The walls of the inside of the mansion were painted in soothing pastel colors. The floor of the lobby and hallway was even made of marble, giving out a premium atmosphere as our footsteps echoed off the high ceilings. And on those ceilings hanged enormous, bright chandeliers with thousands of pieces of clear glass dangling in complex patterns.

On either side of the hall were many wood doors in a line. Irnoma led me through one of the doors into a small but cozy room. The marble floor cut off at the door frame and turned to a smooth wood floor. There was a small fireplace to one side that gave off a small rumbling sound, with the occasional crackle.

Against the opposing wall was a counter where a tea kettle sat. Compared to the simple metal kettle from the wood cabin, this one was made of luxurious ceramic and painted with intricate blue curves. I could tell tea was already prepared by the barely visible steam escaping the mouth.

I didn’t see any flowers, but their sweet aroma filled the room, making my nose scrunch upon breathing in. I was never one for strong smells, especially smells of nature, but at least this was better than the smell of mud and swamp back in the dungeon I had come from.

Near the fireplace stood a small round table and two chairs. They reminded me of the table Irnoma and I sat at just a few minutes ago. This time, though, everything gave off an extravagant energy. The table was painted pastel white and had a cloth covering that was covered with patterns of different colored flowers. The chairs were now laced with fabric that was cushioned with some soft material under it. The comfortable-looking cloth covered the seat, back, and armrests of the chairs with the same flowery pattern as the table.

Irnoma motioned for me to take a seat as she went to pour some tea. I sat down gladly on one of the chairs and let myself sink into the cushions. At the counters, Irnoma was gracefully emptying steaming green tea into two cups with the same ceramic finish as the kettle.

“Can’t you just use that teacup trick you showed me earlier?” I asked her as she brought over the cups resting on two small plates. She set them down on the table cloth before answering.

“Now, wouldn’t that take away from the fun?” She walked back and brought back the tea kettle. “I see tea pouring as an art form.”

I scrunched my face in confusion. Is this some sort of joke only rich people would understand?

“Ahaha!” Irnoma laughed as she sat down across from me. “Don’t get so worked up about it, boy, it’s just a hobby of mine.” Her warm smile emitted every sense of wealthiness and luxuriousness as she said that.

I didn’t say anything in return. Instead, I took a sip from my teacup and set it back down in a clank. The fire beside us rumbled in the short moment of silence.

“Okay, so I will start from the top, then,” Irnoma said after I didn’t reply. “Which timeline are you from? Actually, scratch that. What do you call your planet? And your country?”

Timeline? Planet? Did that mean there were more worlds out there? If so, then how many? I asked myself those questions but never opened my mouth to speak them. “Earth… United States,” I replied.

She repeated what I said to herself. “Hmm, I guess ‘Earth’ would make sense as a name for the ground if you didn’t know other worlds existed. And ‘United States’? Who the hell names their country literal synonym of ‘group of nations’!?” She shook her head and sighed. “Still, I don’t seem to remember any of those names. This human brain is really limiting, but I promise you I will see if I can recall it in my own time if I shift over to a more intelligent being. The fact that your people aren’t able to time walk helps narrow it down.”

The room became quiet again, and the fire letting out a loud crackle. I looked down at my teacup in the awkwardness. When Irnoma realized I wouldn’t talk without her saying anything, she finally asked me another question. “So, you came here without even a purpose, correct? And you can’t even time walk. How did you get here exactly?”

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“I… I’m not sure myself,” I answered, then looked down to my hands shyly. “I don’t really know exactly what I did, but I just landed here…”

“Well, if you are the one who brought yourself here, then I’m not too surprised you landed in my world. Over the many years, the large amount of people traveling here to seek my knowledge has created some sort of a current that warps space-time around here, making it easy for people to get here without much effort.”

I nodded, and for the third time, there was an awkward silence. Irnoma again waited patiently for me to talk, but I looked down and didn’t speak.

“You know kiddo, you can’t keep making me ask all the questions. You deserve to know something about me as well. Don’t be afraid to ask me something.”

I looked back up at her, conflicted about whether I should do as she said or not. That statement was the one I hated the most back in my old world and back in school. It wasn’t any different here in front of this woman. I didn’t like people forcing me to open my mouth.

But Irnoma just sat there, patiently waiting. Her face showed neither an annoyed expression nor a passive-aggressive feeling. Slowly, she took her first sip of tea elegantly. It seemed as if she was prepared to wait an entire day for me to ask a question.

“H–how did I land here?” I asked her quickly after reluctantly giving in.

She tilted her head and furrowed her brows. “I just explained that, didn’t I?”

My face immediately turned red after realizing I had said the wrong thing. “I–I meant… I meant like… how I fell from the sky and I landed but I didn’t get hurt—” I stopped and looked back down at my cup. That was possibly the worst way to phrase what I wanted to say.

Thankfully, Irnoma didn’t seem to mind it. “Oooh, so that is what you meant! I am so sorry about that. It was a basic time stretch. I lowered your speed to minimize your impact.”

I thought about it for a moment before remembering that she had been that deer near where I had landed. If I were to learn from her, would I be able to do the same?

“H—how were you able to do that?” I asked Irnoma as she took another sip from her cup.

“Well, it’s quite complicated to explain to somebody who doesn’t have any fundamental knowledge about all this.”

I leaned forward from the comfortable backrest of my seat. “When will you teach me the fundamentals?” I asked eagerly.

“Hey, calm down, kiddo. I said I’d teach you, didn’t I? It’ll be soon enough.”

I slumped back into the cushions of the chair in disappointment. I wanted to see more of those magic tricks Irnoma had, but I guess I could wait a bit for now.

“Either way,” she continued, “what do you know about time walking? If you were able to come here by yourself, you must have learned something.”

“Well… someone—this girl, Angel—taught me… And we were kind of in a frantic situation… there was this man who for some reason helped me too…” I trailed off as I started to remember the events I had gone through in the past few days. I remembered the blood, the gunfire, the rotting prison. A small headache started to pound in my head, and I felt a slight sensation of throwing up. I rested my hand on my forehead as if that could clear out everything.

“Have some tea,” Irnoma said to me in a worried tone, breaking me out of my head and saving me from those memories, “It sounds like you’ve gone through a lot…”

“Y—yeah… it’s a long story…” I quickly finished my cup of tea, and my headache receded just by tasting the warm liquid in my mouth and feeling it go down my throat.

“I’ll be listening. I don’t mind hearing a long story.” Irnoma refilled my cup with the kettle in a smooth motion, then folded her hands neatly in front of her and waited.

I took a few deep breaths and started from the top. I told her about being late to school, about meeting Angel, and about the sudden alarm. I described the school shooting and our escape through time traveling. I talked about Arthur and his aggressive attitude towards me and how Angel freed me from his captivity. Then I went through our escape on his wagon, our capture, and our imprisonment.

On the other side of the table, Irnoma sat and listened to me patiently. Her expression changed as the mood of my story. When I described the dark cellar where Arthur kept me, her face turned dark with concern. When I recounted the escape from the shooters, she sat at the edge of her seat, eager to know what came next.

But as I went on and on about every small detail of my twisted adventure, the headache came back little by little. I tried to push it away again by drinking more and more tea, but it became less and less effective as I continued my story.

Maybe it was my headache, or maybe it was the moody atmosphere the warm fireplace gave. Or maybe it was the comfortable chair and the fact that I hadn’t had a good rest for a long time. But my eyes slowly started to close as I reached the end of my story, until everything blacked out and I fell into a deep slumber.