A/N: Here it is. Enjoy!
"Um, pardon me for asking, but, whose bodies these?" Kelsey asked.
The person you must become is Kylseai vii Nassui. Kai will become Kaiathen sia Boujalet, and, Rachel, you will become Raiycal sii Kyiliet." All at once, the Goddess flooded their minds with information, memories, and instructions. They were the eldest children of the three Jindazhi ambassadors to Tortall coming to the great land to become pages, and (hopefully) one day, knights of the realm their parents now inhabited.
Rachel staggered suddenly as her mind opened to this body's past identity. She was overcome by this new onslaught; she had all of her memories of growing up and living in Connecticut, but, in an instant, another's memories were forced upon her, merging with her own. Her head throbbed and pulsed, trying to absorb this new information. She was no longer Rachel, but she was not Raiycal, either; she had become some strange mix of these two completely different people. It was as if she had lived two lives, unknowingly, up until this moment, but now the two had intersected and merged into one person. She somehow knew, that her decisions, her very existence from then on would be colored, controlled by this life she had never lived, and yet remembered, this part of her that was Raiycal.
However, it was Rachel's open-mindedness, her solid belief that magic and fantasy could and did exist, that saved her. Her ability to hold onto fantasy while she dwelled in reality allowed another person's sprit to flow and mesh with her own easily. She could accept the fact that now, she was also this new person, who spoke Jindazhi and Common, who was raised to be a wife in a noble family, who had the Gift, and who wanted, above all things, to be a knight of Tortall. This Raiycal was a human being, and therefore not dissimilar to her; she slowly accepted this new girl and allowed her to become a part of her inner self.
Kai, however, was torn. The sensible part of his mind screamed that this was insane; this wasn't real; there was no way this could happen. The other part of his mind, the part that longed for something exciting and new, tried to embrace this new identity. The battle raged on inside his mind for a seeming eternity, but finally, the un-sensible part of his mind, so often ignored, won out. He slowly became that strange mix of himself (no, Kai, not himself, he was no longer just Kai,) and Kaiathen. He now became a boy who had fought bandits and who had run his family's estate alone after his father died when he was six, who suffered beneath his imposing, stuffy stepfather, and whose only consolation was his ability to talk to animals. (That's impossible! Animals are stupid; they can't talk! The sensible part of his mind screamed, insisting on one last word, even though his soul knew that it was so)
Kelsey's mind and spirit fought the intrusion with all of the ferocity she possessed. Her cocky self-confidence, her down-to-earth attitude, her desire to be the best, everything about her rejected the self of the quiet, timid, romantic (she sneered at the word) Kylseai. She tried to burn the girl out of her mind. There was no welcome for her here, the soft-hearted wretch.
"My daughter, you must not fight. If you do not accept who you must become, you will die." The great mother said inside her head. For a moment, it seemed that the young girl would not comply, but suddenly, something inside her head clicked. Whether it was her will to live, the power of the Goddess' voice, or that she had let her guard down as the Great Mother Goddess spoke; somehow, she had relented and allowed Kylseai to become part of her.
"Yes, my Mother," she whispered, and for the first time in her life, willingly succumbed to the will of another.
Exhausted, the three fell onto the ground, unconscious.
"Good luck, my children. The lives of all depend on you now," the Goddess whispered before fading into the shadows of the trees.
A/N: As always, don't forget to review!
