Amber sat cross legged on the celestial cloud with her shadow pixie on her shoulder. It was kind of fun to float around like an invisible ghost. The little cloud wasn't strong enough to carry much more than one person, so it wasn't the most convenient form of transportation yet, but she was working on that.
It was currently night and she was back in Rafferty Village headed back from picking herbs to continue Nova's treatment and for some fun at the royal tea party tomorrow. She'd been busy for the past week wrapping up some issues that needed to be dealt with. The mother and son pair had also made good on their word and came back with her to her home. Although she'd been busy, it had made things a great deal easier with them around. Mabel had cleaned the little maid's quarters where she'd been staying spotless and had been cooking everyone's meals.
Amber made quite a bit of gold from the sales contest she'd set up. In the end, that wily old man Bud had won the competition. They made a deal that she would bring him more products to sell every two weeks. She gave some of the money to Mabel so that she could manage the household. Mabel had been busy decorating and taking over most of the maid's quarters since they were empty. All of the maids had mysteriously moved out. Her dad was nowhere to be seen and you could often hear loud crashing sounds and items being thrown whenever passing by her mom's home.
After she'd rescued Nova, she'd gone back to the hotel for another night. Dr. Denari had sent the deed to a small clinic that was about the size of a cottage with a large covered front porch. It was just on the outskirts of Rafferty Village. It was a beat up two story building with peeling paint just out of town with a large driveway in a large open field. It looked like it hadn't been in use for a very long while, but Amber wasn't particularly surprised. After all, why would anyone easily let go of one of their life lines? It was perfectly fine for her purpose though. It was better this way with the clinic having no reputation that she needed to fight.
Amber sent the blind musician to the clinic as well as two other girls who'd asked to join her. Then she requested for Sam to give Ben an invitation to work with her. Amber had yet to hear from the doctor, but the three women were currently fixing up her clinic. Jasmine, Rose, and Lilly were their names. Jasmine was the blind woman. Rose was the short woman Amber had helped when she was entering the building. Lilly was a longtime friend of Jasmine's. They didn't yet know medicine, but so far they were competent workers. They had started to get the building into decent shape.
The idea of a Royal Tea Party was less than thrilling and so Amber had decided that she would liven up the festivities. After all, why would she not take this opportunity to make them indebted to 'Lady Jinks'? She's not so wasteful to allow an opportunity like that slip by her. She's been so busy working on wrapping up other issues that she hasn't had a lot of time to work on fun things, like making poison. Yes, a tea party seasoned with poison seemed infinitely more interesting.
Amber floated on her cloud that she named fluffy, much to the chagrin of the celestial being itself. It had been arguing with her about its name all week since it wanted a more dignified name. Fluffy was neither male nor female and was A sexual in the sense that it could self reproduce as soon as it was strong enough. After it was big and strong, Fluffy would be able to make new little baby clouds all on its own without the need for a partner of any sort. She was very much looking forward to the baby clouds since pretty and cute things were a weakness of hers. She was spoiling Fluffy, trying to get it to have babies sooner. Amber was a bit envious of Fluffy's A sexual nature, since she had never had more than one short relationship in either of her lifes.
Relationships had seemed to be more trouble than they were worth. In fact she had also died without friends and alone in her previous life. She was scared of dying alone much more than actually dying. Hadn't she already died? The most painful part about dying had been doing it alone and being uncertain about what would happen to her after death. Her high sense of logic often fought with her irrational desire to feel included and connected. She desperately wanted to feel like she belonged somewhere, but was terrified of experiencing more emotional pain.
How many times had she tried to get the love of her family or make friends? She was too different to exactly fit in, but nonetheless, it had been what she wanted the most in her youth. Her one and only relationship ended when Amber overheard her 'friend' laughing with her boyfriend and calling her a freak. The two of them ended up in a failed relationship later on and they had both tried to get sympathy from Amber. She had no sympathy or empathy to give them and had been publicly labeled a robot without any feelings. No one cared that they had hurt her first, that she had felt the burn of their betrayal.
She had even been incapable of becoming pregnant in her past life, since she had been born without a uterus. This was yet another reason why her parents had rejected her in her past life. Wasn't she faulty and a blemish on their pride? She wasn't sure if she was capable of becoming pregnant in this life, since in 'Duchess Dash' she had died early on in the story.
Amber hadn't been ready to have kids in her previous life, but it had stung knowing that she wasn't capable of having them even if she wanted. She had felt like she was somehow less of a woman and her family's rejection of her hadn't exactly helped. All of this had taught her that logic was much safer to hold onto than chasing after feelings. She had come to the conclusion that being in the position to control others was much better. She decided to continue along this path to wherever it may lead her.