“What were you thinking?” Queen Arania yelled.

The high priestess had ushered Linea and her family into a small chamber inside the temple after Linea had awoken from her trance. Her mother was furious but diplomatic enough to keep quiet while they still had been in the main hall. She couldn’t risk losing her composure in front of the gathered nobility, and the lower born.

But now they were cramped in a small room, which the priestesses seemed to use as a preparation room for messes. Linea sat on a wooden chair and tried not to seem irritated.

Sarah was still adjusting to her new situation in Linea’s body. Only being an observer was quite different. But she was not ignorant to her situation.

‘Linea?’ She said hoping not to startle the princess.

‘Yes?’ Linea replied calmly.

‘Who are those people?’ Sarah asked and instinctively tried to nod in the direction of the little group of people, with the expected result of nothing happening.

‘Interesting. I sensed how you tried to move my head. This will need time to get used to,’ Linea said absentmindedly. ‘However, the woman yelling at us is my mother, Queen Arania. She is the ruler of our land. The man beside her trying to calm her down is my father, King Thrandodir. The woman beside us is my oldest sister Tarina, who is first in line to become the next queen. She is getting yelled at because she helped me to get into this ritual.’

‘Why should your mother be mad at you for that? Isn’t she the religious type?’

‘What? No!’ Linea exclaimed in her mind. ‘She is as religious as I am. But don’t get side-tracked. The young man in the corner who seems way too amused is my oldest brother Tovandir. Next to him is my older sister Senia. I have no idea why she looks so furious though. My other brother Shandir is not in the city at the moment. Just mentioning him for completion.’

‘And the other woman is a priestess, I guess?’

‘Correct. Her name is Nasinia, and she is the High Priestess of the Sisterhood of Luna.’

Before Linea could go on with her explanations, she was interrupted.

“Are you even listening?” the queen asked with a crimson face.

“Not really, no,” Linea stated more courageous than she actually was.

“You little…”, Arania pressed through her lips. “First, you somehow get yourself into the examination at the Academy without asking. Then you even get rejected there and let yourself being humiliated. And now you just go ahead and become a priestess! How dare you to go over my head about such an important matter! Again!”

“My queen,” the high priestess intervened, while looking at Linea. “I understand your fury, but I want to clarify that being accepted by the goddess doesn’t make her a priestess. That’s for me to decide…”

“I thank you for your aid,” Arania interrupted, but was cut off herself.

“But! This situation is much more than just Princess Linea becoming a priestess or not. It has been over two hundred years since something like this happened, but I have to point out that the princess has been blessed by our goddess. The moon on her forehead wouldn’t be so present otherwise. This is something I cannot ignore.”

“Blessed?” Tovandir asked with sudden interest and he examined his sister thoroughly. “The last one with a blessing was High Priestess Saria.”

Now every person in the room focused on Linea.

“See?” Linea said and crossed her arms. “I’m not becoming a priestess. I would like to mention though, you actually have no right to deny me that.”

“What do you mean, you don’t want to become a priestess?” Tarina asked from her side. “I helped you and I even risked mother’s anger! You got blessed, for Luna’s sake! You’re probably the next high priestess after Nasinia.”

“A blessing doesn’t warrant her to become a priestess. She has every right to apply for the training now, but if I’m inclined to agree to such training depends on the nature of her blessing,” Nasinia interjected and waved her hand dismissively.

 “I wanted to become a priestess, so much is true,” Linea tried to explain. “But just because I wanted to do something meaningful. I didn’t want to become the little princess that only sits at home and drinks Famnir and talks about the newest fashion or the best actor at the theater.”

Linea let her shoulders slump down.

“I didn’t even get to ask the goddess about becoming a priestess, to be honest,” she admitted. “I- I learned a lot about myself and some of those things don’t seem to make sense right now. Before I can make any further decisions, I have to process all of this first.”

She looked pleadingly at her mother.

For a second, Arania seemed to snap, but after a deep sigh she simply nodded in acceptance. There was nothing she could change now anyway.

“What? That’s it?” Senia asked with a flushed face. “That’s so typical. Little Linea does something stupid and everyone just goes with it. If I would have done that, I would be grounded forever!”

“Enough Senia!” Arania shot her complaint down. “We will talk about this later. Right now, I need to decide what we’re telling those vultures out there.”

“Well, I guess we will tell them the truth about the blessing. Some of them must have seen the mark anyway. So, there is no reason in denying it,” Thrandodir suggested while he stroked an imaginary beard. “We can leave out the details, we don’t know for ourselves. Tell them something along the line that we don’t know more yet.”

The queen sighed but nodded at the door as a signal for their departure. As the party moved out of the room, High Priestess Nasinia moved to Linea and whispered in her ear.

“I’ve seen what your blessing is about. Come and visit me again as soon as you can.”

Linea simply nodded and followed her family outside.

As expected, the main hall was full to bursting point. Most of the high-ranking nobles that lived in the city had of course made the effort to come to the temple, when the word came out that the princess had offered herself to the goddess. Normally such an act would have been planned, and the result would have been clarified in advance to protect the princess from humiliation.

That the process had happened in secret was scandalous enough, but it involved the princess that had been declined by the Academy not so long ago. To say it was the scandal of the year would have been an understatement.

Linea frowned as she noticed even common people in the back, who had put down their night work. She looked through the windows of the temple to see the night sky. When she had awoken earlier she hadn’t noticed it, but her ritual had taken quite some time, apparently.

Her mother stepped in front of the gathered crowd.

“We are honored by your attendance tonight. As some of you may have noticed or heard, my youngest daughter, Princess Linea, wears the mark of our goddess tonight.”

She motioned Linea to step forward. Linea followed the order and stood before the people, her eyes darting from one random person to another. Only when her mother put her hands on her shoulders, she calmed down. A murmur went through the crowd as they could finally see Linea’s mark in detail.

“After talking to High Priestess Nasinia, the outcome of the ritual could finally be determined. We are happy to announce that our princess has been blessed by the goddess!” The queen announced with a bright smile. Contrary to her former behavior, she now radiated happiness and contentment.

The crowd started clapping, and some even cheered, especially the common people in the background.

Queen Arania lifted a hand to signal everyone to let her speak once more.

“It lies within expectations for everyone to be curious what induced such a blessing and what it means to us. However, we ask you to keep questions to yourself for now as we most likely can’t answer them at this point of time. I thank you for coming and wish you a good night.”

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And with that, she pulled Linea to the side and the whole family left the temple through a side entrance, where Captain Evira awaited them with a reinforced troop of her guards and two carriages. While Linea’s parents took the first carriage, she and her siblings tried to get on the second one, only to find it too small for them. It was the same small carriage that Tarina and Linea had used to reach to the temple.

“I’ll just join mother and father,” Senia simply said and with a quick look at Linea, she crinkled her nose and added, “Hopefully, they don’t draw as much attention as certain other persons anyway.”

Linea sighed as she watched her sister walk over to their parents’ carriage and join them. Their mother furrowed her eyebrows as Senia explained something and shot a quick glance at Linea. She the rolled her eyes but didn’t seem to comment it.

 “Come on, Linea,” Tovandir said and gently pushed her into the second carriage.

Inside Linea took a deep breath and closed her eyes, but fortunately neither Tarina nor Tovandir pestered her with additional questions.

‘Sarah, are you still there?’ she asked in her mind trying to find her soul-sister but found nothing different from before the ritual.

‘Yes,’ Sarah answered with slight amusement in her voice. ‘Can’t exactly go away on my own, can I?’

‘Yeah, probably not,’ Linea conceded. ‘How are you? Are you all right being inside me?’

Sarah giggled briefly much to Linea’s confusion.

‘Yes, I feel fine,’ Sarah reassured her. ‘It’s just like you said, it will take some time to get used to, but I’ve always been adaptable. You heard Luna; that’s how humans are.’

‘I don’t know, if you qualify as a human anymore.’

‘Well, I’m part of you, so perhaps I am more of a Moon Elf now.’

A short silence set in between them. After talking to each other, Linea noticed Sarah in her mind at least. It was not like she could pinpoint, where she was, but she felt her presence.

‘So, is there a story behind your sister’s aversion towards you?’ Sarah asked, and curiosity and concern radiated from her.

‘There is,’ Linea admitted glumly. ‘I don’t exactly know when it started, but ever since we were young we tried to surpass each other. For me it was only a game in the start, and I liked the attention she gave me. I always thought of it like a friendly rivalry. But when we got older, she was always so focused on being better than me that she even sabotaged me in some projects I worked on with my magic tutor.’

‘I get that to some point. It is hard for siblings to gain attention from their parents, especially if there are not the oldest or the youngest.’

‘I guess?’ Linea said, not quite getting what Sarah meant. If she wanted her mother to pay attention to her, she would just talk to her. It wasn’t that complicated.

‘But what prompted such open hostility? What you described sounded more like a silent antipathy.’

‘That’s because she and I entered the examination at the Academy of Luna’sindranar earlier this year. There is no real age limit for applicants. As long as their potential is great enough and they have a solid foundation, they will be accepted. It’s just, even with the greatest potential, one needs time to get the needed physical and magical strength. My sister and I have trained hard to enter the Academy.’

‘Quick question,’ Sarah interjected. ‘What’s so special about this academy? The way you talk about it, makes it seem important.’

‘It’s where our Void Hunters learn their craft. They are trained in physical and magical combat to fight the monsters corrupted by the Void. The elves have to deal a lot more with those monsters than other races. We even have a name for them in our old Elven language. Navasintorra stands for ‘Bane of the Children of the Gods’. But we shortened it to Torra, which has been established as their name for the other races as well.’

‘I would guess that elves are the most magic-affine beings on this world?’

‘That’s true, how did you know?’ Linea asked in surprise.

‘Because I can add one and one together,’ Sarah replied and sighed. ‘Remember what we were told? The more magic is used, the more Void-Energy is created. More Void-Energy means more corruption. Hence, those dealing with the Torra the most, must be the ones to use magic more than the others. It is simple logic.’

‘That… makes sense.’

‘Good, now that we established that, please continue with your sister. You both wanted to become Void Hunters. Sounds like a dangerous job to me. Why would your mother allow that over you becoming a priestess? Which sounds way less dangerous to be honest.’

‘That’s Elven politics for you,’ Linea groaned. ‘As princesses we’re supposed to produce off-spring to secure the line of succession.’

‘But you’re not the one to inherit the throne, are you? So why does it matter what you do?’

‘Because we live in a dangerous world. Even though it is way safer for a princess due to guards and living in a secure city, it doesn’t mean we can’t die. There were a few instances in which our line nearly died out. After what I learned today about my ancestry, I think it is even more important to make sure this doesn’t happen,’ Linea explained. ‘Anyway, as a priestess I would have taken a vow of purity, which includes never marrying or having a child.’

‘Seems harsh. I mean, sex is really enjoyable. You shouldn’t miss on that.’

Linea gasped in shame about Sarah’s candor.

“Linea?” Tarina interrupted their inner dialog.

“Are you feeling well?” She added.

“What?” she asked and looked into her sister’s concerned face.

“You gasped loudly, and you look flushed,” Tarina said with a frown.

“No, everything is okay, I’m just thinking about stuff,” she explained and looked out of the window of the carriage. Now that the sun had set completely the streets were bustling with people going to work.

Tarina didn’t look convinced but didn’t pursue it further.

‘You need to control yourself better,’ Sarah commented with a chuckle.

‘Shut up, you stupid idiot!’ Linea snarled. ‘It wouldn’t have happened, if it weren’t for your crassness. You can’t talk about… this stuff!’

‘Oh? So, you’re more the prim princess-type.’

‘I’m not prim!’

‘So, you have already thought about a hot, muscular man pounding you with his big, hard cock?’

“Sarah!” Linea suddenly yelled.

“Who?” Tarina asked confused and made Linea aware that she had said it out loud.

She quickly thought about something clever to say, but nothing came to her mind.

“Oh, no one,” she tried to assure her sister. “I thought about a character in a play, I saw lately. Couldn’t remember the name of the character, but it just came to me surprisingly. I’m sorry for yelling like this.”

“All right…” Tarina just commented but her brows were still furrowed. Even Tovandir looked intently at his youngest sister.

‘Are you crazy?’ Linea asked Sarah in their mind-speak. ‘You can’t just say something so vulgar!’

‘Well, I did,’ Sarah countered with a giggle. ‘And it was funny. But I promise I will hold myself back in the future.’

‘Please see that you do,’ Linea said still fuming.

‘Back to topic,’ Sarah tried to defuse the situation by diverting Linea’s attention. ‘Priestesses can’t have sex, and husbands, and children, which is a problem for the succession. I can understand that. But why allowing any of you to become a Void Hunter. I mean, it sounds freaking dangerous in comparison. You can’t have children, if you’re dead. Also, why do you and your sister even want to become one in the first place?’

‘Tradition mostly, but we grew up hearing all the stories of our late aunt Norana and uncle Larandir. Both were Void Hunters and pretty successful at it. They lost their life in the Great Surge of 645, but they saved thousands of lives.’

‘What’s a surge? Why was it called the Great Surge? Which year do we live in, and why is the number of year so low? I imagined this world to be older.’

‘That’s a lot of questions,’ Linea noted a little unnerved.

‘True, but if I’m expected to help you, I need to learn the facts of this world first. So, keep going.’

‘Calm down, I’ll explain,’ Linea relented. ‘A surge is a sudden peak in Torra activity. They sometimes flock together and attack towns, sometimes even cities. They are often signalized by a notable calm beforehand. The Great Surge of 645 has got his name as it was very dangerous and destructive. A lot of towns in the east were destroyed and a lot of Void Hunters and soldiers gave their life to stop it. We still haven’t recovered fully from that.’

She remembered the last question and added, ‘And we are currently in the year 656 after the Great Cataclysm. The goddess mentioned it if I recall correctly. Everything before got lost in the event, so we know little about the time before. And before you ask, the Great Cataclysm was a Torra surge as well. It was just so devastating that all life on Kavaris was threatened to go extinct.’

‘Who saved the world?’

‘No one knows. What we know, is that a powerful human mage was corrupted and had taken control over most of the Torra. He lay waste over the world, but one day he suddenly vanished. Without his control the Torra weren’t organized anymore and easier to kill. After a few years, the world was back to normal. But a lot of advancement in technology and magic were lost.’

‘All right, carry on. You grew up with Void Hunter stories, but it’s also a tradition for princesses to become Void Hunters?’ Sarah asked to stir the conversation back to its origins.

‘Yes, you need to know that our family has an inherent ability to lead. And that’s nothing I just say to boast. After learning about the goddess and her ability to call souls to this world, I think she might have ensured that my family is always blessed with souls that have an ability to lead others. But I get side-tracked. Males of our family always get training in the army and often become generals. As the army is with a few exceptions purely comprising male Moon Elves, they are destined for it. The princesses that don’t inherit the throne become Masters of the Void Hunter Council, which governs the Void Hunter Guild.’

‘That’s rather restrictive regarding career choices,’ Sarah commented dryly.

‘Oh, you misunderstand me. We aren’t forced to do that. We don’t even have to work at all if we don’t want to. Perks of being royal. It’s just that everyone in the royal family is supposed to contribute to society as best as they can. I could do anything I wanted as long as it doesn’t dishonor the family or endangers the country.’

‘Like becoming a prostitute?’

‘Sarah!’

‘Sorry.’

‘Anyway,’ Linea continued suppressing her annoyance. ‘Back to my sister. That I wanted to enlist at the Academy with her didn’t endear me to her. She accused me of trying to steal her spotlight at the examination, which is a spectacle every year. I just wanted to not be alone in the palace while everyone was out learning stuff.’

With the last sentence, she actively had to try not to cry.

‘I’m sorry for that,’ Sarah tried to console her.

‘It’s not your fault,’ Linea answered, but the solace Sarah radiated helped a bit. ‘But after that and my failure at the examination, where she openly laughed at me and made fun of me, I realized that our rivalry wasn’t as friendly for her as it was for me. Now she constantly complains when I get any bit of attention.’

‘She got some inferiority complex, perhaps,’ Sarah analyzed Senia’s behavior from what Linea told her.

‘A what?’

‘It’s a psychological problem that stems from the feeling of inferiority. Hence, the name.’

‘Any idea what I can do now?’ Linea asked hoping to fix her relationship with Senia.

‘Well, the first step would be getting out of the carriage,’ Sarah suggested and nudged Linea’s awareness back to the outside world. ‘It seems, we have arrived back at your palace.’