Day 2

And it didn't taken more than a moment for me to awaken once again to the sight of the fireplace. How long was that? Why did it go by so fast? Did I blink and mistake that for sleeping? It's incredibly disorientating being in this room. Not knowing the time of day, not being able to see the sun as there were no windows. This isn't going to be healthy for my mental health, I can tell. But no matter how long I stayed on the bed sleep wouldn't take me. Perhaps I had slept?

Worming myself out of the warm comforts of the blanket I placed my bare feet on the cold stone floor. The same cold floor I was already familiar with, there isn't a way to tell the difference between today and tomorrow with this. I undressed and dressed myself in my new clothes, socks and all, and walked out of my room. Looking between the stairs and the other room, there was nothing. I couldn't hear anything but the crackling of the fire.

I hate this. This is worse than being stuck in that cave.

The same pattern I'd already initiated before. I went downstairs and saw that no one was there. I wanted company. Being a bit rude in order to acquire it would be fine. I knocked on the door to Alfred's doll creation room and waited for a response. None came for a while, instead footsteps. I backed away from the door just in time for the door to open, revealing the calm face of Alfred.

"Good morning, Eithne. Sleep well?"

"I'm not sure I slept at all?" Was that a question or a statement? It was both. I'm not sure I had even slept.

Alfred tilted his head and went into thought, not moving from the door frame. "Ah. The lack of sunlight is debilitating your sense of time. Rest assured you had likely slept. How about we both check outside, the sound of snow won't come through my walls or doors. Follow."

I forgot I could open the entrance door. I nodded and followed Alfred, first waiting for him to pass me. He was tall, his back broad, and walking next to him for some reason accentuates both of those features. Alfred arrived at the door and opened it, allowing a gust of wind and a torrent of snow to fall inside. He quickly closed it, not looking to mind the resistance the wind gave to the door. With a click it closed, and he turned to me once again.

"Still snowing. But, from the amount of light outside I'd guess it's daytime. That good enough for you?"

"It'll work. Thanks, Alfred. And about the breakfast you had promised me?" Alfred nodded and headed towards the kitchen, and I again followed him. I sat on the seat I had before sat on and waited. I knew it was odd of me to ask him to prepare the food for me when I could do it myself, but I can't forget the taste of the steak he had given me yesterday. If he's offering I'll take, no questions asked. And only a little bit of regret in doing so.

Again, the food was delicious. He had prepared it with the same diligence he had last time, I could barely tell the difference between the two flavors. I took my time to savor the meal this time, this would most likely be my only meal for the day. Or, perhaps I could steal some bread if I got hungry later. The real problem won't be hunger, it'll be boredom.

Regardless, I ate it. And Alfred again disappeared into his room before I could stop him. For all his generosity he wasn't much of the type to talk, is he? Another source of possible entertainment had left me, and with the dish empty I was prepared to wash and dry it. Turns out there's a reservoir of water inside the house in two places. The first is in a bathroom whose door was in the doll room, and the other was next to where Alfred had been sitting in his doll making room. I'll go wash the dishes where Alfred wouldn't be bothered.

I placed the fork and knife on the plate and picked the plate up, walking up the stairs and opened the door into the doll room. It was dark but with a little flickering of my mana the room lit up once again, revealing the same masterly crafted dolls I've been growing familiar with. I had to be careful not to drop anything, which was as easy a task as I thought it would be. The bathroom door was located in a corner and plenty of room was given for both the door to open and for anyone to walk inside comfortably.

I turned the knob of the bathroom door and opened it. It was as typical as bathrooms get, save for what looked to be running water and a sewage system. How rich is Alfred anyway? Asking that was impolite but seeing what he owns and what he's made, I'd imagine very. I walked over to the sink and placed the dishes inside, making note of the soap and beginning to wash using it. If there's this much running water inside why couldn't he set up his own shower or bath? He doesn't look to be the type to leave his house, although if that were really true I wouldn't have been saved by him.

There's still a lot I've not figured out yet. But does it matter? I won't be staying here for long anyway. I don't dislike Alfred, that'd be too strong of a word. I'll see how our relationship develops before I take too much of an interest in him and his life, and in possible future cohabitation. By now, the dishes have been cleaned and it was time to let them dry. There was a towel on the side that I could use to dry them manually but I have other things I want to do and I don't think the dishes would be missed for a while.

The dolls, for one, were something I wanted to look at more closely. Not to peek and see what they wore as underwear, of course. I won't repeat that mistake again.

At least not without first looking around the room.

I walked out of the bathroom and back into the doll room proper. The figures were as I saw them yesterday, nothing new was added and nothing had changed in the room. I had closely inspected only a handful of the dolls, and it'd be wrong of me to say that I lacked any interest at all in the rest. Like I had said before, I think they were pretty. Appreciating good pieces of art should be expected, I would think.

The dolls I was really interested in were of the daoine ainmhithe, the animal folk. There were more than the catamarán who looked strikingly like me, save for her eyes. Mine were blue, and I like to look at my eyes whenever I get the chance. Which was rare given that water didn't often serve as a good mirror. I'm sure that if I consider my eyes pretty, so did everyone else. Much better than the emerald green that little catamarán had, I could confidently say.

But I'll ignore her for now. I haven't seen much of my kind, only twice actually. My mother was one, but I've never met her, and adoptive mom wouldn't say much about who she was and why she had left me other than calling her a whore. I hope she wasn't actually one.

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Too many digressions. I've not seen much of any of the ainmhithe, neither did I see much of the búraló, the wolf folk. I know there were those with the strength and looks of monkeys, and others with the know how and abilities of beavers. But those people were from a far off land, and it's only in recent years that they've entered into the population of this land. Out of all the dolls in this room, these of the ainmhithe interest me the most.

So I looked. I looked at what looked to be a strangely solemn girl with bunny ears and a poofy tail holding hands with what looked to be her child, and I looked at what was probably a some sort of deer folk given her great antlers. She was lazing around on a rock, chewing on grass. The amount of details on each of these sculptures was mind boggling if I was to be honest with myself. I can scarcely believe a human mind and hand had made these things.

Life like would be an understatement for some of these. It was as if they were alive, literally. Another girl, and most of these dolls were girls for most likely perverted reasons, with white feathers for hair and deep black eyes, and about to pull the tail of one of the tiger folk. Her face was contorted into a smile and one of her hands hiding that smile, the tiger hadn't yet noticed her antics.

And besides the dolls, and if the catamarán could be used as a measure of accuracy then all of these daoine ainmhithe were probably accurate. The clothes each of them wore was exquisite all on their own. The bunny girl had worn a long, flowing dress that reached to the floor, a pretty pinkish-white with strange geometric decorations running along it. The little child holding her hand was dressed similarly, although her dress only reached to her knees rather than to the ground.

The deer girl wore significantly less, only something to give her breasts some modesty and what I would consider to be out in her underwear for the most part. Earrings decorated her ears and paintings, or maybe tattoos, rolled across her flesh. She was a bit more obscene than most.

And the weird bird person, maybe a parrot? Wore an odd hooded cloak that stretched and made itself into a sleeve for her arms to go through. Otherwise she was wearing trousers, a masculine display.

This room would satisfy my boredom for a while, I could tell. But even that would eventually get boring. I had looked enough at the dolls, and it was time to collect the dishes and utensils and head back into the kitchen. I have other curiosities I want to satisfy, involving enchantments related to the lights and fireplace. I've never been given the chance to sit and inspect such advanced enchantments before. This will be valuable experience, and time well spent all considering.

I wouldn't be able to learn much from watching dolls all day. I shouldn't get used to having so much leisure time.

I walked over to the bathroom and got everything I needed and got out. The dishes were dry, which wasn't much of a surprise given how long I'd been staring at the dolls, and I moved over and out of the room and back into the kitchen downstairs. I knew where the plates were taken from and where the fork and knives were as well, so I opened the drawers to their respective places and put them back. This is the first act of being somewhat useful to Alfred, even if I hadn't cooked the food myself.

If I could I'd prefer to have him cook, forever. But that'd be inconsiderate, if he could teach me that'd be fine as well.

Life was alright, for now. This isn't nearly as boring as I thought it would be, although I desperately did want to move around a bit. But there's no where to do that in, and most likely we were still in the middle of a snowstorm. I'll go check right now. I walked over to the entrance door and placed an ear next to it. I couldn't heard anything, a good sign. Excitement welled up in my chest, maybe I could finally go outside again?

I opened the door with a twist of the knob and was greeted by a gust of wind to my face. I tried to close the door again but the wind was too strong, and it took me several seconds to win against it. By the time I had closed the door, the entrance was covered in a light spray of snow. This door insulates sound very well. I should've figured that out already. Alright, let's move on to my original room then.

Walking up the stairs and to my room, I maneuvered myself into my room and next to the fire. I was interested in two things primarily, the first was the fire and the second was the light. The light was on a wall and I wasn't tall enough to reach it, so I couldn't directly observe it as I would if I were to touch it. But the fire was on the ground, and I could work with what was presented here.

The first step is to figure out if this truly was a magical fire. I don't know any general procedure needed in making sure something is safe to do, but I'll run through any idea that comes to mind that won't end in my combusting into flames, or the room exploding.

Time went on while I tested and played with the fire. I cast a fire resistance spell on myself and tried to feel for any mechanisms inside, while naked of course. The spell didn't extend to my clothes. I couldn't feel any wood, so it wasn't a natural fire. A pattern was etched into the floor of the flame so it was, in fact, a magical one using some sort of enchantment. I played with it, tracing my finger along the pattern until a mental image had formed.

But still I couldn't figure out how to turn it off and on. If Alfred walked in while seeing me like this, one of us would have to die. And it would in all likelihood be me.

But fortunately that didn't happen. Even after what had felt like hours playing with and in the fire, no one came. I had figured out how to turn it off, removing fire mana from the pattern would do the job. And adding some back in would relight the fire, but the strength wasn't proportional to the amount. Instead, the amount dictated the duration. The amount of mana in it was enough to last for months, it was an absurd amount. Maybe some sort of mana catalyst was used to fuel it?

But that's outside the aim of my exploration. I didn't understand the pattern much, but given time I'll eventually patch together a theory of how and why this fire works. For now I had satisfied my initial curiosity of how to turn it off and on. So I moved on to the light.

Getting it and not breaking it would be the problem I was facing now. There wasn't anything to stand on beside the bed, and it was slightly too far for me to get it even if I did get on the bed. It was on the wall opposite to where the door was, and the bed was to the left of it, the fireplace to the right. I could move the bed over, but that might scratch something. Oh well, if I wanted to figure out the mysteries of the magical light some sacrifice should be in order.

I grabbed the underside of the wooden frame of the bed and dragged. It wasn't heavy and even I, despite being on the shorter side, could drag it over. Once in a proper position I got up on the bed and inspected the lamp. It was bright and annoying, and I couldn't see it all that well because of that. The fire place would provide enough light so I turned the lamp off and inspected it once again.

I didn't know how to remove it from the wall, or whether I could. So I had to stand on my tippy toes and inspect it that way. It was tiring, but this one felt less complicated than the fireplace. The enchantment was simple, although smaller, and it was slightly more intuitive. It'd make sense, these products are common among the nobility. It mustn't have been that complicated of an enchantment.

I spent hours going back and forth between the fireplace and the lamp. Eventually, at one point, I got tired beyond the physical tiredness that comes from standing on my toes for prolonged periods of time. Was it night, then? Did I act like Alfred and not leave my room? I wanted to speak to Alfred again, but not today. Maybe tomorrow I'll spend my time inspecting the enchantment on the table, just in case I can catch Alfred walking out of the room.

And hopefully he won't mind me asking for breakfast once again. That reminds me, I haven't eaten at all since the steak, but I wasn't hungry. A bit odd.

I shifted the bed back into its proper place and took off my clothes. Tonight I'll sleep with my bloomers only, since I doubt Alfred had snuck up on me yesterday night. Maybe I was being a bit stupid but I always liked to sleep in the nude rather than with clothes, although mom never approved of it. She didn't kick me out of the bed regardless, so I never stopped doing it.

Time to sleep.