ODETTE
My mother used to tell me of tales of old. How paranormal beings lived in our midsts since time immemorial. It is probably why I ended up being a sucker for things like that. Being entranced by mystical stories that everyone else would consider fallacy.
"She was awake just minutes ago, and then she passed out again. I don't know what happened my Lord." This time the voice is familiar as I have heard it the first time, and when I open my eyes, it is just the same scenery.
How convenient.
"Lady Odette!" The familiar scent wafts through my nose. Lavender scented candles. The soft patters of rain on the roof is still obvious.
The girl is by my side again, smiling sadly at me. "You are awake again, thank the fates," she exclaims.
"Move aside Tami, let me see her." This voice is new, and strange. A deep masculine voice that seems regal.
The girl whose name I know now as Tami does as the voice ordered. Stepping away to reveal his presence.
I shudder. Dad?
Except the man standing before me, looking like a splitting image of my Dad, isn't dressed like my dad. He is dressed like he is straight out of an historical fantasy novel. He wears a long, dark coat that brushes the floor, with gold embroidery along the edges. A high collar frames his face, and a wide belt cinches the coat at the waist. Underneath, he wears a black tunic and dark trousers tucked into sleek boots. He looks like he belongs in a royal court—not right in front of me, and certainly not with my dad's face.
"Odette ? Do you know who I am?" There's a gentleness to his tone when he speaks to me, moreso than when he had spoken to Tami.
I look at my Dad's lookalike with nothing more than curiosity. "I don't know what is going on," I find myself saying.
"Obviously," he retorts. "I asked if you know who I am?" he questions.
I bite my lips at his words, wondering how on earth I am to answer that. How do I tell him that his face is so familiar, if I could reach and touch it. If I could say the words dancing in my lips... But yet he is not who I know. "You might call me insane," I sputter out before I can think of it.
"Bring the healer in," he says to Tami, and at that whirls around and leaves.
I sigh.
Tami looks at me with pity again. Her eyes shimmering with unshed tears, before she finds her way out of the room obviously to go get the healer.
I am in a pickle.
I stand again, finding my footing before walking to the mirror again. I reach for it, and then I allow my hands trace the image I see. How is this even possible?
"Lady Odette . It's been exactly fourteen days since you fell at Hollow bridge. It's good to see you awake."
I turn at the voice, coming in contact with a woman dressed in a similar silk gown as Tami, dark skinned just like me and over her shoulders is a satchel bag.
"Who are you?"
"Faye Nulan milady. I am the healer at your service."
She approaches me gently, and then carefully holds my hand and leads me to the vanity. "Please sit milady. Let me run a few checks on you."
Her touch is real. Nothing about this feels like a dream. My head is starting to spin again. Confusion rips at the very seams of my mind.
I indulge her request, watching tentatively as she places her satchel bag on the floor which is covered with a teal green rug.
"It is quite rare for an offspring of the house of Mourvain to suffer memory loss. Despite being the lowest house, your health boasts far more than the other houses," she says as she brings out a crystal ball—a perfect globe of glass with soft silver mist curling inside it. And for a moment, I thought I saw it move.
"I brought tea for milady. It's your favourite." Tami returns to the room just then, carrying a tray with a teacup. She sets it carefully right beside the crystal ball. The scent wafts towards me immediately, warm and inviting.
"It's ginger tea," I say in surprise. "How do you know it's my favourite?"
Tami sighs, smiling a little sadly. "I've been with you before you could recite your first spells milady, of course I know your favourite tea."
Before I can ask what she means by spells, Faye clears her throat gently.
"Lady Odette will have the tea after my checkup with her. If you'll excuse us, Tami," she says, polite but firm.
"Wait!" I blurt, my heart tripping over itself. "What do you mean spells?"
"You are a witch of the house of Mourvain. You cast spells milady," Faye replies me instead of Tami, giving me a pointed look.
I don't know if it is the shock, or the sheer ridiculousness of the situation, but suddenly I burst into a fit of laughter, because this can only be nothing but a joke.
My laughter begins to die down though, when I notice neither Tami or Faye is laughing with me. "This is not a joke, is it?"
"Nothing about your situation is a joke milady," Faye points out.
"So you say I'm a witch who has been in some kind of coma for three weeks, correct."
"Fourteen days," Tami says quietly, her voice trembling with hope.
"And what's today's date if I may ask?"
"It's the sixth of December, the year 1812."
"Excuse me?"
Faye's voice cuts in, gentle but firm. "Tami will take her leave now. I'll begin the examination."
"No she is not leaving!" I yell, getting to my feet instantly, my knee hits the table spilling the tea placed on it.
"Excuse me?" Faye arches her brow.
"You are excused!"
"Lady Odette!" Tami calls out, now she looks like she's panicking.
"I'm losing my mind here," I confess. "Can someone please tell me what's going on here? Last I remember I had an accident on our way back from the school trip and I probably died. So what in heaven's name is happening right now? How is it 1812 when the last thing I remember is being in a bus on December 6th 2023?!"
Both Faye and Tami stare at me like I have grown two heads. "You need to calm down."Tami reaches for me but her hand is swatted away by Faye who glares at her.
"Leave her be. I will run the tests now. It seems like we are dealing with something more than memory loss."
"If you touch me Faye or whatever your name is, I swear I will not hesitate to bite your hands off."
I am getting hysterical as you can tell. Reality keeps fading into my dreams. I do not even know what is real anymore.
"I just need José," I mumble. "I need real life," I say just as tears stream from my eyes. "Or perhaps we could skip to the part where I died?"
"Please calm down milady, everything will be fine," Tami assures me. Nothing will be fine, none of them understands that nothing will be fine giving my current situation.
But like she says, I need to calm down to at least figure out the world I have been thrusted into, without my consent.
I take a breather, pursing my lips. "Fine. Go on with the tests, Faye."
As Tami walks out with a relieved sigh, while Faye prepares to do whatever it is she wants to do with that crystal ball, my mind tries to piece two and two together.
If I am not dead, and I am here with a new face. Does it mean I went back in time? Into another body? Precisely the body of the woman I had seen in the painting? Same painting that everyone else dismissed as a tale of fiction?
If this is true, how is it even possible?
Nothing makes sense, but then at least I am alive, even if it is another body, and there has to be a reason why I'm here. I intend to find out.
I could accept my fate, at least for now or I could keep crashing out, and get absolutely no answers for whatever it is that is happening to me. The former option seems logical, so I'll stick to that...for now.
Faye finishes her so-called tests with that glowing crystal ball of hers—red, yellow, and lavender swirling like a storm in a glass globe. I have no idea how she understands what any of it means. To me, it's just light and smoke.
"We'll have to keep you on bed rest, milady. Your condition hasn't shown much improvement," she says, voice clipped and professional. "Hopefully, you'll recover before the annual Cosmic Grand Ball. It would be a great disappointment if you couldn't attend, as the only daughter of Lord Marsai."
The words barely register. "Annual cosmic what?"
Of course, I don't say that out loud. I've learned quickly that Faye isn't one for explanations. Whatever kindness Tami holds, Faye keeps in reserve. So I let the silence stretch, keeping my question for when Tami will join me again, as she is the only best bet to give me some answers.
"I will take my leave now and allow your court lady come back in. I'll give her some instructions for you to follow so you can get better. I would hope you keep to them milady. Now if you'll excuse me."
I watch Faye leaving, breathing a sigh when she finally steps out of the door, and in her wake Tami comes rushing in.
"Lady Odette!" The girl exclaims upon sighting me.
"Come," I beckon to her as I stand up from before the vanity. I make it to the bed, at least without tripping this time, and I sit. Tapping the space beside me, I say to Tami , "sit with me."
She blinks, her eyes growing wide like she has just seen a ghost. "I'm sorry, have I offended you milady!I apologise!"
"If you keep panicking, you will not only offend me, but you might as well take my life," I say subtly.
Tami gasps at my word, and that prompts her to sit beside me... tentatively might I add, as if my closeness could kill her. "Apologies milady."
"So, now tell me. Apart from the fact that I am a witch. What else am I? What is this place? And what the heck happened to me?"