Good news, we can both pick up on the sense of taste. I really should have expected that because we can also both feel the heat all over the body. Sensations like taste, touch, and smell must send their signals to another part of the brain we still share. Bad news is speech and sight are not one of those. So while we can sit on a stone bench and enjoy this crystallized sugar treat on a bone skewer, only I can make the appropriate 'noming' noises. But since I have enough self control not to do that, I have to listen to Celestine making them in our head.

I let her have free reign on the eating of this while I think. But that's a bit difficult.

So the ridiculous 'noming' slowed down to a simple 'nyegh' while she licked it.

Finally back to relative silence, I decided to calm myself down a bit and try to think about our place in the world a little more. This glorified bit of rock candy was ridiculously expensive. Thirty bronze coins for this. No wonder people are staring. We just spent enough money for them to feed their families for three days on a treat.

Huh, I don't think I've mentioned the currency yet. Well, everything is paid for us, so we've never really had to think about it. Typical fantasy currencies, except they use bronze instead of just straight copper. The exchange rate changes all the time with the price of the metals, but it's usually around eighty bronze for one silver and seventy silver for one gold. From what we've gathered from the novels Celestine reads, each city has its own exchange rate based on the scarcity of the metals and it changes frequently. For example, a city right next to a silver mine might see the exchange rate of bronze to silver around twenty while the rate of silver to gold could be up there near one hundred. There's no centralized currency so anyone can make the coins if they want to. Depends on individuals if they want to use your coins, though. There are usually special precious metals unions in cities that deal in coins and manufacture them. Some of the larger cities might have competing currencies backed by nobility. It's an odd system, but it seems to work. The value is the metal in the coins themselves. This is why bronze is used instead of straight copper. You can make more bronze coins by substituting some of the copper for tin. Foreign coins coming into cities tend to wind up in the hands of metals unions that grade them, refine them, and reforge them.

This was also explained to us when Mother gave us the money. All of the money Arture has in circulation comes in from other parts of the continent because Izaibus, the strip of land we call home, doesn't possess much in the way of useful mineral resources. Lots of sand. But no reason to dig under it. Even further south, where the land becomes more forested, there's no other reason to go there because of the hostile species that call that area home. Not even the trees are worth the risk of going there. And since the elfenoid, the word for human-like literally translates to elf-like, species to the north is hostile to humans, all traffic to and from Arture is from the sea. No surveys have been done of the land further north from Arture, which borders the mineral-rich demon land Saddath. Because of that, the currency exchange rate in Arture is high. So the fact we paid for this sweet with a single silver coin means our belt is now weighed down with fifty bronze coins. So now we have to figure out something else to buy or we will be walking home jingling like one of Santa's helpers.

We had already had lunch before our accident. Mother will be even more angry with us if we keep buying sweets and spoil our dinner so another candy is out of the question. I suppose we could buy more materials for bone carving, but that might be difficult given our current circumstances. Celestine did say she wanted to learn how to paint. Maybe a stationary shop would be a good option. Paints and canvas might be too far out of our price range though, so maybe a sketchbook with some bone char sticks might be a good alternative?

I was brought out of my thoughts by a loud crunch. Ah, Celestine bit through the last of the candy and was chewing on it now. She had been diligently licking and biting bits off the skewer until all that was left was a bit of candy stuck to the base.

I pulled a handkerchief out of our cloth belt and started rubbing our lips clean while she wanted to keep licking the skewer.

She asked, trying to take another lick of what's left of the candy.

I pocketed our handkerchief and took the skewer out of her hand.

She tried to take the skewer back.

Lefty was trying to take the skewer out of Righty. We're probably getting more odd looks now than when we were just eating the thing.

Though, I would prefer if we could just switch places. Things would be so much simpler if Celestine were left-brain and I was right. I was always content with just sitting in the back of the mind and going along for the ride. I never wanted this. Though I guess I asked for it. The whole point of the exercise was to get better at controlling the body at a moment's notice and, well, gotta take the good with the bad. Part of that bad was I could no longer look into her surface thoughts like I used to. I probably won't be able to enter her dreams anymore either. I'll leave testing that for tonight, though.

Celestine clearly didn't like our situation.

She nodded the head. The duality we have is strange. If I didn't know better, I would say I was the one who caused the head to nod. I'm going to need to keep that thinking in check.

We gave the clean candy skewer back to the stall keeper that was selling the candy then went to the same stationary shop we visited with Mother to buy the board for the chess set. Ah, that's something else I didn't think of. We could avoid Daemon easily, but the problem was Sullivan. He would notice our new static-y right eye and would no doubt tell Daemon. I'll have to ask Mother's advice about this later because Celestine would never want to avoid her beloved half-brother.

The exchange in the shop was pretty simple. A book bound in rings, about a centimeter wide each, with blank pages that allowed the writer to open to any page by flipping the front over and behind the sturdy back. The cover and back board seemed to be made of the same material, although thinner, as the board we bought for the chess game. There was actual wood paper inside the covers, though. Making this two-hundred page sketchbook cost a high two silver forty bronze. We were lucky he threw in a box of bonechar writing sticks for free, though we had to buy the small sharpening knife with our remaining bronze coins. We could probably just use our bone carving tools at home for this, but Celestine liked the idea of having dedicated tools for specific jobs. Since this was all for her, I didn't argue.

So we left the store with the sketchbook, bonechar box, with knife in the box itself, all under our left arm for the walk home. We were left with nothing but a single silver coin in our belt. We walked along the main roads like we promised Mother and made it home without any trouble. The trouble would be there when we walked through the door.

The front gate was always unlocked, but the front door was always locked. That was something I always wondered. What was the point of a door lock when all someone with some simple knowledge of magic could blast it open with a fireball spell of some sort? This whole city really seemed way too peaceful for all the magic that was supposedly possible in this world. Did the whole sealing magic till adulthood thing really screw with peoples' ability that much? Though the only people we've seen use magic are Mother, Warran, and the acolytes at the church. I know Mother and Warran weren't born in Arture. Daemon isn't either since there seems to be some shared history with Mother and Warran. We should ask Mother about her past sometime.

Ah, I'm just delaying the inevitable. We had already knocked on the front door and mother had been looking down glaring at us for about twenty seconds now. She had a bandage on her forehead. That wind spell must have done more than trip her. She probably fell into the wall and got cut.

"Uhhm-uh..." I mumbled slightly. We looked down to avoided her stare. Never seen Mother's anger directed at us quite like this before. This hurts.

I mean this really hurts. She grabbed us by the right arm and was digging her nails into the skin. She pulled us inside and was dragging us upstairs. The door? Oh, she closed that already. "Ow ow ow ow ow owww!" I complained.

Mother didn't reply, she just dug her fingernails into the skin more as I complained. When we got upstairs, she pulled us to Celestine's room and pushed us inside before coming in herself and closing the door. We were pushed to the bed, where we then sat, placing our purchases beside us and rubbing the arm with crescent marks in our skin.

Mother pulled the desk chair out, positioned it in front of us, and sat down. "Explain." She said simply.

I didn't know what exactly she wanted me to explain, so I just started detailing the conversation we had with Charcoal Man, the contents of the journal, and my own knowledge on the matter at hand. I ended up spilling everything. The talk with the head priest about the new paintings, the exact phrasing in the journal and the implications of her previous life, the candy we bought, the reasoning for the sketchbook and bonechar, and most of my inner monologuing. I even spilled our desire to explore the world, though each in our own ways. I felt like everything was laid bare. I think a lot of what I said might have been over her head, but one thing was clear.

"If I hadn't stayed in this place, none of this would have happened. I should have gone to Hope after Daemon abandoned me." She said quietly. She started blaming herself now. While it was true if we were born somewhere else, what awaited me? A reincarnated person in some hilly green-filled village in a country with the name Hope? That's what it was called, it was literally English for Hope. While that might have been preferable to a desert city protected by snake people, I wouldn't have my roommate in that case. And we would be cut off of the lifeline that was Daemon's seemingly endless income. There would be no relationship with Sullivan. We probably wouldn't even know of his existence.

"Mother." I said sternly. She was about to start crying before I spoke up. "If things hadn't happened the way they did... I, Novos, would be the only one in here. There would be no Celestine as she has been."

"Yes, you're right." She looked down at the floor. "So it's like I have two daughters..."

"I guess you could look at it like that..." I said. I did want her to see me as her child, so this works.

"Two very naughty daughters."

"Huh?" I chirped before she reached over and grabbed our head with her right hand.

"One taught the other something she shouldn't have without asking me first." She started. "And which one tripped me?"

"Heh heh, that one was Celestine."

"You probably wouldn't have a leg if I was the one that did that... Mom." I plead my case, gave my evidence, and tried to butter up the jury with a more informal name.

Celestine was flailing around with the left arm and leg, trying to grip onto Mom's arm and force her away. I just kept Righty placed firmly on the bedspread.

"And did you figure out a way for Celestine to talk as well?"

"N-not yet. We bought some paper so she can practice drawing and writing with the left hand in the meantime, like I said. We planned on asking Warran if he knew anything that could help us." I said. "I-I can also try talking for her. It's just not ideal."

"She's currently saying she's sorry over and over again." I relayed.

"And you?" I just noticed she's been looking back and forth between eyes. She's currently staring right into the eye I see out of.

"I-uh it was an accident? I said she got that from her dreams right? Mom, this is all new to me." Lip quiver, good, maybe I can get out of this.

"You ran when I wanted you to stay put." Ah.

"Okay, well... we needed to goto the church, yeah?" I said in my defense.

Her grip on our head got tighter. "Two very naughty daughters. One used magic on her own mother and the other ran from me. How can I ever forgive them..."

"Uh, um... W-w-we love you?"

"Sensations are split between both sides of the body?" She asked.

"N-n-no, we both feel everything."

"How can I know that for sure? Novos has been a naughty girl, she might be lying to me to lessen her punishment..."

your body, remember?>

"Y-y-you could ask Celestine? She can write-"

"Ahh, but what if this whole thing was a lie so my little girl could run out of the house for an afternoon without me. I might never be able trust her again~"

"Th-that's not fair!" I cried.

She took her hand off our head and sat back on the chair. "Stand up. Skirt down. Bend over my legs."

Can I skip this part? I'm skipping this part. We definitely didn't get spanked twenty times on both buttcheeks while crying 'sorry' over and over again with both our mouth and mind.

Sometime after that ordeal, we had changed into our nightgown and were laying in our bed with Mom. Laying, not because it hurts to sit right now, but because we want to. While we were like this, we had 'the talk' from start to end. I was really just a relay for Celestine to ask questions, but it wasn't all pointless because now I know the words in their language for the various bodily functions, parts, and events. Particularly the dreaded period. I'll spare the details and sum it up. Being a woman in this world is amazing when you are rich and sucks when you are poor. There's a special, and super expensive, pea-sized magic crystal that a woman can keep pinned to a piece of clothing just below the navel that will completely alleviate pain from the cramps. It doesn't do anything about the mess, but it stops one of the worst parts of being female from hurting. Those particular memories that filtered into Celestine's dreams had her extremely worried and the solution took a weight off both our minds.

After the lesson on bodily functions, everything seemed to be more-or-less right with the world again. Of course Mom never actually distrusted us, she just wanted to tease us and she apologized for that. She held us tightly against her body on the bed. I've never felt so close to her before. Before it was always Mom and Celestine with me in the back of her mind lost in other thoughts, letting the two have their moments. But right now, the feelings welling up in me just scream 'this is my mom, I love my mom.' At the same time, though, the memories of all my past mothers flooded my mind. That amorphous being that I could recall with just as much love, but couldn't distinguish a single one from the other. All my mothers, and even some fathers, blurred together into one single memory, overwritten many times, but never completely forgotten.

I could recall facts from the memories of my past lives, things I learned from schools that never changed, but memories like my parents and siblings were always blurred together. Would the same happen to this life? I don't want to forget Sylvianna.

I softly began crying while Mom ran her fingers through our hair to comfort me. Celestine was trying to figure out why I was crying, but I never answered.

I fell asleep for the first time since coming to this world. I had my own dreams and slept without Celestine within them. When we woke up, the dream faded from my memory. This is normal, this is how humans dreamed. But it was so alien to me now.

I hated it.

Mom wasn't in bed with us when we woke up. She likely left the bed after we fell asleep.

Celestine said in our head. Seems she came to some conclusion of her own last night.

I was still apprehensive of completely taking the dive to femininity, let alone seeing Celestine as my sister, so I just responded out loud, "good morning, Celestine."