---------------Alter-Ego---------------
Chapter 2

"Kel, have you hurt your leg? I keep seeing you walking strangely."

Kel cringed and looked up. "Uh, um, yes, I've... It's just a little stiff..." she lied, trying to smile convincingly.

Neal stared at her funny. "Do you want me to take a look?"

"No," she said hurriedly. "No, don't worry about it, it's not that bad."

"Oh. Right. Well, tell me if it gets worse, okay?"

"Sure," she agreed, although she knew it wouldn't get any worse because it wasn't even real. She'd actually been trying to walk like a lady. Neal was the second person to ask if she'd hurt her leg, and now she knew there was no way she'd manage to drift across the floor like the ladies of court did. She'd never realized walking neatly was quite so hard. It didn't help that she was starting to be tormented by nerves. There were a few scant hours until the ball - one more lesson until she would have to rush back to her rooms and walk out a different person.

Cleon approached her as the group of pages walked to Master Ivor's room for mathematics.

"Is everything ok, Kel? You've been a bit, uh, spaced out today."

Gack! Think of something!

"Uh, no, I'm fine. Just a bit tired. I think I'll get some extra sleep this evening while you're at the ball," she invented.

"Was it ok last night? You weren't lonely or stuck on your work, were you? Because if you were, just say and I'll stay behind with you."

Wha...! NO! Quick, tell him you weren't bored at all...

"No, of course not. I got a lot of work done - please don't stay behind. I wouldn't want you to miss out on the fun." Quickly she feigned a yawn, bringing a hand up to her mouth. "I'll be sleeping tonight anyway, so I probably couldn't be bored if I tried."

"Hmm," he said, but appeared convinced by her lie. "Well, okay. I suppose I'd better get ready for Master Ivor's wrath - you and Roald are the only ones who did last night's problems, and he was up all night doing it." He grinned wildly. "Our Prince looks like a walking zombie."

As they walked into the room, Cleon gripped her shoulder before leaving her side to head to his seat.

Ivor was not at all pleased that only two of the pages had done the problems he had set the day before. He gave each boy four extra sums on top of the three he set every lesson, but promised he would not report them to Lord Wyldon for this first offense. Instead, he calmly informed them that anyone who did not do every single sum he'd set would get three bells of punishment work instead of Wyldon's two. This also included Kel and Roald, even though they'd done last night's sums.

Neal leaned over to Kel and whispered, "Well, punishment work for me on Sunday!"

Oh, gods, Kel thought despairingly. I'll be at the ball and won't be able to do the sums either. Why in Tortall did I agree to this? Oh. Right. I didn't - Lalasa agreed for me.

"You're going to be doing punishment work on Sundays until you die," Kel informed her friend. She waited until he turned his attention to Ivor again, and then murmured beneath her breath, "And gods, I'll probably be doing it with you."

In Kel's opinion, the lesson ended far too early. Master Ivor dismissed them with another warning about the sums he'd set, although none of the boys looked particularly grim after the reminder and all hurried off to their rooms to get ready for the ball, leaving Kel alone in the corridor. She took a huge breath and followed them down the halls to the pages' wing.

Lalasa met her in the doorway of her room. The door was slammed shut and Lalasa ordered, "Quickly, lean your head back." Kel did as she was told. "Keep your eyes open for a second," she was told, and then Lalasa was holding a tiny bottle and letting a drop or two of clear liquid to drip into each of Kel's eyes. She blinked.

"Ok, there's the eye drops. I got some hot water for you, but don't wash your hair or get it wet because I don't think we have time to let it dry. Scrub all your skin really hard." Kel followed these orders, scrubbing and soaping until her skin was almost raw, and then she got out and toweled herself dry.

"Lalasa, what next?"

"Put on your undergarments," her maid called, "and come stand over here. I don't mean to order you around, lady Kel, but we've no time to lose!"

Kel followed Lalasa's orders as quickly as she could, blushing only a little as she bared her ninety-five percent naked body to the room. Her maid appeared with a corset in hand and promptly stuffed her into it. Next came the dress - there was an underskirt she had to put on first, and then the rest followed. Before she could look in her mirror, Lalasa dragged her to a chair in the middle of the room. Briskly, her hair was slicked back and the wig was jammed onto her scalp. It was fiddled with for a while until it didn't wobble, and then Lalasa brought out some face paints.

Kel insisted she didn't want too much, so Lalasa hurriedly talked her through each thing she was applying to her face. One thing Kel wouldn't allow was the plucking of her eyebrows with delicate tweezers - "I am not having my eyebrows ripped off! The pages would notice it before they grew back!" she argued heatedly.

"As you wish," Lalasa said (Kel thought she saw her maid roll her eyes, but Lalasa was much too polite to do such a thing, surely).

Her maid added the finishing touches, smoothing muslin, patting hair and re-applying lip rouge until she was completely satisfied with the results. Finally she helped Kel up and guided her to the full-length mirror by her wardrobe.

Kel gaped. "Oh... my..." The only thing she could think of to do was reach out and touch the glass to check the mirror was real. "I look... completely..."

A tumble of stormy auburn-red curls fell to her shoulders, and, when lit by the dim sunlight filtering through her window, it appeared a deeper crimson, like blood. Her skin, saturated with creams and powder, was radiant and of even tone, and a light blush coloured her cheeks, accentuated by the sunset-pink of the dress. Kel was pleased to see that her face paint looked largely natural - her lips were slightly redder than their natural colour, but it didn't look fake, and Lalasa hadn't gone overboard with the eye make-up (Kel had seen many nobles with so much eye kohl that they looked like Carthakis - a.k.a. ridiculous). Overall, Kel thought, the dress brought out the red streaks in her wig and made her skin look more peachy, and somehow she didn't recognise herself at all.

"Have your eyes changed yet? The eye drops take a while to work, so I did them first."

Kel squinted at her reflection and saw that her irises were still the same colour. "If they take a while then they'd better hurry up," she said, narrowing her eyes at the reflection. And then, as she watched, the hazel began to melt to a warm caramel-brown.

Lalasa appeared beside her holding a jar of something. "Here, hold out your hands," she instructed. "All this page training makes your skin rough - this cream will make them smooth. Rub it into your hands."

Kel eyed her creamy hands with distaste and made to wipe them on her skirts, but Lalasa grabbed her wrists to stop her. The female page sighed and continued to rub in the cream.

"Have you thought of a name yet? I think you should pretend to be about 15 or 16. With your height, structure, dress and face paint, I think you'll pass. And of what fief will you be? It would be hard to name one here in Tortall because if anyone contacted that fief asking about you then you'd be revealed..."

"I could say I'm from Galla," Kel suggested. "I came over here to... go to the convent in Tortall?"

"Hmm. Something like that."

Somewhere in the depths of the palace, a bell rang. Lalasa looked up sharply as the clanging reached her ears, and moved towards the door. "You're going to be late. Listen, think of a name on the way there, and if anyone sees you just tell them you're lost. And if anything goes wrong, make your excuses and come back here as quickly as you can."

Having reached the door, Lalasa grabbed the door handle, opened it, and peeked out into the corridor. "The coast is clear!" she told Kel quietly. "Go before someone sees. Good luck!" Kel nervously left her rooms, and hovered round the door after Lalasa shut it firmly. Eventually, feeling extremely nervous and vulnerable, Kel began to drift down the corridor in her dress.

A minute or so into her journey down the halls, she rounded the corner and was confronted with a large flock of court ladies. They nodded in acknowledgment of her presence, but didn't speak, and Kel continued, strengthening her Yamani mask as well as she could. Anyone she passed left her alone, but their continuous presence began to get to her so, eventually, she decided to take a different route down to the ballroom where no one wandered. She was just dawdling down one of the empty corridors when she heard a single pair of footsteps, and froze. Everyone else she had met had been in groups, too distracted by their friends to bother her - Kel was immediately terrified that this person would confront her.

Quickly she feigned interest in a painting hung upon the wall, and hoped she would look like she didn't want to be talked to.

The footsteps came nearer, and then stopped.

"Excuse me for disturbing you, but are you lost? Maybe I can help you."

Kel turned round slowly, wishing desperately the owner of the male voice would go away, and glanced up at his face.

She knew him.

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Why, that was a rather evil cliffhanger! When you find out who it is next chapter, you'll probably be very surprised (I wanted to surprise you and be extremely anti-cliché). Anyhoo, I think I've decided on a pairing, though I'm not going to reveal it yet. HOWEVER, it will definitely not be KN, KD, KC or KJ. The response for Chapter 1 was amazing, so thanks to everyone who read/reviewed - next chapter will hopefully be up by the end of the week. See you then!