Revenant Slaves Chapter 60: Chapter 59: Ash

Read chapter 60 of Revenant Slaves by Zee on NovelPedia.

Ash hurried along to the temple, among the bustling crowds on their way to them. On the way, he saw all sorts of people heading to the temple. On his way, Ash realized that he still hadn't changed the red band he was covering his missing eye with. But there was no time anymore, so he just rolled with it. As he reached the temple grounds, someone stopped him for a second. She was a very short girl and wore a very peculiar dress; Ash had never seen someone wearing so many colors on their body at once. “Hey, Ash.” “Hello… do I know you?” “Me, ooh, I’m no one important. If you must know my name, it’s Nadiene.” “Oh, okay, do you need help?” “It’s not me that needs help, Ash, it’s you. Here you go.” Ash looked down to see a very bright gold band in her hand. “You can’t get married in that bland red-looking thing covering your head, can you?” “This was exactly what I was looking for, thank you so much, Nadiene.” “It makes me happy to hear you say that; now hurry along, put it on. I’m cheering for you and Maya, you know.” Ash smiled; it seemed the news of their getting married had already spread. Ash took off his red band and wrapped the golden band around his head instead, covering his eye. “Really, thank you for…” Ash turned to thank Nadiene, but there wasn’t anyone standing there anymore. Ash looked around, among the crowds walking past him, down the street and inside the temple grounds, but he couldn’t find the colorfully dressed girl anywhere. Ash called out her name a few times, but she didn’t come back. ‘That was strange,’ he thought, but he was still grateful for the band Nadiene had given her. ‘Will have to ask Maya about her later.’ Ash walked past the gathered crowd and hurried inside the temple hall. There were floodlights inside. The power was out, so the rebels had improvised their own lights and power generators; he had heard them being called. Not knowing where to go or stand, he looked around for either Zain or Maya. He found Spark and his family instead; the poor boy was seated on one of the chairs around the hall. His father had probably carried him here. Ash waved back. Someone tapped him on the shoulder, making him turn. And for the second time today, Ash was left speechless. Because behind him stood Maya. She wasn’t wearing her bulky exoskeleton; she was in a grey dress. Something that looked like a mash-up of many different parts of the same dress. It was so beautifully them, her people and his. Struggling in the dirt and living off of scraps, hoping to build something good out of it. She had loosened her braids, letting her curly hair fall in waves down her shoulders, with loose strands perfectly framing her temples. She had a small smile on her face that made his heart skip a beat; her whole presence did. On her head, she wore a cloth that covered half her head and flowed down her back to her legs; it was white and full of black patterns, like diamonds or linked chains, and its edges were even more detailed, full of interlocking patterns and symbols. “By the way he’s staring at you, Maya, I’d say he likes what he sees. Good for you, good for you, your future husband is already smitten with you,” someone said from beside Maya. It was someone he recognized. Sanya, the person in charge of the rebels' medical wing. Maya ignored the remark. “You look good,” she said instead, “Thank you for changing.” “Oh, yeah, it wasn’t a big deal, I mean it was… changing wasn’t a big deal for me. You look very good as well.” Ash somehow completed his sentence; for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why he turned into a bumbling idiot whenever he had to say anything nice to Maya. “Oh, Flame help us, and we all know that that’s a useless prayer if there ever was one, but the boy needs help. He might just be a keeper, Maya. Now you kids run along and take your places.” Maya’s smile widened very slightly, “Shall we go?” Ash nodded, then quickly added, “I don’t know where we are supposed to go; I just got here.” Maya pointed behi