The Temple of Life
Lumi sprawls out in his low-lying bed, his arm hanging limply over the side, fingers drumming against the sandstone tile below. He looks behind him at the other beds in the room; his eyes dart between the youthful blonde woman and the half-elven woman, twice his age. For as long as he had lived at the temple, he wished desperately for a space of his own, but it had never been allowed. Taking a feather plucked from his stuffed mattress, he drops it from above his head and follows it with his eyes as it falls gracefully. His rounded ears wiggle while he watches.
The youthful blonde woman turns to him. “Whatcha doin’?” she asks, braiding her hair while sitting cross-legged on her bed.
“Nothin’, Cara,” Lumi murmurs, “tryin’ to pass the time.”
The half-elven woman joins in. “Waiting for your little lordling to come back?” she jeers.
“He’s comin’ back, Keira.” Lumi attempts to puff up with confidence. Then, somewhat deflating, he adds, “If I did’n scare him off.” His tail slaps against the bed.
Cara snorts. “Well, someone told me he practically ran out of the temple,” she chortles. “Maybe he was running from you!”
“That’s impossible,” Lumi retorts with a smirk as he turns to face the two women. “because I am the prettiest thing in this temple. Why would he be running from me?!” he growls, trying to come off as playful.
Keira purses her lips. “Well, I happened to spy at the way you clung to him all through the temple. If I were him, I would certainly find it odd for someone I didn’t know to hang all over me that way,” she says, eyeing Lumi suspiciously. “Then, did anything happen?”
“Did you kiss?” cuts in Cara. “Hearing the things you said of his inevitable arrival… you probably blew him.”
Lumi rolls onto his back with a groan. “I wish! What I wouldn’t have given for him to have taken hold of me right then and there. And then he would have—” he starts with a sigh but cuts himself off and glances at his distracted roommates. “Well, you two don’t really care where I am going with this.”
Cara snorts. “I wouldn’t mind hearing!” she says, flipping her hair behind her to wash her face in a shallow wash basin at the room’s edge.
“I won’t go into details, but for a moment… I thought things were gonna go somewhere. His hand was on my thigh… our lips nearly touched! Then… Amani ruined it!” Lumi finishes, kicking his feet and arms on the bed in a joking tantrum.
Keira laughs. “You’re a child, Lumi,” she responds sharply, “and you should count yourself lucky you’re surrounded by so many women who look after you.” She pauses, and then she shifts her voice down to a whisper. “You don’t know this man! What if he is dangerous?”
Cara nods. “Sadly, Keira’s right,” she says, glancing between the two roommates. “You offered yourself up too willingly! What if he is some sort of pervert?” she asks, raising an eyebrow. “He probably thinks you’re some kind of whore. And he wouldn’t be the first guest to do so, with how high up you wear your chiton.”
Lumi furrows his brow. “He… he’s not dangerous! Frankly, I wish he was a pervert… I probably would’ve had to force myself on him to get him to take interest in me,” he says, sighing. “I know he’s just like me, though, I felt it. I could feel the connection between us,” he adds confidently. “Definitely the one!”
“Then, is… what you said the other day true?” Keira asks, standing from her bed and adjusting her chiton. Lumi wonders if Cara’s comment made her self-conscious. “Do you truly think this man is your… mate or whatever? I’ve never known what beastkin call it.”
Lumi’s ears twitch in excitement. “Truly, I do!” he says. He glances out through the room’s rounded window. “I felt it when he arrived. My chest hurt, and I felt energized like nothing else, and the feeling ran from my head through my tail. It was like magick!”
Cara’s face screws up in annoyance. “But how can you be that sure?” she demands.
“It has to be! The moment I saw him in the storeroom, my heart stopped. When he looked up at me with those smoky eyes of his, it felt like time slowed down, I knew immediately. I couldn’t stop smiling,” he says, an involuntary smile rising to his lips.
“Lucky you,” Keira says, helping Cara into her own garb. “I doubt I’ll ever find a man, even with an elven lifetime.”
“Keira, don’t say that! Someone is goin’ to come to the temple and sweep you off your feet,” Lumi says with an elated smile.
He watches the two acolytes collect their shawls and waves back at them when they bid farewell out past the room’s arched doorway. With them gone, he lies back down onto the mattress and stares up at the tan sandstone ceiling above him. I hope I didn’t scare him off. Maybe I was too clingy, too forceful. He turns onto his side, now facing towards the window again. A gentle breeze catches the feather on the bed and drifts gently back into the air. What if he does fancy me? Will I be able to keep his affections…? He is so handsome, he must have lots of suitors. Lumi plucks another feather from the mattress as he watches the first floating. Thoughtful, he rolls it between his fingers. Maybe what he said was right though. What if he really does want me to forget about him? He closes his eyes, and as the sun begins to set across the desert, the fleeting warmth kisses his skin.
A Fortnight Passes
Lumi sits by the fountain atop the temple, the midday sun bearing down on him. He looks towards the elven woman sitting beside him. Her expression is stoic while she sets her palm against his cheek. Tenderly, she brushes a thumb across his pinkish skin. A line of tears runs down her cheekbone.
“Lumi, I can tell there is much unhappiness inside of you,” she begins, wiping her face. “You should know that you are free to talk to me, about anything. After all, if a child cannot tell their mother their worries, then what kind of mother is she?” she asks, straightening her robes.
Lumi turns his cheek from the saint. “N-Nina, it is nothing that you could control. You can’t worry about every little problem of mine!” he says back flippantly.
Nina removes her hand from his cheek. With the free hand, she brushes her windswept hair out of her face. “I remember when you were first brought to us, those years ago, and I nursed you back to health. As sickly and beaten as you were, you never lost that light. Yet to see you like this… I struggle to recall that same spirit. You seem a husk,” she whispers, tilting her head to look him over.
Lumi turns away from the saint with a sour pout. “‘A husk’? I didn’t think it was that bad,” he whispers. “You remember when I told you of my dreams? And in those dreams, I was being led from the temple by a man. His hand and mine together. In that dream… I felt happy,” he says to her and then pauses. “Well, regardless of whether Khimi is truly that person or not, he wants nothing to do with me now. He told me himself!” Lumi exclaims as tears well in his eyes. He stares at the fountain while his body trembles. “I thought that maybe he would write, or I thought he would see me before he left. For weeks now, I’ve thought of nothing but our last conversation! Weeks!”
“He told you he does not wish to be with you?” she asks tenderly, and she takes Lumi’s shivery hand in hers. “You punish yourself for something you do not know to be true.” She looks at him with a soft smile and her clear green eyes. “Certainly, he may not love you yet, Lumi. Only time can forge those bonds. And yet, in my heart, I know he feels a connection with you. I have a gift for reading people,” she teases, gently caressing the top of Lumi’s knuckles. “And I saw it too, as you did. He is very much the same as you. And would you know, he fell asleep, here at this very fountain, at the end of his visit. I chanced to sit beside him,” she says, pointing to the bench across the fountain. “Can you guess what he said in his sleep?” she asks with a smile.
Lumi sobs quietly. “Wealthy people stuff?”
“No, Lumi. He said your name. That is a rare thing, for someone to dream of another after only a single meeting,” Nina says, patting his hand softly. “Now, stop crying. You’re making me cry. I have faith he will come back here. Perhaps he might even send some sort of correspondence,” she adds cheerfully.
Lumi’s ears hang low and he sniffs, trying to control his tears. “Nina, do you believe in soul mates?” he asks. He moves to rest his head against her shoulder. “Some of the girls have made comments that I’m lying to get attention,” he adds with another low sob.
“What I believe…” she starts, resting her cheek against Lumi’s blond hair. “I believe that you are gifted by the gods. If the gods have deigned to tell you that this person is important to you, then I must believe that. I ask only that your story be one not of hubris and pride, but one of love and companionship,” Nina says, chuckling. “I rather like those stories.”
Lumi sniffles again, then wipes his nose clean with his sleeve. “I’ll try my best to make a great story for you, but he seems like kind of an ass.”
Nina chuckles again and Lumi echoes her. “Lumi, anyone has the capacity for cruelty,” she whispers, “but I believe he will come around. I think it likely he’s putting on airs, because he is a lordling. His life requires him to keep up appearances, after all.”
Lumi laughs. “Imagine if he was normal! It would all be so much easier,” he whispers up to the saint.
“If he were normal, then I imagine you would find him boring.”
Lumi shakes his head. “Being boring is better than being an ass,” he retorts, his brow furrowed.
“You did happen to put him in a rather tough spot, Lumi,” Nina starts with a knowing look, “and I have the sense that he has not yet worked out how to put his happiness before his duties.” She nods to the beastkin. “He will, though, in time. I can tell you will bring that boy happiness.” She smiles and stands up unexpectedly before him. “Now then! Forget about those girls and focus your mind and heart on prayer… and patience.”
“W-when… Khimi returns,” Lumi asks, keeping his voice low, “is there any chance I could have some privacy… to, you know… talk to him?” He covers his face with his palms. He knows he must be flushed bright.
Nina laughs. “Talk to him?” she repeats with a teasing lilt. “We will see. I still need to judge our young lord’s intentions for myself before I let him alone with you. A mother cannot be expected to hand her son off so easily,” she adds as she approaches the stairs.
Lumi’s eyes grow wide. “N-Nina, please stop! I swear… Iwon’t do anything untoward!”
Nina laughs loudly as she considers him. “Leave you alone with him? After what I heard from Amani, you’re lucky I haven’t given you extra work,” she replies. “Trying to seduce our gentle lord on his first visit to the temple… I should wonder if he thinks we operate a brothel,” she adds, looking back to the beastkin with a smirk. “A brothel, Lumi!”
Lumi’s tail flicks behind him in anguish and he groans audibly. “It wasn’t like that,” he insists. “Khimi, he… he wanted it too, I know he did! I didn’t push myself on him that hard!” he adds in panic, “I promise!”
Nina rubs her brow in contemplation. “Well, if he requests privacy on his next visit, then we will have to provide him a room, I suppose.” Lumi can hear the grin in her voice. “But! If I hear even one word from any of the girls, to suggest any foolishness on your part… Lumi, I will have you scrubbing the floors for months. Now, I have to ask that you please get back to work and quit being so sullen. You drag everyone’s mood down with you in your off moods.”
“I will do my best to act… happier!” Lumi exclaims, giving her a deep bow.
Nina rolls her eyes. “‘Act,’ is it? Might you try to be happier?” she counters. “Certainly, I give you enough special treatment, more than any other at the temple.”
Lumi closes his eyes. He feels the weight of a different kind of shame inside. “I’m sorry for always causing you problems. I’ve caused you so much grief,” he says earnestly.
“It is rarely wise to dredge up the past. I promise that I will not and you should do the same,” Nina replies, then begins her descent in earnest. “Now, back to work!”
Lumi watches her walk down the stairs: she stops briefly at the edge of the reflecting pool, admires the mosaic tiles that line the bottom, glances at the canyon afar, and then finally heads into the temple. When he is sure she is out of earshot, he hops up from his seat and rushes down the massive staircase himself. He feels his mood is somewhat restored by his conversation with the saint. He thinks to himself, I know what I am doing is right, regardless of whether Nina or even Khimi believe me. At the entrance to the temple proper, he pauses and himself turns back to face the sunlit canyon; he wonders at Nina’s thoughts while he watches the orange light dim along with the setting sun. Remembering himself, he turns and hastens to get to the storeroom cavern where he works every evening.
As he enters the storeroom, he is struck by the sound of the breeze there; it often echoes against the canyon walls to make a kind of howling sound. In that moment, Lumi recalls the howling that he would hear ringing through the jungle, where he lived in his youth. It terrified him, then. This is just the wind, he reminds himself, and then continues into the dimly lit storeroom. When he reaches the innermost area, he spots two expected and familiar faces: Melia and Iris, two young girls from Sidi1 that Nina brought to the temple with her after she visited a fellow saint at the Sanctum of Balance. Although the girls had always been very quiet about their heritage, they had always been kind enough to Lumi and he repaid their kindness in turn. With an attempt at cheerfulness, he approaches the two girls in their work. Reaching under his chiton, he pulls out two small bundles of wrapped banana leaves from a pouch he had swiped in the kitchen. He places the wrapped leaves on the large wooden table in their work area.
With a bow, he calls to the girls, “Sorry for being so late!” He stands up straight and waits for a reply.
“O-oh, hey, Lumi. It’s fine,” Melia begins, putting down her work to take one of the wrapped banana leaves. She brings it to her nose. “Grilled fish?”
Iris grabs the other banana leaf bundle from the table. “Say, Lumi,” she starts, before taking a handful of the grilled sea bass in her mouth. “Is it true, what the other girls are saying?” she asks, her mouth half-full.
Lumi cocks a brow. “H-huh? W-what do you mean?” he asks, attempting to deflect. “Everyone is always talkin’…”
Iris slowly finishes chewing and swallows hard. “Hmm, well… they’re saying you’re seeing that lord that visited,” she says, ignoring when Melia sends her a murderous glance from across the table. “Lord Zeybek.”
Melia laughs grimly. “What my sister is trying to say, Lumi,” she pauses, then glances uncomfortably at her sister. “The girls back at the temple are saying that Saint Nina is whoring you out to the lordling for donations. So, is it true?”
Lumi’s face flushes with her question. “I-I don’t even know… w-who… what?” he stammers, before collapsing into a chair. His tail slaps against the sandstone floor of the cavern. “The idea that Nina has something to do with it… I was the one who sought him out! No one should accuse Nina of anything!” he growls. He feels anger rising in his throat.
Iris laughs in response and breaks into another piece of the grilled fish before she replies. “Good thing then,” she says around her mouthful of fish, “because the Zeybeks are dangerous people. I dunno what you know about Sidi, but Ziad Zeybek is a very powerful man there.” She pauses, chewing.
The beastkin’s irritation is palpable. He glares at the two girls. “I hardly think that gives you the right to judge Khimi, though,” he begins, anger crossing his face. “Not everyone has to be the same as their parents! I was never like my dad, that’s how it is for lots of people!”
Melia purses her lips before looking to Iris. “Ya know, there were rumors that Emir2 Ziad had other rival merchants assassinated… imagine what he’d do to some little whore messing with his son?”
Lumi’s ears twitch. “Maybe you should keep your big imagination to yourself,” he growls. Instinctively, his tail flicks aggressively behind him from side to side. “Everyone here… talks too much. You know nothing about him!” he says. His nose wrinkles as he bares his fangs at both the girls.
“Lumi, are you alright?” Iris says, glancing anxiously between her sister and him. “I mean, you don’t wanna be with that sort anyway. We’re just looking out for y–”
“Look out for yourselves!” Lumi interjects, his ears flat against his scalp in line with his rising aggression. He stands up too quickly from the chair and it clatters to the floor. “I don’t need either of you or anyone else from the temple looking after me!”
Melia clucks, “There he goes.” She rolls her eyes at Lumi. “So typical of a demi-human. Always so emotional, so quick to anger,” she chuckles. “You’re even worse than Hasim! At least the snake-man can keep his composure! Iris, it’s time for us to go,” she adds. She crumples the banana leaf wrapper and drops it on the floor. Scooping a last bit of the fish into her mouth, she says, “Let’s let him calm down before he starts his shift.”
Barely hearing her, Lumi crosses the room to the girls and grasps Melia by the arm. He tracks her dark eyes as they widen with fear. She attempts to pull away from his grip, but she cannot break his hold.
Lumi growls then shoves her back slightly. It is followed by a long, uncommon silence in the cavern storeroom. His eyes dart between the two girls and they stare back at him, with fearful and disgusted faces.
Finally, Lumi breaks the standoff with a growl from deep in his throat. “Why’re you being such a bitch, Melia?!” he spits. “What, jealous that no one wants to look at your hideous face?”
Shocked, Melia stammers back, “M-maybe I just think you shouldn’t be mooning over some lord you hardly know, demi-human! You think he’ll come marry you? Who cares what you think the gods are telling you, when we all know you’re just a liar!” Her lips curl into a sneer. Lumi feels his own rage pounding against his head. All he can see is Melia. “You might as well be a whore yourself like that snake, Hasim.”
Lumi stares at her, falling past the tipping point, when he catches a glimpse of Iris rushing at him from the periphery. He notices too late, but still he turns to catch her, and finds himself facing the blunt end of a wooden staff. Iris smashes its clubbed end into his face. It sends him crumpling onto the cavern floor in pain. His vision bleary, he hears the girls’ footsteps on the stone as they run past him.
His raging emotions overcoming the pain, Lumi pushes himself off from the floor to pursue them. He springs forward in their direction, half on all fours. He nears Melia and Iris as they run from the cavern, trailed by the sand swept into the air by their hurried footfalls. Melia turns back to look at the same time as Lumi yowls in rage; he pounces and lands on top of her. Iris is knocked out of the way and she gasps for breath, only able to watch as Lumi cages in her sister beneath him. He starts to wail on Melia in fury; the sound of his fists, one blow followed by another, rings throughout the canyon. Iris screams, gripping her staff tight. From her position on the floor, she takes her staff and pummels the beastkin’s back. Lumi could not pull his attention from Melia, even if he wanted. His blows draw blood from her mouth and nose while she wheezes in agony. Iris lets out another ear-piercing scream. The staff cracks against the back of Lumi’s head.
Lumi stumbles and turns his attention to Iris. Wavering from the blow, he stands on shaky legs; his fists drip with blood, splattering into stone and sand beneath them. Even in the concussed haze, he is awake enough to lash out again with an instinctive incantation: words from a language he does not speak, entrusted to him by the gods. As he intones the sacred words, spectral spears materialize around Iris. She shouts hoarsely, her throat raw. Lumi points to her and his eyes burn with pain and rage, their aetherial blues lit with an alien glow. Distantly, he hears clerics descending the stairs. Lumi turns towards the noise and is blinded by an unexpected flash. He recoils, attempting to cover his eyes and squat in the sand. His field of vision is reduced to that white-hot light. His focus lost, he feels the sharp pain at the back of his head all of a sudden. Finally, he stumbles and falls face-first to the bloody floor. Weakly, he moves to cover his head with his fingers, until another crack lands against his knuckles. He can do nothing but curl into a ball and prepare for more pain. His consciousness fades away with the blows.
***
When Lumi wakes, he can recognize the familiar sound of mourning doves cooing nearby. He blinks repeatedly as he becomes aware of a sharp pain that blazes across the back of his head. Reaching behind him, the beastkin runs shaky fingers through his hair, looking for the source of the pain. Coming up with nothing, Lumi slips from the bed with a groan. His memory of the events before he lost consciousness are hazy. He stands on weak legs and drags himself to the room’s circular window. Squinting, he scans his view of the ambulatory below and watches the acolytes go about their duties. Many of them travel alongside guests of the temple. He returns to his bed, slumping over and onto the thin mattress. His knees hang limp against the floor. He groans again before pulling a tasseled pillow to press into his aching skull. He lets out one last loud grunt of frustration, attempting to force the pillow tighter over his head. Then he flops onto his side, now facing the arched doorway.
The afternoon breeze through the temple carries a heavy, oily aroma: a lamb roasting in the temple kitchens. Suddenly, Lumi is overwhelmed by the feeling of a knot in his empty belly. He pulls himself down the path to the smell. With every elderly acolyte that he passes, he greets them with a shaky nod. They offer no reply but to turn their faces away, spurning the gesture.
He finally reaches the source of the smell. The temple’s cooking quarters might be its largest service sections. It was more than large enough to feed the many temple residents, and perhaps could accommodate a small city, besides. Room upon room branches out through the sandstone from a main hot kitchen, leading to specific and ever-stocked pantries. In the cooking quarters, Lumi quickly notices Keira as she kneads a large ball of dough.
She looks up from her work when he approaches and offers a gentle smile. “Lumi,” she chuckles, rhythmically pressing her palms into the soft mound. “I didn’t expect you would be up so soon. Saint Nina mentioned you could be out for quite some time.”
Lumi sniffs at the air, his nose preoccupied by the roasting lamb scent. “What happened?” he asks. He leans against her work counter and reaches for a dried date from a wooden bowl there. “I remember chasing Melia and Iris… and then things kinda go blank.”
Keira stifles a laugh. “Blank?” she repeats with wry humor. She moves her sticky palms to a large basin filled with salted water. “You beat Melia pretty good. Iris claims you were going to kill the both of them. Mentioned how you called those spears to smite her. If nothing else, I suppose all your training with Hasim has been paying off.”
“If I did, I don’t remember it,” Lumi groans. “They were antagonizing me, then Iris hit me in the face with this staff. Maybe she deserves a little scare from my spears. A-and Melia said bad things about Hasim and Saint Nina!” he says, whining.
“Well, she has been crying bloody murder,” Keira counters, tilting her head from side to side. “Lumi, be a dear and put my hair back for me.”
Lumi approaches her glancing down at the dough on the counter. “Either way, I don’t remember a thing after I started chasing them… Oh, I was SO angry!” Lumi growls. He takes her flaxen locks in his hands, deftly crossing strand over strand.
Keira sighs. “It’s alright to be angry sometimes,” she begins in a motherly tone, “but I think you really need to watch it. You keep having these issues… soon enough Nina will have no choice but to force you out.”
Lumi scoffs and pulls her hair back, weaving a half-hearted braid. “I haven’t caused that many issues here, have I?” he asks, playing coy.
Keira glances back at him with pursed lips. Quietly, she replies, “More than anyone else I know. And it doesn’t help that the other acolytes just never warmed up to you… and then there are those with their own beliefs against beastkin. I’ve been hearing that a few people have gone to the saint directly, looking for her to expel you.”
Lumi’s brow pinches once he finishes the braid. Gruffly, he replies, “It isn’t my fault if they don’t like me or my kind. How’s the braid?” He gives his handiwork a once-over.
“It’ll do!” Keira says cheerfully. Lumi watches her swing the dense hairstyle side to side, testing the knot. “With that done, I am gonna need you to help me with this dough… and we can try to have a conversation that’s not so negative,” she offers him with a smile.
Lumi groans with playful exasperation “Fine! Help, help, help!” he says while he is already walking to the saltwater basin. He dips his hands into it, coating them carefully, before he glances back to Keira. “Last thing. Could you tell me who knocked me unconscious, at least?”
“Oh, your culprit would be Amani,” Keira replies, twisting from side to side to stretch. “Really, though, you seem fully unbothered with the fact that Nina has to punish you for what happened.”
“I’ll just explain what happened: they started it,” he says, keeping his eyes on his work. “I guess it’s a good thing Melia and Iris live across the temple from us… otherwise things may be awkward.”
Keira turns to Lumi with a smile. She stabs the dough in her hands with a pointed finger “We can always poison them.” The joke rests between them before they both snicker
They work beside one another at the counter. “As much as I would love to poison them,” Lumi offers, still lightly chuckling, “it’s probably better to just let it be. I dunno, Keira…” He sighs heavily. The back of his head throbs again. “In the years I’ve been here… it’s felt like all I do is make enemies,” he finishes at a whisper. He presses his fist solemnly into the dough and his rounded ears cannot help but droop.
Keira beats her own ball of dough to even out the consistency. Solemn in her reply, she says, “People come and go from the temple; friendships are just the same. Cherish the ones you have. Don’t worry about the rest.”
Lumi manages to smile. “I appreciate all of your kindness.”
For hours, Lumi continues to help Keira with her baking. They make small talk and return intermittently to their discussion of the previous night’s events. Just as the loaves are nearly finished, a knock against the wall echoes into the warm kitchen from behind Lumi and Keira. They each turn to look as Amani enters the room. The high priestess maintains a knowing, smug expression. Lumi breaks his conversation with Keira to stare at Amani as she approaches.
“Walk with me, Lumi,” Amani says, snapping her fingers. He stands and follows her lead; they leave the room without a word behind them.
Out of the corner of Lumi’s view, he watches the dark-haired woman for any sudden movements while they walk together. Taking a deep breath, he starts in swiftly to say, “It was all a misunderstanding, Amani, I wouldn’t hurt them, you know me. Right?”
“What I know,” the high priestess replies, beginning her retort, “is that you have been the central factor in dozens of incidents since you came to this temple. Taken part in countless brawls and arguments with other acolytes.” She pauses her speech to clear her throat, before continuing, “and had I been in charge of our order… you would have been gone long ago.” Lumi can feel her anger at the situation radiating off of her. “I hope you know I want you to succeed, Lumi… but you make it very, very hard.”
Lumi looks at the high priestess with a pained expression. “I promise, it was– I’m sorry…” She cuts him off with a raised hand.
“I know.”
The beastkin holds in his protestations. They maintains that silence as Amani leads him at a brisk pace. The path to their destination takes them through the center of the temple and into the inner sanctum. Amani throws open a set of double doors leading into a large bedchamber. Behind her in the doorway, Lumi can smell incense burning: heady smoke pours heavily from the room through the new opening. Nina sits on a small floor cushion at the center of the room. Her long hair flows loosely about her. After a pregnant pause, the saint opens her aetherial green eyes.
She sends a slight nod to Amani. “You may leave us. Thank you for bringing him to me,” Nina whispers, anger simmering beneath a calm and even tone. Amani replies with a silent and grandiose bow back to her. Abruptly, she exits. The massive elderwood doors close behind her with an audible bang.
Lumi quivers, now alone with Nina. He had seldom before seen the saint angry. The few times he could recall, her wrath was enough to make him never want to see it again. He has vivid memories of her response to a merchant group that had insulted her and their order: the water rose from the ocean to flood the canyon, sending them washed out to the desert from whence they came.
Lumi drops to his knees before Nina, balanced on his heels. Prostrate, he lowers his head to rest against the darker tiles of her room.
“Sorry! I’m sorry!” Lumi lifts his head and bows again. “I-I, N-Nina, I am so sorry!” he moans, struggling to find an eloquent apology.
Saint Nina spares him a wan smile. Averting her gaze from her Lumi, she lifts the shoulder clasp of her gown, tightening the silk, and replies, “Oh Lumi. I make no secret of the fact that I think of you like my own son. From what I have been told, there are many acolytes that whisper about it.” She pauses her somber musings, and then lets out an unfamiliar heavy sigh. She pulls her knees to her chest. “I cannot allow you to act this way without punishment. And you will receive punishment.”
Lumi’s heart drops. He looks incredulously at her. “B-bu–”
“No, Lumi. No buts.” Nina looks directly at him. “Lumi, Melia and Iris told me everything that happened. To my best judgment, I believe them. Iris admitted to striking you, but only after you grabbed and shoved Melia.”
Lumi attempts to hide his petulance. “Th-they were antagonizing me, for no reason,” he says slowly, rising to rest on his knees. “I was kind as can be! I even brought them grilled fish!” he recalls, nearly ripping his own hair out in frustration.
The saint sighs again. She pushes a loose strand of hair behind her lengthy elven ears. She replies, “I am aware. Truth be told, Melia and Iris are not holding the incident against you as much as one might expect. They both know what they did.” She reaches out a hand for him to hold. “However, I am still the one to dole out any necessary punishments, should something happen, like this incident. Lumi, those girls are orphans from Sidi, and the cause of that is Ziad Zeybek’s machinations. Your circumstances with Khimi touched on a difficult subject; that is what pushed them to do what they did. Now, I would ask that you answer for what you did.”
Lumi frowns. He feels shame bubbling up inside. “I understand, Saint Nina,” he whispers, then slides on his knees across the floor to be closer to her.
She takes his hand and places hers over it with a reassuring pat. “Now, help me with my hair.” Chuckling at her own joke, she reaches for a silver-gilt hairbrush beside her. “and this does not count as your punishment.”
Lumi scoffs. “I can hope,” he whines. “You know, every woman in the temple makes me do their hair.” Shifting behind her, he pulls the loose strands of hair towards him. With the heavy silver brush in hand, he drags across the length of her silken hair.
“Oh, one of your many talents. You have always had a talent for hair, though I do have to question it in the face of your personal grooming habits. I forget who said once that you bear resemblance to a sort of unkempt sloth.” Lumi huffs at her comment, though he wonders if the teasing is part of his punishment.
They sit together in gentle silence. As Lumi finishes a plait, Nina stops his hands with a gentle touch. “You know, this situation has resulted in so much drama that I almost forgot to mention to you. Just today the temple received an interesting letter,” the saint mentions coyly. She spares a glance back at the aslan.
Lumi’s mind races., “Was it sent by someone important then?” he asks. He leans back from his braiding position to give his knees a break. Nina smirks. “Your suitor, it would seem,” she murmurs.
“O-oh,” Lumi croaks, “d-did he have something… important to say?”
Nina laughs out loud, then. “Would you like to read it? There is nothing in it that I would think necessary to keep from you.” He nods rapidly at her. She reaches from their position on the floor to a stack of papers on a mail tray. Taking them in hand, she rifles through the parchment, at times pulling irrelevant pieces to build a new pile beside her. Lumi’s excitement feels like lightning. After a moment, she finds the letter from Khimi. “For you.”
Lumi plucks the pages from her. Brimming with so much expectation, he lets his fingers run over the fine, dense vellum. Lumi sees the remains of The Cerulean Star’s wax seal, an eight-pointed star painted with gold placed over blue wax. He carefully flattens the letter in his hands. A quick scan tells him it could take days before he deciphered Khimi’s methodical scribble. Lumi can barely make out the words. He hands it back to Nina with a pleading face; she takes it back and clears her throat before reading aloud.
Saint Nina,
I hope this correspondence finds you in good health. I would like to ask your pardon at having missed our scheduled meeting during my last visitation to the temple. The journey proved harder than anticipated, and in turn I pushed myself harder to overcome exhaustion. However, it is my hope that you allow me another opportunity for a private conference between us. I feel there remain circumstances of our collaboration which I would like to discuss with you. For the future of the Cerulean Star Mercantile and for the Temple of Life. I believe that this relationship might well bring profit to us both, should we find it possible to work together. I maintain hopes of our two enterprises to realize new routes of trade for your wares through the Desert Cities.
It is my plan to depart from Rhaz within the following weeks. Upon my arrival at the temple, should you have me, I would ask for your generosity: I should like a more secluded chamber in which I can prepare myself for any meeting and negotiations. It is my intention that our next visitation with you would span much longer than my last. Again, I believe we have much to discuss.
Should you see it fit, I might request a final blessing: I would like for the aslan acolyte, Lumi, to be allowed time to complete our tour of the temple grounds. He was very gracious company to me during my visit and a great help to my men with their duties. To be forthright, I have hoped we might spend more time getting to know one another. I humbly beseech the generosity of you and all those of the Temple of Life.
Khimi Zeybek
Nina laughs when Lumi begs her to repeat the letter’s contents. “Fancily, he has informed us of his intentions to return here after all. On top of that, he intends to stay for multiple days,” she says with a playful flourish. He can feel her gauging his expression.
While she is distracted, Lumi snatches the letter from her hands. He runs anxious thumbs all over the waxy page, while his eyes study its contents. Slowly, the excitement fades from his face. “It seems that everyone here is against me being with him…” he says, unable to make eye contact. “Maybe I shouldn’t see him.”
Nina chuckles softly. She shakes her head and turns to look at him. “You will see him. He asked specifically to speak with you!” she retorts. “And it is in writing? His own hand? It might be seen as a grave insult for you to avoid him.”
Lumi looks at her with pleading eyes. “Do you think my punishment might end before he arrives?”
Nina snorts at his boldness. “I suppose we can put it on pause during his visit,” the saint says drolly. “I planned to offer the guest quarters to Khimi for the length of his stay. Had you hoped to assist with putting him up there?”
Lumi’s cheeks flush, and he glances away before she catches it, he hopes. “It may have crossed my mind,” he replies. He is unable to stop a smile coming on. Shaking himself off, he sets the letter on the floor beside them and picks up the brush. “Well, thank you for sharing that with me. Would you mind if I kept the letter?”
Nina lowers her head, holding something in. When she raises it, the resulting laughter echoes through the large room. “I th-thought you could not read it! Whatever would you want it for?” she asks as she catches her breath.
Lumi tugs the brush through her silky locks and mutters, “I just… wanna read it.” He looks at the wall guiltily. “And it smells just like him.”
“I see,” Nina says knowingly. “In that case, you can certainly hold onto it for now. I have already returned correspondence.”
Lumi beams at her. “Wow, Nina, you really are a saint!” he says. She hums in response. “And if he sends anything else, will you read it to me? Please?” His ears wiggle excitedly.
“Yes, yes, of course. Now, Lumi, let us discuss your punishment…”
***
Later in the evening, Lumi lies in his bed. Even after being handed Nina’s hefty punishment, all he can think of is Khimi’s return. Since Nina read that letter he stashed underneath his pillow, Lumi’s every thought has been consumed with Khimi. His mind had felt in a fog; Lumi refreshed his Khimi daydreams again: the feel of his leather jerkin, the smell of pipe smoke from moons past, the lingering ouzo at the back of his mouth.
Unfailingly, his daydreams of Khimi turn to fantasies. When he can no longer resist, Lumi pulls out the scroll from the pillow and is overcome with Khimi’s scent on it. To Lumi, it reminds him of something dense and earthen, mixed with ironwood and char. Though Lumi had never taken a lover, he would always imagine what it might be like if he had. In years past, he had imagined himself in the arms of another beastkin. And yet, when his eyes met Khimi’s that night, any thoughts of anyone else faded away. In that moment, he could see so clearly the image the gods had given him, before a blurry visage. Now it is so clearly Khimi, the man who would take him away from the temple, the man to whom he is bound by fate. Lumi’s heart races as he imagines what it might feel like for Khimi, a man he barely knows, to hold him in a lover’s embrace.
He looks across the room, taking note of his roommate’s deep sleep. He attempts to clear his mind to sleep, but is immediately brought back to lust filled thoughts about Khimi.
Lumi recalls the feeling of the man’s calloused hand on his thigh. He turns in his bed, pressing his face against his pillow. He moves his hand to press into his thighs, trying to echo where and how Khimi had touched, where Lumi knows he will inevitably touch again. He thrusts his hips softly against the thin mattress beneath him, aroused at the thought of Khimi’s grip around his thigh, at how his fingers might rasp against the tender skin. He shifts onto his side, reaches down to his aching arousal and strokes himself.
He faces away from his roommates, but it feels difficult to think rationally otherwise. His fingertips gently massage his nipple while he works his member in his other hand, careful to move slow enough that its slickness might go unheard. When a soft groan escapes his lips, he presses his fist against his mouth to mask the whimper that follows: high and airy, satisfaction made audible. The rhythm of his strokes hastens, rubbing his foreskin back and forth over his tip. Moments away from climax, his mind is caught in the dark cerulean pools which had absorbed him mercilessly. Lumi’s imagination runs wild–the image of Khimi entering him on the altar in the temple. The weight of Khimi pressing on his back, he can feel the warmth of it even now. With panting breaths, his fangs dig into the pillow. Warmth spills into his palm. Lumi moans against it, his mouth betraying him to whisper Khimi’s name as his toes curl in pleasure.
Dazed, Lumi hears Keira shuffle in her bed. Towards him, she calls groggily, “Mmm, say something, hon?”
“No!” Lumi hisses back at a whisper.
“Alright, then,” Keira replies in a hushed tone. “Surprised you’re still up. Trouble sleeping?”
“Lots of things on my mind,” Lumi says, still facing the wall. Too nervous for this, he thrusts the letter under his pillow. “I am beat! Goodnight, Keira!” he exclaims suddenly, pulling the pillow over his head.
“You’re so odd,” Keira mutters to herself. She readjusts a pillow before Lumi hears her relax.
Alone again, Lumi closes his eyes, once more imagining Khimi’s next visit to the temple.