Unlucky Liv woke slowly, head heavy with fatigue. "Where am I?" She groaned and looked around, and immediately regretted opening her eyes. A large, bespectacled and mustached visage hovered just in front of her. Liv recoiled. But it was not the face that caused her to recoil, it was the large and clearly distraught crowd of unfamiliar faces gathered around her bed. "What is going on?" The room looked like a grand dining room, except her bed stood in the center, where the dinner table would normally be placed. A small cart of alchemical supplies was also nearby.

"Do not worry," said the booming whisper of the large face in front of her. "We just had to knock you out for a moment, to gather some..." The pot-bellied man gave his meaty hands a flourish. "Samples! For testing, of course." He spun with a flourish of his vibrant, multi-hued cloak. Conspiratorial mutterings floated out from the crowd.

"Wait! Samples? Of what?" Panic spiked through Liv.

He leaned back towards her for another grand whisper. "Of hair!" Liv's hands immediately flew to her head, but her hair all seemed intact. He did not take much, if he took any at all. Why would I need to be knocked out for that? "And urine!" What-! "Amongst...other things!"

Liv did not know where to begin. This all makes no sense. "What-! How do you even-! Why would you even-!"

"Silence!" He bellowed, cutting her off. The murmuring of the crowd died down, in rapt attention. "The results...are in." Liv wanted to yell at him more, but the quiet of the brooding audience made her hesitate. The man spun again towards the cart, lifting a vial of sloshing liquid above his head. Fortunately it was not yellow. Instead it had a transparent greenish-blue hue. I hope that is not my urine. "She has been Ensorcelled!" He declared to the assembly.

A collective gasp ran through the crowd. "I knew it!" Liv heard someone say.

"But...!" The performance doctor, as Liv thought of him, bellowed louder than before. "The spell has already ended." There was a collective sigh of relief, with a smattering of applause.

"I could have told you that." Liv grumbled. "I've lost my mem-"

"But...!" The crowd immediately fell silent. He adjusted his glasses. "Effects may linger still." Another wave of gasps traveled through the crowd. "It was not a long-duration spell." More murmurs bubbled up from the sea of people. "Nor was it a short-duration." He brought the vial down to his nose, swishing and sniffing the liquid while the crowd engaged in frenzied whispering. I really, really hope that is not my urine. His face fell. "No. It was most certainly a medium-duration spell."

There was another wave of gasps. "I knew it." A man said. "The worst of both worlds." Said another morosely. "I could tell, the moment she stepped in. 'Twas plain as day!" Liv did her best to block out the inane comments after that.

"And...!" The vile-vial-sniffer, as Liv now thought of him, shook himself and his audience out of their reverie. His brow pinched with concern. "It was a strong spell." Exclamations of concern rose from all corners of the room. "But not too strong!" Sighs of relief once again traveled through the room. "But still...a spell that should not be taken lightly." He waggled one of his fingers at the crowd, and Liv could see the nods of approval from the people standing closest. She was starting to suspect none of them knew anything about magic at all.

Liv debated slipping off the bed discreetly while the attention was on the mad doctor, but his dramatic ramblings had hardened her resolve to take back control of the situation. I suppose am a Baroness now, after all. Time to act like one. Liv cleared her throat. "Listen, I think all we wanted to know was-"

"I suspect...!" He spun quickly towards Liv, who had to jump to avoid any adventurous splashes of the green-blue liquid still in his hand. Another wave of gossip flowed across the room before he could continue. "I suspect that the spell affects...the memory." He leaned in close once again. "Where...are...you?"

Liv resisted the urge to give a snide response, and instead searched her memory, finding at least the last few days of memory generally intact. The last few days when she had lost her job with the dancing troupe, and also been notified of her surprise inheritance of the Myser Barony, complete with the Myser Manor on Myser Island. "Mysor Manor." Liv said. The crowd gave a thunderous round of applause.

The doctor held up his hand, and a hush fell over the crowd. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"Um, laying down in the sick room earlier?" Where you told me I would receive a quick exam to confirm my health. Liv could not believe her statement elicited as much applause as it did.

The doctor's face furrowed in thought. "Hmm." The crowd pressed close to the doctor and the bed, and Liv started feeling a little claustrophobic despite the high ceilings and airy windows. "Do you have any memories that might be missing...perhaps in the medium-range?"

"Yes, before three days ago I am missing a whole month. But I already told you tha-"

"Ah ha! A month! That does sound suspiciously...Medium-Duration." Liv could see the front rows nodding again as a chorus of grunting approvals filled the room. He stepped back to his alchemical table, adding another ingredient to his green-blue potion. "Unfortunately, there may be nothing I can do." The crowd wailed in despair. "But all is not lost!" The crowd rebounded quickly. Yeah...I only lost a whole miserable month. "This," he indicated another vial filled with a creamy orange potion, "may aid in restoring the lost memories!" He held up the vial. I hope that is not my urine either. The crowd gave another round of applause. "Or it may erase her memories entirely." If only it would. The crowd gasped. "But that is very unlikely." The crowd gave another sigh of relief. "If I remember correctly." Liv groaned.

He held the vial towards Liv. Liv just stared at the liquid for a moment. "I guess I don't have that many happy memories anyway." Liv mumbled as she grabbed the vial, downing it in one swift gulp. The medicine had a slightly minty flavor. The doctor gasped. The crowd gasped.

Unlucky Liv...belched.

The belch was quickly followed by a wave of nausea. The sickness built with Liv's panic until she tumbled out of the bed and forced her way through the crowd to the nearest window, slamming the hinged stained glass open with all her weight as she heaved up the potion she had just downed. Well, at least it didn't taste like urine.

Liv stared straight ahead as she tried to calm her roiling stomach and regain her bearings on the world. She heard the crowd that had parted for her mad dash begin to flow back behind her. She was facing the interior courtyard of the Manor, with a single, unfinished statue standing in the middle. The hard planes and sharp features of the late Arta Fortuna, former Baroness of Myser met her gaze, and for a long moment there was calm, before a wave of uninvited memories crashed through her skull. Unlucky Liv realized as the memories settled over her that they were not her memories at all.