Riley Nyt and The Mortal Order

Chapter 3 - Tradition

Cassidy struggled to keep up with Riley's long stride as she led Cassidy to her bedroom, their bedroom.

In stark contrast to the first floor's dark panelled walls, regal orange wallpaper and rich family history displayed in painting and ornaments, the second floor was lighter and brighter, with wide hallways flanked by massive bedrooms.

The second floor was divided into sections like the points of a compass and Riley had explained that as children, her sisters, cousins and Grayson's rooms had been in the east wing as that was the side where the sun rose and children were like the sunrise, young, bright and bursting with light. When married, they would move to the west wing, like their parents, as west was where the sun set and married couples were like the sunset, warm, calm and a combination of beautiful colours.

Cassidy's heart leapt at the idea of moving to the west wing with Riley, their sunset a combination of blue and gold, like where the sun met the sea, bleeding into one reflection.

"Here we are," Riley stopped and waited for Cassidy to catch up.

All the doors were open and evenly spaced, except for one door, diagonal from Riley's door. It looked firmly shut.

Before she could ask about it, Riley had stepped into her childhood bedroom and Cassidy followed.

She did not know what she had been expecting. Perhaps posters of the mortal sports teams Riley loved so dearly and often cheered and shouted at with Thomas as they watched them on his flatscreen tv, the latest model he had eagerly told them. Perhaps she had expected the room to be decorated with toy swords since Riley had to have developed her love for all things sharp at a young age.

"Huh," Riley strode around the room, idly touching a polished wooden chessboard and small desk barely fitting between a large wardrobe and the bathroom door, "Mom kept it exactly the same." Cassidy's heart sank for the young Riley who had never decorated her room or added her own touch anywhere. "What do you think?"

Cassidy joined Riley at the window seat on the other side of her four-poster bed, "It's very...mature."

Riley frowned as she went to add logs to the fireplace in the centre of the wall, "You don't like it?"

Cassidy was surprised that Riley cared so much about her opinion of her old room, "No, I like it. It just doesn't seem like you."

Satisfied with the fire, Riley moved to the other window seat on the left side of the fireplace, "Are you saying I'm not mature?" she teased but she did not meet Cassidy's eyes.

"You're disgustingly mature, too mature if I'm being honest. It's like I'm dating an eighty-year-old woman sometimes."

Riley laughed, one of her genuine laughs that always seemed to catch her off guard as she smiled with her whole face. Her upturned, almond eyes crinkled at the corners and her dimples were as deep as her smile was wide. It was moments like this that made Cassidy fall in love with her all over again.

"Well, my lower back has been killing me recently," Riley joked but her face settled back to neutral and thoughtful as she looked around the plain room. "I did move those," she pointed at two blue suede chairs, that looked like thrones, on either side of the circular table with the chessboard. "They used to be in front of the fireplace but I thought it looked better in between the bed and the wardrobe and whatnot," she waved her hand idly at her empty desk.

Cassidy noticed for the first time that there was a wicker basket filled with soft red blankets and orange cushions next to the protruding fireplace. Maybe the room was more like Riley than she thought, plain and simple upon first glance but the more you looked, the more you noticed.