Chapter 54: Operation: Humiliating Tea Service

Echo led me from the main meeting room with all the warmth of a glacier. "This will be your room," she stated, pushing open a door to reveal a space that could charitably be called "minimalist." It was a small, windowless chamber, likely a converted storage closet, containing a simple straw mattress on the floor and a single, wobbly-looking wooden crate to serve as a table. The air was thick with the scent of dust and old wood. It was clean, though. Impeccably, almost aggressively clean. Echo’s handiwork, no doubt.

"Thank you," I said, my voice a soft whisper. I adopted the name "Luna" in my head, a suitably mysterious and ethereal-sounding name for an amnesiac. I glided into the room, my white dress looking absurdly out of place, like a swan that had wandered into a chicken coop. "You are very kind."

Echo did not look like she felt very kind. She stood in the doorway, her arms crossed, her sharp elven eyes scrutinizing my every move. "Your dress," she said, her tone flat. "It is made of materials I have never seen. The weave is flawless. It is not the work of any tailor in this city, or even this kingdom."

I looked down at the dress as if seeing it for the first time. "Oh. Is it? I… I don't remember." My cover story was a shield of impenetrable vagueness.

"And your hands," she continued, her gaze flicking down. "They are soft. Uncalloused. You have never worked a day in your life, have you?"

Internally, I scoffed. Excuse you? Do you have any idea how much paperwork is involved in being a goddess? The calluses are on my soul. Outwardly, I just looked at my hands with a practiced, sorrowful confusion. "I… suppose not."

A low growl emanated from the hallway. Kael was leaning against the opposite wall, his tail lashing back and forth like an agitated whip. "Enough with the questions, Echo. Can’t you see she’s just a spoiled noble brat who got lost? Probably ran away from an arranged marriage."

"Her energy is not that of a normal human," Echo countered, never taking her eyes off me. "There is a stillness to her, a power that lies dormant. It is… unnatural."

She was more perceptive than I gave her credit for. My divine aura was suppressed to near-zero, but to someone with keen senses like her, a trace must have been leaking through, like the scent of ozone after a lightning strike.

"I will fetch you something to drink," Echo said abruptly, her expression unreadable. "Rest. We will talk more later." She turned and walked away, Kael falling into step beside her.

I sat down delicately on the straw mattress, which crunched under my weight. The moment they were out of earshot for a normal person, my divine senses picked up their hushed, conspiratorial whispers from the main room.

"…not right. Master Zero has never acted this way," Echo’s voice was tight with worry and suspicion. "He looks at her and his strategies and logic fly out the window."

"He called her beautiful," Kael grumbled, the words sounding like a curse. "He’s never called me beautiful."

I had to actively suppress a giggle.

"We need to see what she's made of," Echo decided. "If she is a spy from the Covenant, she will have training. If she is a noble, she will have arrogance. We need to break her composure. See what’s underneath this… blank serenity."

"The tea?" Kael asked, a hint of malicious glee in his voice.

"The tea," Echo confirmed.

Oh boy. I knew exactly what "the tea" meant. Every secret organization had a special blend of liquid awfulness they used for interrogations. I had written it into their backstory myself. It was a concoction of bitter herbs, swamp water, and a few other ingredients best left to the imagination, designed to make even the most hardened spy spill their guts. My "vacation" was about to get a whole lot less pleasant.

A few minutes later, Echo returned. She carried a single, chipped ceramic cup with both hands, as if it were a sacred offering. Steam rose from the murky, greenish-brown liquid within, carrying a scent that was an unholy marriage of boiled socks and pond scum.

"For you," she said, her face a perfect mask of hospitality. "To help you recover your strength."

She handed me the cup. It was warm. I peered into its depths and saw things I did not want to see. Little floaty bits. A suspicious sheen on the surface. I smiled my most grateful, innocent smile. "You are too thoughtful. Thank you so much."

This was it. A test. My very first sabotage attempt. I couldn't use my divine power to purify it; that would be an instant giveaway. I couldn't refuse to drink it; that would be suspicious. I had to drink the Goblin-Swamp-Sock-Water of Truth and act like it was the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted. For the sake of my vacation. For the integrity of my quality assurance check.

I lifted the cup to my lips, my internal monologue screaming in protest. Kael had reappeared in the doorway, a smirk playing on his feline features. They were both watching, waiting for me to gag, to spit it out, to reveal my noble-born weakness or my spy-trained disgust.

I took a slow, deliberate sip.

The taste was… an experience. It was a multi-layered assault on the senses. The initial flavor was one of overwhelming bitterness, like chewing on tree bark. This was swiftly followed by a slimy, swampy middle note, and it finished with a lingering aftertaste of something vaguely metallic and deeply unpleasant. In my thousands of lifetimes, I had been poisoned, cursed, and forced to eat questionable battlefield rations. This was, without a doubt, in the top five worst things I had ever consumed.

I swallowed. Then, I lowered the cup and gave Echo a radiant smile. "This is wonderful," I said, my voice as smooth as silk. "The flavor is so… complex. Very earthy and grounding. Is it a local delicacy?"

The look on Echo’s face was worth every disgusting drop. Her jaw went slack, and her eyes widened in disbelief. Kael's smirk vanished, replaced by a baffled scowl. Their ultimate weapon of interrogation, their carefully brewed concoction of misery, had just been complimented.

"It’s… an old recipe," Echo managed to stammer, completely thrown off her game.

Just then, a shadow fell over the doorway. "Echo. Kael. What is going on here?"

It was Jin. He had impeccable timing. He strode into the room, his eyes immediately finding me. He saw the cup in my hands, then looked at the stunned expressions on his followers' faces.

"Master Zero," Echo said, recovering slightly. "We were just offering our guest some refreshment."

Jin’s gaze softened as he looked at me. He saw me, sitting peacefully on a straw mattress in a dusty room, calmly sipping a cup of what he knew was basically poison, and smiling. His estimation of me visibly skyrocketed.

"I see," he said, his voice filled with admiration. "Only a soul of immense purity and fortitude could find grace in such… rustic hospitality. You see, Echo? She is stronger than you think."

He gave me a small, almost imperceptible nod of respect before turning to leave. "Continue," he said over his shoulder. "Make her feel welcome."

The moment he was gone, Echo and Kael stared at me as if I had just grown a second head. Their plan had not only failed, it had backfired spectacularly. They had tried to expose me, and instead, they had only succeeded in making their leader even more infatuated with the mysterious "Luna."

I took another placid sip of the terrible, terrible tea. This was going to be a very long vacation.