The Riches of Power

Held Within

POV Karen

As I was eating, I had come to notice that the pillars wouldn't produce enough light for the whole pavilion. My eyes wandered and I realized there was silver mesh blanket draped over the pavilion, you could still see some stars through it. It was producing enough light for the pavilion.

When I had finished my crab cakes and side of corn, everyone else had pretty much emptied their plates, but we sat there awkwardly again. 'Do we just leave our dishes here?' I mentally questioned. I began to crowd watch, many of the angels were still watching us, so I picked at the remaining bits of corn and crab.

The angelic girl who had aided us in our quest for food had stood up with her plate and walked to one of the corners of the pavilion where a small tub stood with a table and a towel beside it. She walked up to it washed her plate, dried it, placed it on the table, and said a prayer I couldn't hear. When the girl opened her eyes, the plate was gone, and with a smile she made our way back to our table.

We followed her steps in cleaning our plates and drying them and placing them down. I closed my eyes and out of habit held my hands together for my prayer. 'Dear Lord, thank you for the food you had provided for me, um and can you take my plate?' I waited a moment, 'Amen' I said and opened my eyes. I was relieved that the plate had indeed disappeared. I, again, mentally thanked God, for not making me seem foolish.

The girl was still waiting patiently at the table, with a joyful smile. After approaching her I asked awkwardly, "Um, so what is your name?"

"Oh, I never told you! My name is Melanie" She answered cheerfully. The other seven had gathered around. "So I assume you guys want to take bathes?" He asked looked at us curiously.

The thought made me anxious, but I nodded my head. "Ok, girls can follow me and guys can follow Michael." She said, " Michael!" She called and a blonde teen looked up from his group of friends. He took a look at Melanie and then glanced at us, and made his way over.

"Hello?" He greeted.

"Michael I know you know who they are, and would you please take the boys to the bath house?" Melanie asked in her high pitched voice.

"Sure, you can just follow me." He said as he started to walk off the pavilion. After a moment of hesitation, they followed the angelic teen. They had started walking back the way we had originally came. Melanie started gliding down the pavilion steps and onto the softly glowing cobble stone path over to the bath house that oozed steam. It was made of the same black wood, but it looked ancient. When we walked into through the sliding doors, we were immersed into heat and steam. It became uncomfortable to breathe through my nose and I instantly felt clammy.

I had to breathe through my mouth. I could finally see through the fiery mist. The room was lit with a lilac glow that escaped from silver flowers, whose golden vines wrapped around the many granite columns that surrounded a large steaming pool of water. In the water was angelic women bathing calmly. I kept my eyes away as we were guided to the side of the bath and into a hallway. There wasn't as much steam and the heat wasn't as intense.

Melanie had passed many different sliding doors and under the doors steam flowed out slowly. We were led to the very back of the bathhouse into a room that held many cloths and clothing. She grabbed an armful of white towels and handed us each one of them. "So I assume, you don't want to bathe in the main bath, and we have a few private rooms, so you can each bathe privately as you prefer." She said as we were guided back down the hallway. She opened up several of the sliding doors that we had previously passed.

"I hope you have a goodnight!" She said with a smile as she opened the last door for me.

"Thank you," I mumbled gratefully. Without another word she had left the bathhouse. I stepped into the small steamy room. The floors were made of the same bamboo that had ran through front of the bathhouse. The tub was made of a white and grey marble, and filled with extremely hot water. There were two rough stone bowels that silver liquids. I assumed that the more translucent one would be shampoo while the more thicker one was conditioner.