Blair was the first to calm down enough to speak around the chuckles that kept trying to sneak out of her mouth, "Oh, my. I haven't laughed so much in, well, I don't know how long. If I were the suspicious type... No, that doesn't work, I AM the suspicious type. Anyway, if I didn't know better I'd say that someone somehow set this up."
In answer to the question on Miranda's face she continued, "Oh, you know. Us being born barely more than a month apart. Meeting 'accidentally' like that. Even falling into that...whatever it was. If it weren't for that, we'd probably have said goodbye right after we knew we were safe."
Miranda nodded. "I see. You're probably right about that.
"Heh. We sure don't look anything alike, but we do seem to think along the same lines. I'm probably just as suspicious of things as you are. But arranging something like this....
"I mean just imagine how split second the timing would have had to be. If I'd been pushed out of that alley even one second sooner or later you wouldn't have been in a position where you could have caught me, and, by the way, you're a lot stronger than you look.
"Anyway, if there actually were someone who could arrange all that, I think I'd like to meet them. What about you?"
"Well Manda, ah, do you mind me calling you that? It seems to fit somehow."
"To tell the truth Blair, I don't, since that's what my family calls me. Normally I don't like anyone else using my nickname, but it feels right somehow. So, please go ahead. You were saying?"
"Oh. Yeah. I do agree with you. If someone could set this all up, I'd definitely like to meet them. Maybe I could learn something useful about scheming."
They both chuckled. By then they'd finished getting all the readily accessible clumps of the "stuff" off of themselves and had stepped into the bath.
They settled in and did the usual. You know. "Ah, that feels so good!" "Yeah, really, it's great." Stuff like that.
After they'd soaked companionably for a while Blair suddenly got an extremely mischievous look on her face.
Seeing it, Miranda raised an inquiring eyebrow.
Blair winked back at Manda to let her know that what she was about to say was a joke, "OK you, whoever you are. You set us up, so come on out and tell us why."
Both of them almost laughed again at Blair having said something so outrageous. They didn't quite manage though as they were interrupted by a high soprano voice saying, "I thought you'd never ask. You two are as slow as someone coated in that cement I had you fall into."
Neither of the girls moved. They didn't have to. They'd seated themselves at the long ends of the bath so they could stretch out their legs without hitting each other. They couldn't see each other any longer as a small woman who was glowing faintly with a bluish color was hovering between them, just above the water .
She looked back and forth from the two and muttered, "This will never do. I'll get a crick in my neck from having to turn back and forth to talk to you, but that's easily fixed."
She waved a negligent hand. There was a very brief flash of light after which Miranda and Blair found themselves sitting side-by-side at one end of a bath that was now about 60 centimeters wider than it had been when they'd sat down.
The woman turned to face them. "Ah that's much better. Uh... If you don't mind. May I join you? I haven't had a good soak in a very long time."
Both of them nodded dumbly, too shocked to say anything yet.
A moment later the lady's clothes were lying, neatly folded, on a shelf and she was sitting at the far end of the bath with water up to her chin.
"Oh my. That feels just as good as I'd hoped. Thank you for letting me join you."
Manda recovered first. "Now just you wait a minute. Ya said that ya made us fall into that 'cement' stuff, and all the rest. Ya didn't ask us permission for any of all that. So why'd ya ask if ya could join us just now?"
The lady peered intently at both of them and was met by total cluelessness.
She answered petulantly, "Really. And here I thought you two had at least a modicum of intelligence."
She held up a hand. "No, don't answer. That wasn't a question."
Sighing deeply she said, "Oh all right, I'll just tell you, but ONLY if you promise to at least TRY to reason things out before you ask questions in the future. All right?"
They both nodded, and there was a bit of a spark in their eyes now. Good, she'd irritated them enough that they were thinking again.
"What happened to you in town happened much too fast for me to ask permission. What do you think Blair would have done if I'd asked her, 'May I have your permission to make you walk the wrong way so you can save another girl from a violent gang and then be chased half way across The City not knowing whether or not you'd live through the experience?'"
Seeing two faces make an "Oh..." she continued.
"What it comes down to is that the first situation was a matter of necessity. You'd never ask a child about to fall out of a high window if they'd give you permission to save them. You'd just do it.
"But, here in the bath, there was ample time for me to behave in a civilized manner and ask properly for permission to join you. I trust that you both see the difference?"
Both nodded. Blair opened her mouth to say, or ask, something, several times, but each time she closed it again.
The lady nodded. Very good. "Now, I have some things to tell you that will make your lives much easier over the next year or so. Turn on those memories you are both so proud of. If you forget any of it, I'm likely to be quite wroth with you. It's unlikely that you'd like that."
Both made their heads do a vigorous "no."
"Very good. Here we go.
"Blair, that Hiroshi of yours is hiding things from you. No, don't look like that, it's not in a bad way. It's that he's involved in some very hush-hush things that involve Corporal Murray of the Duke's Guard (he's the one who rescued you today by the way) and Henrietta the Duke's daughter."
Turning her attention to Miranda, she continued, "That's right dear. You and Robert aren't the only ones she has her hooks into. Robert knows about it, though he thinks that what they're doing is just the preliminary work for setting up a new bank that Henrietta wants to invest her private funds in once she reaches her majority."
She laughed. "I certainly can't fault her for that. It is part of The City's official motto of 'Loyalty, Honesty, Frugality, Profit'.
"That's going to take about two or three years. Robert is going to need to be at least 21 when it opens. Otherwise nobody is going to believe that he's the senior partner of a bank, even a small new one. Having Richard as a backer will be fairly important too. He'll be 25 or 26 by then and can be made up to look suitably mature. As the Donetti's are one of the richest families in The City, it will give credence to the bank."
Turning to Blair she pretended to whisper, "Miranda wasn't going to tell you, but she's head-over-heels for Robert Donetti. I have it on good authority that they're going to be married soon and Hiroshi will stand for him at the time. Hiroshi is going to ask Robert to do the same for him. It's more complicated than that, but Miranda knows the rest so she can tell you later.
"You both should act surprised when they tell you about it, and all the rest of what they're plotting to dribble out to you over the next few months. It'd spoil all their fun if you already knew, not to mention that they'd go crazy trying to figure out who leaked the information.
She mock whispered, "Blair dear, don't be too surprised when Miranda hauls you off to meet Henrietta as soon as you're finished here for today."
She laughed, a short, tinkling sound. "Yes Manda, when you think that hard, I can hear it if I concentrate."
She turned back to Blair. "She's just realized that someone as fast thinking and fast acting as you would be a substantial asset for Henrietta. She hadn't figured out how to ask you yet, but you really don't have time to waste in getting that started, so I figured I'd save you some. You do have time to finish getting cleaned up and explain things to Hiroshi's mother before you head up to The Residence.
She giggled.
"In truth, that's not optional. Murasaki is one of the most persistent people I've ever met. There's no way you're getting out of here until she's satisfied. You're going to have to figure out just how much it's safe to tell her without leaving any hints that she'll try to follow."
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
She clapped her hands together and bounced a bit in the tub. "I wish I could watch.
"Now then...oh, yes. I suppose I should also tell you that Henrietta and I are acquainted so feel free to tell her privately what we've just discussed."
Looking at the two, she saw that they were somewhat stunned but still capable of thinking. Good. There really wasn't a lot of time. Things that weren't going to happen for a decade or more had to be set in motion today and not tomorrow or the day after.
"One last thing, and it's an important last thing, so listen very carefully. You must NOT tell Robert what's going on once you two, Hiroshi, Henrietta, and Corporal Murray start working together. It's very important that all of his attention be on growing the bank."
Her tone became even more serious, "I promise you, and I ALWAYS keep my promises, that if you haven't figured out the reason why in 20 years or so, I'll come back and explain it to you."
Suddenly she grinned like a street urchin who had just been given a cake from Fukui's. "Consider it your homework. You both need to sharpen your reasoning abilities, especially you Miranda. You tend to be a bit sloppy when it comes to thinking things out all the way. That needs to stop. Someday someone's life may depend on you following the clues all the way to the end rather than settling for part way and guessing what the rest will be."
She stood and stretched. "My that soak felt so GOOD! Thank you for allowing me to share the bath with you. You're much more polite than quite a few of those I've worked with in The City these past 700 odd years.
"It's been a nice break, but there are things to do and people to see you know. Bye."
The room was almost perfectly silent for several minutes while they thought about what had just happened. Eventually they realized that there really wasn't anything they could say that would be of any worth. Another trait they shared was an abhorrence of small talk. They would talk though, probably a great deal, and also probably many times, once they'd thought about everything they'd just been told and figured out where to start.
They stood and dried off. When they turned toward the door, they saw their clothes. They were perfectly clean, dry, and pressed.
Manda whispered, "I see. I guess it's the least she could do seeing as she's the one who got them so filthy in the first place."
Blair nodded in agreement. They helped each other dress and do their hair then headed out the door hand-in-hand. First things first. They had to brave the living inquisition that was Hiroshi's mother. If they didn't watch each other's backs, dealing with such an incredibly formidable woman would likely be painfully difficult. After that, explaining things to Henrietta would be a piece of cake.
"Well that about covers it." Blair raised her head, no longer entirely lost in the memory, to find three faces focused on her with laser-like intensity.
The trio had a rapid conversation in "twin" and decided that Yoko was the one most likely to get away with asking, so she broke in on Blair's reverie.
"Who in blue blazes was that little woman? How did she just float in the air like that? What do ya mean she fixed it so you and Mrs. Donetti would meet in the first place? AND ya made it sound like she also arranged for you two to be born at the same time. Not to mention that she said she's been working with people here in The City for SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS!
"So, NO, it definitely does NOT about cover it!"
Blair facepalmed before she could stop herself. In her mind there were echoes of gales of laughter that sounded like a donkey braying, if said donkey were a soprano. Like Miranda had when she'd accidentally mentioned Lady Blue to Eugenia, she also saw a vision of Lady Blue rolling around on the floor while she laughed.
A small, no, make that a very small part of her mind was quite reasonably informing her that it was probably good to be reminded once in a while that there were people out there whose sense of humor was even more coarse than Biki's. The rest of her was exquisitely embarrassed at her slip and furious at Lady Blue's reaction.
Unlike Miranda she took a pragmatic approach to dealing with the situation. Rather than threats, she decided that a semi-supervised introduction was in order.
"All right. I give up. You're going to need to meet eventually, so you might as well come and introduce yourself."
There was a brief flash of light. After their eyes adjusted, the children beheld a small, glowing woman who was rolling back and forth on the floor still laughing like a lunatic. As one they wondered if they could reach the door and escape before she noticed them.
Hearing the commotion, Hiroshi stuck his head in through the door. Seeing the cause of it, all he did was shake his head in disgust then withdraw and close the door again.
Unconsciously mimicking Blair's earlier comment, Lady Blue stood, stuck her tongue out at the door, and muttered, "Coward."
She turned to face the children who were now backing away toward a corner of the room, seeing as how she was between them and the door. "Oh. Stop that! I don't bite."
Seeing disbelief on all three faces she exclaimed, "Blair! You tell them. I'm completely safe, right?"
Blair shook her head. That was so wrong on so many levels, still, "It's all right children. She's not going to bite you. There's even a slight chance that you may come to like her, IF you're willing to give yourselves a few decades to accustom yourselves to her rotten personality."
Lady Blue glared at her. The children looked at her dubiously.
"Oh, I know. Just think of her as like Genie. None of you got along with her at first, but she's a good friend now, right?"
Seeing their nods, she forged ahead, "It's just likely to take longer. A lot longer. But still...."
She couldn't take it any longer. The ferocious frown on Lady Blue's face was just too precious. Blair clapped her left hand over her mouth, extended her right arm toward Blue, and slowly shook her index finger back and forth.
From behind her hand came semi-muffled laughter and, "Got you good. You deserved it."
Jason was about to ask what she was talking about, but he was intercepted by the twins.
"Don't say a single word Dear." "There's no way in the world you can say anything safe in a situation like this." "She's right. Ya don't want both of them pissed at ya, right?"
A new voice suddenly intruded on their conversation, "They're right you know. Sometimes it's best not to say anything at all. It can be even better not to think it either, but that's extraordinarily difficult, even for me."
Jason's reaction surprised everyone in the room. (Yes, I mean Lady Blue too. She's not omniscient. She just wants people to think that she is.)
He sprang to his feet and thrust his left arm forward, pointing at Lady Blue. "You! You did it. You're the reason why twins can speak "twin." I knew there had to be some external factor involved!"
He turned to the rest of them and exclaimed triumphantly, "I knew that the water from the spring could never have such variable effects that it would cause so many twins and be able to speed healing AND to make it so twins could speak "twin!"
"I figured it out! YAHOO!"
No longer being able to contain himself, he began bouncing up and down, nearly as high as Yoko did when she was excited.
The twins and Blair gaped at him, then turned toward Lady Blue who was sputtering, "H..ho...how? How could you know that? How?"
(I'm going to cheat here. Since the appropriate words didn't exist in Italian till almost two hundred years in their future, I'm going to condense Jason's reply, which took several paragraphs, down to a few sentences by using modern terminology. And you all can wipe those stupid grins off your faces. I'll also admit that i'm too lazy to take the time to recite all of what he said. Besides it would confuse you. Live with it.)
Jason continued to bounce, though only on his toes now. There was an occasional hand flap as well, but nobody paid attention to that any more, at least when they were private.
"OK. I'll try to make it sorta short, though I probably can't. Anyway it's like this.
"Whenever someone speaks twin, what you 'hear' is just like the person's voice. But, if you listen real close, there's a background hum, sorta like a carrier wave. By itself it doesn't carry any information, but without it a radio can't work."
He turned to Lady Blue. "When you spoke to us in 'twin' just then I could feel it. In fact it's so strong that I could almost see it. The carrier wave is coming from your body. And that means that nobody can speak twin without you making it happen. Or maybe I should say 'letting' happen."
He began to stroke his chin, unconsciously mimicking Hiroshi, "I wonder which word fits best. I suppose...."
He was interrupted by Hibiki and Yoko jumping on him and covering his face with kisses.
"You're the best." "What a wonderful discovery!" "Fantastic!"
Blair and Lady Blue turned to each other and shrugged their shoulders. Both of them envied the boundless energy of the children.
Seeing that the celebration was likely to last for some time, Lady Blue gave a slight cough.
(Oh, all right, it shook the room like a small earthquake, but it's more polite to say it the other way.)
Now that she had everyone's attention, she said, "Hiroshi Thaddeus Tsukimine! Quit skulking outside the door. You don't need any more practice. In that at least you're already an expert."
He flowed through the door and closed it. "You know, sometimes you're no fun at all. Did you ever stop to think that I might enjoy skulking?"
She put her tiny fists on her hips and glared at him, carefully. She didn't want to damage him.
"That's irrelevant at the moment. The others need to know that you know what I'm about to tell them. And, by the way, this isn't to go anywhere else. Not even Miranda or Henrietta are to know.
"I'm not going to tell you why, but you really don't need to know, do you?"
Seeing their parents shaking their heads "no," the children also agreed. They realized that while they couldn't tell anyone else about it, there was no restriction on them talking about the ramifications of it, whatever IT was going to turn out to be.
Blue slipped them a quick, private smile when Hiroshi and Blair were momentarily looking elsewhere then quickly composed her face into a neutral expression.
"Right. It's like this. Hundreds of years from now, it's going to be absolutely necessary for certain people who aren't twins to be able to speak to each other mind-to-mind. But, in order for that to happen, I'm going to need one special pair of twins to get it all started. And, if it's going to go anywhere, there must be a lot of people, and I mean hundreds of thousands, who will need to not just believe, but to already know that such a thing is possible.
"That's one of the most important reasons for The City's existence. There are a number of other important reasons, but this is one of the top five."
"I expect that I'll be meeting and getting to know all of you again then, though I'll probably be the only one who remembers 'now', at least at first."
She held up her hand. "Before you ask, the answer is yes. Hiroshi, your Buddhist culture is right, at least in part. All sentient beings do live many lives in order to explore and learn many things. All those hundreds of thousands of people I just mentioned who will live in the future will also have lived here in The City at one time or another and will all have either been twins or have known them.
Hiroshi stood straight and his eyes sparkled. "I see. Now it all makes sense. You've told us before that you're not God. I'd always thought that you were misleading us, but now I see my error. You were indeed telling us the truth, but at the same time misdirecting us away from recognizing who you truly are. You're a bodhisattva."
Lady Blue bowed deeply before them. When she straightened, just for an instant, she let all of them see a tiny bit of her true reality.
"We shall meet again, in both desperate times and in fair. From those experiences we all shall grow further toward our goals. Fare you well children."
Then she was gone, leaving no indication that she'd ever been present.
Sometimes when you've received a great shock, there's nothing to be said and what you really need is a hug. So that's what they did.