NOVEL NEXT Ch. 4: A Quiet Bath
Telis led Cass through the house to one of the back rooms. It was tiled from floor to ceiling. A basin was built into one wall, already filled with gently steaming water. Beside it hung an orb of blue glass.
“Are you familiar with shower orbs?” Telis asked.
Cass shook her head.
“Simply tap the orb there, and water will fall. Adjust the temperature and pressure by tapping the sides.” Telis demonstrated, and a stream of water gushed from the object.
They had running water! Or the magical equivalent!
Telis demonstrated a few other controls before turning it off again with a second tap on the bottom. Below the orb, the floor was already dry. More magic?
“You can find any of the soap you might wish for there.” She gestured to a shelf along the wall lined with jars. “And lotions for the bath beside the tub.” A series of flasks stood in a neat line on the wall on the opposite side of the tub. “Leave your clothing by the door. They shall be cleaned by the time you are done. Simply ring the bell by the door should you need anything else.”
“Thank you,” Cass said, her eyes still on the shower.
“Does your cat need anything?” Telis asked. “I can prepare a smaller tub to wash it in if you desire it.”
Salos? Cass asked.
My other option is licking myself clean? He grimaced. I guess I’ll let you wash me.
“A tub would be great, thank you.”
“But of course, miss, I will return with the tub momentarily.”
You wash up first, Salos said, hopping down from her shoulder. Take your time. I want to check a few things, if you’ll allow me.
“Sure, but what?”
Salos padded up to the door, looking both directions, his tail flicking back and forth. Nothing too important, probably. I’ll be back before you know it.
“Alright.” Honestly, she was just as happy to have some privacy for the bath.
See you soon, Salos said as he slipped out into the hall.
Cass closed the door behind him. He was clever, he’d figure out a way back in. Or he’d dematerialize into her necklace and rematerialize again in the room.
Either way, Cass didn’t waste anymore time. She pulled her boots off for the first time in over a week, peeling the socks off with equal parts delight and disgust. She was so glad to have them off her feet, but God did it smell.
They were so gross they were probably unsalvageable.
They and the rest of her clothes went in a pile by the door and Cass rushed to the shower.
The water poured over Cass, hot and clean. She closed her eyes and let it wash over her face. Grime melted off her, pooling around her ankles before disappearing like it had never been.
This is what it meant to be human!
A collection of jars stood along the side of the shower. Cass poked around them, lifting their lids and swirling their contents. They smelled of flowers or fruits, sweet or subtle. Shampoo, she hoped.
She picked up one, about to pour a palmful into her hand before she remembered she might not need to guess. She had magic.
Identify!
Hair Remover
[A concoction with a strong effect on body hair.]
Cass set that jar down fast. That was a close one.
She spent the next couple minutes Identifying the rest of the jars as the hot water ran down her back. Most were shampoos, Cass had gotten incredibly unlucky with the first one, but a few were also dyes.
She picked a soft grey shampoo that smelled of honey and jasmine and poured a healthy handful into her hair. It was matted to all hell. What had started as a tidy braid had since devolved into a tangled, twisted knot.
She ran her fingers through the knots, loose hair falling away in clumps as she teased them apart.
When she’d gotten the worst of the knots out, she turned her attention to her skin. It was caked in her trials of the last three weeks. Blood stained her skin, as much of it her own as the many monsters she’d been forced to fight. It was ground into her pores with dirt and sweat.
But the water cut through it, stripping the grime away, as if it never happened. As if it were that easy to wash away the last three weeks.
Cass took up a bar of soap, a pale blue bar with a gritty exfoliant she didn’t recognize embedded in it, and scrubbed at her skin.
She was finally in civilization. She had finally found people and towns. She had finally left the wilderness behind.
She was done killing. Done drenching herself in the blood of monsters—in her own blood—to survive.
She could be human again.
Layers of grime and dead skin fell away as she scrubbed with the soap. She scrubbed hard enough the soap’s dye left a blue tint on her skin.
She stayed there a long time, letting the water roll over. It was easy to pretend this was her home shower if she closed her eyes. It was easy to pretend the last three weeks had been nothing but a terrible dream.
But that was all that was. Pretend.
She stopped the shower orb and moved over to the tub.
Telis had said something about lotions? Cass Identified the flasks besides the tub.
Hayberry Bath Lotion
[An herbal concoction which soften’s skin and increases the effective Fortitude of the body.]
Cass’s eyes widened. Buffs for the bath? She could become tougher just by soaking in this stuff? And it softened her skin? She didn’t know how that worked, but couldn’t wait to find out.
She read through the other bottles. All of them had the same description, though listed different fragrances. Cass settled on one called Silent Lily, which smelled a little like lavender. She poured a solid glug into the bath and watched with childlike wonder as the water fizzled into delicate soap bubbles.
Cass slipped in after, sighing with satisfaction as the warm water enveloped her. After everything, this was like heaven. All she needed was a book and she’d be set.
A book and a way home afterwards…
Home. She slipped deeper into the tub until only her face remained above the water’s surface.
What were Kaye and Robin doing now?
What did one even do when a loved one was kidnapped by extra-dimensional forces? Did one report that to the police? Did they open a search party, scouring the woods for a body they’d never find? Were they still looking?
Did they declare her dead and hold a funeral? Did they mourn her loss and move on with their lives?
She didn’t know which was worse.
What had they told their parents?
She shook her head. That wasn’t a useful question. When she got back, she’d figure it out.
Right now, her time was better spent surviving.
She had a plan. She had a goal. She had come a long way from that summoning circle in Uvana. She was not lost. She was not alone.
And yet, she didn’t feel any closer to finding her way home.
She held her hands open before her, just under the water’s surface. They were the same hands as ever. Clean now. Finally, free of blood and dirt. Not any more callused or rough from her weeks in the wilderness.
Was that because she was a spirit now? She didn’t think of her hands as callused, so they weren’t? Was that why none of the many injuries she’d sustained scarred?
Cass wasn’t someone with calluses. Cass wasn’t someone with scars.
She sank another inch into the water; her face falling below the surface.
Atmospheric Sense screamed it couldn’t see. It couldn’t hear. She was blind. Deaf. Isolated.
She almost shot back up.
Cass held her breath instead. Not that she needed to.
Slyphid didn’t need to breathe and she was slyphid.
After a minute, she surfaced again and leaned back against the tub’s rim. The air was heavy with the steam. Her soul, heavy with the weight of her adventure thus far.
Snippets of the last fight in the valley kept playing in her mind. The boar chasing her. Stepping into the wind to run. The electricity in the air. The feel of grabbing it with Elemental Manipulation.
The assassin.
Levina.
Cass closed her eyes.
All she could see was the limp body lying on the ground. The surrounding grass torn up from the heavy rampage of the boar, the plants singed from the arching electricity.
Her body was charred. Her head lay twisted at an odd angle. Her dagger lay fallen at her side. Blood trickled from a dozen cuts.
She was dead.
Cass hadn’t killed her. That wasn’t even an empty platitude. She hadn’t killed that woman. The boar had.
Levina had been plenty slippery. She could have disengaged at any point. She could have slipped away and neither Cass nor Alyx could have stopped her.
But she hadn’t.
And now she was dead.
And every irrational voice in Cass’s head screamed it was her fault.