Zaana crept back to the pyramid through the night. There were still a few people in the streets, cleaning up the markets for the next day when everyone went back to work. But no one noticed one more little shadow dashing through. No one except Sister Eren who was waiting back at the pyramid. By the time Zaana saw her it was far too late to hide.

“What are you doing?” Eren asked angrily.

“I... um... I...” Zaana replied, desperately trying to think up some excuse.

“You still haven’t cleaned the hallway where you got dirt everywhere. And look at you! You’re even more filthy now!”

“Well I... I mean...”

“Come with me Zaana,” she said, grabbing her arm and dragging her inside. Zaana tried to stammer a response but there was nothing she could think to say. Eren led her through the archway and past the statue of Providence, a vaguely humanoid shape with many arms and a faceless white mask that dripped the black dripping ink of the script of Providence. She didn’t take her to the dirty hallway as Zaana was expecting. Instead she took her deeper into the pyramid, past the bedchambers and to the bathrooms in the back.

“What are you-”

Eren glared at her to shut her up then flung open the door to the baths and tossed her into one of the pools in the ground. These pools could be warmed but they hadn’t been and when Zaana crashed into the water it was ice cold. She flailed around for a bit and then breached the surface, sucking in a huge lungful of air, her wet hair sticking to her face and head and getting in her mouth.

She pulled her hair out of her face and blinked the freezing water out of her eyes to look up at Eren looking down at her imperiously. She shivered in the water and paddled to stay afloat, feeling the cold rapidly seep into her body.

“Alright, hopefully that gets the dirt off,” Eren growled. “Now get out, you have a hallway to clean.”

Zaana crawled her way out of the bath, her wet clothes sticking to her skin. Somehow it was even colder outside the bath than it had been in it. Eren threw a towel at her and she was grateful for its warmth as she followed her back to the dirty hallway. She’d cleaned up most of it, it wasn’t her fault she’d been distracted by the most wanted man on Solinare.

Eren lit a torch to give some light to the hallway and Zaana, still sopping wet and hugging the towel around her shoulders with one hand, began sweeping up the dust in the hallway. It didn’t take long which was good because she was exhausted and eventually they went their separate ways. Zaana took off all her wet clothes and snuggled into bed to try and get warm. Even after all that her mind was still filled with thoughts of the Day Star. She’d met him, she’d actually met him. And now she was entrusted with a powerful and dangerous secret. How exciting.

The next day was not a day off, so she was back to her normal duties which included memorising planets and stars with the priestess. It was horribly boring, who cared what the different stars did to kill you, they all did something if you went too close to them. Searth, of course, choked you with dust, no matter how airtight you thought your craft was. Ullog Thim, the Dull Star, slowed your mind until you could no longer think at all. Drath Mal, the Destroyer... did something else, probably related to destroying.

She was relieved when a man wearing the sand hawk insignia of a courier knocked on their door and Nisi let him in to speak with her.

“I am riding ahead of the Lord Warrior Neron Saith and his family as they travel to this city. As a very religious man Lord Saith wishes to stay here at this pyramid for the time that he is in Zephara.”

Nisi nodded and thought about it. Zaana listened curiously, Neron Saith was an elemental from the capital. He’d become a great hero in the war against Gahenna’s Armies. In the war against the Day Star. She pretended to be looking over the notes about different planets and star alignments but in reality she listened deeply to the conversation.

“The Lord Warrior is welcome to stay here with us for a time. How long will he be staying and when will he be getting here?” Nisi replied.

“Not long, on either count. He’ll be arriving in a few hours and likely staying for only a day or so. We are not sure just yet. There will be four of us, me, Lord Saith, his wife and his son.”

Nisi kept nodding, Zaana kept thinking. That didn’t sound like he was here to hunt down and kill the Day Star. Surely he would have instead bought a whole heap of warriors rather than his family. She felt a bit more relaxed at that, this was probably just a holiday visit from a Lord in the capital, nothing more.

“Can I ask why the Lord Warrior and his family are visiting Zephara?” Nisi asked the courier.

“Unfortunately not, that isn’t something I’m at liberty to share. Just know that he is here on orders by the masked man.”

Zaana’s heart jumped in her chest, the masked man, the ruler of Ahkenata, the capital, in the absence of the Pharaoh, the man who had the bounty on the Day Star in the first place. She was involved in this, she had a secret that she mustn’t let Neron Saith learn. She struggled to remain calm and keep looking at the paper in front of her like she was reading it. This wouldn’t be that difficult right? People kept secrets all the time. Especially secrets about violent elemental warriors in hiding from other violent elemental warriors. All she had to do was stay relaxed. She slowed her breathing and forced herself to stay still and relaxed. It wasn’t working very well.

The courier bid farewell to Nisi and walked out, right past her. She tried to look normal which involved a whole lot of fidgeting as she tried to figure out what ‘normal’ meant. The courier, thankfully, didn’t seem to notice. Now all she had to do was keep calm in front of Sister Nisi. But Nisi knew the secret as well, maybe she’d be panicking too and wouldn’t notice at all.

“Are you alright child?” Nisi asked, looking down at Zaana who was still fidgeting.

“Um... oh yes... fine. Just a bit sick I think, from when Eren threw me into the baths last night.”

Nisi smiled at that. “Ah yes, so I heard. You really shouldn’t come back so late ,child, we were worried about you.”

“Eren didn’t act very worried.”

Nisi sat down and shrugged. “She was, she took it out on you when you got back. Anger is a natural reaction to fear.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Zaana nodded idly, Nisi said a lot of funny things like that. She was clearly acting normal, apparently knowing that she was technically harbouring a fugitive didn’t seem to faze her at all.

“Now how are you going with these star charts?” she asked and Zaana groaned. “Now look, I know you don’t like them but it’s important for a sister to know the stars and their different meanings.”

“Why?” she groaned, staring at the star charts blankly. “What does Providence care?” This whole acting normal thing was a lot easier when she was complaining about something.

“Providence often sends us signs in the stars and planets, it is important that we know how to interpret them.”

Zaana nodded in defeat and looked down at the star charts. Boredom was already seeping in, or maybe that was tiredness from being up so late last night, either way it was relatively easy to act how she normally would in this situation, barely awake and complaining about everything. The rest of the lesson passed in a blur.

Then they had to make everything ready for Neron Saith and his family. Zaana was put on sweeping again and so she swept. Luckily the hallway she’d swept last night was immaculately clean, Eren had made sure of that. So she moved on to the other hallways and the other rooms. She had gotten to the entrance hall, beneath the statue of Providence, when people began to walk in. First came Neron Saith in all his elemental finery. Now this was an elemental, not like the normal clothes and rags Davrial had been dressed in. Lord Saith had gleaming metal armour, all ridged and spiked, like a skeleton, or an insect. Even covered in the dust and grime of the open road it still looked regal. He wore a metal mask as well, although it was more of a helmet really, fashioned after an ox beetle. He wore a red cloak with a purple ox beetle on it and a great double sided hiltless scythe floated behind him, moving with him as though attached, but it clearly was not attached. He took the helmet off as he entered and looked around for somewhere to put it.

Zaana stopped sweeping and just looked up at him. He was impressive, and under the helmet he still looked regal with faintly curled locks of hair wrapping a well proportioned face. He smiled at her with white, perfect teeth.

“Would you hold this for me?” he said, holding out the helmet. Behind him his scythe twirled slowly through the air, the same way a regular person might twirl a stick or a pencil in their fingers.

“Um... yes...” she replied, edging forward and letting the broom drop. The scythe was terrifying, she’d never seen an elemental up this close before except for last night and that had been in the dark. It twirled idly behind him but it was sharp, so very sharp. As she took the helmet she saw his wife and son enter the room. They were removing masks as well, also styled like ox beetles but more delicate, less imposing like the helmet she was holding.

The wife was tall and graceful with a stylish coat over a dress in the same colours as Lord Saith’s coat. The boy was even smaller and younger than Zaana. He held his mother’s hand and hid behind her dress when he gave his mask to her. It annoyed her that she was having to do things for him, when she’d been that age she’d been scrubbing floors in the temple and cleaning the statue of Providence. He didn’t look like he’d worked a day in his life. It just wasn’t fair. She stayed quiet though, she had secrets to keep.

Some other sisters walked into the room and saw the Lord Warrior and his family and Zaana struggling to hold all their masks.

“Lord Warrior,” Eren said, of course it would be Eren. “I apologise if this sister hasn’t made you feel welcome yet. She is troublesome.” Eren glared at Zaana who glared back.

Neron laughed happily. “Oh I’m sure she can’t be that troublesome, what’s she done?”

Zaana raised an eyebrow at Eren, she clearly wasn’t expecting this. “Well...” Eren began slowly. “She chases cats all over the temple and she disappears into the city whenever we let her out of our sight.”

Neron kept laughing, he had a rather nice laugh for a scary elemental. Zaana almost found herself giggling along. “Oh I used to do things like that as a boy. A good hunting exercise, chasing cats. Have you caught any?”

Zaana was smiling at Eren now and took a second to realise that the mighty Lord Warrior elemental was talking to her. “Um... yes, all of them actually. Except one, a small mean tabby. I almost caught him yesterday but someone walked past and woke him up. I got covered in dust and Eren made me clean it up.” She glared at Eren some more who was fuming, Zaana was enjoying this.

Neron kept laughing in his friendly way. She was almost forgetting the hovering murder weapon behind him. “Well I suppose you probably deserved that. We haven’t been introduced, I assume you know who I am?” He smiled at her.

Zaana smiled back, she did know, she could show Eren that sometimes she did know things, so she answered. “Yes, you’re Lord Neron Saith, you’re here in Zephara hunting the Day Star. I’m Zaana.”

Lord Saith didn’t stop smiling but he did raise an eyebrow in surprise. “The Day Star? What makes you say that?”

Zaana’s heart sank and all the enjoyment she’d been getting out of the conversation vanished. How had she been so incredibly stupid? “Uh well... who else would you be hunting?”

“What makes you think I’m hunting anyone?”

“Lord Saith,” the Priestess said as she walked into the room. “So glad you could join us, come this way, we have your rooms prepared.

Saith turned his smile to Nisi and it grew even wider. “Excellent, we’ll come right away. Our bags are outside in our cart.” He walked toward her, seemingly ignoring Zaana completely. In fact everyone seemed to be ignoring her, except Eren who gave her another disapproving glare. She tried to fade into the background as they all left, still holding the masks.

“Zaana,” Nisi called out as they left. “Fetch the bags, bring them to their rooms.”

She nodded but no one was looking by then. They all trickled out of the entrance hall, leaving her alone. She dropped the masks and ran.

She saw the cart as she left the temple but she ignored it, there were more important things she had to do. She had to warn Davrial. She had to fix her mistake before it got him killed. She ran through the dusty streets which were not as crowded as yesterday but there was still a scattering of people. She ducked and weaved and before she knew it she was lost. She’d come back this way in the dark and everything looked so different now, she really hadn’t thought about this.

Panic rose in her throat but she fought it down and forced herself to wait and think. She knew the way to the busy alley side of the house, just not to the courtyard where she’d actually been able to get in unless she was going to climb over rooves again. There shouldn’t be any need to do that though.

Coughing in the dust she retraced her steps and found the main street she’d been on at the start, she followed that to the alley and went down it to the door she remembered as Davrial’s. Was it that door, or one a bit further down? She didn’t know, she knocked anyway. There was no answer. She tried the door. It was locked.

She tried to peer in a window but the curtains were closed again so she couldn’t see anything. Panic rising in her throat she looked around desperately and saw no one except a shape that walked out of the alley. She watched for a moment more but there was no one there. It seemed this alley was barely used except during the markets. She grabbed the top of the window frame and started to climb.

This time she was still running on the adrenaline of her mad dash here and the wall disappeared under her scrabbling limbs. She was at the top in no time and then quickly over to the other side where she began scampering down. She didn’t notice the pain in her arms or the dust burning her lungs and her eyes. She just noticed the rush to warn Davrial in time.

She landed lightly on the ground in front of the back door and sure enough a window was open again. She scampered in and it looked like no one was there. The house looked a lot different in the light of the day. There was the table where they’d had bread rolls, buttered by the metal serpent. It was covered in paper which she glanced at. There were letters, some in envelopes and others just open on the table. She picked one up and skimmed over it.

To Davrial

It is good to hear of your successes. I hope-

As she read Zaana caught sight of something at the bottom of the page and her eyes flicked down to it.

Your Brothers and Sisters in Arms, Emris, Sairi, the Day Star.

But wasn’t Davrial the Day Star?

Her eyes jerked up from the letter at a click. Something moved at the front door of the house. Through the gap between the door and the doorframe. Something that looked like a scythe. The lock shattered before the razor sharp elemental blade and the door swung open, revealing Neron Saith standing behind it.