"So, what now?" Gabrielle sighed, sitting down on a nearby red velvet and gold chair.
"The others are waiting for you upstairs to introduce themselves. They are in one of the side rooms," Shai said, gesturing towards the left staircase.
Gabrielle gripped her dress and got back up. "What others? There's more than one Light Maiden?"
Shai laughed at Gabrielle's question. "No, there is only one Light Maiden, but there is more than one Maiden of Battle."
The Mystic nodded. "In this world, it’s become apparent that women are more adept at magic than men, that's why there are Maidens of Battle, they were created to effectively fight the forces of darkness, and even the Lords themselves. Though, Parliament has extremely high standards for who can be one, so there are only three, including you." She gestured at Gabrielle, warmly smiling.
Gabrielle nodded and walked up to the steps of the left staircase. "So which room is it?" Gabrielle asked, looking back at Shai and the Mystic.
"They are in the first room to the right when you walk up, they decided to go there so it would be less confusing,” the Mystic said, motioning her to go forward.
Gabrielle looked back ahead and climbed the stairs. As soon as she reached the top, she looked to her right, two arched wooden doors adorned with gold. "Gold, like everything else in this place." She shook her head, going up to the doors and gave them a push. When the doors creaked open, Two girls turned to look at her. The room itself looking a lot like the rest of the inner sanctum. Checkerboard marble floors, two gaudy red velvet chairs. One sat in the left corner closest to the door, and one in the far right corner. A similar gold chandelier hung from the ceiling.
"If you’re here, you must be strong enough to fight the armies of darkness!" One of the girls said, brushing back her long cherry red hair, her fiery red eyes sparkling in the warm light. "I'm Fira, and this is Lunara." The red haired girl gestures to the other girl who sat in one of the red velvet chairs.
The other girl was playing with her hair band that kept her ponytail up high on her head, near the part in her hair. The girl caught herself and kept her hands busy by crossing her arms, brushing her hands over her fair skin. "She hasn't been cleared by Parliament yet, don't get too excited Fira," Lunara grumbled, frowning and crossing her legs.
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"You don't seem that happy to see me Lunara," Gabrielle said worriedly.
"She's just having a bad day, she'll warm up to you eventually," Fira said, laughing awkwardly, gripping her short red dress.
Gabrielle raises her hand.
"Yes?" Fira asks.
"Will the Mystic and Shai be joining us later?" Gabrielle whispers.
Lunara shakes her head "Not today, it's much too late, we need to get back to bed to wake up, since it's night time already," she warned, taking her hands off her arms and unwrinkling her long black dress.
"Going to bed to wake up? How does that work?" Gabrielle asked, covering her mouth with a closed palm.
Fira went up to her up and puts a hand on her shoulder. "We need to get you into your new bed before too long, because we can only go to this world while we are asleep, when we wake up we go back to Earth."
Gabrielle nodded. "So it's daytime here when it's night time on Earth, and it's night time here when it's day time on Earth, right?" Gabrielle pondered.
Fira nodded at her. "Yep, so we need to get you to your new bed where you’ll wake up each time you come here," she explains, lightly shaking her.
"How are you going to do that? How will I wake up in the same bed each time? Don't I wake up back at the Field of Dreamers?" Gabrielle asked, confused.
Lunara got up and went up to the door. "Nope, once you wake up initially you don't go back, that would make things very difficult for the people here, since it's a long walk. We just use a spell to make your new awakening spot the bed instead of the Field of Dreamers." Lunara motioned for Gabrielle to follow her.
They all went a few doors down and opened the door. A large and plain looking king-sized bed sat in the middle of the room. "This is your room," Lunara said, walking up to the bed. "Get on the bed so we can cast the spell."
She gestured towards the bed. Gabrielle went up to it and got on. Lunara held up her arm, white sigils materialized from her hand, Gabrielle looked up with a slightly worried look on her face, only just met Lunara, and yet she had to allow her to cast some sort of spell? Before Gabrielle could protest, the sigils burst and dissipated, Lunara lowered her hand.
"The spell is done, you can go to sleep now. We'll be returning to our rooms too, good morning," Lunara said, walking out, followed by Fira, who gave her an excited wave on her way out.
Deciding to get under the covers, Gabrielle thought about how all this was supposed to work, and if she’d still have the markings on her finger when she woke up, if the markings would fade in time, or if it was permanent, she looked at her left hand and sighed. She worried about how all this would affect her new job, and how she would find time to fight the forces of darkness here while being a nurse in the real world. She decided then that worrying would just make her sleep through her alarm. Trying to clear her mind and focus on her breathing, clearing herself of all thoughts, she relaxed, and drifted off to sleep shortly after.