Chapter 41: Fa & Be
Malia and the others followed Elea through the dark, dank, narrow maze of passageways into the heart of the palace. As they moved silently in a human chain, voices drifted through the walls. Much was happening within, it seemed. The voices’ tones were sharp and biting; they were orders, not conversations or laughter, as Malia had grown accustomed over her stay.
They stopped and peered through a portal into Elea’s bedroom: an apartment with a reading room overlooking a garden. Two soldiers were lounging on her furniture. One was gazing out the window and picking his nose, the other flipping through a picture book of faraway places. He had a tattoo on his neck of the Aeonian god-serpents Fa and Be.
“Have you ever heard of the pyramids?” the tattooed, reading soldier asked the nose-picker.
“No. What are they?”
“I don’t know. Big stone triangles in the desert. Look at this.”
“Huh. Where’d this little girl get all these crazy books?”