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“Elara, wake up! Does she always sleep this late?” Aeinya sighed from somewhere above me, her question answered by two strong clicks. “What does that mean?” Two more clicks. “Ugh. I don’t know why I’m asking you, anyway.”
“It means no.” Great, it even hurt to talk. My voice came out all scratchy and broken. “He’s saying ‘no, I don’t sleep this late’. But I usually don’t wake up feeling like I was broken apart and put back together in the night. What happened?”
The world spun like I was on a top as I forced myself to sit, looking from the many duplicates of Aeinya and the Boy who stood in my room. Aeinya was dressed as immaculate as she always was, this time in a pale silver dress that highlighted the deep bronze tones of her skin and set off the white in her hair. The Boy was his usual ominous shape. He looked the same as always, same as last night before he had… before I had…
Everything came back in a rush, my eyes growing wide and panicked as the world put itself back together and all the pairs of people combined.
“You probably overdid your training, that’s what happened,” Aeinya said, pulling back the blankets even as I stared at my hands, and then at the Boy who shook his head in a decisive, if not frantic, ‘no’.
‘Don’t tell Aeinya.’
I lifted my brows, only partially aware that Aeinya was now rambling about the event today, and about how I wasn’t even close to being ready. Again, the Boy shook his head ‘no’, the motion even more frantic the second time.
There were three people in the world that I trusted, Aeinya, the Boy, and of course Batian. I wanted to tell all of them, to let them all know that my magic wasn’t gone. That I could still access it, and that I could do so on my own. But something about the way the Boy was shaking his head ‘no’ chased all of those residual tingles away, the lighthearted joy fading.
Not tell them, but why?
“Are you even listening to me?” Aeinya cut through my thoughts, those bright eyes peering down as she leaned over me, cutting off the silent conversation the Boy and I had been having.
“Apologies, I just woke up and everything is spinning. Can you repeat that?” I turned into a Princess on her, and Aeinya rolled her eyes, her hands flying to her hips in a huff as she stepped back.
“I said you overdid your training. Your muscles are sore, which is going to make today a real treat for you. You will have to make do and fight as best you can. You need to do your best, Elara.” She sighed dramatically, looking at me in a way that made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle.
By the Goddess, I didn’t like that look at all.
“Has something happened, Aeinya?”
“I wasn’t able to get you with who I wanted, but you’ll be fine. You are strong, and no one would dare hurt the sick princess. Besides, they will probably be too stunned to see you to do anything, really. You’ll be fine. Everything is going to plan. It will be fine.”
She rambled away, that look she had given me before mixing with a bit too much pity. She had spoken quickly, but I hadn’t missed a word she said, even though she was clearly trying to hide exactly what had happened.
I may have barely woken, but that didn’t make me a fool.
“What do you mean you weren’t able to get me paired with who you wanted?” I repeated back to her and sure enough that look of pity increased before she turned away to a large white box near my wardrobe.
“I mean you need to try your best, Elara, which I know you will. You’ll be fine.” She was busying herself with that box too much to be believable.
“What aren’t you telling me, Aeinya?” I jumped off the bed, grateful for the Boy's gloved hand on my elbow when the world started to spin again.
“I couldn’t assign you with my cousin, but I got you paired well enough, and I paid them off to not use magic. Not that it matters, you are going to show everyone that you can fight. That you aren’t weak. Everything is going to plan.”
“You keep saying that, Aeinya. But why does it seem as though everything is, in fact, not going to plan.”
You would think there was gold and diamond jewelry in the box with how interested in it she had become. I, however, was suddenly starting to feel as though I would be sick. And not only because the world was still trying to upend itself around me.
“No, no, everything is fine. Who cares who you fight with? You’ll do great. This is going to be great.”
“I care who I fight with.” I grabbed her arm, turning her around to face me. “I really care, considering whoever I face has a high chance to kill me.”
“They won’t do that,” she flipped her hand to the side like it was nothing, “Like I said, I paid them off. Besides, no one would dare kill the princess.”
“If they knew I was the princess.” She seemed to be forgetting that part. Most people in Okivo couldn’t pick me out of a crowd. Batian on the other hand…
“You are really far too worried about this,” she sighed, turning again to the box. “Everything is going to be fine. I’ll see to it. But first…” she turned around, hair and skirts whirling through the air as she faced me, a pile of black leathers in her arms.
“You need to look the part.” She was beaming as she held the pile out to me.
“Fighting leathers.” I wasn’t sure if I said it in question or in awe.
