“How is that possible…?” The prince was aghast, his face covered by the back of his hand.
“Bart, what’s going on?!” The confused princess was yelling incessantly, clearly out of her sheltered depth.
Tamsin said nothing, only gently caressing the bloodied face of her other half, looking at her with sadly loving eyes.
“No, there’s a simple explanation for this,” stated Bart. “She’s your twin sister, yes? I suppose it’s not so preposterous for a pair of sisters to both take the oath of madness. But twins? Auspicious, likely.”
“Twin? Did you say? To the elfwin?” June straightened up, respectfully facing toward the kneeling woman next to her. “Um, yes, Sister. I am so very sorry for your loss. I could not abide while the enemy had taken possession of one of my kingdom’s precious priestesses. We went in and took her back. Like I mentioned earlier, I… wanted to at least give her a proper burial.”
“June…” mumbled Bart.
Tamsin sat up, craning her neck to look back at June. Her eyes seemed to be analyzing June’s soft features. Finally, she smiled softly and whispered, “Thank you. But that won’t be necessary.”
“Huh?” The princess was dumbfounded. “Forgive me, I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean—"
“What your precious Scarlet Sister here is trying to say is that this body here was made with magic.” Ashton was now poking his crossbow directly into Bartholomew’s back. It seemed that in all the commotion, he had used the opportunity to sneak up on the siblings. “She’s not so much her twin as she is a clone. A split entity copied from her mind, as I understand it. You won’t believe your eyes… Metaphorically speaking.”
“Now you’re the one spilling secrets, Ash.” Tamsin giggled. She looked back down at her twin. “She’d have flogged you for that. Not to mention it’s completely wrong. I told you, it’s my thaumaturgy—or as everyone else likes to call it, my Alien Clone Syndrome.” She scoffed wistfully. “I just can’t believe she’s here in front of me again. I didn’t think… it’d be this easy…”
“Well, we’ve caught them. And they’re both going to die either way. Does it really matter what I tell them?”
“June…” Bart whispered, his arms now raised. “He’s got his weapon digging into my back.”
“What?! Please don’t kill my brother. Did the Church really send you here to kill us? Don’t they need me?” June’s clenched her teeth, snarling in rage. “I knew they were downright dirty scumbags, but to actually murder their own princess in cold blood…! It makes one’s blood boil!”
“Princess…?” The puzzled Ashton glanced at Tamsin.
“Whoops! Looks like the gat’s out of the bag! These two are actually the royal siblings of Malachias!”
“Which means…”
“That’s the crown prince you’re sticking in the back with your crossbow!” exclaimed Tamsin playfully and without an ounce of decency.
Ashton pulled away, fumbling and dropping his weapon from shock. “Y-Your majesty! I’m so sorry! I didn’t—They told me—If I had known—-”
“You would’ve done your job without question, pretty boy,” Tamsin interrupted him. “Because that is what the Church has asked of you.”
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“Why would you want to kill royalty? Oh Goddess, what the fuck did I step into…?”
“I’m wondering the same thing myself,” mumbled Bart.
“Oh, grow a freakin’ backbone, Ash! It’s almost like you’ve never been on a clandestine mission to assassinate a country’s leader!”
“I don’t like how casually she insinuated that,” mumbled Bart again.
“What is going on?!” yelled June. “Why does the Church always have to come up with these insane plots?!”
“Wait… Augh!” Ashton shook his head and rubbed his face with his palm. “I… remember something. That night, when I met you and your boss… Ngh… My memories… You witch! What did you do to my memory?!”
“Oh, no…” mumbled Bart a third time.
“Not me, silly. That was Sister Captain Marie! Isn’t her blessing from Lady Macha just marvelous? Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m due for a much-needed reunion.” As she uttered those words, the Scarlet Sister placed her forehead against her twins and closed her eyes. The form of her double slowly melted away. The flayed skin, torn muscles and jagged bones all deliquesced into a sickening goop that slowly flowed back into the priestess. The sight of this miracle disgusted both men, while the sightless princess was left curious as to the whole sordid situation.
“By the mad maidens’ moons!”
“Tam…? How do you feel…?”
After the oddly arduous process of reintegrating a whole elfwin corpse, the Scarlet Sister very quickly fainted.
“Oi! Woman! You can’t go leaving me holding the bag like this! You still have to answer for the shit you’ve put me through!” Ashton rushed over to the unconscious priestess and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her gracelessly. “Tam! Tamsin! Wake up, damn you! What do you expect me to do now?!”
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Later that evening, the hunter-slash-tracker extraordinaire found himself sitting in a musty cemetery, across from what he now knew were the royal siblings of Malachias, Bartholomew and June Elizagorri. The unconscious body of the woman he’d been partnered with was currently lying on an uncomfortable looking slab of a stone bench—the least of the punishment he had wished upon her after involving him in the current situation. He sighed as he sat on another very uncomfortable slab of stone, right next to hers, with his arms in his lap, and wondering how much better his other hunting friends, Howard, Alma or Rob, were faring in their endeavors. Probably sitting comfortably at Nemeth’s and sharing stories and staying warm, enjoying a nice drink, and being anywhere but here in this damp and humid shitheap.
“Pardon me, Mr. Huntsman,” interjected June. “This is probably not something you wish to hear, but if you let us go on our merry way, then when I eventually return, I promise to give you a royal commendation for your service. It is definitely within my power to do so.”
Ashton avoided looking directly at the princess. “And why would I do that? I might not want to murder you anymore, but the Church hired me directly for this mission. And you know as well as I do that they don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Not to mention the Sister here already knows we found you, so there’s no skirting out of this. She’ll hunt you down if you even attempt to escape.”
“And just like that, things are over before they really began.” Bart shook his head begrudgingly.
“I’m on an important quest to find someone. We didn’t originally mean to come here; it was only to be a quick stop. But it seems Macha guided our hand to more important matters.”
“Important mission? From who?”
“I gave myself this quest. I saw a girl. In my visions. She struck me as someone extremely important. Someone whose shoulders might rest the fate of the world, and yet no one else seems to care. I want to find her and I want to help her in whatever way I can.”
“Vision? You’re doing all this ‘cause of a dream you had?” Ash cracked his neck.
“My visions are very much real! They come from Lady Macha herself! These so-called dreams are held in very high regard by the Scarlet Church! Did you think my blindness to be just a curse?”
“I always thought it was some kind of curse, to be honest.” Ashton scratched his head vexedly. After the things he’d seen, does he really have any standing to dismiss his princess’s beliefs? “…You can see the future and whatnot?”
“It’s a bit more nuanced than that.” Tamsin’s voice came in groggy and tired sounding. “The Regia Puella of Malachias has a special thaumaturgy that runs through her bloodline. Direct contact with the Goddess through religious ecstasy. Not that you needed to know any of this, but…” The Scarlet Sister sat up, holding her head in the cold metal of her armored hand, groaning as if she had just recovered from the worst hangover of her life. “We—Ugh, that was the worst experience of my life—We can always make you forget.”