A/n: hey, long time no update. Sorry for the wait. this chapters pretty short too, but I'm trying to iron out the details of where this story goes. For anyone who cares to know, the name Catania comes from a place I used to live near to. The rest of the names got literally five seconds of thought put into them. Adam and Mary are pretty generic. Sorry main characters, but I couldn't be bothered.
The following day Mary was in the Mage Tower again, this time equipped with her new gifts. Hours prior when she first arrived at the tower she had found herself a comfortable place to sit and draw between the mages interrogations.
A consistent pattern had been built during Mary's days in Stormwind. Humans were creatures of habit, after all.
The mages, a quirky and volatile bunch, worked in spurts of great excitement, and spent their down time magically fidgeting with the environment. Sometimes the boredom-inspired mischief was small things, and Mary would open a book to find all the pages written in rainbow ink instead of standard black. Or the brooms would jump to life and practice a dance routine. These Mary accepted- not surprised the people living in this world were as bizarre as the world itself- and she would share bewildered glances with Luis and Nicolas, bonding with them over the foreignness of it all.
Other times, when the mages felt more frustrated with their work or lack of progress, their shenanigans took a hostile turn. Barbed words would be exchanged in short patience and there would be an abundance of frogs, sheep and once even a giraffe wandering about with suspiciously human mannerisms. The wooden floor boards would be stained with scorch marks or puddles of melting ice.
Today was one of those days.
From their research, the mages estimated that unstable inter-dimensional perforations with incomplete elements of the standard bases resulting in inexplicable mutations were what brought Mary, Luis and Nicolas to Azeroth. Which, when simplified, meant portals that shouldn't be possible were appearing on Earth. The mages stressed that inter-dimensional portals were normal, but the structure of these specific portals was unheard of. The mages explained, with the smallest vocabulary, that the usual rules portals functioned under were being ignored. Portals take time and experience to make, especially between two separate worlds, so the mages couldn't figure out why these new portals were popping up.
The only good news was the mages tentatively offered that portals can usually be made both ways. If they could figure out where these portals were coming from, they might be able to make portals to send their Earth visitors back home.
Magister Allison had dropped by earlier to observe the mages' progress, which had come to a complete that very morning. From what Mary understood, an expert was being called in. She'd been under the impression the mages so far were the experts, but apparently the guy they called in was even smarter. Mary didn't care much as long as it brought her home.
She, Luis, and Nicolas had secluded themselves into a safer corner of the long expansive room. Most of the mages were stomping around the room or bent over their studies. A sheep, who Mary believed was named Jan, slept beneath the table. Luis watched the mages with wide eyes. Nicolas looked every inch the worn down and far from home old man he was. Their common lesson had slipped into mindless chatter.
"How much more time?" Mary spoke in common for Luis' sake, who was more interested in watching the mages than translating English to Spanish.
Nicolas scratched a sagging cheek. "Days. Maybe a week." He eyed her drawing. "What is the picture?"
It was a poor attempt at her high school. The bricks were all wrong. "Not very good. My school."
He grunted. Mary suspected he only put up with for her because they were from the same planet. While Luis was starstruck with most of what he saw, Nicolas regarded Stormwind with an old man's distrust of new things. He probably wanted to return home too.
A mage approached them then. Ira, Mary remembered. It was usual for the mages to randomly ask them questions about their arrival, any unusual sensations, what they'd been doing before. Ira, a brunette with a lazy streak, asked, "Any sounds, " she cupped her ear for further clarification, "you remember?"
Mary thought, pushing herself back to the morning she awoke in the forest. That day was one she'd never forget, and it was all clear as day. No, there had been no sounds, she remembered distinctly. In fact, the quiet of the forest had scared her witless for a while. She now knew her magical foreignness, or whatever it was exactly, had frightened the animals off like a forest fire. She still was unsure how to react to the claims that she 'gave off corrupted mana waves' or less dramatically, 'smelt weird.'
"No," she answered honestly, "I sleep when I come here."
"You were sleeping when you came here." Ira corrected diligently.
Mary, who didn't see much point in learning a language nobody spoke at home, answered only to placate Ira. "Yes, I was sleeping when I came here."
Nicolas answered, "No sounds."
Only Luis had something remotely helpful to say. "I heard no sounds. Vi estrellas. I saw stars, Ira. Like that portal," he pointed towards the green portal at the far wall. "Lots."
Ira eagerly jumped to the observation, and drill Luis on what color stars, and how many exactly, and if he saw any constellations- pictures in the stars, she had to explain. Luis' response was he saw lots of colors, lots of stars, and he didn't see any constellations.
The confrontation in the Trade District had a consequence.
The woman was here. At the house, in the room over, making herself at home. Which, Mary admitted, made sense if she really was Adam's sister. But Mary didn't want to think of her that way, even if a physical resemblance was there to remind her.
The eyes, Mary decided, were the biggest similarity. Both had these narrow green eyes framed by defined, dark eyebrows. Mary wasn 't so lovesick as to describe Adam's eyes as emeralds or malachite or any precious gem. In fact they looked a lot like your everyday leaf, just plain old green. Mary would know, she spent a lot of time staring at them. And, besides the eyes, both had the same hair, dark brown with waves that bordered curls.
The woman- Mary took a vindictive pleasure in calling her 'the woman' as if she were a snobby mistress or villain- had arrived shortly after Mary arrived home. Adam had dropped her off at the house and went to do who knows what. Then, as she'd meandered through the house, occasionally stopping to snoop, she'd heard the door swing open, followed by light footsteps and a voice calling out to Adam.
For a few seconds Mary was lost, and hiding from robbers crossed through Mary's mind and she crept towards her room. In her fear, her immediate thought was to hide. Most people had a fight or flight response.
Mary's 'fight' ability had been lacking since birth.
She was creeping up the stairs when she recognized the voice. She'd heard it before, that one day in the Trade District.
...What was Adam's sister doing here?
Recalling the unpleasant woman, Mary slunk into hiding even quicker. After reaching the top of the stairs she regarded the hallway for half a second before choosing her own room. Inside it, she situated herself between the bed and the wall, hidden from the sight of anyone standing by the door, which Mary had shut. Quietly.
Below, the calling had stopped, and the house was silent except for footsteps below and the sounds of Mary nervous fidgeting. The floors were wooden, and the carpet didn't reach to this side of the bed, making Mary suffer the hard floor and the heat of sunlight shining through the square window right onto her. It was uncomfortable, but Mary was too busy listening to care.
She waited. Dust motes floated around her, and as she watched as they drifted through the air.
She waited some more.
It took an annoying amount of time for Adam to finally return. By the time he did, her back ached and her tailbone was digging into the hard floor. The door swung open and slammed shut. The paladin called a greeting into the house.
Here, finally, Mary sighed in relief.
Adam repeated himself when the house remained quiet, his footsteps and voice the only signs of life in the house. She listened nervously for the moment the woman chose to reveal herself.
The heavy, rhythmic thudding of Adam moving through the home came to a halt.
"Catania?..."
The woman's response and the rest was too soft for Mary's ears to catch. So, once again, it was silent.
Conflicted, she rose from her hiding and went to the door. Anticipation crawled under her skin. Hovering in the doorway, where the argument between the siblings downstairs was just barely an audible hush, Mary hesitated.
She could easily come up at least twenty reasons why she would be better of waiting in her room for Catania to leave. Did she need to go down there anyway? Cowed by her own insecurity, she fell back, resuming her previous hiding position.
While Mary was lost in her fretting, the weight of a hand appeared on her shoulder. She jumped to her feet, hitting her head against something hard on the way up.
"Ack!" something behind her hissed.
Mary swerved around. She'd been so distracted by her own thoughts, he had been able to approach unheard. A miracle really, considered how loud he was. He stood behind her wearing a pained grimace, rubbing his chin tenderly.
"Adam?"
He was quick to lose his alarmed expression. His hand dropped away from his chin.
"Mary?" It was an confused, agitated, and loaded word, filled with questions like: why were you sitting in the corner, what the hell, my sister's here did you having something to do with that, and why'd you have to flinch like that your head is surprisingly hard for such a weak-willed girl.
"Adam."
He stared.
"Sorry for," she motioned towards his chin.
"It doesn't hurt." Mary was pretty sure it did. It looked red.
"Why..." he seemed to rethink he question. "Come downstairs? To meet Catania."
She looked for a way out. "Um. I stay."
That only confused him further. "What?"
"I stay upstairs?" Mary cursed silently. That sounded more like a question than the determined no she'd meant to make.
"No," he drew out the word. His brow furrowed. He repeated himself slower, mistaking her decline for merely not understanding the language. "We go downstairs and you speak to Catania. Catania...my sister."
She realized she was pouting and stopped. "I remember sister." With a sigh, she accepted defeat.
"Catania, this is Mary. Mary, my sister Catania."
Beside Adam, who's attractiveness had already been mentioned, and his sister, who out shined both Adam and Mary, Mary felt like a cave-dweller. Even with new bruises painting the woman's face she managed to look put-together and pretty. Mary felt like a kid, sweating from her time hiding in the sun with her hair mussed from leaning against the bed. The only mercy was the woman's height. While Mary couldn't boast about hers, the woman couldn't either. Even so, Catania, Mary sneered the name in her mind, was intimidating despite her height.
The woman gave Mary the same inspection Mary gave her, and was surprised by what she found. Whatever that meant. Mary knew she was no queen, but at her best she was nothing to wrinkle your nose at. However, she was admittedly no where near her 'best' at the moment. She was hovering somewhere around 'vaguely acceptable' really.
Thankfully when the woman spoke it was directed towards her brother, so Mary was saved from having to stumble through an answer and appear even more unbecoming.
Something the woman said made Adam start blustering. From the insinuating looks sent her way, Mary knew it was somehow about her again. She hated when they spoke about her like that, knowing she couldn't understand. She'd rather hear about the woman. The story behind who was abusing her and what she was here for. Mary didn't know why she didn't like the other woman, but for some reason that's how it was.
The siblings were arguing, and Mary thought her presence was unnecessary. Neither made an attempt to clue Mary in on what was going on, despite the multiple times Mary heard or saw herself mentioned.
Her sulking stopped as the woman finally threw her hands up and stormed away, disappearing up the stairs. A few seconds later a door was slammed loudly. Mary stared at the paintings on the wall as they shook.
Beside her, Adam muttered then took a step to leave. Mary watched, baffled.
"Adam!" She implored. "What is why your sister here? What is... talk angry about?"