The Cinders of Dezu

23rd: The Red Room (1)

Raina sat at the counter in the servants dining hall. She kept seeing the root ball disappearing and reappearing in her vision as she was going round and round on her shiny dark wooden stool. There was someone tending to things and cleaning behind the bar that hadn't been upfront long enough to strike up a conversation. He was one amongst several other Nom servants doing various cleaning duties in the hall. They had had breakfast there and just recently had finished up and scattered about for the day.

Raina was trying to see how fast she could go without stopping. The dining hall was quite large and she could see Caddock inquiring about something with a waiter from across the way. She watched in dizzying rotations as Caddock turned his attention to her and started heading her way.

"You're a very busy young lady aren't you?" he said once in earshot.

Raina started to slow herself down. She felt the room continue to spin.

"You have spinny chairs," she said, rocking her head back and forth.

"We do," said Caddock, "Another gift from the world on your side. Someone else who crossed over liked spinny' chairs too."

"Why did he ask me to do this? I can't do this!"

Raina said as she faced the root ball that, in her dizzied eyes, seemed to be trying to spin off the counter. It rarely seemed to sparkle anymore like she had seen in the forest with the savern bull. It just looked like a really tightly knotted dirt covered tumble weed.

"If I know Orion, he must know something about what that is. He also must know something about you. You must be the lady for the job."

Raina threw her head back.

"Ugh! But I don't want to do it! I want to find Cairo and Julian!"

Caddock nodded.

"I'm sure he has his best people on it. If the king is looking, he is sure to find. It's hard for anyone to hide from him."

Raina folded her arms and frowned at the thing.

"How about I help you get started with this," he said, "What do you know about it?"

"That it's sometimes pretty but it's mostly gross," she said.

Caddock chuckled.

"Okay, and what else?"

Raina frowned.

"It makes me sad."

"Sad?" Caddock asked.

"Yeah it makes me sad when I look at it sometimes. Sometimes it seems happy and other times... or most of the time, it seems sad."

Caddock tilted his head.
"You mean like it's a person? Or an animal?"

"I guess," said Raina, "When pieces were glowing in the woods it made me really sad. Like I was losing someone."

"Losing someone?"

"Yeah... like maybe someone died."

"Hmmm," Caddock's brow furrowed, "So it seemed like it was talking to you? Telling you something sad?"

"Yeah, I think so," she said, "It was a little like talking to Prince except I can understand what he says better. With this it's like I can only get an idea of how it feels. And it feels too many things at once!"

Raina made face like she was a bit surprised at herself.

"Huh... that sounds weird, huh?"

Caddock looked up and to the side.

"No, not really. I've known Vincarsee of all sorts. They're capable of great things. Much greater than Nom. I've seen them read minds, talk to animals like you. I've even seen them help the sick by talking to the... what did Harper call them? Miniature... micro... the small creatures inside a person that cause disease."

"Bacteria?" Raina said.

"Sure, I think Harper called them that. I'm sure if you try and go with what comes natural then things will start to make sense."

"Hmmm," Raina said, looking at the ball.

"Why don't you enjoy the castle like you always do and just take it with you?" he said, "See if it says anything else."

"I'm going to name him, Ugly Ramen," she said.

"Ugly Ramen?" said Caddock.

"I might shorten it," said Raina, "But for now yeah, he's Ugly Ramen. Cuz it looks like Ugly Ramen and it makes me feel better... if it's gonna keep trying to make me sad."

Caddock grinned.

"I'm not sure what Ramen is but that sounds good to me."

Sometime later in the day, Raina was wandering the halls with Prince. She carried Ugly Ramen under her arm. She had started carrying it with a bit less reverence than she had when she was first tasked with it's safekeepings, but it didn't seem to be damaged. The roots seemed brittle sometimes but were surprisingly flexible and didn't seem to break under careless strain.

Several times Raina had tried to talk to some of the servant kids, but while they worked they seemed fairly focused on whatever their task was. That's not to say they weren't friendly, it was just clear they had been taught by their parents to focus on whatever work they had been given.

Raina caught sight of one little pointy eared girl with skin the color of a pear that she saw laughing as she followed her mother. She thought this was surprising because she was very small, perhaps five or six, and she was struggling to carry something. It was brown and gray and wider than the small girls body as she wrapped her arms around it as best she could. The object looked almost like a scaly stone. But if it was a stone, there's no way a girl her size could be carrying it. She trailed behind her mother who seemed to have made it into some kind of game.

She was also carrying scaly stones, two in each arm and one balanced between them. She was feigning like she was going to drop them with a smile.
Raina followed them at a distance for some time until they reached a door she hadn't seen before. It was almost at the edge of a hallway in a dark corner, strangely placed for where a room ought to be. The pear skinned mother, who Raina noticed did not have pointy ears like her daughter,  balanced all three scaly stones on one arm and reached into a pocket to produce a set of keys. She unlocked the door and her daughter happily went inside.

Her mother held the door open with her foot and backed in with her arms full. She saw Raina over her load of stacked goods and gave her a smile as she went in, the door closing behind her. Raina walked over to the door and hesitated. Then she tried the handle. It was locked.