Happiness

When Ara opened the door at the bottom of the staircase again, she found herself in her apartment. In the kitchen, to be more accurate. She hadn't dried up completely, so there were still more than a few drops of water falling from her onto the floor -mostly from her hair- as her gaze fell on Eun, who seemed to be making sandwiches.

"Oh, welcome back"

"Hi... "

Ara was about to say something a bit more articulated than that but, having calmed down -and, more importantly, because her body had gone back to normal, with all the consequences that came with it-, the lack of sleep suddenly assaulted her. Her words melted into a yawn as she held on to the table to support herself.

"You should still have enough time to take a shower, if you hurry"

She blinked a couple of times, gave a quick answer then turned around. Only to stop immediatly.

"... wait, where are my clothes?" she asked, having realized that she had only her swimsuit on.

"You left those at the lake. I'll get them back for you, don't worry"

"Thanks"

Then she looked at the clock, saw what time it was, slapped her own cheeks to keep herself awake and ran to the bathroom. Despite both her intention and her efforts, however, Ara's shower lasted quite a while, as the creature's scent left on her seemed to require quite a lot of soap to be dealt with. When she came back to the kitchen, with nothing but her bathrobe on, Eun had added a glass, a bottle and a vial of sort to the table, right next to the sandwitches. Which had turned into toasts, by the way.

"Take your time" she joked as she waved a towel around.

"Oh, come on" Ara replied as she sat down and ate everything as quickly as she could, while the fox dried her hair.

"That should keep you up without problems until... around dinner, I think" she commented as her twin grabbed the glass vial and stared at it for a couple of moments.

It was oddly warm, and there was a faint smell coming from it which Ara couldn't identify.

"What did you say you used to make it?"

"Love and care"

"... of course"

She took another quick glance at the clock before gulping it down all at once. It was rather sour.

"You should probably go to sleep earlier than usual this evening" Eun pointed out as her twin got up and dashed to her room to get dressed and ready.

"I will!" she shouted back as she ran past the fox and out the door, waving her off as she did so.

It was only a couple or so of minutes later that she realized she hadn't really looked at the clock before leaving, so she wasn't sure if she was still on time or late already. In doubt, she decided to simply hurry, running even faster, until she suddenly stumbled into something. Which was actually really unusual, considering that she wasn't holding anything fragile at the moment. Still, she managed to stick her landing before turning around. Apparently her foot had hit a root of one of the trees adorning the sidewalk. Ara simply attributed it to her being a bit out of it due to how she had spent the night, got back up and started running again. As it turned out, she wasn't late, though not by much. She went to her room to get changed, dropping her clothes on the bed without much care before heading right back out, to whichever part of the mansion they'd be cleaning that morning.

Then, something on the shoe she had left in her room moved. A tiny branch of sort, as long as a finger at most and definitively thinner, which had latched itself around her ankle with enough strength to not fall off as she ran, but not so much as to make her notice it. Alone within those four walls, it wandered around aimlessly for a while, crawling in a way that quite resembled a worm, until a gust of wind came in from the partially opened window, hitting it. In response, the small plant -if it could be called so- turned around and started to try and reach the opening the air had come from. That took probably a few hours, but after eventually starting to climb over the furniture and even perform a little jump, the branch finally reached its destination. And, by then, a little sprout had appeared on it. At last, the bulb jumped outside, falling on the grass of the garden, only to bury itself in the fertile soil.

The following day, rather late in the night. Or very early in the morning, depending on the point of view. For a more objective reference, the sun had set since a few hours, and wouldn't rise for probably around as long. Oberon, Ophelia and Ferdinand were standing in front of an open window, in the room where they usually gathered to drink together. The maid was holding a trible-barred, white shotgun of sort in her hands, with a few golden decorations and pink details here and there, as well as what looked like a sort of silencer at the end of the three cilinders. The weapon was pointed outside, aimed at a drone that was moving in circles over the grass, closer to the fence than to the mansion. Which made for quite the distance. She adjusted her hold of the rifle, looked through the optical scope -a rather odd sight on such a weapon- then fired. Again. And a third time, in a little less than a second and a half. Each shot was accompanied by a rather bright flash, but the bangs that went with them were really quiet, to the point it was unlikely anyone more than a few meters away could have heard them. The three bullets struck the ground right next to the drone, grazing its metallic surface. The automated machine then turned around to pick up the shell casings before resuming its apparently meaningless circular motion.

"How are the preparations going?" she asked as she stepped back and handed the weapon to Ferdinand.

"Well enough, on my side" he replied as she took her place in front of the window and reloaded the shotgun before aiming back at the drone's metaphorical feet.

"The booking probably won't be refundable at this point" Oberon commented as he gave Ophelia a drink full of liquor "But I haven't received an answer yet, so I'm just guessing"

"News and messages really travel too slowly"

Ferdinand aimed further away from the drone compared to Ophelia, and took longer to fire all three shots, though once he was done he needlessly spun the rifle around a couple of times before handing it to Oberon.

Neither the butler nor the head of security were especially fond of that activity, though they didn't really hate it either. However, the three of them sometimes indulged in each other's hobbies regardless of personal preferences, for one reason or another. They had never really discussed it, it just sort of started happening on its own, by chance. Or by accident, maybe. They had a rather casual conversation for a good while, during which they each alternated a glass of liquor with three shots with the weapon.

During all of that, the drone in the distance kept moving in circles. Maybe it had faith in their aim, or maybe it had already resigned to the possibility of being actually hit and destroyed. Or, more likely, it was little more than a repurposed vacuum cleaner in terms of self-consciousness. ... probably, at least.

"Do you ever experience cognitive errors?" Oberon eventually asked.

Ferdinand, who had just finished his round with the shotgun, focused his gaze on their pseudo-target, as if he had just been told that his shots were way off the mark. Which was really only the case when compared to Ophelia's, but that was a whole different matter.

"I did, twice" Ophelia replied after having emptied another glass "It was really bothersome"

"How bad is it?" Ferdinand chimed in.

"Not enough to hinder me at work"

"That doesn't say much"

For some reason, the way Ferdinand handed the shotgun to Oberon after saying those words felt quizzical, and by the look of it the butler put a bit more strength than needed in snatching the weapon from his hands.

"Does the problem present itself only during the reception?" Ophelia inquired.

"No, the memory files are the same"

"Master Adrian won't be too interested then. Maybe the clean freak can help you"

"Why don't you just ask the mistress to fix you?"

"It's nothing worth bothering her over" Oberon said, hoping to not be lying.

"I see"

After that, the conversation derailed to quite different topics, some more interesting, some less, until the three servants eventually went their separate ways. Oberon considered going to Add for a check up, since his hallucinations with Nisha seemed to have gotten worse, but ultimately decided not to. Not yet, at least.

Somewhere else, the following... night, by the look of it. Nisha was walking on what seemed to be black soil, dotted by several small ponds, some made of silvery, shiny water, others apparently filled with mud, some simply empty, and the vast majority brimming with plain water. There were dozens of those holes in the ground. More than hundreds. Way more than thousands, actually, as they reached all they way to the horizon and then some. She didn't seem to be indoor, but there were neither stars nor the moon in the dark sky, though the light coming from the puddles provided quite enough illumination for wandering around. The woman seemed relaxed, maybe a bit bored even, as she gracefully stepped along in that lonely landscape. Until she eventually stopped and kneeled down in front of a pond. She stared into the water for a brief while before giggling, then turned around and searched for something, which apparently was one of the average-looking puddles. She rested her hand on the surface, barely sending a ripple through it.

"Found them"

She closed her hand over the water and dragged it upwards, the fluid following her grasp as if it was incredibly viscous, while at the same time floating up and partially dispering like a gas would. She cheerfully hopped back to the first pond she had stopped by, which was actually just a few steps away, and grabbed its content the same way she had just done with the other one. Then she brought the two fluids -or whatever they actually were- together, holding them close as she normal water mixed in with the shining one, lighting it up. Then she jumped into the floating fluid, disappearing within it as if she had just dived into the ocean.

Ara blinked. Several times. She had a vague feeling something weird just happened, but couldn't quite understand what exactly. She looked around for a while, but nothing seemed out of place. The trees were lined up to form the walls of the mansion, just as always. No, those weren't the problem. Maybe she had forgotten to put her apron on? No, that wasn't it either. She wasn't sure she was supposed to be wearing her usual clothes beneath it instead of an uniform of some sort, but she could tell that wasn't what just bothered her. Eventually she decided that it would come to her sooner or later, and went back to sweeping the leaves that kept falling from the branches. One thing she was fairly sure was wrong was the spearhead on the other end of her broom. She didn't really mind it, she just couldn't help but wonder why it was there.

She finished cleaning up the room she was in fairly quickly, then moved to the hallway. A few drones -which were all donning a sort of ball-shaped kimono- were floating around, eating the leaves as they came down from above, which did make her job a bit easier. Then, however, she noticed something hanging from the branches. Lianas, and some were made of fur too upon closer inspection. Quite a lot of them at that. Maybe that's what had bugged her earlier? No, unlikely. So she kept sweeping, until she somehow created a wall of leaves that ended up blocking the hallway.

"... wait, what was I supposed to do in these cases?"

Odd, she couldn't remember. She walked in circles for a short while, thinking about how to act in such a situation -pushing it down felt like a bad idea, for one reason or another-, before deciding to simply go look for someone who might be less clueless about it. That's how she ended up in one of the larger halls of the mansion. Well, on her way there she also had to run from a flock of birds who seemed unreasonably bent on pecking her cowlick for some reason, to be honest. One of the problems of not having a roof, probably. Regardless, she recognized a door and pushed it open. Or rather, she had to break it down. Jumbles of tiny roots and branches didn't make for the best gates, after all. Upon entering, the first thing she noticed was that the floor was perfectly devoid of leaves. The second was that she wasn't alone there, which was actually a good thing.

On the far end of the room, right in front of the lit fireplace, were Eve and Aren, the former sitting in an armchair, the latter with his legs folded on the floor on top of a pillow. Ara couldn't quite understand if they were having a match at chess or go, but seeing her brother was nice. She probably shouldn't have disturbed them though, they seemed to be rather focused on their match.

Then Ara heard something. Splashing water, she'd say. Mere moments after that, a ripple formed right in the middle of her field of vision, expanding from there as if it was moving on her very eyes. Shortly after, an intense but not quite violent quake shook the forest -or mansion- for a few long seconds. She had to hold on to the furniture to keep her balance, which was surprisingly hard with her sight still disturbed, but everything went back to normal soon enough. Though the floor was now covered in enough water to reach her ankles. A splashing sound caught her attention, and she turned around to see Oberon. Who, by the look of it, had just fallen from above.

"... are you alright?" she asked after having hesitantly walked up to him.

She guessed he was a bit confused, but with his face completely covered by his helmet she couldn't really tell. He did, however, take longer than she'd have expected to get up and wipe the water off himself, getting his clothes mostly dried up with just a few strokes.

"I think I am, yes" he replied before turning around.

His gaze seemed to linger on Eve and Aren, still focused on their match, before drifting off to other areas of their surroundings.

"... is the mansion different?" he then asked.

"No, it always looked like this. At least, it already did when I first saw it"

"I see"

"... s-say" she then added "There's a bit of a situation in the hallway, which I'm... not sure how to deal with"

She sounded a bit nervous. Maybe because she wasn't sure how formal she was supposed to be around him?

"What sort of situation?"

"The hallway is choking"

He tilted his neck to the side, which she found... vaguely creepy, maybe?

"Let's take a look. Show the way"

"S-sure" she replied as she turned around and walked back.

She noticed that the lianas had turned into ropes, though some seemed to be made of fabric instead of hemp, but she didn't really give it any further thought. Soon enough, they had reached the wall of leaves which was blocking up the corridor. The butler ran his gaze up and down along it before resting an hand against it and push, but the wall didn't budge. Not in the slightest. Which was to be expected, after all. Yet he was a bit surprised at it.

"... give me a moment" he told her as he walked to a painting hanged on a nearby tree and pulled it off.

Hidden behind it was a small compartment carved in the wood, inside of which was a large book. Two thousand pages at least, by the look of it. He put the canvas back in its place, making sure not to drop it on the floor to avoid ruining it with all that water, and looked at the manual. Ara managed to read what was written on the cover before he opened it and started scrolling through the pages.

'Leafy barricades and how to get rid of them', it said.

They really make manuals for all sort of things she thought.

"Do we have tweezers?" he asked.

"No"

"I see. Then... " he proceeded as he flipped the page "Meatgrinders?"

"... maybe in the kitchen?"

"Here it says they must be new or they won't work"

"Then I'm afraid we're out of it... "

"Flamethrowers?"

"I... why would we have a flamethrower?"

"To get rid of this wall" he replied as he knocked against the leaves.

"... that... makes sense, yes... "

"Goats?"

"No"

"A time machine?"

"No"

"An hot-blooded redhead?"

"Not that I know of. ... is that really written inside there?"

"It is" he answered as he showed her the pages.

Seeing that he really wasn't making any of that up, Ara found herself at a loss of words.

"Then, let's see... did you try dropping the 'of' and replacing it with something else? Or turning the last word into a verb?" he asked after having scrolled through a lot more pages.

"Dropping the... I... I don't think I get what you mean"

"This can be described as a wall of leaves, right?"

"Well, yeah"

"Leaves is a noun"

"I mean, yeah. I know that"

"Try turning it into a verb then" he asked, his eyes still on the book.

"That... ehr... " she mumbled, unsure about what to say "... like... this is a wall of leaves, so... you mean saying that it's a... a wall that... leaves... ?"

After those words left her mouth, the wall began to tremble lightly. Shortly after, the fronds blocking up the hallway began to move along and disperse, freeing up the corridor.

"... no. No, no, no. That's not how this works. I'm not sure why but I believe this isn't how any part of this is supposed to work"

"I have to agree, I must say" he commented as he closed the book "But that's what the manual said"

They both stared, with different degrees of disbelief, at the enormous mass of leaves departed, though some seemed to get left behind as the wall crawled along the hallway, until it eventually turned a corner. It didn't quite disappear from sight, since the trees weren't that thick, but by that point they were no longer paying attention to it. Mostly because something much more odd was left in its wake. Or rather, someone. Who had a fairly bemused yet amused expression on her face. She seemed to be laughing, though they couldn't actually hear a single laughter coming from her lips despite being nowhere near far enough for that to be reasonable.

"That was most interesting" Nisha commented as she removed a few leaves from her hair. They had probably gotten stuck when the wall moved through her.

"You are... what are you doing her-"

"I'm afraid I have business to attend to now. I have to leave her in your care, miss Haan" Oberon interrupted her before turning around and leaving, in a bit of an hurry too by the look of it.

"S... sure" she replied, though too late as he had already put quite the distance between himself and the two women.

"Dear me, have I done something wrong perchance?" Nisha asked as she walked up to Ara.

"I... don't think so?"

She wanted to say that it wasn't normal for him to act like that, but on second thought she didn't really know much about him, maybe that sort of thing actually wasn't a weird behaviour. So she decided to steer the conversation to something else.

"You still have some leaves in your hair" she pointed out.

"Oh"

The woman took care of that, fairly quickly too, though her hair ended up in a rather messy state. She didn't seem to care though. Or maybe she simply didn't notice.

"Shall we go after him?" she then asked.

"I don't think that's a good idea, to be honest. He looked a bit... "

... a bit what?

"S-say, what's that thing you're wearing?" she asked to change the subject, since she realized that Oberon actually sounded fairly composed when he spoke right before leaving, and since he was wearing an helmet she couldn't exactly deduce anything from his expression.

As for her question, that was because Nisha was donning a rather peculiar article of clothing. It was a long poncho, reaching all the way to her knees on the front and back but only to her wrists on the sides. By itself, that would have been quite unusual around those parts, surely, but not really weird. What really made it stand out, however, was that it was made of interwoven ropes. They weren't exactly thin, each being around as thick as her thumbs, and the way they were knitted together was surprisingly elaborate, with a fairly visible knot right next to the neck. There was also another detail, one Nisha was most interested in but which Ara couldn't notice. That is to say, there were tiny, sharp spikes on the inner side of that poncho. Each one was to small to be felt over her clothes, but whenever she moved around she could feel them grazing against the skin her outfit left bare, threatening to leave marks without being bold enough to really do so.

"I believe you could call it a gift" she replied.

"That's probably one of the weirdest gifts I've ever seen. Ah, I didn't mean anything bad with that, really" Ara quickly added.

Nisha chuckled.

"Oh, no, I might actually agree with you a bit on this. Actually, I was thinking about asking him if there was any particular meaning behind this present"

"Him?"

"Him" she repeated as she pointed to the direction the butler had gone off to.

"... wait, Oberon?"

"Why yes"

Well, technically speaking, he hadn't really given her that, she just found herself already wearing it upon entering the dream. But she was sure it wasn't Ara's mind that had put it on her, which only left Oberon as possible responsible for it. Not that she minded, really. Quite the contrary.

"You two know each other?"

"We do, indeed. But, if I might say, I would rather converse in front of something to drink. Or while sitting, at least. If you do not mind, of course"

"No, I don't but... "

"Oh, right. Would you happen to have some free time on next tuesday? In the evening, to be more accurate"

"I should, I'm not working at that time, why?"

"I was thinking that maybe we could have dinner together?"

"... why?"

"Why would a person possibly ask another person to have dinner together?"

"... is this... a... a rethorical question?" Ara asked back, confused not only by the question itself, but also -and maybe mostly- by how genuine it sounded.

"At that place with private rooms and a friendly waiter"

"You mean Henir's?"

"Why yes, I believe that is its name. Can I take it as an agreement then?"

"No, wait, this is... "

Before she could finish her sentence, however, Nisha twitched. Her whole body seemed to tremble for a moment, as if someone had just shook her.

"... oh dear. My apologies" she said as she performed a slight bow while pulling up the sides of her poncho as if it was a dress "But I am afraid I have to leave now, it would seem that I have a guest" she spoke as a staircase appeared behind her, seventy steps headed into the sky.

"Hold on, you haven't... "

"I will be looking forward to our dinner then" she interrupted her again before turning around and walking up, disappearing together with the whole stairs after having reached the last step.

Ara found herself alone in the hallway, and decided that the best thing to do at the moment was probably get back to sweeping the leaves, though doing so with all that water around was rather... difficult, let's say.

A few moments later, somewhere else entirely, Nisha opened her eyes and stretched her arms, which felt rather sore. Not surprising, all things considered.

"Oh, I was not expecting to see you here, little L- ouch" she tried to greet the woman in front of her before rubbing her own forehead, where Nisha had just been finger flicked.

"I could tell you the same thing. Why are you sleeping on the stairs?"

"That is a most interesting question. Why indeed, I wonder?" she replied, if you could call that a reply, before getting up "Might I offer you some tea?"

"I guess"

Luciela took a quick glance around as the two women headed downstairs and through a couple of rooms, until they reached a small kitchen. There weren't any windows, which is probably why she wasn't hiding her horns nor tail. A part of her was surprised to see that Nisha had put a bit more furniture in the little house she had given her. As for how Luciela had gotten in, there were three possibilities. She had a spare key. She had Ciel pick the lock. Or Nisha simply left the door open.

"Where have you been?" she inquired as she took a seat.

"Oh, I was just having a little walk along the ponds" Nisha answered while getting a few things ready.

"I meant before crossing over"

The response arrived... a bit late.

"Where do you think I have been?" she asked back as she placed two cups on the table before sitting in front of Lu, her voice calm as always, her lips twisted in their usual, apparently innocent smile.

The guest -who was the actual owner of the house, to tell the truth- stared at the tea in front of her. It didn't seem hot at all, which made sense considering that it took Nisha all of thirty seconds to prepare it, and there were no filters anywhere in sight, nor anything else that people would usually associate with tea. Instead, two peculiar, colorful flowers in full bloom were placed in the cups, slowly spreading their colors to the water their stems were submerged in.

Still the same

"I looked for you in the Forest, once things... settled down a bit. But I couldn't find you"

"That is most unfortunate" Nisha spoke as she began to pour spoonful upon spoonful of sugar in her beverage "I was indeed in the Black Forest, but I am afraid I had been... avoiding outsiders at the time"

On one hand, that made sense. Luciela had seen for herself in what sorry state the Forest had been left by the civil war. In all honesty, it was even hard to still call it a forest. And considering that it wasn't wrong to say it was outsiders who did that, she could see why Nisha would steer away from anyone who would wander into the forest after that, if only to protect a certain someone. Someone who was always together with her. Or used to be at least. Her absence had been troubling Luciela ever since their previous meeting at her place.

"What about you, littl- ouch"

"I'm starting to think you like this" Luciela commented after having flicked her fingers on Nisha's forehead once again.

In response, the woman giggled.

"What do you do in your free time?"

"Are you asking about my hobbies?"

"Why yes, those too. Are they still the same?"

She went over quite a few things in her mind before speaking.

"... baking" she replied, picking one of the few answers that she guessed would have been well received.

"Oh, I never thought you could do that"

"Why do you sound so surprised?"

Truth be told, Lu couldn't bake. At all. It was Ciel who always made sweets and cackes for her. But there's no way she'd ever tell that to Nisha.

"Eheh"

"So, what are you doing around here?"

"I am playing" Nisha replied before gulping down her tea. Though she had put so much sugar in it she had to scrape it out with a spoon and eat it as if it was cereals.

"... as in?"

"You see, there are these two people I found that are quite fun to be around. Though I believe one of them is a bit wary of me. I think her sister is too, and I am not sure why. Oh, dear me, they are three actually"

"And what do you do together? I mean, back then you weren't quite... you know"

"Seveal things, really. One of them even taught me how to play chess"

"That's not something I would have expected of you"

"Is it not? Why?"

"You never showed interest in anything unless Laby herself did, and I know for a fact that she didn't like games like chess"

For a brief moment, Nisha turned into a black silhouette. Unlike with Ciel, however, it ended immediatly. Had Luciela blinked, she might have even missed it entirely. That said, even after she went back to normal, something was still off. It was hard to tell, and one probably wouldn't even have noticed anything from far away, but it was like her eyes had... become empty. Devoid of light. She stared at Luciela in silence, while being stared back at. Lu finally drank her tea, but said nothing about it.

"What happened to Laby?"

"She is safe" she replied, her voice distant, her face lacking a real expression.

"Nisha. Where is Laby?"

"She is exactly where she wants to be"

Lu moved her gaze to the pendant around Nisha's neck, and at the glass contained within. The more she looked at it, the more she was convinced that that was a mirror, painted black from within.

"And how did she get there, wherever "there" is?"

"All by herself"

"Without you?"

"She is not alone. She would not like it"

"Why aren't you with her? Or her with you, if you want to put it like that"

Nisha moved her hand towards her pendant, as if to grasp the little glass hanging from her neck, but stopped before her fingers could close around it.

"She is happy"

"... and are you?"

"I appreciate your concern"

"Are you?"

"You have been here for a while now, and I remember you telling me how busy you are" she said as she got up "I would rather not take up any more of your time, Lu"

"... very well then" she replied as she stood up herself "I will come back when I can, Nisha. Your tea tasted really good"

"You flatter me"

"Until next time then"

"Until next time"

Lu walked back out on her own, leaving Nisha alone in the kitchen. She waited until she heard the door opening and closing before falling back down on her chair, and then on the table.

"Laby is happy" she said "Laby is happy. Laby is happy" she repeated, over and over again, for what felt -and might truly have been- hours.

"... dinner" she eventually reminded herself as she raised her head "I have to get ready for dinner" she spoke, without even really knowing if it was already evening or not.

With those words, she forced herself up and dragged her own body to another room.

I'm not sure why but this chapter was really hard to write.

Thank you for reading.