Goda's Slave (Lesbian, Dystopia, LGBT Fantasy)

Chapter 7: Twin Gardens

In the morning, an uncomfortable beam of light found its way into the room, and it struck Kanna right in the face. She opened her eyes. When she looked around, she realized that the sun had come up, and that white light was leaking in through the cracks in the threshold.

The door was unblocked. The swan idol that had guarded her all night was gone, and as Kanna turned over, she noticed that Goda was also missing. She felt relief at first, as if she had awoken into a different world, as if the past day had merely been some kind of bizarre dream.

But the bed was not empty, and there was evidence of Goda's presence still: Her outer robes—along with the rest of her clothes—were strewn about on the mat. As Kanna hovered over them, she could still pick up traces of Goda's scent, but it was a gleam of metal in the folds of the robes that had captured her attention.

Curiously, she leaned closer. It was an eight-sided symbol etched in bronze, the face of a pendant that was buried in the rolling hills of the fabric. It might have fallen out of a pocket, she thought, but it looked more like something that belonged strung on a chain, around someone's neck. A religious emblem? Kanna wondered.

She reached out to touch it, but the moment she disturbed the tousled clothes, the pendant slipped off the side of the mat. It was attached to a heavy iron key ring. On that same rusty loop, a set of keys were also strung.

Kanna's breath cut out. Her eyes darted to the cuff on her wrist. Her fingers grasped at the oval-shaped opening that made up the keyhole of the cuff lock.

She did not hesitate. Grabbing the key ring with shaky hands, she shoved the first of the keys against the hole. It was far too big, so she tried the next, and then the next. Nothing fit. She looked furtively over her shoulder and towards the door every time she tried and failed. Her heart was pounding in her throat; her hands were fumbling; she dropped the set of keys more than once and the jangling sound sent her into a panic.

When she reached the last of the keys, she had grown so frustrated that she tried to force the piece inside. It resisted her. It went in, but it wouldn't turn. She jiggled it futilely, an unexpected swell of tears coming up into her eyes. The instant she pulled it out with an angry jerk—the instant she was about to try every single key again—she was surprised by the sound of some shuffling beyond the door.

Kanna dropped the keys, as if the metal had been red-hot. She froze in place, but when the door did not open, she crept over to the tiny window on the wall. She was barely tall enough to stretch up on her toes and peer through the hazy glass, but even still the scene beyond it made her chest seize up again.

It was Goda. She was crouched not far away, over a bucket of water, bathing herself next to a boulder. Just as she had been the morning before, she was completely naked, only this time she was slathering herself with clean water instead of the contents of a murky rain puddle.

Kanna noticed her legs. From that angle, they struck her more than any other feature. They were flexed hard into the crouch, as if Goda were hovering mid-motion, as if the woman were about to snap into an explosive leap any second. Kanna found it so disturbing that she couldn't help but stare.

She was distracted enough that it took her a moment to parse the creaking sound that was suddenly filling her ears. She whipped her head to the left, to face the door. Kanna nearly cried out when she saw it opening, and as the bright light of the morning expanded in the threshold, she raised a hand to shield her eyes.

When the door closed again, there were spots in her vision. They painted the innkeeper who was standing in front of her, holding a familiar tray in her hands.

"What? You're recoiling like I'm some kind of intruder," Innkeeper Jaya said. "Or perhaps...like you've been caught doing something questionable." She responded to Kanna's look of surprise with a teasing smile. "What are you up to?"