She arrived at her own apartment, into the living room. Before placing Larthia Granny's mysterious pot by the window, close to the natural light, she looked outside. From the living room, the small orchard of several fruit trees was visible. Ciro, Lars, and Rhesus were sitting on a bench beneath one of the apple trees in full bloom. Aisling's father, Aodhan, was approaching the house. Maybe he wanted to show something to the guests. Rhys's grandparents had become friends with Sophia's maternal grandparents during the boy's mentorship. Many, many years ago, long before Sophia and Rhys got together. Ciro and Lars regularly met here in the afternoons with Callista and Rhesus, Daphne's parents, who also didn't live here but mostly gathered here for part of the afternoon, almost every day. Aisling's and Sophia's relatives living here were always happy about these kind guests.

  Sophia's father, Cassius, was perhaps walking somewhere with Daphne, Callista, Aurelius, Thorsten, Lady Lívia, and Rhys.

  "I'll check later who among the house residents is home," the girl thought before setting down the mysterious pot, for now, on the floor by the window. She looked out once more to wave to the guests sitting on the bench, but they didn't notice. Not even Aodhan, approaching the house, glanced toward the windows.

  "We didn't even ask Granny Larthia whether we should keep this pot inside or outside."

  This was to have been Aisling's first houseplant.

  "I need to check Callista's flower stand again, she made it with very beautiful patterns," she continued planning the final place for her first houseplant in the living room, next to the window.

  Last week, they had visited Daphne's parents, and now that she had a plant too, Callista's beautiful flower stand came to mind. The girl wanted to make a stand with the same patterns for her plant, whatever it might become.

  "Well, Daphne has decorated the house vases again with her favorite floral arrangement," she thought gratefully when she noticed the poppies and cornflowers adorning her writing desk. Daphne didn't even need to enter other apartments for this. Of course, only the resident could transform their own apartment, but they could always send flowers into each other's vases. Usually, it was Daphne who thought of that.

  "It fits well with the painting," she judged the overall effect from two steps away after simply leaning the painting against the wall.

  "Almost perfect. I just need to adjust the wall color two shades lighter so the poppies' color will stand out better."

  She went to the dressing room to use the holo, intending to enhance the harmony between the wall, the painting, and Daphne's favorite flower arrangement.

  "Hi, kitty! Have you been locked in here all day?" the girl exclaimed in horror when she saw Astra, the family's white cat, trapped in her dressing room.

  It didn't seem to bother the cat much. Only Aisling's arrival woke her, until then, she had probably been peacefully sleeping.

  "She might have been here since morning, this poor kitty must be hungry and thirsty," she observed the comfortably stretching cat.

  Before using the holo panel to adjust the wall color, she asked Astra for food and water. The cat daintily tasted her food, then indignantly walked out through the door into the girl's living room.

  Since she was already there, Aisling checked her health and tidied her appearance.

  "If possible, add more magnesium to your afternoon meal," the holo suggested.

  Carefully, she put Astra's food and water back on the holo panel, then requested the lilac color of the living room wall to be two shades lighter.

  "Now it's perfect," she admired a few moments later from the living room, the overall effect.

  Astra walked around the new pot, poking the soil with her pink nose, as if conducting an inspection. Yet Astra did not like plants. Or rather, some of them. Even in Sophia's garden behind the swan statue, there were flowers that the white cat had difficulty befriending. At first, she even hissed at them.

  "No danger found in the room," the cat indicated with her calm, friendly behavior and posture.

  "But why would I even think such things? What danger could there be in my own room?" the girl wondered.

  Astra curled up next to Larthia Granny's pot and resumed what she had recently been disturbed from in the dressing room. She went back to sleep.

  Aisling cast one more satisfied glance at the perfect harmony of the wall color, the painting, and Daphne's flower arrangement. Then she sat down by her solid pearwood table. Only one day had passed since she last sat here, curious about the unknown. Yet yesterday seemed much more distant.

  "The perception of time is just as mysterious as time itself," she thought.

  Apparently, nothing had happened since yesterday. Still, it had been proven that these were not just dreams. The real injury from yesterday excluded all her doubts. And that raised too many questions.

  "Rhys doesn't even know yet," she thought of her comrade, with whom she had experienced these strange things.

  As much as she had looked forward to finally talking to Rhys and sharing this frightening experience, now it seemed just as unimportant. She wanted to write down her questions to think about together.

  "The consciousness senses the threads of time based on how much it experiences in a day," she concluded, thinking about how distant yesterday already felt.

  "You neglect everyone lately," Lady Lívia's reproach from yesterday came to mind.

  She checked the time. Exactly 18:07.

  "I still have twenty minutes to reach the library. I'll check who is home."

  Lady Lívia's reproach had been effective yesterday.

  Aisling could have found out who was at home among the house residents from her room, but since cats had been visiting too often lately, she also wanted to place litter and water for them in the living room.

  Her exact double immediately gave the information: Aodhan, Thya, Lady Lívia, and of course Aisling were at home. Lady Lívia and Cassius, the parents of the two siblings, had also left, perhaps with Daphne and the others to the Thousand-Year Oak. Or maybe they were at some creative circle.

  "Great, my mother is home," Aisling was pleased.

  She returned to the living room with the water and cat litter.

  Her mother answered the doorbell almost immediately.

  "How come you're home?" Aisling asked.

  Lady Lívia's hologram smiled mysteriously.

  "Well, you'll see where I was today later this evening. I have a little surprise for you."

  "Why didn't you go down to Father and the others?"

  "Because I just got home. And I must admit, I'm a little tired too."

  "Would you like to have a stimulant in the peristyle?" Aisling invited hopefully.

  "I'll wait for you downstairs," her mother answered briefly, then turned off her hologram in Aisling's room.

  Before activating the holo-gate on the left side of the window, the girl looked out the window one last time. She couldn't make out what exactly, but her father, Aodhan, was already back with the guests, enthusiastically explaining something.

  Astra didn't even wake up, not even when the girl gave instructions to the holo-gate.

  "For the third time, I'm trying to tie this, but it keeps coming undone," Aisling heard one of Thya's mentees complaining.

  "It took me a long time to get it right, too," the girl reassured her with a kind, melodic voice.

  "My bow is crooked," another girl lamented.

  "We're here today to get everything just right," Thya said again.

  Aisling couldn't see them from the path, but she knew they always sat there, on the lawn, behind the bushes, comfortably resting on ornate cushions. If her mother hadn't already been waiting for her by one of the small wicker tables in the covered part of the peristylium, she would have gone over to see what the girls and boys from the mentor circle were sewing today.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "They still have a few school years left," she thought. And for a moment, she almost envied Thya because of it.

  She and her peers were already preparing for their exams and the Mentor Farewell. At the very end of the school years, in these last few weeks, they had less and less contact with the younger mentees.

  Of course, Lady Lívia had arrived bringing a tray with refreshing syrup and glasses. Even though they could have simply ordered something here. There were nearly invisible holo-panels on many of the tables in the peristylium.

  "How lovely the covered part of the peristylium looks, now that Daphne has decorated the vases with tulips of different colors," Aisling thought gratefully again.

  "Where have you two been today?" Lady Lívia asked.

  "At Ulf's place and at Baalit's parents'. Now we're heading to the library."

  "Then you haven't seen Daphne and the others? They went to the Millennium Oak early in the afternoon."

  "Sophia's not with them either. She checked out a creative sculpture group, then came over to Ulf's," the girl reported.

  "Are you planning to go to the library with Rhys, to sort something out before your evening program?"

  "With Fionn. I spent the entire afternoon with him."

  "Well now. I thought you two had grown apart."

  "And that I'd secretly gotten together with Rhys."

  Aisling wasn't annoyed anymore, nor was she angry about the suspicion.

  "Well, even if that had happened, you'd still have had our support."

  "Really, Mom, you mentioned yesterday that something like this had already happened in our family. Would you tell me about it?"

  Lady Lívia's expression became unreadable. She quickly brought her glass of syrup in front of her, as if to raise a wall of protection against the question.

  "It's Cassius and Daphne's story. Maybe you should wait for them to tell it," she answered briefly. "Or Larthia," she added, rather hesitantly.

  It was clear that Lady Lívia regretted even more that she had dropped that hint about the family's past the day before.

  "Larthia?" Aisling pressed on. She could see her mother would have preferred to stay silent now. But she was curious about the story, perhaps because of Ulf and Thana...

  "Yes. Granny Larthia."

  "But Granny Larthia is much older than you!" Aisling exclaimed in surprise.

  "Not at all. She's just been playing the granny role in her creative circle for twenty years now."

  Aisling's eyes widened even more in astonishment. Lady Lívia took a sip from her syrup and continued:

  "Ever since she voluntarily withdrew, when Daphne came along, she took on this wise granny persona. That's the only way she appears in her creative circle. She disguises herself as an elderly lady."

  "And outside of her creative circle?" the girl asked.

  Now she was getting more and more curious about Granny Larthia's story. She was surprised at how little she actually knew about her surroundings, and about her own family.

  "She's happy, of course. She chose a different path, of her own free will."

  Lady Lívia fell silent again. As if she were wandering through the past. A past that held a few painful memories for her.

  Aisling waited quietly for her to continue. If she even wanted to say anything more. It was simply nice to sit here, out in the fresh air, with her mother. To listen to the birdsong coming from the orchard, the steady, calm melody that signified safety. As long as the birds sang and the crickets chirped everywhere, all was right with the world. Those creatures were the first to fall silent at the slightest danger.

  Meanwhile, her gaze lovingly caressed the plants around them. Some had been in the garden for so long that no one even remembered who had planted them. Like those jasmine bushes a little farther off, almost next to where Thya's group sat.

  After a bit of thought, Lady Lívia spoke, reluctantly.

  "You know, back then I didn't support Daphne. Larthia was my best friend."

  "And now? Do you still talk to Larthia at all?" Aisling asked, nearly reproachfully.

  "Yes, sometimes. Larthia... Larthia distanced herself from everyone back then."

  That was the painful thing hiding in the past for Lady Lívia. She had lost her best friend because of Daphne.

  "But Sophia... she became friends with her through Ulf," the girl tried to continue piecing together this old family story.

  "That's exactly why you shouldn't talk about this to anyone. Especially not to Sophia. What you learned today, Cassius, Daphne, or Larthia must be the ones to tell the whole story."

  "Thank you for your trust. I won't tell anyone," the girl promised seriously.

  "So... if you had gotten together with Rhys, we would have supported you."

  Now Aisling understood that Lady Lívia and Daphne had only wanted to protect them. All of them. And to hold the family and friends together. Not like in the past, but with the benefit of their own ambiguous experiences, much wiser, much better.

  "It's sad, though, that Granny Larthia grew distant from you too. You were best friends."

  "Well, maybe it's not too late to reconnect those old friendship threads," she smiled.

  "What do you mean by that?" Aisling asked, curious.

  "Just look at Thya sometimes," Lady Lívia laughed.

  "What about our little Thya?" the girl asked, growing more and more amazed at all these family secrets.

  "Little Thya has started seeing Larthia's son."

  "Unbelievable," the girl whispered. Not that she minded Thya seeing someone.

  "Unbelievable, my daughter, how little you know about your own family. I told you yesterday too, you've been neglecting everyone lately."

  Only now did Aisling truly feel how right her mother was.

  "What did Daphne say about her daughter seeing the son of her former romantic rival?"

  "Nothing. With Larthia... how should I put it, they weren't real rivals. Only she knows what she felt back then, but for some reason she withdrew almost immediately. And ever since, in her creative circle, she's been playing the role of the wise old woman."

  "I see. And what did Cassius say about this?" Aisling kept prodding relentlessly. She was determined to get to the bottom of the latest family secrets.

  "Only Daphne and I know about it so far. But I don't think it's that big a secret," Lady Lívia added.

  Because of last evening's unfounded suspicion, Aisling was now a bit doubtful whether Daphne and Lady Lívia truly saw things clearly, whether Thya and the son of old lady Larthia were actually seeing each other. Still, she would have been happy if her mother and old lady Larthia became best friends again, and if Thya could bring Larthia's family closer to theirs.

  "We met old lady Larthia today. She gave each of us a pot from her creative circle as a gift."

  "You'll see what comes out of it," Lady Lívia laughed mischievously, exactly like old lady Larthia had, after closing the door behind herself.

  Aisling was now very curious to find out what would eventually sprout from old lady Larthia's pot.

  "Mom, I need to go to the library. I have an exam tomorrow."

  She would have liked to stay a bit longer in the peristyle with her mother. She decided that from now on, she would seek her family's company more often.

  "See you later at the Millennial Oak," Lady Lívia said in farewell.

  Aisling would've liked to stop by Thya's place for a bit, or go to the orchard to see her father, or visit the guests. Because of her mother's reproach yesterday and their pleasant conversation today, something had shifted inside Aisling.