It was a home that didn’t stand out from the rest of the houses on Rafflesia Street. It was a two-story house that has a tiled roof and had wooden walls painted in white and blue. Nolan poured the scrambled eggs on a plate, he took a piece of bread, sliced it, and shook the sizzling pan.

He took two ceramic plates on the plate rack, he put the food on the plates and carried it upstairs. He knocked on a white door, and he heard no answer. He created a tray made of obsidian flesh and held the plate with that flesh. He entered the room and saw Ciara leaning on the table, buried under towers of documents and papers.

“Ciara?” he said.

“Yes?”

“You need to eat.”

“I’m fine,” she said. “I am never hungry.”

“Food can act as pleasure for the tongue, here you go,” Nolan placed the plates on the table.

Ciara stiffly moved his left arm, pointed the fork on one of the dishes, and poked it. She brought it in her mouth, and her eyes glistened for a second.

“You really do cook strange food.”

“Is it bad?” He asked.

“No,” she shook her head. “In fact, it’s better than I always expect.”

She turned and leaned her back on the table, she put the plates in front of her and started gobbling it. Nolan pulled the stool near the shelves and sat in front of Ciara. He watched her eat the food without any care. Her face had stains on it, and her hair was ruffled. He took a handkerchief from his pocket, leaned towards her, and wiped the stain on the side of her upper lips.

“Thanks,” she said.

Nolan moved closer, he took the hairbrush from her table, he pulled the stray locks of hair that was standing up and straightened them. She chewed on her food, her eyes glancing at the dish and the paper on the table. Her left hand poking the meat, and placing it in her mouth. Nolan braided her waist-length hair.

“Hmm, the Cascade Nation is winning their battles well,” Ciara said.

“Cascade nation?”

“Nation that lies between the waters. They are a group of islands that have a history of building bridges. Their nation is surrounded by long natural bridges, and they use these bridges to roam around their nation. They also have an armada that has conquered the southeast eastern straight.”

“Hmm, I don’t remember this nation.”

“How would you? We only knew that they exist when my granddaughters landed on one of their 10,101 islands. It was a pleasant meeting, and it only got worse when we started getting along.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Empire is what they call this continent now. But once, it was divided into three parts, the inner lands, where most of the civilized parts were, and the outer lands where the wildlands are, and finally the barren lands of miasma. When I defeated most of the monsters and destroyed the burrows, the fools of the Inner lands started to tame the lands and started to call the inner and outer lands as a whole Empire.”

“I see.”

She poked the scrambled egg and brought it on her mouth. Nolan grabbed hold of his chin, his eyes narrowing as he examines the unbraided parts of Ciara’s hair.

“They relied on me for two hundred years, from dealing with Kaiser, the four dragons, and finally, letting the Kings who started calling themselves as Emperors annoy me with such tasks that are coated to protect their rule. But, their goals suited mine, and it was for the good of the family.”

Nolan folded her hair into a braided bun. Nolan felt like it missing something so he took the ribbon from one of the dressers and paired it with Ciara’s braided bun.

“I liked it. Though, I would have preferred if you had done it after I took a bath.”

“I can do it again.”

She looked at Nolan with raised lips.

“You are good at tidying my hair. Why are you used to this?”

“I had a cousin who I would braid her hair and a certain someone who was happy to have her hair into a braided bun. So I got a lot of practice, and good at it.”

“Is it the same with cooking?”

“Yes, though I don’t consider it that good.”

“Is that so?”

She finished her meal and placed the fork on the plate. She leaned her left arm on the table and put a paper on the stack. Nolan pulled his stool next to her.

“Should I help? I know that you have it covered, still, it would be still faster.”

“I’ll be fine if you could, can you help me sort the documents that I finished? Mia, a great-granddaughter of mine would come to fetch the documents.”

“I see. You really have a lot of granddaughters.”

“Grandsons as well, though they are not as a clingy as my great-granddaughters, though they usually hold positions all over the Empire.”

Nolan nodded silently. He took the stack of paper, looked at the marks on the upper left corner of the documents, and started sorting them.

“You must have a really big family now.”

“I do. They are sweet and their worries can be quite something. They might not be my own blood, but they are as precious to me,” she smiled.

Nolan’s eyes became cloudy, he turned his head away from Ciara, as he saw himself on a lonely hill, kneeling, staring at two cross grave marks with half-body sobs. The illusion lasted for a second before changing into an illusion of a familiar world that he had once lived. His mother, brother, father, and his relatives smiling happily as they chat sing and talked about the New Year that would come. He tried focusing his gaze, hoping, that the illusion would be clearer, alas, the illusion became a faded photograph, leaving only blurry faces and yellow color to his eyes. His heart squeezed into a knot.