Where The Dandelion Led
The lady disappeared in the street light with her flower scent and maternal warmth, with her leaving Liu behind in a world which was similar to her but at the same time not.
Liu was wondering, maybe thinking of her parents. It was disorienting for her. Of course, it was disorienting to her. To Liu it felt like her world had scattered, leaving her thinking — what is this world? What is herself?
To Liu, the world was surviving. Not warmth from a stranger, not seeing a noble lady and a commoner boy walking together. Her world was constant fighting. Fighting to survive, and failing to understand why her parents abandoned her.
But this — it was unsettling. Of course it was unsettling, the dandelion field turning into people's screams and the woman saying she didn't deserve to live. But it was also jarring for Liu to receive kindness and warmth from a stranger. It was also jarring for her to be in a world which was similar to her world but also in every possible way not.
Which left her wondering — what was the right world? Was it the world which was a survival game, or was it the world where people show kindness to others?
When her mind was wandering the answers to these questions, trying to understand her situation and why this world felt so off in a way she couldn't explain — the lady came back. But...with other people who looked similar.
Beside the lady a woman stood tall, face kind, older, and she looked similar to Liu in a way which only someone who was close to them could look. Then Liu realised — it was the woman in flame, screaming at her. It was the woman who said she shouldn't have been born and had destroyed her life.
Liu's whole body went rigid in a way which can only be described as when a person believes something doesn't exist, but it does, and it comes in front of their eyes — she was completely stunned.
The lady slowly crossed the distance between her and Liu with a presence she recognised. The woman beside the lady looked concerned and curious, slightly.
The lady said, "Liu, I brought your mother here. Now, go to your dorm and sleep okay Liu. I am going now."
The lady disappeared again in the street light, but this time it felt like she was not going to return ever. Leaving Liu with a woman she was still trying to figure out.
The woman spoke in her most calming voice possible, maybe because she could see how Liu's face looked horrified and troubled.
"Liu.....are you Liu?"
Liu was struck still — not because she looked like the woman in flame, not because she looked like the dandelion lady, but because the woman's voice was soft and calming with a warmth underneath it which had never been given to her. It was soft in a way where Liu had never heard a person talk like that.
Liu didn't speak for minutes. Not like with the lady, which she took 3 seconds and talked, but to this woman she couldn't speak for minutes even if she tried to.
Liu's voice was shaking in a way she didn't know if it was even her voice. "Yes...I am Liu."
The woman looked rattled and uncomfortable now. Liu was still frozen, not moving.
But she slowly looked around and noticed that people were standing with the woman.
There was another lady with white hair and white eyes — abnormal. And a young lady beside her with hair that looked like the universe was in them — another abnormal person. And....a little girl, probably around Liu's age, who looked like Liu.
Liu froze where she stood, looking at that girl. She was so similar to Liu in a deeply unsettling way. Her nose was like Liu's but a little red. Her eyes were like Liu's — the same chocolate brown colour with a honey colour tint — but more bright somehow, more happy, with no signs of sleep deprivation. And those eyes looked at Liu in pity.
The girl who looked like Liu said, "Hey, my name is...Liu. You look like me a lot."
The silence between them was suffocating. Who could even imagine seeing a person who looked like you in a place you had never been, in a world so different from your own.
Liu hesitated before speaking. "I am also Liu. Why do...we look alike?"
The other Liu said, "I also don't know why we...look similar. I don't know."
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The woman who looked like the woman in flame finally broke the silence. "You...Liu, the other Liu, where are you from? How did you get here?"
Liu said, almost whispering, her voice breaking a little. "I...don't know..."
The woman looked at Liu with a mixture of sadness and pity. "Do you remember anything, kid?"
"I do," Liu said. Her voice instantly went flat — the cold, manufactured tone she had been forced to learn to look mature. "I remember everything."
The white haired woman looked at Liu with pity. The other woman's eyes darted toward Liu, caught off guard by how mature she sounded, how almost emotionless.
The woman paused, studying her. "Where are you from?"
"Sablethorne Magic School," Liu answered.
The woman frowned, turning her head toward the white haired lady beside her. "Is there a place called Sablethorne?"
"I've never heard of it," the white haired woman replied softly.
Liu's stomach dropped.
Liu was rattled, because how could no one know Sablethorne school — it was really famous, everyone knew it. So why was the woman saying she didn't know. Unless...just how different this world truly was from her own — not just in manners and ways of living, but in places too but just looked familiar.
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