Page 55 of Somnium

“Sera, what was that?”

Sera’s eyes darted around the train car, clearly intent on looking anywhere and everywhere except at Cadi. “Nothing,” she said, a little too quickly, “just some old notes I found. Don’t worry about it.”

A knot formed in Cadi’s stomach. If there was one thing she knew, it was that when someone told her not to worry about something that quickly, she should definitely worry about it.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Shouldn’t you be at Somnium?”

“I’m playing hooky.”

“But why⁠—”

Cadi stumbled backward, grabbing one of the soft plastic handles suspended from the ceiling as the train began its approach to the next station.

Sera’s gaze darted to the window, the platform flashing into view as she shoved past Cadi toward the door. “It’s nothing.”

Her tone was clipped and final with harsh dismissal. Sera had never spoken to her like that. Something was definitely off.

The doors slid open, and Sera joined the tide of passengers filtering from the train. With a rush of determination, Cadi surged forward. “Sera, I⁠—”

“Just drop it!” Sera snapped, spinning on her heels to face her. Cadi flinched back, and Sera’s expression softened slightly at the hurt that flashed in Cadi’s eyes. “Please …”

Cadi opened her mouth to respond, but her throat closed around the words, cutting them off. She watched Sera slip away into the crowd, standing frozen until the doors in front of her closed again.

She sank into an empty seat, her mind racing through every possible explanation for Sera’s behavior, none of them good. Whatever she had written in that notebook, she clearly didn’t want anyone to see.

Old notes my ass …

Something about those patterns refused to leave her alone, tapping insistently at the edge of her mind. She could have sworn she’d seen them somewhere, like a distant memory veiled in smoke and⁠—

Cadi gasped, sitting straight up in her seat.

She could feel the curious looks from the people around her, but she paid them no mind. Her heart pounded as images of smoke plumes and red stone flashed across her memory. Red stone with thousands of intricate carvings that glowed in time with the beat of unseen drums.

The drawings in the notebook were nearly identical to the sigils carved into the temple walls, yet … something wasn’t quite right. It was almost like they had been altered or flipped.

She slumped back into her seat, digging the tips of her fingers into her temples. None of this made sense, but it was clear Sera was up to something that she didn’t want Cadi to know about. Which, unfortunately for her, only fed Cadi’s need to know more.

Cadi stepped through the front door of her apartment, tossing her tote bag onto the couch. Her shoulders drooped as she watched it bounce once then tumble to the ground, completely dumping its contents in the process. With an irritated grumble, she shuffled forward to clean up the mess.

When she was done, she flopped down onto the sofa, pressing her lips together and spinning her phone between her fingers as she debated just how far she wanted to stick her nose into Sera’s business. There was nothing wrong with letting Sera know she was available if she needed support, right? After all, Sera had always been there for her without question. If that also happened to prompt her to give Cadi every single detail without her even needing to ask, then so be it.

She opened her messages and typed out a quick, minimally invasive note.

Hope everything is okay. Let me know if you need anything <3.

Then, she waited.

Her eyes stayed fixed on the screen, willing those three little dots to appear and signify Sera’s incoming reply, but her hope quickly evaporated when the only change was when the text below her message shifted from “Delivered” to “Read 6:15 p.m.”

Cadi grumbled again and tossed her phone onto the coffee table. If Sera was going to ignore her, the least she could do was turn off read receipts. Her strategic silence left Cadi with only one other option. Well, technically two, if she counted leaving it alone as requested … but she did not.

She knew herself well enough to admit that she would not be able to let this go until she had some answers. Pushing up from the couch, she crossed into the dining room and lowered herself down onto the teal chair that sat in front of her laptop.

A blinding light pour from the screen as soon as she tapped the space bar, forcing Cadi to squint as she typed in her password. The browser window opened immediately to a search engine, which she decided was a sign, even though she knew damn well it was the default setting.

Her finger hovered over the Enter key as the cursor flashed at the end of the word she had typed out: “sigils.”

Now that she was here, poised at the edge of answers, something thick twisted in her gut at the idea of forcing her way into something that Sera had clearly wanted to keep private, so much so that she had nearly bitten Cadi’s head off when pressed. She suddenly found herself being pulled in two directions—the nagging need for answers, and the desire to respect her friend’s boundaries.