Lei Ling woke up on the ground.
The cobblestones under her cheek scuffed her face as she peeled herself up, looking around at her new surroundings. People in all manner of attire milled about, haggling and negotiating and otherwise minding their own business. Nobody seemed to notice her - she blended right in.
She pulled herself in an upright sitting position, leaning on the wall of the building behind her. Glancing down at herself, Lei Ling judged that she had not been injured in any way, save for the pain that was most likely from staying on the ground so long. Her clothes, though dirty, were hardly even torn.
"Well, it looks as if you've finally woken up." A soft, almost musical female voice came from Lei Ling's left. She turned to look, and saw a prim, fair lady she hadn't noticed before, regarding her in an almost caring manner. Extending her hand, she continued, "You've been asleep there for quite a few hours."
Lei Ling stood with the stranger's help, dusting herself off and nodding in thanks. Before she could say anything else, the woman began walking briskly in the opposite direction, motioning for Lei Ling to follow. "Alright then, let's get you cleaned up and fed something warm. Come along now; spit-spot!"
After blinking twice, Lei Ling called after the stranger. "Who are you?"
The lady stopped and turned abruptly around, giving a smile and answering matter-of-factly. "Mary Poppins, of course."
Lei Ling opened her mouth, then closed it again before following after the woman. Why the heck not, she thought to herself. I'm already at enough of a loss.
The woman - "Mary Poppins" - guided Lei Ling through the streets. They were in what appeared to be a sort of bazaar, which accounted for the haggling that Lei Ling had heard when she woke up. The streets were filthy and narrow, with identical brick buildings with smoking chimneys lining either side like garden fences. Every now and then a window would open and someone would yell and then dump something out of the window; everything from shaking dust out of linens to tossing food scraps onto the street. Lei Ling trotted along after Mary, taking two quick steps for every one of Mary's long ones, until they turned abruptly and entered the door of the last building on the street. Lei Ling hadn't even gotten a good chance to look beyond the bazaar street before she was in the cool darkness of the building.
"We'll get you a bath first, then some food," Mary explained as Lei Ling's eyes adjusted to the sudden lack of light. "Perhaps by that time your clothes will have been laundered."
Before she fully knew anything about her surroundings, Lei Ling was whisked upstairs by two maids who seemed to have appeared out of thin air. Her clothes were ripped off and an instant later she was sitting in a bathtub full of warm water. The maids had left, presumably to wash her clothes, even though she had tried to tell them that wasn't necessary.
Lei Ling pulled her knees close to her chest as she tried to think. What had happened to her before she woke up on the street? How had she gotten there? Why did she feel like there was someone out to get her, and an even deeper feeling that there was someone she needed to find? With a sigh, she leaned her head back into the water, rinsing her hair.
Many minutes later she was dressed in a silk embroidered robe and sitting at a small table, again with Mary Poppins. The tablecloth and the curtains were both lace, and the sun was shining right through the eyelets of the lace and making the crystal dishes full of food glimmer gently. Lei Ling stared back and forth from Mary to the food.
"Eat," Mary commanded. "You need strength. Do you remember the last time you ate?"
Lei Ling shook her head meekly, reaching for a plate of meat and serving herself a small amount. "I don't remember much of anything."
"What do you remember?" Mary inquired. "And wait until after swallowing to answer. Never speak with your mouth full."
Lei Ling swallowed. "My name is Lei Ling. I go by Leila here..." she trailed off. "Well, maybe not here. I don't know where here is. But in the last place I called home, I started answering to Leila rather than Lei Ling. I guess it's easier for some people to say." She rubbed her forehead in confusion before blurting out, "I'm also The Nightingale." Unsure of what exactly she meant by the words that tumbled out of her mouth, Lei Ling looked at Mary, hoping she would have some answers. Luckily, she did.
"I can see by your face you don't remember what that means," Mary said. "Have you ever heard the story of a bird that sang the most beautiful songs, so beautiful that the Emperor himself constantly wanted to hear her sing?"
Lei Ling couldn't decided whether to nod or shake her head. "It sounds familiar... but for some reason it doesn't make any sense?"
Mary nodded, almost pityingly. "That's because the real story is a little different than the story everyone knows. In the one we've all heard, a kitchen girl in the Emperor's palace was the only one in the entire palace who knew of the nightingale because she heard its song every night as she returned home, far away from the palace and near the bay and tree canopy. She was promoted after telling the Emperor of the bird, and at the end of the story, the bird saved the Emperor from death. In truth, while both of those things happened - the kitchen girl's life got better, and the nightingale saved the Emperor - the fact that nobody knows is that they are one and the same. The kitchen girl is also The Nightingale; a strange creature, the only one if its kind, who can sing away darkness and death through the pure beauty of her song." she paused. "Drink your tea, Nightingale."
Lei Ling obeyed, and she felt the sensations of rosemary, sage, strawberry, and jasmine slide over her tongue and down her throat. Strange tea, she thought, but good. Then suddenly, everything are back to her in a flash. A crying baby. A man with a hook for his right hand. A woman with long blonde hair. A portal leaving the woods outside the Emperor's palace. She leapt to her feet in a sort of frenzy, grabbing Mary's hands and clasping them close.
"Mary, my parents!" she exclaimed. "I've got to find my parents! And my baby sister!"
"First, sit down," Mary calmly replied. Lei Ling obliged, still in a panic.
"My parents," she repeated. "Not my birth parents; the couple who adopted me. I remember now, at least parts of it; I left home and arrived somewhere else through a portal, and a couple with a baby girl decided to adopt me. I've got to find them!"
"Do you remember their names?" Mary asked. Something about her voice suggested that she knew.
"It's... it's Emma, and Killian," Lei Ling breathed heavily. "And Hope, the baby. I need to find them! Where are they? Where am I?"
"Well, now that we have that sorted," Mary began. "I'll explain to you the position you are in."
