Note: Speech in italics is being translated from American sign language to spoken language with no other notation.
The next morning Tatiana dressed in her white robes, tying the red sash around her waist. She brushed her hair, gazing at herself in the bathroom mirror. She felt she should somehow look different, but she looked exactly the same as before the curse.
Mina appeared at her door a little before 9, a mug of coffee in her hand, “A drone will take you to Alister as soon as you're ready. His Holy Place is in central Citadel, city of Browlee.”
Tatiana cringed, “When you say ‘drone’ . . .”
“It has a closed cabin. Sorry about yesterday,” Mina took a sip of coffee, “They said you were dangerous.” Mina giggled for a moment.
“Yeah, you should see the other guy,” Tatiana sarcastically waved her pink cast.
“You mean the Devil whose eyes you tried to gouge out?” Mina’s face turned serious, “Thank the Holy Circle that you had no idea what you were doing. He has nothing more than a black eye.”
For a moment Tatiana had the urge to track that man down and kill him. She rubbed her bad arm and shivered, “Glad it was nothing serious, you know, like getting shot in the head.”
Mina looked at her thoughtfully, “You weren't defending yourself, were you? You were defending your patron.”
“Sure,” Tatiana rolled her eyes, “I’m ready to go and seek my vengeance. Just let me know when.”
“You can go right now,” Mina didn't bat an eye at her comment. “The drone is parked out front.” She passed Tatiana a folded piece of paper, “Just hand this to Alister when you arrive.”
Tatiana tucked the paper into her sash. It took her a few minutes to find her way out of the building. It was an odd shaped building with corridors that doubled back on themselves or just randomly ended at a blank wall. “Damn thing’s probably in the shape of an ellipse,” she grumbled, finding herself standing in front of the room she had just left. Imagining an ellipse shaped building from above, Taitiana wound her way through the corridors again. This time she found herself in front of the door that exited into the parking lot.
Sighing with relief, she exited the building and walked over to the drone parked in the first slot. As promised, it had a passenger cabin up top, its lower deck taken up with munitions. Tatiana pushed a button on the side of the drone. There was a pause then the button lit up green, a recessed door sliding open. An aluminum staircase folded down with a whir, and she climbed aboard. After she had belted herself in, she gazed around the cockpit, looking for the controls. Seeing nothing, she sighed. She was still a prisoner and they were taking no chances. The weapons under her feet were probably unloaded. The door of the drone slid shut and the propellers started to whirl. With a twinge of defiance, she slid the paper out of her sash. The drone lurched upwards causing her to almost drop the sheet of paper. Unfolding it, she read:
Hey Alister,
I need you to do me a favor. I’m sending you a brand new priest named Tatiana . . .
Can you keep her out of trouble, please?
:)Mina . . .
Tatiana tucked the note back in her sash. Mina’s note was pretty basic. She could have just as easily called or emailed Alister. She sighed and leaned back in her seat, bored. The buzz of the drone was lulling, and she found herself dozing as it coasted down the air highway. The change in the sound of the motor as it descended woke her up, and she watched the drone park itself in front of a large building. The door opened and the steps lowered into place. Tatiana exited, examining the building. The lot was empty except for her, the large number of spaces suggesting that the Holy Place overflowed with the faithful on weekends. Tatiana approached the front door and tried the handle. It opened easily and she stepped inside a generous lobby with two double doors directly in front of her. With no idea of where she was supposed to go, she opened the doors and found herself inside a vast Sacred Chamber.
At the far end of the room sat a priest in a throne. “Uh, hello,” Tatiana called out. To her embarrassment, her voice echoed across the room. “Uh, I’m a new priest. I was sent by Mina?” The priest didn’t register her presence at all. From the distance she stood at, it was hard to tell if he was even awake. She moved closer to him, feeling the back of her neck heat up with discomfiture. She observed him as she drew nearer. He was bald, his head shaved clean of all hair. He had an interesting face, with a roundness to it that made him appear gentle. His eyes were closed, his head resting on one of hands. Tatiana tried again, “Excuse me? Sorry to wake you, but I think you might be the person I’m to see.” Tatiana was now directly in front of him. She took the piece of paper out of her sash and carefully placed it on one of the arms of the chair. While her hand was still extended, he grabbed her wrist, his eyes suddenly open, wild with blue fire.
“Who are you?” he slurred.
Tatiana looked at him baffled. It took a moment for her brain to process his garbled speech. “Oh! Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m a new priest. Mina sent me.”
He shook his head at her, then took the piece of paper from her hand. He read it, then pushed a button on the side of his throne.
“Um,” Tatiana tried again, “Mina thought you might want to go to Egregia with me.”
He pointed at her with his fingers and then covered his mouth, “Shut up.”
Annoyed, Tatiana turned away from him and stared at the double doors. One opened, a servant with blue hair and deeply bronzed skin walking into the room. “He looks Edenian,” she thought. The servant gestured at the priest in what Tatiana figured was sign language.
“He says that you talk too fast and mumble,” said the servant, flipping his hair out of his eyes.
“Well excuse me!” Tatiana responded.
“Look at him when you talk. I’m just an interpreter.”
“I don’t want to look at him. He’s mean,” Tatiana rubbed her cast. Her arm was starting to hurt again.
“He says you don’t have to like him. But, you are assigned to him and he can make your life hell.”
Tatiana swore. “Don’t translate that part,” she glanced at the priest grudgingly, “I suppose you must be Alister then.”
“Yes, I am Alister,” he looked her up and down, his gaze penetrating, “I can’t believe Mina sent me someone who hasn’t even found their Holy Relic.”
“Yeah, well, I can’t believe she’d send me to someone who . . . who . . . doesn’t have any hair,” Tatiana ended lamely.
Alister’s mouth twitched, “Okay, I get it. You’re Mina’s way of getting revenge on me. I gave her a really hard time when I first arrived.”
“I would really rather be assigned to Egregia,” Tatiana bit her bottom lip, “You could just send me to someone who would take me there.”
“You would go back to serve the cursed?” his eyes searched her face. He signed to his servant.
Tatiana turned back to the servant, annoyed, “How come you’re not translating?”
“He’s talking directly to me,” the servant signed something to Alister, then turned to Tatiana. “I’m to take you to a guest room. Alister is going to commune and consider your request. My name is Kadeem. I don’t think I caught your name, Holiness.”
“Tatiana,” she followed Kadeem out of the room.
“I’ll put you by his Holiness Van. He’s probably more your type of person.”
“Ooooo-kay,” Tatiana tried to keep track of the different turns they were making; right, left, up the stairs . . .
“No offense, but it takes a particular personality to get along with Alister,” Kadeem paused in front of a room, “Like mine.”
Tatiana blinked at Kadeem. This conversation reminded her of friends haggling over a highschool crush. “I’m sure you two are perfect for each other,” she gazed into the room. It was lovely. King sized bed, walnut desk, plush rainbow carpeting.
“We really are,” Kadeem gestured at the room, “Make yourself at home. I’ll have someone bring you some lunch in a little while. Anything else you need?”
“Ibuprofen?” Tatiana rubbed her arm again, “The pain’s starting to come back.”
Kadeem nodded and left her in the room. Tatiana pulled out her notepad and wrote, “Must find Holy Relic.” Thinking about the promises she made to Tate, she added, “Fiddle, and Amber.” She looked back through her writing, changing a word here, correcting the punctuation there. It was still something that the people of Citadel needed to see. She opened the top drawer of the desk. Inside was a tablet and a list of phone extensions. With tongue-in-cheek humor, she drew a heart around Alister’s extension. Dropping the list back in the drawer, she picked up the tablet and powered it on. So what if he was attractive, or beautiful even? The screen lit with a logo, then changed to a background of tropical islands. So what if she kind of already liked him? She sighed and clicked on the camera button. She was being silly. She snapped pictures of her writing, then ran them through a text-recognition software. The results were reasonably bad, and she spent the better part of the afternoon reformatting her writing. By the time Kadeem tapped on her door, she was three quarters of the way through and eager to finish.
“His Holiness Alister will see you now.”
Tatiana sighed and clicked the save button. She followed Kadeem back down to the Sacred Chamber. For the first time, she realized that Kadeem didn’t bow and avert his eyes when he entered. Maybe he really did have a special relationship with Alister.
“I have thought about your request and communed with my patron,” Alister signed, “I feel that I am being called by the Holy Circle through you to return to Egregia.”
Kadeem gasped and signed back frantically.
Tatiana watched them sign back and forth for a few moments. “Can I interrupt?” she could feel her heart racing in her chest, “I just want to tell you that I really appreciate it. I don’t really want to go, but I feel like I have to go.”
Kadeem glared at her. Alister signed at him, a frown on his face. Kadeem grudgingly translated her words.
“Forgive my servant, his only aim is to protect me,” Alister’s eyes were so intense that she felt as if he were physically touching her, “But I have waited too long to return to Egregia. It is time to pass through the gates.”
Tatiana bowed to him, unable to think of a better way to communicate her gratitude.
“Don’t do that, I can’t see your face. You’re hard enough to understand when you’re standing right in front of me.”
Realizing she was being a little over-the-top, Tatiana stood back up. “When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow. I have to make some arrangements with Van. We’ll take a drone to the border, rendezvous with the Devils.”
“I may have not exactly made a good impression on them,” Tatiana sucked in her bottom lip.
“That's too bad. I’m not walking all the way to the market. My feet have gone soft living in Citadel.”
“I know what you mean,” Tatiana could still feel the blisters she had earned on Egregian soil, still hear Tate scoff at her weakness.
Kadeem walked her back to her room, a sullen look on his face.
“Hey Kadeem,” Tatiana was curious, “What curse did Alister have?”
“He was born into it,” Kadeem’s tone was defensive, “The most civilized of the cursed, anyway, he was a Devil.”
“Oh crap, I probably tried to gouge out the eyes of his uncle.”
Kadeem laughed, his whole body relaxing. “What was your curse?”
“Ice Princess,” Tatiana smiled back at him, “And I earned it.”
“I can imagine,” Kadeem grinned at her, showing his teeth. “Let's just get something straight between you and I,” he stopped in front of her door, his face suddenly serious, “I see the way you look at Alister. Back off Princess, he’s mine.”
“I’ll take that as a challenge,” Tatiana gave him her best fake smile and swept into the room, slamming the door behind her. “That was fun,” she said to herself, “Now get back to work.” She sat at the desk, powering the tablet back on. Reopening her document, she worked on it until dinner time.
As she ate, she composed an email to her parents explaining the attached document and asking them to consider sending it to media sources. “I leave for Egregia tomorrow, so you may not hear from me for awhile,” she typed, “I will come visit when I am back, I promise.” She felt a twinge of guilt as she typed. Her parents would worry the whole time she was in Egregia, especially after reading her narrative on how horrible it was.
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