Vivitha seems to sense that something serious has happened in the intervening hour or so. She also seems to guess that it has something to do with magic, and though she is clearly curious, she mostly still seems alarmed and mistrustful.

Leah offers no information, still rankling from Seffon’s accusation – more accurately, rankling from the fact that it’s true.

How many times since I got here have I made decisions that had potentially life-threatening consequences, on a whim? I chose to come to Seffonshold when I knew they might shoot me dead on sight. I walked out into the execution yard and challenged a far-more skilled fighter to a duel, when they could have just executed me as well.

Is it just because I want to get back home? Do I not believe that this world’s consequences matter? She remembers Jeno’s withdrawn behaviour after the rescue, and Vivitha’s anger at Leah’s secrecy. The consequences matter. I can’t keep throwing myself into danger in the hopes that I die in the dream and wake up in real life. This existence matters too. My existence in this world matters.

She sits up and rubs at her head, still somewhat sore. Sewheil’s magical morphine or whatever it was has worn off. Vivitha sees the movement out of the corner of her eye and turns to watch Leah, eyes narrowed.

If this world matters, I need to know a little more about it – from before I got here.

Leah tries for a smile, but can’t quite muster it. “Jeno has been telling me things, from before the…swap. Stuff about Leah Talesh’s time in Valerin. I was hoping you could fill me in on some of the details.”

Vivitha listens but does not respond.

“She mentioned that apparently Leah used to go visit Eschen on the Cheden ships; not often, but more than once. Did any of the others ever join her, or did they even know about it?”

“’Course we knew about you and the captain,” Vivitha finally says. “We thought it was high time you got laid.”

Leah chokes on her words. “I what?”

“You always maintained it was just a good friendship, and that you were learning new fighting styles, but you’d never been that interested in a man before, not even rich or powerful men who were interested in you.”

Vivitha falls silent again, and Leah can’t remember where she was going with this. “Do you think Eschen saw it that way too? Did he think I was leading him on?” she asks, worried.

“How the fuck should I know? And why are you so sure you two didn’t do…anything?”

Leah settles back on her cot. “I just know.”

Vivitha scoffs and refuses to look at her. They sit in silence a few minutes longer, Sewheil off to the side treating a scout for some minor injuries.

Leah huffs a sigh. “Anyway, I just wanted to know if Leah had mentioned anything about him, back then.”

Vivitha flinches. “Don’t say her name.”

“It’s my name too.”

“Just don’t.”

Silence again.

“How did the old Leah react to your suggestions that she and the captain were…” Leah begins, waving a hand vaguely.

“She thought it was funny.”

Silence again.

Vivitha glowers at the ceiling. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner? Take us all aside, some day, and tell us what had happened?”

Leah scoffs. “You’d have thought I was insane. Or under a spell.”

“Aren’t you?”

“Aren’t I which, insane or under a spell?”

Vivitha shrugs and gestures with both hands

Leah frowns. “I’m not under a spell, and my mental health was perfectly average last time I checked.”

Silence.

“But why didn’t you tell us? Or anyone?”

Leah lies back, glum. “I told Wellen some of it, eventually. I thought he might be able to figure it out. At the very least he was discrete, and if he had decided I was a liar and a bitch for not telling right away, then I would only have hurt someone I knew distantly.”

Vivitha shakes her head, still not looking at Leah. “The real Leah wouldn’t have lied to us.”

“The real Leah lied to you about lots,” Leah snaps.

“Oh yeah? How would you know?”

Leah does not immediately answer.

Vivitha sneers. “Come on, you’ve already told me you’re impersonating my friend and holding her body hostage, what could be worse?”

Leah rolls over to face her. “Leah was a deviant.”

Vivitha is motionless. Finally she replies, still glaring at the rafters. “See, I knew you were full of shit.”

“I’m not lying.”

“I know. But know what?” Vivitha finally turns a bit to almost look at her. “Neither did Leah.” She pauses, then looks back up at ceiling. “She told us that a while back.”

“What?”

“We agreed to keep it quiet, since it didn’t affect our work as a team. Leah abstained, so it was never a big deal.”

Leah stops, mouth hanging open, then grins. She rolls back over to stare at the ceiling. “No, she definitely lied to you.”

“Oh really?”

“She did not abstain.”

“Pfft.”

“Leah was intimate with Jeno.”

Vivitha turns to look at her full-on, in shock.

“And fully sleeping with Kimry, the serving girl.”

Vivitha’s jaw drops.

Leah continues looking at the ceiling, but keeps Vivitha in the corner of her eye. Finally she sees Vivitha sit up, and mutter to herself, tracing things on the cot with her hands.

“Ohhhhhhh…”

“Oh?” Leah prompts

“It makes sense. Gods above, it makes sense.”

Silence.

Leah rubs her head a little more, wincing in the morning light. “If you all knew she was a deviant, why did you think she was sleeping with the captain?”

“Well I suppose we…some of us…thought she would…eventually…”

“Get cured?”

“Yeah.”

Leah raises an eyebrow, turning to look at her. “By someone like captain Eschen?”

Vivitha shrugs. “I mean yeah, he’s gorgeous.”

“What?” She laughs, and Vivitha cracks the barest grin. “We’re talking – ” Leah traces the scar on his face, and makes an exaggerated dour expression.

Vivitha nods, still smiling a tiny bit. “Brooding! You know, it’s a sort of…he always looks like he’s thinking on something heavy, and caught up in interesting, dark memories. And that profile, I mean, unh…” Her smile stretches a bit wider, but a bit of a blush is showing and she suppresses her grin.

“You like bad boys. You like bad boys! That is so ridiculous, I never would have thought it of you.”

Vivitha raises an eyebrow at her sarcastically. “‘Bad boys?’ I guess that’s a name for it, I mean – ” She cuts off suddenly and turns back to the ceiling.

“What?”

Vivitha sighs. “You were almost talking like she used to. I forgot…” She turns away. “I won’t forget again. And don’t try to make me.”

“I wasn’t tr – Okay. I promise not to.”

“You’re not the real Leah.”

“I am not at all the real Leah, the one you knew.”

“Right.”

Leah looks back to the ceiling, pensive. “I suppose that makes me ‘fake Leah.’” That gets a brief snicker. “You can call me that, to make sure you remember who’s who.”

“Not a bad idea, fake Leah.”

Leah smiles, but Vivitha does not see.

Silence.

“I suppose that must be really hard on you, if you fancied him, and now he’s…”

Vivitha shakes her head. “I was never interested in him. I thought you and he were…you don’t chase after your friend’s lover.” She stops, then continues in a lower voice. “Frankly, I’m very relieved to know that he and Leah weren’t…it would have been awful to think she’d been tricked by him, and that he’d turned on her to do this to Valerin, or that she might have confessed something on the pillow that he used against us during the siege.”

Leah nods and does not comment. She is struck with the urge to run and ask Jeno if it’s at all possible Eschen might have been led on by the old Leah, and almost sits up to do it, before realising that Jeno is probably not mentally in the position to hear any of this.

“Ƃau does yõ he fyl nau?” Sewheil asks, passing by and laying a hand on Leah’s shoulder.

“Fine, just a little headache-y.”

Sewheil pauses, then passes her a glass of something warm. Leah sniffs it suspiciously for traces of coca leaf. “E’s uellow, ue hony,” Sewheil says. “E uell hel. Dreŋ e.”

Leah does not quite follow, but the tone is reassuring and she trusts Sewheil to not feed her anything inappropriate. When Sewheil has returned to her work, Leah notices that Vivitha was eavesdropping on all this.

“First time seeing a Gllythe?” Leah asks.

Vivitha shrugs. “We worked for a guy who was part-Gllythe, back in Bair, but I’ve never met someone who was full-blooded – which, I guess, is odd, considering how rare mixes are.” She still seems distracted by thoughts, and Leah waits for her to speak them. “Sooo, fake Leah,” she finally says, still not looking at her but a bit more casual. “Did you learn Olues here or in your mystical other world?”

“I’d like to tell you a bit about my time here, if you really want to listen.”

Vivitha clams up at this offer of friendship. After the initial reflex passes, she relaxes and thinks. “You said Jeno told you about Leah and Eschen…is she alright?”

It takes a while for Leah to find an answer. “She’s shaken. She doesn’t like being here, but we can’t send her back to her family until we know why they tried to kill her.”

“She killed Samson.” Vivitha’s voice is that of a loyal citizen grieving a young future leader, indignant but not at a personal level.

Leah fumbles for words, knowing Vivitha’s distrust of magic. “She was compelled to do so. The dagger was magical, and she was…puppeted…into doing it.”

“Yes, but they thought her resistance to the truth spell was due to complicity in the magic that forced her.” Vivitha stops, her eyes darting. “But Eschen was the one who performed the truth spell, wasn’t he?”

“And you only have his word that the spell didn’t work.” Leah tries to sound sympathetic. “Valerin doesn’t have enough magic users to protect itself from being manipulated like this, and look what it’s cost them so far.”

“Trusting Eschen is what got us into this.” Vivitha’s voice is hard, and she is back to looking away.

“Amen to that.” Leah rolls over and contemplates all she has learned in the past ten minutes.

Vivitha shoots her a baffled glance. “The fuck does that mean?”

*

That evening, Leah finds her strength fully returned, though she is still under orders not to endanger her life until the elemental rune spell is complete. She asks for a book on Cheden’s mythos to be brought, and the guard brings her the closest he could find: an essay looking at how magic is used in Cheden’s storytelling, compared to Algic scansion-spells. Leah finds it dry but informative, mainly in regards to Cheden’s epic poem being non-rhyming even in its native language, instead using alliteration and metre to give it musicality.

“Odd to see that face reading by choice.”

She looks up to see Vivitha watching her, eating the sweet potato burrito-style wrap with a highly uncertain expression.

Leah sets the book aside. “Frankly, I think she may just be a little farsighted, but I can’t say for sure. Hard to read when the letters are blurry.”

“Oh, I have that,” Vivitha says, nodding.

“Seriously?”

Vivitha stretches her hand in front of her face, measuring. “There. About there it stops being clear.”

“Jesus.”

“Huh?”

Leah shakes her head. “I mean, it’s just…a farsighted sniper. I guess it’s not a handicap if you’re always aiming farther away than this.” She mimics the hand measurement.

Vivitha half-smiles, then smothers it. “Fake Leah?”

“Hmm?”

“I’d like to see my horse tomorrow.”

Leah nods. “I’ll take you there in the morning, first thing. Promise.”

Vivitha nods and does not reply. Leah waits a few seconds longer then goes back to the book.

*

Before Sewheil arrives the next morning, Leah and Vivitha dress to go to the stables – Leah in her usual suedes, and Vivitha in the same clothes she’d arrived in, freshly laundered and delivered to the hospital by a servant. Vivitha is still somewhat stiff from her long ride, and struggles to get her arm in her jacket sleeve. When Leah reaches out a hand to help, however, Vivitha flinches away and finishes dressing on her own.

Leah leads the way down the dark pre-sunrise hallways, only getting lost once but covering for it before Vivitha realises, and finally out to the stable yard.

Vivitha’s eyes dart to the tower with the archway tunnel connecting it to the rest of the keep. Leah catches the motion, and follows her gaze.

“How did you guys figure out I was in there?”

Vivitha looks away from it and back to the stables. “We’d done one tour of the walls, looking at the building from every side, trying to choose a target. It wasn’t so guarded, back then. Our first trip in was to the south – least guarded, quietest in the daytime. It seemed suspicious. We wanted to figure out what was there.”

Leah draws the map in her head. “Residential section.” At Vivitha’s blank look, she elaborates. “Where people live and sleep. Students and such.”

Vivitha hmphs. “When we came back for Leah, we extrapolated based on where the soldiers had arrived from that first time, how long it took them to reach us, and where they were mainly defending, and figured that the conspicuous tower without windows was a solid bet.”

A few stable-hands jump a bit to see Vivitha enter the stables, but relax marginally to see Leah accompanying her. The two women walk slowly down the length of the stables until Vivitha speeds up, stopping at the door to a stall with a skinny bay horse lying inside, asleep.

“How is he?” Vivitha asks the nearest stable-hand, and almost immediately the horse’s ears flick and his eyes open. He struggles a bit to stand, and Vivitha unlatches the stall to go kneel by his head, petting his nose and murmuring to him.

“Uhhh…” a nervous groom says, holding up a hand as though to interject. His eyes dart a bit.

“It’s just to reassure her.” Leah says softly to him; his eyes are uncomprehending. “E’s jus…teu…ree…ryash…teu ryasữ hẽ.” He nods with each attempted word, and once she’s done his eyes flick as he parses the sentence then nods one last time. He stands back and lets the two women check over the horse – Vivitha with care and maternal concern, Leah with no idea what’s normal or not but trying to be supportive.

“He’ll be okay,” Vivitha finally says, to herself. “He’s run harder than this before. He once carried me from Volst’s capital city to Three-Borders in one shot, and that’s half again the trip from Valerin to Seffon’s castle.”

“Hold.”

“Hold what?”

“Seffonshold is the name of the region, and the building is technically a Hold.”

Vivitha considers. “I guess so. He’s not proper nobility, so it can’t be a proper castle.”

Leah bites her tongue, then accepts this. “Are you satisfied with Rip’s lodgings?”

Vivitha stands, dusting her hands off and looking around the stables. “I am. More so than I am with mine.”

“Yeah, well, no-one likes overnighting in a hospital.”

“On that note, fake Leah, I don’t really think I need to be coddled in a hospice. I’d like to – ” Here she stops, apparently surprised by herself. “I suppose I’d like to go back to Valerin. If I can help them through the siege, then I must. If not…if I’m not allowed to leave, I’d like to at least check up on Lady Valerid, and find something to do with myself during my captivity.”

“We’ll find something for you, whatever the case.” Leah begins leading her back outside. “Can I ask, though – what’s with everyone calling Jeno ‘Lady Valerid’ now?”

“The moment she and Samson were confirmed to each other, Jeno lost her titles to the duchy, and gained inheritance rights to Valerin,” Vivitha explains, as though to a child.

“Inheritance rights? Like, if Samson dies heirless, Jeno still becomes ruler?”

Vivitha nods. “Of course; otherwise any later child of the current leader might stake a claim.” Vivitha casts a scornful eye at the school.

“And…confirmation does this?” Leah’s skin crawls as she says it.

“I won’t pretend to understand the ceremony. I’ve only been a witness once, when my brother got married.” Leah looks at her in shocked horror. “What? Surprised I have siblings? I’m from a farming family; we were four kids.”

Leah tries not to make a gagging face. “You watched your brother confirm his marriage?”

“I was one of the witnesses he and his wife chose. There need to be at least two witnesses per spouse, to vouch that the ceremony was completed within twenty-four hours. Usually it doesn’t take longer than twelve, and you’re out of the temple by sunrise, but – ”

“I’m sorry, I just – ” Leah has stopped, her hands steepled in front of her mouth, staring at the sky. “What is confirmation?”

Vivitha gives her a look. “It’s a sort of chant thing the clerics do, where you swear yourselves to each other and give vows of loyalty in sight of the nine deities, and the clerics and their acolytes all wave incense and recite words of power and passages from sacred texts. It’s long and boring, honestly, but it’s essential, especially for noble families, because for them they also have to forswear their old ties – any previous suitors, any previous title, that sort of thing. Apparently a king and queen’s confirmation can take almost the full twenty-four hours.” Vivitha notices Leah’s blush. “Why, what does it mean in fake Leah’s world?”

“Nothing.” Leah says it a little too quickly. Vivitha looks like she wants to ask, but Leah cuts her off by asking who Jeno’s witnesses were.

“Oh, there were a dozen on each side, I don’t remember them all. Kain was on Jeno’s side, I know that much,” Vivitha says.

They reach the front doors of the stable, and Leah is distracted by a rider entering the west gate wearing unfamiliar clothes, riding an athletic white horse. The man dismounts and hands off the reins to a groom.

“Fein est de Tane hob deis Hold?” He directs the question to all in hearing range.

Leah and Vivitha look between each other, neither understanding. The militiamen who let him in give him directions inward, and he sets of with a straight spine and a quick but not hurried step. Leah starts to follow him, but Vivitha hangs behind.

“I wanna find out who he is,” Leah says, trying to tug Vivitha along.

“Common sense, fake Leah,” Vivitha smirks, tilting her head towards the groom leading the horse in. The archer runs her fingers along the horse’s neck, saddle, and stirrups; she watches it disappear inside, and Leah notices the braided tail, twisted into a bun.

“Fine leather, cheap metal, and Devadiss grooming.” Vivitha nods to herself. “Is your Lord Seffon expecting someone from the homeland?”

Leah is deep in thought as the two set off after the man, now quite a ways behind him but able to trace his path by the worried excitement left in his wake.

“You probably shouldn’t be seen, if he actually is from Devad,” Leah says. Vivitha accepts this, and promises to hang back.

They catch up with him just past sunrise, in Seffon’s library. Their conversation has already begun, and there is a throng of servants and militiamen in the hallway, ears pressed to the door. Leah finds a spot for herself.

“Foi heb vein hegnecht vi houn moudnevs te chon de foun fetch hed vein dzekvanecht vai – ”

Leah pulls away from the door, shaking her head to Vivitha. “I don’t speak the language, I can’t – ” Someone shushes her, and she finishes with a shrug, shaking her head.

“De stetchufassen est moun kompveikedecht den jou – ” Leah can just barely make out Seffon’s voice, but the words are meaningless.

A guard from inside steps out to shoo the listeners away. Seeing Leah standing nearby, the guard beckons her in insistently, then reaches out and pulls her in when she takes too long to move, withdrawing immediately after and leaving her alone with the two men.

Seffon and the stranger look up at her entrance. The Devadiss official looks her over with a critical eye, then nods. “Yu ã fon of de Tane’s nu guãs? From Valren?”

Leah hesitates, and Seffon steps in. “Thes es Ley Tales, sĩ. Sy es from Algy, an spyksnau Olues, nõ Devadess.”

The official half-bows. “Of course. My appolochies. You are one of de five?”

Leah is distracted by the accent – something between Parisian and Dutch, and which in her opinion should never have come into existence – but belatedly nods.

“You left de scene of turmoil before it ever began; have you de gift, or are you chust lucky?”

Leah manages a stilted smile. “I knew something was wrong, and I went to find answers, that’s all.” She turns her eyes to Seffon, silently screaming who the fuck is this and why do I have to be here?

“Den we are happy to have you, warrior. You are not our citizen, but if you stand in our defence, you will go wit our blessing.”

Seffon mouths at Leah, ‘don’t talk,’ then smiles politely when the official is looking at him again. Leah mouths ‘then why bring me in here?’ but Seffon is too distracted to see.

“I saw, on my way trou your hallways, many stranche artworks whose subchects I am unfamiliar wit. Perhaps, when we are done, you could explain some of dem to me?”

Seffon waves a hand. “Characters from folklore, children’s tales. There are many younglings at this school.”

“Ah, of course.” The man nods. “Den we must continue wit de dark business, I am afraid. De king has declared his intentions to side wit Cheden, against de bold accusers in Volst. Over de next week, we will expect each Tane to send deir best riders and pikemen, to contribute to de growing force of de trone’s army. If de great warrior of de five wishes to swear allechiance, de king would be grateful to have her,” Here he nods to Leah, “But we expect de full tide of…” He checks a scroll at his side. “For a Tanedom of dis size…six hundred and seventy mounted combatants.”

Seffon nods with a smile. “And not a hoof less, sir,” he says. “My scouts have already been sent out to inform the homesteads of such a possibility, and the legion can be ready within two days.”

“Marvelous! We appreciate dat even our far-removed Tanes feel so strongly deir duty to deir king.”

“Furthermore,” Seffon says, “I sent for Miss Talesh to accompany you back immediately. She has knowledge of Valerin city’s layout and defences – ” Seffon’s eyes dart to her nervously, noticing her mounting anger, “ – as well as familiarity with my forces. She would, in my opinion, make a fine legion commander.”

Leah stares wide-eyed at Seffon, who cannot meet her gaze. He starts to sweat a bit under her glare.

“A fine ting indeed, but alas, de woman can speak no useful tongue. If she can learn Devadiss over de time it takes to ride back to Devad, den perhaps your chesture would be accepted, but as it stands, we must decline.”

“Of course, a sensible point, Jonkheer.” He says the word almost like a francophone name: Jean-qui’r, or something like. “I will keep her with me.”

“As you see fit, Tane Sef.”

Seffon promises again to have the legions ready well before the end of the week, and adds that he will find someone to send back as legion commander. The Devadiss man, whom Leah has decided is Jean-cuillère, nods politely throughout, and at the end of it leaves with a half-bow to Seffon and to Leah. Seffon gives a full bow in return, and Leah belatedly copies.

Once he has left Leah turns to Seffon in anger. “What did I just get done telling you about asking my opinion on – ”

“He was always going to say no, and if for some reason he’d said yes I’d have found a reason to change my mind.” Seffon brushes it off with a hand wave, ending with a snarky face to the closed door. “Absolute ass.”

Leah closes her mouth on her other comments. “Oh?”