I woke gasping for air. My body felt feverish but cold, clammy and slimy. I felt icky all over.

“Neven! Thank Anwar, you’re awake.” Kalia fretted before my bedside.

I yelped when I felt the hit of cold air to my skin. She had yanked the blankets away to do a frantic check over my body.

“Come on! What’s gotten into yah?” I complained and spied a small roundish patch of yellow lichen crawling on the wall at the foot of my cot. It disappeared through a crack.

“Geyah! We’ve moving lichen in here?!” I shivered and hopped off the bed, jumping about the spot as I patted my body down. And thinking on the best ways to get rid of these crawly, suckers. They were, seriously, creepy.

“It’s good yuh okay.” Edde sighed as she entered our alcove with a warm wet cloth and bowl of steaming water in her hands. “They were crawling all over yuh body.”

My eyes bulged and I froze. “They were what?”

“Even on your cheek.” Kalia shivered at the thought.

“Gah! Clean me!” I yelped and grabbed the damp cloth from her hands to vigorously scrub at my skin.

Edde’s mouth twitched with her chuckle. She pulled out another dry, clean cloth from her tunic pocket and added to the activity of wiping the residue of lichen slime off me.

“Let’s go to the baths to get the rest off and wash yuh tunic,” she calmly said.

I nodded, and screwed up my nose at my cot; definitely had to sanitize it when I got back.

“I’ll clean and tidy your cot, Neven.” Kalia offered and glanced at Edde.

Edde nodded. “If yuh don’t take more than half an hour, yuh be fine. Make sure yuh get to the kitchen on time.”

Kalia nodded and got straight into the task. I smiled, feeling lucky I was surrounded by great friends.

“Let’s go. We don’t have much time.” Edde prodded my back to get me walking.

I followed her out of our alcove and along the granite corridor, and frowned at the other girls’ peaking at us from behind their cloth doors. A few of them were whispering feverishly among themselves.

But I didn't slow my pace, heading up the steps and down another short corridor to step out into the open air of the back area, where the wooden lavatory booths ran a ring in the middle of a wide section of rock. At the ring’s far side at the base of a towering cliff, which held the temple’s watchtower, was what looked like mine adit.

I followed Edde through the adit’s rickety wooden doors, down a cart trail that ended at a steaming rock pool. She pointed to the set of benches before a tidy stack of clean buckets and water trough. I nodded and headed to a bench spot, where I undressed and washed off my body with buckets of water from the trough, then eased into the blissful pool waters.

The rock pool was heaven and the one great luxury we Anwar servants were blessed with. But our bathing times were usually fixed to late at night, just before bed. And that was typically a rush to get in, clean off, then out.

This was the first time I was enjoying a soak in the day. The sky’s mellow daylight made the steaming water’s shimmer and sparkle, with the smooth moonstone crystal bottom amplifying the effect.

“I think I told yuh that this bath was once a mine entrance that collapsed during a dig mishap. Fortunately, it opened a water channel to form this pool.” Edde informed me through a relaxed sigh.

“LETS GO!” I thought I heard a small voice passionately declare. Something plopped into the pool. My eyes widened with alarm when small waves were headed for us.

“This is nice two-legs.” Wolf sighed dreamily when he bobbed to the surface like a float between us.

“What the hell, yah scrawny, dumpy rat!” I yelped, as I covered my chest with my arms.

“This is a women’s bath. Wo… men!”

Wolf eyes narrowed with a sarcastic expression. “I’m a skirrat. Your point is?”

Edde chuckled and gently patted his head, making his white tufts fall like a long fringe over his eyes. His brow twitched, unimpressed.

“Oi. Two-legs, I can’t see.” He grumbled.

She stroked his head, so his white tuft was slicked back in its usual position.

“Hey. Did yah rinse off before getting in?” I eyed the pest.

He dunked his head in the water with a suspicious manner.

I picked him up by the tuft with a huff and heave, and tossed him into the trough. “Don't bring yah filth in the pool!”

Wolf’s tiny head submerged from the trough. After a quick rinse, he was back in the pool. He nipped my hand as a payback.

“Anyway. Why yah here?” I asked as I eased further into the water to release my tension.

“Dumb two-legs. Can’t a skirrat be clean?” he answered back with the obvious according to him, and began doing laps around the pool with his stringy tail pointing up in the air like a needle.

I shook my head and leaned back on the edge to enjoy a bit more of the water. But I was soon conscious of time, so dunked my body into the pool to give a full once over and then reluctantly eased out, and washed my tunic quickly in a bucket of water. Redressed with it clinging to my body, dripping wet. Then stepped beneath a round clear quartz head glowing with magic. It was hanging from the roof near the troughs like a stalactite. Warm air gushed over me from the head to dry off my body until I was fresh and squeaky clean. Edde had stepped out to do the same and was soon ready to go.

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We left Wolf behind to enjoy his soak. She led me out and back to the kitchens, where we were just in time for breakfast. Kalia waved us over to our usual spot with Tonya, Leslie and Cora. Only, I noticed Cora was missing. I felt a heavy energy hanging over everyone’s heads.

Edde and I received our bowls of porridge from the burly old cook, Murray, who keep her graying hair bundled up in a gray scarf and was never seen without wearing her smudgy gray apron over her green tunic. She let out grunts as she dumped one scoop into our bowls with an oversized ladle. But I noticed the smaller extra scoop, she quickly gave me before the others could see. She grunted with a small smile. I nodded my thanks and hurried to my bench spot next to Kalia.

“Where’s Cora?” I asked as I sat down and began eating.

Tonya was trying her best not to look distressed. She waited until we ate some of our food first before telling us, with her eyes darting about to ensure no one was eavesdropping.

“Cora’s in the infirmary, but...” Her lips were quivering.

She shoveled spoonfuls of porridge into her mouth to hide the reaction and try to quell it. But her hands were trembling. “She was attacked by the canaries.”

“But canaries are intelligent and usual passive creatures.” I gasped and kept my voice low to a bare whisper.

Tonya nodded. “That’s what is scary. It seems something spooked them, and Cora…”

Her eyes became teary. I placed my hand over hers, which was resting on the table.

“Cora’s in the infirmary, right? That means the master will treat her. She’ll be fine.” I said, to try and reassure her.

But Tonya shook her head. “The master isn’t at the temple. The mothers are doing their best until he returns.”

Kalia met my glances and sighed. “I’m positive she’ll recover. She’s being cared for.”

“Kalia and Neven are right. Tonya, Cora’s in the infirmary being tended to. She’s in Anwar’s hands,” Edde said with a firm conviction that seemed to ease some of Tonya’s worry, as the woman’s lips stopped quivering.

I removed my hand from hers, which wasn’t trembling anymore.

“I’m sure you’re right. The two of us will be checking on her later,” Tonya said.

Leslie nodded with a sad sigh. I patted her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile.

We stopped talking on the matter and ate the rest of our food in thoughtful silence, then went to hand back our bowls. Murray gave me a grateful nod when she saw mine was licked clean.

The five of us parted ways as per usual. The three of us headed for the training rooms, where Quicksilver and our students were waiting.

We commenced with our sign language training, with Kalia taking point as she taught them etiquette. The training day ended without issues, but throughout the entire time I had noticed an awkward distance between Edde and Quicksilver, and remembered she still had that talk she had to give me. When we were heading to the kitchen for dinner, I decided it was the right time to broach the subject, after making sure no one was in earshot.

“Hey, Edde, yah still need to tell me about yah and that squad leader,” I said as I sidle up to her side at our brisk walk.

She stopped, glanced about, and gestured for me to follow her to one of the benches in the inner courtyard.

The three of us sat down before the Anwar statue, gazing up to her glory.

I waited for her to gather her words, sitting quiet and attentive. She then began to tell me why there was tension between them. Quicksilver had supposedly expressed his love for her.

About a few months before our arrival, the temple had been ripe with gossip about an order’s henchman falling in love with one of our senior disciples. The focus of this gossip was Quicksilver and Edde. He had been a regular for the temple guard duty, and she had been one of the seniors in charge of relaying the sisters’ orders to them.

Naturally, she didn’t know who he was as his head was always wearing the bull helmet as per the rules. One day, he removed his helmet to confess his love for her. A clear violation of the henchman code. One of the other senior disciples had supposedly witnessed the exchange and reported it to Mother Emorgen.

I frowned. There were a number of facts in that story that didn’t add up with what was going on now.

“Then why did they allow yah all to be together in the training, and why are yah still a senior disciple, and he’s a squad leader?”

Edde smiled when she said that during the temple trial, which she and Quicksilver were placed under, Master Asuras had investigated the incident as per his temple magis role. His findings had proven to the mothers and Rose Reach command that the gossip was falsely laid. The senior disciple who had reported the exchange had fabricated the details.

Quicksilver hadn’t removed his helmet to tell Edde he had loved her. The truth confirmed on trial was that his helmet had cracked when a huge chunk of jasper had fallen off the watchtower cliff. He had no choice but to remove it, with the attempts to repair it with his magic. At the risk of being exposed to the temple’s servants. She happened to be in the area at the time to help him.

It was also revealed, during the trial, that the senior disciple who had made the report was the one in love with him. She had seen him remove his helmet on a previous occasion. It had been one time when he had made a brief helmet check at the end of his guard duty. This moment was when he had just headed out of the temple area and had found a private spot with the best intentions to be unseen. So he hadn’t been in violate of his code then. But the senior disciple was definitely in violation of hers, being out of temple grounds without clear reason at that time.

Quicksilver had received a sentence due to the fact he had revealed his head to Edde without official permission. But since the act was to repair a damage, his code did allow an exception. His punishment was light, and he was permitted to return to duty.

“How quickly the trial turned from me to her.” Edde sighed.

“What happened to this disciple?” I gulped.

She flashed me a weak grin. “Even though we get some rights to be servants like using our voices, we’re still slaves to The Zone.”

She further explained that the sister had lost her rights when she was exiled from Anwar’s care. But, then she died not long after the trial’s end by a strange cause. Her death was declared suicide by poison to cover up anything that would taint the temple’s honor. Dyc and Jen were placed under Sister Branwyn’s guidance, as that exiled disciple was their senior.

“Oh, I understand now.” I nodded to Kalia.

“Let’s ensure we don't also find ourselves with similar misunderstandings,” she said and added. “I hope these training sessions end soon.”

Edde nodded, understanding her concern. “Me too. I think we’ve done enough. I’ll tell the master upon his return.”

We rose and resumed our way to the kitchen, where Tonya sat alone at our spot near the table’s end.

“Leslie’s with Cora. I'm going to be with them after I finish,” she explained before we had a chance to ask.

“Is she feeling better?” Kalia gently asked when she eased down on the bench before her bowl of stew.

Tonya shrugged her shoulders despondently.

“Can we see her?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Not at this stage, but I’ll let you know when she’s feeling better.”

She rose and carried her bowl back to Murray, then left the kitchen. We ate in silence and handed our empty bowls back. The night passed swiftly.

Kalia was snoring deeply as soon as her head was on her pillow. There were hearty snores coming from Edde’s room.

I smiled as I laid on my cot and pulled my blanket up to my chest; staring up at the dark ceiling.

But before I could drift into sleep, I spied a small patch of yellow lichen glowing on the spot directly above me.

It dropped.