Effie winced slightly as she slowly came to her senses in a soft, white bed. The temperature and comfort were so great that for a moment she felt like she couldn’t feel where her skin ended and the bed began.

Indeed, it took a moment after wiping the sleep away from her eyes that she noticed the arm wrapped around her torso.

Startled, she slowly turned around to her left, almost afraid to see who she may have shared her bed with.

It was a familiar face, wearing an oddly peaceful expression that Effie had never been able to imagine on such a troubled figure.

Kari. His unkempt facial hair had been trimmed back. And his sunken eyes, darkened with exhaustion, were instead closed with a remarkable lack of wrinkles and healthy colouration.

A chill ran down Effie’s spine as she recalled something. She and Rolynd had both felt a familiar presence in the holy light that had washed over them and cleared the path through the zombie-infested catacombs.

Effie knew that holy light could only be magically produced with specific reagents. And with the scale of the spell that had cleansed the catacombs, she had known in her gut that someone had made the ultimate sacrifice.

She had been certain that that person had been Kari. But now, Al Dherjza’s Chief Mage was not so sure.

Effie slowly took Kari’s scarred, veined arm by the wrist, and gently placed it on the white bedsheets, noticing a disturbing lack of clothes on both of their bodies. But she remembered nothing of what might have transpired between them. She only recalled entering the Labyrinth…

Hesitantly testing her breath against the palm of her hand, there was no trace of alcohol. That alone was unusual for several reasons, least among them that Effie couldn’t imagine herself falling asleep without at least having a small sip to warm herself before bed, let alone laying with anyone without some liquid courage.

But the far more urgent concern was the following question: How was it possible that Kari was alive?

The Ephemeral sat up and looked at herself in the tall mirror against the wall at the foot of the bed, pulling up the bedcovers to preserve some common decency. The bandages that she usually wore to hide the scarring over her torso were on the ground, and the mask she usually wore to hide the discoloured veins on her face had been flung somewhere in the spacious palace bedchamber.

Indeed, a look out the glassy balcony doors and through the gleaming, carved marble handrail showed a city blissfully in peace.

There was not even the slightest trace of enchantments anywhere to be seen. Not on street or on the building.

And in the skies outside, no shadow, no wreckage, nothing obscuring the gentle morning sunlight streaming in across the clear blue skies. No trace of the Incandestine invasion.

What is this? Effie wondered in fear, amazement, anxiety, trepidation, and excitement. What was happening? Had someone wished Lucina away? Had the war even happened at all? Perhaps Lucina had yet to arrive?

Black holes were often thought to be the gateway between realities. Effie reminded herself of that fact. But this reality was far stranger than any fiction she could have imagined.

A gentle rustling came from the woman’s left.

The surprised Effie was feeling far too vulnerable. She disappeared into her pocket dimension like a startled rabbit hopping back down into its burrow.

But this alternate reality was also not as Effie had left it. The reciprocal teleportation circle she had drawn years ago was still on the floor in the corner of her bedchamber, but there was no stockpile of potions or cabinet of enchanted artefacts. Nothing of the preparations she had made while awaiting the inevitability of Lucina’s arrival.

It was then that the woman noticed a plain golden ring on her finger.

No… I-… Surely not…

“Heh. Heheh.” Effie chuckled to herself. Then she put a hand to her forehead, eyes wide. She was suddenly feeling very lightheaded. “No. Nonononono.” She said, shaking her head.

It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be.

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Who in their right mind would marry her?

How could she let herself marry someone?

How could she be irresponsible enough to let someone else bear the burden of wedding themselves to her for life?

There was no reality in which she got married. She refused to believe it.

“This has to be a nightmare. Or a dream. No... Definitely a nightmare.” She debated with herself, like some adolescent caught in the throes of cognitive dissonance. “And Kari of all people? No. I mean, yes, I could see why, but no.” she protested, all the while feeling her naturally snow-white cheeks turning bright pink. Was this reaction out of excitement, nervousness, or shame? Or perhaps it was the embarrassment of having such intimate feelings thrust out and laid bare before her in such uncouth fashion.

The assassin got out of bed and found a set of spare clothes; white and blue robes befitting an aristocrat of some kind. Despite being in a style that did not suit her, they fit her well. Effie called her weapon, which housed some of her gemstones. It appeared in her hand as she had magically programmed it to do.

The Bloodstone paused with wordless fright. Her weapon’s blade was disturbingly clean. Barely the slightest traces of any enchantments. More evidence.

What was the nature of this world that she had found herself in?

She decided that she would ask someone she could trust.

Effie took her mask and left her bedroom, walking along the palace corridor as she put the mask on. The various dark oak doors trimmed with shining gold led to each of Bloodstone’s chambers. Rolynd’s chamber was just at the end of the corridor, two doors down. She took a glance through the window, morbidly curious about the state of Al Dherjza outside. It was then that she spotted a young mother walking with her daughter, hand-in-hand down the street of polished cobblestone.

She was suddenly struck by a possibility that hadn’t even occurred to her. It came as such a shock that she stopped dead still in the palace corridor.

“Oh, Eternity. Not children. Don’t tell me I had children.”

Surely, she hadn’t. Effie couldn’t imagine trusting herself enough to be a mother, of that, she was certain. But… she had also been certain that she would never marry, and yet a golden wedding band sat on her left ring finger.

She ran back to her bedroom. Fortunately, a quick search revealed no indication of children. No toys, no crib, no clothes and no plans.

Effie breathed a heavy sigh of relief and returned to the palace corridor. Coming to Rolynd’s door, she respectfully knocked.

“Come in,” said a familiar voice.

Effie turned the cold marble doorknob and pushed open the door to Rolynd’s bedchamber. The King was sitting at his desk by the window, his chair half turned so that he could face the door. His golden, amethyst-studded crown rested on a cushion on the bedside table. Rolynd was just as Effie remembered him, more or less.

“Hey,” Effie said, awkwardly waving with two staccato shakes of her left hand.

“Effie. Is something wrong? You’re wearing your mask again.” Rolynd asked with concern.

“My mask? Oh.” Effie said, removing her mask.

Rolynd’s eyebrows twitched with some tremor of a thought. “You seem a little out of it. It’s still early, too. Did you have a bad dream?” He asked her.

Effie sighed quietly. “More like I’m having one.”

At this, Rolynd set down the pen he had been writing with. “What do you mean?”

Effie walked over to Rolynd and sat on his bed to face him. He could see a single tear well up in her pink-and-blue eye. Sunlight gleamed off of it and the polished edge of her painted metal mask while she held it up to hide the rest of her face.

Rolynd walked gracefully over to sit beside his friend on the bed, waiting patiently for her to start talking.

Effie struggled to find the words. Where was she to begin?

“… How long have we been on Apolaphia?” she asked him.

Rolynd’s serious expression took on a whole new level of concern at this question. “Four years… Did you hit your head? Where is Kari? Do you need me to call Carmen for you?”

“No, no no no. I didn’t hurt myself or anything. Don’t call anyone. I only need you right now, okay?”

“Right. Sorry. Continue.”

Effie heaved a big sigh. “This is going to take some explaining. I’m going to tell you about my last few years, and you’re going to tell me what the hell is going on.”

“Sure.”

And with that, Effie began recounting the most significant events that she had experienced. The guilt and shock of Catherine being shot while the heir had been partially phased by Effie’s power. Effie’s long, desperate struggle to regain control over her powers that had become destabilised along with her mental state. The great lengths that she had gone to in order to heal, travelling all over the world from Myzin to the Tempest Archipelago. Eventually finding a fabled wishing well that granted her the knowledge she needed at some unknown price that had yet to be exacted from her. Effie’s ensuing struggle with alcohol. The Labyrinth, Lucina’s arrival, the war, Kari and Carmen’s deaths… and now the current situation that Effie found herself embroiled in.

“So this is some kind of test?”

“I would suppose so.”

“Do you know what the conditions of this test are?”

“No.”

Rolynd sat silently in thought for a few moments, trying to figure out the best course of action to take. “Well first, not that I don’t trust you, but I’ll have you analysed with magic and by Carmen. We want to be sure that you aren’t under some kind of curse, spell, or poison. If all evidence points to you speaking the truth, then it is in all of our best interests to help you with this final test you are facing. For two reasons: One, if you pass your test, you can make a wish and return to your world. Two, you are occupying the body of our Effie. You may be the same person, but in many ways, you are also different from her… like her twin sister. You’re still our beloved friend, but I imagine that we will want our Effie back. Especially Kari. Oh universality, I wonder how he’s going to react to all this.”

Effie chuckled nervously. “I just hope he doesn’t expect too much from me.”

“Don’t worry, Effie. We’ll get you sorted out. And don’t worry about Kari. I would wager that he loves you no matter what form you take.”

Effie almost flinched at the last part of Rolynd’s sentence, unsure what to say.