Daughter of a fey

Chapter 2

Being alone left Miriam feeling utterly, mind-numbingly bored, as if every minute stretched into an hour of nothingness she had to endure.
Livy had left her the basic "keep Miriam happy kit" consisting of a few children's books, a charcoal pencil with a few blank papers and a few dolls. For the first months that Livy had been working these had kept Miriam entertained perfectly, but you can only have so much fun with the same toys over and over again. Miriam almost never got any new toys, especially never something bigger than a doll or a book. She had in fact asked a bunch of times for something bigger like a doll-castle or even just a dollhouse, she had even been on her best behavior before asking, but Livy always said they were too big to take with them on their travels. So instead Miriam was stuck with boring old books and the same dolls she had had for the past year or so.
She never had any friends to play with either, they never stuck around in the same town long enough for Miriam to meet any new kids. They always had to move because of Livy's dumb missions.
Worst of all was that Miriam almost never got to see her sister, she was always out on her missions, and when she finally gets home she is so incredibly tired that she goes to sleep super early before having a chance to play with Miriam. Today when they arrived into town Livy immediately booked them a room at some crusty old tavern that reeked of beer and regrets, that's where she dropped off Miriam for the day while she was out on her missions. After hours of being bored out of her mind a barmaid came and left a plate of food for Miriam, she had asked if the barmaid wanted to play but she didn't have any time either.
In order to keep herself entertained in this world of boredom Miriam had started drawing what she thought Livy was doing out there on her missions. She drew a crude drawing of Livy climbing a wall and another one of her standing in a crowd of people hiding in plain sight.
Then she drew one she was especially proud of, one where Livy was leaping bravely off a roof in pursuit of the bad and lying people.
She wondered, if she could reach the window, would she be able to see Livy out there on a rooftop somewhere?
The window was positioned a bit over her head,  just out of reach, but Miriam wasn't one to back down from a challenge.
Using all the strength a six-year old could muster (which wasn't a lot) she pushed a nightstand over to the room's single window. Then, with surprising agility for her age she climbed up the nightstand, her hands and feet easily finding grips as she ascended. It only took her seconds to reach the top, where she sat down and looked out over the city, no Livy in sight.
Well well well, aren't you a talented little one?
The voice caught Miriam by such surprise that she almost fell backwards off the nightstand. It was a female voice talking, a soft spoken voice that reminded Miriam of mom. But saying that it was just one voice felt wrong, it was like multiple of the same voice all talking at once, like a voice with five echos. And like you might expect, it rightfully horrified Miriam.
She spun around, the room was the same amount of empty as it had been before. And yet she didn't feel alone, she felt a warm presence in the room, as if someone invisible was watching her..
"Who's there? Don't try anything because my sister will be back soon!" The six-year old girl whimpered.
Don't worry little one, why don't you tell me your name? The voice whispered. Miriam noticed that it wasn't coming from anywhere in the room, it was like the voice was coming directly from her mind..
So despite the voice ensuring she shouldn't worry, the feeling nestled and took root inside her.
"I don't want to give you my name! I don't know you!" She yelled out into the empty room.
My dear child, where are my manners! I work closely with your sister Liv, You can call me auntie if you would like
Miriam would in fact not like to do that. It still felt creepy, having one and five voices talking to you inside your head. Miriam wanted to call the voice a liar, that her sister would never work with something as creepy as her, but curiosity is a strong feeling, especially for a six-year old.
"How do I know you're telling the truth?"
Well I could prove it then, soon your sister is going to come into the room with  a beautiful silver necklace as a gift just for you. The voice stopped, as if it had to think for a minute.
Oh and maybe don't tell your sister about our talk dear, I'm not sure how she would react to it yet.
With that the warm feeling and the sense that there was a presence was gone, it almost felt like someone stole it from her.
Her sister entered the room right on cue, just like the voice had predicted.
"Hey is everything okay? You look a little spooked, I didn't scare you did I?" Her sister approached her as Miriam sat down on the nightstand, a little confused over what had just happened. In her hand Livy was holding something, a beautiful silver necklace. Miriam pondered for a moment what to say, what would Livy think if she said there was a voice in her head calling herself auntie?
"Everything is fine, I'm just bored! Can we play now Livy?" She pleaded.