Lia stared at the bookshelf in front of her. “Let’s see what else I haven’t read yet.” She slid her index finger along the spines of the books, taking a quick look at the titles. “I’ve read this, this, this. And this one too.”

She stood back and placed her hands on her hips. In the last few weeks since she transmigrated, all Lia ever did was to read books to pass the time. After her fainting spell, Tamara confined her to their house, worried that she might exhaust her recuperating body. Again.

As she learned afterward, Lia had been in bed for a week due to the flu. She ran away for fear of being poisoned when she woke up with Tamara hovering over her and a bowl of suspicious liquid in the older lady’s hand. That suspicious liquid turned out to be a mixture of herbs to lower her fever.

If this was before spending time with Tamara, Lia would find the other Lia’s reaction normal and understandable. But after talking a little with her adopted mother, she was not so sure anymore. Tamara thought that there might be another plague, the same one that killed her parents, so she worked a day in and day out to take care of Lia. The novel only delegated Tamara as the witch, yet so far, other than the herbs and spices, she did not do anything related to witchcraft.

The smell of boiling leaves broke her train of thoughts. Lia winced. The medicine Tamara prepared made Lia healthy. She had never felt full of energy, but gosh, they tasted awful. And that unspent energy made her jittery. She needed something to focus her attention on. But there was only so much you could do in the mountains. She had no choice but to pass the time by reading, and even that was running low too.

She opened her window which overlooked the small plot of land where Tamara kept her vegetables. It was dusk, and the sky was a wonderful color of orange. Lia stared at it as a soft sigh escaped her lips. This place was really too peaceful and a little boring. Lia liked it. But she was not used to being idle like this. She wanted to do something. Anything, really. Anything that would shake off this nagging feeling at the back of her mind. A small part of her warned her about these peaceful days. She decidedly ignored it.

‘Maybe I should ask if I can tend the plants tomorrow.’

She went back to rummaging through Tamara’s bookshelves before she gave in to the urge to return to her bed and sleep. Tamara’s taste in books was eclectic. They ranged from history books to sewing. There were some novels stashed in the corner, but those looked almost new compared to the worn-out non-fiction books. While Lia was excited to learn about this world and its people, she was mostly glued to the books about plants and medicines that she found.

Back in her previous world, she was a pharmacist working in research for a company. She enjoyed learning about the plants and how they could either heal or kill someone. But in this world, there were no tablets or capsules. The doctors had to make medicine from the raw materials around them. It fascinated Lia to no end how a bark would be used to treat skin problems while its leaves could be boiled to cure a sore throat.

These books were another way to judge if Tamara was up-to-no-good. Lia had yet to discover any dark books or forbidden incantations around. A tiny part of her was disappointed.

Lia decided to check the bookshelves once again, in case she missed any book when she heard unfamiliar voices outside their house.