Chapter 18 ∞ Domain

I took a bit of time to help my adoptive mother with preparing lunch. She seemed surprised to see me in the kitchen considering last night's fiasco, but I was not the type to bear grudges against people who only had my welfare in their mind. I already had the entire night to myself sulking, so I decided I would smoothen things out with the mistresses before I headed out with Mistress Veronika.

"Evy," my adoptive mother began. "I thought you already left with Veronika?"

"I thought I'd stay to eat lunch first," I said. "What are we having?"

"Oh, um…" She looked around, flustered. It took her a while to remember where she left off. "Well, we'll be having sweet fish today."

"I'll help you it, then," I told her. I ducked under the counter to take out the pots. I was careful, considering they were made from clay. Earthenware cooking was still widely spread in this city due to the beliefs of the locals about the 'flavor.' In fact, they were also particular with what kind of soil they made the pots with because it affected the taste. I took out the black clay pots for the fish because, personally, I liked how it ended up with a smokey tang.

Of course, they also employed metal for the pans, but those were for particular cuisines that were often of foreign origins.

My mother was cutting up the vegetables and I had dragged the pots over to the faucet to wash them. I was glad this world had the concept of plumbing, otherwise I'd be suffering a lot right now. As the water ran, I noticed my mother had paused from her knifing and looked over to me.

"Evy," she began. "Dear, I hope you are not too upset with me."

"It's fine, mama," I said without looking up to meet her in the eye. "I understand why you do this. You don't need to tell me why. If you're keeping it from me, I'm sure you have the reason to. I won't force you to tell me anything," I told her, lifting my gaze.

"No, dear, you're right," she whispered. I watched her lips move. If I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have made it out properly. "There are many things I haven't been telling you. Most of them I keep to protect myself more than to protect you," she told me. "There are many things I wish to tell you but I'm just not ready to have you hear them."

I sighed softly. I loved this woman as much as I would have loved my biological mother and it was hard to stay angry with her considering all the affection and care she'd given me for the past twelve years. I knew we weren't really related by blood but that fact had been very negligible.

I didn't know what to tell her at that point so I stayed quiet and continued my work. My mother did the same and we proceeded to finish preparing lunch. It took close to an hour and I was quite exhausted afterwards, but I felt fulfilled with the job done. Mistress Liane came in to help set up and finalize the preparations.

Meanwhile, I took a serving and headed to the lobby where we were housing our 'guest' who, until now, I still didn't know the name. He was much better compared to just a few nights before. Indeed, he healed so fast. The abrasions on his knuckles were nearly gone. The flesh pinked and the skin toughened around them a little.

He sat up when he saw me coming. It was good to see he could manage moving on his own. The swelling on his face had gone down, revealing how emaciated he was. I was tempted to pig him up, but it wouldn't be good if I did. We had to help his metabolism adjust gradually lest we wanted him falling ill again.

"Today we're having sweet fish," I said, setting the tray down beside him as I knelt on a floor pillow. He eyed it with great interest before looking up at me as though asking permission. "My mother said you can begin eating solid stuff starting today because you've been healing well. If it still hurts, there's some soup here you can fill yourself with."

I looked at him for a while and got reminded by a cat I used to own in my past life. He was a Persian white and I got him when he was three months old. He had a black streak on the top of his head and his tail would take on a slightly golden tinge compared to the rest of his body. He made my mornings hellish, but he was a precious little thing—a quiet and very reserved cat. This guy reminded me of him a little.

"Can you eat on your own?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Then I will leave you," I said. "After lunch, I'm going with my mistress to pick up something. When you're done, just leave them here, Someone will come and take it away for you." I motioned for the dishes and stood up in a well-practiced motion. I knew quite well how hard it was to lift oneself to their feet from a kneeling position. However, years of doing that provided me with enough practice and techniques.

He reached for the bowl of soup first and blew at the steam a little. He then began sipping. I was expecting him to hurt himself by eating too fast, but I suppose he had more self-control and discipline than that.

I smiled a little and moved to the dining room to have some lunch myself. By the time I'd arrived, all my mistresses were gathered—even Mistress Marga. It was strange seeing them complete this early on. Often, one or two would come in late.

"Evy." My Mistress Veronika smiled a little. "If you told me you were going to take this long, then I wouldn't have changed so early."

I scratched my head sheepishly as I took my seat in front of the table. Lunch went on without a hitch. Once or twice, I caught Mistress Lamia watching me. I saw that the mistresses were exchanging glances. They didn't need any words to talk with each other—they understood everyone with just a look and a couple of blinks. It was a little creepy. It felt as though they were having a conversation in telepathy that only I could not hear.

I was pretty sure that while telepathy existed it was only possessed by Conduits—not all of my mistress were Conduits. As far as I knew, it was only Mistress Veronika. Was it some new technology or did they just know each other so well to know what they meant to say without being verbal?

If only I had an idea on the topic. Sadly, I didn't.

I didn't comment on anything and answered when asked something. Other than that, I remained reserved and a little unenthusiastic. Their secret conversation was bringing down my mood somewhat. It felt to me as though they developed a system of communication to use whenever I was around and they did not want me to hear what they were talking about.

"I'm done," I announced, pushing my chair back a little as I geared to stand. "Mistress Veronika, I'll just go prepare and take a little walk to help my food down. If I'm not in my room, I might be out in the courtyard."

With that, I stood and left the room. It came across stuffy to me the entire time. As I stepped out into the corridor which had direct access to the gardens, I took a breath of fresh air. I walked to the direction of my room and retrieved some nice clothes from my walk-in closet. I noticed I had a few more dresses added in the rows of those I already had.

It must be Mistress Neilly. That woman would somehow always manage to sneak some new clothes into my wardrobe.

I checked out the new additions and found a pretty, elegant, emerald skirt and dress coord. After deciding with the pair, I pulled out an ivory coat from the rack and pulled it around my shoulders. I let my honeyed red locks down, pinning back the top half of my curls with a golden accessory that sported a pattern of leaves, berries, and flowers. It was hard to tame such wild hair at times and I couldn't leave it looking like a nest—especially today when I hadn't taken a bath out of sheer laziness and oiled down my locks.

I traced the dragon on my ear and dialed Erenol's frequency.

"Eren," I said.

"Evy?"

"I'm heading out today with Mistress Veronika."

"I can't leave home today," she told me. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright." I sighed. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm okay," she replied. "I'm good for now. You don't have to worry about this silly old me. If anything happens, you'll be the first to know. I'm sure."

"Hey," I said. "I know I'm not the most reliable friend but I'm still reliable."

"I know," she replied. "You're my only friend, so that still makes you the most reliable."

"If you play logic like that, it works too," I told her. "Don't make me worry too much about you. I'm just a ring away if you need my help."

"And what can you do exactly?" she pointed out. "You can't overthrow the entire monarchy. I'm actually surprised you're like this. The situation is so bad no one wants to associate themselves with me any further until I choose a side—if I even get to pick one at all."

That goes the same for me too, I thought. My mistresses said not to tell anyone, even Eren, about my domain of affinity. If she knew about what I can do, she'd probably the one staying away from me. In a way, I was more of a danger compared to internal struggle happening in the palace. Or was I? I still didn't know the extent of what I could do but if my mistresses are acting this way, then it definitely went something along those lines.

"I don't have to do anything," I countered as I patted my hair. "It'll most probably destroy itself."

"And me with it, if ever," she said. "If things go sideways, please deny you know me. I don't want you embroiled in any of this."

"Too late." I marched out of my room and straight into the open gardens.

"What do you mean?"

"Things haven't been alright on my side of the world either," I told her. "My mistresses are hiding stuff from me. They don't want to talk about it."

"What happened?" she prompted.

"That's the question," I stated, my tone leaning a little to the whinny side. "They won't tell me."

"It's the usual adult stuff, don't worry. If they won't tell you about it, it's probably something they think you shouldn't bother yourself with. I didn't understand it before either but now I know why. There are some truths you just wouldn't want to know."

Truths that, somehow, you still should and must know about, I added quietly in my mind. There wasn't any escaping reality. This was life, after all. It wasn't like I could spend the rest of my life nested under the skirts of my mistresses. "I'll talk to you later. Call me if anything comes up or if you can find the opportunity to leave."

"Not today, definitely, no."

I cut the line and stood under the tree that I had inadvertently frosted last night—not like a cake, no. Freezing might be a more suitable word, but I didn't exactly freeze it all over. The characteristics of frost differed drastically than when something is frozen.

The frost had already melted away, but there were marks left on the ground that wasn't very nice to see. On the tree was a black spot that bled into the soil and grass around it—right where I had been sitting last night. It was a horrifying reminder in a way, but it also made me face the reality of the situation.

This was death's domain.

There was no use getting flustered about all of this. A part of me had been expecting all of this to happen ever since. I would find a way around it, I definitely would.

"Evy?"

I turned to Mistress Veronika. She stood waiting for me, a forced smile making its way to her face. Her eyes were sad, a little torn, as she gazed at me. I instinctively patted down the wrinkles on my dress and brushed back the stray few of my honeyed red curls.

"Let's go?" she softly intoned.