Eliax Lestwood sat beside Illila, wondering what was taking so long. The clone was terrifyingly good at acting like me, sometimes it felt like she was even better at it than I was. But at the moment I was at the northern beach with Niun, trying to coax Turste into a portal. He was amazingly terrified of the thing for some reason. Muttering about ‘a betrayal to Alner and all he stands for’ whatever that meant. The important thing though was that I couldn’t witness this myself.
Illila was vibrating beside my clone, just waiting for Queen Steris to appear. The two of them had somehow gotten spots near the palace, which was a stark contrast to the beaten down husk I’d gotten used to.
Over the past week, the squatters had been whisked away, the floors polished, the cobwebs dusted. Broken doors were replaced and hundreds of magical lights brightened the empty halls. I’d peeked in a few times over the course of the renewal, but despite the grandeur, the feeling that there was no expense spared, I could tell that this wasn’t meant to last. In a week or so the queen would go home and her father’s palace would once more fall to rot and squatters.
But right now it looked exactly the way I remembered it, it felt like at any moment the Last King would descend from those steps and order an execution. Perhaps that was the real reason Steris hadn’t kept Reiaran as the capital city, perhaps she was trying to put the bad memories behind everyone.
My clone was having similar epiphanies as the horns and bells sounded and the people began to cheer. A golden carriage rolled through the southern gate followed closely by seven decorated knights on horseback. Most were young, strong from their youth, but one was only young in my memories, I remembered that face from before.
Eliax smiled at the spectacle, beside her, Illila made some very unladylike noises as she pointed enthusiastically at one of the knights. Looking around, the clone could see that most of the younger women were swooning over that same knight.
She didn’t really see the appeal, his nose was a bit on the large side and he looked a bit sloppy, but she had never claimed to understand the whims of the public and neither had I.
The queen couldn’t be more different from how the clone remembered her. Where she had once been frail and thin enough that a strong breeze might blow her away, now she was on the chubbier side; a sign of wealth. It was a sign that this queen could afford to feed herself past the point where her body needed it. It was a sign that if something terrible happened, she could outlast it.
Her hair was long and fluffy, the white tendrils curling elegantly in a way that somehow made her seem larger. And atop her head was the only thing identical to how she’d looked in the clone’s memories. The two large antennae were longer than Steris’ head, thick enough that they barely drifted in the soft breeze and never even dipped upon their own weight.
They were large. Large enough that the clone hastily strengthened her mind shields just in case the legends of antennae granting mind reading powers were true.
Steris looked out majestically from her carriage, the knight all the ladies had been swooning over bowed majestically at a seemingly random girl and winked. Illila was looking like she might pass out.
Now that the clone thought about it, that knight seemed almost too careless to have won his title the true way, but he was still wearing the most decorated armor. Was this one of the princes? Probably the adopted one, he didn’t look anything like the Queen.
There were also four young girls skipping along the streets and tossing small papers all around. Whenever the group passed the crowd would surge forward and pick them up, though they seemed eager enough to show off the contents.
The words spread through the crowd like a wildfire, when the carriage passed Eliax and Illila, they wasted no time in procuring themselves an invitation. “Queen’s ball, Tonight.” Eliax read aloud. Sparks, that wasn’t great timing.
The Queen passed from view before long, exiting her carriage and gracefully ascending the palace steps. The knights handed their steeds off to some grooms and followed her, their hands resting calmly on their swords as most of them kept watch of the area for irregularities.
They all entered the palace and finally the crowd began to disperse, whispering excitedly to each other all the way.
--
Eliax -the clone- paced in her room at the Lazy Dryad. She knew from her first moments that she wouldn’t last more than a few days, but sparks this was more stressful than she’d expected.
Eliax’s dress lay on the bed, and hidden in the closet from the prying eyes of Illila and Alsen was the dress she would wear as Foralen. The clone though didn’t want to choose one without her original self there. It would set a bad precedent. So you conjured a clone out of the Aether, you granted her stewardship over half of your life, trusting her to inform you of important things! What would you do if that clone did something that might be important without your input?
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Sparks where the heck was she? Hadn’t they agreed to meet here right after finishing with their respective tasks?
The clone bit her lip and stopped pacing, the party wasn’t until sunset and it was still just after noon, it would be fine, she would be fine. Turste was probably just being a baby about the gate spell still.
She still managed to jump out of her skin when a knock came from the door, she berated herself for letting a mere anxiety get so far and brushed herself off with a sigh. She plastered on a smile and opened the door, wondering if it was Alsen again making sure she was still keeping that wok with her.
She wasn’t sure who the last person she’d expected to see was, but Hivren was definitely near the bottom of that theoretical list. He did have a tendency to randomly appear places though so she really should really put him higher.
“Hivren?”
“Eliax…sparks, you probably can’t help me anyway but I have no idea who else to go to… it’s my dad, in Aubinere. I just got word that he probably won’t make it another two weeks, I should have realized, he’s been getting worse lately and-”
She stared at him as he outlined the -to him- hopeless situation. Sparks sparks sparks, she should not be the one talking to him right now! That was the real Eliax’s job, if it was left up to a simple clone she would just mess it up, she would offer to teleport him all the way there. She would destroy months of buildup, erase the efforts and goals that her original had crafted.
She would-
A faint, almost imperceptible ripple in her magesight was the only warning as someone teleported into the room.
--
I stared in bafflement at the open door and Hivren. It wasn’t the worst possible thing to be caught teleporting, he knew what my affinities were. The worst part was my clone, standing innocently beside the open door, practically radiating panic.
She was so panicked in fact that she simply dismissed herself rather than deal with the fallout of this.
The memories of her existence slotted themselves neatly into my mind, but that only made me wish more that I could get the clone to do that in real time. Hivren caught the door as it swung through where the conjuration had stood, staring at me, “You know Geneseri?!”
I stared back at him, my mouth dry, “I… yes.”
He peeked out at the hallway before stepping through the door, closing it behind him, he dropped his voice to a whisper, “And you can teleport, but you’ve given every indication before now that you’re still a complete beginner at dimensionalism.”
I nodded slowly, trying to sort through the Geneseri memories quick enough to get the context of why he was here.
Hivren folded his arms, looking concerned, “Eliax what else are you hiding?”
“I...I can get you to Aubinere in less than a day.”
He blinked, taken aback, “you-”
“You need to see your father, I can get you there.” I moved my hands to the conjuration and started casting a new clone, “I mean, we should leave now since I have to go to the ball tonight, but uh...what else can I do? I could get you an audience with the Hero probably, I mean, you’d like that right? You’ve been trying to really talk to her since before she even showed up!”
Hivren stared at me as I started rambling, “Eliax?”
“Is there anything else? I...can’t think of anything else to offer but-”
“Eliax. Are you trying to make me stop asking questions? Because we both know that won’t work no matter what you give me.”
I cringed. Hivren was the last person I wanted to tell about being the Hero. It had gone pretty well with Niun but I knew never to trust a single outcome to be the rule. The clone formed and I handed her Foralen’s necklace. She already knew what she was supposed to do, but before she could teleport away, Hivren grabbed her arm.
She looked back at him, frowning, “I have to do damage control, Illila is going to kill us for possibly missing that ball.”
“Just wait for a second, I need some answers right now.” He eyed the necklace I’d handed the clone, “Isn’t that the illusion Aymiae gave you?”
The clone wrenched her arm away, “That doesn’t matter.” She teleported away before he could demand anything further.
“Hivren.” I found myself saying, “Is there nothing I can do to make you not question this too deeply?” I contemplated knocking him out and putting him somewhere until I could properly deal with this, but...that felt like too much. Besides, I would still have to face him eventually and he might demand legal retribution.
He stood up straighter, “Eliax, I came here to ask for your help, but I’m not going to accept that help if I can’t trust you.”
I sat down roughly on the bed, “Fantastic…I’ve been dreading this since I met you by the way, you were just so obsessed with everything I did, you seemed delusional about my motives, you looked at me and seemed to think there was anything more than a stupid, selfish, impulsive, brat. But Hivren, there’s not, that’s all I am and I hate it!”
“I was never obsessed with what you did, Eliax, I…I’m sorry if it felt that way.”
“But you are! You always have been! Even before we met, you heard about what I did, you saw heroism in it, but I guess everyone did. No one wondered if there was any reason for what I did besides glory to the kingdom, you wondered, but sparks you’re so determined to see a good side in it!”
“...What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I hate myself, Hivren. I’m saying that I’m the Hero you’re so obsessed with, I’m Foralen dei Imal, or at least I was before I died. And I’m saying that you need to stop asking questions before I make you regret it.”