Chapter 26 Feather
Feather
It took longer than I thought it would to find my way back to my room. For one thing, the hallways were crowded with Protectors, flying and walking. I had to be careful not to bump into them, and I was almost dizzy with exhaustion to begin with.
For another, they all seemed to want to talk to me.
“Hey, Novice!” One guy with golden speckled wings and pure, shimmering ebony skin flew down and grinned. He sniffed, his eyebrows flying high. I guess my scent really didn’t match my smut now. “You’re Master Mikhail’s little mystery, right?”
I wanted to roll my eyes at him, but I forced a smile instead. “Yes, I’m Feather. And you are?”
“I’m Merry.” His dark eyes gleamed with merriment as he crouched down to my level. “I’m glad to meet you. And I like the hair. When you get cleaned up, you’re going to be a knockout.” He reached out with one arm and tousled my messy hair, laughing at whatever expression I had on my face.
“You’re not afraid of… getting dirty?” I asked curiously as he wiped his hand off on his formerly pristine robe.
“Nah. I just got back from Earth. Some of the very best experiences I had there were spent getting dirty.” He winked again. “See you at The Merge sometime?”
“Um, yeah,” I called at his back as he flew away.
That sort of thing kept happening as I walked, and I wondered what had changed in the week since I’d met up with Righteous in the workshop.
“Well, that was weird,” I muttered to myself as I slipped into my door, right before I was attacked, picked up and thrown onto my bed.
“Sunny!” I still ached from all I’d been through in the past few days.
“Feather!” she shouted back and jumped on top of me. “You’re back! I’m so glad. And you look… well, better!” I ran my hands over my sheets, wondering why they didn’t feel as good as Mikhail’s face had under my fingers. His face hadn’t been soft at all, but it had felt like silk.
“—and Righteous has been telling everyone that you might look disgusting, but no one is to be unkind. Which is one hundred percent what he should have been saying in the first place,” Sunny went on. She was stacking a bunch of brightly colored pillows at the top of my bed.
“Sunny, have you been staying in here?” I asked, looking around in shock.
She shrugged. “Not all the time. I was so worried about you, though. When Righteous said you were awake, I started bringing in stuff to spruce the place up a little. What do you think?”
The room had been completely redecorated.
Not white at all—or almost. The sheets were white, but the rest of the room looked like an explosion in a paint factory.
The walls were painted in jewel tones: emerald, sapphire, ruby, and amethyst. The pillows matched, but included gold and silver ones as well.
Even the chest of drawers, the tables, and our two chairs were painted with seven different, bright colors, with little suns and stars on the legs – and a hot pink feather emblazoned on the backs.
“You did this for me?”
“You’re my friend,” Sunny said simply. “I know you thought you were an assignment. A charge, or a job, or something. And you were for about five minutes. I should have been open about it from the start.” She chuckled ruefully.
“You know the smut I couldn’t get rid of at first?
It was so stubborn. The reason it stayed was because I was going against my name, my true self. ”
I was confused. “Sunny?”
“My whole name is Sunny, the Light of Truth. When I deceived you—even that little bit—it damaged me. That’s what I was crying about, in the Maker Hall.
When I cleaned your hair. You know you’re required to choose something to cry about, if you want to use your own tears for someone else’s purification?
And the event has to be significant. It’s such a comprehensive purification process.
I think I’ll write a paper on it for my Redemption and Sacrifice seminar—”
I reached over to hug her, interrupting her nerd moment. “Mikhail said you gave me the agonizing deep-conditioning treatment. I never got to thank you.”
“You never will. Those tears washed away your smut and mine.” She ran a finger over her face. “See? No freckles.”
I rolled my eyes and threw myself back on the bed. “I liked the freckles. If you start cussing and they come back, even if I’m shinier than Righteous the douche, I’ll still be your friend.”
Sunny settled next to me, giggling. “So, friend. It’s time to chat about a few things. What have you been up to the past few days?”
I frowned. “Mostly playing Feather’s Do-It-Yourself Butcher Shop and Bathtime with McGrowly.”
“Your angel daddy?” she drawled.
I chewed at my lip, trying not to blush. “You saw that shirt?”
She nodded, but she wasn’t smiling. “He’s been wearing them around Sanctuary.
Some of them aren’t so bad—the one that says Hot Wings, everyone assumed was about food.
And the Holy Hotness one was funny, and nobody but me understood the Growly Bear reference.
But yesterday, he wore the Feather’s Snack, Get Your Own one.
I think he forgot he had it on, and he went to a Guides meeting.
” Her eyes were so wide, I was afraid they might fall out. “When did you make that one?”
“Um, recently,” I squeaked, my blush so hot I was sure it showed through my muck.
“Feather, you know you can’t… Wait.” She grabbed the edge of the sheet and rubbed it over my mouth. “Your lips. They’re perfectly clean, and so pink. Did you use that awful knife on your mouth?”
I squirmed under her gaze. “So, Light of Truth, huh?” I said weakly.
“If I tell you the truth, will you not yell at me?” She just narrowed her eyes a little, then nodded once.
“Mikhail and I, um, we kissedtodayacoupleoftimes.” Huh.
It was easier to say it if I went super-fast. I peeked at Sunny’s face, not liking the pity that peeked back at me.
“What? I didn’t just kiss him. He kissed me back.
And apparently kissing… moves smut around pretty well. ”
“Well, I’m sure he didn’t want to kiss a dirty spot,” she said, her lips tighter than I’d ever seen. “I have to warn yo—”
I held up a hand. “Don’t start. Gavriel walked in on us macking, and already ripped Mikhail a new one.”
Sunny let out a horrified, choking sound. “Don’t… Don’t ever say that again.” She made another noise.
“Which part? The part about Gavriel ripping us a new one? Or macking on Growly? Because he can do this thing with just his lips that made both of my ovaries have their own mini-org—” She slapped her hand over my mouth before I could finish.
“Change now. Dinnertime. No more talking about”—she shuddered—“High Angeli in that way.”
I changed into my favorite t-shirt and a toga skirt I’d fashioned with green sequins, Sunny changed into another blindingly white toga, and then we set off to the Dining Hall.
“It’s nice not to be on house arrest,” I said, waving to some flying Protectors.
“Especially now that Righteous isn’t leading the Hate Feather Train. ”
“What happened, Feather?” She pulled me closer to whisper in my ear. “What happened with Righteous?”
“Swear it to secrecy?” I asked, checking to make sure no one could hear.
She nodded, and we linked pinkies. “He used the knife to cut off some of that smut he had, but cut too deep. I warned him, but you know how some guys think they’re tougher than us gals?
Anyway, he was dying, bleeding out on the floor, and the evil had found its way inside his veins—or at least that’s what it looked like.
Gavriel ran off for help, and Mikhail was nowhere to be found.
So, I had to make a choice. Let him die, or take the smut onto myself.
” I shrugged, trying not to remember exactly how painful that had been.
Sunny walked slower, chewing at the tip of one finger as she thought.
“Okay, I’m not surprised that you did that, even though I’ve never heard of such a thing before you got here.
You told me about taking that little girl’s smut.
And it’s the sort of thing you’d do, even for a douche like Righteous. But it had to suck.”
I nodded vigorously. “So much suckage.”
“But how do you know how to do it?” she asked as we turned the corner to the Dining Hall. A huge group of Protectors were hanging around the doorway, waiting for something.
For me, as it turned out. Once one of them saw me, they all started whispering, and smiling. “What do they want?” I muttered.
“To meet the Novice who saved the life of the senior Protector,” she replied through gritted teeth. Her nervous smile was borderline feral.
“Did Righteous tell them I saved him?”
“No. It was Gavriel,” she whispered, shocking me to my core. “He made a formal announcement in Assembly.”
I straightened my t-shirt, making sure the whole sentence—If Glitter Is A Crime, I’ll Do The Time—was easily readable, and barreled through the crowd, returning greetings from strangers and dragging Sunny along behind me.
Our circle of cushions was crowded for the first time ever, and sitting there was one of the more surreal experiences I’d ever had.
On Earth, I’d never lived a life of privilege, and my tendency to say exactly what I thought the instant I thought it hadn’t endeared me to many groups of other people.
Especially not beautiful, well-spoken, shiny, happy ones like these.
Before long, I was exhausted from pretending to know what the others were talking about.
I did manage to learn that The Merge was hosting another masquerade night soon, and I’d been invited to attend.
I’d even had more than one Protector offer to help me with my purification sessions, and from Sunny’s googly eyes, I had a feeling they meant something a little less innocent than a normal bath time.
Back in my room, I asked, “Did some of those Protectors hit on me?” Sunny nodded. “Do they not… care about the smut on me? Like, the smell?”