Linea slumped onto her bed and took a deep breath. After dealing with her family for a few hours and deflecting most of their questions, she was spent.

‘That was exhausting…’ she noted to Sarah, who sent a wave of compassion through their bond. Something she learned in the hours of questioning as she didn’t want to distract Linea by talking to her.

Linea just wanted to get out of her dress and crawl under her blankets.

‘That reminds me, I still have to introduce some people to you,’ Linea noted and dragged herself over her bed towards her nightstand. She grabbed a little bell and rang it. A few moments later an older Moon Elf entered the room. The woman was fairly tall and had black hair, which she had put up into a bun. She wore a long, black dress, which had a different coat of arms sewn over her chest compared to the Royal Guard.

“How may I be of service, My Lady?” the woman asked and made a curtsy.

‘This is my chamber woman Tenasia. She oversees my chamber maids and everything else that concerns my personal chambers,’ Linea explained quickly to Sarah.

“Would you be so kind and get someone to catch Nora for me? She is probably still working on that painting in our atelier and didn’t sleep all day,” Linea asked her. “And please help me out of this damned dress.”

“As you wish, My Lady,” Tenasia answered and made another curtsy. She left the room but returned soon to accompany Linea into a room next to her bedroom.

‘Holy shit, that’s a lot of dresses!’ Sarah let out in surprise.

Before them stood multiple rows of clothes racks with at least a hundred different dresses.

‘Have you worn every last one at some point?’

‘Sure. Some of them only once, because they don’t fit my personal style that well, but I never get a dress, if I don’t have a special use for it,’ Linea explained, while she let Tenasia open the clasps of her dress. ‘In Elven high society a lot of things can be expressed through clothing. As a princess I can’t be too cautious, because the wrong dress on any festivity can signal other noble houses I’m searching for a husband for example. Or I could affront a duchess by wearing something too simple and thereby reveal my distaste for her party.’

‘Wow, that seems complicated.’

‘It is, if you don’t grow up learning it,’ Linea noted and after shedding the dress she examined herself in the mirror. Only wearing her undergarments, she looked over her body and once again sighed at the sight of her breasts.

“Don’t worry, Lin,” an amused female voice sounded from the door. “They’ll grow soon enough.”

Linea swirled around and looked at a young Moon Elf, who was only a year older than her. She had dark hair, which could be mistaken as black, but under the right light it glowed violet. In contrast to Linea, she had already developed a rather sizeable bust and didn’t shy away from showing it with the dress she wore.

“Nora!” Linea said with a bright smile and jumped into Nora’s arms. “I’ve got so much to tell you.”

“I gathered as much when I heard your brother and Senia arguing about something on the line of ‘Linea is an attention seeking…’,” Nora said but stopped short. “Well, let’s just say your sister is cross with you.”

“Yes, I noticed that,” Linea replied with rolling eyes.

“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on? Did everything work out with our little plan?”

“Not quite as planned, but I gained a lot of valuable information from it. And something helpful, I think,” Linea said smiling. She hastily slipped into the light dress, Tenasia held out to her, and walked over to her bedroom. From there she walked through another door into a larger room, which functioned as a living room. The room led onto a balcony which deigned a look over the garden behind the palace.

‘I need to warn you. Nora and I are in all purposes best friends. She is a court lady and in my service. She helps me with everything that doesn’t fall under household stuff,’ Linea explained to Sarah.

‘So, she is a personal assistant?’ Sarah asked.

‘One could say so, but it’s a bit more complicated. More importantly, she is the only person in the world I can trust completely, besides Tarina perhaps, and I would like to introduce you to her,’ Linea said nervously.

Sarah said nothing to that. Her silence seemed like a bad sign to Linea.

“Linea? Is everything all right?” Nora asked with a raised eyebrow. “You completely zoned off.”

“Yes, it’s all right. Give me a second to collect my thoughts,” Linea said and motioned Nora to take place on the couch in front of the fireplace.

‘Sarah? Please trust me on this. Nora and I talk a lot about everything. Ever since I was eight years old. I can’t keep this a secret from her,’ Linea pleaded to Sarah.

‘How can you trust someone so much?’ Sarah simply asked and let no emotions out, which irritated Linea.

‘We often talk in mind-speak with each other. Just like you and I do. You can’t lie, if you use mind-speak. Nora never lies to me, so I trust her,’ Linea explained.

‘You can communicate with each other through telepathy? How?’ Sarah asked, and her curiosity surfaced back.

Linea grinned internally as she knew, she had Sarah back on the hook.

‘Magic of course,’ Linea said. ‘It is the first magic any elf learns, because it allows a mentor to communicate directly with his student. We can talk about that later though.’

‘Well, if you insist. But I want to point out you are risking quite a lot.’

‘A risk that’s worth taking.’

“Linea?” Nora asked again and looked quite nervous. “The last time I saw you this thoughtful was right after you failed the exam. Did something serious happen?”

“Serious yes, but not as negative.” Linea said and looked intently at Nora. “The goddess talked to me during the ritual. She and an angel to be exact. They explained to me the reason why I botched the examination at the Academy.”

“The goddess and an angel talked to you? In person?” Nora asked wide-eyed. “And what did they tell you?”

Linea took a deep breath.

“Before I was born someone powerful split my soul apart.”

Nora frowned at that.

“Split your soul? You mean a soul mage cursed you while your mother was pregnant?” she asked.

“No, even before that,” Linea tried to explain. “There are more parts of my soul out there and I…”

She stopped for a moment and switched to mind-speak.

‘I met one of them. Someone whose body recently died. And to top it all off that part of my soul currently lives within me. Sarah? Can you say hello?’

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A short silence in which Nora seemed to evaluate Linea’s sanity, but then Sarah simply answered.

‘Hello.’

Sarah’s voice was distinctive and different from Linea’s voice, so much that Nora had to believe her friend.

“That’s unbelievable!” Nora said wide-eyed as she heard Sarah’s voice inside Linea’s head.

‘No need to say it out loud,’ Linea said with a stern voice. ‘She can hear you well in mind-speak.’

‘I’m sorry, but I find it hard to believe there is an actual person inside your head,’ Nora argued but fell back into mind-speak again. ‘Where does she come from? Who is she?’

‘I come from a planet called Earth, where no magic exists and only humans live,’ Sarah explained concisely.

‘Only humans?’ Nora went into it. ‘Sounds kind of depressing.’

‘Well, it is how it is,’ Sarah replied defensively. ‘I hope, I don’t need to tell you that you need to keep this to yourself. Even if Linea trusts you, I don’t. At least yet.’

‘You’re not beating around the bush, are you?’ Nora said with a chuckle. ‘Well, I can respect that. I vow to both of you that I will keep your secret until death.’

‘Thank you!’ Linea said and hugged Nora. ‘I couldn’t keep that a secret from you.’

‘I have to thank you - both of you - that you trust me with this.’ Nora said and returned the hug. ‘But I have questions. A lot of them.’

----------------------------------------

It took the three of them the majority of the remaining night to go through everything that Linea and Sarah had to tell Nora. Linea did most of the talking as mind-speak over a long time was too taxing for Nora, which was why they had to switch back to verbal communication. While it took Sarah and Linea no effort at all, Nora quickly reached her limit.

“Well, if she doesn’t want to talk more about her previous life, you shouldn’t force her,” Nora said when Linea tried to pressure Sarah to tell more about her life on Earth.

‘Yeah, listen to her!’ Sarah added in Linea’s mind and sounded annoyed.

‘But we have to talk about it sometime,’ Linea decided but dropped the subject for now. “Okay, I will not ask again. For tonight.”

Sarah groaned, and Nora rolled her eyes.

“To be honest, I would rather know more about this psion-thingy.” Nora said and leaned forward to take a closer look at Linea. “It’s like magic, but you don’t need mana for it? Can you show me?”

“I can’t use it,” Linea said with a pout. “We already tried that earlier. She can’t even use it while she is observing.”

‘Think we should try to switch now?’ Sarah asked. ‘It could be useful to know, whether we can do it if necessary. And I would like to show both of you, what I’m capable of.’

Linea thought about it for a moment but couldn’t find an argument against it.

“All right, let’s try it,” she said and looked at Nora. “Sarah and I will try to switch now, so don’t be surprised.”

Linea closed her eyes and focused on herself. She did not understand how this should work, but apparently Sarah had an idea. Linea suddenly felt a pressure against her mind, which she instinctively blocked.

‘Well, you got to let me in, if you want to switch,’ Sarah remarked with a mental smirk.

‘Sorry,’ Linea answered and blushed a bit.

The next few tries resulted in Linea blocking Sarah repeatedly. The process wasn’t as easy as they thought since Linea had problems getting rid of her need to stay in control. Sarah tried to apply more pressure, but without Linea giving in, she didn’t get a solid grip on their shared body.

‘That’s harder than I thought,’ Linea said.

‘Well, it’d be easier, if you wouldn’t be so stubborn,’ Sarah quipped with a chuckle.

‘I’m sorry, okay?’ Linea shot back in anger.

“Not working?” Nora asked and yawned.

A quick look out of the window at the sunrise made Linea realize how long they already practiced. She yawned as well and rubbed her eyes. She had been awake for the whole night and half of the day before. Naturally her body wanted to rest.

‘One last try?’ Sarah asked sensing Linea’s fatigue.

‘Okay.’

This time Linea was not as resistant as before. Sarah pressed forward, and Linea just gave up on her defense. Suddenly Sarah perception of her surroundings was more detailed than before.

‘Guess it worked,’ she stated while raising her hands and examining them.

‘Seems like it,’ Linea said, and a feeling of unease washed over her. ‘That’s very uncomfortable.’

“I like it.” Sarah said.

“Sarah?” Nora asked suddenly wide awake.

“Honored to make your acquaintance,” Sarah answered and stretched her hand towards Nora.

“I’m honored as well,” Nora answered with a smirk and shook Sarah’s hand.

“Let’s see, if I can amaze you with my skills.”

Sarah stood up from the couch, raised her arms and closed her eyes. She focused on the couch and soon she noticed her psionic powers taking a hold of the furniture. The whole process didn’t take more than a second, but Sarah immediately noticed that her powers reacted somewhat more sluggish than usual.

However, the effect worked as planned. Suddenly the couch hovered and rose a meter into the air.

“Eep!”

Nora hadn’t realized what Sarah had planned and was surprised by her sudden flight maneuver. She tried to get off the couch before it flew too high, but she lost her balance and dropped right onto Sarah, who was too concentrated to notice Nora’s struggle.

The following crash of Nora, the break of Sarah’s concentration and the subsequent falling of the couch, made a loud enough noise to attract the attention of Linea’s maids. Two of them peeked inside from the bedroom, and one was even courageous enough to speak up.

“Is everything all right, Your Royal Highness?”

“Yes, I’m fine!” Sarah moaned in pain as she tried to get Nora off her. The maids chuckled for a short moment but left the room again.

“I’m so sorry!” Nora said half in concern, half in amusement.

“It’s okay, just…” Sarah answered and tried to push Nora to the side but stopped as she felt something squishy in her hand.

‘Sarah!’ Linea yelled in shame and with a sudden push, she was in control again. She took the hand away from where it had accidentally landed.

“I’m sorry, Nora!” Linea quickly said. “She didn’t do it on purpose!”

Nora laughed and rubbed her left breast.

“I hope so, because that was kind of painful. Tell her, for the next time, I like it gentler.”

“Nora!” Linea yelled and blushed furiously.

‘Looks like I’m not the only one who found your weakness,’ Sarah commented with a giggle.

“Both of you are insufferable!”

Nora laughed hard at that and pulled Linea into a hug.

“Bah, you love me like a sister, don’t you?” she asked and pecked Linea’s cheek slightly.

Linea crossed her arms and tried to be upset, but to no avail.

“Just because I like you doesn’t mean you can’t be insufferable.”

While Nora still giggled, Sarah changed the subject to something more serious and addressed Linea and Nora with mind-speak.

‘I’m not as strong as I used to be, and I could only test one of my skills. I suspect that I will need more time to adjust myself to the flow of power inside this body.’

‘So, you two should switch from time to time, if we are just the three of us or if you are alone,’ Nora suggested.

‘As long as Sarah can keep her hands to herself?’ Linea jibed against Sarah.

‘I’ll manage it somehow.’

Nora and Sarah chuckled at each other, which infuriated Linea even more.

‘Nice to see that you two are coming along just fine,’ she noted and rolled her eyes.

Before either of them could answer, a knock sounded from the door.

“Come in!” Linea yelled and watched as the door opened. Tenasia entered with a man behind her. The man was dressed in mithril armor, which had this distinctive silver-white glowing.

“Your Divine Highness,” he said as his greeting and bowed deeply before Linea and addressed Nora with a smaller bow as well. “Lady Nora Molana.”

“I have seen you before, but I have to apologize as I can’t recall you name,” Linea said while greeting the man in the middle of the room. She offered him her hand, which he took and the placed his forehead nearly against the back of her hand, while kneeling before her. His head and her hand never came into contact, however.

‘What is he doing?’ Sarah asked confused.

‘He’s paying his respect to me and my family. The kneeling is mandatory, but what he does with my hand depends on his standing. At the rank of a baron he would have only held my hand. As the son of a countess he would have done what he just did. And as a ducal prince he would have feigned a kiss on the back of my hand.’

‘That’s kind of excessive, don’t you think?’

‘I didn’t make the rules,’ Linea said and internally shrugged.

“Allow me to reintroduce myself,” the man said with a smile. “My name is Lord Durandir of House Turana, second son of the Countess of Taldira. I’m the squire of Lord Urundir. My Lord requests Your Divine Highness’ attendance in a meeting of utmost importance.”

Linea frowned slightly at the invitation.

“Will the queen or Princess Tarina be present for this?” she asked.

“They will.”

“All right, tell Lord Urundir that I shall meet him as soon as I can,” she said and looked at Nora. “Nora, find out where this meeting will take place. I don’t want to search for them. Tenasia, with me.”

She left the room without giving Durandir any more attention.

‘Wasn’t that a bit rude? He seemed nice enough,’ Sarah asked surprised, while Linea was striding through her bedroom, where two of her maids were preparing her bed for the day, into her wardrobe.

‘He was polite, not nice,’ Linea stated matter-of-factly. ‘There is a distinctive difference between the two. It is common courtesy to request a meeting at least a day in advance, so the invited person can prepare herself. This, however, didn’t happen. Moreover, he failed to mention the subject of the meeting, which leads to me not knowing what I should wear.’

Tenasia had followed her into the dressing room and seemed to read the mind of her charge.

“My Lady, I would suggest going with your dress armor. It seems evident that the meeting is connected to Lord Urundir’s position as a commander of the Void Hunter Guild. A military dress would be imperative,” she explained.

“Good thinking, Tenasia. I will go with your idea. Get the dress ready,” Linea answered Tenasia and then shouted through the door, “Minara! Get the armor plates for my dress armor. They should be down in the armory.”

“Yes, My Lady!” a high-pitched voice sounded from the other side of the door.

Linea was already halfway into her moon silk trousers when she let out a groan.

“And I just wanted to go to bed…”