46 Lonely Girl

ELIA

Breakfast the next morning was a lonely affair, up on the podium without Reth. Candace was kind enough to sit next to her, but she had her sister with her and the two cackled and chirped their way through the meal. Elia didn't feel right interrupting.

When she was done eating she got up and realized she had nowhere to go except back to the Cave. She sighed. Maybe she should just walk around and see things?

When she turned to see if there was a discreet way to get off the stage and onto the streets without walking past the whole kingdom down at the tables, she noticed Candace's sister's nostrils flare. Then she turned and looked at Elia with a strange expression.

Do I smell? Elia wondered. She'd been careful to wash herself down in the bathing room off the bedroom each morning. But it wasn't like taking a shower—or a bath, she supposed. She needed to find out where the anima bathed. How they bathed.