Princess Lumina of Yutis was completely at a loss. Sitting on a hospital bed she tried to make sense of her own existence and predicament. Two years ago, she was trampled by rampaging rhinorses just as their exams finished. She was about to congratulate a fellow student and then... nothing. She felt her limbs cold as if her lifeblood refused to go there. Despite the feeling, sweat rolled down her face and her heart pounded like it wanted to run away. Her stomach swirled, in the back of her mind she could hear the beats coming to finish their job. Lumina wanted to run away. Wake up from this nightmare. Deny that it was true. Her life... what to make of it?

She knew she died that day. Or at least should have. The memory of bones breaking, the sheer terror of several tons of beast crashing down on them gnawed at the edge of her psyche. Everything else was blurred. She could feel even through that despair a silver lining. A familiar warmth sheltering her. She tried to delve into her memories to find what that was, but it only triggered her trauma. She remembered the pain. The loss. Her throat had a knot as if a thousand caltrops wanted to burst up through her mouth.

Arms wrapped around her. Claire. Her sister. Lumina blinked and the tears rolled down. "Claire..." Lumina mumbled and her upper body failed her, crashing back on the bed.

"Say nothing else, sister," Claire whispered in her ear. "You are here, alive, hale. Everything is over and everything will be fine. I love you, Lumina. I always did and I always knew I was your sister.  You are here, alive, hale. Everything is over and everything will be fine. You just have to focus on my voice. I'll repeat it for you as many times as you need. Live, Lumina. Breathe."

She bawled together with her estranged sister. Huddled on the bed, they cried their hearts out. So many years hiding a secret that was not. Claire's warmth spread onto her and she could feel her limbs again. After quite some time after, Lumina forced herself to focus away from her own misery for a moment and spoke again.

"I love you, Claire."

"I know you fool of a Princess. Why did you have to push me away from these beasts?"

"I'd rather die than see you hurt. I had everything and you had nothing. It was not fair to have you dressed in drabs."

"I had you, up until I had not. Being with you was enough. A piece of me died that day."

"You have me. I won't go anywhere. I won't let go of you."

Claire kissed Lumina's forehead. She gently met her eyes and smiled. "Yes, I'd like that."

That kiss dispelled her worries as if it was just a dream. The tension left Lumina and she let her body sink on the mattress. She breathed deeply and slowly, calming her heart and recovering her mind. She focused her magic on the secret technique Royals used to identify each other but nothing happened.

"The Regalia. I can't see it now."

"Are you calm? Take off these magic bracelets if you are. They are blocking your magic for your own safety."

She did. Lumina once again used the spell and saw Yutis' crest floating above Claire. A huge smile crept onto her face.

"Father accepted you."

"He surely did. Our family is growing by leaps and bounds."

Lumina froze and a primal rage burst like a volcano. "Did father remarry? Is some woman sleeping on my mother's bed and birthing children?"

"No!" Claire hurried to rebuke. "No, the Royal bed remains the King's alone. Although I do suspect he visits my mother every now and then," Claire sighed.

"But your mother is too old to bear children. I don't mind if it is your mother."

The eldest Princess shook her head. "Mother has no intention of becoming Queen. Nor father or remarrying. Both are happy with their current arrangement."

Lumina sighed. "I'm sorry. I mean, to me..."

"It is fine. You love your mother and I respect that. Keep her alive in your heart. For my whole life I've dealt with your temper and tantrums, sister. I don't mind because I know your heart."

She felt ashamed. Somehow, the old anger had left her. Lumina felt... tempered like a blade straight out of the forge and into the cooling oil.

"A man has his needs, don't him?" Lumina asked in a soft and coy voice.

"Indeed," Claire answered with a neutral,, unreadable face.

"I don't mind if it is your mother," Lumina said biting her lower lip, searching Claire's eyes for approval. "She did give me you."

"Indeed," A smile crept onto Claire's lips and eyes.

"But then, how is our family growing?"

"To explain that I have to tell you of your unlikely savior and the price to bring you back."

Lumina shuddered. Something was at the edge of her conscious mind, taunting her. The thought or memory eluded her but she was afraid of what was in there. "Who saved me?"

"The same boy you spent the whole semester tormenting. The one you fought Astromelicus to get expelled."

Claire thought she had to give her the truth in small packages. With that in mind, she glossed over some details.

"During the attack, Aidan summoned a girl to hold your body alive and drew your soul into his body to safe keep it as he couldn't maintain both alive at the same time. You remained inside Aidan these whole two years," Claire paused to let what she said get digested by Lumina.

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"Did that spirit live in my body all this time?" Lumina asked, voice trembling.

"Yes. But it was not a spirit, she was a real person. The fates of the three of you were inextricably linked. Should one perish, all would. They braved many perils to keep you safe and all three of you alive until they could research the magic that could restore you. Quite the tale but that can wait."

Claire stopped and Lumina made that begging face children do when asking for a bedtime story. Soon she understood that her sister was giving her the story in bite-sized pieces.

"That's almost impossible to believe, Claire," Lumina mumbled trapped between disbelief and fright. "I... I don't know if I would were anyone else telling me this but you."

"Why do you think that?" Claire goaded Lumina to open up. Lumina could see her sister knew the answer but in her current mental state, she didn't connect the dots.

"The magic involved. It should be impossible. No, wait." Lumina remembered the talk she had with the Headmaster. In all her haughtiness and hubris, it was buried deep to hide her shame. "He's the god-slayer. And a prodigy with spellcraft."

"Indeed," Claire nodded with a sage expression. "He almost doomed himself. The price he had to pay to keep you alive and kicking inside him was great."

Lumina stretched her back in surprise, "Kicking?"

Claire shook her head. "Not even the god-slayer was a vessel strong enough to hold Princess Lumina the Terrible, Queen of Slander and the bane of horny Princes everywhere." Her seriousness broke at the end and she chortled.

She didn't even have the time to relax her body, "I beg your pardon, sister?"

"During their journey, every single time something you didn't like came up, you caused a ruckus inside the boy's body, breaking him from inside and usually making him bleed from every orifice under the sun. It wasn't easy on him."

Lumina blushed. "I did that?"

"Yes. When Brody barged into our tea party, you almost killed him out of sheer hatred."

And just like that, all color left the Princess' skin. "Brody!" If there was one thing she feared more than death, it was her fiancé. "He came here? In Yutis?"

"Yes. Calm down or I won't tell you anything else," Claire paused and got a demure nod from a frightened Lumina. "Brody came with a plot to assassinate the Royal Family and annex Yutis. Aidan got him to sign off his rights to you in a bet and killed him during a duel of honor."

Claire paused but Lumina was frozen. If an otherworlder were witnessing the scene, they would think of the acronym BSOD. Without any feedback, Claire continued.

"So you not only owe him your life but your freedom as well. And the prosperity of the nation because Heath will cease to be a thorn in our external trade soon enough."

"I... I don't know what can I do to repay that..." Lumina focused on her feelings and found herself changed. "The old me would brush it off as 'he was doing his duty as a citizen' but something changed."

"That much is easy to do. I have a guest outside waiting to see you. She has a request. All you have to do is agree to it."

Lumina looked at herself and saw she was dressed only in the hospital gown. It did a good job of covering her body but was too simple, too drab to entertain a guest.

"I can't be seen like this," Lumina covered her breasts.

"The guest outside won't mind it a bit. I'm calling her in."

Without giving time for Lumina to protest further, Claire opened the door to reveal a girl on the other side. Lumina at first couldn't believe what she was seeing. The guest entered and she wondered if she was really herself. Or maybe...

"Mom?" It was the first thing that came to Lumina's mind. "No. Not mom. Your face... Am I me?"

"I have a mirror with me if you want," The guest said with a smile as if she could read her thoughts. Probably yes, since she was Lumina.

"A-Are you me?" Lumina asked after stuttering.

The guest slowly approached, offering Lumina the mirror as she spoke. "That's a good question, one I asked myself a few times. But while I had to stand-in for you all this time, the true answer is no. I am not you and I am not Lumina even though I lived in that body of yours for a year and a half."

Lumina took the mirror and looked at herself. She only remembered her former fourteen-year-old self. The girl in the mirror was her, but grown and bloomed into a splendid woman. Just like the other one in front of her.

"You are the girl Aidan created to keep my body alive!" Lumina's eyes brightened a bit in realization. She felt silly by saying it out loud after the fact but concealed it.

"Yes, was that what Claire told you? Not wrong. I indeed kept your body alive while Aidan hosted your soul. But the only way to bring you back was to give me a new body. After a while, I became real, I think."

"You have my eternal gratitude for what you did. It does not please me that you walk around with my face, but Claire told me it was the price for my life. Come here, sit next to me. What is your name?"

The guest sat next to Lumina and looked at her in the eyes. Lumina felt an uncanny detachment as if the face of the girl was wrong.

"I'm Dawn, an adventurer. Or was. I'm now the acting Headmistress of the academy. Astro went on a soul-searching journey."

Lumina looked at Dawn and the feeling of wrongness only increased. "You have something... I don't know."

Dawn smiled and gently raised Lumina's hand holding the mirror. It really was if she could read her mind, Lumina thought. She moved and rested her chin on Lumina's shoulder.

"Look at us through the mirror. What you are feeling strange is the fact the mirror swaps left and right. Our bodies are almost equal."

Relief washed Lumina's face as she saw both faces in the mirror. It was as she said. Seeing the left and right sides in front of her without the swap was odd. Very odd and unsettling.

"I'm sorry. It's just too much for me."

Dawn moved away,  "Take your time. I knew it would be hard for you to accept my existence. I almost ran away but the academy would crumble if I didn't work."

Lumina felt her eyes watering. A tug in her heart, almost painful, told her to not let her go. She grasped Dawn's sleeve.

"Please stay. I want to hear from you. Please tell me your story. I must know. Tell me everything."

The despair of losing two years was too much for Lumina. The outrageous tale of her almost death and rebirth, Dawn's existence. She felt as if she could live those years if Dawn spoke of them.

"Fa... The rest of the Royal family is waiting outside. I can tell you everything later. No, I will tell you everything later. But I dare not delay the King and keep him away from his daughters."

Claire took the opportunity to interrupt them. "Dawn, the request. Do it now."

Lumina looked between the two and remembered, "Yes. Your request. What is it that you want, Dawn?"

"King Helios offered to adopt me into the Royal family if you grant your permission. He even gave me this," Dawn showed her the Regalia ring. "This one is not yours."

"I know. I can sense mine," Lumina pointed at the castle. "That is a tall request. Becoming my sister."

"Dawn requested to be excluded from the succession line," Claire added. "You would still be third in the succession line."

"Oh," Lumina looked at Claire. "That is fair. You are older than me. You said Lucien is outside, does he know it?"

"It is all up to you, sister," Claire answered. "Either you accept her as our sister or you do not. She will probably vanish from our lives if you don't, however."

Lumina narrowed her eyes and gave Claire a brief glare. Even in her weakened state, she could see through this kind of emotional manipulation.

"You really want it, don't you, sister?"

"I want it very much. You have no idea how much of a benefit to us would be to bind her to the Royal family. Dawn is among the three most powerful mages I've ever seen."

Lumina looked away and sighed. She would want to keep her clone under her sight rather than loose out in the world. And wait for a second what did Claire meant...

"Where do I sit in this mage ranking of yours, sister?"

"Later," Claire dodged the question. "Now, make your choice. Father and brother are waiting."