“That’s… I don’t know if I believe you. I don’t know if I want to believe you.”

“Believe what you like,” I say. “It’s the truth. Belladonna saw it too, right Bella?”

A nod. Equal parts irritation and concern.

We’re sitting in what seems to be a cross between a school and an orphanage, though calling us “orphans” isn’t quite right since true fairies can’t exactly get raised by their biological parents, so pretty much all of them wind up somewhere like this.

Gah, even “biological parents” doesn’t seem right. The biology at play here is weird, but that’s magic for you: rules do not apply. I don’t exactly have a gene sequencer handy, so I don’t know if we have DNA or not.

As far as I can see, there are four possibilities. We either share at least part of our parent plant’s DNA, we have a unique set that is generated some other way, we have a shared set that is randomized another way, or the idea of genetic code straight up does not apply to us.

My having an identical twin just makes it even more confusing.

Ugh, I really should stop trying to rationalize magic, at least until I can run some more tests; yet another question for Meden unless I get my hands on some alcohol and dish soap first.

“It explains why it was called the ‘Tri system’, at least,” Rocket says. She sighs loudly, falling back on her spider silk seat. “If everything you’ve told me is true, then the system is gone for good. The only way to get it back would be for him to recreate it.”

“Seems like it,” I reply.

“Why did he tell you this? What makes you two special?”

I'm getting a sense of confusion and consternation from Bella, and I can’t fault her there. I don’t have a two-hour-old mind but I still share the sentiment. Maybe this is my biases as a former human and her twin talking, but it’s incredible she’s keeping up with this discussion at all.

“Honestly I don’t know,” I say with a shrug. It’s a half-truth, but there’s nothing special about me other than Meden happening to cross my path, along with several hundred of his buddies.

Aside from my third condition being an apparent annoyance, Albert didn’t mention my deal with Meden at all. No, he wasn’t interested in me alone. He was talking to the two of us, my sister and me.

“He wasn’t interested in us now, he was talking about later. He talked about things we might have done, would have done, in the future. He said he was tired of fighting us,” I explain. “I don’t know why. Maybe the end of the system is meant to stop it.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Belladonna shakes her head in disagreement. “Aba eh!” she babbles. She frowns, closes her mouth, start moving her tongue and jaw around like she’s trying to seat a loose mouthguard as she pouts.

Oh god, she’s adorable! I wanna hug her. Can I hug her? Identical twins hug, right?

Annoyance.

Oh no, she noticed through our link. Okay, come on, Liandan, pay attention. Serious time. Just pay attention to the grownup in the room. Contain yourself, don’t look- darn it, I looked. I can’t help it, she’s cute!

“Adda bi!” she insists.

“I know you’re trying to say something, Belladonna, but you haven’t gotten speech down just yet,” Rocket says. “Don’t rush it now. If it’s important, try to gesture it out.”

Belladonna gesticulates at the kitchen counter, flitting over to one side and pointing her finger at the end. “Abbaba ba ba ba ba,” she babbles, running her finger down the length as she flies, and stopping when she reaches the edge. She then points at the edge once more.

Too. Cute. Must. Resist. Urge. To hug. Serious time now, hug time later. Resiiiist.

Exasperation.

“Hey, I’m trying, sis. Okay, ‘edge’?” I guess, and she shakes her head.

Rocket pipes up. “’The end’?”

An enthusiastic nod. Ah, I get it. The end, and she stopped trying to talk when she reached it.

“The end of the conversation? With Tri?” I ask. Bella points at me and nods. “He said we’d need to help the world, and then said he didn’t think anyone fit the bill better than the two of us.”

She tilts her head and raises her eyebrow at me.

“I’m paraphrasing! I don’t remember the exact quote, sis.”

“I’ll see if I can find something for her to write with,” Rocket offers, flying over to a nearby cupboard. “She should know how to.”

That sounds interesting. I was surprised when Tri mentioned that Belladonna writes my name down in most timelines, so I can’t say it’s unexpected, but the idea that my sister should be able to write on instinct alone still seems queer to me. I guess I should get used to that feeling. This is an entirely different ball game than Earth was.

Rocket comes back with what looks like a surprisingly ordinary (albeit properly teensy) piece of paper and a crude pencil and gives it to my sister, who takes the pencil and holds it in her right hand with an underhand-stab grip.

I guess knowing how to write and knowing how to hold a pencil are different. I’ll have to show her how to do that later.

She writes something down with short but crude arm movements. When she’s done, she shows me the paper.

”You two are going to have to help this world, and watch it and its peoples either adapt, else go extinct. I can think of no one more qualified. I’ll be in touch.”

“Wow, sis, you have a memory like a steel trap. Very impressive.”

She crosses her arms and gives me a disappointed look before writing something else down.

It’s hard to forget what a god says. The word “god” was underlined.

Well, shit. When she puts it that way I kind of feel like an idiot. “I see your point…”

“What did he mean by ‘I’ll be in touch’?” Rocket asks.

“Who knows? He’s a time god…” Bella pokes me with her pencil. “… ‘dimensionality’ god, fine, that still effectively makes him a time god.

“When he’ll keep in touch is completely up in the air. There’s no telling with an entity like that. We could meet him again in in fifty years as much as he could pop in in five seconds. There’s no sense thinking about it.

“Point being, we don’t have a way to contact him, and we have no idea why he’s done what he’s done. He said he was leaving it to us for whatever reason, so that means…”

Rocket shakes her head. “The system is gone forever. He won’t help us; we’re on our own.”