"You did this, didn't you Pepper?"
Guilt weighs Pepper down, which makes them drop their head. They hide their hands behind their back.
"Pepper, dear, answer me." Her voice, to Tulip, is unusually calm.
They sigh. Nod.
"Why did you give them a blanket and towel?"
They raise their head to stare directly at her. "They were sick, mother! Gravely ill!"
"'Gravely'?" A sharp smile forms. "Dear, you know us deities don't end up on death beds."
"They were really suffering, though! How could you not know that they are allergic to pollen?"
Tulip's eyes grow wide. Is that why I had trouble breathing?
Mortelline lets out a laugh. "So they're allergic to pollen? Gosh, they really are an anomaly."
"Huh...?"
"Deities can feel pain. We can feel emotions, much like our mortal counterparts. But we can't die. We can't get terribly ill. And we certainly don't get 'allergic' to a feeble flake of yellow dust!"
Pepper clenches their fists tight. "Well whatever curse you put on them is making them weak!"
"That's the outcome, Pepper." Mortelline shakes her head, the red in her eyes now faded back to pink. "It's a reminder as to why mortality can be so weak, which is why it's up to us to guide them to the afterlife. Not to disrupt the flow, which is what this prisoner did!"
Pepper looks like they want to snap back. Tulip watches in silence. Cowering away to hide in the darkness seems not far from them right now.
"Don't listen to a thing they say, dear," Mortelline says in a scoff. "Anomalies like them are masters of manipulation."
"They don't talk!"
"Don't talk?" She throws her head back in a laugh. "Well, they were talking to me!"
That anchors them back. They remember. They never lost their voice, yet...
"Go on, now." She glares down at Tulip with a demanding expression. "Speak to them."
Yet they can't. In this moment, the rock in their throat becomes a boulder.
"What's the matter? Is Bastet holding your tongue?"
Why do they want to cry? These emotions welling up inside feel so different to them than before. Pepper steps in.
"That's... that's okay," they say. "Whether they want to talk or not, it doesn't matter. We don't need to communicate with just words."
Frozen. The ice holding their heart in a cold grip starts to melt. A new, strange feeling. Mortelline huffs.
"Well the silence is burdensome. A nuisance. I warned you to not interact with the prisoner. You see how it all turned out when you didn't listen?"
Pepper zips shut. Mortelline lifts an arm, then points to where the large door is now ajar.
"We need to talk, Pepper. Away from the prisoner."
Tulip looks between Pepper and the scary goddess. Her aura towers higher than the door.
"Now," she says firmly.
Pepper scurries off, disappearing from the room. Mortelline follows behind in her elegant stride. But before leaving, she takes one last look at Tulip.
"I'll allow you to keep that putrid fabric," she says, "so you can make use of it to hide from my own child's curiosity."
The door slams shut, making the lamp sway in an aggressive rhythm. After a few seconds, Tulip deems the area safe enough to exhale a repressed breath. They feel their heart pound like a toubeleki. From anxiety to confused emotions. What is going on?
YOU ARE READING
Bloom
RomanceA mysterious deity is captured by a goddess of death and afflicted with a curse for a wrongdoing. During their capture, the descendent of the goddess sneaks in and out to try and mend the prisoner's pain, but the individual isn't too keen on them in...
