Fifteen years ago

A woman walked through a medieval-looking palace, carrying a baby. She was not the baby’s mother; rather she was simply its caretaker. Reaching a door with a gold crown painted on the wood, she knocked on it twice.

The door opened almost immediately to reveal a woman around the same age, dressed royally. She wore a gold crown on her head and carried a beautiful golden staff in her left hand. “Ah, Maddy!” she exclaimed, shutting the door behind her and beckoning the first woman to follow her down the corridor. The door magically locked behind her, preventing anyone from entering.

“What is it, Becca?” Madelaine ‘Maddy’ asked. “It sounded pretty urgent.”

“It is,” Queen Rebecca replied. “Do you recall when I first gave you that baby to take care of?”

“Yes, it was one of a pair, and you sent the twin to live in Industria with Eric. What of it?”

“Well, it’s not enough that we’ve separated the two. The Emperor knows we’ve got the twins, although I doubt he knows that I already sent one away. He’ll be keeping an eye on us for sure. He's not the only one, either. We both know how dangerous Scarvens can be, and you’re holding a baby Scarven in your arms right now.”

The two looked at the baby, who looked just as Human as either of the women. “What are you planning to do?” Maddy asked, rubbing the baby’s back gently. The baby was sleeping soundly, ignorant to the conversation.

“Do you remember when I told you about the time I handpicked my successor?”

Maddy thought about it. “Yes, you said you went to Industria and picked a little girl.”

“Yeah. Her name is Hannah. She comes from a poor family, but so did I, so I have high hopes for her. I was kind of worried she’d turn out like me, so I did something a little, uh, risky. I decided to travel to the future and meet her for myself after her powers awakened.”

“You’re messing with time again?” Maddy asked in exasperation. “Have you forgotten what happened last time?”

“With the old prophecy? No, I haven’t forgotten. I know I established a rule about traveling across time. This, however, was important enough to break that rule. As you know, if you have sufficient magical power, like this scepter, you can travel into the past and back. It’s not recommended, but it is possible.”

“So? What’s she like?”

“Feisty,” Rebecca replied. “Smart, too. She realized immediately I wasn’t who I said I was and I had to flee. I’m happy all the same, though; she seems like a much better candidate for the power we share than I ever was.”

“Don’t say that, Becca!” Maddy exclaimed. “Sure you did some stupid stuff in the past, but you’re making up for that now! Well, evil things, but my point still stands.”

“I appreciate you trying to make me feel better, but I don’t think anything I could ever do would fully make up for who I used to be,” Becca said sadly. “Well, this one might,” she said, looking down at the baby she held. “Ran-chan will be a better ruler than I ever could be one day,” she said, smiling down at her.

“Did you see that in the future, too?” Maddy asked.

“No, I didn’t go that far into the future,” Rebecca said, still gazing down at her daughter. “She was still a Princess, then. It’s just a feeling I have, to be honest. Back to the point, though, about the second twin.” She looked back up at Maddy. “I think we can throw the Emperor off if we use that suspended animation magic I told you about. If we use it, then there’s no way the Emperor will suspect the two are twins because one will appear to be years older than the other. It’s safer than just sending the child through the timestream, which I refuse to do.”

The women arrived at their destination, a bathroom, and prepared to do what they came to do: give the two babies a bath. The babies woke up when they felt the warm air of the bathroom. “Normal nobility has servants do this,” said Maddy.

“What? Are you afraid of the water?” Becca teased.

Maddy just gave her a look that could melt stone, which made Becca giggle. Changing the subject as she filled two small buckets with water from the main bath, she said, “So we’ve never given this twin a name, have we?” She gave one bucket to Rebecca.

“Not a Human name, no. Both twins already have Scarven names, so I was fine with holding off for a while. Ava named the other one Steve since his birth name was Streveton.”

“Wow, are all Scarven names such a mouthful?”

“Some Human names are, too,” Becca reminded her. “Like your birth name, for instance.”

“We agreed to never speak of that again,” said Maddy.

“Fair enough,” she agreed. “For this twin, her birth name is Nadhalta.”

Maddy looked down at the little girl she held. “Another mouthful. How about something shorter? Say, Nadine? I like that name.”

“I like it,” Rebecca said, reaching over and patting the little girl on the head. She reached for her hand, and her own daughter Rachel did likewise. “Look, they look like sisters!” Becca exclaimed happily. “You know, I think I might want another child myself someday. It won’t be anytime soon, but maybe in a few years. I took Ran-chan to Industria to get vaccinated, so there’s no risk of her dying as an infant. Say, two years or so?”

A loud crash was heard from outside the room, followed by some shouting. “What’s going on?” Becca wondered as Maddy sprang to her feet.

“Nothing good,” she said, drawing her sword. “Stay with the kids; I’ll go deal with them.”

Maddy left the room, leaving Becca alone with the kids. Again, she was struck by just how similar they looked. She had designed the disguise charm so she’d look like herself, and since Rachel was Rebecca’s daughter, it made sense they’d look the same.

There was a loud crash as someone got thrown through the stone wall from the corridor outside. They landed on the bathroom floor unmoving. Through the new hole in the wall, she could see Maddy fighting off the assailants. All wore white hoods emblazoned with a Scarven symbol she didn’t recognize, although she did recognize the uniforms.

One assailant broke off from the rest and charged Becca and the kids, sword drawn. “Keep away from my kids!” she shouted, blasting him with magic. It ricocheted off his shield and bounced off the walls of the room before finally hitting the edge of the raised tub, shattering it and sending the water inside all over the floor. The two buckets with the babies got turned over as well. Both babies started bawling, only adding to the chaos.

The bawling just steeled Rebecca’s resolve. Using her staff, she pointed it at the guy and said “Melt.” The guy’s armor, shield, and weapons immediately melted off him, leaving him easy pickings for her next spell, “Knockout.”

By now Maddy had gotten rid of the rest of the assailants, a testament to her skill with the sword. That was when Becca turned back to the babies and realized she couldn’t tell them apart. They had been washed away to separate spots on the floor, both bawling their lungs out.

"You all right?" Maddy asked.

Rebecca was now in full panic mode. "Which one's which?" she asked, picking up the baby she thought was Rachel and wrapping her up in a towel. Maddy did likewise with the other, and they met in the middle of the room.

Looking between the two kids, neither of them could tell them apart: both had wispy pale hair, blue-green eyes, and similar skin tones. “Rachel’s seven months older, so she’s larger,” said Becca.

They held the babies up side by side, san towels, but since they were curled up in identical balls crying their lungs out, it didn’t do anything. Neither had any birthmarks, either. “Now what?” Maddy asked.

Becca closed her eyes, steeling herself. “The easiest way would be to remove the Human disguise from the twin, but I deliberately made it so that it cannot be removed by a power equal to or lesser than my staff. That was to keep the Emperor from using his scepter to find her out. Since neither of us can tell them apart, we just have to pick the one we think isn’t Rachel and put her to sleep for a few years.”

“What if we guess wrong?” Maddy asked worriedly.

“We can’t afford to, and we can’t afford to waste any more time. You recognized those men, right? They came here for her. We have to get her out of here so they’ll give up. Mr. Furango has set aside some space so I can properly do the suspension curse.” She put a hand on her daughter’s brow, then put it on the other. “The baby you’re holding is the twin. I’m sure of it.”

“Is there truly no way to know for sure?”

“I’m, like, 85% sure this baby is Rachel,” she replied, gently soothing her in an attempt to calm her down. “Her magical signature is weak, but I can still detect it, and it feels the same. Now, let’s get out of here while we can. We’ll patch up the holes in our security when we get back.”