I weep for the princesses of this world. The ones with great magical talent will be locked in a gilded cage, a threat to all other nations that she can summon otherworlders. The others will be given as bargaining chips to the highest bidder, usually a royal of another country or a major noble. And even among princesses, the bickering is intense. Always doublespeak, always trying to get the upper hand against one another. I am also guilty of playing this game, I have caused many a royal maiden to go almost bald. This is how I stop them from stomping on me. I stomp on them first. But it is tiresome.
When a royal house has more than one princess, the summoning ritual is strictly taught to only one of them. This is to avoid abuses with the summons. A 'You summon yours, I summon mine. We die. What about we don't do that? Let's be friends.' kind of thing. Being the only daughter of my father, of course, the 'honor' is mine. But I will never perform that wretched ritual or be given in marriage to some stupid stuck up prince from elsewhere.
I'd rather die.
My only hope is to prove my valor before that day comes.
Excerpt from Princess Lumina of Yutis' journal.
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Aidan woke up, his body felt tired. It was as if he was pinned down. He tried to get up and found out he was indeed strapped to the bed. His hands were clenched tightly inside linen bags tied to the leather straps binding him. His head was also tied facing up. He struggled a bit but the binds were firmly in place. Skippy flew down from one wardrobe and landed on him. The dragon stared at him in the eyes then licked his nose.
He knew he was in his male body. He could feel the clothes against his manhood, the way it would move when he tensed his lower abdominal muscles. Not that the girl parts didn't move too, but this time it was on the outside.
"Lord Aidan, please don't be restless." Deb's voice came from his side. "Princess Lumina left instructions to keep you two close together to avoid resonance. We tied you up under orders of Princess Pearl so you wouldn't do anything to her Highness while she was asleep. But we won't hurt you. The dragon was here keeping watch too."
Skippy looked at the maid and nodded in agreement.
"Can I have some water?"
"Yes, here." Deb held a mug and poured some water from a ceramic jug. She touched the tip of a long vase to his lips and slowly poured water in his mouth. "Slowly, milord."
"Thanks, Deb."
"How does milord know my name?" The maid's eyes flashed with newfound inquisitiveness.
"Lumina told me," he lied. "Where is her Highness?"
"By your side. Oh, right, you can't see."
"Is she still asleep? How long was I out?"
"A couple of days. It seems the ritual was too draining for both of you."
"Could you try to wake up her Highness?"
"I think there is no harm in trying."
Aidan closed his eyes and laid perfectly still. He heard Deb softly calling out for Lumina.
"Princess Lumina. Time to wake up. Your knight asks to be graced by your presence." Aidan felt vertigo and his perception shifted.
Dawn woke up, her body felt tired. It was as if she had spent all his energy and then an earthquake happened inside her head. She tried to sit on the bed and Deb helped her.
"Good morning, your Highness. It is a joyous day to see you wake up after your ordeal."
"Good morning, Deb. I am pleased to be in your care." Dawn smiled at Deb.
"Your Highness' kindness is wasted on this lowly servant."
"How is the magic training? Has Pearl arranged a tutor for you?"
"Her Highness Princess Pearl is tutoring me herself."
"Deb, could you please untie Lord Aidan?"
"Should I? Is it safe?"
Dawn lifted a finger and summoned a candle flame.
"I'll scorch his crotch if he tries anything. Is that good enough?" She answered with a mischievous smile.
"Yes, your Highness."
Aidan felt deb's hands over himself as she undid the bindings one by one. He tried to open his eyes but his vision was superposed with Dawn's. He willed her eyes closed while Deb was not looking.
"Deb, I require two bowls of strained soup. We remained without food for too long." Dawn requested.
"But I have orders to not leave you two alone, your Highness."
Skippy growled at the maid, sensing his master's displeasure.
"Then call out for Lady Sora or another maid to keep us company," She suggested.
She was able to keep only Sora with them and evict the helpful but nosy maids out. Maybe being in a room with a slightly irritated dragon was out of their pay grade. After a privacy ward was set, they could talk freely.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"How are you? I was worried when you spent two days sleeping."
"Self-healing is hard. I think we needed this much time to recover from the effects of the ritual. But we are feeling much better. I am having sensory overflow because my mind is not able to cope with this duality, but I believe it will get better as I get used to it."
"And Lumina? What about her?"
Dawn tapped Aidan's chest over the heart. "She is here. A little stronger, but not there yet. There is hope, I think. And now we should take a look at my soul. How it changed after the treatment."
"Go ahead." Sora was rather quiet, a stark contrast with her outgoing busybody demeanor.
"Soul Reveal."
He cast only once. From both Aidan's and Lumina's body the now familiar image representing the soul and aptitudes floated out of their solar plexus.
In front of Lumina floated a brown female form, shaped in the effigy of Lumina's own figure. From the belly of this form, a thick solid thread of brown was floating through space and finding purchase in the image in front of Aidan. A male form, mostly brown but golden around the right side of the chest, the mouth and the left ear. Both images had four orbs slowly spinning around them, red, orange, purple, and white. If one squinted or looked carefully long enough, three other faint outlines would be seen on the male side. Aidan and Sora missed it.
"This is the tether Headmaster Astromelicus couldn't see." Aidan pointed at the line connecting his two bodies. "And Lumina is merging with my male self."
"What will happen next?"
"I will keep casting Soul Restoration in spell form when I get the chance. The ritual is orders of magnitude better than even Shinji's version of the spell, which I can't copy by the way, but the materials are too expensive. However, the worst was avoided, we are no longer under risk of death. I just don't know how it will develop from now."
Sora didn't answer, absorbed in thought. Aidan kept his mouths silent too. He focused inward and tried to sift through the sensory input. It made them dizzy but he knew he had to operate both bodies in tandem.
The silence was killing Aidan inside. Sora just looked in his eyes like a student that blanked out during a final exam asking the teacher for a hint. He shifted his attention to his own body and pulled the squirrel-kin girl to himself.
"It is still hard for me to keep both bodies active at the same time. Especially with the conflicting sight. But now we can move forward. Someone tried to murder Lumina and I was involved by accident. They will pay for what they did to me. To her. To us."
Aidan felt the wetness in his chest. He spoke with a knot in his mouth.
"I survived. I saved what I could of Lumina. I should be dead a dozen times over. But I am here, alive, rather unharmed. Changed for sure. But it is still me."
She sobbed. Her hands dug underneath Aidan's armpits and clung to his back, her claw-like nails biting his skin. Aidan caressed Sora's head and scratched her ears in a very familiar way.
"It hurts me to see you cry, Sora."
"I'm happy. These are happy tears. You survived. We even might save the princess too." She spoke finally.
"I'm sorry for being out cold this long."
"You better be."
"Let's settle or debt to Pearl and then go home."
"I'd like that."
"Get my books, research if it is possible to restore Lumina. Rescue Claire if she is still alive. Face the truth of what I did. Make peace with the King for kidnapping the princess."
"Yes."
Rage not entirely his own seethed inside Aidan when he thought of the next step of his plan so far. If he had less control over his magic, it would be running loose now.
"And find the bastards that set those rampaging rhinorses on us and make them pay. Dearly."
"Sounds like a plan."
Skippy roared.
"Yeah, buddy. Let's kick some ass."
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"Are you sure you are well enough to go with us on this expedition, Lord Aidan?" Pearl asked.
"Yes, your Royal Highness. Sixteen months without action is too much. I fear my instincts might have gone dull." Aidan answered.
"Very well. I will allow it. Lumina, he is your problem." Pearl got closer to Dawn and whispered in her ear, "And keep him away from my maids."
"Of course, Pearl. Don't worry, me and Lord Aidan will do our best. Even if his best is just to act as a porter." Dawn answered.
Pearl didn't look too convinced, but let it slip. Having an Underworld mage and a Fire mage in her retinue would help a lot. Her only concern was that he just woke up from over a year of inactivity. But Shinji assured his recovery spell should have restored the body completely. He even used that Soul Restoration spell on them a few more times during these days they were knocked out.
"Fine. We are departing the day after tomorrow. I cannot delay any further."
"As you wish, your Royal Highness." Aidan bowed deeply before the princess.
"Thank you, Pearl. I owe you one more, it seems." Dawn replied with a curtsy.
"And you better remember that, Lumina. I will collect all my debts."
Dawn beamed at her fellow princess. Pearl was astonished by the girl's cheekiness but did her best not to show it.
'It is so unbecoming of a princess to be this honest', she thought. 'Or maybe Lumina is plotting something and she got this good at faking it? It cannot be.'
"I look forward to it, Pearl."
Pearl dismissed her paranoia, turned on her heels, and left. She was feeling strange. There was something in this candid Lumina that drew her like a moth to the flame.
"Deb, leave us," Dawn commanded.
"But your Highness..." Deb protested with a faint voice. She knew she shouldn't oppose a royal, but the one that ordered her was the crown princess.
"Deb, Sora is here with me and I doubt the boy can defeat my magic. I am more than enough to protect myself from him. Now, scram."
It pained Aidan to mistreat Deb, but these maids grew used to princesses acting like bitches. Being too soft here would only hinder him and he already gave the girl a priceless boon. After Deb left Aidan's own body slumped and sat on a chair. Eyes closed he looked like a ragdoll.
"It is hard to keep concentration," Aidan said. "And even harder to process the sensory input."
"I still can't believe."
"The ritual not only repaired the damage, but it also cemented the situation. I think this is me for the ride." Aidan looked down at the princess' palms and then at his own body on the chair. With just a whim the boy lifted the hands and placed them on the knees. As natural as moving one's own limbs.
He was feeling everything both bodies were feeling. His male body felt sluggish and somewhat numb, slow in the reflexes but at least he could keep both conscious.
Smelling everything twice. He could understand a bit of what Sora's world was like. He was confused with the proprioceptive sense. Two left arms, two left legs. Two heartbeats throbbing in different rhythms. The weight and pull of the princess' long hair that was missing on his own head. And down below, the awareness of having both the key and the keyhole at the same time.
But the real trouble was the sense of sight. The brain was adapted to process two visual inputs separated by the eyeball distance, it had a whole life to do that plus ages of genetic selection. Putting together the input from four sets of eyes? That's an impossible headache. He could only survive the previous conversation with Pearl by focusing his sight on his own nose, blurring everything around.
"I need to practice processing this sensory input."
"Yes. But there is another thing you need to practice too." Sora hinted with a smug smirk.
"What is it?"
"Since you are going to be a girl for the long-term, and a princess no less, you need to learn to play the part."
"I think you are right."
"And you suck at being a girl."
"Touché."
Sora looked at the two-in-one person in front of her and sighed.
"That is why we are going shopping."