Ashtium: City of Sun

Chapter 7 | Family

GRETA

My body feels heavy. It is so dark in here. I do not know where 'here' is. I am not trapped in my noyk.

There is no silver shapes of anything. I am alone. Eventually, my eyes adjust a little as I sit up.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of mirrors line each inch of the walls surrounding me. A spiral staircase disappears above my head. Beneath my hands, a wonderful huge cloud keeps me float over the ground like a gigantic noyk.

A shiver shoots down my back hearing something move in the darkness across from me. Tall and silent, they stand alone.

How long were they standing there watching me?

"Why won't you grow? I want to see you."

His deep voice is enthralling and makes me listen even if in fear. I must remember he is my god and he loves me still...I hope.

"This is me," I whisper with a thudding heart. 

Where are my sisters? I have never woken up without them near or Brommy. A hiccup leaves me as I grow nervous feeling him pick me up.

Adler presses my cheek against his own. It is too close.

"N-no!" I hurry out.

He holds my body out in front of him.

"I'm sorry," he whispers.

Pee leaves me, I cannot help it. In the darkness, I cry hoping he hasn't noticed. I have never been so scared - not even out alone in the desert for a decade.

There is something not right with Adler.

"Don't be afraid," he whispers while laying me back down on my back. I stare up at the dark tall shadow of his form. He simply wraps a new set of robes around me. Still, I prefer my sisters to change me. Why has he brought me to this strange room? He scoops me back up. "Soon, you'll be big enough to change yourself."

"I do not know what you mean," I say. His smile turns tight-lipped. "I have always been this height. I'm a grown woman."

"No, little pearl," he argues softly. He pets my thinning hair reminding me of all I lost in the desert starved and alone. "You were not born to be stuck in such a tiny body."

"Please, set me down on my feet. Do not pretend you do not understand," I say while looking up at him. He listens to me. I wipe my face looking all the way up at him. "You keep me this way."

"I cannot control such a thing."

Yet, the crescent above his head remains dark. The ground is cold beneath my feet. My god must have put my sandals somewhere. I find them by the entryway as well as his lurking presence right behind me.

"Where are you going? I have something for you."

He bends down handing me a small device with many needle-like pieces lined up in a row.

"What is it?"

His voice sounds strange, "Didn't you h-have family, little pearl? Didn't they take care of you? How long have you been so small?"

"They did until they starved to death. Twenty-three moons as far as I know. I...do not remember being any bigger than I am now."

He rubs his throat with wide eyes watching something behind me.

"How in the cosmos did you survive all alone?" he murmurs. Well, he must know. He should know everything about me. "You must have been so scared. So alone."

I hug his leg, knowing I did not feel entirely alone. He was watching me then, and right now, my prayers were not for nothing.

I hold the item up to him. 

"What is this?"

He wipes something under his eye.

He sounds very excited, "A comb! You have never used one, have you?"

I am picked up before I have any say in the matter. We return to the bed where he places me on his lap.

It feels odd having something run through my hair besides my fingers. It feels nice...even though I barely have any hair. He makes a small part down the center of my hair and moves the device through the couple pieces of hair I have.

It feels silly to try to make my hair neat when I am basically bald.

His movements are careful not to scrape my scalp.

I think he is trying to make me feel pretty. My legs still are trembling when I should be calm as he sets down the object.

He hands me a small mirror.

The mirror is making fun of me. I haven't looked at myself this closely...ever. My skin is so wrinkled and my teeth stained from the many bugs I ate. Sometimes, it feels like I am still in my cave. Just surviving. Not living.

I accidentally meet my Adler's intense stare in the mirror's reflection. My heart hammers as he takes hold of the mirror. His grip his shaky as he sets it down.

"I am in my youth like you. Older, a hundred and thirty moons. My oldest advisor is seven hundred."

I do not know why he is telling me this.

"Who were those women in your home?"

"Oh, it's not my home out there...it's just an empirical temple. Anyone can come to our temple."

"There was a woman sitting on you."

"Yes, I suppose there was. I'm sure there are many things you have seen and do not understand. Brommy is teaching you, isn't he?"

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