Prophet

I waited all morning just outside the palace. Lady Hen had taken to sitting on the ground beside me. “Don’t sit where there isn’t a floor,” I shook my head, “your pants will be ruined. Then, you’ll get burned.”

She scooted back to the wood by the door. “I forgot it’s getting worse. You should step back, too. You’re in bare feet.”

“I don’t want this Padro person to think I’m afraid,” I looked down at her belly. It was larger than before, “you should be careful with yourself.”

A small group finally approached in the same patchwork, white robes that Elsie had been wearing. In the middle of them was a man who had smeared spoiled fruit across his face. I wrinkled my nose at the smell. Immediately, I recognized his dark hair. Franz had been a member of Mack’s gang last month. I wondered what had changed.

Lady Hen slowly bobbed to her feet, “Ye speak ta Princess Fawn!” She sat back down.

“You’re late.” I walked closer to him.

He bowed deeply. His companions copied him. “I apologize with heart, Your Majesty. And, I beg Bubbles-Navfa will pardon us for sullying your time.” There were long burned streaks down his eyes like tears. It was skin that would never heal.

“You’re the Padro I’m hearing about?”

“Indeed. The Navfa blesses us as if we were her children. I became Padro to guide in our gratitude,” Franz ran his hand along the ground, “this, you already know, Prophet.” My shoulders lifted at his comment. I had feared this Padro would seek my appeasement of his desires, but he approached me instead with reverence.

“Tell me more,” I pressed my hands together quietly.

“The Navfa is good. She plans not to leave children stranded here to die,” he preached, “and she awaits the penance of the damned. Those who are absolved of sin will be spared and freed.”

“She told you this?” I watched the river.

The Padro shook his head, “You’d have heard her. Indeed, Bubbles-Navfa has said nothing on this. If she had, the false would pretend at faith, they would masquerade at atonement for their own freedom.”

I had my doubts. “I’m sure your faith will be well thanked, Padro. Go on your way.”

He bowed again, “Many thinks, Princess.”

“And, stop smearing acid on your faces,” I called after them as they left, “Bubbles would be against it, I think. I-it’s a good gesture, but you’ve made it already, now.”

Lady Hen mumbled once they were out of earshot, “A-are they telling true?”

“I don’t know,” I lied. Lady Hen meant well, but if she went around telling people this group had lost their minds, people would think I told her to say that. Besides, maybe Bubbles would decide on something like that later. I didn’t care what she decided for them, I wasn’t them.

She waddled after me as I went inside. “What if it is true?” She put her hand on her belly. I frowned, her mind was on the baby. I poured water into an ivory cup and handed it to her. She sipped it slowly. “It makes sense.”

“Lady Hen,” I whispered. I opened my mouth to speak only to swallow my words. They burned under my eyes, “I don’t know. What do you believe?”

“I wanna believe it.”

“I know.”

I wandered out by the river and looked down into it, the bubbling foam hissing as it rose bit by bit. “I know you can hear them.”

“What hurt is hope? They’re happier than they’ve ever been.”

“They’re burning themselves.”
“An inevitably whether or not they do it to themselves,” she giggled, “and besides, it is their right to do. That is, unless you intend to outlaw the practice. Or I can outlaw it.”

“Are they correct?”

“Of course not.”

“I knew that already.”

She hummed, “Do you want me to do as they ask?”

I thought about it for a time, “No.”

“Splendid,” she yawned.

“Things are getting worse. The ground is burning people, the river will overtake the bridge, soon.”

“Better, I say.”

“I need those new shoes.”

She pouted, “I like when you’re without them. It’s better than tasting the bottoms of shoes.”

“Tasting?” I rolled my eyes, “You do that with your mouth.”

“Humans…” She sighed, “All my nine senses are present there in some way. I can’t fully see, but I can taste everything that touches the ground or walls. Do you really need shoes?”

“I don’t want the soles of my feet burning off, Bubbles.”

“Yet…” She snickered, “Breakfast.”

I pressed my lips together, “As I said, conditions are worsening.”

“You’ve been here almost two months. A year, remember, that’s all. Even if I could make things better, I’d just be turning the clock back.”

“What’s wrong with turning the clock back?”

“My body still needs to continue functioning,” she huffed as if it was some obvious fact, “you couldn’t survive not processing your food properly either.”

I walked back toward the palace, “Well, I’ll start covering my feet with dirty rags if I have to, Bubbles.”

“How cruel…”

“I asked you for shoes already!” I whined, “What am I supposed to do?”

“Okay, Fawn,” she huffed. She didn’t call me Princess as she liked to, “You clearly know what’s best. What’s the point in asking me, anyway?”

I slammed the door of the palace behind me and stomped up toward my room, “Noisy! Self-interested! Petty!”

“Didn’t people used to say that about you?”

“Oh, of course!” I yelled, “That’s the stupid reason I’m even here, don’t you know! Because people thought I was like that.”

Bubbles whispered, “I don’t think you’re like that. You’re sweet, in two ways, and you’re tender and pleasant. I like you better than any of them ever did.”

I buried my head in my pillow, “I know…”