The Gardener of Nahi

Chapter 5

Cassidian

As I approached the shuttered temple I briefly looked up at the crumbling ornamentation.  Past the balustrades there were angels perched up high above me, some with missing wings and fingers, their gazes turned up at the gray ceiling just out of their reach.  I realized then that the entire façade, although frozen in stone, conveyed a huge sense of upward movement, or at least attempted to.  What the designer intended so long ago lay in stark contrast to its changing environment.  Now all of this movement was sterilized, stunted to match the medium it was made with.  There was nothing to look up to anymore, no potential for the dreams of anything greater.  The story it was trying to tell had been made irrelevant by its surroundings.  I shook my head, knowing that it was like building a window which looked out onto another brick wall.

Once I was in front of the building I stopped momentarily, still standing in the middle of the street.  People brushed my shoulders and knocked into me as if I were a lodged stone in a raging river.  It was early morning, I realized.  People were on their way to work – to the monolithic business district so many blocks ahead.  A controlled fire burned nearby and men huddled around it, oblivious to all of this.  An older woman came out of a neighboring store, cursing while running after a chicken which had escaped an early death.  They were both quickly lost among the crowd.  Another man was shouting in pain, his palm placed firmly on his forehead as he walked in circles. 

I faced the distant terrace and pale curtain at the far end of the vein.  For many minutes I watched closely for any sign of pursuit, but none came (although with the crowd it was difficult to tell).  Perhaps it was simply because I was the only one not moving, but after a while I started to feel like one of the temple’s statues, frozen in time.  Brittle and alone. 

I began to doubt my plan.

In front of me there were three pairs of heavy wooden doors, and after checking them I noticed they were all locked.  I cursed to myself silently.  The more I thought about it, the more I figured I was on the wrong track.  Everything seemed normal.  There were no signs of pursuit, no signs of any commotion.  The immediate area was in fact dark – the temple’s lights were off, as well as the neighboring shops – they all appeared closed at this early hour.  I was very close to losing my patience and going back to the terrace to question others, threatening violence if necessary.

But then I saw something which made all of my doubt vanish.

Directly underneath one of the doors I noticed that the faintest of lights was coming through.  It was so weak that I had initially missed it.  Approaching the sliver of pale gold, I dropped to one knee to see if I could peer through the gap.  But before I could bring my head to the ground I saw something there on the gray marble tile.  Something which was insignificant in size alone.

I could see a single droplet of bright red.

With a flick of my thumb I temporarily switched my serrater to shortbeam and quickly sliced off the deadbolt between the doors.  The only sound was the piece of discarded metal hitting the stone floor behind the door.  Wincing slightly, I could hear it echo within the cavernous space.

I pushed the door open slowly and stepped inside, quickly kneeling down to pick up the severed deadbolt and stuff it inside one of my suit’s side membranes.

The foyer was dark.  There was another group of three doors in front of me mirroring the ones which I just entered through, but all of these were open.  Mounted on the wall between these were two single white candles – they were the only immediate light.  Their flames danced momentarily as the thick door behind me closed, a brief change in pressure entering the silent space.