"My training lodge. Not surprised you have not heard of it. It is well back in the mountains. Your lodge was...?"
"Inhestia."
"Have heard of that one. Home of your Coven, I believe."
"Coven? Oh, you mean our Mage Council. Yes, it is. Inhestia is our oldest training lodge."
Looking around for her uniform robe, she didn't see it. Aetria pointed to the uniform lying on the chair next to her.
"I am not going to wear the uniform of my enemy, Captain, sister or no."
"The general has ordered your presence to be kept a secret. A Hermanian sorceress looking like her Chief Advisor is going to get noticed very quickly. I'll cover your face with a glamour, but it would be a lot easier if I didn't have to cover you completely. Besides, we are no longer at war. While you were, ah, ill the war's final battle was fought. Hermania is suing for peace."
Aetria would have expected more of a reaction out of her sister than she got from hearing her country had just lost a war.
Coleni just shrugged, and sighed. “I'm not surprised. It was stupid of us to get into a fight with your people in the first place. The only real reason I could see for us starting a war was that we had a chance to grab land and power. Our Supreme Ruler charmed the Coven leaders into thinking their use of magic would make a quick end to the fight, and they foolishly went along with the plan. It was supposed to be a quick summer campaign.
"It started out that way, but got bogged down when your Order entered the fray. Our Ruler then coerced the Princes of Saphradea to enter the war, promising them half the spoils. Unfortunately for us, the Saphradean Order refused to support their army, and we were stuck with trying to cover two armies with sorcerer support. We got caught with too little, too late."
"All the lives lost, and for nothing. I'm sure our King will ask for compensation from your Supreme Ruler for the cost of the war,” Aetria said, with a heartfelt sadness in her voice. “For a war started to gain wealth, Hermania has spent everything trying to take gold away from us, and it will now cost even more. What a waste."
Bitterly, Coleni agreed. “The real loss in this war has been our violation of the ‘First Rule of Power Use,’ we will never be able to put the monster back in his cage. We are spiraling back to the days of the Sorcerer War, my long-lost sister. One day, the common people will wake up and see that magic only brings them death in the end, and they will decide to end it in their lives by ending you and me."
Coleni had a point, but her pessimism bothered Aetria. “Then it is up to us to cage that monster before it happens. Our two Orders must work together to make this happen."
"I don't think you will find that our two Orders will ever agree on anything, let alone working together. Yours will blame ours for breaking the First Law, justifiably I might add. Mine will say they had to because yours has strayed from the correct path. Both of our Orders will insist that only they have the right way of practicing magic, and nothing will be solved."
The incredulous look on Aetria's face spoke louder than her words. “Surely you don't believe that?"
"You don't know my Order. These are the same people who accepted Pleates’ offer to spy for them. They will do anything to get their way."
Someone called a request for entry through the door veil. Coleni needed a disguise quickly. The first face that came to Aetria's mind was Elina's, the dead Novice Aggressor. Why that one came to mind, she couldn't say. She spelled Coleni with the glamor to disguise her features, and Aetria granted the caller permission to enter. It was Lieutenant Valetti. He smiled at Aetria, delivered a precise salute, and looked around, seeing Coleni standing by her chair.
"Novice Coleni? Or should I say, Lieutenant Coleni."
Aetria dropped the glamor. Coleni acknowledged Valetti's question with a slight bow from the waist, the Hermanian form of salute.
"You are looking very well, Novice. The last time I saw you, I would not have wagered you would live past the week."
"Your Adept Loreana is an excellent Healer."
Lieutenant Valetti turned back to Aetria. “The general sends her respects and wants to see the two of you as soon as you can come."
Looking at Coleni and receiving a nod of concurrence, Aetria said, “We're ready now."
She set the glamor again and they followed Valetti out of the tent. The trip to the general's command tent was short and, thankfully, in the dark. The sentries at the general's door were the only people they encountered. They were expected and waved by. The general stood waiting in her quarters.
Sonja looked closely at the woman Lieutenant standing beside Aetria and tried to see past the disguise, but couldn't. The sorceress was very good with her illusion.
Aetria dropped the glamor, and Coleni bowed. “I am your servant and slave, O Conqueror of my people."
"Correction, Coleni. You are a furloughed sorceress who is free to go provided, of course, you pledge not to take arms against my King."
Coleni smiled and thanked Sonja. “You have my most solemn pledge. Thank you for my freedom."
"You are welcome. Now, Aetria, why have you promoted her to lieutenant in my personal guard? She needs the job?"
Aetria had anticipated the general would question her “promoting” Coleni, so she had prepared what she hoped was a valid excuse. “I needed to dress her in something quickly, and my clothes were what I had available. There are not that many Captains of Cavalry, but there are numerous lieutenants. It seemed the most sensible thing to do given the limited time to act."
Sonja smiled at her, gesturing for them to take seats. “Then she may retain the disguise for the moment. Our capturing Novice—or should I say Lieutenant—Coleni had a purpose. Did you get answers to your questions?"
"We have made a start, Ma'am. I believe that, with a little help from my twin sister, we will find an explanation of how Pleates was able to track us."
"You now believe she is your sister?"
Coleni spoke first. “It seems very likely we are sisters. I was kidnapped by bandits from a trading caravan and sold to a Hermanian childless couple. They told me I was the sole survivor of that raid. They couldn't have known anything more than what the bandits told them. Maybe the bandits missed Aetria and thought I was alone, or maybe they didn't want to complicate the sale.” Coleni looked at Aetria, who smiled in agreement.
"We are reconciled that we are twins,"Aetria said.
"You do not have much time left before we start for Inhestia, Sorceress. We leave in five days."
Coleni gave Aetria a puzzled frown. “You are going to Inhestia?"
"Yes, I am to be given a hearing for charges of being unfit for sorcerer service,” Aetria sighed.
Coleni stood and bowed to Sonja.
"I request I be allowed to accompany you on your journey to Inhestia."
Sonja looked at Aetria, who was staring at her sister. Coleni returned Aetria's gaze, a pleading look on her face. Aetria slowly nodded.
"Your request is granted. I will tell my staff I have taken on a new female aide. As of now, your promotion is real, Lieutenant Coleni. Keep your true identity secret. No one is to know you are a sorceress, but I suppose you will have to have access to Power to keep up your own glamor."
"That will not be a problem, Ma'am. She can use Pleates’ source like I do."
"Good. Get me some answers, Sorceress. I suspect you will need them for your own defense soon. Dismissed."
* * * *
Returning to Aetria's tent, Coleni asked for the use of a source to Power up so she could handle her own disguise. She had decided to use the visage of a friend she had known at Wendelia who had since died in the war.
Aetria went over to the table and pulled Crusher's source out of her saddlebags, then walked over to Coleni and handed it to her.
"That is the source I was trying to retrieve when your soldiers attacked me. It has a strange feel to it that I noticed as soon as it was exposed. I reported its presence to my company commander, Sorceress Telori, who rushed t
he two of us to our regimental commander, Magess Chalinee, and asked to be allowed to retrieve it."
"Chalinee? Sounds Tierian. Your senior sorcerer commander was Tierian?"
Coleni nervously brushed her hands across her uniform pants. Aetria wondered if Coleni's regimental commander evoked the same reaction in her sister that Pleates did in her.
"Oh, very much so Tierian. Everyone in Hermania wards against her name, for she is the power behind the throne. Even our Coven gives her a free hand in everything she does. She is a most impressive Aggressor. None of our own people can match her skills. As for her loyalty to her own Tierian people, I think she has given up her allegiance to them, but I am not sure. No one questions Chalinee.” Coleni sat down in a chair, the thoughts of Chalinee making her knees a little weak.
"So Chalinee decided to do what about the source?"
"She was not interested in including a Novice in capturing such a prize and shooed me away while she rushed off to get an armed party together to go after the source. I decided to grab it by stealth so I could study it on my own. It might have secrets that would help me get back in favor with my Order—maybe even a chance for advancement in candidacy to sorceress. No more chance of that now."
Aetria sat down in the chair beside her sister."Do you really think you will be banned from your Order just because you were captured by the enemy?"
"As I said, I went after the source without orders. Magess Chalinee would hold that against me, even now that we are both no longer in the army."
"But doesn't Hermania need all the sorcerers they can get?"
"I am sure they do. With the losses we suffered, there will definitely be a shortage of sorcerers. The problem is, like with your Order I am sure, you can't practice magic without being a member of the Order. Chalinee would have a major say in my being allowed to find a job."
"Surely it can't be as bad as you think. Once we have solved my problem, we'll take on yours."
Coleni shrugged and murmured something about crossing the witch. She opened the source, a frown crossing her face. “Doesn't that discordance bother you?"
"Not very much; perhaps I don't feel it as strongly as you do. Until now, I thought I was the only one who sensed it at all. Neither my mentor nor Adept Loreana has sensed anything in the source. Coleni, forgive me the rudeness of my next words, but I think you suffer from a control problem."
"That's twice you've said I have control problems. What makes you think that?"
"You're saying that conjuring a major illusion like Rajii and then passing out is not a sure sign of a grid burnout caused by a lack of control? Has that kind of thing happened to you before?"
Coleni shifted uncomfortably in her chair, casting her eyes rapidly around the room, avoiding Aetria's gaze. “Yes, several times."
A thought suddenly came to Aetria. “During our first discussion, you said you knew I was a sorceress—by intuition, you said. Then you admitted you can sense my stored Power."
Coleni's discomfort increased visibly. “Yes, I can."
"And I can also. Did you develop this ability after your first burnout? Have you manifested any other kind of new spell behavior?"
Looking thoughtful, Coleni nodded her head. “Yes, I did. I didn't tell anyone or I would have been severely punished. Fortunately for me, I had developed a reputation for doing things I am not supposed to, so nobody had a good basis for comparing my abilities before or after the burnout. I can actually do spells I shouldn't be able to do. I even have a lightning spell I can use—a real Aggressor spell. Lornes taught it to me.” Coleni's throat tightened with the surge of memory of her lover, and tears started to flow from her eyes.
Aetria watched her sister anxiously, afraid of a relapse. She got up to comfort Coleni, but was waved away. Taking a few deep breaths, Coleni whispered, “Give me a moment, and I'll be fine."
While giving Coleni time to collect herself, Aetria started pacing back and forth, tapping her forehead with her right index finger. This activity on her part distracted Coleni enough that she soon found herself staring at Aetria, who stopped and looked at her twin.
"It seems we have quite a bit in common. I have a well-known control problem. I have also suffered several grid burnouts. I sense stored energy as well, and I also have the ability to learn magical skills beyond my field. This is too much of a coincidence."
"I agree."
"Tell me, what do you know about grid burnout?"
Coleni sighed. “Not very much. The war has created such a shortage of sorcerers that our training lodges have had to shorten our courses to the minimum needed to control spells. When I first started in the lodge, it took four years to reach Novice status. Now it is a little over one year. We didn't have time to learn about such things. The lodge was told to train as many sorcerers as they could and get them into the field."
"How sad! We have had to shorten our courses some, but not that drastically. Let me tell you what I know."
Aetria gave Coleni the shortened lecture that Verdilan had given the Novices on the way to the army just a few months earlier. Coleni listened in rapt silence, impressed by the knowledge that the Delmathian Order gave to its sorcerers. When Aetria finished, Coleni cast down her eyes, a blush creeping up her cheeks.
"Coleni, is something wrong?"
"We are sisters, of the same age. I'm just a Novice, and you are a fully trained Sorceress. I feel so, so, ignorant."
Aetria sat beside her sister, taking her hand and lowering her head and until she could see into Coleni's eyes. When her sister looked at her, Aetria raised her own head until the two were facing each other, heads held high. “You are my sister, of the same age. But you are not ignorant, just not as trained. Let me tell you some of my life, and then you tell me some of yours. You may find my life has been terribly boring, and I may find yours has been very exciting, but I am sure our lives have been different for a purpose."
Coleni nodded in agreement.
"Like you, I don't know exactly how old I am. My foster mother, Valeria, believes I was about a year old when they adopted me. After my cycles began, I was tested for magic skills, and as a result of having potential, was asked if I would go into training. I accepted and was sent to Inhestia with the rest of that year's candidates. They were all between twelve and thirteen years of age.
"Our training back then lasted five years. I joined the army, along with Adept Pleates, in the first year of the war. One year later I suffered a grid burnout during a battle in the Saphradean campaign and was sent back to Inhestia for evaluation and further training. I spent the next four years training, the first two to reach Sorceress, then two beyond for Adept. My mentor refused to put me forward for candidacy until I had proven I could control the Power once again on the battlefield. Since rejoining the army three months ago, I had another grid burnout, killed Pleates, and found my sister. Your turn."
"I wouldn't exactly say your life has been boring, Aetria. I envy you those nine years of training and would trade you nine of mine very quickly. I was not what you would call a very nice girl growing up. My foster parents ran a small shop, selling pots and pans, some food produce. I could not stand to be cooped up inside, and as I grew older, spent much of my time away from our home.
"When my cycles began, I self-declared myself a woman and ran off with a trade caravan. I soon found out that while they were interested in trade, they were more interested in thievery. They accepted me into their guild, and after several years with them, I fell in love with the caravan's leader's son. I would have been happy to marry, but he wasn't.
"A year later, I left the caravan and took my new training alone on the road. I was caught stealing a merchant's purse and spent the next year in a penal camp. That experience badly shook me up, and I decided a life of crime was not how I wanted to live. In the camp I was allowed to assist the visiting Healer. She was impressed with my caring, and when she found out I had never been tested for magic, gave me the test."
Enthralled by Coleni's s
tory, Aetria thought what an exciting and drastically different earlier life her sister had lived from hers. “Didn't she think you were too old to train by then?"
Smiling, Coleni said, “I guess my sincerity won her over. She convinced the Lodge Master at Wendelia to take me in. I did fine for a year, applying myself zealously. I guess I tried too hard because I managed to suffer my first grid burnout. The fact that I was doing so with an Aggressor spell displeased them greatly, seeing as I was supposed to be training as a Healer. I was cloistered for a year."
"What does that mean?” Aetria asked, even though she knew the answer. Loreana had warned Aetria not to say anything about what had been said under the trance. Someday she would tell Coleni, but not now.
"Oh! They lock you away by yourself and continuously lecture you on your failings. You do penitence, and look sorry, and they eventually forgive you. I was very angry with them for taking that year out of my life, but I managed to avoid getting tossed out for bad behavior. When they allowed me to restart my training, they would not let me continue as a Healer. My mentor feared I could not control Aggressor spells, as I had demonstrated with my burnout, so I became an Illusionist.
"I'm afraid my attitude had suffered during my cloistering, and I started doing things that I knew were not allowed. Within a year I had made great progress, and would have been allowed to graduate in another year since they were starting to shorten the training by then, but I seduced the son of my mentor. We got caught, I was branded incorrigible and cloistered for three years—this time alone in the mountains with my mentor's crazy mother."
Sitting very still, Aetria remembered that at this point in Coleni's trance, she had mysteriously broken the trance and stopped talking. Loreana had said that Coleni might reveal what happened on her own, when conscious and aware.
Dare I proceed? “How curious. What was this crazy woman's name?"
"Ulana. She was from Delmathia. Have you heard of her?"
Ulana! Now we know her fate. “Oh! Yes, she is well known at Inhestia. She was an Adept Healer who had a grid burnout and went crazy. She escaped my Order and disappeared into the Logathians. This is a most exciting discovery. Loreana will be very interested in your story."
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