Chapter 3 #2
“Yeah, to get out of the palace for a while.” She paused, blinking. “Which, now that I've said it out loud, I realize is a totally out of touch thing to say. Whew. If only my ex could see me now.”
Holly chuckled as she followed her back inside. “Well, my zen is officially disrupted for the day, so yeah. Shopping sounds fun. Let me get dressed. I'll only be a minute.”
“Take all the time you need. I just rolled out of bed.” Hattie grinned, patting down her hair. “I'm still in my jammies. Meet you in the common room in thirty? Or a quarter mark? Got to get used to the switch up.”
Holly could have despaired at how easily Hattie translated into domini time, or that she looked so sexy just rolling out of bed, but she only nodded before turning to her room.
Their suite – called the human suite by the domini when they thought the humans in questions couldn't hear them – was part of the royal wing of the palace.
It was a series of six bedrooms, each with their own private bath, connected to a central common room that they used as a place to hang out and eat and chat.
Holly closed the door to her private room, tossing the yoga mat onto the side table against the near wall as she looked around.
The room had always been beautiful, but now it was comfortable as well.
She, with Hattie's help, had altered it since arriving.
It was more in line with her personal tastes and almost felt like home.
It maintained the color scheme of violet, shimmering silver, and lavender, but she had the long drapes that had separated the room into distinct areas like sheer, breezy walls taken up and pinned in place, decorating the ceiling in sparkling arches and opening the space.
She had also pushed the bed against a corner, allowing her to make a nest of cushions between the wall and headboard that she sank into like a baby bird each night – her preferred way to sleep.
She had stopped for a time after Peony got pregnant and her friend began really nesting in earnest, but Holly realized quickly that her desire for tons of soft bedding was just a quirk of her personality and had nothing to do with an alien fetus exerting its instincts on her through her womb.
Still, it had taken a few days before she was comfortable throwing all her pillows back in place.
Unlike Scarlet's room that was always neat and ordered with her study materials all carefully organized and straightened, Holly's room was comfortably lived in.
It wasn't the mess that Alanna's inevitably became, no matter how well Tilii – their domini personal assistant/servant – cleaned it that day.
Holly's room was neither dirty nor neatly organized.
It was, however, very safe.
The drapes being up and the bed pushed out of the center – where the domini tended to place their beds – meant that she had a lot of open space to get away from any potential attackers.
Her bed was right under a window that she could open and escape onto the balcony in case of emergency.
The glass was so shatter proof that she hadn't been able to scratch it even when she tried.
The doors were only keyed to allow her through – or Atem because it was his palace and he had admin privileges or something, she wasn't sure how alien tech worked.
She had been here long enough for this room to feel familiar.
Like a place of safety. And by all accounts, it seemed to be just that.
She couldn't even throw away a bloody towel without the automatic laundry sensors detecting it and reporting a possible injury.
Which she had learned was a thing when Hattie had her first period.
Alien ladies didn't have periods. Not just domini ones.
That was apparently a human exclusive – lucky them – and when Holly had hers last week, the First Healer had been extremely interested in examining her through the entire process.
He didn't want to examine Hattie since she had really bad cramps and he hadn't wanted her to suffer for the sake of his research.
Holly, however, had no problems being a science experiment, even just an observational one, and had allowed her period to go through its natural completion for the sake of study.
She supposed if no human had ever had a period before, the first one would be fascinating to them too, so she tried not to think about how weird it was.
Besides, she actually liked being scanned by Donivi's fancy machine.
The same one that cured every medical ailment she had and even the cancer that she didn't know she had yet, though she knew it ran in her family.
That machine was a strange source of comfort for her in this alien world.
Her closet was also a strange source of comfort. She took them where she could get them.
She wasn't nearly so excited by all the fashion choices of the alien garments as Hattie, but Holly liked that wearing wizard robes covering the whole body was fully accepted here.
No one gave her an odd look if she went outside in a turtleneck dress even if it was hot.
The fabric here breathed better than Egyptian cotton, so it wasn't even like it was uncomfortable.
She took off her yoga gear and tossed them down the laundry chute before grabbing one of her new, patterned dresses.
This one was golden, covered in diamond shapes, and reached all the way to the ground, the colors gradually alternating from the neck to the hem.
It had a high waist and bell sleeves. It also had a plunging neckline that might normally be a problem, but it paired wonderfully with a white, shimmering top that was close to her neck.
The domini as a species tended to prefer solid colors.
Their skin adapted to the colors of its surroundings completely reflexively.
Patterns, especially complex ones, tired their skin out faster than solid colors.
It led to premature graying if someone wore a lot of patterns in the long run.
In the short run, they could suffer from skin fatigue wherein their camouflage reflex was slow or dulled or stopped altogether for a time and became stuck on one color until the cells recovered.
She had no idea how it worked, but she did know that it was considered a point of mockery if someone had skin fatigue.
Like the embarrassment of not knowing your limits when you went out drinking, but to a much higher degree because it didn't come with the fun of actually being drunk.
Just a strange sense of fatigue and general illness, she had been told.
But the humans loved patterns. They had found an old male, a fabric maker, who made patterns for smaller things like the hip pouches or maybe belts, something that wasn't worn directly on the skin and so wouldn't trip the reflex and had asked him to make them full outfits.
It was a challenge he took to eagerly. Not just because of the huge amount of credz it gave him, but because he enjoyed making patterns and the humans had a whole lot that they missed and requested.
Really, overall, their alien life was pretty sweet.
Holly didn't like change and she really disliked being out of control in strange situations, but she could admit it could be a lot worse.
For a time, while being held prisoner on an alien spaceship, freshly kidnapped, kept starved and dehydrated and cold, it had been a lot worse.
She was grateful, and she was trying. She wasn't good at adapting to new situations, but she was giving it her best shot.
If that meant she only felt comfortable going down to the market when someone was with her, then that was still better than when she had refused to leave the room outright.
Small strides. A little further every day.
A vora vakara she was definitely not. That was a name she wore as an impostor. Like someone wearing a championship ring who only got it by being part of the winning team without actually playing. But she kept going. It was all she could do.
***
The city of Calvitorum was the capital of the entire planet.
It didn't have a space port on account of it being built inside a forest, but it was massive and beautiful.
The palace was the only stone structure that had been built in a space cleared of the towering trees.
The only location that the trees had been cleared to make way for a structure at all.
Everything else had been built in and around the trees.
Half of the city was built within and above the canopy.
The wealthiest people lived there. The best businesses and restaurants operated higher up.
Below the canopy, just beneath the leaves, was where the middle class lived.
Below them was everyone else. There weren't many poor, most of the population were part of the middle class, but there were a few.
The market was below the canopy. Built on something like a raft strung between trees with a single tree bursting up through the center.
The sprawling, flat surface held many buildings and stands and was quite unlike the homes that were built directly against the bark of the tall trees.
It served the dual purpose of giving more room for people to set up business or shop as well as provide a shaded area for the large mushroom farm below the wooden floor.
Mushrooms were a surprisingly big part of the domini diet.
Surprising because they were blood drinkers.
Fruit and blood made up the majority of their diet – hence why she thought of them as demons.
However, they also enjoyed mushrooms. Since their mushrooms tended to be oddly sweet instead of savory like she was accustomed to on Earth, she didn't mind that part of the menu.