Page 35 of Born for Silk

“Oh!” She sounds excited. “You’re coherent. The fever has let you go. That is wonderful. I have some questions for you. You can pick the temperature of your shower in The Estate. How would you like it?”

I wiggle my toes. I am dreaming. What an odd one this is. Everyone knows we have it hot. “We usually have it?—"

“Scolding, I know,” the kind voice says. “That is what all the Silk Girls say. But what do you want? Now that you have a choice of what you want?”

“Scolding,” I repeat plainly. Not an answer or agreement, just a word that works and she used. Easy to pull out of my mind.

“Excellent choice,” she praises, and I smile, proud. “And your sheet? You can choose the colour of your main sheet, but the rest of your bedding will be purple.”

“Um.” The complementary opposite of purple is yellow—we learn that when we arrange flowers. So I say, “Yellow is the best colour to match purple.”

“Gold then?”

Why is this bed so high? “Sure.”

“What flowers do you want? I'll bring you Silk Wisteria, but you can pick another species?”

“Flowers,” I say, smiling. We are all little flowers growing through the crust of The Cradle. Suddenly, as the f sound makes my tongue flap, I remember I’m wounded. I stick it out and look down, trying to see the cut but my tongue isn’t long enough.

“Don’t do that,” she says, poking my tongue back inside my mouth. “Tongues heal fast. It is mostly fine. It is a muscle after all. It’s your temperature that has been bothersome the past three days.”

“Three days?”

“Yes, you’ve had a terrible fever.”

Fever…

“You can pick whichever flower you want,” she says, back to the same question. “I'll make sure you always have fresh ones in your room.”

“Pick a flower,” I repeat. “Pick the petals, one by one. He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me. Who will he choose? Um. Aster. I pick Aster.”

“Most Silk Girls pick their own name.”

“Aster is foreign, though.” I wiggle my toes again, little beans waving. A three-day fever? “Aster isn’t from around here. It’s not like the rest.”

“No, but that’s okay. They produced seeds when you were named. And we started growing Aster ourselves. They turned out beautifully.”

I laugh at the silly dream. “Really?”

“Of course. And your pills.” She is suddenly in front of me, looking like a stunning Xin De Goddess. So tall and strong. She has brown hair and skin, long dark lashes, and a birthmark on her left cheek shaped like a star.

“Woah,” I mutter, gazing up at her. Then I look down at the pills lying on her palm. Two tiny pills. One white. One blue.

“Do the other girls get these, too?”

“No. These are just for you. You were poisoned, Aster. You got tetanus and have been sedated and on IV treatment for the past three days. To help you heal. These are a low dose. Soon, you should be mostly better.” She smiles. “Take them.”

I swallow the pills.

“And finally, Sire would like to know what ‘meal you will not forget to eat.’”

I blink at her.

“His exact words. So…” She nods to encourage me to answer. “What will it be?”

“I’ve always liked warm oatmeal and honey, but it’s hard to get. They are both so rare. Just like Asters.”

Chapter Two