Leaving the Annex

Laying in bed, Dixie contemplated some more until a woman barged in without knocking. Rude! As expected!

A maid walked in holding a small bowl of water. She places it on the broken vanity table and glances around scornfully. She's surprised to see Felicia awake and staring directly at her. The little lady would usually be curled up in bed. Also, she never looks up at anyone. Her gaze is always on the floor.

How sad. Even though I am not Felicia, I still feel her instinctive desire to crawl into a hole.

"The Duke has summoned you to his office. Wash up quickly and go." Her lips twisted into a sneer. "Gosh, why don't you clean up your room every now and then? How can you just accept living in such filth? Are you truly a noble born lady? Tsk!"

Dixie's rolls her eyes. She's saying all this as if the responsibility of cleaning up my room isn't hers. What is the purpose of a personal maid?

The maid walks out and slams the door behind her. Her eyes widen when she sees Master Alexander walking towards her carrying a bag bursting with hot food.

She quickly bows. "What brings you here, Young Master?"

"I'm here to get my sister." Bonnie's tone is cold. She recognized this maid instantly. She was assigned to take care of Felicia but her loyalty was towards Tyren. Hence, she locked the door each time she left and only served Felicia bread and water.

"I already informed the first miss of His Grace's order." The woman replied.

"Good. Leave now because I need to have a private conversation with Dix--Felicia before I escort her to my father's office."

The maid is baffled. Since when did Master Alexander engage with the first miss? He avoided her completely and only doted on Lady Helena. Everyone in the family did. Knowing it was not her place to question, she bowed again and ran off with this juicy bit of gossip.

Bonnie walks in and closes the door behind her. Or maybe she should have left it open because it smells like mothballs. Dixie glances at her and smiles instantly.

"Hey, girl! So you brought me something to eat?" Her eyes glance at the black bag.

"I sure did. I just assumed Felicia would be hungry." She places the bag next to her and sits down on the bed.

"I'm starved, not simply hungry." Dixie pulls out a water flask and gulps down half of its contents, some spilling down her chin.

Bonnie doesn't speak as she watches Dixie wolf down her meal. Her heart aches to see the sorry state of Felicia. This room, this bed, her clothes, her hallowed cheeks and tiny frame, it's simply too much. Nobody should have to live like this. No one should ever go hungry.

Especially not a woman born into such a wealthy family!

A shudder passes through Dixie as Felicia's body is unaccustomed to eating so much good food. She's been living on bread and water for years. She swallows without properly chewing and collapses on the bed as her chest aches from it. 

"You're not supposed to eat that fast, especially since you've been starving. You have to slowly ease your body back into or it will overwhelm you." Bonnie cautions.

"I couldn't help myself." Dixie presses her hand on her chest and takes long, deep breaths to manage the pain.

Bonnie gently stokes her hair. She frowns. It's too thin. No need to guess why. Even the color appears dull. More like faded red, than actual red.

"Bonnie, have you already eaten?"

"Obviously. Alexander isn't the one facing food insecurity, remember?" She replies with a wink.

"So you have all of Alexander's memories?"

"For the most part, yes. There is a great deal about their lives that was left out of the book."

"According to the Goddess, we have to find the answers together. There are clues left behind for us." Dixie explained.

"I guess our dreams are pretty much synchronized." Bonnie noted.

"How long has Felicia been trapped here?" Dixie asked.

"Well, judging off of Alex's memories about 4 years."

Dixie quickly did the math. "That means Felicia is 19 years old right now. Alex is 21 and Helena is 18. We're on chapter 15 of the book. This is the part where Felicia gets engaged to that tongue happy Clown Prince. It's the catalyst that leads to her doom, as Helena is encouraged to amp up her antics."

Bonnie's lips twitched in response to Dixie's reference to all those moments in the book when Felicia walked in on the Crown Prince french-kissing Helena. She had the poor fool wrapped around her finger. Felicia never really had a shot in winning his favor. Helena had already poisoned his mind against her.

But this time would be different. At this current moment, Constantine doesn't even know Felicia. They will soon meet and hopefully she can successfully not earn his ire. Although, the bad rumors about Felicia are rampant. Courtesy of Tyren. Does he believe them? I guess we'll find out.

Draining the rest of the water from the flask, Dixie walks back to her vanity table and eyes her musty appearance disdainfully. She needs a hot shower ASAP. The water the maid brought her is barely enough to wash her face and not only that, it appears a bit murky! That bitch actually gave me unclean water to wash with? The nerve! These people are far too comfortable disrespecting the Duke's daughter. One of their masters. 

I'll have to correct this as soon as possible. I have to reestablish Felicia's place as a true Del Montague.

Reluctantly using some of the murky water to rub the sleep out of her eyes, she realizes she doesn't have a toothbrush or toothpaste. Why didn't the maid give me any? What do people even use in this era to clean their teeth?

"Bonnie, do people use toothbrushes in this century?"

"They sure do, but it's not called a toothbrush. It's called a miswak. And its shaped slightly differently, you can only really use it on one tooth at a time. Also, the toothpaste isn't meant to be rinsed out. It's a weird crunchy herb mixture which you just swallow. It's more of breath mint."

"I'll have my own personal supply once I get a proper room back in the manor." Dixie asserted.

Bonnie nodded her head. "Yup. Now let's go meet that asshole you have for a father, oh and me too, I guess...you know, the way Duke Roelle treats Felicia is not so dissimilar from how our own father has become.

"Yeah. We got a rotten step-mother too. Thankfully, we didn't also get a brat like Helena." Dixie replied.

"The parallels must be the reason why we were brought here. Goddess Kartara chose us for a reason. I know you don't believe in mysticism the way I do, Dixie, but I think that book may have been a portal in disguise. I think the infinity symbol acted as some kind of gateway into another world. This is all very real. We're not dreaming right now. But we were dreaming when we heard the Goddess's voice and when we had that vision of Felicia's near execution. Those were both warnings of what may come to pass."

Dixie smiled. "You sound a college professor giving a lecture right now. As crazy as all that sounds it makes sense in these crazy set of circumstances."

"We got a job to do!" Bonnie declared. "We're here to defeat a Demon Lord and save humanity."

"Simple." Dixie responded with a shrug. "Now we really must go before the Duke grows impatient."

The ladies chuckle and proceed to walk out. Even amidst the confusion and anxiety, the sisters find security in each other. As always.

Bonnie wraps an arm around Dixie's shoulders and leads her out into the sunlight.