CHAPTER FOUR #2
She supposed it was possible that he was just selfish and power hungry, but that didn’t align with what she knew about Sera.
While their friendship was still in its infancy, something told her that Sera wasn’t the type to put up with one of her friends throwing a fit fueled by entitlement and greed.
Besides, from the brief glimpse she’d had, Elias seemed kind and magnetic, the type of person other people wanted to be around.
The image of him leaning across the bar the first night at The Crow’s Nest flashed across her mind.
His face was lit by a smile as he conversed with customers, his brown eyes shining with quiet laughter.
Cadi gasped, nearly dropping the rag in her hand when a flutter stirred in her chest, almost like a strange tug just behind her ribs, not unlike the one she’d felt at the bar after her first Somnium.
At the time, she had assumed it was a lingering effect from whatever was in that weird smoke that poured over the congregation, but it had been a week since the last ritual, there was no way it was still affecting her. At least that was what she hoped.
Cadi rolled her shoulders and pushed her focus back to her task. Hopefully getting lost in her work would be enough to keep her from dwelling on the possible long-term impacts of the mystery chemical compounds she and hundreds of other people willingly inhaled every week.
With her first room thoroughly cleaned and organized, Cadi stepped back out into the hall, making sure the door latched securely behind her before moving on to the next. She eased the door open, and let her eyes linger on the golden crown as she stepped through.
Instantly, Cadi knew this room was different.
Not only was it larger, but where the first room had been modest and functional, this chamber felt alive.
In addition to the standard wardrobe, a small chest of drawers sat against one wall, its surface littered with a colorful collection of trinkets and rings.
The desk showed signs of use as well. The chair was askew as if someone had just stood to step out of the room, leaving a teetering stack of paperbacks piled on one end, several of their worn pages marked with colorful tabs.
She ran her fingers over the smooth spine of the top book, unable to resist prying into the reading habits of the Order’s priests.
The first title sparked immediate recognition, as there was a similarly worn copy currently resting on her own nightstand.
Cadi’s smirk grew as she shuffled the stack and realized that every one of the books belonged to a very specific, and increasingly popular, genre, giving the colorful tabs an entirely new meaning.
Apparently, even sacred servants had personal lives.
Cleaning that chamber was astonishingly difficult, as she found herself hesitant to disturb the comforting disarray of personality that made the space so inviting.
She couldn’t help but wonder about the person who had been there before her, the one so unafraid to leave small pieces of himself behind.
When she got to the wardrobe, she paused.
The thin wooden door hung open, offering the barest glimpse of what lay inside.
She moved to push it closed, but stopped with her hand resting on the small metal handle.
She knew she shouldn’t pry, but her own curiosity had always been worse than any peer pressure she had encountered over the course of her life, and at that moment it urged her to ease the door further open instead.
So, of course, she did. As the curling light of the chamber streamed through the widened gap into the dark interior, a small gasp slipped from her lips when she found herself staring into the hollow, unseeing eyes of a mask.
She didn’t even notice that she had leaned forward until the dark artifact was mere inches from her face, revealing a multitude of swirls and symbols carved into every inch of its surface.
From her place in the crowd, she had never noticed the subtle beauty of its design, but now she doubted she would ever be able to see anything else.
A soft glimmer from the shadows caught her attention, and her mouth fell open at the gathering of midnight blue fabric that hung beside her.
The silken fibers of the high priest’s robe shifted as if moved by an unseen breeze, catching the soft light like stars in an endless sky.
She couldn’t look away, the need to feel the fluidlike cloth against her skin nearly consuming her.
The sound of movement in the hall sent her heart slamming into her ribs, and she quickly pulled herself away from her admiration and back into the reality of what she was supposed to be doing.
As quickly as she dared, she pushed the door to the wardrobe shut with a soft click, and stepped away just as Celine appeared at the threshold of the chamber with her usual look of annoyance already in place.
“Are you done yet? I wanna go home.”
Cadi arched an eyebrow, noting that the chances Celine had actually done anything close to a thorough job were exceedingly low, but she quickly decided that was not her problem.
“Yep, all set,” she replied with a friendly smile.
“Great,” Celine said, then disappeared, leaving Cadi alone once again.
Cadi shook her head and let out a long sigh as she gathered everything up and stepped into the hall. Sparing one last glance at the crown, she turned and hurried after Celine, every question or worry about Elias Masterson now completely replaced by a growing curiosity about the man in the mask.