Ashtium: City of Sun
A Cat's Bath

GRETA

Last night, I slept in Enoch’s room like he wanted me to. When morning came, I fled the stuffy space and snuck out of the palace. I’m fairly certain no one saw me. I know he really wanted me to stay in there, but he was gone all day and I was getting not just worried, but hungry too.

I was careful.

It didn’t take me too long to my god’s temple. Even though I’ve had my doubts, I know my god can gift me with sight. He must be the god of the sun. I don’t have room to think otherwise right now.

I spent all day praying outside his temple for their safe trip back.

There were a few guards inside his temple. The large space is rather empty inside without Adler in it though.

One of the guards stands behind my god’s chair near the back wall. I never noticed the door there. It appears to be made of marble so it must be quite heavy.

Eventually, they abandon their position. I move over to the carved rock and push it. It doesn’t budge.

I smile replaceing the divet of the door handle. Grasping it, I pull the door to the right.

After sliding it closed, I bound ahead ready to discover a treasure room, or perhaps, my god’s secret pile of urkmink that he surely has hidden somewhere back here in a chamber.

The hallway has no chambers though, except for the one straight ahead.

What stands before me takes my breath away. It appears to be a secret reflective pool, or bathing pool, as Enoch calls them. It is so huge!

It must be bigger than the inside of my god’s temple. I don’t see anyone else in here and my intrigue only grows.

The floor is composed of tiny clay squares. A grand sloped set of stairs goes down into the water straight in front of me. The pool water feels luke-warm when I touch it. At the other end, a strange cylinder hangs from the wall.

I haven’t bathed in clean water since Enoch took me to the community bath house weeks ago. The light grey surface of the water meets my ankles as I set my tunic on the edge of the pool.

The slynk is skin tight on me making me sort of feel naked. However, I know my skin is still covered by the tiny diamond shapes forming patterns in the netting of the material. It must be thinner than my hair, yet it irritates my bug bite beyond belief.

I take a step further into the giant bath in awe over its luxury.

“Hello,” comes a voice that makes my heart pound heavily with dread. I turn around. How mortifying. As long as I don’t make eye contact, he won’t be able to see me. “You found my bathing pool, little pearl.”

He steps down the steps entering the bath with me without removing his tunic.

“Adler?” I whisper.

His silky robes brush against me as he wades a little nearer.

“Don’t be nervous. Enoch would want you to be clean and fully healed. There is no greater bath in Ashtium than the one in which we stand,” he says.

I don’t mean to replace his eyes, but I do out of habit as he wades deeper into the water ahead of me.

His gaze softens, drooping downward where my slynk clings to my body as he guides me to the opposite end of the pool.

“Did Enoch make it back okay?” I ask while taking in the outline of his muscles beneath his tunic.

“Yes. We’re both filthy from a bloody encounter with bandits. He’s bathing right now in the palace. Have you been to the community bath house before? It is common for friends and family to bathe together there,” he explains.

“Enoch took me once.”

A loud noise hums behind me. I turn, facing the wall and peer up as a sprinkling of heavy hot water pours down from it suddenly. My vision becomes even more blurry as the luke-water abruptly rises to my waist. The temperature rapidly increases as a thick layer of steam drifts up from it.

It’s hard for me to discern where I am as the grey cloud rises, blocking out the black walls around me.

Adler walks by me, keeping his gaze on me as I follow him through the water. “My guards have activated the system. The bath is turning on now. They’re behind this wall running the pump. We’ve all just arrived from the black desert. I’m sorry you didn’t hear me come in. I just got over here.”

“Oh, but I do not understand. The bathing pool Enoch took me to wasn’t so fancy. The water was cold. He could not make water pour from the sky like this!” I whisper-yell in amazement.

My god moves into the heavy pouring water. He returns, unaffected by its loud roar and weight, hiding a scoop of something in his hands.

“Let’s get some soap on you then. How does that sound?” Adler pours some in my hand, letting me try it out. “Do you want my help?”

“Yes,” I mumble feeling shy all of the sudden. I’m not really sure what to do with the goop.

With a gentle tug, he pulls me into his arms and begins to help me lather the slimy warm soap over my front. It smells divine...just like him.

I giggle, squirming in surprise at the sensation of the warm liquid soaking into my slynk.

“It feels good, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah!”

“Your skin is exquisite. Smooth and a beautiful grey I long to see one day,” He taps my awful bug bite. “But it’s infected, little pearl. These waters are made of pure minerals. You can rest assured it will heal after a good soak in here.”

“Thank you,” I whisper.

Relief floods into me, but I want to voice my doubts in case this is a test.

“Enoch told me no one is supposed to touch my slynk, emperor.”

“Please, just call me Adler,” he says. His muscles ripple as he turns me around to face him again. “Do you know what a slynk is? A shame Enoch has persuaded you into one.”

“Tell me,” I laugh at his feigned baby voice.

“It’s what slaves wear to protect themselves from getting violated by their masters. How long have you been trapped wearing this atrocious thing, little pearl?”

Why would Enoch tell me different?

“A few days,” I confess.

I squeal when my god dumps a big pile of warm soap over my head with a shiny dull black ladle. The bubbles of giddiness inside me pop when I sense his head move very close to mine.

“Is that so?” he murmurs. “More soap?” he coos.

I nod my head feeling boneless as he presses his chest against my back while reaching over the edge of the pool for more of the warm substance.

I really do want my slynk to come off. All it’s managed to do so far is irritate my bug bite. He’s my god, but it’s still embarrassing to ask for his help with such a thing.

“Maybe we can loosen it some and you can get it off later when you’re done your bath.”

Only a god could read my mind so well.

“Yes...please.” He raises my hands up higher, placing them loosely behind his neck in silent understanding.

He lathers the soap in my hair next and then rubs the remaining goop into my neck and shoulders.

His voice is so calming.

“My wife wanted me to pick up her things from an exchange, but after we got attacked, all her things ended up ruined.”

“That’s too bad,” I say, but I really don’t feel sorry for her though. “I’m glad you all made it back okay.”

His hands reach the soft mesh netting where my slynk hugs my chest too tightly. When his touch fastens around it, he tugs. However, it still remains glued on.

“It’s still stuck,” I pout.

He tries the sleeve of my slynk, but it still doesn’t move from my skin. “It is way too tight. It’s a wonder you can breathe.”

The falling water in front of me is so loud now I have to yell, “I know!”

He puts some more soap in my hands and I lather my legs while he lathers my back.

I don’t know if it’s working, but it feels wonderful to be blessed with his gentle touch. My mind wanders as I close my eyes, sighing heavily in complete bliss as I slip into another dreamy place -- my imagination; where my god’s voice becomes Enoch’s.

“It’s on pretty snug,” he mumbles. The material still doesn’t move much when he pulls. “Should we try more soap?”

I nod my head.

The hot slimy goop seeps into the netting as I spread a lather over my stomach, trying to peel away the slynk.

“Are you ready for more soap?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” I mumble in a small voice.

“It feels nice, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” I admit timidly. My voice comes out weak, “It feels wonderful.”

“I’m so glad.”

He rubs my kneck slowly, the slimy hot liquid dripping from his hands. They move in rhythm, grasping and squeezing the lather onto me.

“Oooh...it’s so warm in here,” I can feel the slynk getting looser now. “My slynk is loosening.”

“It’s starting to peel,” he tells me. “I think it’s time for your rinse.”

I unwind feeling the heat from the water we step under. Once clean, we wade back out together where steam and heat encases us in a thick cloud.

The silver blur of him moves back behind me again. My breathing hitches feeling his hands cup me perfectly, molding me tightly against him. A surprised moan escapes me when he starts to massage with a firm but tender grasp to test the strength of the slynk. It feels so good, but I know it shouldn’t. Not like this when he’s just trying to help me with my slynk.

My hands cover his own, memorizing the feeling of them caressing and holding me. My god is so gentle, I love it. It feels so warm and perfect to be held.

If only it was really Enoch.

“You keep moaning in my ear, little pearl. Did you enjoy the dream I sent you off to?”

My eyes burst open, staring straight into my god’s dancing eyes.

Adler swiftly lifts me up by my waist. He tucks me against him with one arm, walking up the pool steps and onto the dry ground.

He sets me down as I blush deeply at his question, shivering against the cool air. How embarrassing for him to know the level of my growing interest in his son.

What is happening to me? He’s my god, I should not be getting any of these feelings or thoughts from his platonic touch!

I don’t want to upset Adler, but I told him once before I do not see Enoch this way. So why did I have such a dream thinking Adler was Enoch? I am grateful for his blessing though.

“It was a wishful daydream,” I whisper ashamed.

My god remains quiet while my chest remains on fire from his touch. I hug my arms feeling nervous under his new silent stare. I dare not look in his eyes.

I tug on my slynk instead.

“It is on very tight,” he tells me above my head. “I tried pulling it off where all the tension was, but I’m afraid the soap has made it stick to you even more. I’m sorry if you felt strange. I was trying to remove it from your chest since I worked it loose there. When you dry, it should easily slip off.”

Flustered, I remain silent.

Clearly he did not intend for me to be so affected by a simple bath. I need to get over myself. He was only trying to loosen the slynk so I can finally get the awful thing off.

“It’s okay, Greta. You’re just not used to being bathed, are you? I thought you confessed to me Enoch had bathed you before?”

“Enoch did not bathe me like that,” I whisper back feeling confused.

The hot water and soap felt magical against me. Not as magical as my god’s touch though. My body still shivers from it.

I bend down. When I touch the surface of the water, I replace it to be freezing cold. No longer is the falling water running either.

My throat feels really dry. “How long was I bathing for?”

“At least five hours, little pearl. Do you want a drink? Why not sit down for a bit and dry yourself off?” he asks.

He walks over to the wall, picking up a cloth and a big tunic. I can’t see anything but his silvery form, but I veer my gaze anyway knowing him to be changing into a dry tunic.

He returns to me and hands me a towel. I dry myself, keeping the towel around me.

“I want to see Enoch,” I whisper.

“I’m not going to keep you here if you want to go,” Adler explains gently. “Did...you, uh, enjoy your bath?” he asks sounding nervous.

“I did enjoy the bath very much,” I admit with a blush. “Thank you.”

We walk down the chamber together. Our wet feet squeak against the floor filling the strange silence between us.

“I forgot my tunic,” I announce in embarrassment.

“Was it by chance on the floor?”

“Yes, I folded it and laid it by the pool.”

His tone is sympathetic, “It was soaking wet.”

A permanent blush seems to have been on my face since Adler found me in here. It grows as I watch him unwrap some of his robes from around his chest. The cloth is so much softer than I imagined as he wraps it around me.

It’s still attached to his tunic though. I’m forced to walk right beside him as my towel accidentally falls off me in the mess of bundled cloth.

“I am not comfortable,” I squeak while looking up at him. My heart races feeling the wretched slink slump to the ground as well, dried up now and useless as it was before.

If I separate from his side I will be completely naked. The cloth may feel divine, but I cannot walk around like this with my god.

“I’m sorry, little pearl. Let’s go to my bedroom. We can nap in my bed while I have a tunic from the palace fetched for you.”

My face flames at his words.

His frown deepens when my feet remain glued to the floor as he tries to walk back the way we came.

“But you look so precious wrapped snug in my robes,” he babies while lifting me off my feet. “Shall I carry you off in a bundle with me?” he coos while tickling my throat.

I squirm and giggle, not really wanting to move away from the warm silky cloth he’s buried me in.

“Emperor! May I come in? Hello?”

My ears perk up when I hear Enoch’s voice on the other side of the closed sliding marble door. Adler rapidly sets me down. He separates the cloth I’m wrapped in from his tunic, with a violent jerk of his head, his teeth tearing through it with a grunt.

My heart races, intrigued by his sudden animal-like movement while I hug the soft cloth around me.

“Please do not come out until I tell you,” he whispers while ushering me behind a tall vase beside the door. “He may not be alone,” he whispers just as the heavy door slides open.