AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Ela," I called as I walked into the sitting room.
Then my feet stopped, because the Priests of Obligation did not mess around. Long strips of white cloth had been laid on the ground around the edges of the walls. The little bit we had kept in this room was gone, but the door to the bedroom was open, so it was likely in there. Then there was the front wall with the fireplace. A sickly yellow paste was being smeared across one half of it, while two men were carefully lining up long pieces of fabric on the other.
The color was bright but gentle, like the morning sky. Maybe a bit more green than that, but I wasn't the best with colors. Between that were strips of a buttery cream color that looked like it wanted to be pastel gold. Each stripe was wider than my spread hand, and as the fabric was pressed against the wall, I realized that it made this room look like something from Sandrest.
"What do you think?" Ela asked, gesturing to the men working.
I passed him his envelope. "Does it match Nari's furniture?"
"Perfectly," Ela said. "Well, hers is a shade darker, but the same color. Makes me wonder how long they had to look to find something 'spare' to claim for us."
"For her," I corrected.
"For all of you," one of the priests assured us. "And one of the serving girls from the dining room matched all the swatches to the furniture when it got here so we could bring the right shade."
Ela bumped my shoulder. "You going to count the priests helping with this for me?"
I handed him the rest of the envelopes. "You going to hand out the invitations to Yamina's party for me?"
Ela immediately began flipping through them, reading the names on the outside. He paused at the second one. "Good, Anver got one."
"And they say it's one person per invitation." I grinned. "Means no Tishlie."
"Thank fuck," Ela mumbled. "Plus, she sent them through the mail, which means plenty of people know we got these, so we can't back out. The woman is good at this."
"Almost as good as you," I told him. "Now go make sure Nari isn't overwhelmed. She's worried we won't like her decisions."
Ela just scoffed at that. "She's worried she'll make it too girly. I guess I have to remind her that I like pretty things too."
"You mean pretty things besides her?" I teased, heading for the door. "And I'm going to guess we have about twenty priests in here."
"No tithes," one of them called out.
I just laughed. "Right."
Because I knew that we all had these useful little pouches that always had just a few coins more in them than what we needed at the time. When that was to tithe to the ones who helped us, they always felt a little heavier than normal. I figured that if a god was taking care of us, then it was our duty to take care of the ones who helped, and Obligation definitely deserved it, because they were about to completely overhaul our whole place.
Nari was going to love it.
Chapter 41
Anver
Once we decided on the general layout for the new furniture, we convinced Nari to enjoy a long dinner in the dining hall so the Priests of Obligation could work in peace. Wraythe told us about how priests who supported Nari as Zeal's Chosen were being reassigned to the country. Nari countered with more priests believing than we realized. She was trying to make her own list of those she was sure of, but she kept thinking of more - never mind the project her entire Word class was working on.
Then there was her genuine excitement over the suite. Three different times, she asked if we were sure we liked the colors she'd picked. Twice, she asked if the sitting room was really a good idea, since it wasn't really a lady's room. Once, I caught her smiling wistfully as Talin described the painting being planned for the dressing room.
So when we finally headed back to the suite, I couldn't wait to see her reaction. But the moment we stepped inside our suite, all five of us paused. This didn't look like our mismatched student housing. It looked like some elegant merchant's home had been tucked inside the temple! The old living room had just become a formal parlor. Portraits of Zeal - that actually looked like him - had been hung on the walls in groupings that broke up the stiff symmetry. The new black and purple furniture sat above a grey, white, and purple rug. Matching black vases had been placed on the mantle, filled with decorative branches. I thought they might be willows with the small white puffs.
And standing in our kitchen was Drandir. "Polst said that he's sorry about the cookies, Nari, but the kitchen is still out of cherries, so he left shortbread for you instead. The paintings can be changed, but we picked our favorites. If you need extra firewood, since you have two fireplaces, just leave the rack in the hall and we'll fill it. Otherwise..." He paused to smile. "Let us know if anything needs to be changed. We can fix it this weekend, but I didn't want to work the crew too hard."
"Thank you," Nari told him. "I love it already."
"Obligation has outdone yourselves," Talin said as he turned Nari towards the dressing room.
With a grin on his face, Ela followed, almost skipping in his excitement to see what all had been done. I wanted to laugh at the cuteness, and how easy these four made it look, but Drandir was still waiting. Before I could say anything, Wraythe shoved a hand into his pocket and pulled out his coin pouch.
"This is from Zeal," he told the guy. "Make sure they all get one?" And then he poured it out onto the kitchen counter.
