Sisterly Succour

The next morning, Brunhilde told Kori that it was essential that she impart in her the rudiments of noble etiquette. Thus began an extremely trying session for Kori, sitting with Brunhilde in her chamber, allowing her to drill her in manners, deportment and speech (she accused Kori of sounding bumpkinish which Kori felt was unfair). Erika was elsewhere, occupied by her own duties and Kori knew she was going to just have to grit her teeth and get through this somehow or other.

But Brunhilde grew increasingly irritated as the session went on. "Rudolph said you were an agreeable girl, Korina. Well I see he was wrong."

Kori looked down at her feet. "Sorry," she murmured.

"Look at me when you talk to me and don't mumble!"

Kori looked up. Brunhilde stared into Kori's eyes for a moment and then she began to breathe harder, her breast rising and falling. "You do realise what a chance you're being given? Aren't you grateful for our hospitality? Well? Aren't you?" Her voice was trembling.

Kori nodded. "Very grateful, Brunhilde."

"Be grateful to your uncle. He insisted on it. Your father did not, did he?"

Kori winced. She couldn't answer that. She wished she could be elsewhere.

Brunhilde was glaring at her now. "He may want you here because of the werewolves, but I know the worst type of monster is a she-demon - and her half-human offspring."

Kori felt as if someone had punched her hard in the gut. Her breath came in ragged gasps. Her bottom lip was trembling… And then she burst into tears and was on her feet, running from the chamber and to her own where she flung herself on her bed, wracked with sobs. Did Brunhilde really blame her for her birth mother? If she did, what hope did she have here or anywhere? She could never escape the taint of her bloodline whatever she did, so what did they expect of her? Why had she come here at all when she was not wanted? Madeline wanted her back in the cottage. She had to pull herself together and get back there, but she couldn't stop crying.

How long it had been she couldn't tell before there came the sound of light footfalls and the gentle touch of a hand on her shoulder and the soft sound of Erika's voice. "Kori…"

Kori felt furious with herself. She didn't want her sister to find her losing it like this. She pressed her face into her pillow, but she couldn't stop her sobs and tears.

"Oh Kori…" The delicate touch of Erika's fingers stroking her hair. Kori sat herself up and her sister wrapped her arms around her. Kori sobbed on her shoulder, getting her fine black and white mourning dress all wet with her tears, but she couldn't stop.

Erika held her tight and stroked her back. "It'll be alright, Kori."

Kori kept her face buried in her sister's dress. Erika's scent was pure, warm and herbal. "No, it won't," she muttered. "I don't belong here. Think who I am. The creature that raped our father gave birth to me."

"Now listen to me, sister. I told you, it's not your fault how you were conceived. Whatever anyone else tries to put in your head, I want you to remember that I welcome you here as my family, no conditions. There now, there now…" she rocked Kori gently. "Our world is imperfect and we must make the best of it. Accept circumstances that we cannot change and only worry about what we can change for the better. Was is not very important to you that I welcomed you? You have not forgotten, I hope."

Kori swallowed and ceased sobbing. She finally looked her sister in the face, into those brown eyes, so like her own. "It means everything to me. But you're in mourning and I'm… I'm intruding… um…"

Erika cupped Kori's face in her hands and gave a small, sad smile. "Oh, you silly thing. It's a great comfort for me to have you here."

Kori hiccoughed. "I love you," she blurted out.

Erika grinned, her eyes lighting up. "And I love you. We are sisters. Isn't that how it ought to be?"

Kori took a deep breath. Her tears had ceased to flow. "Yes. We've found one another."

They sat in silence for a while as Kori's breathing steadied, Erika's arms still around her.

Erika broke the silence. "It would be counterproductive for you to try and continue with etiquette drills right now. I will take you to my special retreat - where I go when I really need to reflect."

She led her sister to the walnut-panelled antechamber from which one of the doors led to the Regent's throne room. Erika however went through a different door which led to short corridor ending in two doors, each bearing silver plaques etched with inscriptions, one reading "Map Room" and the other "Music Room." Erika pushed open the door to the Map Room and beckoned Kori to follow.

The Map Room took Kori's breath away. There were no books, scrolls or atlases here, instead each wall and even the ceiling had been painted with intricately detailed maps. One wall was a map of all the provinces and principalities of Nordheim, another showed the entirety of the Old World, their continent and in the corner there stood a huge globe, as tall as a man, representing Granat – their world.

Covering the broad expanse of the wall to their left was a map of the province of the Dark Forest, Gruenwald in the center with an exaggerated picture of the castle.

Kori grinned as she looked around. "This room is a wonder." She pointed at the map of Nordheim. "The Golden Isles don't look at all far on a map this size."

Erika winked. "The room does have a practical use to us, right now." She ran her delicate white fingers over the image of the castle and pressed on the castle gates. With a click, a door in the map of the Dark Forest swung open. "Our secret now, Kori." Beyond the door was a narrow stone staircase. As they climbed the steps, Kori held herself back to Erika's pace by a conscious effort. At the top of the staircase was a circular turret room. The chamber had no windows, but was lit instead by jewel bright lights in the ceiling that twinkled like constellations of stars…

The many coloured lights cast sparkling lights over Erika's perfect features. "Behold, the multiverse mapped out for us. Each gem is a world. The multiverse has more worlds than an apple tree has fruits."

"Oh!" Kori looked up at the constellations her eyes wide. "So this is not the night sky, but a depiction of the parallel universes. They're like apples?" She clapped her hands together in glee at this analogy. "Are we on a fresh world, or a blighted one?"

Erika gave oblique smile. "You can make up your own mind in time, sister dear." She walked over to the far side of the room. "There is another hidden switch in the wall here, although it's too dark for you to see…"

"No." Kori shook her head. "I can see perfectly well in the dark. And that brick does stick out a bit."

"Well then…" Erika pushed the brick and the hidden door swung open. The sisters emerged onto a stone balcony. They were at the top of a high turret. The wind blew their long hair, causing it to mingle.

The wind buffeted Korri's face, blowing her hair this way and that, but it was not an unpleasant sensation. Indeed, it seemed to call out to her… "What a view of the entire kingdom. I see why you come here, Erika." With her unnaturally keen eyesight she could zoom in on smaller details of the landscape. "I can see the village. There's Madeleine's cottage."

"I could never pick that out from here," said Erika with a small smile.

Kori scanned the landscape with an intense stare. "The flatlands… the Grey Forest… gods, I wish I could fly. But the only interesting power I've ever shown is the unnatural scream I gave the werewolf in the forest and I haven't been able to do it since. Perhaps it was a fluke."

Erika raised her eyebrows. "An unnatural scream?" She stroked her cheek pensively. "Actually that is intriguing."

Kori gestured to the land below. "To think, the entire Dark Forest will soon be your realm. As Queen you will get to travel a lot. I'll be in your escort. Uncle will agree, he needed me to take out the werewolf and if there are others, then he'll see that I've got to be at your side. I've beaten werewolves before." She began to pace up and down the balcony. "I – I'll really worry if I don't get to be in your escort. And it's not just the werewolves. Last night the girls told me how dangerous it is to be royalty. Just imagine – Siegfried needing a food taster. Well I know a lot about making antidotes so I've got to teach you." She brushed her hair away from her face. "Is it – is it really so dangerous?" Her voice trembled a little.

She looked her sister in the eyes. A small smile was playing around Erika's lips, but was her expression sad? Or fond? Both? Kori couldn't quite tell.

"By our law it's the King who has the executive power, darling. Siegfried is right to be wary, but the danger is not the same for me. Besides, we must compartmentalise. Be mindful of real peril, but not let worry debilitate us. My role and my duty is to be future queen." She laid her hand on her sister's arm. "We must make the best of circumstances we cannot change."

Kori was reminded of Erika's words in her bedroom. So they both had to accept the circumstances they could not change and remember their duty. How wise her sister seemed and how loving as well as dutiful. She felt a warm glow of affection for this wonderful person so new in her life. She had been incomplete before she met Erika.

00O00

That night the sisters stayed up in Erika's bedroom. Her chamber was much larger and more sumptuously decorated than Kori's and her four poster bed was like a little room walled by the velvet curtains. They had a pink heartfire lamp so that they could stay up reading. The rosy light lit up Erika's lovely face and glinted off her night dark hair. Queenie had recommended that they read a book written in her language to improve their vocabularies. As it happened, they had both read already read a translation in their own language and were fond of the story. Now they sat on Erika's bed, with the book on their laps, going over their favourite parts. In the Golden Isles there are a fair number of boarding schools and the book was set in a boarding school for boys located by the sea. Walter, the protagonist had his share of troubles, but he still found time to help a younger boy against bullies. The sugary style of the narrative appealed to Kori, although the theme of bullying troubled her.

"What were those schoolmasters thinking, throwing a delicate boy like that in the same dormitory as the bullying seventeen year-olds? He was only twelve, like me."

Erika turned the page. "That's how things are in the Golden Isles, dear. The Masters don't intervene much so there are more opportunities for drama among the boys. Remember this…" Erika flipped to another chapter where Walter fought the worst of the bullies on his young friend's account.

Kori was feeling more relaxed and happy than she had at any point since the werewolf episode. "He's so brave."

"You fought a werewolf on a little boy's account, Kori."

Kori flicked a strand of her hair away from her face. "Well yes, I did do that." She hoped she sounded modest. "Walter does amazing things as far as his abilities let him. That part where he and his friends get lost in the mountain mist and he goes to find help by crossing the ridge between the mountains which has a ravine on either side of it… he took an awful risk for them. I suppose he only has the eyesight of a normal boy or girl. Aren't you all half-blind in the fog or in the dark? That episode scared me with worry for him." Kori snuggled against her sister. "I can imagine a picture of Walter. Strong and athletic and with a strong jawline as well. Wavy dark brown hair, dark blue eyes and a freckled nose and cheeks."

She pictured Walter. Then she pictured Siegfried. Now she could envision a boy cuter than her image of Walter, but she could not tell her sister…