shadows don't lie

1K Special Chapter #1

*Warning, themes of Suicide are in this chapter! Do not read if you are easily triggered by this!*
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She woke up from yet another nightmare, just one of the many she had endured this week.

They had been all sorts of different memories, some mashed together to create a whole new kind of pain.

Twice she had rushed for the little bathroom across the hall to vomit, but she had also done her best to be as quiet as possible.

She had discovered that she could almost use her shadows like a filter to hide anything unwanted from escaping, such as scents or sounds. That trick had been useful, especially when Azriel slept in the same room as her.

It annoyed her sometimes, having to share a space with someone else, and part of her knew that if she said something that he would leave, but she also knew that she would miss it.

They sometimes would stay up when neither of them could sleep, just talking to pass the time, and sometimes he would tell her about his adventures he had been on.

It was sweet, and she cherished the time deeply, but recently she had noticed the dark smudges under his eyes growing darker, and he seemed more unfocused whenever she would make conversation with him. She had decided to do her best to let him sleep as much as possible- even if that meant giving up those soft nights.

Tonight was no exception. When she bolted upwards panting heavily with fear, she took a moment to look around the room and remind herself what was real, gathering her shadows around her to muffle her breathing.

She stood from her bed and glanced around the room before leaving, taking the time to shut the door as quietly as possible behind her.

Once she was in the hall she headed for the stairs, avoiding the creaky floorboards that her shadows pulled her away from. She heard Morrigan sleeping in a room that she passed, but she didn't slow as she went downstairs and to the kitchens.

With all of her work in the Library, Inei had grown comfortable enough around Nesta to ask her one day if she could borrow a book, and Nesta had seemed more than delighted to show her how to open an account. She even helped Inei find exactly what she was looking for.

Inei walked over to a cabinet near the rightmost wall of the kitchen and pulled out the cookbook that she had borrowed, and she flipped it open to the page that she had marked a couple of days ago.

It was a simple bread recipe, but she still wanted to try and make it, and there was no better or worse time than the present.

Setting the heavy book on the countertop, she let her shadows read the ingredients to her as she collected them.

Flour, yeast, water, oil, she measured and added them all to the bowl, and once she had finished those steps, it was time to start mixing.

She stirred until her arms grew sore, and once the mixture had begun to have some semblance of dough, she started to knead.

It was a mess.

The dough began to get all over, under her nails, on her arms, and even bits of it clung to her shirt.

She added spoonful after spooful of flour to try and make it less so, but it always just seemed to absorb it and become sticky again.

By the time she finally got to a point where it wasn't sticky, she had somehow covered herself in not only dough and flour, but she had also destroyed the once pristine kitchen.

Looking around at her mess, she grumbled to herself, "Well that's unfortunate."

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Azriel had woken up to find Inei missing from her bed.