2 Chapter 1

The sound of a dish falling to the floor woke up Aya. She stirred, wanting to savor the softness of her bed. Then she sat upright. Bed? She looked down at the blue blanket that covered her. This wasn't the forest she was in last night. Aya's mind flooded with questions. Where was she? Where was the bag? How did she get here? And what was that smell? Her train of thought was interrupted by the smell of food. Her eyes grew wide. There was someone in this house. And whatever they were making smelt wonderful. Aya threw her blanket and got out of her bed. A sharp pain seared through her right leg. That right, she got shot last night. Looking down, she noticed that she was wearing a white night gown and her leg was wrapped with bandages.

Aya looked around the room and saw that her bag hanging from a wooden chair sitting next to her bed. She grabbed it and pulled it open. Aya sighed. It was still in there. Aya slung the bag over her shoulder and headed towards the door. Opening it, she entered a hallway leading to several different dark, wooden doors. Her nose led her through the long red hallway. After turning to the left, Aya was greeted by the start of a set of long, winding staircases leading down to the main entrance hall. Aya stared down the flight of stairs, wondering if she can make it down in this condition. She gripped the polished railings tightly and slowly walked down step by step. She needed answers, along side some breakfast, if possible.

After following the scent of meat, Aya discovered a very large and very shiny kitchen. There, in the middle of the kitchen, was a young looking maid. She was on her knees sweeping up a plate that was in several large chunks. She stood up and with a small sigh, threw the plate into the trash. Her appearance was a small, dainty one. Her long, blond hair was tied up into a tight braid that rested on her shoulder. Her knee-length black dress complete with white apron was stained with what appeared to be various types of food. Her tan flats looked like a child would wear them. After getting up from the floor, she jotted something down into a small notebook, then placed it into her apron pocket.

Aya slowly stepped onto the kitchen floor, not wanting to draw the maid away from her work. "Excuse me..." she began, only to notice that the maid was now staring deeply into the oven. She didn't seemed to be noticing Aya, or anything else for that matter. Aya took another step towards the young woman. All of a sudden, the maid tilted her head up and turned to Aya. For a second, she thought that the maid's eyes were a golden honey color, but studying them gave her eyes that were a sapphire blue. Those eyes grew wide as she saw that she wasn't alone. She shot up, a slight red appearing in her cheeks.

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed. "I'm so sorry! I really hope I scared you!" "Not really. You're alright." Aya said. She looked to her right to see the source of the smell: an oven. "What are you cooking?" she asked. "Oh! That!" The maid skittered to the oven, opening it and releasing a powerful waft of odors. Oh how they smelled heavenly to the starving girl. The maid smiled. "Would you like some?" she asked as she set down a tray of glistening bacon. "I was going to use them for my breakfast, but I don't mind sharing some." A growling stomach answered the maid's question. Giving a rather sheepish look, Aya took a slice and began to eat it. "It's dewishes!" Aya said through a mouthful of meat. The maid giggled. "I'm glad you enjoyed it."

The maid put some slices of bacon onto a plate, along side some toast and sausage she apparently made beforehand. She grabbed the plate of food and wandered towards an empty doorway leading to a dining area. "By the way, I don't believe I haven't properly introduced myself." she said. She laid the food down onto the table, then gave Aya her hand. "My name is Beatrice. I hope I can be of service to you!" Aya raised her hand, hesitating. Beatrice pulled her hand. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-" "It's not you." Aya interrupted. Beatrice nodded. The two women sat down opposite of each other in quaint, wooden chairs. Beatrice began eating her breakfast while Aya began her pile of bacon she grabbed for herself.

"Well I'm delighted that you're here! We don't typically get visitors around here." Beatrice explained. "It's usually me and the master." "Your master?" Beatrice nodded. "Well, I guess she's actually my mistress, but..." she waved her hand. "That's not really important. I just want to let you know what kind of person she is." "And what kind of person is this mistress of yours?" Aya asked. Beatrice paused for a moment. "She's no person like you ever met. She's very... oh how should I put it? "Strange?" No, no. More like "eccentric". "Outlandish", even." She said, waving her fork in the air. "Do you think she could help me with with something?" Aya asked. "Depends. What do you need from her?"

"Well, the thing is, those men weren't exactly after me. They were after my bag." Beatrice looked at the bag draped across Aya's chair. "I take it something's important in there?" she asked. Aya nodded. "I'm not sure how much to tell you, but I need to take something very important to a friend of my father's." She explained. "And if your mistress is as unique as you say she is, perhaps I could ask her to help me on my journey. I mean, she doesn't have to join me or anything, but any help is better than no help, I guess." She explained, chewing on her bacon. "I can certainly ask her. Although at the moment, she's not available right now."

"Although, what's really important is that we get that leg fixed." she said, pointing to said injured leg. She got up from her chair and took Aya's hand. "Come! I'll make it good as new!" Aya raised an eyebrow, but before she could say anything, she was already being forced out of the dining room and throughout the mansion. After passing by the main entrance and through a series of hallways, Beatrice finally stopped a door with a white sign labeled "Medicine Room". "If you would like to sit over in that chair over there, that would be great, thank you." Beatrice pointed to a white chair sitting next to a medium size stained glass window.

Aya did as she was told while Beatrice rummaged through several different cabinets. Bottles and jars with unknown substances clinked and clanked against each other each other. "Aha!" Beatrice exclaimed, pulling out a large jar of something sticky and something green. "Uh, what is that?" Aya asked, starting to get worried about her safety. "Oh don't worry, this won't hurt at all!" Beatrice said with a chipper attitude. Beatrice took Aya's leg and unwrapped the bandages. There was two small holes upon the front and back of Aya's leg. She winced. "Oh my, this look bad." Beatrice commented.

She opened the jar. A strong scent of something rotten came out of said jar. Beatrice took some of the gel with a cloth and rubbed it on Aya's wound. Aya's skin began to burn. She clenched her hands into fists, trying to ignore the stinging feeling on her leg. "Are you a witch?" Aya asked. Beatrice shook her head. "I'm not a witch, but I like studying magic in my spare time." she explained. "It gives me something to do when I'm not cleaning the house. I guess you think of it as sort of a hobby." After a moment of silence, Aya asked "So who IS your master?" Beatrice stopped tending her leg and looked up.

"My mistress is ever so wonderful." she began. "She used to be involved with trading food with other nations, but now she lives her days with me." Beatrice sighed blissfully. "She was the only one that thought I wasn't... bizarre." "Pardon me if I sound rude, but how are you any way bizarre?" Beatrice smiled. "Oh, you'd be surprised." Aya snickered. "You sure like being vague, don't you?" Beatrice placed more goo onto the wound instead of answering her question. After a few minutes, Beatrice wiped Aya's leg with a hand towel.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Beatrice asked. Aya's eyes grew wide. Her once injured leg was good as new! The place where an arrow wound should be was now a regular patch of tan skin. "Amazing!" Aya looked up and smiled. "I really should thank you. You've done so much for me." Beatrice looked down towards the floor sheepishly. "It's nothing, really... it was only the right thing to do, you know?" "I guess," Aya said as she grabbed her bag off the floor. "I guess you could've just left me out there to die." "Why would I do that? You're too important to die!" What on earth did that mean?

"Say, what's so important in that bag of yours?" Beatrice asked. Aya turned towards her bag. She thought about showing the contents of said bag, but at the same time, she still didn't quite trust everything this maid had to offer. She felt that there were some details being rightfully kept hidden, especially from a stranger like her. "It's a long story." She said. Beatrice nodded understandably. With her new found strength in her leg, Aya got up and returned to her room. After washing herself in the bathroom next door, Aya flopped down on the bed and sighed. Beatrice came into the room a moment later with a pile of clothing in her hands.

"Now, I'm not sure what type of outfits you usually wear, but I have these clothes my mistress used to wear back in the day." She said, laying the clothes down onto the bed. "Thank you, Beatrice." Aya said. Beatrice smiled. "I take it that you would like some privacy now?" Aya nodded. Beatrice folded her hands across her front and walked towards the door. "Let me know if you need anything, miss." She said, shutting the door.

Aya took off her nightgown. She clutched the dress within her hands. She could still feel them. Aya took her hand and slowly reached towards her back. She winced. The scars were still there. They will always be there. She took the clothes that were laid upon the bed. There was a white, long sleeved shirt, a pair of brown slacks and a dark green waistcoat with silver buttons. She put the outfit on with great ease. The dark green of the waistcoat was a great contrast to Aya's silver hair.

"So the misses is away at the moment, huh?" Aya muttered to no one in particular. "Guess I'll have to find something to do in the meantime." She stepped out of her room and into the hall. She walked past empty room after empty room. There was one door, however that caught her eye. They were smooth, black, rounded doors with gold round handles. To Aya's surprise, the door creaked open by a simple push. Peaking her head behind the door, Aya discovered that she had entered a massive library. The left and right walls contained shelfs upon shelfs of books of all different sizes and colors. In front of the doors was a long wooden table with a couple of chairs of the same material. Two red, satin arm chairs were positioned next to a stained glass window depicting a knight standing triumphantly over a decapitated dragon. Dust particles danced in front of the multicolored light shining down onto the floor.

Aya stared in wonder. She had never seen a library this massive before. She walked in and scoured through the walls of books. She stopped at a rather large brown book. In gold lettering were the words "A Tome of Magical Entities". With both hands, Aya grabbed the book off the shell and sat down in one of the dusty chairs, She laid her satchel carefully upon the table. Slowly, the girl lifted the contents of the bag and took it out. She stared at the treasure she possessed: a large, brown, cracked egg. "Perhaps I can finally figure out what you are." Aya said to the egg. She opened the book of magical creatures and started to absorb its contents. However, after pouring countless hours into reading about fairies, selkies and everything in between, Aya still had no idea what this mysterious egg was.

All of a sudden, a knock came from the door. "Miss Aya, would you like to come meet the mistress? I believe she'll be waking up soon." Aya looked up at the grandfather clock. The hands read 6:38. Was it really that late? "Does your mistress get up during the night?" She asked. "Yes. She had a very long day and she was sleeping up until a few minutes ago." Beatrice said. Aya closed the tome of creatures. "Hey, how did you know where I was?" Aya asked. Beatrice turned her back and walked towards the door. "I... had a feeling you were in here." She murmured. And just like that, the maid disappeared into the winding halls. "I will never understand that girl." Aya muttered to herself as she put the egg back into her bag.

The once bright mansion was now basking in the glow of the moon. Aya came into the main entrance hall. She could hear two different voices coming from upstairs. After a minute, Beatrice came from the right side of the mansion. "Miss Aya, thank you so much for waiting. The mistress is ready to see you now." Aya turned up towards the upper floor. There, on the top of the stairs, stood a young, thin figure, decked in a red jacket with yellow trim, black pants and black boots. Their black hair was cut short and their skin was ghastly pale. And yet, the feature that caught Aya by surprise were the dazalingly red eyes. "Aya," Beatrice said, turning to the figure. "this is my mistress, Emilia Thorne."