And her name is…

I climb back into the shower and make it quick, my anxiety bubbling back to the surface at why my window was open again. As I return to the main room I move directly to the windows and confirm they’re closed and locked. I don’t check anywhere else though. If someone was already in my room they would have made their move when I fell asleep.

From the wardrobe I pull out a sweater and pair of comfy pants, throwing them on along with a pair of the sock like house shoes Yurik made me. I glance in the mirror and consider a bra but I’m tired and sore and fuck it. When I open the door I’m glad the hall is empty and I reach to retrieve the key from the table.

There’s only one key, and my heart stops. I stand on the threshold and stare at the table. For a moment I try to convince myself that I could have misplaced it, or this is the spare and the main key is in a pocket of something I’ve tossed in the hamper. I know that I put the key here each time, but I don’t remember when I last saw two keys there side by side.

I got too comfortable.

I deposit the lone key into my pocket and start down the hallway.

Who took it?

People have been in an out of my room a lot lately, but no one that I think would take my key.Tiago and Wulfric would hardly need to wait until I’m sleeping to catch me by surprise and I don’t want to think it could be Nyx, not after she gave me the key to begin with. Helion has already lied to me, but he doesn’t know I know that, then there’s Vera but she has no reason to want to hurt me… unless she’s upset I keep draining her plants. Still I find it hard to believe she would hurt or kill me because of that after I helped her in her greenhouses.

I enter the dining room last and try to look natural. For me that’s a general look of possibly being pissed off with an air of ‘I could cut you’,but apparently I ’I could cut you’d too hard because Ignacio is staring at me.

“What’s wrong?” He asks after I’ve sit down.

“Nothing,” I assure, giving him a breath that could almost be a laugh.

“Someone was in her room,” Wulfric mutters, evaporating my nonchalance.

“Probably not,” I retort, folding my hands together in front of my face with my elbows on the table.

“What makes you think that?” Ricard speaks up, looking at me skeptically.

“I don’t,” I shrug.

“Who could get in? You have both room keys,” Nyx reminds me like she’s trying to sound comforting.

“One key is missing,” I return quietly, eyeing Wulfric.

Ricard laughs. “You can’t even remember to put on shoes unless you’re going outside, you probably just misplaced it.”

I snort, because no the fuck I didn’t. “Yea, you’re probably right.” I say, barely able to get the words out without grinning. “What purpose could anyone possibly have for wanting to enter my room. All the good steal-ables are behind the secret bookcase in the library.”

Several people laugh but Ignacio glances at me and I wink. I have spent a lot of time in that library. Ignacio takes that as the all clear that I’m not saying anything else and turns to his food.

Wulfric on the other hand is glaring at me. I smile sweetly at him and Tiago ignores it all. Apparently, Tiago trusts me more than anyone else here does, and I appreciate him letting me handle this my way.

“If you’re worried, you could stay with me,” Helion offers, “or we could spend some time at my house for a change of scenery.”

“You’re kidding right?” I laugh out. “Forget the fact I literally caught you nailing one of your maids in your office…”

“Theodosine, I can explain…”

“I’m sure you can,” I interrupt, “but I don’t care to listen. You could have been upfront with me, but you couldn’t even do me the courtesy of telling me the truth.” I sniffle for no reason and look away from him. “I thought when you said what you did to your cousin that you were serious about me,” I sniffle again, “apparently I don’t know as much about Sioga relationships as I thought, but keeping that you were already with someone a secret is not okay with me. I’m done.”

“Done what?” He asks carefully but I don’t turn back to him for fear I’ll start laughing.

“I’m not following you to that stupid party. I’ll find my own way in, and you’ll still get Kheliq out of the picture so you don’t lose anything.” I expect his response to either be angry or soft, but I have to quickly jerk my hand away as he reaches for it with his fingers in shining silver.

“But I’ll lose you,” he says gently, and I almost look up to his puppy eyes. “Come back with me to say good bye to my cousin, and we’ll work this out.”

I shake my head and move to start eating. “The lies were becoming too much for me anyway. You can tell her whatever you want about me. Tell her I got cold feet for all I care. I’m not going.”

Helion gruffs out something I don’t hear right and leaves the room abruptly. All eyes turn to me but I don’t regard any of them. More than half of the current table knows the truth right now, the rest being Vera, Ignacio, Ealdian and Ricard who I’m not fully sure of. Still, I’m not going to say anything more on the subject now. What Helion has already said is very telling and I can’t wait for supper.

-

The rest of the meal is mostly silent. Ignacio and Ealdian discuss the exchange of messages to other cities and the recent accounts of the blight popping up. I’m listening as much as I feel I need to, but I’m not all that concerned about something that won’t reach us until after Kheliq’s party.

When I’m finally done, several others have already left so I stack my plate with theirs at the end of the table and say goodbye. I’m eager to go to my room and see if anyone has entered since I’ve been gone. Everyone still at dinner couldn’t have entered it, so either they’re working with someone, or it isn’t them.

I’m focused on getting to my room, feeling the key in my pocket like it could burn a hole right through. I open the door and walk in, turning to close it behind me but it stops swinging and I look into the hall through the gap for the reason. Wulfric is standing there with his foot in the way and when our eyes meet he pushes to enter my room and closes the door behind himself.

“Why did you play it off to the others? Someone has clearly been in here, I can smell them!” He demands and I smirk.

“It’s not enough to know that someone was here, I want to knowwhy. The why is far more important. None of you are worried enough about the choices people are making around you. They clearly come in, using the key, from the hallway and leave through the window. Unless, of course, they’re leaving the window open to get back in later or let someone else in. Either way, if I lock up before I go to sleep I should be fine, and I don’t know why you’re so upset about it.” I fold my arms across my chest and look him over. “I’m sure they aren’t looking to get in your room, so this is my problem.”

He huffs. “Believe it or not, I care what happens to you.”

I roll my eyes. “Care all you like I’m curious,” I say pointedly.

“For the amount of times you threaten to kill us, there are certainly a lot of people still alive,” he returns, and he has a point.

“Death is so final,” I point out. “If I’m going to die, I want to at least go out without questions….”

“And that’s another thing!” He interrupts. “Why do you keep talking like your body is stricken with cancers and your time here isn’t long?! You are Sioga! You’re already over one hundred and you could live to be a thousand if you wanted.” He’s clearly angry and I can’t discern why he cares this much.

So I lie.

“How many times did Kheliq almost kill me in that prison? How many times would I be dead if Iwasa halfbreed? I’ve been living with one hand on death’s door knocker for so long that I don’t know what happens next if I decide I want to live.” The statement is close enough to the truth that my voice wobbles by the end.

His face calms and he reaches to hold my cheek,but I don’t know why I let him. “I won’t let you die.” I close my eyes and nod, for no other reason than I don’t know what to say. “Now earlier, you screamed.. what happened?”

His voice is so gentle that it’s on the tip of my tongue to answer him honestly, but I lie. “Nothing, a spider.”

It’s not even a good lie, and I had time to think one up but I didn’t think he would ask. I can tell he doesn’t believe me, I don’t blame him. He brings his other hand up so now he’s holding my face and I can’t turn to look away.

“Nightmare?”

The question is soft and gentle, but I still flinch with it. I didn’t think I could be so affected by someone figuring it out but I’m ready to start yelling to distract from the matter when he brushes my lips with his thumb. He presses into them, covering the centre of both with his digit to shush me without making a sound.

“It’s okay.” My body relaxes a little but he doesn’t stop speaking. “What do you usually do before dinner?-“ before I can answer I see him looking at the nightstand. “The library right? Are you done with all those books?” I nod to both questions and he releases me to go retrieve them before he’s in front of me again. “Come along, I wanted to go there myself.”

Now he’s the one who’s lying, but I don’t see a point in calling him on it. I have told him decidedly more lies lately, or at least half-truths. If I don’t want him to dig too deeply, I shouldn’t point out that we both have the ability to.