Chapter One: Homecoming
535 Words
Olivia helped Alice down from the carriage, paid the fare, and the two began to walk toward the heart of the town.
At first sight, Alice felt a strange disorientation.
It was spring — the streets thronged with travelers and carriages. Tea stalls lined both sides of the road, selling fragrant brews, orange cakes, and sesame candies. Fortune-tellers had set up their tables, their paper charms fluttering in the breeze. By the lakeside, new pavilions had been built, and the fresh willows hung their tender green reflections upon the rippling water.
The scene was bright, bustling — alive.
Olivia’s eyes sparkled with delight. “Miss, how lively Everfort County has become!”
But Alice stood dazed.
When she had left, it was the depth of winter, and the plague had ravaged the county. The streets then had been empty and bleak, silent as a graveyard. Now the same town was transformed — prosperous, full of laughter and life — and the contrast only deepened the unease stirring in her heart.
After a moment, she said softly, “Let’s go.”
The streets of Everfort had been widened. Where once there had been muddy earth, slick and treacherous after summer rains, now smooth pebbles paved the way, steady even under carriage wheels.
The old fabric shops and grain stores had vanished without trace, replaced by grand taverns and teahouses. The town she remembered existed now only in fragments of memory.
As they walked, Alice traced those fragments, step by step — the well at the eastern temple gate, the bronze ox standing before the ancestral shrine.
Then, turning down a narrow alley and walking a few hundred paces more, she stopped abruptly.
Olivia followed her gaze — and froze.
Before them stood the charred remains of a house.
The walls by the gate were blackened with soot; the roof had collapsed, and nothing remained but scorched beams, the faint outline of a doorway still visible in the ruin. A bitter tang of burnt wood lingered in the air.
Unease flickered across Olivia’s face. If Alice had stopped here, then this must have been her home. But all that remained were the traces of fire — where were the people who once lived here?
Alice stared fixedly at the burnt frame of the door, her face drained of color. Her legs felt as though cast in lead — she could not move.
Just then, a voice called from behind.
“Who are you two, standing there like that?”
They turned. Not far away stood an old woman balancing a yoke of fuling cakes across her shoulders, regarding them with mild suspicion.
Quick-witted as ever, Olivia stepped forward with a bright smile, bought a few cakes with a handful of coins, and spoke lightly:
“Auntie, my mistress is a distant relative of the Lu family. We’re passing through and came to pay a visit. But it seems… there’s been a fire? Do you know where the family has gone?”
At the mention of the Lu family, the woman’s expression softened. Taking the coins, she sighed.
“Come to see the Lu family, have you? Then best turn back, child. There’s no one left here.”
- Writer
