GRETA
Adler's guards took the time to begin putting up the mirrors in my chamber. I have not spoken to him since dinner yester-evening.
Bubbles scatter ahead in the breeze. Leaping from rock to rock, I carry my fibble across the stones outskirting the over-grown temple.
My Fluff leaps ahead igniting my laughs as we round the bend of the great structure. It leaps up the temple's steps and pulls me into the expanse of the pool room.
Someone is already bathing in the fountain. Shadows of the water ripple and shine across their muscular back. It must be a man. My face burns. I step back, tugging my Fluff with me.
Water splashes as they leave the big fountain. I have been spotted.
"Greta?" Brommy asks in a deep voice.
With a blush, I step back quickly behind a column. The bathing pool is not very deep where he stands. He is still dressed in his tunic but has it tied at the waist.
"Sorry, Brommy. I didn't know it was you. I will be going now-"
"Just a moment."
Stiffly, he turns away leaning back against the ledge as he adjusts his tunic properly. It is hard to look at Brommy now and not see Adler. His hair has been cut very short just like Adler's. Their stature is identical.
"Do not worry," he assures me in a quiet voice. "I am not angry. You didn't know I was here," he mumbles slightly above the trickling of water around us. "Why did you come here?"
"To bathe my limpnut."
"And not yourself? That pet of yours is quite pampered. Come on in. It is why you came, isn't it?"
Reluctantly, I hop in the bath to wash my pet.
"Now your tunic is soaked," he chides slowly while turning to face me. My tunic drifts up around my legs like a blooming flower. His voice rises, "Oh, by the gods, you should not be in here with me, Greta."
"Why not?" I laugh at his reaction. "We are only standing in the shallows together-"
"Yes, Greta, but the hospice keepers consider this sacred water," he articulates, cold. "I do not think they would want a desert rat swimming around it any more than young people. I was hoping to avoid attention."
"Okay," I whisper.
I don't share my shock with him or the awful tight feeling in my chest. Sometimes, I do not understand why he gets so annoyed at me. He can be very condescending, but he is not my caretaker anymore. He can't be that much older than me anyway.
Suddenly, my Fluff leaps from the ledge and onto his arm. It runs up onto his shoulder. Brommy twirls around. We listen to my pet squeak in excitement, not long after, the dark look on his face disappears as he pets it.
"I think you are beautiful," I say without much thought.
He becomes still.
"Beautiful? Would you call Adler the same?" he asks. The shadows lining his face darken as he leans toward me. "You think I am just like him, don't you?"
"No, why are you saying these things?"
Hues of silver shift slowly around his pupils like the small fish circling around us. He pets the short strands of my hair at the side of my scalp.
"Look at you," he scoffs. Why does he get so angry? So critical and harsh? Tears well in my eyes. His voice softens, "Adler has made you change into...this."
"But I want to be a man!"
"Why?"
It is ugly to say, but the truth nonetheless, "Because I cannot be loved as a woman!" I cry out. I quieten my voice seeing some of my sisters enter the temple for the night. "If I become a man, maybe I can find a woman who won't make me cry," I whisper remembering Enoch's quick way of doing things. I don't think I liked it, but I do like him. Then Adler hurt him...and it just made me feel dirty. Evil.
"Greta?"
"I thought you were my friend, Brommy."
His skin turns a darker shade as he wades away from me in the water. His mouth forms into a thin line as he rubs his neck looking away from me.
"I'm sorry. I suppose I have offended you-"
"You are not my caretaker anymore. I live here and take care of myself-"
"No," he interjects, "Our family has taken care of you and we still are-"
"Your family kidnapped me and intended to sell me off to Zard to use me to populate his planet! You have some strange relationship where you pretend to be the emperor's son even though he is entirely cruel and evil! Everything here is a pretense...even the light!"
My sisters are here now. They all heard me yell at him. Unfortunately, eldest sister too.
"Sister Greta! You will not speak to our god's son with such disrespect. Come on out, you must pray for forgiveness with me. Immediately!"
Brommy raises his hand to address her.
"No, it is okay. She has only spoken the truth."
Feeling ill, I turn from Brommy watching my reflection in the water's surface. Short frilly wiry hair sticking up now in all directions. Sunken and clouded eyes. I look as crazy as they all treat me.
In the shallows, mushy sand meets my feet. Many discarded shells and dead sea life lay cluttered from the deposit of seawater coming from the streams outside.
Brommy and I spend a long time sorting through the sands and tying objects together with dead, hardened weed. While from a distance, my sisters wait impatiently for me to join them.
"I can tell you are embarrassed." His voice is gentle as he watches me take a break to bathe my pet, "Don't worry about those old women though. I appreciate hearing your thoughts. Do you know how to tell when the end is nearing? The rate Adler takes in whores. Many years have his predictions been off. When he fears it most, he will tell me, and only me. In the past, during such a time, he would surround himself with many women. I believe he lives in constant fear, Greta. Please don't keep your wisdom from him. He needs it now more than ever," Brommy says. His wreath shimmers off the shine of the water's moving current. His voice lowers, the whisper of a desperate plea, "If we are to live through this."
"The only love I can count on is the love from my god," I respond calmly. "I am not afraid of death. I am afraid of my true god."
His gaze sharpens making me feel small despite our heights being the same now.
"Why?"
My heart hammers wondering if he will dismiss the truth as easily as Adler. Then again, Adler did call me a man-eating whore so he must remember.
"I am already dead, Brommy. I have come to believe Adler is the god of this dirty place. My true god is waiting to meet me in Elysium. I am certain. There...there must be more than one god."
His stare remains the same. Void of agreement. I search his eyes waiting for him to indulge in my idea.
"That does not explain why you are so afraid."
My heart races, I just need to say it and get it over with.
"I ate my parents," I blurt out while moving out of the water.
"So you think you belong here? Greta, you were starving," he reasons. "If you are being punished by some nameless entity then that is no god worthy of worship. Say there are many gods, you know, then they must not all be the same. They must be different to take care of their different worlds. This means it follows they are imperfect," Brommy soothes while following me out of the bath. He puts his robes back on. "In their unity of ruling, they are perfect, but separate they remain imperfect. Now, surely you simply didn't eat them. Do you want to tell me what really happened?"
"I would like to tell you one day."
"Have you told anyone? Those old women? Enoch? Someone else?"
I face away from him. Outside the great pool, eldest sister taps her foot impatiently while watching me.
"Sister Greta, this is not appropriate. Leave this pool immediately. You are not to share private time with men that are wed."
Brommy's face slightly moves in her direction. His jaw tightens as his eyes turn completely black on her. The air in the room feels too warm as he presses his front into my back and wraps his arms around me with defiance.
"If you want to be in the good graces of your god, I suggest you mind your own business."
Eldest sister's eyebrows go so high, I'm afraid they may fly off her forehead.
"I will alert him of this immediately. I am not afraid of you. You may have this child fooled, but I am all the wiser, you are not out to protect her. I am. He does not want you looking after her anymore for good reason!"
Adler does not want Brommy to look after me?
With haste, she turns on her heels to leave.
"You are wrong about Brommy!"
"Greta? Where are you going?" Brommy calls after me.
In a hurry, I race out of the water and follow after her leaving the temple. Eventually, she leads me to my private chamber.
My Fluff leaps ahead inside.
Eldest sister stops inside and watches me as I wait for her lecture near my desk.
"You missed prayers today, sister Greta. You chose to be there instead. Our god was not happy to find you absent. He was looking for you, and of all places, I find you in there flirting and soaking up the attention-"
"You are wrong!"
"You can tell that to our god. I will not tolerate such lies. Go and say your prayers. Remember who brought you to this sanctuary so you can be happy. Do not waste that privilege! You are entirely ungrateful and you will be punished. This new haircut of yours is ridiculous and child-like. You want attention? What attention do you deserve for eating your parents? I am obligated to tell our god immediately."
"No!"
Someone is whistling outside. The tall shadow of their form I can just make out on the other side of the mirrored wall.
"Do as you will. I will tell him regardless-"
"Please, eldest sister. Please let me tell him on my own."
"So be it. I am not the only one concerned about your wellbeing. We are only trying to protect you."
"From what?"
"From yourself, dear sister Greta. You are much too curious for your own good. Much too trusting. You are young and I am old. Trust my wisdom, dear child. Stay away from him."
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