A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 153: Pampered in Heaven

A stereotypical scene to wake up to: white filmy curtains billowing across an open window like foam on a foggy sea; bare walls adding onto the simplicity of the scene and creating a feeling of serenity; a comfortable pillow beneath my head with whispers of discontentment growing louder; sunlight filling the room and waiting for me to wake up in it.

     It was almost familiar to me, personally, despite it being something I only recognized from movies. I could almost imagine turning over and fulfilling what the scene called for: recognizing a lover dreamily staring at me or sleeping peacefully as we both wake up to a happy, peaceful day.

     But when I turned my head, there was no lover dreamily staring at me or sleeping peacefully. There was only a blurry mass slowly sharpening itself the longer I stared. It didn't have much of a background, just more white blank space beyond it. I almost couldn't separate the blurry mass from the background, both white - the only reason I knew there was something there was because someone was sitting on it.

     At first I thought it was Keir, just because of the pure black color, but the form was completely different. It was...a woman?

     Did I know any women that liked to wear black dresses from chin to toe? Besides those of Venx, where I sometimes went to participate in auction houses.

     That woman seemed to be sitting up, facing me, with her hands being the only break of color besides her face. It was pale, like she belonged to snowier regions, compared to the obvious heat of the room that referenced a hot outside. Her hair was black, then it was blonde, then it was both behind what was obviously a blue Status screen with lines of text slightly obscuring their identity.

     And then it was someone I knew.

     "Ma...?"

     "Oh!" The woman ducked left and right, trying to figure out how to get around her own screen. "Fi-"

     The figure bounced back from the Status after failing to faze through, having not realized how to treat it as intangible. It took them a few more seconds to sit up again and scoot to the side of the bed, dropping their feet on the floor and coming to lean into my view. That sunlight was proving to be a bane when they leaned back out of sight, letting the glare pierce my sight. The blonde strands filtered to look like the color of wheat, and the strands intertwined looked like someone had dyed them to be black as tar.

     "Are you awake?" a hand, rough in its palm, but gentle in its touch, brushed the corner of my eye while pushing my brow around. "Do you feel anything?"

     I wanted to turn my face into the hand, yet I wanted to turn away. The voice was far more than just familiar - it was one that shocked my mind at its wanted presence and enveloped me in a subtle flash of warm memories and relief...but the smell of the person...it was different. And the mana signature was muddled. Familiar, but tangled in something weird. And their appearance-

     Her appearance-

     "Firea," the maid smiled, nose twitching as if going to sniffle. Her cheeks looked like they were about to push tears out of her narrowing eyes. Gray ones, compared to the brown irises she'd sported last I'd seen her. Actually...when was the last time I'd seen her?

     "...Magaris," I breathed, feeling a whistle in my nose. "Magaris...?"

     "It's me," she confirmed, settling on the side of my bed. It was probably a bed. Her other hand moved to completely cradle my face. "Dear littlest miss, it's me."

     What...

     Things were taking their sweet time clarifying themselves. Where was I? What had happened? I had the feeling that I'd been at the de Libellule estate, but that place didn't look anything like any of the rooms of my previous home...and I should've been fighting Thanos, right? And I was...wasn't I?