Marie Brennan: Doppelganger

Mirage leapt into the air, a spinning, kicking leap, and did not land again. The power that filled the air around them lifted her up. She danced on, with nothing beneath her feet but air, and also found she could not fear.

The energy pulsed into visibility. Miryo, singing full-voiced to the four Aspects she had invoked, was also lifted from her feet; around her she could see the shining strands of power. Earth, Water, Air, and Fire; they wove a dizzying, exhilarating web around her and Mirage, and together they wept at the beauty.

And then, through those strands, something else.

Void , Mirage whispered in her mind, and Miryo recognized it as well.

The four concrete Elements and the one that was not pulsed in counterpoint to each other, a pulse that fit the rhythm they had created. And still Miryo sang, and still Mirage danced. The tornado of energy around them was not even remotely in their control, but they had created it, and it continued to draw on them, feeding its own growing power. The strands of the Elements spun them around each other in a dizzying circle, and the air grew to an incandescent white glow.

Goddess —

Show us —

Show ME—

The white fire tore through them, a blinding rush of pure energy, and all thought disappeared into the flames.

A crash brought Eclipse to his feet, sword in hand.

He dropped the blade an instant later, wondering how in the Warrior’s name Mirage had suddenly appeared in his room in the middle of the night.

“Sen?” he asked, baffled.

From where she knelt on the floor in the dim light, she lifted her head, one inch at a time, and as she did so something around her neck fell down to dangle freely, drawing Eclipse’s eyes.

A triskele pendant.

“Miryo?” he said uncertainly.

The pendant was all she was wearing. She knelt there, half lit by the moonlight through the window, and he grew more confused the more he looked at her. There was no way Miryo could have picked up those muscles, but the woman’s hair was long, not cropped. And why would Mirage be wearing that pendant?

And what was it in her face that made him so unsure?

Eclipse voiced a question he had never expected to have to ask. “Who… which one are you?”

She stood, slowly, and looked down at her hands and arms with a completely unreadable expression. “Either.” she said, and her voice had the well-trained tones of a witch. “Or neither.” She laughed faintly; it had a disbelieving sound. “Does it matter?”

“What?” he whispered.

She looked straight at him. “She gave me the answer, Kerestel. I prayed for an answer, and the Goddess showed it to me.”

Then she fainted.

“I don’t understand,” Eclipse said.

She raised one eyebrow at him. “Yes, you do. You’re just having trouble admitting it.”

“You’re…”

“One person. As I used to be. I was praying—both of me were—was—whatever.” A grin bloomed involuntarily on her face. “I don’t think grammar can cope with this. I was praying to the Goddess, and it occurred to me—to the Miryo part of me—that I wasn’t praying the way I really wanted to. Ought to. So as Miryo, I sang, and as Mirage, I danced, and I listened to the Goddess with all of my heart. And she made me whole again.”

The wonder of it had still not faded from her mind. She slipped one arm free of the blanket Eclipse had given her and stared at it in the light of the candle. A part of her calmly identified it as her own, while another part marveled at the smooth, hard lines of her muscles.

“And you remember both,” Eclipse said.

“Of course.”

He bit his lip and looked at her, perplexed. “What am I supposed to call you?”

The answer was there when she reached for it; the name had come to her during the ritual, but she had not looked for it until now. “Mirei.” She smiled involuntarily. “The Goddess gave me the name. As she renamed Misetsu, back when this all began.”

He swallowed. “It… works. I guess. It’s kind of both of you.”

“In more ways than you know.” She held her hands out to him, palms down. “Try me.” He placed his hands under hers, and then tried to slap them; he missed, but only barely. “I’m going to have to watch out for that. It’s possible that I’ll improve again, when the Miryo bit of me stops interfering with the reflexes Mirage had, but I don’t know. I may be permanently watered down.”

He managed to dredge up a smile from somewhere. “At least it’ll be more fair for the rest of us.” The smile faded. He hesitated for a moment, then looked at her directly. “So what happens now?”

She hadn’t thought about it yet. “I think… I still need you to go to Silverfire. I could send the message to Jaguar magically, but I don’t think that would go over well.”

“You could deliver it in person.”

Mirei shook her head. “I can’t. There’s… too many other things I have to do.”

The pause betrayed her, or maybe he would have guessed anyway. “Warrior. You’re going to do something stupid, aren’t you?”

“Not stupid. Necessary. I’ve got the answer, but that only solves half the problem. I have to convince the others, or it’s worthless.”

“The others’?”

“The Primes. I could work this as an underground rebellion, but it would be long, and painful, and probably very bloody. If I can convince the women at the top, right from the start, it’ll be better for everyone.”

“And they’ll be so happy to see you, I’m sure.”

“I’ve got magic now. I can defend myself.”

“Against five Primes at once?” He shook his head.

“You’ve never been that stupid before. Why start now?” Can I even make him understand? I suppose I have to try . Mirei took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Kerestel—Eclipse—this is what I have to do. Never in my life have I felt it so clearly, seen so perfectly what is that I should do. The path is there, in front of me. I can’t say that I know where it leads. But if I don’t follow it…” She shrugged, hands gesturing to show her loss for words. “I have to.” A smile flickered across her face. “Hey, it’s a challenge. And you know how I love challenges.”

He looked at her silently for a very long time. Mirei met his eyes, but not in confrontation; she merely let him read whatever he saw in her expression.

At last, reluctantly, he dropped his eyes and nodded. “All right. I guess I know better than to try and stop you.”

Relief washed over her. She had any number of ways of stopping him , should he try to interfere with her, but she didn’t want to use them. Far better that he should agree. “There’s a few things I need to do, then. Do you still have my saddlebag?”

She had given him most of her baggage when they parted after the ambush. “Yes.”

“Good. That takes care of clothing, then.” She wondered whether the doming she had been wearing in Angrim was lying on the floor of the temple, or if it had been burned away in the file that had transformed her. “And I’ll need to borrow your weapons.”

He looked surprised. “You have magic now, don’t you?”

“Yes, but it’s not always the best way of handling things. And I need the Primes to see that I’m both Miryo and Mirage.”

“Take them,” he said without hesitation. Mirei was again relieved. She had been wary of asking for two reasons; the part of her that saw him as Miryo did was reluctant to ask a favor of someone she did not know all that well, while the Mirage part of her knew Hunters disliked leading their blades .