I didn't like the idea of being in another world, but I could see that Jonathan really hated it.

Maybe it had been the poison's fault, but he had not been well ever since I'd dragged him down the trapdoor. And, while I felt like a prick for pointing it out, so I didn't, I couldn't help but think this was not how I wanted to start this adventure. I wanted us to have fun, and get to know the other better. Instead, we were merely at the start of the journey, and I'd already almost lost Jonathan to two different types of venom.

"I know there must be a reason why you haven't mentioned it yet," I suddenly said, "but do you remember what Jason said about the poison? Apparently, it was a gift from Bertha."

We both knew Bertha wasn't a good person, but to have her as the kind of enemy who could murder you in cold blood was another matter entirely. Not to mention, she was still a part of the Court, and she fancied herself the leader of it.

"Maybe it wasn't," Jonathan bit back. Like every time we mentioned the poison, he sounded too light-hearted for my taste. "I already told you Athanasios believes these methods to be fortifying. Besides, Bertha has already told us she wishes we would die in this world. There is no reason for her to try to kill one of us beforehand, when the fingers could be pointed in her direction."

"Well," I said. "There would be at least one reason."

"Really?"

"We might make it. Remember how incensed she was about closing off the dimensions? I bet she doesn't want that."

I kicked some rocks in frustation, but Jonathan never replied. We had been walking for a while already, and so we had already come to the city gates.

"Do you reckon someone lives there?" Jonathan asked me with hope in his eyes.

"I'd prefer they didn't," I unsheated one of my knives. "We are trespassers, and, besides, who knows if those people are even proper people?"

"Maybe the visions could tell you that."

"No," I almost snapped. "They're not a map, and, besides, when they'll tell me something worth knowing, you'll be the first to know."

Jonathan was gaining his energy back. He went ahead before I could catch up, and knocked on the first door he saw.

I had to give it to this 'city' --- it looked just like the cities we had back in our world, with houses, and streets, and so on.

"Come in," said a voice. It sounded feminine.

"Why doesn't she open the door herself?" I muttered to Jonathan.

"Maybe she's having a bath, or a roguish lover is escaping from her bedroom window in this very moment, and she is in a state of undress."

"It was rethorical," I rolled my eyes visibly. "I bet she's armed, and her hands are probably occupied holding..."

I blushed, thinking how easy it would be for Jonathan to make a joke. I was serving it on a silver platter, really.

"...Weapons!" I added, hastily.

"Everything is always about weapons with you," Jonathan said, but there was no malice nor interest in his voice. He had spoken matter-of-factly. "I kind of hope she does, so she doesn't feel outnumbered," he added, taking a look at my knives.

"Even if your version was right, pretty boy," I couldn't help but argue. "And it most certainly isn't, why would she invite us in, then?"

"Maybe she thinks we are someone she couldn't say no to," he reasoned. "Like a family member. Or perhaps she's afraid one of us is dying and she'll go to Hell for not having helped out."

"This is Hell," I pointed out.

Jonathan simply shrugged. For those of us who didn't believe the Endless One had created a place of punishment, it was more of a folkloristic place than anything else.

"I said, come in!" the voice insisted, though I could swear this time the timbre was slightly different.

"Well, she really wants us to join the fun!" Jonathan joked. "Put away those knives, unless you want to frighten someone!"

"But I do," I replied.

Still, I tucked them away. I knew I had been raised in the streets, and it showed, but I would try to make myself more subtle. After all, nobody here knew who I was, or where I was from.

Except for Jonathan. But, in that case, it was too late to pretend I was anything but a hot-headed troublemaker.

We opened the door, and found two women sitting at a table. They looked like twins. They had smooth brown skin, lacquered hazel eyes, and soft mouths.

"Well," the first of them said. "There's two of you. One for each one of us."

She had said it jokingly, but I was too surprised to say anything. Jonathan laughed along, a heartbeat too late. When he told dirty jokes, the laughter never reached his eyes, and he appeared uncomfortable in this situation.

Both of those things should have made me wonder if there was really any truth to his desire of appearing a skilled loverboy, but digging too much for information would have meant I cared, which I was trying to tell myself I didn't.

"Oh sister," the second one sighed creepily. "We know damn well we can't."

As they said that, they rose from the table. I bit my lip so hard I drew blood, because I wouldn't be caught screaming.

They had two heads, and four limbs, but only one body as where it concerned the trunk and the stomach.

"Welcome to Tevel," the first sister said. "Judging by your expressions, I'd say you'd never met anybody here before. What a waste you two are! One body would have been enough for both your heads, and it is strange to see you so misshapen."

"So," Jonathan ventured a guess. "Everyone in this city is like you?"

"Of course," the second one laughed. "As I said, you two look like such a waste of material. Your mother could have been blessed with four sons, with the same amount of substance she used to make two."

"We are not blood-related," I pointed out. "And... also, simply not related."

I wondered which one of us would look like the eldest in their eyes. Perhaps me, due to my height. We were the same age, but couldn't really pass off for twins.

"Maybe you could tell us a bit about Tevel," Jonathan said. He had already grown accostumed to these peculiar people, and couldn't wait to make himself useful. When it was about asking people for help, we both knew it wouldn't be me.

"Sure," the first sister said. "Let's start with our names first. I am Judith."

"No," the other sister pouted. "I am Judith."

"Wait, what's the problem?" Jonathan grinned. "Too little blood to reach both your brains simultaneously?"

I tried not to laugh. First, I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of having finally cracked a good one. And secondly, I felt a bit sad to laugh at the expense of the sisters, at a joke they obviously hadn't even understood.

Though it wasn't because I was growing attached to them. If anything, my powers told me they were dangerous, and I had to kill them. But I didn't share it with Jonathan, because they were so faint in this dimension, I wasn't completely sure it wasn't my blood thirst talking.

"But," Judith said. "I thought you wanted to be Delilah! When we read the stories, you said you liked Delilah the best."

"I did," Delilah sighed. "I do. It's just that Judith sounds so much better. But I didn't understand the character fully. She got away from Holofernes beheading just one of his heads. What did she do with the other one?"

"You aren't used to having names," I realized. "So, how do people in Tevel call each other?"

"You," Judith said. "Everyone just talks with their other head. It's less confusing this way. And we wouldn't have time to talk to anybody else even if we wanted to! The Endless One wanted to give us all opinions, so our arguments are always one-sided."

Everyone just talks with their other head, I thought. So it didn't matter what she had said about Jonathan and I being a waste for two people. The sisters, and the other people of Tevel, didn't consider themselves as separate from their double.

I explained this in whispers to Jonathan when they were both busy bickering over who should wash the dishes.

"It makes sense," he said. "Now that you mention it, I remember King Solomon met someone like that once, and he proclaimed they were just one person."

King Solomon's stories, like the Prophets', and the ones mentioned by Judith and Delilah, were really ancient legends. But I guessed, if our world had existed for such a long time, the same could be said for any other.

"You!" Jonathan called out to the sisters. I still turned my head stupidly in his direction, which made them giggle.

"Yes?" answered Delilah, clearly at ease at being called the way she was used to.

"There's no need for you to do the dishes," he said amicably. "In fact, my friend and I are hungry. We have traveled many miles, and we haven't had anything to eat yet."

"That's perfect!" Judith practically purred. "We would be honored to give you boys a meal fit for kings. We'll give you our best recipe --- onion soup, with bread on the side."

Even in Old Solima, especially if you went to the Metis', you could eat better than that, but Jonathan and I didn't mention it.

"I disagree," Delilah said. Ever since they'd mentioned their arguments, I was afraid the moment they would start bickering was upon us. It turned out I was right.

"I think they don't deserve to have us working for them, as if we owe them anything," she said. "What's more, we'll need to double the dose we usually eat for their two stomachs."

She said the last two words with evident disgust in her voice.

"Maybe you'll need to do more than double it," Jonathan said, eyeing how tiny and frail they were. Jonathan had more muscles, and I was considerably taller, and we had been starving. "However," he added then. "You are right --- you should not do this work for us. As long as it's a simple onion soup with slices of bread on the side, I can do it myself."

It was the wrong thing to say.

The two heads immediately started bickering about our insolence (it was Jonathan's, but they seemed as unable to see us as two different people as much as it was hard for me to think of them as one.)

"And what do you think, anyway?" Judith snapped. "That our special recipe is so easily made?"

"We will make it for you," Delilah acquiesced in the end. "If you make one thing for us after that."

"Deal," Jonathan said. I grimaced at his timing.

"Perhaps we should think about it," I said.

"They are being reasonable!" Jonathan bit back. "There's nothing to think about. Just because you don't trust people..."

"It's not about that," I blushed. "If it was about that, I would be wondering what unmentionable things they can put in that soup pretending it's just onions! But I wasn't... though, now that I think about it..."

"Don't," Jonathan suggested, not entirely unkindly. "We cannot be picky about what we eat here. Who knows how long the journey is going to take, and we are already famished."

"Yes," I said without thinking. "We should just gobble down anything anyone give us, Mister Poison-for-breakfast!"

Jonathan's eyes were hurt, and I immediately regretted my words. I had no idea what it was like growing up with someone who tried to kill you for sport. But, if we kept not mentioning it, he would also never be any wiser for it.

The sisters were eerily calm. They seemed totally at ease with our outbursts.

"You're just like us!" Judith said merrily. "You'll fit in Tevel really well. Besides, tall one, if I was afraid something had given us something poisonous, why, I'd simply feed it to Delilah first!"

"You have the same stomach..." Jonathan pointed out weakly.

"Instant karma," I grinned.

In the end, there was nothing to it but to eat the soup. 

Delilah and Judith watched us all the while, completely amazed at seeing two separate people, or maybe, just that many portions of soup.

We didn't talk while we ate, especially because they kept looking at us giggling.

"The thing they want from us in return," I told Jonathan. "It could be anything."

"Well, only something we can give," Jonathan replied. "We don't have anything."

"We have plenty," I said, thinking of stuff such as our lives, our souls, our powers.

I kind of wanted to see how it would play out if Jonathan was asked to give his Skill up for soup. But it wouldn't be no laughing matter, since my powers would be requested too.

"Don't fret," Delilah said. "We will not ask for anything that matters too much to you. And don't be sorry if the other head made the deal before you could say anything --- just try to be quicker next time!"

When we finished eating, and two sisters had washed the dishes --- we would have helped, but they took great offense --- they put on boiling water for tea.

"We haven't had guests in... maybe we never had guests," Judith sighed dreamily. 

"I think we did," Delilah said, but it was a half-hearted try. She didn't add anything, which made me think she wasn't going to embellish her story with any detail.

"Are you from above-ground?" Judith asked, suddenly sharp. "There are only six worlds out of all of them that are under the ground of yours, and ours is one of them."

"I thought you didn't know anything about us, or where we came from," Jonathan said.

"They never explicitly said that," I huffed. "Maybe my head should do the talking."

"Please," Jonathan mocked horror. "Do not phrase it like that."

"Some of us find your world sometimes," Delilah explained. "We are mistaken for Creatures, and killed by Watchers, or so we've heard."

"Don't say it's not possible," Judith said before we could reply. "Anyone who's from a different dimension other than beyond the veil represents a threat to your world."

"It's not true," Jonathan tried to reason. "The Endless One wouldn't allow for such injustice."

"Yes," Judith said, talking as if it was against her will. "We simply dissolve, as, for some reason, we can't make the journey. Sorry for not backing you up, Delilah. But if you lie, I cannot lie, too. You know how it works."

"We really need to travel through this world to help a friend out," I said. "So, could you be quicker and tell us what you want with us?"

"Oh, it's very easy," Delilah said. "And you're going to love it."

"Do you agree?" I asked Judith. I wanted to see if she was lying.

She simply nodded.

"It is not fair that you can make the journey that destroys us," she added. "So, we want to make you stay here with us forever."

"First," Delilah said. "We have to make you into one of us. We normally have four limbs, but you'll have to do with two. You'll be looked down upon, at first, but there's nothing to it --- your legs and arms are too mismatched, you'll never be able to synchronize."

"Obviously, we have to keep the limbs and the trunks of the taller one," Judith commented. "Otherwise, it would be the bigger waste out of the two. Though the other is more handsome. What a pity you two are so unfit to go together."

"So, what exactly are you planning to do?" Jonathan asked. His hand was already resting on his sword.

"It's simple, silly," Delilah laughed. "We'll behead you, and attach your head to the other body!"

"The other body disagrees," I said.

"It's the other head from now on," Judith sighed. "And they always do."

"Surely you can be persuaded," Jonathan stepped in. "Why should you keep us here forever?"

"It's way too obvious," Delilah groaned. "They are so daft, I wish we had opened our door to someone else."

She batted her long eyelashes.

"We need somebody that can reproduce with us," she simply put.

"Then don't be in such a hurry to choose," Jonathan smiled. "Ponder over who has the... most fitting private parts."

"I can't believe you just suggested that!" I screamed, to their delight. They loved watching us fight.

"I'm hoping it's big enough of an issue, excuse the pun, to have them start bickering, and then we can run for our lives," he whispered.

"As if there was any question," I said. "You both know you're better-looking than me, and everybody knows it."

"We're not talking faces here," Jonathan said matter-of-factly. "Sure, I can give you competition in any department. But you're no less attractive than I am. We're just different types."

I knew Jonathan didn't pay compliments often, and lied even more rarely, so I was grateful to hear he thought so.

Soon enough, the two heads were bickering about which one of us to choose. I tried not to listen, but Judith was pointing out that the the way my body was bigger could lead to an educated guess, and Delilah was saying that, even if she ended up being right, size didn't matter, and, what's more, she wanted their babies to Jonathan's genes.

"If we don't start running any time soon," I told Jonathan. "They're going to strip us down."

"If I had a penny for every time..."

"Don't," I muttered darkly. "Just don't."

"The door is locked," Jonathan whispered to me. "But I have a plan... just distract them for a bit!"

"You can't have my body," I told the sisters. "I am homosexual, which means that I would not feel desire laying with you. And my head wouldn't desire it either, so even Jonathan's body might not respond. So that kind of ruins your whole plan..."

Jonathan by then, had come back with the tea the sisters had prepared for us. It was cold.

"Since it's obvious we don't want to stay," he said. "I'll make you another deal."

"You already broke your promise once," Judith pointed out.

"Deals are fun!" Delilah said.

"I'll ask you a question," he said. "If one of you answers correctly, we'll stay. If you don't, we are free to go."

"If I pour this tea on Judith's head," Jonathan went on. "Which one of you will feel wet?"

I prayed he wasn't going to create a stupid joke out of this. The Endless One listened to my prayer.

"Judith," Delilah squealed, clearly delighted at our own stupidity.

"Delilah," Judith was forced to mutter, acting like a sore loser.

"You're both wrong," Jonathan smiled. "You'll both feel wet!"

"Technically we were right," Judith tried. "Because we each said the name of the other."

"None of you said both," I growled. "And none of you meant it."

As if to demonstrate the answer wasn't fake, Jonathan poured the cold tea over Judith's head. Both sisters shrudded like it was raining from the sky.

"Okay," Judith said. "We'll let you go. A deal is a deal. But so was yours to do something for us. Don't worry --- our leader will hear about this, and he won't go so easy on you!"