The wonder of it had still not faded from her mind. She slipped one arm free of the blanket Eclipse had given her and stared at it in the light of the candle. A part of her calmly identified it as her own, while another part marveled at the smooth, hard lines of her muscles.
“And you remember both,” Eclipse said.
“Of course.”
He bit his lip and looked at her, perplexed. “What am I supposed to call you?”
The answer was there when she reached for it; the name had come to her during the ritual, but she had not looked for it until now. “Mirei.” She smiled involuntarily. “The Goddess gave me the name. As she renamed Misetsu, back when this all began.”
He swallowed. “It… works. I guess. It’s kind of both of you.”
“In more ways than you know.” She held her hands out to him, palms down. “Try me.” He placed his hands under hers, and then tried to slap them; he missed, but only barely. “I’m going to have to watch out for that. It’s possible that I’ll improve again, when the Miryo bit of me stops interfering with the reflexes Mirage had, but I don’t know. I may be permanently watered down.”
He managed to dredge up a smile from somewhere. “At least it’ll be more fair for the rest of us.” The smile faded. He hesitated for a moment, then looked at her directly. “So what happens now?”
She hadn’t thought about it yet. “I think… I still need you to go to Silverfire. I could send the message to Jaguar magically, but I don’t think that would go over well.”
“You could deliver it in person.”
Mirei shook her head. “I can’t. There’s… too many other things I have to do.”
The pause betrayed her, or maybe he would have guessed anyway. “Warrior. You’re going to do something stupid, aren’t you?”
“Not stupid. Necessary. I’ve got the answer, but that only solves half the problem. I have to convince the others, or it’s worthless.”
“The others’?”
“The Primes. I could work this as an underground rebellion, but it would be long, and painful, and probably very bloody. If I can convince the women at the top, right from the start, it’ll be better for everyone.”
“And they’ll be so happy to see you, I’m sure.”
“I’ve got magic now. I can defend myself.”
“Against five Primes at once?” He shook his head.
“You’ve never been that stupid before. Why start now?” Can I even make him understand? I suppose I have to try. Mirei took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Kerestel—Eclipse—this is what I have to do. Never in my life have I felt it so clearly, seen so perfectly what is that I should do. The path is there, in front of me. I can’t say that I know where it leads. But if I don’t follow it…” She shrugged, hands gesturing to show her loss for words. “I have to.” A smile flickered across her face. “Hey, it’s a challenge. And you know how I love challenges.”
He looked at her silently for a very long time. Mirei met his eyes, but not in confrontation; she merely let him read whatever he saw in her expression.
At last, reluctantly, he dropped his eyes and nodded. “All right. I guess I know better than to try and stop you.”
Relief washed over her. She had any number of ways of stopping him, should he try to interfere with her, but she didn’t want to use them. Far better that he should agree. “There’s a few things I need to do, then. Do you still have my saddlebag?”
She had given him most of her baggage when they parted after the ambush. “Yes.”
“Good. That takes care of clothing, then.” She wondered whether the doming she had been wearing in Angrim was lying on the floor of the temple, or if it had been burned away in the file that had transformed her. “And I’ll need to borrow your weapons.”
He looked surprised. “You have magic now, don’t you?”
“Yes, but it’s not always the best way of handling things. And I need the Primes to see that I’m both Miryo and Mirage.”
“Take them,” he said without hesitation. Mirei was again relieved. She had been wary of asking for two reasons; the part of her that saw him as Miryo did was reluctant to ask a favor of someone she did not know all that well, while the Mirage part of her knew Hunters disliked leading their blades.
“Thank you,” she said sincerely. “Do you have the paper we were given in Corberth?”
“In my bag.”
“I’ll need that before I leave. I have to write to Ashin and the others, so that they’ll know what I’ve figured out. I’m also going to give you a copy. I don’t want to risk this information getting lost.”
She did not add, “in case I die,” but Eclipse was capable of filling that in for himself. His face grew grimmer, but he did not comment. “How are you going, then? Do you need a horse?”
“No. It’ll take too long. I’ll go the way I came.” As she said that, the shock that had been lurking in the back of her mind came explosively to the fore. She saw a fainter cousin of it on Eclipse’s face. “Isn’t that… I thought moving living creatures like that was impossible.”
So did I. Mirage had known it, but Miryo had taken it for granted; only now, as she thought about what she had done, did the full import hit her. Even when the Primes had appeared so suddenly for her testing in Starfall, they had walked in; a spell had simply kept her from noticing. “It’s supposed to be. I…” Her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes and thought back. “I know how I did it. And I can do it again, to get myself to Starfall.”
For a brief moment she considered explaining to him how it worked, and what had changed, but she decided not to. He should know, eventually. But if I tell him now… no. After I’m done in Starfall. Otherwise I’ll never get out of here.
And the witches deserve to know first.
“If you’re sure,” he said uncertainly. “Can you depend on a new spell like that?”
“Yes,” she said, without hesitation. “I remember what I did, almost as well as I remember how I made myself one again. It’ll work.”
He trusted her enough to accept that. “All right. Do you want to write to Ashin now, or later?”
She sat, still wrapped in the blanket, and stared at the enchanted rice paper that would take her message to Ashin.
Crone’s stick. Where to start?
All the things she wanted or needed to say crowded into her mind, making thought momentarily impossible. Mirei gritted her teeth and forced herself to focus. One thing at a time. Go in order.
She bent her head and began to write.
Ashin:
The Primes sent Cousins to ambush us and take us prisoner. They were going to interrogate us for information on you, and then kill both of us; it’s apparently possible, if you kill both at the same time. They may be aware of the existence of the other doppelgangers. Eclipse is going to warn the Grandmaster of Silverfire, who has two of them under his training. You should see to the others, and to their witches.
But I have found the solution.
Misetsu was almost right. She didn’t lose the voice of the Goddess as thoroughly as you thought. She simply misinterpreted what she sensed. “Destruction, oblivion, undoing”—it’s the Void That is what we lose when the doppelgangers are killed. That is why, until now, we’ve only been able to touch four of the Elements.
The doppelgangers are not meant to remain separate. Yes, they’re divided, but only for a time: when the witch is opened to magic, she is ready to rejoin with her other half, and become a single person again.
That is what I have done.
Since being rejoined, I’ve begun to work magic that incorporates the Void. I suspect, although I’m not certain, that when I have children, I’ll have sons as well as daughters. How exactly all of this interrelates is for the Path of the Head to sort out; I admit that I’m really just feeling things by instinct.