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So I did. Then when we all moved to the showers, I kissed on Ela a little. And when we fell asleep that night, I once again ended up with Nari in my arms, and I decided that my life was perfect. This was everything I'd ever prayed for, and I had a funny feeling that my god wasn't the one who'd given it to me. I had, because I'd finally stopped holding back.
Chapter 42
Nariana
When I woke up the next morning, I decided that the choice of grey for the bedroom walls was a good one. Then again, I might not feel the same during the week when I had to wake up in time for my classes. The dark, soft texture of the walls made the room feel like a warm blanket that I wanted to snuggle into. It allowed me to wake up slowly, comfortably, and take my time about it.
I dozed off a little as the guys got up, used the bathroom, and found their clothes. Eventually, I followed them. A hot shower got my brain going, but the ache between my legs from being pounded by Wraythe made sure I didn't go too fast. We had lunch with Maela this afternoon, but I wanted a cup of tea before I started worrying about which dress I would wear to that.
When I made it into the living room, I found Anver making himself a cup of tea. When he saw me, he didn't even ask; he simply turned to grab another. A moment later, the front door opened and Wraythe came through it carrying an armload of wood. Behind him, Ela was carrying a bottle of something. It looked like it might've been wine, or maybe one of those homebrewed alcohols that Ati liked to use. Ela's eyes were narrowed as if he was reading the label.
"It seems one of us has a secret admirer," he announced. "The note doesn't say who it's for, but the handwriting looks feminine."
"Let me see," Talin said, heading over to look at the bottle.
I just rolled my eyes at them and headed over for the tea Anver had just poured for me. "Some priestess probably has a crush on you. I'm sure it's not your first time," I teased.
So while Talin read the note scrawled where most bottles would have a label, Ela found himself a glass. "Do you think it's wine or liquor?" he asked.
"Isn't it a little early to be drinking?" Anver asked.
Ela simply shrugged that off. "I'm just curious if the supposed secret admirer has good taste or not. I mean, if they don't, then why would we care to figure out who it is? If they do, they might have actually put in a little effort." He grinned as if amused with his own logic, then gestured for Talin to open the bottle.
Wraythe, who had carried the wood into the sitting room, had clearly been listening in. He didn't bother saying anything, simply headed to the kitchen and found the corkscrew. Carrying that over to the table where the guys were focused on the alcohol, he snagged the bottle from Talin's hands and worked the corkscrew into place.
But when he started to pull it out, I wasn't the only one who paused to appreciate the way Wraythe's bicep flexed. Beside me, Anver murmured in appreciation. Both Talin and Ela looked like they were trying hard not to smile, but Wraythe was oblivious to all of it. He simply pulled until, with a loud pop, the cork finally came free.
So Ela grabbed a glass and held it up. Wraythe tipped the bottle, pouring a small amount into the cup, then all three of the guys at the table made a face. The fluid that came out wasn't clear. It was cloudy, looking like something had clearly gone off.
"That smells horrible," Talin grumbled, pressing his hand over his nose.
Ela just started shaking his head as he carried it over to the sink. "Yeah, this is clearly a secret admirer we do not want. This is just foul - it's clearly rancid!"
But as he poured it into the sink, I caught a whiff of it. For a moment, I couldn't remember why it would be familiar, and then it hit me. It smelled like rotten citrus and spoiled milk. That was exactly how Farik had described the poison made from orange thimbleberry! The same poison he had described as fatal.
"It's been poisoned!" I gasped, gesturing for Wraythe to dump the rest of the bottle into the sink. "Try not to get any of that on you, because I don't know if it'll make you sick from touching it. It's one of the things we talked about in my First Aid class."
"What the fuck?" Wraythe asked as he upended the bottle. "It was left by the wood like it was from Obligation."
"Do you think Kinen would've put it there?" Ela asked.
"I bet Drandir would know if someone had left us a gift," Talin pointed out. "We should probably check with him, to see if someone in Obligation is trying to get around his little threats of being beaten by soap."
"But we're supposed to go to lunch with Maela," Anver reminded us. "That means we won't be able to ask until tomorrow."
"No," Ela said as he headed towards the dressing room. "We just have to leave him a letter. He wanted to know if we liked the new decorations, right? All we have to do is make sure we make the question nice and subtle, and I have a feeling that Drandir will get it without alerting anyone else who might read what we write."
I reached back to grab my tea off the counter, then hesitated. "Guys? If someone tried to give us poisoned alcohol, what are the chances that something else could have been poisoned?"
"This is the same tea we've been drinking for months now," Anver assured me. "It's the same honey, the same cups, and the same strainers. If anybody wanted to poison them -"
"They would've had to have been in our suite, unattended, while we were gone for hours at a time," Talin snapped. "Just like last night."
I lifted the cup of tea to my nose and sniffed. All I smelled was tea and sweetness. Most of the poisonous plants Farik had talked about had an odor. The toxic substances that didn't were a lot harder to get. It was the sort of thing that would likely be noticed, not like taking a few leaves from the plants in the greenhouse. So I decided to take a sip.
It tasted fine. I knew Anver had already been drinking some, and he wasn't having any issues. Taking another, longer drink, I felt like I was being overly worried about this, and yet I was sure that the alcohol had definitely been contaminated. Maybe it had been an accident? Maybe Obligation had nothing to do with it? But if it hadn't been one of the priests from Obligation, then who the fuck would be leaving us a gift from a secret admirer?
Ela came back into the room with a pen and a single sheet of paper. "Dear Drandir," he said, telling us what he was writing as he scratched the words onto the page. "Except for the faint smell of fresh paint, we have nothing at all to complain about with our suite. The five of us will never be able to thank Obligation enough for making this not only easy, but also affordable. But we are curious about who left the bottle of alcohol for us this morning. Not to complain, but when we opened it, it wasn't the sort of thing any of us recognized. Could you ask around and find out who left it so we can see what it was supposed to be?"
