In a corner of Yutis nobody cares about, lies a small fief. One small town and three villages. Less than four thousand people, of several mixed races, more than the average for the rest of the realm. Surrounded by mountains to the north and east, rocky hills to the west and the ever-fertile valleys of Yutis to the south. Ruled by a Baronet, the lowest rank of nobility, its people live unaware of the truth about their realm. All they know is that the Lord is almost never home and that life is not so bad but they can't grasp how good they have it.
It is hard for people to grasp the value of their safety and comfort when said safety and comfort is never threatened. After a while, they just assume that is the norm. It is like stopping tragedies before they happen. Nobody can grasp how huge would be the damage. Just like if some boy would've stopped a princess from being trampled by rhinorses neutralizing the beasts. He'd have received almost no praise for stopping two beasts of burden. Not from saving the country's most valuable treasure from an almost flawless assassination attempt. Although the latter part is still a work in progress.
The same happens in these settlements in the middle of nowhere. Monsters don't attack them, but they don't know of the B-rank hunters that are secretly training there under the Lord's guidance. Bandits don't usually come this far northeast, there's richer prey elsewhere. And for both monsters and bandits, they aren't too stupid. Once enough of them go that way and not a single one ever comes back, they realize that is not a place to be.
Merchants also don't come this far north. The place has no specialty product but nobody ever starves. The inhabitants grew used to this idyllic life and took it for granted. And given the cultural advancement of their society, they are dearly lacking in entertainment.
Their best past time until two years ago was to bet on which girl would snatch the favor of the Lord's young heir. The male nobles of that world are notoriously lecherous and promiscuous after all. It is not unheard of a noble to have dozens of bastards in their lands. The mothers usually receive some kind of unofficial support, after all a bastard is one official declaration away from becoming a regular member of the noble House. For the commoner mothers, it is not a bad business and for the nobles, it is a failsafe in case the regular heirs fail.
The downside of this custom is that the commoner woman most of the time has no agency in accepting or rejecting the advances of these notoriously lecherous and promiscuous male nobles. A situation where they have to seize the initiative and actively seek out the notoriously not lecherous and chaste male noble? Almost unheard of. Unless you live in a small fief in a corner of Yutis nobody cares about.
But even that hobby was short-lived. The young Lord reached his fourteenth birthday and was moving to the capital to attend the Royal Academy. And several town girls were left frustrated that they didn't get to commune with him. Oblivious to the fact that they should be glad they weren't forced to, like several others elsewhere in the world. But without being exposed to that grim reality, they could not measure the value of what they had.
Yesterday the peace and calm of that small town were shaken in its foundations. Morning came and nobody thought anything strange. Until word came from the Lord's estate, a keep half an hour north from the town that the young Lord returned for a visit. It was impossible to not hear the news. All the servants came to town with coin and, more important, gossip. At first, it was hard to believe. No carriage arrived the previous day, and anyone taking the only road leading to the Lord's keep would be noticed.
The townsfolk felt cheated when they gasped the means of transportation, but the ember that hit the haystack was the fact that he brought the princess along. Without monsters or bandits to fill their concerns, without a rumbling stomach to hinder their intellect, the main pastime in that town was gossip. Any juicy tidbit of rumor or information regarding nearby fiefs, their nobles and especially the royal family or the local Lord was fair game for the tangled grapevine woven over the entire town.
But they soon erupted as a veritable arms race was undeclared, every crone and waif spinning their wildest theories about why they had flown in. Was the princess the winner of the betting race, fleeing in shame to this corner of the realm to hide an illegitimate pregnancy? Did they elope? The young lord murdered a love rival? Was the princess kidnapped? Is she the real princess? Did a coup d'etat happen and the brave young Lord was actually sheltering the princess from would-be assassins? Did the wicked young Lord use dark magic to enslave the body of the princess and submit her to his every dark desire?
With varying degrees of popularity and some astonishing pieces of unwitting insight, these rumors went from mouth to ear, from windowsill to porch. People forgot to work that day. And it was all right because they could indulge in that luxury, oblivious of the hardships commoners suffer in other fiefs.
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That was yesterday. Today the town mayor is organizing a feast in honor of the princess. If the guest of honor will appear or not is yet another hot topic, but apparently, nobody bothered to ask them.
And it all leads to a confused and mildly irritated young Lord being forced to delay his return to the capital by one more day.
And this irritation led him to his first couple's fight.
"I can't believe you talked me into attending that feast." Aidan vented. "You of all people, Sora. That people have a venomous tongue. You know how bad they talk about you behind your back."
"Oh, no. You won't use that as an excuse. I can handle the insults to my person on my own. And it is not like I want to go after every single one that slaps slander my way. Or we wouldn't have a princess situation."
"Well, you are wrong. I am not using you as an excuse, I'm trying to protect you."
Sora opened her mouth to talk but she could see that Aidan was in full denial mode. She started to reminisce in order to avoid speaking something that would sour even more their fight. After his twelfth birthday, the advances by town girls started. Twelve is the legal age for marrying in Yutis. And calling them 'girls' is already a big courtesy. Women with sixteen, eighteen years under their skirts tried to get him. Until a point, Aidan avoided going to town entirely. She was even sporting thoughts that he might not like girls but the truth was another thing entirely.
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His legacy. As far as she could dig, his bloodline has some kind of restriction or imposition on generating offspring. A deal with some world powers of a sort, maybe. It is not hard to imagine why some organizations would go to great lengths to make sure there was not a horde of God-Slaying children growing to run amock around the world. From what little she could see of his parents' prowess and what she knew Aidan was capable of, that horde could very well conquer the world. Even if they couldn't, the fight would not be a nice one. That which can save the world can very well destroy it.
And now he was slipping back into his old ways. But they were a mated pair now.
"Sora? Do you agree with me?" He waved in front of her.
"Of course not. Tell me, can you handle Cythrel's harassment?"
"Yes. And now that you brought her up, what deal did you two make back at the Gala?"
She glared at him, took a step forward and held his shoulder.
"Don't change the subject. Do you think any of these village girls will be worse than Cythrel?"
"No. I doubt any of them will directly ask me to 'put my boy in her girl'." He snorted, nervous.
"Aidan, I can handle myself and any insult they throw at me without murdering anyone."
"I still don't like it."
"You should be worried about any harassment directed at the princess. Actually, you should've brought her into this conversation instead of sending her to sleep."
"I needed to rest her body. She was feeling sore from training and sparring the whole day. Would Dawn convince you of not going faster?"
"You mentioned sending thoughts her way so she could give her point of view, right? Well, run this conversation by her and see what she thinks."
"She just fell asleep a few minutes ago."
"And after that, you started to have second thoughts about attending the feast in your own honor. That was not a question, by the way."
"I don't know. I need time to think."
"Do you want to take a nap and we resume the conversation later? I'll make a promise if you do."
Aidan wondered what kind of promise was that. She was serious and he had no idea. It was the same thing as back in the catacombs. He by himself was bad at reading people.
"Yes. What promise is that?"
"Go to sleep and come back with Dawn. We'll talk again. If I cannot convince you of going then, we won't."
"Agreed."
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Aidan sat in a couch in the foyer, all prim and proper, waiting for the girls to get ready. Lumina's high maintenance hair was starting to annoy him greatly. It was marvelous and when mounted and styled properly it would catch your eyes and never let go, but that was too much of a bother to care for every day. Maybe that is why they are always attended by a throng of maids. But he was there to think about other important issues, not about the princess fabulous hair.
Remembering his conversation with Sora, they talked again, this time with Dawn present and alert. He kept her quiet and her eyes closed. The conversation took an entirely different tone. He compared his thoughts and feelings with what he went through during the previous conversation when Dawn was sleeping.
Why was he that afraid, that unstable when by himself? It was not a matter of the feelings, the empathy that Dawn brought to his mindscape. It was not one of the things he could just label like a gender difference in mindsets or perceptions.
It was because of his male mind, Aidan, was fragmented. He could remember how he could think clearer, better and with more precision after each soul-healing ritual. Dawn was complete, stable. Her mind, body, and soul fully repaired and integrated. There is no way to be whole without all three in perfect order.
And as long as he still had to carry the princess in him, it wouldn't change. He would still be this addled, slow-witted and emotionally unstable person. That is why he lost his duel with Captain 'Melty' so bad. He couldn't focus until his life was in the line. He had to get Lumina out of him. Fix his mind. Stop wasting his focus on constantly suppressing her.
But one funny thing he just realized. Once Captain 'Melty' went for his life, his focus sharpened. Was there a pattern? During these last months, in what occasions did his focus also sharpen that way? When the rhinorses attacked. He was able to analyze the markers, the spells used on them, and even create the spontaneous effect that caused the swap. The one whose diagram Kazuya stole. When Dawn fought the wolf-kin slaver too. Or when they were pressed by Pearl and still unsure of their standing, and he was able to create Soul Restoration in a week.
It was ridiculous to think that an apprentice mage could make a brand new fifth circle spell in a week. Destroy Undead took him the whole semester.
Anyway, time to shelve these thoughts for later. He could ask the Keeper or Astro about that when he had time. The girls were coming downstairs, time to take the coach to town and face that little bit of his past. He was going to be Lord of that town one day. He had to set boundaries.
- I have to get rid of Lumina. The girl overstayed her welcome.
No. He couldn't give harbor to those dark thoughts. He had to save Lumina.
- Rip her off of my soul and shove her in a constructed body. I want my life back.
Aidan lowered and clutched his head between his hands. He was hurting. Bleeding. Unconscious.
His mental state affected his other self. Dawn screamed in pain and lost balance. She was trying on some shoes for the event as the only footwear they brought were the travel boots and comfortable indoors sandals.
"Your Highness!" The maids rushed to help her.
From the ground, Dawn searched for her mate. "Sora, run to the foyer. Aidan is there."
The squirrel-kin girl took off her own shoes and ran through the keep barefoot. At the Foyer, she found Aidan on the floor, unconscious and with a nosebleed. She checked his vitals and for once desired to have healing magic. Maybe she should take that fairy wing.
At least he was stable. Breathing and pulse. The bleeding was minor and quickly stanched.
Dawn came right after, also barefoot. Without him being conscious, the amount of information she could feel through their tether was little.
"How is he?" She asked from the top of the stairs.
"I think he is stable, don't come down. I'll take him upstairs."
They healed, cleaned and placed Aidan in his bed.
"Dawn, what happened?" Sora asked once they were alone. It seems they won't be attending the feast after all. Both girls were sitting on a couch, side by side.
"We were thinking of how much his dual state is affecting his mind. On how he was not able to function properly. And then some dreary ideas about Lumina crept into our mind. He fought back, but this was the result." She omitted most of the situation.
"In the end, it was all Lumina again. Damn."
She stood up and walked around the room, looking for something to smack. She couldn't bring herself to damage Aidan's room, so she returned to the couch.
"You really hate Lumina, don't you?" Dawn asked, candidly.
Sora moved a little away from Dawn, startled. "Where did this come from?"
Dawn cleared her throat and looked in Sora's eyes. "Back in the cloud picnic. When we were... bonding." Dawn looked away briefly, bashful. "You said 'I want to hear you beg, Princess' to me. And I thought it was a very creepy line. Like you were letting something bottled up out."
Sora avoided Dawn's eyes and blushed hard. She felt her face on fire. "I can't talk about that." She blurted.
"I understand. You told me enough already." Dawn reached for her head and scratched the back of Sora's squirrel ears. "I love you, silly girl. There is no princess in the world that I'd choose over you. It is fine."
"No, it is not. I'm sorry. I did..."
Dawn placed a finger on her lips. "I don't care. Stop. I'm growing to abhor Lumina too. Even though I'll have to wear her face forever."
Dawn took Sora by the cheek and gently kissed her. They spent a few minutes there, just hugging on the couch.
Sora softened. "I don't hate her face. It is a very cute face. But the personality..." She guffawed at last.
They laughed. Dawn looked at the sleeping form of Aidan and sighed. "We are close, Sora. I already have the spell to separate us. All that is left is to let Astro make a new body for her. And then we'll be free."
"Will you take me to walk on the clouds again?"
"Always."