8 Chapter Five

Mountain, Capital Shire of the Ruling Sphere of Phelia

Present day

Aluminaria was fed and moved to a new room. The dining area like the rest of the place had been spotlessly white in almost all the places except for those few sections where the hewn, stonelike wall touched it. The place was huge yet scantily furnished and a little staired platform covered the entire floor in front of the only window, a ceiling high window that overlooked what appeared to be a great valley.

Temptation threatened to push Lumi to the edge of this platform as a growing desire to see what was beyond it overwhelmed her. However, she could not do so for she was soon whisked away to another room, this one, with more colour and more windows albeit not as high or as big as the other one in the other room. These windows to her delight offered her a view, but then again with these people that could have been anything. As her reading had many a times proven to her, what she was now seeing could have actually been a screen or an illusion and not the picturesque view that was gleaming beyond her eyes. For how was it even possible that they could be that high or that the sky, adorned with the white fluffy clouds and with a green forest canopy below it could be so dignified. 

'A skyscraper in the forest?' She shook her head no, denying the dismal probability of that ever being the case. But soon, she found herself thinking of the man Birit and what he had said to her concerning her not being at home. She tried hard, very hard to process that thought, but once again, her traitorous body took over her faculties and her eyelids fluttered closed as she succumbed to a deep slumber.

Several hours later Aluminaria woke up to find herself in a dark and strange room. A clear glass ceiling and the roof to the room was filled with stars and instead of a singular moon te same that she had become accustomed to, there were now two full globes glowing with ethereal light as they occupied opposite ends of the star studded night sky. The sight was so startling that as Aluminaria jumped out of bed with every intention of ascertaining this by staring out into the night sky through one of her windows, she failed to notice the lampstand standing at the foot of her bed and her foot tripped it, setting it falling and crashing down to the ground with such a racket that it shocked the living day lights out of her.

A knock sounded and the girl's shocked gaze turned into a horrified expression as her eyes moved to the door.

'Mi' lady you're awake!' said a round and jovial face as it peeked into the room to smile at Lumi.

'That word again?' Aluminaria complained as her face cringed distastefully at the words the little lady had used. For some reason that title did not sit well with her and no matter what she said or tried the woman kept on insisting on using it. It did not matter that it made her feel old, as old as that little lady who was now staring back at her looking stricken and worried by the frown that had just formed on her face. Ny'ulu, the lady who had greeted her and attended to her before was stubborn. She was also wearing that same plain grey dress that she had worn before matching it to the colour of her cloak which was not as long as Birit's, seeing as it had no train and was only knee high and sleeveless allowing for the short sleeves of her dress to peek out. On her chest was also an insignia, that same old emblem of a roaring lion within a blazing, but where Lumi had seen it in gold or yellow colour before, this woman's insignia was knitted in silver thread and not just the emblem, but also the bindings and the hemming that made up both her dress and the fabric of her cloak.

'Mi' lady?' Aluminaria voiced her concerns if only to wipe off the look of horror that had once again formed on the little lady's face. The woman had been nice to her and she felt that it was only fair for her to try and make it bearable for her.

'But it is your title?' the old lady protested speaking it like it was supposed to be obvious, like it was something that Lumi should have known and for that reason alone it bothered her a lot. 'oh, the lamp!' the old lady brightened up, the issue of the title forgotten as she moved to lift up the lamp, so happy to serve and acting like it was the only thing that she lived for. Creased but gentle hands lifted up the pole and the yellow lamp shade with a glittering crystal. She put them back together and as she did so, the crystal within the shade flickered to life, flooding the room with such a glow that it caused Lumi's eyes to squint under the sudden glare of the crystal's bright light.

'I bet you're hungry.' the old lady turned to tell her. 'I could take you to the dining room, but I am afraid you'll be all alone there. Would you rather have your food brought up to you?' she queried. Lumi was still full from the effects of the last meal, but she did not tell her that. Instead, she bopped her head back, nodding as the old lady smiled back . Her hand slipping into her cloak pocket and brought out a small tablet. It was a white slab the size of an average smart phone and as Aluminaria watched, the old lady Ny'ulu tapped the table's surface as she spoke into it.

'Bring out the tray now.' she said and as the words registered the screen that had once been a hazy white glowed a deep blue before cracking back with the voice of a woman.

'Yes ma'am' it said and at that, Lumi who had been generally curious about the tablet's functions came to the obvious conclusion that it was indeed a communication device, much akin to her own phone which she had lost in the flurry of activities that had preceded her abduction. Attentive not to embarrass herself, she decided to hold off on all her questions and instead, allowed her thoughts to flow free as she started guessing on what kind of meal she would be served next. The previous meal that had been served to her had provided her with an array of tastes, all so exotic and with so many rich flavors, most of them that tasted like nothing she had ever sampled before. However and despite the food being a little too different from what she was used to, she found that she loved it and was very appreciative of the way the cooking has been done and presented before her eyes.

'Tonight we are having a fish...' Lumi drowned out the rest of the words as she stared back at the very alive looking blowfish that had been brought in in a tray carried in by a young girl. It moved and she almost jumped out headed for the door at which the girl baring the tray smiled back, a look that almost resembled a suppressed laugh.

Lumi scowled back and the old lady, having seen her soured expression, followed her gaze and it landed on the girl who had just then gazed down as her body  shook with barely restrained mirth.

'I am so sorry mi'lady' the old woman started, 'Dishiko, despite being my granddaughter and sadly, my apprentice does not seem to remember her place!' she finished the last part with such an authoritative tone that the girl immediately sobered up as she looked back with a pair of doleful eyes. 

'It is okay. I just don't... ' Lumi's lips frowned as her eyes went back to the blow fish, '...don't like fish. ' she said smoothly, covering up the fact that that particular fish had just shocked her soundly. .

' Oh my! Whatever will we do now? What will you have? Head council man Birit will not be pleased to hear that you did not have your supper.'

'Of course... Fattening me up for the cooking,' she thought sourly looking down at what was once a pot belly, but had miraculously toned down with her arrival in that God forsaken place.

'Some milk and biscuits will suffice.' she replied, her thoughts turning as they began plotted her next step to another escape. She would save these proportions, she told herself and the biscuits, those would come in handy whenever she chose to escape.  Escape...the thought lingered in her brain even as worry began to seep in. Worry for her family and for what they must have thought of her. Did they think that she had ran away? Did they miss her? Had they already called the police? Lumi hoped that they had done that and that they were already combing through the forest searching for her in order to save her from these crazy cult people and whatever it was that they had in store for her. However and despite all these thoughts she was now having, that little fact of her sighting of the twin moons did not elude her. It continued to tug at her thoughts, at her mind and soon, she found herself thinking, doubting, questioning if she was in the same forest, that same forest that was next to her home and that spread up all the way up to the mountain.

'Another planet?' the outrageous thought assaulted her senses, sounding crazy but full of merit. It made sense in ways that she could not refute, forcing her to confront a reality that she was not yet ready to face.  'But really what planet I know of has two moons? Uranus?' She shook her head. 'And these people... what am I supposed to make of them?' she thought, eyeing the two women, Ny'ulu and Dishiko - the girl who was now moving, walking out of the room with that same tray still heavy on her hands.

'No! It's just a bad dream and I am going to wake up in the morning and find that everything is okay.' she told herself as she curled up once again, snuggling tight beneath the warmth of the white duvet. All she wanted was for the nightmare to end and she reasoned, if Ny'ulu was indeed a fabrication of her own weird imagination, then the woman in question would not actually care and it would not bother her if it looked like Lumi was ignoring her.