Chapter 425

• Groaning, Mia got to her feet, made sure her silk wrap covered her bits, and made her way up the stairway along the side of the room, up to the raised area with the huge table and chairs, and stopped by the window. The big white teeth were still closed, blocking off the window and stopping her from jumping out, or any demons from jumping in. But the teeth were spread out enough she could peek through them and admire the sky of fire, its swirling maelstroms of red and orange, and how they brightened from embers to proper roaring flames.
• She watched the fire grow, just like when she was a kid with her brother, hanging out in the woods and making little fires at night. Her mind wandered, and she let it swim through memories of her and David roasting marshmallows over an open flame in the forest, before her mind came right back up to the surface with the runes again.
• Batlam. Potram. Royam. Those three stuck out more than the others, but she couldn't wrap her mind around them. She didn't even know what they meant, not really. Some of the other runes, her brain understood intimately, and had no problem translating the alien language into English, or Estian, for Zel. Others, she had no chance of understanding. But those three seemed doable, if she could figure them out. They were strange in a way the other runes weren't. Something inside her tickled at the thought of them, like maybe they were something she should have understood, like someone making a meme reference she was supposed to remember but couldn't.