Lyssena thought of the many possible reasons Erevos would call her songbird, but she was far too busy tearing pieces from the massive loaf, chewing greedily, dipping them into the honey again and again, her mouth far too occupied and her hunger far too loud to dwell on the answer for long.
All Erevos did was add more honey to her plate, while his other hand held her waist with gentle pressure, keeping her balanced on his lap so she wouldn’t fall.
Erevos was big—sobig—that her feet dangled high above the ground, swinging freely. Lyssena wasn’t considered short by human standards, not at all, but Erevos was so tall that even if she had been the tallest human alive, she still would have found her feet suspended in the air. Perhaps not as high as they were now, but dangling all the same.
As she finished chewing her very last bite, Erevos reached into the eggshell-colored box once more and retrieved a cup made of glass, and Lyssena’s eyes widened with surprise.
She studied the beautiful cup in wonder, only to be further amazed when Erevos, with a flick of his fingers, opened a drawer to their right—one she hadn’t even noticed was there—and another matching glass floated out and set itself gently on the table before them.
Then Erevos poured water into the cup and offered it to her.
Lyssena stood in a room that looked nothing like the first one she had turned into an armory. This one was far more elegant.
It looked like a room a princess might live in, if that princess adored the color black. In the center stood a massive bed with tall, carved posts that supported a roof draped in sheer, silky fabric, which fell softly from both sides like shadow-woven curtains. Beneath it lay a round carpet that looked as though it had been made from fur, plush, and deep under her feet. Against one wall stood an enormous closet, and beside it a table where she had just eaten her bread and honey, paired with a single chair, both perfectly matched in design and material.
Surprisingly, everything was coordinated, and, of course, it was all black. Everything here, too, was made from shadow.
It looked like the kind of room the wealthiest daughter in the world might own, one who had never been denied a thing in her life, and Lyssena stood on that thick, fur-like carpet and blinked.
“I can’t even believe I’d ever see a place like that,” she murmured to herself while grabbing the chair and moving it near the drawers that Erevos had summoned water from.
The chair was sturdy enough to support Erevos’s weight, and Lyssena was feeling brave, so she climbed onto it and reached for the top drawer. She had to rise onto her toes to reach it, stretching just enough to grab the handle, but her curiosity was stronger than her caution, and she needed to know what else might be hidden inside.
Lyssena found a collection of beautiful, dark glass plates, cups, and spoons.Next time, she thought with a small smile,I could eat honey with a spoon, if her god would give her more. From the look he had given her earlier, she had a strong feeling that he just might. Erevos had looked as though he enjoyed her eating, almost as ifhewere the one tasting the food, and Lyssena couldn’t help but wonder what gods ate.
If they ate anything at all.
There were so many questions bubbling inside her, questions she longed to ask, and she was only waiting for the right moment to let them out. But what that moment would look like, or how she would recognize it, she simply didn’t know.
She knew she could look at him now, and that he was kind, and for now, that felt like enough.
But eventually, sooner or later, Lyssena knew she would get bored if she was left to do nothing; she also knew that soon, she would need to relieve herself, and she had no idea where or how she was supposed to do that in a place like this—shadows and all.
She wondered if there were other humans in this place, tucked into homes by other gods like hers. If this were something that gods did, each choosing a human to care for in their own strange way.
She wondered so much, and still couldn’t ask. But she would.
When the time was right.
Erevos had said he would be right back, and Lyssena decided that, since her god had been nothing but kind to her so far,maybe she was allowed to peek around and take a closer look at what this strange, beautiful space had to offer.
So she did.
And she began with a deep breath.
Chapter Fourteen
Whispers Between Walls
Lyssena
This was a whole house made of shadows.
So much so, it made Lyssena wonder whether gods lived like humans, whether they, too, needed kitchens and bedrooms and halls and quiet spaces to exist in. Besides her two rooms, it had a kitchen that looked almost exactly like the one in her home and a hallway. Even a living room, though it had no furniture at all.
Lyssena walked down the long corridor, which was far simpler than the detailed, ornate rooms she had explored so far. It had only smooth walls on either side and a flat floor beneath her feet: all of it, of course, made from shadow.
Every room she had seen so far was lit by the same soft gray orb that floated near the ceiling, but here, in the hallway, there was no light at all.
