shadows don't lie

Chapter Twenty-Three

Inei cracked her eyes open and yawned, the early morning light filtering in through the drawn curtains of her room. Her blankets were warm and soft against her skin, and her shadows curled lazily around her.

She turned her head to the side to see if Azriel was still asleep but wasn’t surprised to find him gone and his bed already made.

She sat up and looked around, rubbing the last tendrils of sleep from her eyes, and she noticed the small card on her bedside table. Inei picked it up, running a hand through her hair as she read over the scrawl that she knew to be Az’s handwriting.

--
I have to go meet with some of my spies today. I’ll try to be back by dinner but if i’m not, don’t worry too much.

- Azriel.
--

She set it back down after a moment and pushed her blankets up off of her, and stood up.

She would have the day to herself then.

Drawing open her armoire, she tried to figure out what she wanted to wear for the day, and she decided on a pair of thick grey leggings and a soft green sweater that hung around her shoulders.

Then she set out around the house.

--

As she pushed open the back doors to the adjoining gardens, the light blinded her as she stepped out. The chill air met her skin and she breathed in the salty citrus smell of the city, and her shadows thinned out against the ground, feeding her bits of information.

Inei glanced around, movement drawing her attention, and she notice Elain sitting on a small blanket, pulling weeds out from a patch of small pink flowers.

She wore a flowing sage green dress, her golden-brown hair braided intricately into a knot that then cascaded down her back.

Inei put her hands behind her back and wandered over, and she stood behind Elain for a moment before she cleared her throat quietly.

Elain sat up immediately wiping her hands but relaxed when she realized who it was.

“Hello Inei, what can I help you with?” She asked, and Inei waved her back as the female moved to stand. “I’m on my own for today I think. What are you doing?”

Elain looked back down at the soft blooms and smiled. “I’m just cleaning up the garden for the winter before the flowers start to hibernate. If I don’t pick the weeds then they start to take over the root systems.”

Inei crouched down beside her and looked confusedly at the plants. “Flowers hibernate?”

She nodded enthusiastically, an easy smile splitting her face. “Yes, they usually close for the last time when it begins to cool outside, and they retreat underground so that they might survive the winter.” The female looked thoughtfully at them for a moment.

“These ones were a gift to me after the solstice last year from.. Lucien. They were bred to bloom even in the cold, due to their bulb growing farther down in the ground.”

Elain plucked some more small plants from between the pink flowers, and Inei could sense her discomfort at the thought of Lucien.

She changed the subject.

“How do you know if it’s a weed or part of the plant?”

“Experience. When I was mortal and our family hadn’t yet fallen into poverty, I remember reading the many books filled with different plants and their uses. My father would sit with me and point out all of the flowers, and I think that was when I truly developed a love for them. I've had a garden since then.”