“I asked one of the Initiates to set out candles,” Lynne explained, pocketing her keyring. “I figured you guys would like to see what you're walking in to, and this front room is only lit by the sun in the late evening. The rest of the time, it's rather dark. Watch your step over the threshold, there's a metal ridge there for some reason and people who are new here always trip over it.”
I stepped into the small front room, careful to avoid the ridge she'd warned me about. A few candles were scattered around, giving a bit of light, but it was still rather dim. There were benches against the walls, and cloaks like the one she was wearing were hanging on hooks above the benches. She took hers off, revealing a pair of wings, and hung it on an empty peg. She turned around and saw my very confused expression, and smiled. “They're enchanted to look like they lay flat on our backs, as if we didn't have any wings. Make sense now?”
“Ah, yes,” I said, nodding, then looked to William for my cue. Was there some sort of magical world etiquette I should be observing? He was just smiling around eagerly, hungry to learn about this world he'd dreamed of seeing for over thirty years.
“You can come in this way,” she said, with her hand on a door on the opposite side of the room from the one we came in. “It leads to our front hall. There's lighting inside, don't worry.”
As we stepped into the hallway, I had to stop for a moment to blink my eyes, which had become accustomed to the darkness of the entrance. As I got used to normal lighting again, the first thing that jumped out at me was the brightness of the decorations. The walls were crimson and creme, with gold accents. “Let me have a look!” William said impatiently from behind me. “Mind not blocking the entire doorway?”
“Oh, sorry,” I said, not having realized that I was blocking them from getting in. I stepped into one of the many doorways leading off of the hall, and let them pass me. Elizabeth had been unusually quiet since we met Lynne in the park, and though she seemed to be fine I was still a bit worried. “You okay, Lizzy?” I asked, using my pet name for her.
She looked at me and nodded. “Yeah, I'm cool.” She noticed my expression, and smiled reassuringly. “Don't worry so much.”
“We're going this way,” Lynne called from the end of the hallway. We walked down it, and it soon opened up into a large room. Ahead of us, there was a glass wall with a door in it looking out onto walled gardens with two houses visible at the back of the lot. The other walls were paneled the same way as the hall had been. The room contained several round tables, as well as some open space. There were several women and girls seated at the tables or doing things in the open spaces.
Lynne led us to a table. “Stay here for a minute, I'm going to go try to find out what I should do with you guys. Feel free to walk around the room or talk to someone if you want to, but don't go wandering off anywhere weird. This building has a lot more twisting hallways then it looks like, and there's a lot underground. I don't feel like playing hide and seek today.” She smiled, then headed off towards another door in the wall we came in through.
We sat down, and there was silence for a few minutes while we were all trying to think of something to say. William spoke first.
“This is amazing.”
“That's one way of putting it,” I said, watching a winged teenager carrying something large wrapped in cloth run through the room. “I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment, to be honest.”
“As am I. It's just so refreshing to know I wasn't wrong. You know, it was always at the back of my head all those years, that what I thought I remembered was only a hallucination dream brought on by being dehydrated during a hot summer day. But now I know I really experienced it, and hopefully I'll have the chance to complete my studies. Are you holding up okay?” That last question was addressed to Elizabeth.
“Yeah,” she said thoughtfully. “So I have to stay here?”
I'd been thinking the same thing. If all of this was real, then did it mean that she wasn't human? The thought was completely alien to me, and I couldn't reconcile it with how I knew her. But that's what everything seemed to be telling me.
“Yes,” William said. “As I understand it, all members of the Order live in communities, at least until they're older. It's for their own protection, really, as any of the Dark ones could easily kill a girl. It doesn't seem like a bad place though. I wouldn't mind living here.”
“I know you wouldn't,” I couldn't resist saying. “All your research is right here in front of you. You're in your idea of heaven.”
He grinned. “True, that.” His eyes focused on something over my shoulder. “Where are we supposed to be going now?”
I turned and saw that Lynne was back. “You're supposed to go up to the Temple Mother, Sarah's, room now. You'll eat dinner there, and then you'll all be shown to where you'll be staying. So if you'll just follow me, I'll take you there.” We stood up and followed her out of the room, then through one of the doors in the hallway. There was a spiral staircase inside, and we went up two floors before exiting. We were in another hallway, and she led us down a few twists and turns before we reached the end of the hall and a door. “Okay, this is it,” she said, and knocked.
A short black woman not much younger than me opened the door. “Thanks Lynne,” she said, smiling at her.
“Bye!” Lynne said, waving at us before she left the way we'd come.
“Hello,” Sarah said to us. “Come on in and get something to eat. I understand you've been walking for quite a while this afternoon.”
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