“I saw you.” His voice was but a whisper, the sun barely peeking through the small sliver of a window above his head. Varin had no idea how long he had been in this attic, with the mystical plants providing illumination as they glowed a soft hue of white. The plant that seemingly housed doppelgangers now lay rotting, surely a bad sign but Varin had little care for that right now.

Cateline was still. Her eyes closed, and her hands folded across her waist, she rested without so much an idle rise and fall of her chest. For all intents and purposes, she was dead.

He watched as the golden ribbon spiraled up her left arm, encompassing her head and then falling down her chest. That stupid, dull strand of glowing energy was the only thing reminding Varin that he had hope. Hope for at least one person missing in his life.

He questioned if his ethical compass was centered. Here Varin was practically weeping by the bed of a since forgotten princess he had met so recently, all while his closest friend, Aiora, was still missing in the wastelands of Ellixus. For some reason, he never once doubted Aiora and her capability to survive--Cateline, on the other hand, was an anomaly. So much raw, unused power hidden beneath the skin of a bratty princess who knew nothing of her power. That is until she was possessed by some rumored undead witch.

“What were you doing there, in the woods?” he asked. “I was with a girl. I think you would like her, she has the power of a thousand suns, and more ferocity than any woman I have ever seen. Aiora included.”

Varin picked at a tuff of fuzz from his pant leg, looking up at her as if to expect a response. What am I doing, he asked himself. He had hardly had a conversation like this with her when she was conscious--why would he expect a response as she lay unmoving? Standing to his feet, he took the blanket that rested at her waist and pulled it so it covered her chest. It was chilled up here, and even though she was better off dead he wanted to make sure she was comfortable. It seemed mindless as he tucked the cotton fabric around her, but needed in the same breath.

As his finger grazed her cool skin, he felt a spark and something overcame his vision. It was a man in a quiet room, dark and cold stone surrounding an otherwise empty space. He was at a table, his blue eyes teary as he wrote on a piece of parchment. Varin noted his blonde hair and pale skin, a bastian shirt loosely resting over his torso. The man jumped at the sound of a door opening, an angry man hollering for him to come with him.

That was all he was able to see as he tore his hand away from Cateline. Looking down at her, Varin saw that golden ribbon shining as bright as ever, sporadically zipping across her skin before it calmed again. He wondered if he was going mad, or if Cateline was speaking to him from this comatose. Varin had no idea who this man was, but he felt important. A beacon of hope to bring Cateline back.

Backing away, Varin held a curious stare on her and waited a moment before parting. It almost felt like she was supposed to sit up there, awakening from her sleep. He traveled down the stairs and made way toward the headmistress’s study, his hands shakier than they normally were. He didn’t knock before entering, earning a wide-eyed glower from Leolina. Normally, that would send him for the hills, but he had more pressing matters on his mind.

“When am I off, then?” Varin asked.

“Off? Off to where, Varin?”

“To save Cateline. We know of this sacrifice that is to come, you’ve made that truth painfully obvious, but how am I expected to save her if I’m stuck in this academy and out in the burned town? And, Aiora, too. When am I to save her?”

Leolina’s face fell from its harsh stare, her lips pursing as she stood. Tapping her tongue against the roof of her mouth, she leaned against her wooden desk. “My, my. You want to save everybody, don’t you?”

He clenched his hands into fists, stabbing his fingernails into his palm to keep him grounded. Otherwise, he would go off on this good-for-nothing elf. “Headmistress, I am begging you here. I might be going mad.”

“And you expect to save your two friends whilst in the wake of madness?”

“I don’t care what state I am in. This isn’t going to get better, and I refuse to sit idly by.”

She hummed, her golden irises tracing him up and down with curious intent before she brought her shoulders up in a lazy shrug. “I have never been the one to turn down such a fortitude. I suppose I shouldn’t doubt you so, Varin, you are one of the mightiest scholars at Lighthelm.”

“Go on, then.”

She waved her hand for him to sit in a chair as she returned to her own, reaching into the drawer and pulling parchment paper from it. As she let the tie holding it rolled undone, allowing it to unravel onto the table, she peered at him through her lashes.

“You come from a different land, if I recall correctly. An entirely foreign region even to me.”

“Yes.”

“Then you understand the dangers of unspoken territory. Axulran is a different beast, they are of ice and torment. The royalty that controls that land is much louder than our quiet majesties of Traburg.”

Varin nodded, his eyes falling on the map that she traced her fingernail over. She followed the shoreline of a body of water before falling on the center of an icon, tapping on it gently.

“Axulran is smaller than Traburg, only housing one large city and a commerce district. They are grand, though. Elegance is respected, and they have a very strong root in elven culture. That being said, they do not take outsiders kindly. You need to do your best to blend in.”

“Blend in?” Varin asked, raising a brow.

“You will have to look as if you could outshine aristocracy. The matter of blending in will be a far easier task for you than it will be for Thaddius, mind you. You will need to protect him.”

Varin knew Thaddius was capable of protecting himself, but he recalled the vial of poison he gave him. His heart sunk at the idea of having to use it. “Understood.”

“You will get to Axulran by boat, but you will not go alone. Obviously, Thaddius will be alongside you, but I will have a guest accompanying you.”

“Guest?”

Leolina looked a tad nervous as she nodded, leaning back in the chair and brought her hand to her face, supporting her chin on it. “Aiora.”

“I’m sorry?”

Leolina couldn’t help but grin as she nodded, chuckling beneath her breath. “A doppelganger, mind you. But she is the walking vision of Aiora, just as fiery too.”

“I’m confused, headmistress,” Varin said and gritted his teeth. “How could a doppelganger resemble Aiora’s personality? Are they not empty shells?”

“An inexperienced mage would make a doppelganger and stop as soon as they were animate. I have taken pieces of Aiora’s life upon her departure, bits of her journal and tokens of her childhood, and used it to make a ritualistic rune.”

“Rune? How does that make Aiora’s doppelganger lifelike?”

Reaching into the drawer once more, Leolina held a ring in her hand. It glistened in the subtle light, a red ruby at the center of its silver band. She rested it before Varin, and as he picked it up he noticed a symbol burned onto the gem. “Once this ring is put on her hand, it will mark her as something we call a blessed twin. Normally, they are but a myth, but in some situations, they can be real.”

“Blessed twin?”

“Yes, Varin. Before your departure, I will place this on her finger.”

“Where… where is she?” Varin asked, his voice growing quiet. “The plant is dead.”

Leolina beamed at him, a laugh coming from the base of her chest with pure delight. “Varin, we really have deprived you of magic. Not that you should know about this, it is rather dark in nature… Moving on, I shall answer your question with another question. Why would the plant matter?”

“Well, it is where we saw our own doppelgangers. At the center of a portal.”

“Hmm, so, hypothetically, would the plant be the source or the host?”

Varin paused, nodding slowly before sighing. “A host?”

“Smart boy. Once we moved Cateline to the attic, I removed my enchantment from the plant and placed it elsewhere. I was not comfortable leaving such powerful magic near a cursed princess, you see.”

Leolina’s tone felt sardonic in nature, but her face did not flicker. There was no wavering, sly smirk that peaked beneath that genuine simper. She looked serious. Despite this decided tone and endless explanation, Varin found himself doubting the headmistress still. Even if everything she had told him over the course of the past few days were true, he knew she had ulterior motives. There were so many unanswered questions and happenings that he wondered just how impactful Leolina’s hand was in it all.

“Alright,” Varin said with pursed lips, “when do I head off, then?”