Molly II

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She wakes surrounded by pure comfort, like she has slept an eternity under a spell, she wakes with no sleep muddling her movements and with a clear mind. He opens her eyes, expecting her ceiling and instead finds the dark canopy of a bed. A king sized bed, with dark blue velvety covers, wooden posts and gauzy light blue curtains.

So, not a dream.

Great.

Molly rolls over and gets up, she is still wearing her clothes, but her shoes and socks had been taken off. She blinks and scratches at her eyes.

The room is beautiful, elegant bluish wallpaper and dark carpets that look handmade, it has a small armchair and coffee table situated right in front of a freaking fireplace. But is pretty dark, only a dim light coming from a candle at the bedside table and on the shelf atop the unlit fireplace.

Where was she? The strange world with the demon people? She had thought it all a dream, even after that weird event and fainting, she had expected to wake up in her bed but instead she had woken in another bed and by the looks of the room, she had not woken up at all.

She walks around, testing the armchair and looking out of one of the windows in the room. It's still night, the full moon shining in the night sky. Did she sleep for a whole day? It's that why she feels so rested? A knock on the door wakes her up from the daydream.

"My lady" says a voice from the other side "Are you awake?"

"Errrr" mumbles Molly confused before realizing whoever is outside it talking to her "Yeah!"

A middle aged woman with pale skin and dark yellow hair enters the room, wearing what looks like an old-timey maid outfit.

"My name is Lassite, my lady" she says bowing at the waist "Lady Jeza asked me to serve you some food when you awoke. Lady Cira waits for you at the dining room"

Molly doesn't know who the maid, Lassite, is talking about, but her stomach is calling for some food.

"Yes, that's probably for the best" mumbles Molly, not sure in how to address the maid.

"Follow me then, Lady Enuma" says the maid bowing again.

Enuma…that again. Blue haired lady had called her that also, right before Molly passed out.

"It's just Molly, actually" she adds as the maid leaves and Molly hurries to follow

"Nonsense, Lady Enuma. Lady Jeza herself named you according to tradition" says the maid, smiling slightly.

"Okay" answers Molly, letting the 'o' hang for a few seconds, with a befuddled expression.

The rest of the house is as grand as her room, all following a color scheme of dark blue and the wallpaper decorated with small golden fishes and artistic representations of the flow of water. They walk down a spiral staircase and reach the lower floor, where more maids and butlers walk around, carrying plates of food, cleaning furniture and lighting candles everywhere. The house is elegant but slightly cramped, smaller than Molly had expected when the maid had appeared.

It doesn't take long after that to reach the dining room where two people seat at the long table. A man with dark skin and dark blue hair, reading a newspaper and taking slow sips of a cup, and a girl that couldn't be older than twelve, as dark skinned as the man and the lady, with her blue hair brushed into Ghana braids and collected in twin buns at the top of her head.

"Hi!" Exclaims the girl when she sees Molly standing at the door to the dining room. She jumps from her seat, pastel yellow dress fluttering as she skips towards Molly, taking her hand and smiling widely.

"Hi" says Molly shyly. The little girl is filled with energy and it enough to make Molly feel tired just by looking at her.

"I'm Cira! Your new aunt" she says and then points at the man that hasn't bothered to look away from the newspaper "That is your grandfather, his name is Knoll, but just call him grandpa!"

The man grunts and turns a page, not acknowledging either of them.

"Mama is not home, she went to the market to buy you clothes! And Jeza is working" continues Cira as she leads Molly towards the table "I invited friends for you to meet, Enma was super excited when she heard and she said she would bring more nomads"

Molly nods as a reflex as she takes a seat and Cira sits next to her, dragging her own chair to be as close as possible. The table is filled with delicious smelling plates of mysterious looking food.

"I asked Leor to cook a small portion of every traditional dish so you can taste everything!" She says and then whispers conspiratorially "Leor is our chef"

"Errr, good to know!" Chuckles Molly awkwardly and then looks at all the plates "I'm not sure of what to pick"

Cira gasp in delight and starts rambling about her own favorite dish—something called jouro pie—and Molly's mind wanders slightly.

She is so confused. What time is it? What does the girl mean with aunt? Was Molly unwillingly adopted? Was that even possible? This girl seems to think so.

"What do think, Enuma? What do you want to taste first?" Asks Cira suddenly, bringing back Molly to the world of the living

"That one you said you like best, I suppose" says Molly "I'm pretty hungry, so I think I'll be able to taste everything, but if you like that one, it should be okay to start with that dish"

Even with the black demonic eyes, Molly is able to decipher the unbridled joy in Cira's eyes. She basically launches herself on the table to bring one of the furthers plates forward, one containing a nice looking small pie that could be easily devoured in two bites.

"Err, jouro pie, right?" Asks Molly as she, thankfully, picks the only fork and knife available

"Yes!" Nods Cira, she shifts in place, like she can't be still.

"What's a jouro, anyway? It's the name of the person that invented it?" Asks Molly conversationally as she cuts the pie in half, the pastry flaky and golden, the smell enough to make Molly's stomach growl again, the inside was a mix of what looked like pale stringy meat and vegetables.

"No silly! Jouro is the animal" corrects Cira with a giggle as Molly eats a piece of the pie. It's nice, the flavor full of spice and a lingering sweetness at the end that makes Molly hum. It's nice and warm, and Molly takes another piece to her mouth without even realizing. Molly wonders if a jouro is some kind of fish or shrimp, because the flavor of the meat of the pie reminds her of it, but much juicier and closer in flavor to chicken than any seafood she had ever tasted.

It doesn't take long to finish the small pie and Molly has not yet satiated her hunger, she looks at the rest of plates looking for her next dish.

"What else would you recommend?" Asks Molly to Cira, that smiles and points to what looks like a pink fillet of fish with a side of broiled purple potatoes.

"That's is called Shawl" Points Cira, her finger almost touching the fillet.

Molly cuts it in half, picking a piece of fish with some of the weird potatoes, the fish still red in the middle and the potatoes spiced with some sort of dark blue herb that reminds Molly of rosemary, but spicy.

The fish reminds Molly of salmon, the flavor almost exact, but there's something integral to it that is just alien to her, like the meat from the pie. Molly side eyes Cira and finds her smiling and munching on one of the dice shaped potatoes. She smiles back, it's nice, this feast—breakfast, lunch, dinner?—of new foods.

"Can I have something to drink?" Asks Molly and then corrects herself "May I have something to drink?"

"I almost forgot!" Yells Cira with wide eyes and scrambles out of her chair, disappearing behind a smaller door on a side of the room.

Before she can return, the maid—Latisse? Lassite?—appears at the doors of the dining room and bows.

"Lord Knoll" she says and the man in question grunts "Lady Cira's guests have arrived"

"Let them in" grumbles the man and Molly blinks at him. Was that…was that the first time the man had spoken since Molly arrived?

The maid bows again and leaves, just in time, as Cira kicks open the smaller door to the side and enters the room carrying a tray with a teapot and two teacups.

"I brought Thebana!" She exclaims excitedly as she drops the tray on a free space on the table "It's tea"

Molly wrinkles her nose. She is not a tea person, tasting a lot like flavored hot water to her most of the time, but she'll give it a try.

"Your friend is here, Cira" says Knoll as he turns another newspaper page

He says that just in time, as a little girl enters the room accompanied by two adults.

And the three of them look…normal?

No demonic black eyes or strange hair colors!

"You giving her Thebana" huffs the woman with bright blue eyes, pale with straw colored blonde hair, she's tall and muscular, face scarred in some places, hair shoulder length that looks wild and cut haphazardly. "You should offer her some Karmot!"

She barks a loud laugh while the man at her side glares at her over his glasses. He is shorter than her by a head, and his brown hair is kept in a short ponytail, eyes dark and skin slightly tanned. While the woman dresses in a loose shirt and breeches, the man wears fancy looking clothes.

The little girl of the trio wrinkles her nose adorably, she is of asian descent, with long straight black hair and dark eyes, wearing what looks like a soft pink kimono.

"Enma!" Shrills Cira as she launches herself towards the little girl

Both girls hugged and jumped as they spun in place.

While that took place, the man and woman approached the table towards Molly.

Oh no. People.

Molly sits up straight and swallows nervously. The woman is smirking wildly and the man merely frowning. The woman takes the seat Cira had been previously occupying and immediately takes what looks like a blueberry the size of a strawberry from a nearby bowl and plops it in her mouth. The man, meanwhile, leans against the table on her other side of Molly, farther away, but still close enough to be in the conversation.

"So" starts the woman, mouth still full and showing to Molly that the weird blueberry was red in the inside "I'm Dagma, just Dag to other nomads, and that grump over there is Alma"

"Do please shut your mouth Dag, I don't want to see you eat" growls the man, Alma

Dag proceeds to stick her tongue to him, showing the bright red remains of the fruit and making Molly recoil slightly as much as she could in her chair.

"I'm Molly"

That introduction causes Dag to huff a short laugh.

"Not for long you are" she says as she watches the rest of the food looking for something else to eat.

"What do you mean?" Asks Molly with a frown "Is this related to what the maid said, about naming me after tradition or something?"

"Yes and no" answers Alma with a frown as he pushes his glasses up his nose.

"It's been less than a day" interrupts Dag "But soon enough, your memory will start to get fuzzy about your life outside"

"What?" Asks Molly confused, her memory? Outside? What were they talking about?

"I wish Nima could have come" grumbles Alma "He's better at explaining"

"Shut it Al, I got it, we don't need the nerd for this" growls Dag to Alma and then turns to Molly "You've been infected by this city and soon every memory you have of the outside, including your name, will disappear"

"That, makes no sense" frowns Molly. Infected? Was it linked to that weird ritual with the power rangers plague doctors? With the raw meat and the such?

"You think I liked forgetting my own name, girl?" Asks Dag with a growl and narrowed eyes, leaning closer to Molly's face, that leans backwards in fear "I can't remember my family, not even their voices, I can't remember my home, I can only exist here"

"Don't scare her, Dagma" orders Alma in an angry tone "You're going to make it worse"

"What asha did you get?" suddenly interrupts a young voice under Dag.

It was the little girl, Enma, appearing from the small space between Molly and Dag's chairs, face curious and innocent. Cira had moved to sit in the seat in front of Molly instead, and had hijacked one of the fruit bowls, this one having some mango-shaped fruits that had golden brown skin.

"Asha?" Asks Molly with a raised eyebrow "What is that?"

Enma doesn't really answer, but a small hand presents itself, lying palm up on the table. And then, the impossible happens; what looks like lightning dances around Enma's fingers.

Like when Molly had been captured with ice.

"I got lightning" says Enma, taking her hand back "What did you get?"

"She doesn't get anything yet, Enma" says Alma, his voice gentle "It's only been half a day, she needs more time"

"What's a day?" Asks Enma and Molly blinks

What?

"Ignore her" says Dag rolling her eyes "She was too young when she got here, she can't remember what a day is like. But ignore that, check this out"

How can she ignore it? But then, Dag raises her hand and clenches her fist for a second, and when she opens it again, a blue gem drops.

"That" says Dag picking the gem and raising it so that the dim lights of the dining room go through the gem "Is a sapphire"

"Bullshit" says Molly immediately with wide eyes. Her mind completely forgetting about what Enma had said.

Alma harrumphs and puts his hand in front of Molly's face without even looking. And there, right in front of her eyes, a white daisy blooms directly out of his skin in the palm of his hand.

She doesn't blink. Is this like a magic trick or something? But how can it be, when she just saw a flower grow from Alma's skin.

Cira, not wanting be left out of whatever was causing Molly to freak out, pointed at Molly with half her body on top of the table, and drew a circle in the air with her index finger. At first, nothing happened, but then, water somehow drifted from Cira's skin and floated in the air in the shape of a ring, like water in cero gravity.

"Amazing" whispers Molly, eyes fixated on the floating water ring. With a wide and proud smile, Cira clenched her fist suddenly and the water ring solidified into ice and dropped to the table.

This is real, thinks Molly as she stares at the ice ring, this is really happening.

"You should visit Nima" says Enma as she makes grabby hands at Alma "He said he wanted to talk to you"

"Nima?" Repeats Molly, was it another…what had they called it? Nomad?

"You have met him" says Alma, giving Enma his daisy as the little girl cheers "He is the red doctor"

Oh! The one that gave her raw meat, remembers Molly, and immediately shivers with the memory.

"He is super smart" whispers Enma to her "You should go see him as soon as you can"

Enma stares directly at her as she says this and Molly is slightly creeped out by the direct stare she is receiving.

"Yeah, you cannot miss his house; south and outside the walls, the house that looks like it could fall at any moment right in the middle of the cemetery" adds Dag with a smirk "I've heard it has the best views in the city"

And then she barks another loud laugh that makes Alma flinch and glare at her in distaste.

It would be nice, thinks Molly, to meet someone that could explain whatever was going on, even if they had fed her raw meat.