of snakes & crows || kaz brekker

─ 𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒚-𝒐𝒏𝒆

┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓

[21|| chapter twenty-one]
tea leaves and memories

┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛

         ━━━━ THE NIGHT WAS dreary. Ead continued through the dark city with her cloak pulled tightly around her body and her hood sending shadows across her face. She made good time when she finally decided to scuttle up the side of a building and continue her journey across the barren rooftops. It was far easier when there weren't people turning to stare at her mysterious figure left and right.

         She was almost surprised when she remembered she wasn't in Ketterdam anymore and she didn't have to look out for traps or tricks that could send her toppling off the edge or drilling glass in her feet. The buildings grew smaller as she neared the outskirts, changed from grand and tall to stacked and chipping. She jumped and scurried, hopped and might've almost tripped on the jutted bricks of a chimney, but saved herself at the very last second. Everything looked only hazily familiar— a little more foreign now that she was looking at all of it from a different angle, but she could smell it.

         The smell of cardamom and cinnamon, of cocoa and the slightest tinge of peppermint. Ead could smell it all so well, could feel her stomach warming at the thought of mismatched teacups displayed along a sagging wooden shelf right next to a cabinet of jarred spices and herbs, as well as glass pots full of leaves and edible flowers. The smell transported her to a simpler time, when her family was sitting around a circular table— her and her sister sitting in chairs that were too big and their parents in stools too small— full of smiles and laughter.

         Ead's heart gave a desperate shudder.

         She couldn't believe she was here right now. Never, not since she was dragged off by the testers, did she believe that she'd see this place again. She was from Keramzin, not Kribisk, but this had been their place, their little escape from a world where their enemies surrounded the country and a slash of darkness cut them off from their 'allies'. A world where everything was life or death, the gift of small science or a sacrifice of blood for the 'future of the country'.

         Ead stepped off the edge of the roof into the alley below, softening the blow of her fall by aiming for a pile of sacks filled with disposed tea dregs. She figured the owner would never grow out of the habit of collecting used leaves and compiling them until there was enough to compost and aid in the soiling of her rose garden. Ead was right, thankfully— it didn't matter how much time had passed— the woman must've been old, but she was still the same woman Ead had grown up with.

         Ead jumped to her feet and pushed the hood from her head. Last she'd seen this place it hadn't looked as magical on the outside as it did the inside, but it seemed someone had been maintaining the building. There was a fresh coat of bone colored paint along the walls, black iron window panes showcasing floral curtains on the second floor— where the old woman lived. There were small boxes of flowers along the windows, all blooming and in full color.

         Eadaz rounded the corner onto the lip of the street, finally facing the entrance of the Tea Drop, her heart pounding so fast her bones rattled with the force of it. Kaz and the Crows were far from her thoughts, and all she could think of were the names she'd practically forced herself to forget.

         Kennan, her father, with a kind smile and bright eyes but calloused hands and a heavy sigh always at the top of his lungs from the ache of his limbs. Ysvina, her mother, with a tender heart and a streak of anger that only came out when she was thoroughly vexed. And Helena, her little sister, oh so young and so much like their mother, with prominent curves and hazel eyes. She clutched the necklace around her neck.