“How long have I been here?” She was afraid she wasted too much time without even knowing it. It was hard to determine, how much she slept, how long she talked, or how many times she passed out.

“Four days, seven hours, twenty-four minutes and fifty-one seconds,” the Source responded.

“Oh… thank you,” she replied, relieved that it wasn’t more than that. She still had time.

She was about to start narrating when her stomach growled. She looked down seeing her bony arms resting on her knees. She hadn’t eaten in a while. Only a couple of empty jars lay near the couch. She couldn’t remember when she had last put the liquid in her mouth.

She rose from the couch with a feeling of extreme laziness. “I have to eat something,” she said to the Source and pulled enough of the tube from the wall before she walked towards the storage room. She returned with five jars and placed them one next to each other on an empty spot on the couch. Then she took one with the liquid of a mean red colour and made a few sips. Despite being of the good brand, the liquid quite sucked, tasting like a week-old spoiled tomato sauce. She took a few more sips and placed the jar next to the others.

“You know,” she said pointing her finger accusingly at the Source; “you should remind me to eat. These altering states of my consciousness are fucking up my basic needs. I’m not sure if I truly slept an hour since I came here, with all the memories, dreams, and nightmares going on in my head. I see now, that I haven’t eaten nearly enough in these four days, and hell…can’t even remember when was the last time I went to the bathroom.”

“Do you have nightmares?”

She mentally slapped herself for her lapse. The creepy three, as she called them, was something she definitely wanted to keep to herself. “I mean…just in a manner of speaking…”

“Fine. I will do so. I will pay more attention to your basic needs. You should drink at least half of the bottle more,” the Source said.

“Umm….right now?”

“Your intake of food and water is below the average for a person of your size.”

“Okay…” She nodded, smiling. “Thank you for notifying me. And as we are at it, we should take breaks too. Don’t you also need a break?”

“I don’t. But if you do, we can have breaks. I simply thought you are pressed for time.”

She smiled. “How very considerate of you, and yes, I am, but my body might not keep up.”

“Do you want a break now?”

“Yes, that would be great,” she said cheerfully.

The Source went quiet and his stare detached from her. He was now looking somewhere above her head as if he was ignoring her presence in the room. His behaviour falling short of her expectations, she didn’t know what to do. She changed the position on the couch, she lay down, then sat back again, crossed her legs, and then pulled them toward her chest. For a moment she considered getting up and having a walk around the room, but let go of the idea quite quickly as it began to feel like she was just wasting precious time.

“I’m good to go,” she said with a grin.

The Source’s eyes riveted back to her. “Was the break satisfactory?”

“Sure,” she gave a cranky reply, and took the jar, forcing herself to drink a few more sips.

She extended her left arm and while turning it around gazed at it with admiration. “Look at how thin my arms got. I don’t think I’ve ever been this skinny. I bet now that dress would fit me much better.”

“Which dress?”

“The dress for the Event celebration.”

******

Margot tightened the sash around Ana’s waist so strongly, that she couldn’t breathe properly.

“Margot, you need to release the sash a little or I will faint from the lack of air,” complained Ana, while looking at herself in the mirror.

“Really? It took me so much time to tie this thing, not sure I have the patience to do it all over again,” complained Margot, standing behind Ana’s back with her hands on the sash.

“What if I just pull it like this,” she said and sticking her fingers between Ana’s back and the sash she pulled strongly. They both almost fell backward and started to laugh.

“Okay, just leave it. It’s not like I’m going to the Palace right now.

“Okay, Stemetski, are you ready to show yourself to the world?”

Margot’s face, sticking out from behind her shoulder was grinning at her in the mirror.

“I don’t know,” hesitated Ana, looking at herself. The kimono of deep blue colour with subtle cherry blossom patterns on the sleeves and over its lower part seemed too beautiful and sophisticated for her unrefined body. “Don’t you think these pink flowers are a bit over the top?”

“No, they aren’t. This kimono looks great on you. Its colour matches your eyes really nicely.”

Ana turned away from the mirror to face Margot. “It would look much better on you.”

“But I’m not the one going to the Palace, am I?” Margot snapped, but then as if she regretted the edgy tone she sighed and continued in a kinder voice: “Anyway, I’d choose something in green. Blue doesn’t really suit me.”

As they draw the curtain of the fitting cabin open, the seller, an older woman with strong make-up, approached them immediately. She clasped her hands, intertwining her fingers, and spread her dark red lips into the sweetest smile. “Oh, you look like a true Capitolian!”

Ana arched her eyebrows and nodded. “Do you hear, Margot? Like a Capitolian,” she added in a slightly mocking tone.

Margot frowned and shook her head, trying to communicate her lack of understanding of that particular remark. Ana knew that Margot, who was born after the Event, when the Forbidden City was already the established name for the former capital of the Central Zone, could not grasp the multi-layered compliment the seller bestowed on her.

The lady being old enough to have lived in the capital, when it was still called Capitolium, equated the city’s name with the excellence of the style of its former inhabitants. She also subtly expressed her snobbish discontent with the style of the current elite in the Forbidden City. The fact that the lady had probably lost her job at some fancy brand store after the take-over and had to settle for a job of a seller in a shabby shop in the Settlements, where dealing in second-hand merchandise was more common than obtaining original pieces, must have only enhanced her conviction that the conservative and mundane Eastern elite, which gathered around the Emperor, could never match the former sophisticated class of the Western Capitolium.

Thus, looking like a true Capitolian, was the highest compliment the old lady could have given, implying not only that the person looked good in the garment, but also knew how to wear it.

Despite the lady’s outdated convictions, the shop was still one of the fanciest in the Settlements. With its hot location right next to the wall and the owner’s good connections in the Forbidden City, it provided very exclusive pieces of clothing.

Ana liked the way the silky kimono felt against her skin. She’d never worn a clothing piece that was so soft and smooth before. She’s also never worn a kimono, or a dress, before, and thus felt slightly ridiculous in it. But the reception at the Palace demanded the dress code, and so she agreed to a try-out in the shop, which Akayev deemed the only one in the Settlements that sold good enough clothes for such a special occasion. The prices were high, but since Akayev was paying for all of it she didn’t care. In this way, she got from him at least some of the compensation money, which Filipova intended for her.

A movable partition wall separated the fitting niche from the main part of the store, which was further divided into men’s and women’s sections. Each had two rows of clothes. The pretentious design of the store featured modern and quality pieces as well as used, old ones, with the latter being in majority: the red, hand-knotted carpet on the floor, a modern round seating arrangement in-between the two sections, drafty windows with broken frames, decaying wooden counter, tacky mirror frame, and expensive clothes on plain, aluminium hangers.

Ana peeked out from behind the partition wall. She wasn’t the only one that came for the fitting of the new attire. H and Akayev were there too.