Twin Perspectives Chapter 2 All characters belong to their perspective owners no ownership is claimed or implied for
non-original characters.

Special thanks go to Davner, Cavis, Incantrix, Sethra_Lavode, and Fish_Stomp for their
help on this fic and to all the people who actually reviewed the last chapter getting me off
my rear to write this one.

Twin Perspectives

Eps 2: A Tale of Three Priestesses (or is it tail?)

By: STRIKESTWICE@hotmail.com

Hi Mom,

How's everything at the shop? I'm sure its all going well. Thanks for the
revolver I just love it. It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life, I love you.

Now what's going on? I'm one day away from Sairag 4, staying at the Insurance
Inn making out my will. This is the first time I've ever been required to have a sealed
will before entering the town, last time I was still to young, its an exciting rite of passage
in a grim sort of way.

What's happened on the trip? We ran into just two groups of brigands,
thankfully. What else happened... Oh yah, yesterday we passed the three craters that
Aunt Lina carved in her adventuring days. The waterfall into the second crater is by far
my favorite, just breath taking and the woods are really starting to cover up the remaining
scars from the explosions.

Lets see anything else, hmmm... I know there was something interesting as well to
add, but it slipped my mind, whatever it was.

Don't worry about me. I'm fine and by evening tomorrow I should be talking to
Aunt Syphiel and Phelan, safe in Sairag 4.

Your Loving Daughter,

Senritsuko

P.S. Give White and Black a good scratch from me!

Senritsuko looked up from the letter and the will beside it. Taking in a deep
breath she sat back in her chair, twirling the pen in her right hand. The last two weeks of
walking had been the closest thing to torture she had ever experienced. The twins were
just that annoying. But come tomorrow they would part ways. She still wasn't sure
where she would go next, but she had already decided that it wasn't back to Basvic and
probably in the opposite direction that the twins chose.

The logical choice then was Sairoon, she had friends their who wouldn't mind her
just popping in and from there she could easily go to a number of places all of them of
interest, not to mention that Sairoon's famous Memorial Rose park should be perfect this
time of year. As a final added bonus it was the safest city in all of the old world, as the
center of white magic, there was no way the twins would want to go there. She could
happily part ways with the pair, and this most trying of journeys would instead turn into
a...

BOOM!

Her thread of thought was completely lost by the deafening explosion. Debris
went flying through her room as what had been the wall between her and the twins
suddenly exploded in a flash of light and noise.

Senritsuko started coughing as the smoke refused to clear, she felt her way to the
rooms only window and through it open. The smoke sullenly started to clear enough in
the room for her to be able to peer through the tears in her eyes. In the new hole she
could just make out the twins in the other room. Yuki was sitting on the far bed staring
at her smoking brother, a cloth covering her mouth. "See's I told you that was the wron'
com'onet for a flam' sp'll."

"Just one more day." Senritsuko mumbled, wondering how much longer it would
take the inn's owner to show up.

***

The morning was of course perfect, blue sky with just the hint of high white
clouds wandering through its vastness for contrast. Birds and insects, chirped and buzzed
respectively, adding a concophony of noise that blended in to create the natural sounds of
a forest. The trees surrounding the path had a way of casting light and shadow on the
path in a way to make it an almost mystical experience to walk under their green leaves.
All of this was lost on Senritsuko, who painfully tried to stretch a crick out of her neck
left over from using a tree root as a pillow last night.

Behind her, maybe three paces, the twins followed the dark hair girl. Trying to
set the blame squarely on each others shoulders. It was a conversation that had been
running for the last few hours, being mainly made up almost entirely of curses and
accusations. Senritsuko had already tried increasing her pace twice to lose the two, but
that had been less then successful. They were just too stubborn to fall behind that easily.
She was seriously considering starting to run, Valeck wouldn't be able to keep up with
her that long wearing his armor, even with her caring a backpack, when a woman ran out
of the woods and onto their path.

Out of breath the woman looked up and down the wooded path in a frantic hurry,
as if trying to make a decision in which direction to run, her gaze locked on the three
travelers. The woman turned, her long dark hair flying as she wiped her head around, ran
towards the group, white robes billowing in her haste as a large gold medallion bounced
on her chest.

"Please, you have to hide me!" The woman desperately yelled, pleading for help.
The twins began moving as one, they rushed past Senritsuko on either side and then
grabbed the woman throwing her into a nearby bush.

"Quickly," Yuki took the woman's head and pushed her so deep into the bush
nothing of the girl could be seen from the road and then as if they did this every day the
pair simply began walking in the same direction they had been going in the first place.
Senritsuko looked at the twins in complete incomprehension for a second and then
shrugged, started to follow the pair.

Seconds later a group of four women, all dressed in the same manner as the first,
white robe and gold medallion, rushed out of the woods and onto the path. All four of
them panting and out of breath as they looked both ways down the path in almost exact
copies of the first girl's actions. The group saw the trio of travelers, and broke tiredly
into a jog again towards them.

The lead woman a tall ageless beauty with brilliant blonde hair, called out to the
party in a commanding tone of voice. "Have you seen the heretic? It was dressed like us
and should have just came through here."

"She went that way." Valeck yelled back in his normal voice. Pointing back into
the woods in the direction that the group of women, and the lady running from them, had
been going in the first place. The ageless blonde nodded once and she, and the three
woman accompanying her, all took off again into the woods. In less then a minute they
were gone from view and to the ear, leaving the forest deafly quiet compared to the
previous noises it had been making.

Senritsuko silently cursed under her breath, less then half a day from Sairag 4,
maybe six miles total and here she was involved with trouble again! It was all the twins
fault, somehow, she wasn't quite sure how it was their fault, maybe fate or bad luck but
she knew it had to be all their fault. Briefly she toyed with the thought of continuing on
the journey and leaving the other two to deal with the white robed woman, but in the end
curiosity won out.

The party of priestesses disappeared into the forest, the head of the woman who
had been hiding popped out of the bush she had been using for camouflage. The head
almost comically looking both ways and then let out a sigh of relief before standing. For
the first time Senritsuko had a good chance to get a look at the woman. The woman's
long dark hair that sparkled almost purple in the patches of sun that leaked through the
forest above. She also had the most incredible green eyes that seemed to contrast with
her hair, giving her an incredibly exotic look. The priestess stepped onto the road and
Senritsuko finally realized just how tall the girl was. She could have been an amazon,
towering almost half a head higher then even Valeck.

"Thank you for... " the woman paused staring at Yuki then Valeck, and almost in
horror at Senritsuko. She tripped over a rock in her preoccupation and tumbled onto the
ground in a pile of dusty white cloth and dark hair.

"Are you okay?" Valeck asked in his best imitation of a gentlemen as he hurried
over, to help the priestess and assist her to her feet. But quick as a cat she jumped up
from the ground and backed away from the man.

"I really must be going, thank you for your help, bye, bye." The girl said and then
began running down the road in the direction of Sairag 4, passing by Senritsuko quickly
and disappearing from sight as the road took a bend.

"You know I've h'rd that v'ice b'fore." Yuki said, gazing down the road in the
direction that the priestess had disappeared in.

"Huh?" Senritsuko looked at the twin puzzled.

"I k-now that v'ice."

"Really, Sis? Your never wrong about those kind of things. Maybe you met her
during your apprenticeship." Valeck said, as he started once again to walk in the
direction of Sairag 4.

"I just can't pl'ce it, oh well it will com' to me soon'r or lat'r."

Senritsuko rolled her eyes as she was forced to a trot to keep up with Valeck. Just
one more day, just one more day, she kept repeating to herself.

***

Sairag 4 was considered by most to be on the list of worse places to live. Actually
the only reason the city existed now was the small fishing trade made from the numerous
artificial lakes surrounding the city, and its one and only attraction, and the surrounding
tourist trade created from this attraction. That being the most famous fortune teller in the
all the world the Lady Syphiel.

It was the Lady Syphiel who created the horoscopes in all the worlds newspapers.
It was she who had foretold the great disaster of Demons Hall and do to her warnings the
people in the nearby towns had been saved. The fact that such a great fortune teller lived
in Sairag 4, meant that it had to be safe, but common wise tales also said that no one can
see their own death, so parts of the city still remained in ruins except for the tourist trade
created for thrill seekers, a few people with nowhere better to go, and the few die hard
entrepreneurs who were always ready to raise some money from the tourist trade.

The actual town was laid out in-between the two largest lakes with a major hotel
on either side of the street. A few fishing huts and stores selling tourist items such as the
ever popular carving of the holy tree Flagoon made from real wood of the tree or heat
seared bricks the only thing left over from Sairag 2. The most purchased item though
were Lady Syphiel's Horoscopes and other novelty items baring her name. She had an
entire line up now of nick-nacks supposedly used to see into the future each one colored
in dark purple and yellow.

To Senritsuko the town felt like a home away from home, she remembered
spending her summers here as a child before she became old enough to watch the store.
At the time the surrounding landscape had still been recovering from the destruction of
Sairag 3 and she was happy to see that a tree she had planted, outside of the town, had
grown well in the last few years.

She was also disappointed by the commercialization that had swarmed the town
in response to her aunts fortune telling. Part of her knew that it was a plan by Lady
Syphiel to repopulate the city, but to Senritsuko who could still remember the open
expanses of land, it seemed to be encouraging the lowest denominators of human to settle
rather then tradesmen and farmers that should make up a thriving happy city.

They finally reached the center of the town and the monument to those who had
been lost in the disasters the city had suffered. Carved in the shape of a large tear with
the names of the people that had died in the city stenciled in its side, it represented a
tribute to all those who were dead but not forgotten. At its base flowers were placed by
wandering pilgrims and family members who had survived by an act of the gods.

All three of them looked at the monument sobered. To Senritsuko the shrine had
always represented the resting place of her father she had never known. She purchased
some white flowers from a nearby flower stand and laid them down in front of the tear as
the twins watched, silently. She waited respectful, trying to feel something for her father,
but nothing came to fill the void, just the usual emptiness of something missing. She
finally signaled the twins and they continued on down the street towards aunt Syphiel's
house.

The trio finally arrived at the small house that Syphiel lived in. As always it was
surrounded by a crowd of tourists, who had braved the ever constant danger of being
destroyed in another fiery death of the city. They came to have their fortunes told by the
most famous fortune teller in all the world. The line was a mixed lot, from young to old,
rich to poor, their seemed to be no common denominator that would explain the group
that wished just a small peek into their own future.

Senritsuko had never understood this overwhelming need to look into the future,
she was by far more interested in the events that had happened in the past. The mysteries
of the future could remained locked away in the folds of time for all she cared if she
could just once get a glimpse of the past and what had happened at this exact place
nineteen years ago.

A small man sat at the gate to the house running crowd control. Sitting behind a
podium, he casually orchestrated the crowd, every so often flipping through a book to
check some important peace of information only known to him. The trio walked up to
him by passing the line as if they didn't see it and stood in front of the man. Valeck
impaled him with his meanest stare as Yuki put on her trademarked puppy dog
expression and Senritsuko sighed.

"Back of the line." The man didn't even look up from his book.

"Hold..." Valeck tried to get out but was promptly interrupted.

"Back of the line." The tiny man still refused to look up from his book having the
gall to scribble something down in the mean time.

"I th'nk..." Yuki tried.

"Back of the line."

"I th'nk he's a gol'm." Yuki said, looking at the little man. The man finally
gazed up from his book.

"I'll have you know that I'm Lady Syphiel's personal secretary, not a gol'm or
whatever stupid curses you can come up with young lady. Back of the line!" He finished
the sentence slowly pronouncing every syllable correctly obviously for Yuki's benefit.

"How dare you, do you know who I am." Yuki yelled, as Senritsuko looked at the
girl amazed, Yuki had gotten so angry that she had forgotten her fake accent.

"I don't care if you are the Goose Goose of Greater Geese you aren't getting in
here ahead of the rest of these people, now back of the line!"

"That does it! Flare..." She was cut off as her brother thumped her on the head.

"Cool off Sis, Aunt Syphiel is not going to be pleased if we kill her secretary."
Valeck yelled in his normal tone of voice as he felt someone touch him on the back.

"I would appreciate that." The Lady Syphiel told the trio, then smiled at them. "I
have been expecting you three, please come in for some tea, won't you?"

"Aunt Syphiel, of course we would love too." Senritsuko said grabbing up her
backpack and quickly following the older woman, leaving the twins with no choice but to
scramble to catch up with them. The pair hurriedly running up the few steps and into the
cottage.

The first room was obviously designed for guests, carefully decorated in the
designs expected of a fortune teller, black curtains hung from all the walls making sure
that no light leaked into the room. In the center sat a small table with a blue table cloth
surrounded by three chairs.

Syphiel completely ignored the room and walked behind one of the curtains into a
bright sunlit kitchen and poured herself and the trio some tea that had been on the stove
waiting for them. She offered them seats, tea, and then cookies in that order, before
grinning at the youngsters happily.

"I know why you have come and I have some advice for you." She told them
ominously as the three travelers shifted closer to her. "You came to see the new Rezo's
Secret Laboratory Roller Coaster didn't you?" She held up three tickets with the most
interesting gleam in her eyes.

Yuki's eyes started to go hard and she leaped out of her chair, for a second
Senritsuko was afraid that the woman would start cursing out her aunt, but the younger
girl instead grabbed the tickets and hugged them with a passion.

"Oh, tha'k you! I've been wantin' to go for mo'ths since I hea'd of it." Behind
her, her brother cleared his throat. "Oh yah, we nee' you're help, Aunty." Yuki said,
"An imp'tant item was stol'n from our man'hion a mo'th ago and we need to fin' it."

"Dear please talk normally." Syphiel sipped on her tea.

"What Sis is trying to say Aunt Syphiel, is that we desperately need your help to
try to find the crystal sword." Valeck gave her his most impassioned speech

"Oh that's easy, and the tickets are free with a reading."

"Well...?" Valeck asked.

"I knew you would want them." She smiled at the trio. "Remember I'm
psychic!" Senritsuko sighed trying to believe it could be worse, somehow. "Oh and the
sword will turn up as long as you two stick to Senritsuko." It was worse, so much worse
then she could have imagined, she barely clamped down on a moan. NO! Senritsuko
stopped breathing. There had to be a way to ditch the twins, now no matter what she did,
where she went, they would follow her. By its own accord her hand rested on the hilt of
her revolver, she felt trapped, like she needed a way out of her, now! But, common sense
prevailed and she started to breath again. With effort she picked up her tea and slowly
sipped it listening once again to the conversation, focusing all her attention on making
sure the tea cup didn't rattle.

"So is the roll'coaster real' as good as they say?" Yuki asked quietly, a gleam in
her eyes.

"Oh yes its fabulous they have a guaranteed nausea policy." The priestess assured
her. "You'll need to hurry if you want to make it on time and I still have a few
appointments. Why not come back later and we'll eat dinner together. Oh and when you
see my son, give him a good whack and tell him, that of course I know, I'm psychic."

Senritsuko perked up for the first time in the conversation. "Phelan's here? I
would love to see him."

"Oh, I'm afraid not dear he won't join you until later."

The dark hair girl sighed at least it was something to look forward to... gah!
There was no way she was traveling one step further with the twins. She was going to
ditch them. She looked up to see Syphiel giving her that knowing look. Which forced
her mind to begin running in circles, were her actions resulting in a self fulfilling
prophesy or were... she cut the line of thought. It was best to just do what you would
normally do, and in this case it was to get rid of the twins as soon as possible.

The rest of the conversation had already passed by the time her thoughts had
reached some sort of organization and she found herself on the porch with Yuki and
Valeck looking expectantly at her. The girl paused wondering where to go next.

"C'mon lets go get on the roll'coaster bee-for they close!" Yuki yelled, dragging
Senritsuko down the stairs and off into the streets trailed by Valeck.

They traveled that way, Senritsuko feeling like she would get her arm torn off by
Yuki the entire time until they passed the monument. At that point the slightly older girl
finally was able to grab onto a street light and stop her forward progress. For the
millionth time Senritsuko cursed the fact that she still looked like a young teenager.

"Why don't you two go on ahead, I'm not really into roller coasters." Senritsuko
forced a winning smile onto her face.

Yuki paused as her hand was wrenched free of the other girls arm. "But, Aunty
said that we had to sti' to you."

"If she had expected something to happen, she wouldn't have made dinner plans."
Yuki stood still for a second, and Senritsuko knew that the puppy-dog face was
soon to appear and then as if her prayers to heaven had been answered the girl nodded
once.

"Okay we'll mee' you at Aunty's hou-se in a few hours." Then the green hair girl
grabbed onto her brother and pulled him down the road in the direction that Rezo's
workshop had originally been in.

Senritsuko, sighed and felt for a split second like leaving everything behind and
making a run for the next town. She was sure she could make it there a little after night
fall, but she would need to keep on moving. The twins would be only be delayed a few
hours at most and had an amazing knack at running into people who didn't want to be
found.

"Um... excuse me, I was hoping we might have a few moments to speak,
m'lady?" A blonde haired woman asked her. The woman was dressed in a pale gold
dress made out of what looked like large golden scales. Senritsuko was having a hard
time trying to figure out if it was a dress or armor of a sorts. Even odder then that the
woman had a long bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to her back.

"Actually, I need to be somewhere, maybe next time." What was it with her,
were weirdoes attracted to her by some evil law of the universe, were the gods laughing
at her just for the hell of it?

"Please, I've followed you all the way here from Basvic and it's really important,
m'lady."

"Okay just a minute though, did my mom send you?"

"You don't mind if we sit and have some tea, m'lady." The girl looked at the
other older woman wondering if she could even sit in that outfit.

"Sure that would be nice and you can stop with the m'lady stuff, my mom is the
lady not me."

The two women sat down at the tea shop across the street from the monument.

"I want to really thank you for giving me this chance to talk to you, m'lady. My
name is Sethra and I'm a priestess of the Fire Dragon King. I'm sure you are aware that
the Golden Dragons were all but destroyed twenty odd years ago."

Senritsuko looked at her for a second. "I was aware of that fact, I just don't see
how that has anything to do with me and I'm really in a hurry."

"But you have to know that your half golden dragon, your mother was the last
surviving adult dragon in the entire clan." The woman said excitedly as Senritsuko
decided once and for all that this woman was crazy.

***

Yuki was on a mission, for six months she had heard of the roller coaster through
Rezo's Secret Laboratory and finally she would have a chance to experience one of the
true wonders of the modern world. That was until her brother dragged her to a halt. For
a second she gazed at her slightly taller sibling about ready to give him an ear full when
she saw what he was not so subtly pointing at. A woman dressed all in white darting
through the main street from alleyway to alleyway.

"Sis, you go ahead I think I'll take care of this one."

"Not a chan', bro and she still remin's me of som'ne."

"C'mon sis, I didn't get between you and that bounty hunter guy."

"No you just eav'dropp' on us the in-tire time and then gave him a
non-conception gem. The guy thought I was easy... AND I AM NEV'R EASY!" She
squeezed her hands together imagining it was somebody's throat, Valeck was a little to
scared to ask who's.

"Okay, sis... But I still want to ask her some questions."

"Oh most definite' she owes us a re-ward at the very lea't." Yuki said running off
in the same direction that the priestess had disappeared minutes before.

***

End Chapter Two. Thanks for reading my fic. If you review this fic please tell me if this
HTML formatiing was easier or worse then the last chapter. Thanks again.