Here she is now, sitting close to her mother on a smaller chair, listening in on the conversation.
She didn't dare speak a word, especially if her mother and Karl fought again.
This isn't unusual.
Rather, it's frequent, and annoying.
But she doesn't let her irritation slip. She knows better than to cut in a conversation (or argument) between people higher in position than her.
So, she waits.
Waits for Mother Miranda to announce whatever plan she has for her.
And then, as if her wish came true, Mother Miranda silenced the noisy individuals.
"Silence."
Mother Miranda's wings spread and widened as she made the arguing Lords flinch at the mere sound of her voice. It was calm, but it still had authority clear at the tone of it.
"Remember from whence you came."
She always says that.
Bela seemed far too distracted to hear her mother asking her if she was okay.
"Now, I assume you know what I called your daughter here for, Alcina." Mother Miranda said as Alcina put out the cigarette and confirmed.
Mother Miranda then turned her gaze to Bela. Bela felt like melting right then and there from that intense gaze.
"I have chosen Bela Dimitrescu to aid me in my research. Any complaints?" at her words, no one in the torn down church seemed to complain.
Bela noticed that her mother seemed like she wanted to say something, maybe refute, but she also knows better than to question their Mother Miranda's certainty.
Maybe she's nervous because deep down, she knows nothing good happens to anyone, human or not, helping in her lab because the research she knows is most likely in her lab.
But of all things Bela refuses to accept the fact that it's possible she can die, or maybe worse, with Mother Miranda guiding her.
She flinches like the Lords when she felt the intense gaze of their deity on her.
It seemed to pierce through her skin and into her soul, if she even has one.
"So you all have no complaints... Very well." Mother Miranda continued after a while.
Bela was still frozen in place, unable to meet their deity's eyes.
Her anxiety just rocketed through her calm facade.
Right now she feels like she's sweating, but she knows she can't.
She feels her eyebrows knit together as a way to ignore the stare she's being given. She closes her eyes and listens. Just listens.
"I will bring her to my laboratory now."
Oh no.
Bela felt herself panic as she just heard what was being said.
She felt the gaze leave her but her nonexistent heart didn't stop beating in her ears.
She opened her eyes and looked up at her mother for the first time, only to see an expression she can't read.
Uncertainty?
Bela sees her mother with an... Uncertain look on her face.
So it's true. It is risky for her to go there. She can't stay in denial much longer with that expression. She has to consider everything that could happen to her.
And with that, Mother Miranda dismisses them and calls for her without her mother.
-----
Bela didn't dare speak while her deity led her to the underground lab she had.
Once they made it to the lab, they still didn't speak to each other.
Until Mother Miranda broke the silence.
"How did you gain an immunity to your greatest weakness?" she asked. Her sudden question caught Bela off-guard.
What? Bela couldn't help but not answer.
She was just brought here and she was already failing miserably at conversation. How can they be acquaintances if she can't even speak to her properly?
But Mother Miranda seemed patient, only fiddling around with her mostly outdated science tools while supposedly waiting for her answer.
"I–well I–" Bela only managed stutters before taking a deep breath and calming herself.
"I went out some time during winter and then suddenly nothing bad happened to me." she answered.
Mother Miranda nodded. Then, she holds out her hand. Bela tilts her head in confusion.
"Give me a decent amount of your flies." she said.
Bela nods obediently and does as she's told by stripping some of the flies from her arm to Mother Miranda's hand.
After that, the deity orders her to get a specific tool somewhere else in the room. She complies yet again.
She calls for her to get another.
And then another.
-----
Funny enough, it turns out that Mother Miranda just needed some errand boy to help her with her research and experiments and going out from time to time to get things because after that day, during her free times, Mother Miranda calls for her to help with the lab again.
But until then, she still doesn't know why Mother Miranda had been collecting her flies.
Although after the first day, her mother seemed glad that she came back without any missing parts other than the few spots on her arm where she extracted the flies she gave.
Why would her mother think she lost any?
Other than that, everything seemed fine.
Until, again, Mother Miranda said she wanted to bring Bela along somewhere.
Bela almost refused before Mother Miranda said that she already informed her mother about it. She didn't ask further after that firm statement.
She still doesn't know where Mother Miranda would want to bring her along to, but she knows it isn't going to be any safer.
But she still complies because, well, she doesn't have a choice.
But it's not like Mother Miranda was forcing her, she had also wanted to leave to somewhere else other than the village and Romania.
So, she allows Mother Miranda to guide her to wherever she wanted her to be.
She just doesn't know how much worse it would become from there.