Chapter 74: 73. Differentiated

All three of us were up well before dawn. We'd been supplied with new travelling clothes, and a maid brought breakfast to our room. We ate as we dressed.

All three of us were dressed the same, with soft black leather boots, heavy dark brown trousers made of something like suede, dark green silk blouses, and heavy reinforced leather jackets, also in dark brown. Wide-brimmed hats completed the look. It was pretty much the same as Kelly and I had worn for our journey to Duma Dé, which was almost exactly three years ago.

We'd also been given belts, and each of us had a dagger with a long sharp pointed blade. There were small backpacks too, mine was lightest with just a thick blanket folded up inside it. Kelly's and Keira's were heavier, theirs also contained a few bundles of preserved foods and several bladders of water. Or perhaps it was wine.

They both packed the books they'd been reading, since we'd likely have time to read each day while we were resting.

Finally the three of us made our way down to the courtyard. Maeve and Siobhan were there, and Colm was there too of course. There were horses ready, and Siobhan would be escorting our group out to the south woods.

The knight was already set up with his sword, and a bow across his shoulder, a quiver of arrows hung at his right hip. Kelly and Keira were also given their bows and full quivers.

Maeve moved closer to speak with me, and I handed the two maps back to her as I quietly said "I've memorized them, so they may remain safe here with you."

She smiled, "Thank you Tegan. Be careful out there."

We exchanged a brief hug, then I got a boost up into the saddle, and finally our group set out. As usual there was someone out front waving the pennant, and two soldiers carried torches to light our way.

There was some pre-dawn light in the sky already as we reached the meadow. As expected, Feichin was already there waiting for us. He had a pack on his back, his bow over his shoulder, and arrows at his hip. Otherwise he was dressed the same as always.

Soldiers at the garrison took care of our horses after we all dismounted, and I sort of wandered the meadow as I searched for the spot.

"Ok folks," I said once I found it. "Let's all gather round and hold tight."

The twins moved to either side of me and hooked their arms through mine, then the knight and the huntsman stood to either side of them and had a hand on each twin's shoulder.

I focused on our destination near Griofa then worked the spell, and pulled all five of us through. It was similar to crossing worlds, but not quite. There was still that feeling of going into hyperspace without a ship, but it felt different in a way I couldn't quite put my finger on.

We were all just as shaky when we came out the other side. We found ourselves in a very small clearing in a different forest.

Colm and Feichin moved first, both of them grabbed their bows and got arrows ready on the string. The two of them were looking around warily, and their behaviour reminded me that we were now in potentially hostile territory. We were near the border, and near a castle which may now belong to an enemy.

The twins followed the mens' lead and got their bows ready as well, though both looked a little less confident about it.

"Which way, m'lady?" Feichin asked softly.

"Uh," I thought a moment. "The castle should be due west, five or six leagues."

The huntsman nodded once and whispered, "I lead. One of the redheads follow, then Lady Tegan. Another redhead, then the knight. Single file. Keep your wits about you, and watch where you step. No talking unless necessary, and keep your voices down."

Colm didn't look too happy about being at the back, but he didn't argue. I'm sure he understood as well as I did, Feichin was keeping me and the twins protected in between the two of them. And the huntsman presumably had more experience moving quietly through unfamiliar woods so he was the better choice to lead.

As usual I had no idea which twin was which. I was certain neither Feichin or Colm knew either. It still bothered me, but I was also a little angry that nobody else seemed to care. I didn't like people treating them like they were interchangeable. I wasn't sure if Kelly and Keira were bothered by it, and maybe they weren't since they were still going out of their way to make sure nobody knew who was who. But I wanted to know, and I didn't like it when people just referred to them as 'a redhead' or 'the twin' or whatever.

It wasn't the time or place to have that conversation though, so I kept my mouth shut and just tried to stay wary, watching out for danger around us along with the others.

Before we all set out, I took a good look around the spot and let myself get a feel for it. I needed to be sure we could find this place again later, so we could get home again. Though it crossed my mind that Feichin could probably find it too, I assumed his tracking skills or whatever would let him retrace our steps back here in a few days.

The walk wasn't too bad at first. As promised, the terrain was mostly level. It was slow going though as we had to make our way through the woods. In places the underbrush was fairly dense, sometimes Feichin just pushed through it, other times he led us around. I trusted he had a good sense of direction because I think I'd have been hopelessly lost before long.

Some time around mid-morning the huntsman brought our little group to a stop. We'd pushed into a rather dense clump of bushes and trees, and I thought for a moment he'd got us stuck and meant for us to back out the way we came.

"That'll do for today," he said softly. He looked at me, "I can tell by the sound of your walk, you're starting to tire m'lady."

That caught me off guard and my eyebrows inched up. I was only just starting to feel it myself. I whispered, "I could have gone a while longer. It's not bad yet."

"Aye," he nodded. "Then tomorrow it might be worse. Best to be safe m'lady, don't push things further than you need. The time may come when you do have to push, so keep as much in reserve so if that moment comes, you're not already weary starting out."

He glanced at the others and told all four of us, "Wait here, stay quiet, don't get too comfortable yet. I'm going to scout around, make sure we're alone."

With that he slipped back out of the dense bushes the way we'd come in. He moved almost silently, and I quickly lost track of him.

We all stayed wary and ready, till he returned about fifteen minutes later. He nodded, "We're good here."

He slipped his pack off his shoulders, and the rest of us relaxed as well. It didn't take long to get our blankets out and get comfortable. I wound up with the twins on either side of me and the three of us sat on our makeshift bed together.

Colm was a couple meters away facing the three of us, and Feichin was a few meters to the right, sitting on the ground leaning up against a tree.

"Lady Tegan," the knight asked quietly. "How can you tell the two of them apart?"

I blushed slightly and admitted "I can't at the moment. Though right now I'm pretty sure this is Kelly," I nodded to the redhead on my left, "And this is Keira." I gestured to the twin on my right.

"What makes you say that?" The one on my left asked.

I shrugged slightly, "I've been trying to pay attention, and it seems like any time I'm in between you two, you're on my left and Keira's on my right."

"That is correct," Keira smiled.

Kelly added, "Very observant."

"But incomplete," Keira concluded.

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That left me wondering what I'd missed, or what they were hinting at.

Colm's eyes flicked back and forth between them as they spoke. "I've never met fae twins before. I've seen twins on Earth of course, but here?" He shook his head, "I've never even heard of twins here. Tell me, are the legends true?"

Kelly and Keira glanced at each other, then Keira asked "What legends are those?"

The question seemed to surprise the knight, "Oh. I'd have thought you'd both heard them a thousand times over by now."

"Well we haven't, so why not enlighten us?" Keira asked.

Colm frowned, "Well the simplest one said that twins could communicate with each other entirely without speech. Although there are spells that can achieve that too of course..."

Kelly shrugged, "That's nothing special. I bet most human twins can do that too."

"Wait what?" I asked, staring at her.

"It's not telepathy or magic," Keira explained. "It's like, secret signals. Twin language. We did that growing up."

Kelly nodded, "Sure. We came up with all kinds of little signs and stuff, ways to talk to each other without saying a word."

I smiled, "Huh. That's kind of neat."

"So what other legends are there?" Kelly asked.

Colm replied "One of the more fantastic ones was that twins could swap places with each other. Not physically moving their bodies from place to place, but moving their minds... Sort of like Keira suddenly becoming Kelly, and vice versa."

I couldn't help glance back and forth at the two of them suspiciously.

Keira grinned, "Yeah I bet that's just twins goofing around. We used to do that when we were younger."

"Sure," Kelly smiled. "Pretend to be your twin, confuse the onlies. Our mom used to dress us up in different clothes so she could tell us apart."

Keira nodded, "Then as soon as we got the chance we'd swap clothes."

"And pretend to be each other." Kelly finished with a wide smile.

"I think these so-called legends are just the sort of things onlies think up," Keira stated, "To try explaining 'mysterious' twin behaviour."

I sighed as I looked back and forth between them, "I'm never going to know for sure which of you is which, am I? Even if you tell me, you could just be messing around."

Both of them giggled at once, doing their weird stereo thing again.

"What are onlies?" Colm asked quietly.

Kelly shrugged, "People who aren't twins."

"As in there's only one of you," Keira added.

Colm frowned slightly, then finally said "The most fantastic legend I can recall said that twins were actually a single entity in control of more than one body. That explained the other stories too of course. They didn't need to communicate with each other by words because they weren't actually separate. "

Kelly and Keira both glanced at each other then looked back at Colm again. Both spoke in unison as they said, "That's just silly."

This time the knight's eyes widened slightly and he looked a tiny bit uncomfortable.

Then the pair of them did their stereo-giggling thing again.

I sighed, "Ok now you two are starting to creep me out."

Kelly pouted and put her arm around me, "We're just having fun, babe."

"Seriously," Keira stated. "All these legends sound like normal twin-stuff to me."

"Colm?" I asked. "Where did you hear these legends? I mean if fae twins don't happen, why are there legends about them?"

He replied, "It was an old fable. A powerful and beautiful queen had two suitors, and she loved them both equally. She was unable to choose which she should take as her husband, so she made a deal with the Gods. She wanted them to craft a duplicate of herself, then she wouldn't have to decide."

"To bring the duplicate to life," Feichin spoke up at long last, continuing the story, "The Gods split the queen's soul in two and placed half in the second body. Alas the two parts of herself were incomplete when separated, and neither half could find the happiness they desired so long as they each loved a different man."

Kelly asked, "How did the story end?"

"There are two versions that I know of," Colm replied. "One version has the two halves and their two husbands each raising an army and going to war with the other, and both halves eventually destroyed the other."

Feichin nodded, "The other version has the two husbands sacrifice themselves to save their wives. They prayed to the Gods who combined the two men. They became the opposite of the queen, a single being with two souls. The two queens then both loved that new man, and all of them found peace together."

I glanced back and forth at Kelly and Keira, and caught the pair of them looking at me. They were both grinning, I think they found the whole thing amusing.

The legend left me feeling uneasy though, and I made a mental note to try and talk with Muireann when we got back home. And maybe check the books in the study, to see if this legend was written down somewhere.

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