Aurora and Arabella sit beside each other on a rotting log in silence. The dead tree had fallen onto a patch of dirt just off the moss trail. The small space is surrounded by vivid green vines that drape like curtains and from which bloom shriveled spore spewers left over from a recent spore storm.

Aurora holds her legs to her chest, watching every inch of space around them for signs of movement. Anything could swoop down from above the vines, or be hiding behind them. A tiger could burst through the curtains at any moment and murder them both, or a search party could come marching along the path to take them home. Arabella pokes Aurora like a bobblehead to snap her out of her thoughts.

“We should get your internal cuts looked at by a professional.” She says.

Aurora’s eyes widen, and pats herself down. Nothing feels off, aside from the burn wound, but maybe internal injuries can’t be felt? Maybe she’s bleeding out internally, and she’ll die at any moment and be digested by an ocean of smelly armpit moss until there’s no trace of her real self ever existing and the world goes on without her in it-

“Unless you haven’t cut yourself on all that edge.”

“...huh?”

“The edginess of a sixteen year old, crammed into a teeny tiny body. Any more brooding and she might pop,” she pokes Aurora, “like a balloon.”

Aurora pushes Arabella’s finger away. “Please stop. I really don’t think you know what those words mean.”

“You’re on edge, ergo, you are edgy. An edgy McEdgerson who needs to smoke a leaf and chill.”

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“Arabelle!” The suggestion shocks Aurora to her feet. She climbs onto Arabella’s lap and glares up at her, hands on her hips. “Drug use is one of the worst heresies of all! The smoke of The Leaf smothers The Flame of Earth which powers the beat of every human’s heart. When The Flame goes out, so too does the heart, and that’s why people d- Are you laughing right now?!” Aurora stomps her little foot, “Stop it! People die of heart attacks every year! It’s a very serious problem!”

“Oh, poor How-’rora,” Arabella saves, “I forgot how sheltered you were. You know that only started becoming a problem when we added stimulants to all the sodas to make commoners work faster, right? It has nothing to do with,” she makes scare quotes with her fingers, “‘The Leaf’.”

“The timing is only a coincidence. Everyone knows that stimulants make hearts beat faster, not slower.”

“I mean this lovingly, but you are literally so stupid.”

“You’re just jealous of my advanced education.”

“I’m pretty sure that priest made you actively dumber.”

“Whatever.” Aurora finds it easier to climb now that her body weighs less. She clambers up onto Arabella’s shoulder. “How are your eyes?”

“It itches on the inside. I think I’ve been stained.”

“I thought you were inoculated?”

“I don’t think they were designed to block a face full of spores all at once. Your eyes are probably staining too, unless that new body also had eye surgery.”

“Eww!” she rubs at her eyes.

“Having a lichen colony in your eyes isn’t a bad thing; they make it easier to see during the day.”

“But sharing a body is the first step to becoming a witch! What if I accidentally do magic!? That’s a heresy!”

“Your concern for me is touching.”

“Oh yeah. Let me take a look at your eyes real quick.”

Arabella lifts Aurora to her face and forces one eye open with a wince. It’s brown as normal, but triangular flakes of red are scattered around the outer edge of the iris.

“Definitely stained. The flakes blend into the brown a bit, but it’s pretty pretty.”

Arabella crushes a piece of bark in her fist as she forces the other eye open. By chance she glances up, and stares.

“By the Moon. It’s beautiful.”

“What is?”

“Stars in the daylight. Colors in the rings.” She gestures up. ”Everything.”

“...okay. Does this mean we can continue to Estrago?”

“Yeah. I guess.”

She doesn’t stop looking up.