The Extraordinary Accounts of One Lost Girl

-14-

I must have stayed in the desert city for maybe four mounts. I had no way to count. There wasn't a moon and motion was determined by astronomers by looking at the stars and the ring and I couldn't tell anything. I simply counted days until I got fed up of it. At that time, my periods came and I spend maybe three days shut in my room as my womb tried to kill me with pain. I rarely saw my supposed sister, Syanaam. It became a well known fact by everyone that she sort of hated me. It was obvious with the way she never acknowledges me and would always give me dirty looks. The head priestess didn't say anything when she behaved so either. I think she was few up of explaining things. Of course, Syanaam being bitter about the arrival of a sudden sister was understandable. I always had a feeling like she was afraid I might take her place.

But that was impossible, since our mother rarely spoke to me. Honestly, she never spoke to me and only asked about my progress from Zharu. I wasn't cheeky enough to ask my teacher about what he told to her about me. Only one day, I found that during dinner Syanaam was not there.

Both I and the head priestess ate in silence. When dinner was finished, the head priestess said, 'We need to talk.'

I waited.

'I heard from your tutor that you had already mastered our tongue and can speak well.'

'Yes, alya.'

There was a pregnant silence in the room.

'Do you know out customs?'

'Now much.'

'I've heard you are not interested in our faith.'

I felt myself flinch. That was a sensitive topic.

'I-I grew up having a faith. I believe it is hard to change it.'

The head priestess frowned, 'That is understandable. But realize that this world in different from where you came from. The customs are different. The way the world works is different. You cannot stubbornly hold on to the customs of your old world. Understand?'

'Yes.'

'Do you know why I risked a lot to simply find you and bring you here?'

'No...'

A servant placed a bowl of water in front of me along we a towel. I washed my hands, hoping that there was something to wash down the strange taste of my dinner. I was not eating those purple cubes again. The high priestess rose up from her cushion and said, 'Follow me.'

When we walked out of the corridor, the sun was setting down on the horizon. She signaled her attendants who followed her to leave, until only the two of us were left alone in the corridor as she looked out at the courtyard and the sky above us, which was turning from purple to dark blue.

'Do you see me as your mother? Be honest with me.'

It was my turn to frown. Did she want to have a mother-daughter bonding as we could finally communicate with each other? If she was trying, I could only conclude that she was not good at it. She said me to be honest, so I straightaway said, 'No.'

'I expected that,' said the high priestess. 'You might even be wondering about why I thought to find you after so long.'

'You want something from me,' I plainly said.

'Yes.'

The high priestess finally looked at my face, 'I am glad we have a basic understanding of each other. You are plainly not pleased to be in this world, for that I apologize. But you were born here, by me, and I doubt staying in a world where you do not belong will end well for you.'

I wanted to refute. I would have been fine as Emery Aloysius Willow. But there was always this voice in my head saying that what if the Royal Academy knew? Did they have something planned for me as they did anyone under their charge?