'Mina, trust me.'

Reia, tallest child in the orphanage with the biggest personality. Loud, commanding, but warm like sunshine and loved by all she met from the age of five until she was recorded as "missing", by the orphanage, at the tender age of seventeen. She was only a few days away from her eighteenth birthday. 

Would anyone remember the dark-haired girl that she was so close to? Perhaps not. But she, too, went missing later that week, chasing the dream of a sister that never existed.

Perhaps the dark-haired girl should have known from the start that Reia was leagues above her. Everybody wanted to adopt Reia. Why would she stay in the hopeless prospect of the orphanage, when wealthy patrons offered to adopt her as an heiress?

Did love of a friend extend that far? Perhaps the "logical" girl should have realised that no, Reia's love did not come without a price. The thief became the deceived. 

The dream was not real, but waking from it with tears flooding my eyes didn't detract from the pain lancing through my chest. Darkness hit my eyes, and I knew it would take a few minutes before my eyes could even detect how dark this hellhole was. It was the same every half-hour or so of dozing, a dream narrating my idiocy, and waking up, sobbing and berating myself for being drawn in.

Reia's gloating face was not one I recognised prior to today, but it was the only thing I could see clearly in this cell. Mouth curling, pretty pink lips curling, hair curling-- every bit of her curling in pride and power.  She eyed me with a distaste that I'd never seen her give to a stray, dirty dog on the street. I hadn't even resisted when guards had shoved me to the floor, my head battered against the blackened soot of the king's clothes. Chained and tied and marched to the basements, my body had been separate from my aching heart. 

How had she known it was me? My hair was cut and shaped like Aster's. My face was covered by the mask, my clothes were nothing she'd ever seen me in. The dark magic had even lengthened my wings to resemble Aster's. But as soon as she saw me, Reia had known who I was, and ordered the guards accordingly.

'Take this girl to a cell. She is responsible for the murder of the King and the usurping of a kingdom. Let the city know that the execution of the rebel Lumina Fawcett will take place in the morning.'

'Yes, my lady,' the group had chorused, taking my hands and binding them with a substance I couldn't describe, but it welded my wrists together. Then, my feet were bound loosely, so that I could still shuffle but not run. 

Even now, I could hear my protesting voice. 'Reia? Reia, why?'

And her corresponding gloat. 'This is my throne.'

I threw myself against the stone of the cell, feeling the cold strike my face in a rush of pain. There was water on the floor; several hours must have passed by, and yet no nourishment had been provided. Water left coating the stone slabs was starting to sound appealing to the back of my dry, parched throat. My knees were freezing from kneeling, uncomfortable in any other position, and the spell of the dress having worn off hours ago. I was returned to tatty black rags, befitting a prisoner, my small, useless wings curled up to retain whatever heat my body had left. The Opal still sat hotly in my pocket, but I was too exhausted to even try and use its powers. After seeing it incinerate a man, I was far too acutely away of its danger to wish to use it again.

Execution. Had I really come this far, to be killed in such a way? By my own sister? 

How was I going to die? Would it be quick?

Did they capture anyone else? Hopefully, Fabian's group had made it safely away from the party after the arrest was announced. I prayed that Sakura had joined them, and maybe they could attend my funeral.

I coughed again, stifling a sob. I cursed my stupidity under my breath.

'Lumina?' the voice pierced through the darkness. Although I squinted my eyes, it was still too black to see anything. I had only a familiar voice to place to help me, coming from somewhere a  few metres away.

'Hello?' I scrambled, limping on knees and my bound hands, towards the bars of the cell. A sliver of light cracked from a doorway five or six cells away. The voice had to be coming from one of them, but I could only make out a dark outline.

'It's me,' the voice came once more, and I suddenly placed it, the short, brown-haired priestess who had flown me to Angelica in the first place.

'Arianna!' I breathed. I heard her give a low chuckle.

'That's me.'

'How did you...? How did you end up here? I paused short, berating myself. I knew roughly why Arianna was here, and it was because of me. 

The girl didn't seem to mind the question, however, and approached it like she was tackling an algebra problem. 'After you jumped, I circled around and tried to land near Ruby. Damn Commander Daedaron found my plane landing, took me into the prison for questioning. Then handed me over to that bitch, thought I'd be of use to her.'

'Who?'

The voice spoke with malice. 'Freya.'

Reia has been busy. 'And...?'

'Well, they haven't told me anything useful, but I've overheard a lot. And for what they're using me for...I'm not stupid. I can work it out.'

Impatience littered my next question. 'What?'

'They've bound my eyes,' the voice broke the silence a little, clearly a fragment or what she had endured. Her voice fluttered, breaking. 'She...they have this metal band they place over my eyes to block my power. I can only See the future when they want me to, and they force me to...I'm so sorry. It's all my fault. They always ask about you, what you're doing, That's how they're always one step ahead of us, Lumina, because of me. I can't stop them.'

Arianna's voice broke, and her self-hatred was evident within her growl of pain and the sound of a fist connecting with wall. But her words hadn't struck me in the way she might have thought; I was grieving that my sister had watched my journey, watched as I searched for her desperately, watched as I approached her home.

Reia knew?  All along? Pain, anger and betrayal burned a deep scar within my heart. She had known, but didn't care enough to leave a message, find me herself. No, she loved me enough to put another man's blood on my hands for her own gain.

Her father's. Why? She had plenty of opportunity to kill me, and plenty of opportunity to kill him. Why did she have to wait until I did the deed?

'She knew about the attack on the prison. By then, her and the Commander would be in cahoots to get information out of me, so he knew too. I'm sorry, I tried to focus on irrelevant futures, but they kept pressuring me, enough to build a picture of what was to come.'

I shook my head, knowing Arianna couldn't see. When I didn't say anything, I realised that she was trying to apologise, that she was desperately looking for retribution.

'I'm so sorry!' she wailed, and the agony in her voice hurt. 'I can't ever expect you to...'

'I forgive you,' I said quietly, and the cells fell silent. Somewhere, water dripped, bouncing off the walls. 'I forgive you, over and over. You saved my life that day. You have been tortured unwillingly, whilst I have allowed Reia to deceive me. I am to blame.'

There was no sound from Arianna's corner, and I feared that I had upset her further. A quiet sniff confirmed my crisis, and if my hands were free, I would slap myself. It seemed like I could never say the right thing, even when I really needed to comfort someone. If only I was like Reia...

I jolted, as if physically struck. The thought, that had crossed my mind hundreds of times as an ironic humour now made me feel sick. Like lovers gone sour, hundreds of images of Reia and me burst forth into my mind, reminding me that I'd never been anything without my sister, and I'd journeyed across a different world just to find her, get her back.

And I never, ever would. 

Every memory was now tinged with bitterness, a burning bilious sensation that I wished could rip the memory from my head. Reia and I, sharing birthday parties of a cake and candle together. Reia's laughter when I'd gotten my first bleed and ran screaming from the latrines like a banshee. Reia caring for me when I got sick, and then her in bed a week later having caught the same flu from me. 

I shook my head, still incredulous. What had happened to my Reia? There was no way the same girl that had cleaned up my vomit from my chin was the girl that tortured my friend.

'A lot has changed since I've been imprisoned,' Arianna laughed weakly, interrupting my thoughts. 'When I left you, you were just a thief. Now you're a queen, through and through.'

My ears burned. 'How? I killed the king! I'm going to be executed!'

A deep laugh filled the dungeon, as dark as the surroundings, but definitively female. And even more familiar. I gasped, 'Valkyrie?'

'It's me, yeah,' came a muffled reply. 'Unfortunately. It's shitty in here, isn't it? They haven't emptied my chamber pot in days, if you could call this a chamber...'

'That's enough,' Arianna muttered.

'Where did you go?' I demanded, ignoring the two of them bickering. 

'After our break in? He killed Clae,' Val's voice dropped from sarcastic and bored to angry and resentful. 'He killed Clae, Lumina, how could I let him go? He scarpered, and I knew you guys were blocked. So I chased him, and he took the tunnels. Didn't take long for them to catch me once I got into the palace, thanks to Arianna.'

'Sorry,' the girl snapped. I had a feeling her apology to Val hadn't gone as well as mine had. 

'...so how did you get caught?' Valkyrie brushed over her pained memories. 'Entertain me.'

I recounted from getting out of the prison-- leaving out the parts where Fabian and I had become more intimately involved-- and described briefly acquiring the dresses, ignoring any reaction they gave to me using dark magic. Then, I recalled the ball in detail, again skipping over the real facts of my dancing with Fabian, up until I found Reia and murdered a king.

Arianna let out a low whistle. 'I know you killed him. I Saw it, Freya gleaned it from whatever technology it is that allows them to project my visions.'

'So...Reia had to play along? Because it was going to happen?' I was confused. 

Arianna paused, and I sensed a deep sadness in what she was about to tell me. 'No, my friend. The future is a many threaded thing, with each thread requiring gentle direction or else will snap and be lost. There was a future where Freya-- Reia-- chose not to have you kill the king, but she picked this one out of many alternatives.'

I let those words wash over me, a numb tingling left in my broken heart. 

Arianna noticed my silence. 'You couldn't have known, Lumina. She's very powerful.'

'And a sadistic witch,' Val added, 'A cold hearted, lying, cheating scumbag.'

Something. Something still wasn't adding up. A gap my brain was trying to reach, to leap, but missing without that important information. 'How did she know I'd kill the king? It was-- it was so strange in there. One minute, everything was dark and bleak and then-- then the king was old, and...'

My voice trailed off, remembering the split I'd encountered. A young king and an inanimate Reia. The king threatening Reia's safety, my rage, my terror. His speed. 

Slowly, I said, 'What's Reia's power?'

Arianna breathed an understanding, 'Oh.'

'What?'

'Well, I forgot that you wouldn't know...it took me a while to realise, too...'

'What?' 

'...and that's because she used it on me every day...'

'She used it on me, too,' Val said glumly.

'Tell me!' I shouted.

Arianna hesitated, then said quietly, 'An illusionist. The Princess creates powerful, realistic illusions that your own brain then nurtures.'

I didn't speak. I couldn't.

This meant...

'The Reia you likely knew was a fabrication of a spell she may have placed on you before you even left the island, eighteen years ago.'

My breathing became shallower, but I didn't realise until I heard Arianna's and Val's voices telling me to calm down, to take deep breaths. Val was also swearing profusely, another reason that I wouldn't survive another day even if I did escape execution. Morwena would rip me limb from limb.

'That can't be true!' I burst out, huffing in panic. I couldn't calm down. 'Everyone else at the orphanage saw Reia!'

'From what I've observed, her magic can pass from one to another. Who arrived at the orphanage first?'

I did. My answer spoke volumes.

Arianna said gently, 'Her spell could have passed on from you to the others.'

No. No, no, no. It can't be that.

No way.

'But she was real,' I volleyed, 'She ripped the Opal from my eye, for Angelica's sake!'

'Her illusions take form, Lumina, powered by the believer,' Arianna responded. 'The stronger you believed in that Reia, the more powerful and alive she became.'

I shuddered. I'd made it so easy.

'I told you,' Val said, 'She's a manipulative bitch. But hey, at least we can take moral high ground, right? We can die with that one comfort...'

Fabian's voice entered my mind, a distant memory of a time when we'd just met. 'That used to be you.' It had been in response to my protestations that Reia had accompanied me to Earth, met with skepticism by Scarlett and Fabian. They had known her real character, whereas the memory had been erased when I'd been sent away. 

My own memories hadn't existed before Reia. My earliest memory was that day she arrived at the orphanage. And what of Reia? In the memories Scarlett and Fabian had showed me, she'd been shy, then coached by the old Lumina into becoming something of a copy. Had Reia been jealous all along? Was that why her illusion had been so perfect?

'She was there on the night you disappeared, although whether it was to help or hinder you we don't know.' Scarlett's words returned to me, another memory of the day they showed me their memories. My only conclusion was that Reia had been there to cast the spell, and it had grown exponentially.

'Thank you for telling me,' I whispered, crawling back to the corner of my cell. My eyes had finally adjusted, and ebony slabs of rock were my only cellmates. Arianna and Valkyrie, too, fell silent, possibly respectful of my need to be alone as salty tears dripped along my cheeks, joining the wet damp of the floor. 

---

I awoke as the gate of my cell was unlocked, pulled open with a screech. Two dark, menacing figures reached towards me, grabbing my chains. Their strength was too great to resist.

'Lumina!' I could hear Arianna screaming.

'Get off her you bastards!' Valkyrie shouted in a rough accent. Despite my terror, her words brought a small smile. Morwena would be furious.

'I'm fine!' I said back, trying to sound reassuring. The guards grabbed me by the arm, pinching my skin. I could make out their red uniforms, a black maroon in this light. 

'You'll be joining her soon, don't worry,' one of the guards laughed, and my stomach threatened to retch. Val and Arianna went seethingly quiet. 

They pulled on my arms, dragging me from the long dungeons. When my foot hit steps, they didn't explain a word, just allowed me to stumble. I tried to speak to them, asking where Reia was, but they ignored me, then threatened to gag me. 

Stair after stair after stair, and all in a claustrophobic spiral pattern. I feared I would trip and fall, but hopefully I could take the one guard following me behind if I did. The other guard stepped in front of me, sure footed enough that he would pull on my hair if I slowed. My thighs burned and a number ticked in the back of my head.

Eighty-eight, eighty-nine, ninety...

With each step my heart began to pound faster at the thought of being taken up so high. Why was I going up? Did they mean to execute me from a platform, so everyone could see?

One hundred and fifty two, one hundred and fifty three...

Onward we went, until I'd lost count after two hundred. My breath was ragged and sweat beaded along my forehead, in my dank hair. I was almost relieved when we hit bright sunlight, and a sunrise of dawn and blue sparkled beyond the gate. 

---

A/N: NEARLY THERE!!!! -cries tears of relief and terror- thank you for those that have stuck around thus far! When I start my edits I'll be sure to dedicate chapters to you, you've given me so much happiness to see you following my work and commenting your experience.

What do you think of Reia? Believe that she's a horrible, evil cow?

Depending on how much I write, this could be the second to last chapter! Plus an Epilogue.

Then...BOOK TWO! 

(Collapses in a heap).

lots of love
Larissa