Thanks to my reviewers: OrionTheHunter, Second daughter of Eve, Kalyra Shadowdancer, ariex, and the mysterious one. I don't know who You Know Who is, so I would appreciate that person coming forward, but that was a very nice review. Response for ariex at the end.
A twychild at last! I always loved twins. Note: The Errantry Concordance, in its extremely short article on twichildren, implies that they must be fraternal twins, but I remember differently.
No. The names were not chosen for the nicknames. I didn't even realize that until the second draft.
Twins
"Snow!" yelled Aileen, pulling the blanket off Bridget.
Bridget grabbed the blanket back, but she looked up hopefully. "No school?"
"No school," Aileen agreed.
"Great. Good night."
Aileen raised her eyebrows when her sister walked into the kitchen. "I thought you were going to sleep all day, Bridge."
"I got bored, Aisle." Bridget fell into the chair across the table from Aileen. "I'm still bored," she added after an appropriate pause.
Aileen rolled her eyes, then admitted, "So am I."
"You? Why? Isn't the internet up? The heat's on, thank God."
"Sure it's on. That's not the only thing I do."
"That and write fanfiction."
Aileen frowned and stood up to take her bowl to the dishwasher. "You used to like reading."
"Reading. Not fanfiction. It's like you think you're better than the author."
"I don't think that. But the author didn't write about everything, and –"
"Let's not argue, Aisle," said Bridget. "I'm not that bored."
Aileen laughed. "Fine. What are you going to do? No school, no homework – I hope, because you told Mom you were done – probably no friends to see, no running. Just me to argue with."
"We used to like snow days," Bridget complained as she got up to get cereal. "We used to have fun together."
"Before you started track and got so many new friends," Aileen grumbled.
Bridge put her bowl on the counter more loudly than she had to. "That is not true. It started before that. And don't forget that you like to stay in your room on your computer or reading books. You could try going outside once in a while. You might even like track."
"Don't be stupid, Bridge. I'd be a charity case, and everyone – even you – would get to say how good you were to help me out."
"Well, if you don't want to do anything I do, at least you could –"
"I have friends, and I do not stay in my room all the time!"
"Girls," said a weary voice from the stairs.
"Hi, Mom," Aileen said absentmindedly, all visible annoyance vanishing. She closed the dishwasher and walked past her mother to go back upstairs.
Bridget flopped onto her bed.
"I'm bored," she and Aileen complained together.
"Twins," Bridget said, their parents' response to the times they spoke together.
"We used to do that a lot," said Aileen sadly. "We were really twins back then. All we were missing was telepathy."
Bridget sighed too deeply.
"You know what I mean."
"So why gloom over it? Can't we just like spending time together, whether or not we think the same thoughts?"
"That would be nice, too."
"Come on, then. Let's do something." Their mother had left, since the snow had been cleared enough that she could go to work even though the school day stayed cancelled. They were alone in the house.
"Like what?"
"Bridget yawned and stood up. She opened their closet door and pulled down some of their old board games.
Aileen giggled, looking at one. "Remember this? We used to love this."
"Hm," said Bridget. "Let's play."
"It would be way too easy."
"Well, let's, for the memories."
"I wish," said Aileen as they set it up, "that there was some way we could know we'd really be together forever."
"Together how? You know, being identical twins doesn't make us the same person. Even Siamese twins have two different minds."
"Friends, at least."
"We're friends."
"Are we?"
"You move first."
They only got six moves into the game before they were bored again. Games better suited to fourteen-year-olds didn't work much better.
They ended up back on their beds, lying silent and bored.
The Voice started then.
They didn't notice it at first. Half asleep, the Voice didn't seem strange. They listened without thinking.
Until Bridget sat up and asked, "Did you say something?"
"No." Aileen shook herself awake. "You weren't talking? It seems like someone was, and I wasn't listening. I thought someone was."
"So did I."
They both sat up and looked at each other.
The Voice was still there, a half-real sound they couldn't quite comprehend.
"This is weird," said Bridget, sliding back to the wall.
"It's like a sound that isn't there," whispered Aileen, unable to find words that made sense. She felt like a failure of a writer.
"Is this what telepathy sounds like?" Bridget joked weakly, feeling just as helpless as her sister.
Aileen couldn't answer. In the silence between them, the Voice became clear, and they understood what It had been telling them for the past half hour.
They ran to each other, almost colliding in the middle of the room, and sat together with their backs against Bridget's bed and their arms around each other.
"This is…" Aileen whispered and found that there were truly no words for it.
"Oh, my God," Bridget answered.
Yes, this was about God, the Voice told them.
"It hears us," said Bridget.
"We're dreaming," Aileen decided.
"No, we're not," Bridget countered.
"Books. This belongs in books."
"We're not dreaming."
"It can't be…"
The twins tried to squeeze closer together and found that they were as close as they could get.
"Someone's playing a trick on us," Aileen declared. "Has to be."
"Can't be."
"It can't be real."
"It has to be real."
They whimpered together.
"Okay," whispered Bridget. The Voice was still talking, but not clearly. They thought they would understand what it said suddenly, as they had before. "So there is something like a voice in our heads that is telling us about wizards. Is that what it's telling you?"
Aileen nodded.
"We know we're awake. Even twins can't hallucinate together, so that's not it. Nobody could put this voice in our heads – it's impossible. Right?"
Aileen nodded.
"So it's real."
"It can't be," Aileen moaned.
"It can't be anything else."
"What do we do?"
"I don't know."
"Listen to it?"
"I guess we do."
So the Voice sang to them about wizardry and twins. Twychild. The word was new to them, but the idea was as old as thought. They had discussed it often enough when they had both enjoyed fantasy stories.
But it was beyond believing.
"Okay, so let's assume it's all true for the moment," said Bridget when they couldn't listen anymore. "What should we do?"
"We should take the Oath," Aileen answered. "It's right for the world if we do."
"Do you want to?"
"Yeah! Don't you? We'd be able to try to fix things, and we could do magic, and we really would be one person."
"One person," Bridget repeated.
"Wouldn't you want to do it?"
"I guess it is right to do. And I guess it might be fun – but how scary? Think about that. And do we want to be one person?"
"Scary, hard, but worth it."
"Nobody wants to read about the story where the hero fails, but they happen. It's not always all right in the end."
"We can try."
"We can. And we'd never be able to lose each other again."
They looked at each other.
"Assuming it's true," Bridget added.
"It's true," Aileen whispered.
They shivered against each other.
"How do we choose?"
"We just do it."
They looked at each other.
"Do you want to?"
"Yes, I do. We do."
"We do."
They took a deep breath together and began, "In Life's name…"
Okay, this is the second shortest story so far. Sorry about that. It didn't feel short when I was writing it.
Reviews are much appreciated.
Ariex:
Thank you very much for all your reviews! I really appreciate that you took the time to do that.
1. I don't think any of them know what they're getting into…
2. Thanks! I'm positive that wizardry will change her opinions. I think just knowing that her foster siblings are wizards starts to change her by the end of the story.
3. Miriam will be a very good influence on him. I wouldn't say that his parents/teachers are jerks, but they assumed a lot of things and didn't make sure they were right.
4. Part of my point in Anna's story was to show that opinions are different in different parts of the world. That's the way they consider wizardry. It isn't right, but they were pulled in the same way, so they feel like it's right. You can see that kind of thought process in a lot of traditions.
5. "She had been told that mechanical voices sounded less odd than hers" – she can talk, just badly.
6. Merry found her book in her house. That doesn't mean her parents are wizards. Will found his on the bus. That doesn't mean the bus driver is a wizard. As far as I can tell, they show up where they think you'll take them.
No, the ninth book is not yet out. I'm not sure when it is coming.
Not My Fault: If you think that everything the Lone Power says, even in a situation when It seems to be telling you what it's really thinking, is completely true, you need a reality check.
And get an account so I can answer you directly!
