Lyric Thistlewood stood, humming to herself in the Divination meadow, checking over her work. She had just finished arranging all of the standing stones just right for her spell. The flow of astra through the leyline beneath the meadow was particularly strong, and altering the physical environment above the leyline aided in establishing just the right connection.
The standing stones were small: only up to Lyric’s shins. They were still heavy though, especially as her Diviner class did not grant much in the way of strength buffs. She skipped to the center of the circle, raising her arms as if they were wings. That wasn’t part of the spell: she just found it enjoyable.
As she reached the middle of the Divination meadow, she felt the familiar pull on her own internal astra. Her astral connection would not take too long to form once she called for it: a few minutes at most. But a sight in the distance made her hesitate. Lucian Godfrey was trudging towards the meadow, clearly focused on her as he approached.
Lyric smiled to herself. “Well doesn’t this day just keep getting better and better?” She dropped her arms and walked over to sit on a standing stone while she waited. Lucian was there a few minutes later.
“Hi, Lucy Anne!” She said when he arrived. “I’m glad to see you’re as punctual as ever.”
“Lyric,” he said cautiously. “I am here to ask you about--”
“Up bup bup!” Lyric interrupted, holding a hand forward with her index finger pointing upwards. “Don’t you know what perfect timing you have, Lucy Anne?” Lucian glared at her and sighed.
“I have asked before, and I’ll ask again. My name is Lucian. Will you please say it correctly?”
“Yeah! Lucy Anne. That’s exactly what I said. And don’t interrupt me! You’ve arrived precisely at the moment when I was about to make an astral connection to receive my next divination prediction!”
“I just came here to ask about the--”
“I already know why you think you came here, Lucy Anne, but why did the Spark think you should come here?”
“Lyric, please,” Lucian said. “If you just let me ask you my questions I’ll be on my way and you can continue making your stone artwork or whatever it is you Diviners do out here.” The expression on Lyric’s face made Lucian realize he’d just made things even worse for himself.
“Stone artwork?!” Lyric squealed. “Is that all you think this is? Oh no, I can clearly see now why the Spark guided you out here today. And it’s not to ask about my two new best friends like you thought you were going to do.”
“Best friends?” Lucian asked. Lyric ignored his question.
“You, sir, are here because events in your life have aligned just right to give you a lesson in Divination magic!”
“That’s really not necessary,” Lucian said, though he could tell he’d already lost the battle. He sighed again. “Why are you always like this, Lyric.”
“I am exactly the way I am supposed to be,” she said. “It’s everyone else who doesn’t have their lives figured out yet. Now come over here and hold my hands.” She walked back to the center of the standing stones, then extended her arms towards Lucian with her hands and fingers relaxed.
“Excuse me?” Lucian asked. “I’m not here to hold hands with you, Lyric.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Lucy Anne,” Lyric said. “I’m not making a move on you, I just want to show you a little Divination magic. Besides, Aeric is going to ask me to be his girlfriend soon anyway.”
“Who is Aeric?” Lucian asked.
“Elsie’s twin brother,” Lyric replied as if that was obvious.
“And who is Elsie? Wait… the two students who arrived today? You know their names already?”
Lyric just rolled her eyes in a duh expression and then beckoned with her hands that she was still holding forward. Lucian finally relented and walked forward with a groan, taking her hands in his. Lyric’s pale skin stood out against Lucian’s darker skin tone.
“Of course I know their names already,” Lyric said. “I’m a Diviner; I know everything.” She could smell Lucian’s sweat now that they were so much closer. It wasn’t the worst smell she’d ever experienced, but it wasn’t her favorite either. She looked up at him with her lavender colored eyes. A lot of people found her eyes unnerving, but Lucian had never seemed bothered by them. He was just bothered by everything else about her instead.
“You do not know everything,” Lucian said. “Just last week you said I’d spill the punch bowl all over my formal attire at the Spring Ball. That didn’t happen.”
“That’s what would have happened if I hadn’t warned you about it! You should really be thanking me.”
“By that logic anyone could call themselves a Diviner just by claiming something will happen and then declaring themselves right even if it doesn’t. I hereby predict that the weather will turn foul today!” The blue sky of the late morning had a few wisps of clouds lazily floating across it.
“Everyone knows that just by looking at the weather forecasts posted in the castle’s entrance hall. Forecasts provided by Diviners, mind you. Now stop talking for a minute while I form my connection. You don’t mind letting me borrow some of your astra do you?”
“What? That’s why you wanted to hold my hands? Lyric, I don’t feel comfortable doing something like that with you.”
“I’m not talking about cycling our astra together, you skeeze. I’m just asking you to assist in making the connection stronger. Now zip your lips, or I’ll predict a bird poops on your head.”
“Just because you predict something doesn’t mean it will actually happen,” Lucian said, though he understood her intentions better now. He went silent as he could tell Lyric was forming her astral connection. Her eyes were closed, and she was whispering something under her breath, far too quietly for Lucian to hear.
Several minutes into her attempt, Lucian felt the pull of astra flowing from his body. Lyric didn’t actually take in his astra of course: she never felt its touch herself. Such an act would be far too intimate for two classmates who had no committed, romantic relationship. She did, however, incorporate his astra directly into the connection she was making with the leyline below them.
Less than five minutes after she started, Lyric finished making the connection. The wind picked up, swirling around the Divination meadow. Grass and flowers bent in the breeze. The particular arrangement of standing stones made a haunting melody as the wind shifted this way and that.
Lyric’s eyes shot open, glowing with energy. She lifted slowly into the air. Her long, emerald green hair flew around her wildly. Lucian couldn’t help but hold onto her hands as she rose into the air above him: the astral connection kept his hand muscles clenched onto hers. Her loose summer dress fluttered in the wind, possibly exposing a small bit more of Lyric’s legs than she typically chose to reveal. Ever the gentleman, Lucian intentionally looked steadfastly into Lyric’s face.
The moment passed, and Lyric dropped from the air. Lucian stepped forward and caught her. Lyric’s hair fell around her, some of it catching on Lucian’s face and head. He blew at it to get it off of his face. She seemed unconscious for a moment. Lucian studied her face, absently noting the way her freckles crossed from one cheek, over her nose, to the other cheek.
Lyric came back to full awareness of her surroundings again and looked up at Lucian holding her in a princess carry. He thought he caught a hint of tears forming in her lavender eyes as she gazed up at him. Then she broke the moment by leaning up and gave him a peck on the cheek with a soft, “Thanks.”
He cleared his throat and set her back down. She rolled her eyes.
“Oh get over yourself,” she said. “I already told you that Aeric will want to be my boyfriend. I don’t need you two getting into some complicated love triangle over me.”
“I’d have to say it doesn’t sound like I’m the one who needs to get over myself,” Lucian replied. “What just happened though? Was that your Divination magic?”
“Of course! What else would it be? Do you often see beautiful young women float into the air for no reason?”
Lucian stayed silent at first. She had a point. “So what did you see?” He finally asked.
“That’s for me to know and you to find out, isn’t it?”
“What’s the point of seeing the future if you’re not going to tell anyone anyway?”
“I like to think it makes me more mysterious,” Lyric said with a coy smile.
“And I like to think it makes you that much more annoying.”
“A bird poops on your head during archery practice this week, Lucy Anne,” Lyric said, and stuck out her tongue.
“It does not! Does it? Why would you have seen that instead of something more important?”
“Whoever said that wasn’t important? Hygiene is a very important topic, and one which you could use a few more pointers on. Pointers such as when to wash your sweaty hair.”
Lucian glared at her. “You know what? I shouldn’t have come out here anyway.” He turned to leave. “Enjoy your rock garden, Lyric.” She watched him go for a moment, then called out before he had walked too far.
“They’ll need your help,” Lyric said.
“Who will?”
“The new students. Elsie and Aeric Stormrider. They’re too weak to recover properly on their own. The whole course of their future will be affected if you don’t help them. You’ll have to go see them today if you want anything to change in time. They’re in the secondary medical ward.”
Lucian considered her words for a moment. He had already known where the students were taken, having been there when Lady Marcelle gave the order. How would Lyric have known though? Perhaps there was a chance she knew something after all.
“I’ll think about it,” he called out over his shoulder and waved his hand. “See you in class tomorrow, Lyric.”
“Goodbye, Lucian,” Lyric replied. He looked back with a hint of a smile in recognition that she had finally said his name correctly, then continued walking. She spoke, but not loud enough for him to hear, “but I won’t be seeing you in class tomorrow.” She watched him leave, then looked down at her feet. The tears she had been holding back finally came loose. They splattered on the grass, providing tiny drops of moisture for the flowers in the meadow.
---
Lucian arrived at the academy’s secondary medical ward as afternoon turned to evening. It was still a few minutes before the dinner bells would ring in the clocktower. A Sylvan mage, human this time, greeted him at the front desk. She was a recent graduate of the academy, with short blonde hair to her chin and bright blue eyes. Lucian vaguely recognized her and was fairly certain her name was Sophie. Or maybe it was Sophia. He wasn’t sure so he decided not to guess.
“Can I help you, Lucian?” the girl asked. He felt even worse that he couldn’t remember her name.
“I, er, just came from speaking with a Diviner. She told me that I was supposed to meet two students who are here. Aeric and Elsie, I believe?”
“Are you asking that as a question? You know I’m not supposed to confirm or deny whether or not someone is here. Patient confidentiality, you know? So even if we did have any patients here with those names then I couldn’t tell you about them unless you were an approved visitor.”
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
“Right. See it’s just that the Diviner said if I didn’t come see them today then something about their future would be messed up. Or something. I don’t really understand how Divination works exactly.”
“And was this mysterious person a Divination professor who would be willing to come down here and sign a form granting special permission to visit someone who may or may not be here?”
“Er, no. It was a student,” Lucian admitted.
“I see. Well I’m not a Diviner myself, but if I was one, I’d probably have instructed you to go through the proper channels to get visitation permissions. You know, like telling you the right way to get approval to visit someone who hasn’t put you on their pre-approved list. You really should make a list like that for all your friends you know. It makes my job much easier.”
“It’s just, I’ve never spoken to these people before. They just arrived today, see, and I didn’t get a chance to talk to them before they arrived here. They’re the two newly summoned students.”
At this the girl’s eyes opened wider. “I heard about that! Two summons at once; how does that even happen?!”
“I know, right! I was the ritual watcher when it happened too! So if you think about it I’m basically the first contact these students had! Or I mean I would have been except they went into seizures the moment they arrived.”
“That’s crazy! But I still can’t let you see them. Policies are there for a reason, you know. Also I am not confirming that they’re even here. So just pretend like they’re not.”
The dinner bell chimed in the distance. Outside the windows, Lucian could see the castle become abuzz as people started making their way to the dining hall. A few people looked up at the sky, then turned back to get umbrellas.
“Oh look at that, visiting hours are closed now anyway. You’ll have to come back tomorrow after breakfast.”
“Tomorrow. Right,” Lucian said. “I’ll see you around, then.” He walked towards the door, then stopped, an idea coming to mind. He leaned into the window next to the door with his arms over the window latch. “Do you think it’s going to rain tonight?”
“Everyone knows it’s going to rain,” the girl said as she was gathering her personal belongings into a bag. “It’s on the Diviners forecast charts. Don’t you check them? They’re just in the entrance hall.”
“And everything Diviners say comes true will come true, does it?”
“Not everything, obviously. That’s what the predictions are for: once you know about them you can try to change the outcome however you like. A Divination professor once predicted that I’d injure my knee caps while playing Tackleball that day. I bought new knee pads before the game and played just fine without any injuries.”
“But they predicted you would be injured and then you weren’t,” Lucian said. “Your example doesn’t really prove them correct one way or the other. It could have been that the Divination professor was just trying to drum up sales for some sports equipment.”
“Sure,” the girl said, now heading towards the door. “But things like the weather are so well set that they’re able to make predictions with very high accuracy. Buying knee pads won’t make it rain that night.”
“I suppose you’re right about that at least,” Lucian said.
“Come on then,” the girl said. “I’ve got to lock up.” Lucian really wished he had remembered if her name was Sophie or Sophia. Maybe he could just call her Soph instead. He coughed loudly, hoping she didn’t hear the faint clicking sound that he made. She was examining her blue painted nails and holding a key in her hand.
“Sorry, I’ll be on my way now. For real this time.”
“Come back tomorrow,” she said. “We’ll see if they’ve woken up and feel like receiving visits. If they are really here, I mean.”
“Of course. Would you like to walk to the dining hall with me, Soph?” Lucian asked.
“Soph?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Er, nevermind.”
---
It was after dark when Lucian finally managed to sneak back down to the secondary medical ward. He tried to look casual as he walked.
I’m just out for a stroll across the dark castle grounds in a rainstorm without a lantern or umbrella. You know, as one does. Nothing out of the ordinary here.
It was an absolute downpour. A harsh pelting rain that made Lucian’s exposed skin feel like someone was flicking him over and over. The storm clouds covered the night sky, making it even darker than usual. He shivered in the Spring air and pulled his dark cloak tighter around him. It was already soaked through anyway and didn’t provide much comfort.
The window was unlocked, just as he had left it. He looked around one more time, then pulled himself over the windowsill. His clothes dripped water all over the rug, but there was nothing to be done about that now. Best to just be quick about this and hope he didn’t get caught.
A few lanterns were still burning in the foyer, despite the late hour. They probably left them on in case any of the patients needed to get up in the night. Lucian crept forward, trying his best not to make any noise. The private rooms were just down the corridor. He started down the hallway, then jumped back as he heard a soft buzzing sound. Lady Marcelle, the Sylvan doctor, flitted between two rooms at the end of the hallway.
What is she still doing here?
He waited a minute, but the Sylvan did not return. He silently crept up to the first door and peeked inside. There wasn’t much light, but he was able to see a single bed with a well muscled man laying with his leg up in a sling. Probably one of the castle’s astral Knights. The next room had another man who was definitely too old to be one of the new summons.
Lucian continued down the hallway, checking each room. He grew nervous as he came closer to the door he had seen Lady Marcelle enter. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed that she’d be checking on the new arrivals. His luck held out though, and two doors before the end of the hallway he found a room with two beds set close to each other: the new arrivals.
They were dressed in standard medical gowns instead of the clothes they arrived in, but there was no mistaking the two new summons. Their bedding looked unkempt: likely due to their thrashing limbs during more seizures.
There was an odd feeling in this room. Lucian’s astral senses weren’t fully honed at this stage in his schooling, but he could tell that the astra was flowing erratically. Powerfully. He was nearly to their beds before he realized the brother and sister had reached across to hold each others’ hand.
He felt his cheeks flush as he realized what he was feeling in the room: the free movement of internal astra between these two individuals. They both had labored breathing, though Lucian wasn’t sure if that was because of their astral exchange or whatever medical condition was afflicting them.
Stepping closer, Lucian got a good look at their faces. The boy was unreasonably handsome. He had a good square jaw, wavy blue hair, and well set features. The girl was drop dead gorgeous. Her ruby red hair reflected the dim light slightly and framed her face with a soft red glow.
Why are Summons always so perfect looking? Is everyone from their planet this stunning?
Lucian wasn’t sure what to do, having not considered the fact that the new students might still be unconscious or otherwise asleep. He didn’t want to interrupt whatever experience they were going through, even though he doubted that they were even doing it intentionally. Standing there, dripping on the floor of two strangers’ shared medical recovery room he realized how foolish this had all been.
Why did I trust Lyric anyway? She probably just said this because she foresaw that it would get me in trouble.
Lucian turned to leave, but felt a slight tug at his internal astra. It was similar to the feeling he’d had when Lyric had connected him to the leyline beneath the Divination meadow. Except he wasn’t making physical contact with the siblings, so what caused that feeling? He turned back to the pair and stepped closer to get a better look.
The girl’s lips were moving. She was saying something, but Lucian couldn’t hear. He looked over at the brother and realized he was trying to say something too. He took another step closer to the girl and leaned closer to her face to hear what she was saying:
“Help.”
In perfect synchronization, they let go of each other’s hands and grabbed Lucian’s hands. He found himself being gripped by both the brother and sister simultaneously. A surge of astral energy shot into him from the girl’s hand, so powerful it brought him to his knees. It ignored any defenses he’d been trained to have against such an attack, and pierced directly into his core.
This is… Her astra feels… I didn’t mean to…
He had never experienced this before. He gasped as he looked up at the girl’s face. Her eyes were still closed, but her powerful internal astra continued funneling into him until he felt like his heart might explode within his chest.
He loved it. Right up until the moment when the dam burst and he felt his internal core become entirely overridden with the girl’s astra. It felt like something within him was broken. His identity. His sense of self. His awareness dimmed as the girl’s overwhelming power consumed him.
He could only vaguely feel as she took control of his own internal astra and redirected it back into both herself and her brother. He tried to pull his hands away, but he was too weak. He tried to call out for help, but only succeeded in collapsing face first onto the floor, unconscious, his arms being held limply into the air by the twins’ tight grips on his hands.
---
This feels different. What changed?
We did something, Aeric.
What have we done, Elsie?
I took his astra. I gave us everything he had. I redirected every drop of astra from his core into ours.
This feels wrong, Elsie.
We needed it.
What we were doing before was working wasn’t it? Cycling our astra between our bodies would have eventually fixed us. I am sure.
That was too slow. We were out of balance. My astra was overpowering yours. You were fading. I was too much Elsie and not enough Aeric. Imbalanced.
I should not have done this. That boy did not deserve such treatment.
You didn’t do this thing. I did. Let me bear this crime.
I did it too. I am you. Anything you do, I’ve done as well.
I don’t think it’s that simple. I feel different from you in some ways.
There is no individual identity. There is no you. There is no me. We are Twinborn. We are the same.
And yet I know that my thoughts are separate from yours. I feel a closer attachment to the body we’ve named Elsie than to Aeric. Does that not make me different from you?
But I am Elsie too, even if I am primarily thinking as Aeric. I can still feel everything Elsie feels.
Just as I can feel everything that Aeric is feeling.
I can feel your astra. It is different from mine. Stronger. But I can still feel it.
We are the same person. But we must also be different.
Why must we be different?
We have two bodies. On a physical level, we have two brains, even if we appear to have the same mind. I think my thoughts are originating from the brain inside of Elsie, while yours are coming from Aeric.
And yet we are one being. How are we one being if we have two bodies, two personalities, two brains, two distinct ways that our astra feels? How can we think two different things at the same time?
Our mind did that already when we were Eric Smith. Part of our brain would say to take seconds for dessert, while a different part of our brain would say we should try to lose weight. One brain, one mind. Multiple desires. Multiple forms of thought. It is not so different now.
I… do not know.
I know.
How can you know when I do not?
Because I have accepted the cognitive construct we must place between these two areas of our shared mind. I choose to be my own self while still being you at the same time.
Why are we talking like this if we are the same anyway?
We’re not talking at all. We’re thinking. Our mind has subdivided. Compartmentalized. Part of our mind is transferring signals to another part of our mind. Both parts are capable of their own conscious thought, their own speech. This is what it means to be Twinborn: having two actively conscious physical brains unified as a single mind.
But we have two separate bodies. We have two separate brains.
Do we though? On an astral level what do you see? Are we so separate? I do not think so. We are in full control of both bodies at the same time, even if we may subdivide the tasks of controlling each body into different parts of our shared mind.
I am talking to myself, while at the same time trying to convince myself that it’s okay to be talking to myself by trying to establish that I am one person while being two separate physical people at the same time. I’m insane.
You’re just handling the cognitive trauma in your own way. Do you remember the ecstatic bliss I experienced during my trial?
Of course I do.
It felt similar to this. It appears that cognitive magic is not for the faint of heart.
Or the faint of mind.
I can see you’re improving already. That boy’s astra is beginning to fuel your core.
It does feel a little better now.
If it makes it easier, just allow yourself to pretend that we are two individuals who are psychically linked.
An ambiguous definition.
A comforting one.
Then you are my sister, Elsie. I am psychically linked to you, whatever that means.
And you are my brother, Aeric.
But I am also Elsie.
Just as I am also Aeric.
Then the paradigm of being two distinct people does not work after all. I am both of us, and you are both of us. Consider the transitive property of mathematics: if A equals B plus C while at the same time D equals B plus C, then we must conclude that A equals D.
And yet just by the way you said that example you have proven that A and D have something distinct from one another despite being the same thing. You’ve named one of them A and the other D. You have given two identities to what is ultimately the same thing. Just as we are two identities of what is ultimately the same person.
There’s nothing that would actually stop us from controlling both of our bodies at once though.
Other than the impending pit of insanity that we could fall into at any moment. I think this will only work if we voluntarily create this artificial boundary in our mind. For both of our sakes, let’s just agree to act as if we’re two separate beings.
We can try it at least.
That’s all I’m asking for. Just try.
Eric Smith’s already broken mind degenerated a little bit further. His mind established its own walls, rules, and restrictions to protect itself from itself. And somehow, it worked. Aeric and Elsie, though ultimately equivalent to each other, established their own individual identities.
Conceptually, they still knew that they were the same person with cognitive power so far enhanced as to be able to control two physical bodies at once. Externally and internally, however, they adopted the mindset of being two separate individuals who were linked in a very unique way.
The twins let go of Lucian’s hands. After so many hours of torment trying to understand their new dual identity, the Twinborn siblings finally had enough astral energy to calm their troubled mind and drift off into a peaceful sleep.
---
Lucian Godfrey was lying face first on the floor when Lady Marcelle finally flew into the room to check on her two newest patients.