Peace and Relaxation

The room was dead quiet, the only noise a dim murmur of the water pumps, but even to hear that one needed to strain against the silence. The air was thick and hot, the vapor rising from the pool creating an almost non-existent fog. Each brick of the stone walls was roughly hewn, and a slight dew covered its face. Soft light flooded down from a skylight in the ceiling, the sunset giving it a deep orange hue.

Suddenly the silence was broken by a slight rustling of the water. It had been almost a half hour since he had moved, having submerged himself to his neck in the hot water, closing his eyes, and losing himself to thought and relaxation. He had been here before, his last visit a steamy fog of good memories. He had come here again to try and recapture some of that, and to get some quality time to himself. Raphael could feel every muscle in his body at almost complete relaxation. His mind had wandered without direction, and even there he was feeling completely relaxed. His entire self, body and mind, was at peace.

The sudden buzz of his neocom fixed his peaceful state, his eyes flying open at the sound. Despite his immediate attention to the device, his reaction was languid. He slowly raised himself up and turned about to face the direction of the annoyance. Near the edge of the bath lie his uniform, left where he had discarded it when he disrobed. In the inside breast pocket of his coat his neocom called out to him, alerting him that his relaxation was over, that work was out there and it needed to be done.

Without so much as looking at the screen he carefully extracted it from the pocket and casually cast it over his shoulder, the neocom’s buzzing going silent after a soft plunk. Just as he was about to resubmerge himself, a gleam from his uniform caught his attention. Hanging out of the pocket he extracted the neocom from was a string of prayer beads, a metallic holy symbol pendant glinting in the light.

Raphael sighed slightly. Mitara. The prayer beads had been a gift from the Admiral, given to him after he had come upon her praying with them in the Basilica on the first day of the New Year. A simple offering, but to Raphael it was a personal gesture. He wondered if she knew; knew that he had cast away his love for God, giving just as much favor as he felt he received. He still believed, but believing something exists and loving it are two different things.

He turned about, his back to his uniform. He began to sink himself back into the water but another light caught his eye. Shimmering below the surface was the screen of his neocom, its message still blinking endlessly on its display. Raphael silently cursed the rugged, take-anywhere construction of the neocom before picking it up off the bottom of the pool. Finally looking at the incoming message he was still for a few seconds, his face going blank. He turned back to his uniform silently, placing the neocom on the stone tile floor and picking up the prayer beads from the coat.

Gripping the beads tightly in his hand and submerging himself until his nose was barely above the surface, Raphael Saint closed his eyes and, for the first time in months, he prayed.