Olivia Carter

"Did you also travel back in time Olivia Carter? " His question rang in her ears.

"... I... see. I get how it looks that way," she hesitated, slowly enunciating every word.

He knew her name. He called her name. Her. Name. Not Oliva Praxis. Olivia Carter. She knew there had been so many changes from the original novel that her head spun. However, Olivia Carter had not expected for Adarian to have been reincarnated.

He was the reason that the diary had changed. He was the reason that she was currently here in the castle.

Olivia decided it was now or never, she had to tell him who she really was.

"I'm... Not... exactly Olivia Praxis," Olivia said hesitantly. She was also trying consciously not to stutter. She didn't want him to think she was lying about her own story, since he had already associated that with lying. "My story is... quite different. It's weird."

"Is it as weird as my story?" He asked, really curious. Who else, but someone who had reincarnated, would believe it?

"Yeah... I would say it's definitely, probably weirder than your story." Her speech pattern changed. She stopped speaking properly. She was not going to hold back. She could not speak about this in a proper manner if she wanted to. She had so many feelings welling up inside her, but the biggest feeling was just to get her story out there in the open. If just one person could know about it, then she could feel like her existence here was not a lie.

She began to pace as she spoke, "I mean, I'm not even from this planet. Well, not that I'm an alien. Oh! Maybe I am an alien. I'm not sure how this works." She stopped and looked him in the eye, "I mean, you guys have aliens here right? Somebody here has to believe in them. I mean... maybe... right?"

Olivia's words came out in a flurry, not stopping for breath at all. Adarian barely understood any of it. But he saw that she was definitely ready. To tell him her story.

"Just start where you feel comfortable," he encouraged.

"Ok," she relented. "You can ask questions, but if we get off

track or go off on a wild tangent then I won't be able finish my story, so... please keep your questions limited. Ok?"

"He nodded in agreement, not willing to break her thread of thought."

"My name is Olivia Carter. Due to horrible reasons in my childhood, I grew up to be sickly," She began. She had glossed over her childhood trauma with just this one sentence. Then she noticed Adarian's questioning look as he eyed her body. She did not look like she had grown up unhealthy at all.

"I'll get there," She said to him. "I did say that I'm not from this planet, and I meant it. I'm from a different planet. I can't even tell you how far away it is, or if it's even in this universe." Then she said to herself, "That's a thought, the multiverse." She waved the thought away physically with her hand, and told him. "Ignore me I'm a nerd." He didn't know what a nerd was.

"Anyway," she began again, "I spent a lot of time in the hospital. You have hospitals here right? If you don't you should make some. My world is pretty futuristic." She then realized if she tried to explain everything to him, it would take forever explaining all the foreign things about her world would take a lifetime.

"Well let me just get to the main point," She finally said. "I read a novel; that hasn't been completed yet; called Graciella's dark days. In this story, Graciella is the hero. And you are her main love interest." She looked at him seeing his face grimace. She nodded in understanding. She wouldn't want to be Graciella's love interest either.

"In that version of the story Olivia Praxis," she pointed to herself, "was the villain who always tried to harm Graciella. I had read up to the part where Lady Fredericka Lowenheim was going crazy. It was described differently from the actual events that happened to you." She had watched his reaction to her simplified version of her story so far, and determined she should state the novel she read was different from actual events. After all she was a far cry from the villainess portrayed in the story.

"Due to my sickly nature, I think I passed out in the Kitchen. Then the next thing I knew, I woke up here. In this world. In the healthy body of Olivia Praxis. I have had to use Olivia Praxis's Diary to help me learn more about this place. That's how I learned Graciella is dangerous. Then the Diary suddenly changed. There's a coffee stain in it now, and it talked about future events that haven't happened yet. Including my marriage to Oscar. I didn't want to live like that again, so I decided it would be best to go to the convent that had been mentioned once in the novel. Suffice it to say, religion was not really mentioned very often in this novel. So I don't know much about the gods you guys have. And I didn't even begin to think there was a god of punishment." She smiled ruefully at this. The Marquis most definitely didn't care about her well being at all. He was sending her to be punished. She didn't even want to think of what that could entail.

"I see," he said. "So you know nothing about the world at all?"

"I know a few things," Olivia defended.

Adarian looked at this girl thrust into a world she doesn't understand, and saw how strong she was being. He was glad he had made the decision to use the nuptial cups with her. Then Olivia looked at the glowing area down the hall. "I don't remember this place from the novel."

"I never brought Graciella here," He explained. "Or my first wife."

Olivia looked at him scrutinizing his face, "Then why did you bring me?"

"The nuptial cups can only be used once." He looked at her. "I used my once on you."

"Why!?" She asked. She realized this man truly meant it when he said they were married.

"I read the Diary of Olivia Praxis," He said, differentiating one Olivia from the other. "I know my part in her suffering, I had wanted to make it up to her. I wanted her to have a real marriage, instead of being with that controllable cousin of mine."

"But..." Olivia looked at him sad for a moment. "I'm not her."

"I know," He said. "But you are still the wife I married. It seems I can never make it up to her. But I can help you live in this world. If I were to let you go off somewhere without you knowing anything, wouldn't you just die right away? Stay with me until you learn enough."

Olivia rolled her eyes at him, but she couldn't refute. She really did know nothing of this world.

"Let's go get some food," Adarian said. As he took her hand to climb the dark stairs.

"Yes, your majesty," she replied in an automatic response. She had been training herself to think about him as 'your majesty' instead of 'Adarian' because the original Olivia's panic every time she said 'Adarian.'

"What did you call me?" he stopped on the dark stairway. "I thought we were friends now."

"Adarian," Olivia corrected, guiltily. They continued up the stairs.

"Again," he said.

"Adarian"

"Again"

"Adarian"

"Again"

Olivia pulled on his hand to get his attention, "How many times are you going to make me say it!?"

"As many times as it takes for you to say it naturally," he explained as they reached the dark door. "Now, again."

"Adarian," Olivia said as she purposefully stomped on his foot on her way past him. She had grown really brave as no longer feared him.

It hadn't hurt much at all. His boots were really thick. He smiled. She was so feisty.

He stopped her by the door. "Again," he said.

He pushed the door open right as she said "Adarian."

It was at this moment that she remembered where she was. There were two guards, and a maid who had just heard her utter the king's name without any honorifics at all.

She could probably be put in jail for this!? What was he thinking!? She turned to glare at him. He was looking directly at her with a proud smile. Now it was exposed to the staff that they had a good relationship.

Her stomach grumbled right at that moment. She blushed and hid her face. They had been in there forever! She had fallen asleep on his lap, so she was sure her hair was probably out of place. It must look indecent to all of them!

Adarian leaned over and whispered in her ear, causing it to turn a brighter shade of red, "What are you thinking Olivia Carter?"

"She whispered back not realizing it made the atmosphere more ambiguous. "We spent so long in there! We didn't have a chaperone! What must they think of me?"

Adrian smiled and whispered back. "It's only been five minutes, time doesn't flow in this room the same way."