Arc 7: Chapter 20: Scadu
After Chamael’s unsettling visit, the last thing I felt like doing was getting rest. I spent time checking my equipment, which included inspecting my new crossbow for signs of damage after its first test in real combat. It had a complicated design, and the smith did warn me it might break easily.
But it seemed to have held, so I cleaned it along with my other gear and laid it on the bed for easy reach. Winter wind played over the castle’s walls. The glass window rattled in a snowy gust. New clouds were blowing in from the south, warning that another snowfall might come before morning. Even still, the light of a hundred camps shone from the town square and the fields beyond.
I’d lit the fireplace and some candles after the seraph left, bringing some warmth and light of my own into the room. Delphine would be reviewing some of the other items we’d brought from Lias’s hidden study, but I doubted she wanted to talk to me just then and probably wouldn’t appreciate having someone hovering over her shoulder.
The guest chamber was large enough to include a small bath, a claw-footed tub, and a basin on the wall for lighter washing. It was still full from when the servants had prepared the room for me. I moved to the mirror above the washbasin and splashed my face, trying to get a hold of my nerves.
Keep calm, soldier. The hardest part of every battle is always the waiting.
As I let the cold water drip down into the sink, I heard another splash behind me. Every muscle in my body went tense at once. Slowly, cautiously, I lifted my eyes to the mirror. The room reflected in it, and behind my own dripping face lay the bathtub.
The tub was no longer empty. Not only that, but it wasn’t full of water. My nostrils flared at the familiar reek hanging heavy in the air.
The bath was full of blood. The liquid bubbled like it was boiling hot just before two hands emerged to grip the tub’s sides, and a head masked in viscous red lifted free. Long hair clung to the face to form a veil over one eye. The other eye opened, revealing a pale gray iris. It watched me in the mirror, glinting in the dim light.
Had I drifted off to sleep? Fallen into a dream? Damn it. I wasn’t that exhausted, was I?
“It’s not like that,” Fidei said, her soothing voice like a half-forgotten melody freshly recalled in my ears. She ran her hands through the blood, splashing some onto her face and running it through her hair before speaking again. “Perhaps a waking dream.”
“I got rid of you,” I growled. “You’re not supposed to be in my head anymore.”