Disclaimer: I own neither the characters nor the setting, and I don't think I even own the plot.
Okay, for simplicity's sake Alanna and Delia and Josiane are all the same age, and I made Delia a bit nicer. It's for the sake of the plot.
"Okay, we've determined that it's best to switch places," Alanna whispered conspiratorially.
"We just need to ask Maude for help, she'll understand." Alanna and Thom, plotting their scheme, were heedless to the approaching footsteps. Just then a maid approached.
"What are you children doing? I refuse to let you ruin your life by masquerading as a boy, and you, Master Thom, are going to be a knight if we have to spell you to do the exercises by force. Now, I am going directly to warn your father to send different personnel with you, some who have proper priorities. Shoo!"
"There goes my life," Thom muttered darkly.
"Now I have to be a lady, and sit properly and embroider and dance…." She shuddered, as if she'd been told to run five miles in the icy rain, not something which most girls awaited eagerly. Oh well, she thought, it can't be that bad. It's just a new kind of challenge, one I plan to master to the best of my abilities.
At the convent……..
"Now, girls, I expect for you all to pay attention in class every day, dress properly, and follow orders as well as you can. You will do the duties of proper young ladies, and in return you will be granted free time in the city every weekend and receive food and shelter within our wall." The Mother of the Convent said all this in a very strict but motherly manner, as if these truly were her own children. She stopped and narrowed her eyes at Alanna, who was sitting at attention with her hands clasped in front of her, surprised that she cared about a word the Mother had just said.
"Hhhmm……" the Mother scrutinized, "I think I like you Trebond. You girls shall refer to me as 'Mother', and I shall treat you all as my own. Dismissed."
The twenty odd new girls immediately stood, waiting for their Mistress to leave before they could be at ease. Once she did, they began gossiping and meeting each other, wanting to have friends as soon as possible. Alanna's bags and Chubby had been taken to her rooms and the stables upon her arriving. Her companion had left without as much as a goodbye, which didn't particularly bother Alanna since she couldn't even remember her name.
One blonde girl with bright green eyes walked over to Alanna, wanting to be the first friend of the girl who the Mother approved of.
"Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Delia of Eldorn, but my friends called me Delly. What's your name?" Deciding then and there that she was going to be a perfect lady, Alanna gave up her dreams of knighthood as childish and pointless.
"I'm Alanna of Trebond, but I'm called Anna. Nice to meet you Delly." That was when both of them knew they had found a lifelong friend, and were glad of it. But this was not right; The Goddess had different plans for Alanna. At that moment time seemed to stop, for it had except for Alanna and a mysterious Lady.
"This is not the way things are supposed to be," said the Goddess, her voice sounding like mothers and sisters and nannies reprimanding small children.
"But I'm happy here," Alanna pleaded, looking forward for once to six years in a convent. "This is where I belong; if that maid hadn't come I would have thrown away everything."
"Then you are already lost. You shall have no memory of this meeting. I only wish you could be a knight like you once dreamed, and all would have been right. The world shall not return to normal until you realize your mistake." And the next thing Alanna knew, she was once again trading secrets with Delly, unaware that the fate of the world might be at stake, only knowing that she was going to be a lady, and happily.
Meanwhile in Corus…..
Thom looked unhappily at his pony, trying to figure out a way in which he could go back in time and keep the maid away, so he wouldn't be stuck here going to whack people with a stick. As long as he was here though, he might as well watch the completely foreign town, bustling with life and suspicion.
Coram missed nothing. "Keep an eye to yer saddlebags," he called back to Thom. "There are some here as would steal their own mother's teeth!" He seemed to be directing this comment at a tall young man standing near Thom.
The lean young man grinned, white teeth flashing in his tanned face. "Who, me?" he asked innocently.
Coram snorted and kicked his horse onward. The man winked one bright hazel eye at Thom and vanished into the crowd. He watched him until someone shouted for him to watch himself. He wondered if he really was a thief. He seemed very nice.
After this, Thom and Coram made their way to the palace, neither wanting to have a bad reputation for being late before they got there. At the gates, the servants took their horses and baggage and one such man led them to Duke Gareth of Naxen. Thom sighed, Oh well, if I must be a knight I may as well learn what they have to teach, after all, it is just another lesson, but of a different type. It'll make my life a lot easier if I do get to be a warrior, even if I don't like it. But I wonder who that man was? I doubt that was the last I'll see of him.
At the Convent once again……..
It was hard to believe that Anna had been at the Convent for almost three months already, the way she had dreaded it before coming. I suppose we all change, She though wistfully. But I wonder what Thom is doing? Not knowing that he had already caused Ralon to leave Court, and was friends with the prince and the king of thieves.
Right now Anna, Delly, and their friends (they had quickly become the most popular girls there) were in the Sewing room, most of them trying to be as good at it as Alanna and Delia, who were embroidering pictures of horses, flowers, and anything ladylike you could imagine. Once she was done with her particular project, Anna stood, meaning to stretch and then go for a ride in the city on this fine Saturday. Suddenly, she went stiff, as if something was pulling her magic. And then she was no longer Anna the lady, but page Alan, and at a room in the palace instead of at the convent.
To those in the sewing room, she was suddenly the image of a boy dressed as a page, and Delly knew that even Alanna didn't have a strong enough gift to change her appearance suddenly, and begin to shimmer as if she was nothing but an illusion, not really there but hundreds of miles away.
At the palace, Thom and Myles were watching over Prince Jonathan, afraid for his life, when a shimmering image of "Alan the Ghost", as he had been named, appeared. Which wasn't half as abnormal as it should have been, since he had appeared frequently before, doing all manner of things with the pages, things which only Thom suspected were exactly what Alanna should have been doing.
Alan the Ghost, filled with violet magic and kneeling in front of the fire with his hands in it, began screaming, and then battled with himself until he stood, walked across the room, and talked to Jon in the voice of a woman, eternities away. To Thom, this was strange and fascinating. But to Myles, this seemed strangely right, as if this should have been happening all along. It took five minutes; thirty, an hour, until Alan disappeared, and Jonathan woke up puzzled and curious.
"What just happened?" he asked, wondering how he had just been saved from death and why Alan the Ghost was in his dream as a woman.
"What's going on?" Thom, sensing what Alanna would have done, went to him, putting him to sleep. Through glances, not daring to speak, Thom and Myles decided to tell only Raoul and Gary what had just happened, not trusting rumors.
At the Convent once more, Alanna went through an identical process as Alan, though when she stood she did not walk to the prince but merely stand there, looking like the life was draining out of her. Delly had sent another girl for the First Daughter and a healer, not daring to touch Anna, for she knew she would have been burned to death instantly.
Once she was finished, Anna was born out of the room by the healer, no one wanting to say a single word.
Three days later, Alanna woke up to Delia, who had been watching over her almost the whole time. She quickly filled her in on what had happened, as Anna told Delly what she had experienced. Feeling rejuvenated, and the healer not being able to find anything wrong with her, Alanna dragged Delly into town, wanting to find a better mount, as she had long since outgrown Chubby.
"So, what kind of horse do you want?" Delly asked, much more familiar with the town than Anna.
"I'm thinking a mare; they're much less finicky then most." Alanna replied, wondering where she would find a decent one. Delia, knowing just the place, led her to a yard with a hostler and around fifty horses, most of them mares. They were all in top condition, but the one which caught Alanna's eye was a gold colored one, with white mane and tail. The hostler, seeing a girl united with the perfect horse, sold her for only thirteen gold nobles, a loss of over fifteen. Saddling her horse, Alanna was struck with the perfect name: Moonlight.
Alanna and Delia learned dancing, sewing, etiquette, and ladylike riding, until neither could believe they were fifteen and on their way to Corus to find husbands. Several such incidents as with the sweating sickness had happened, but they both managed to forget them. At least, until the next day at the palace. Anna and Delly, both having decided to cut their hair, were dressed in breeches and a tunic each, practicing the most basic ladylike swordplay. Thom, Jon, Raoul, and Gary, stepping onto the practice courts, were absolutely astonished. Thom immediately recognized his sister, and ran to greet her. Jon, Gary, and Raoul, upon seeing Alanna, realized the same thing at exactly the same time.
"She looks just like Alan," Jon breathed, suddenly remembering when Alan had cured him of the sweating sickness. (No, this is NOT an Alanna Jon fic, sorry to kill all your hopes and dreams.) Anna, seeing Jonathan and his friends, stopped her fencing and ran to hug her brother. Quickly, wanting to be perfect ladies to the prince, Alanna and Delia curtsied, murmuring "your Highness". Upon seeing two girls in men's gear acting like practiced ladies, which they were, Gary and Raoul burst out laughing. Anna, however, went pale, remembering Jon from the Sweating sickness, and vise versa. But something else felt just a bit off. It was almost as if he was supposed to really like her, but for some reason didn't. This was odd, since it appeared that most of the other men on the practice court were staring intently at either Alanna or Delia. One of which being Thom, who was watching for different reasons altogether. For he had just remembered his dream of becoming a sorcerer, and his sister's of becoming a great worrier maiden. It was at this moment when he realized that this was not the proper course of the world. He needed to talk to Alanna, quickly and quietly. He had just invited her to his room to catch up when Alex, deciding he liked this girl, came to the conclusion that he must challenge Thom to a duel for trying to disgrace a lady so, not realizing that he was her brother and not having heard him add that he wanted to talk.
Alex immediately stepped toward Thom, sword outstretched, meaning to deal with this here and now with a look in his eyes that said he hadn't yet decided just how far to go and when to stop. But once again, The Goddess saw this as a chance to attempt to convince Alanna of what should have been, so that it would be within her power to make it so. For She could not unless Anna, this silly girly lady with two men fighting over her honor, saw that she was meant to be the fiercest knight for years to come.
Delly, ever watchful out of concern for Anna's unusual godly interest, first saw her become what she was not, and drew her back. Knowing out of experience that in this state she would not respond to Anna, she took matters into her own hands.
"Alan. What are you doing here? Don't hurt Alex, he's just trying to defend a lady's honor. You would do the same you know. "After several such occurrences, Delia had spent a great amount of time talking to this mysterious page who so frequently appeared in Alanna's place. Quite often, he appeared with no reason and remained for hours at a time, so he had talked a lot. In this time, Delly found out that this was Alanna of another universe, who had become a knight and was masquerading as a boy, only the prince and the king of thieves knew.
"How do you know about Alan the ghost, Delia? He's only ever made an appearance at the palace before." Gary asked, stunned at the fact that when Delly spoke, Alan had recognized and responded to her by greeting Delia and sitting down next to her. Now that Thom had explained to Alex just why he shouldn't kill him, it was explained that "Alan the Ghost", was indeed Page Alan, Thom's sister masquerading as a boy. She told them that since this was a dream anyway, knowing who she was obviously wouldn't hurt her anyway. After all, she hardly doubted that they would get into her world even if this was just some kind of illusion.
"Uugghh, this keeps happening, every night since I've arrived at the palace I've had the strangest dreams of being here instead of my usual dreams of madness and incomprehension. I've actually spent a lot of time just talking to Delly here, although it appears you people know about me too." And with that, she disappeared to become simply Anna again. But this had never happened to this magnitude, and definitely not in front of other people.
Realizing what had just happened, Alanna proceeded to run sobbing back to her rooms.