly after them.

“Adler?”

“It is me, hurry now before someone sees.”

I’m glad I changed out of most of my armor. It’s easier to run now when I lift my tunic a little to avoid tripping over myself. When I make it inside the sliding door, Adler shuts it and then scoops me up with just one arm.

“How are you fairing in the ranks of our empirical guards?” he asks while walking further down the chamber. His voice echos around the bathing pool room as we enter it, “I hope it is to your liking, Keon.”

“I love it.”

“You also love my clout bed too, don’t you?” he asks coyly. I hide my smile in the folds of his robes. Adler sets me down when we enter his bedchamber. “Our eyes are hypersensitive to the changes in our star’s radiation. The light grows brighter and some days I fail to control its magnification down in our city.”

The glowing cloud makes my eyes burn even more. Adler wipes the blood dripping down from them.

“Can you find my eyes, little pearl? Just watch me and they won’t hurt anymore.”

I squint against the stinging pain, feeling my body tremble in misery. With a little more concentration, I’m able to find his piercing stare. I blink rapidly seeing a grin grow on his face as he wipes away the last of the blood.

“In the morning you’ll feel better. I’ll try to correct the light levels,” he says while sitting on the edge of the cloud. The action miraculously makes its glow much dimmer.

Relief keeps me from feeling claustrophobic in the room of fancy trinkets, and of course, the heavenly cloud as well. I rub my eyes as the last of their pain fades away in the new darkness of my surroundings.

“Have you spent any of your earnings yet?”

“Yes. I went to the market-”

He looks me up and down sounding proud, “Oh, that’s right. My little pearl is making her own money now. What did you buy?”

“Some food and a few other things.”

“Is Enoch giving you trouble?”

“No,” I answer quickly. Heat spreads across my face seeing his tunic unwrapped from his chest. He sits with an ankle on his knee and his arms spread out on the elevated backrest of his cloud. “I must be going now,” I add while clutching my satchel close.

A deep frown forms on his face as he climbs off and rounds the bed.

“So, he has hurt you and now we’re back to this...you questioning my worthiness to be your god. I keep telling you I’m not perfect, Keon. What has Enoch done now to stir such fear in your eyes as you watch me?” Adler asks.

“He didn’t do anything,” I admit in embarrassment. My gaze flicks back up to his own as he stands right in front of me. So close, the edge of his soft tunic brushes against my chin when I tilt my head to look up at him. “I tried to kiss him.”

“You told him you were a man, little pearl,” Adler muses while tucking his robes around me. He picks me back up, carrying me loosely over to the bed. “Enoch doesn’t understand you still want to be seen as a woman.”

“But I don’t,” I tell him, but I’m really not certain.

I squirm on his lap, wanting to move off when he sits back against the backrest of his bed splaying his arms out in leisure.

“You don’t? How can you be so sure?” he challenges while picking up a cup full of wine. His questions make my brain hurt. “Show me what you did that he didn’t like. It must have been more than a kiss.”

I purse my lips, watching him eat some of Enoch’s tart. When did he manage to take it? Then I see. His other hand is buried in my satchel, rifling through my things as though he has permission to do so.

It slipped off my shoulder when he carried me onto the cloud.

“Th-that isn’t for you,” I say in a shaky voice. I don’t want him to eat it all. In a rush, I crawl up onto the smooth surface of his abdomen making my way to the pastry he holds high up by his head.

“I sat on him like this,” I explain. It’s not the same though. I don’t feel confident around Adler like I do Enoch. My legs quiver against his own as I assert more force to keep myself upright. “Then I kissed him,” I finish, taking the dessert from his grasp.

“How?”

My hand slides up his chest slowly. A nervous smile grows on my face feeling him cover my hand lightly with his own. I maneuver my other hand to his shoulder. He holds my hip as if to keep me from going anywhere. I really do want to know if I did it wrong.

So I begin to do just what I did in front of Enoch and shrug my tunic off. Only, this time, it does come off when Adler helps me. The material falls down to my waist and buries my lower half exposing my wrapped chest.

I flinch feeling him tug at the wrap. “It hurts,” I whisper.

“They’ve been squished half to death,” he mumbles. “They are sore, aren’t they, little pearl?”

“Yes.”

So gently, he begins to caress my bare back while sipping his drink. Scars in the shape of barbed whiplashes coat the skin of his arms like cracked marble I find as he presses me flush against himself. Then, his hand grips the top of the wrap.

“Want me to take it off?”

“No,” I mutter while shying away from his gaze.

“Make sure your sisters do then, or Enoch, if you wish it so. I can feel your breathing is shortened by the device. It is not healthy to wear it, Keon.”

“You can call me, Greta.”

“Oh really? What made you decide on that?”

“Enoch,” I answer in truth. “Can you give me another tart? I do not have enough money to buy a new one.”

Adler continues rubbing my back. I’m not sure if he’s listening because he doesn’t answer me. He sets his drink down, letting me see its empty contents as it falls sloppily onto the fluff near his legs.

“Adler?”

I watch as he shrugs on the sleeves of his tunic and sits up straighter while rubbing his throat.

“I’m sorry, I cannot do that. The markets are closed at this hour and I am to host an advisory meeting for my son first thing come morning.”

“Do you like being an advisor?”

“No,” he chuckles, but it is not a happy one. His voice turns curt, “It is something I must do for the sake of appearances. Ashta only knows what Femke will try when she discovers what I’ve done.”

Sometimes I wonder if he acted like Enoch in his youth. Enoch certainly doesn’t act like his mother. Does he take after his father? I’m not certain.

“I wish I could have met you a century ago. I’d like to think you were happier then. How long have you been this way?”

I hug myself seeing his head hover just above mine. “What way?” he asks as if unaware.

He must know what I mean. What kind of god denies what he is or could this be a test? Adler isn’t a perfect god though. Adler told me once before he was miserable. I don’t feel like I should be the one to have to keep coming here and helping him. He said he was going to start looking for a new wife, but I don’t think he’s made any progress.

I clutch my satchel while moving off of his lap feeling uncomfortable in the new silence as his hand stops on my lower back.

“This isn’t fair to Enoch,” I say slowly.

“Fair? What would he know about fair? Enoch is a spoiled brat,” he mumbles grumpily while rapidly crawling over to me. “He’s never had to fight for a thing in his life. His mother gives it all to him,” he explains while picking me up with little to no effort.

A moment later, he’s carrying me off across his bedchamber.

The clutter and pillows get thrown across the room as he kicks them out of his way. Something jingles outside of the room and Adler tucks me behind the curtain of his tunic. I wrap my legs tighter around him when he stumbles forward into the hall leading into his bathing pool.

“Who’s there?” he asks in a stern voice. “Come out!”

I shudder when no one answers. Adler keeps walking, but I wish he wouldn’t. Eventually, we walk out of the large space and enter his temple. With each step, his pace quickens as we round his chair.

The slab of rock making up the seat of his chair is cracked open. With just one arm, he tears off the lid and opens the hidden compartment.

“Empty,” he whispers sounding unconcerned. He returns to petting my back. “They couldn’t have gotten far, Greta.”

He holds me close as we leave the temple and look down into the city streets below not seeing one speck of silver in our view. It must be the empress. I do not want to wake up to her ever again. Why can’t she just leave my god and I alone? I hate her!

“I can hear you grating your teeth, grumpy pearl. Do you intend on finding the thief yourself? Well, it’s time for bed anyway,” Adler coos as though our lives are not in danger. We turn back into the shade of the old marble building in no hurry at all. “You’ll be safest with me,” he whispers while tucking my head into the crook of his neck.

In the distance, so faint I doubt it real, the jingle returns somewhere beyond these walls. I grip his tunic tighter wondering if he heard it too. In the corner of my vision, his mouth twists up into a smile as he opens the heavy door of his private chambers and closes it swiftly shut behind us.

“Enoch is probably asleep already. Don’t worry about him. You need to do more worrying for yourself right now, okay?”

“Okay,” I whisper in a hollow voice seeing something silver peak in the bathing pool’s surface.

The long, narrow shape lurks near the pool’s edge briefly before silently sinking back under with a faint jingling noise.

“Adler!” I whisper-yell while pointing at his bath. “Something is in your bathing pool,” I finish while staring at the surface.

He covers his tunic around me without bothering to even glance in the direction I saw the creature floating in the water. We continue walking until we return to his room.

“You must have been seeing things. I saw nothing,” he says gently while stroking my back. “It’s well enough past your bedtime. Your little sleepy body is making me weary too. No more quivering in my arms, you’ll keep yourself up through the night and wake up sour like before.”

“But I saw something!” I persist as he climbs up onto the huge cloud with me. It’s warm cushiony surface drifts around us as Adler lays down beside me. “I’m not even tired.”

“Well I am,” Adler laughs behind me. “But if you are still worried perhaps we can talk some more?” he suggests while letting the heavy surface of his tunic fall over me. The motion makes me sit up and maintain my distance from him remembering he is not so innocent as I once thought.

Even if a god, he’s still a man. The father of my only friend here too. Why can’t Enoch be here instead of him? I shouldn’t feel guilty for thinking the thought, but I don’t think this is okay for Adler and I to be doing anymore.

I know I saw something in the water, but he pretended it wasn’t there.

“You are lying to me,” I say while watching him. “How could you?”

“Lying about what, my little pearl?”

I try not to sound annoyed, but I don’t think it’s right of him to keep calling me so, “I’m not...your little pearl. Take me to Enoch, please. It d-doesn’t matter if he is sleeping to me I want to see him,” I whisper nervously seeing him sit up too. “I’m not feeling well. I want to go, please.”

“Okay,” Adler agrees while wrapping his tunic back around himself. He avoids my stare while hopping off the cloud. “I’m not angry, Greta. I’m just tired. I know this must be strange for you to be around me. I don’t want you uncomfortable. You don’t feel safe here anymore and that’s my fault. If you feel safer with Enoch that’s where I’ll take you.”

I don’t really agree with what he says, but I’m not sure how to tell him otherwise in the moment.

“Nevermind,” I rush out while settling back down.

He starts to climb back onto the cloud. “Are you sure?” he asks sounding nervous.

No, I’m not sure at all. I just don’t want to risk making him upset over me wanting to leave. I know I should not have come here in the first place, but my eyes were in such pain and some part of me wanted to check in and see how he was doing. Next time I come, I’ll have to put my foot down and leave on my own account.

“Yes,” I tell him.

Adler lays back down, leaving me my own room.

“You can play in my trove if you want. Are you hungry? Thirsty? I know you’re not as tired as me so you can do something else in here,” he offers. I giggle when he tickles my neck. His voice lowers as he pulls me backward until I’m tucked against him, “We can do something together too if you wish it.”

“I’m going to try to sleep, thank you.”

“Okay,” he whispers while letting go of me and turning over on his side.

I can’t keep doing this. Otherwise, he might not be able to move on. What would Enoch think if he found out? Someone else should probably be here right now, not me. Someone else would be here right now maybe if I just stayed away...