Whispers of the Heart
Fractured Code
Chapter 28
How do I…?
The steam drifted up from the bronze bathtub. One had been brought into her room. Flower petals and other oils had been added to the water. It smelled richly of lavender and chamomile. She loved the way they both smell together. Sighing Inky lay her head back and she looked up to the ceiling. She could see through it. It was a perfectly cloudless night and everything seemed perfect. Yet within her heart everything was chaos. She may have been given this beautifully lush room, but there were bars on her windows, and locks on her doors. This was just as well a prison in itself. She wished she had wings like Danny.
The water lapped against her skin, the soreness of her limbs had begun to fade thanks to the hot water. The faw pinkness that it left her skin seemed to make her feel cleaner at least.
"What do you think of the room? I designed it myself." She didn't know this voice. A woman with graying hair walked into the room. Her eyes were just as blue as her fathers.
"I'm sorry should I know you?" Inky asked the woman who just smiled down at her. The woman sat down on the chair and sighed.
"I am your grandmother." She told Inky. Inky sat up looking at the woman with astonishment.
"Grandmother? Dad told me you died a few days ago."
"Oh not Dareth my dear...Danny." The woman laughed richly. Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she did so. "Oh I'm sorry your innocence astounds me." Inky could tell she didnt like this woman. Actually she did nothing but piss her off. She stood up and climbed out of the tub.
"And you want?" Inky pulled off a towel from a rack on the side of the wall.
"Oh do visit with you child. See just what my daughter seen in you, see why Gaya likes you so." She walked up behind Inky pulling a brush from the table and began to run it through her hair. She didn't like this woman being so close to her. She smelled of wine. She was obviously drunk.
"Gaya doesn't want me, she wants my Ink." Inky said looking on with as much loathing as she hoped she could muster.
"Ah I see…" She said pulling her hair back into twin french braids. They were tight and they hurt Inkys head. She hissed in pain every time she pulled on them to tighten them. "So...what about that Zareth guy?"
"Uncle Zareth...they pulled him into a room."
"He's been unconscious since they brought him in."
"Just whose side are you on?" Inky stood up growling at the woman. Her eyes going black.
"I'm not altogether on anyones side. Just the side that gets me what I want." That sounded familiar didn't it? She rolled her eyes walking over to her cloths to put them on again, she had nothing else.
"Now we can't have you going to a coronation wearing those old rags." Inky had to admit the cloths she was trying to get back into looked like they belonged in a trash bin. She turned to see a dress on the other side of the door. Inky gasped looking over it. It was simple really. It would show her features a bit more, but the bottom plumed out as if it were a wedding dress. She sighed running her hands over the silk folds. Her funeral dress more like it. She wasn't stupid, she knew how the world works. Once Gaya had finished with her, and her parents. They wouldn't survive, all of them would be killed. She closed her eyes taking the dress behind the door to put it on. This would be her last day on Ninjago. She walked back from around the other side of the door and looked up at the woman who just smiled down at her.
"Don't you look all grown up Inky?"
"What color is it?" Inky asked. Angela looked a little amazed at this.
"Didn't they teach you colors?" She asked putting a few jewels on her.
"I'm colorblind. All I see is in black and white."
"Its gold." Angela said understanding her colorblindness.
"Gold...how inappropriate for someone who's worth nothing."