Until she saw a girl sitting on the desk.
Not at it. On it.
The stranger looked like an invitation to sin (a thought Eydis would take to her grave). Crimson eyes met hers, fierce and piercing. There was something otherworldly in that beauty, something just out of reach.
It was not reasonable.
Had Eydis ever met anyone like this in her own world? And if not, why did it feel like she should have?
She could almost believe “celestial goddess” hadn’t been an exaggeration.
Unfortunately, the hair didn’t help. Liquid starlight, if Eydis were the type to use overwrought metaphors (which she usually wasn’t), but it shimmered, and she, embarrassingly, had questions. About whatever the girl applied to her hair, mostly.
Astra, presumably, was dressed in what Eydis considered peasant clothing: a black camisole and shorts. Yet on her, it looked effortlessly good.
Unfair.
She blinked once at Eydis, then resumed an expression best described as disinterest.
Eydis realised she’d been staring. She tossed the stiff green blazer she’d suffered through all day onto her desk and greeted, “Good evening. My reluctant cohabitant.”
Astra didn’t react much at all, aside from a single, indifferent nod.
A quiet one, then. That was a relief. Finally, Eydis could enjoy the rare luxury of hearing her own thoughts without competing with Natalia’s relentless narration of daily drama. Speaking of which…
She pulled out her phone out of her bag. It lit up in her hands like it had a soul. Possibly one it had stolen.
Holding it between her fingers, she asked, "Do you know how to use this to contact someone?”
Astra stared at her.
"You don't know how?" Her voice was low and husky. Unexpectedly magnetic. She was unlike any teenager Eydis had passed in the hall today, carrying an air of maturity despite her youthful face.
“I had a concussion,” Eydis lied. With no shame, she bended her fingers, pretending they were stiff. “See, hand-eye coordination is not quite there yet. The brain is mysterious, is it not?”
A brief flicker crossed Astra’s face. Doubt? Displeasure? Or…
Concern?
Pure blind luck allowed Eydis to unlock the device with her Face ID. She extended it towards Astra, who reluctantly leaned forward to accept it.
Eydis lightly caught her wrist. “Wait.”
Astra flinched.
Eydis pulled back immediately. Just how much damage did teenage me do to this one?
"Show me how to do it. Call Natalia, please.”
Astra took the phone and scrolled through a few screens, then looked up. “No answer.”
"Leave a message. That’s a thing, right?”
Astra tapped an icon, revealing a white space with no messages.
Blank.
Eydis stared at it for a moment longer than necessary.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
So. We’re not that different after all.
Astra glanced at her. “Want me to type it?”
Eydis blinked back into focus. “Yes. Bathe me, please. And be generous with the rose petals.”
“I’m sorry. What?”
"Can you message Natalia and ask if she’ll help a girl out?” Eydis clarified.
Looking back on it now, it was perhaps not her finest moment. It had sounded so wonderfully sensible in her head. See, a steaming, relaxing bath with perfumed oils and soft, eloquent background string music was the bare minimum after a day this bizarre.
Astra, unfortunately, didn’t seem to agree. Her fingers curled around the phone slightly, as if she were deciding whether to throw it through a wall.
“Are you two… never mind.” With a deep sigh, she started typing.
"Not yet, but in time, she will accept her place.” Her place as a handmaiden, of course. Eydis finished the sentence internally, apparently, that title didn’t land well in this world.
Message sent, Astra shoved the phone into Eydis’s hands like it was cursed.
Finally, something we agree on.
This roommate arrangement wasn’t going to be easy. For Astra, living with someone who’d once written unsolicited love poetry about her had to be… unpleasant.
Understandable. Still, mildly inconvenient.
The silence that followed was vaguely judgmental.
Eydis drummed her fingers on the desk. “About the poem. It was a misunderstanding. Let’s pretend it never happened, shall we?”
“Misunderstanding?” Astra’s face was impossible to read. “Which part exactly? The kiss… or the entire poem declaring undying love?”
Oh.
Eydis had secretly hoped that bit was just unfounded gossip. And for reasons she refused to examine, she trusted Astra wasn’t lying. Which meant…
Eighteen-year-old Eydis had been emotionally wrecked.
By a girl.
“K…iss,” Eydis said, crunching her nose. “A deeply regrettable lapse. One I’m certain I apologised for at exhaustive length.”
“You didn’t,” Astra deadpanned.
“Which was obviously fuelled by the monumental stupidity of being eighteen, a surge of teenage hormones, and a mild-to-moderate head injury,” Eydis pressed on.
“Happened recent—“
“—In any case, my affections lie elsewhere.” Eydis’s voice dropped to a low cadence.
Astra pressed her lips together. Her crimson eyes locked on Eydis’s, finally taking her in as if seeing her for the first time.
Eydis lifted her chin and stared back. She had spent her life expecting people to look away. In her realm, fools dared not linger when they met her eyes. Here, though, she was just the odd girl with glasses, and the rules had changed.
But she had a feeling Astra was unlike any other. Call it a predator recognising another, or the fact that there was no contempt in those eyes, only curiosity.
Had her secret identity been blown? Just like that?
A knock broke the staring match. Eydis reached the door almost too fast, relief to find Natalia waiting outside.
Phone in hand and visibly flustered, the girl muttered, “Not. A. Word.”
Eydis smiled sweetly and gathered her bath essentials. On her way out, she discreetly glance in Astra’s direction.
Her roommate’s expression hadn’t changed, yet somehow Eydis felt she had said something wrong. Love, it seemed, was as foreign to her as this strange new world, and ten times more challenging.
Eydis turned to Natalia after she shut the door behind her. "Perhaps you could show me the wonders of this 'shower' you mentioned. Think of it as an early release from your royal scrubbing servitude."
“Hang on, hang on.” Natalia looked like a kettle about to whistle, eyes bouncing between Eydis and the open hallway like she was plotting the fastest sprint to freedom. “You’re telling me you can actually bathe yourself? Because earlier, with the face wash—”
“Please. Do I honestly strike you as the type who needs a handmaiden for soap and water?” Eydis leaned in just enough, winking. “Earlier was just a test to catch you in peak flustered-cuteness mode.”
“Mission? Oh my gods, c-cute what now?! So that whole face wash thing was just a test? Like… seeing how much of your nonsense I’d put up with?” Natalia barrelled on.
In fact, Eydis thought, it was a subtle trial to see whether Natalia was someone she could trust as her bridge into this strange reality. And she had proven to be a decent ally to claim.
Eydis smirked and calmly replied, “Call it reconnaissance. No successful campaign launches without probing the enemy’s defenses first. You’d agree, tactically speaking.”
“Okay. One: reconnaissance. Two: what’s with the jargons? Three: ugh, never mind.” Natalia rubbed her temple. “I’ve officially hit my daily limit.”
They entered the communal showers. The air was stuffy and humid from recent use, but the place was mercifully empty. Eydis paused before a stall. Against a grey tiled wall, a simple handle and a wide spout were fixed, a contraption not unlike the basin from this afternoon.
Natalia’s instruction died on her lips when Eydis strode inside and twisted the handle toward the red marker. A sudden rush of warm water roared out, drenching her arm.
Natalia closed her mouth slowly.
“Efficient,” Eydis remarked, wiping the water off with a thick, aggressive pink towel. “Though I can’t help feeling it’s criminally short on rose petals.
Natalia burst out laughing. “You know what? Forget concussion. Maybe you’re just… possessed by some overdramatic demon queen.”
"Perhaps that's not entirely off the mark," Eydis replied enigmatically, then yanked the shower curtain shut, abandoning Natalia to stare at a wall of floral plastic.
“Hey! You’re welcome?” Natalia muttered and left the room soon after.
Eydis pulled her hair tie away, ruffled her dark waves loose, and smiled to herself. While she might not have acquired a handmaiden, the acquisition of a highly flustered guide was proving almost equally entertaining.
When her fingers snagged on a stubborn knot, the smile vanished.
Still a long road ahead. She sighed.