All That Falls

11 A Morning Prayer

Cass didn't seem to mind sharing a room with me. It was made easier by the fact that the enormous room had two sets of everything contained within it. Two Queen-sized beds stood side by side with about three feet of space between them, two full sized armoires, two dressers, two closets, and a conversation pit of cushions and fluffy pillows in the center. Our washroom was just off to Cass' side, complete with a porcelain clawfoot tub and every modern luxury a palace could afford. On my side, the wall was gone completely, open to the vast expanse of empty sand leading right up to the cliff wall. It was all white, of course, right on brand.

"I'm starting to doubt what you said before about not all the courts taking their color so seriously," I told Cass that night as I emerged from the washroom after having taken a proper, unrushed bath and sliding into a set of silk pajamas that were exactly my size. After a long day, that felt like the best bit of magic I'd seen.

Cass snorted at my joke, setting aside the bottle of purple nail polish she had been using to touch up her toes. A moment later, the bottle disappeared entirely with a snap of her fingers.

"The Wanderers aren't the worst. I'd say it's tied between these guys and the Rivals," she told me.

"The Rivals?" I asked, cocking a brow as I slid under the warmest comforter I'd ever felt.

"Red," she told me.

"You aren't including your court among the obsessors?"

She looked up at me, raising a brow in question. I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, come on," I teased. "The constant black, all of you. It's like you don't possess another color in your wardrobe at all."

"We don't," she said with a shrug. "Besides, black is slimming."

I chuckled.

"Lark and I," she continued after a moment, "we have to wear it. It and nothing else because of who we are. For Pollux and Rook, it's a choice but whether they do it because of their black souls or because of their loyalty to Lark, I don't know."

"What did Rook do?"

Cass hesitated. My eyelids were already drooping but I waited to see if she would answer, anyway.

"Rook is... from here, originally," she answered after a moment. "He was born in this court. Let's just say that the good folk of the Light Court don't take it very well when someone leaves."

"So why did he?"

Cass' eyes were on me then. I felt them burning against my skin almost as badly as her brother's always seemed to. I was prying, I knew, but I was desperate to know more about the people I seemed to have allied myself with.

"Something you should remember," she said then, her voice turning serious. "People who claim to be the most good are also usually the most hypocritical."

I didn't have time to process that in my exhausted state before I fell asleep in the most comfortable bed I'd ever laid in.

***

The morning came without warning and I woke up feeling as though I'd never slept. After the most grueling forty-eight hours of my life, it turned out I would need more than five of sleep. But we didn't have the time because Semyaza strode in at seven in the morning, flinging our curtains wide and letting in the morning sun. Cass grumbled and buried herself in her sheets. I echoed the sentiment, trying to throw an arm over my eyes to shield them. But Semyaza wasn't having it.

"You'll miss your morning prayers," she chided, pulling back my covers and grabbing my arms to help me upright. I just watched her, confused and half asleep.