For several seconds Valens could only stare. Just stare and wait, sure that any moment the sight before him would disappear. He'd blink and realize it was a dream or daydream. A mindholder illusion or optical illusion. Something. This was too much to hope for. Yet Sidus stood there grinning like a fool and Domi sobbed in sheer relief, so Valens knew he must not be seeing things.

A flicker of movement behind him drew his eye. Buccina, wearing her creepy pockmarked boy disguise, stepped into the room, smirking like a cat with cream. Valens's eyes narrowed. If she played some trick...

"It is no trick," the blue-eyed boy said, smiling as he--no, she--watched Domi sink on trembling knees next to the woven mat where his twin slept. "Well, not anymore."

"He's alive," Domi whispered again. He reached with a trembling hand to touch his brother, then hesitated. Valens understood why; between the fading bruises on Daedalus's face, sutured cuts, and splinted arm with blistered fingers peeking out of the bandages, there didn't seem to be a safe place to touch Daedalus without causing pain. The younger boy drew his hand back, then turned to look at Buccina's illusion, brown eyes pleading. "He's alive, right?"

The ebony-skinned illusion inclined his head. "Yes, he's alive." He--she--approached the mat, crouching down. Valens stared; wondering if Buccina truly squatted in her jewel-crusted paenula like that or if even the movement was an illusion. "He's just resting." She plucked something from Daedalus's temple and held it up; a teardrop-shaped promenia crystal throbbed golden and green between her dark fingers, and beneath her, the sleeping boy stirred with a faint gasp. "His heart and prometarium are severely damaged, but this is helping him recover. It makes him sleep most of the time. We can wake him, though."

Domi nodded, his eyes anguished. Hopeful. "P-please."

The Princeps Mindholder's illusion nodded, and she placed the crystal back on Daedalus's temple. The twin settled at once, breathing easier, then groaned as Buccina gave his shoulder a gentle shake. "Daedalus? Come now." He twitched and swatted weakly at her hand with his uninjured arm, lashes fluttering. "That's right. Open your eyes, dear boy."

Despite everything Buccina had just explained, it wasn't until the older twin's eyes cracked open and he squinted first at Buccina's illusion, then at the others, that Valens believed.

Eternal Radiance, the executed boy lived. Truly lived. Valens found himself staring, open-mouthed. He wasn't the only one.

Daedalus tensed, eyes darting around the room. His gaze landed on his twin, and tension bled from his frame. He relaxed against the mat with a shaky sigh. "D-Domi?" he croaked.

The younger twin smiled through his tears. "Yeah. You're alright. You..." He broke off, sobbing, but for the first time in days, Valens saw relief, not despair in his tears.

"The Eternal Radiance did not want me," the older boy whispered with a confused, broken smile. His voice cracked with sickness or disuse. "So it seems."

Domi gripped his twin's uninjured hand. "H-how? I saw you die."

"A long..." Daedalus swallowed and tried again, his voice stronger with the second attempt. "It is a long story," he slurred. "I still do not understand it all myself."

Buccina's illusion spread his hands. "Not so terribly long," the pockmarked boy said slyly, and Valens wondered if the illusion altered the mindholder's personality while she wore it. Or maybe Valens's perception of her personality? "Let's just say that before the execution, Princeps Oliva experienced a... sudden change of mind and heart."

"Princeps Buccina ensorcelled her," Sidus chuckled.

Buccina shrugged. "Oliva no longer cared personally if Daedalus died or not. She did her duty and used her prometus to stop his heart for three minutes, but saw no need to confirm later that his body remained dead."

"He wasn't dead?" Domi asked, clutching Daedalus's hand hard enough that Valens noticed the older twin wince.

"He was dead," Buccina affirmed, patting Daedalus's shoulder with a soothing touch as the sick boy gulped. "But after his body left the Rex's sight, I arranged an illusion to replace Daedalus on the funeral cart and delivered the dear boy to a physician. She helped him--"

"But the Rex's compulsion doesn't allow lifeholders to heal," Aix interrupted, frowning.

"Indeed, but this wasn't a lifeholder, just a Pyrrhaei physician." Buccina smiled down at Daedalus. "She restarted your heart with compressions and then used the medicine crystal to stabilize you and help you begin to recover. I do not know how it works, but you are getting better. You're much more lucid today."

Aix cleared his throat. "Medicine crystals use promenia to heal without converting it." He smiled with sympathy down at Daedalus. "Cardiac arrest causes heart damage, Basiluculus, and a cluden wound severely damages the prometarium, but that crystal helps your body recover. It is slow, however. Unlike lifeholder healing, it doesn't convert promenia into new tissues, just directs the body's processes to better facilitate healing. Now that you're producing prometus again, you will heal even faster, especially with the crystal's help. But you're going to feel sick for a while, I'm afraid."

"But... But..." Domi whispered, staring down at his twin's hand. Not at the hand he clutched but the one propped, blistered from Trellis burns, atop a folded blanket on the older twin's chest. "But he burned on the pyre. I saw it. I s-smelled it," he added, his jaw trembling.

"You saw what I wished you to see," Buccina's illusion said, and Valens thought he saw some of the true woman's sympathy in the eerie laurel-blue eyes. "The others were farther away and saw a black-haired boy your brother's size."

Daedalus blanched and struggled up to one elbow. "Did you kill someone who looked like me?" he asked, horror choking his voice.

The ebony-skinned illusion closed his eyes with a heavy sigh. "The things we have done to you, to lead you to believe such a thing might be possible," she murmured, sorrow in her voice. She opened her illusion's sapphire eyes again. "Of course not, dear boy. Many people have been dying in the aftermath of Trellis Descent. An agent found a body that roughly matched your description. The boy merely received a Princeps's funerary rites instead of a pauper's."

Domi reached out, slipping an arm under Daedalus's shoulders to try to force his twin to sit the rest of the way up. Panic made his eyes wild. "He can't stay here. They'll execute him again if he's found." He gripped his twin's shoulders. "Get up, you can't stay here!"

"Brother," his twin gasped, stiffening in his hands. "You are hurting me."

"Shh now," Valens said, taking his alumna in hand and pulling him gently off of his wounded brother. He pulled the boy close and regarded the older twin.

Daedalus panted, wearied just from sitting upright. Valens doubted his broken rib had knit yet, and others had likely fractured when the physician gave him chest compressions. He needed rest. But it was not safe. The injured boy was incredibly vulnerable.

Valens nodded to himself as he made his decision. "No, he can't stay here. We'll take him with us. It will be easier to hide him in the night-side."

"Really?" Domi gasped, wild eyes hopeful. He looked ready to spring to the door, eager to get his brother out of Vola Apertus as fast as possible.

"With you?" Daedalus asked with a small frown.

"He's right, dear boy," Buccina said. "It's too dangerous for you to stay here. The others will just be held hostage if found, but you will be killed again."

Valens gritted his teeth. And next time, the Rex would ensure Oliva was far more thorough.

"Can you help hide his presence?" Valens asked. He didn't know much about mindholder magic, but the Princeps ought to be able to place promenia around Daedalus that would make anyone looking at him fail to notice him.

"Oh no, I won't hide him." Buccina's illusion smiled slyly, broken teeth brilliant white in the boy's dark face. "I will simply let everyone see her instead."

"Her?" Sidus asked.

"Eyes devour!" Domi yelped.

Valens jerked his head to look and found his alumna staring, open-mouthed, at his brother. Only where a boy slouched wearily upon the mat a moment earlier, now a girl Domi's age sat hunched in pain. The pale gold tunica and paenula Daedalus wore at his execution had been replaced by crisp feminine silver and white. Her wavy black hair, no longer in a loose tri-braid, piled atop her head in a messy bun and her olive skin seemed pale alongside her brother's healthier complexion. Still, the resemblance remained. The two still looked like siblings.

"What?" Daedalus asked when he saw everyone looking at him, then froze, mouth falling open. "W-what?" he sputtered, gripping his blanket in his good hand, "I sound like a--"

"I'd like you all to meet Daedala." Buccina's pockmarked illusion offered a smug smile. "Call her Dala for short. Domi's sister."

Valens shook off his shock. "Is he well enough to travel?" He needed to get this kid out of here before someone found the boy. The disguise would only work against people unfamiliar with the twins and their appearances. He cast an assessing look over the girl--no, the boy. Eternal Radiance. "How do you feel?"

"Sick," Daedalus said, his soft voice even gentler as a young girl. "Quite ill. I..." He looked around at everyone with an apologetic frown. "I-I do not think that I can walk yet."

Valens nodded. He'd been afraid of that. Well, then there was nothing for it. "Fine, I will carry you." He pressed Domi into Aix's hands and then bent to pick up the older twin. "We need to leave. Now."

<>

Her image restored, Buccina knocked on the faux white marble door to the skychamber where both twins rested. "May I come in for a moment?"

"Yeah," one of the boys said even as a softer feminine voice murmured, "Yes, Basilicus."

Lip quirking and tugging at her scars, Buccina turned the knob and stepped within the private sleeping chamber.

Valens sat on a velvet chair at the bedside, watching the twins like a hawk as Aix leaned over Daedalus, promenia humming.

"How is he?" Buccina asked. The older twin's appearance, perfectly mirrored by his illusory feminine form, looked far better than when she had collected his body after the execution. Still, she was not a lifeholder, and the medicine crystal the Pyrrhaei physician had given her only reported so much to someone with her limited knowledge. Aix could make far greater use of the promenia artifact than she could.

"Better," the silver-haired lifeholder said, patting the illusory girl's dainty wrist and the boy's own wrist a hair's width below the promenia layer. "He's a little sore from being carried but suffered no harm from the journey here."

"Good," she said, relief bringing a smile to her face. The physician told her that without prometus, Daedalus had about a thirty percent chance of surviving even with the crystal's aid. But now that his body started producing prometus again, he ought to make a full recovery. Still, more healing needed to occur before she'd feel comfortable leaving him. "I need to depart soon and release the attendant's minds so they can fly," she said, then nodded politely at Valens. "But before I leave, I would like to take a look at both of your alumnae."

"What? Why?" Domi glared, the look feeble on the exhausted boy's face. "There's nothing wrong with my mind."

At the same moment, Daedalus frowned in confusion, the softer feminine features of the illusion Buccina had woven around him following his natural facial movement. "I am not his alumna."

Valens rose from his chair, casting an assessing glance over the twins and then holding Buccina in his narrowed amber gaze. She breathed calmly, letting her open expression and recent deeds speak for themselves as he weighed her trustworthiness. After a moment he nodded.

"Please stay," she said, resting a hand on his upper arm to stop him as he moved to step out the door. He arched a brow, and she nodded to Aix as well. "It is best that both of you listen. I will reinforce what I say magically to help them both hold onto it and continue to process it after I leave. But it will help if the two of you hear as well, so you can help them later as needed."

"I don't want your help," Domi said. His hand gripped his brother's forearm; the boy had scarcely let his twin go since they'd been reunited, fear that if he let go the other boy would disappear swimming against the thoughts brushing Buccina now and then.

She took a seat in the chair Valens had left. "I know," she said, nodding as Aix and Valens sat down on opposite edges of the twins' bed. "You think you should hurt. That this pain you feel is justified and shouldn't go away. That you should hurt even more after what happened."

The boy stilled, his fingers on his twin's wrist whitening as he trembled, and Daedalus winced but did not withdraw his arm from his brother. "I... I..."

"You have both been through trauma," Buccina said, keeping her tone soft and her magic softer as she threaded promenia into both boys. The black pools of their minds opened before her. "Several enormous traumas no one your age should ever have to experience."

The thoughts and emotions stirred up by her words rippled over the black waters, and deeper cognitive structures drifted and flitted just under the surface like koi. Buccina cast her promenia over the water like a fisherwoman's line to see what her words might snag. Her magic hooked into Domi's agonizing guilt easily, and his denial tried to dart away but soon floundered into her gentle net. She did not even have to try to catch his desire for punishment; it swam into her hold, eager for satisfaction and help.

Daedalus provided a slightly greater challenge, the boy's superior training keeping his thoughts deeper, his feelings still but for the slowest of shifts, like crabs and algae clinging to a pond floor. She sank her promenia deep, grasping shame and abandonment, netting confusion. The feelings clung to the boy with deep, painful roots, more like jagged coral than supple seaweed.

Buccina sighed. It looked about as she expected, though her heart still ached for them both. She weighed their emotions and cognitive structures with care. Religion played a strong role with both twins: religious abuse for the older boy, and religious betrayal for the younger. It was painful to see--and she bore more than a little responsibility in her role overseeing propaganda--but she could work with what she found.

"Alright," she said at last and began tugging gently on the promenia lines. She must not destroy the twins' agonizing but normal emotions, but she could ease them and move them into more appropriate places in their consciousnesses. "I see that you are both spiritual people, Daedalus because of your upbringing as a priest, and Domi because of your mother's tutelage and Pullati ways. Do you both believe that the Eternal Radiance is your parent?"

Valens arched an unimpressed brow and the twins peered at her in confusion, Domi's blended with suspicion and Daedalus's with curiosity. She ignored the aedificans and gave the twins an expectant look.

Daedalus nodded. "Yes, of course."

"Yeah," Domi added, voice grudging. He set his jaw and gave her a challenging glare. "The real Eternal Radiance."

"The real one?" Buccina asked, keeping her tone light. She sensed hurt and anger connected to the Trellis but left them be. Some emotions were reasonable and healthy right now.

"Yeah." The boy crossed his arms and fixed her with a sullen look. "Not the one who everyone says made the Trellis and says Pullati are inferior and rides around in some barge beyond the sun. The real one."

"That's blasphemy," Daedalus said, frowning at his twin, who glared back.

"He's allowed to think what he thinks, Daedalus," Buccina reminded the boy in a gentle voice and nodded as, contrite, he looked down and nibbled his lip uncertainly. With his upbringing, the older twin lacked exposure to alternative viewpoints, but she had confidence Aix and Valens would remedy such. But expanding his mind was work for another time. She looked from one boy to the other. "Now, do you believe that the Eternal Radiance's love is like the love of a parent?

"Yeah."

Daedalus took longer to respond. "I... Yes." He hesitated, staring at the red velvet blanket Aix had spread over him. "But..."

"But?" Buccina prompted when he trailed off. The shame and abandonment tugged on her promenia strings and she began relaxing them, easing their pressure even as the boy spoke.

"I am not..." He hesitated, studying his burned fingers where they peeked from his splint, but she heard the word he left unvoiced. "The Eternal Radiance does not love me."

"You are not lovable?" she asked, using the word he avoided, and Daedalus shrank even as Domi tensed at his twin's side. Her heart ached, and she sensed rage radiating from Valens. "Oh, my dear boy, of course you are."

He shook his head, still refusing to look at her. "There is something wrong with me."

Domi bit his lip. "Dae..."

"There is something wrong with us all," Buccina said. "Not you alone, dear boy. We are all imperfect. We all make mistakes, sometimes."

Now Domi looked down, breathing hard.

Buccina smoothed the younger twin's guilt and studied both boys as they avoided her eyes. That was all right; they were listening, at least. "We are loved despite our mistakes and sometimes even because of them."

It did not surprise her at all when Domi scoffed, his hands clenching on his brother's arm until Daedalus hissed in pain. She needed to surface this. It could endanger him if left so raw.

"Domi?" Buccina invited.

He lifted his eyes just enough to glare at her. "Some things aren't forgivable. Or loveable," he said, his voice bitter. "How is killing millions of people loveable?"

"The deaths are a terrible tragedy," she said slowly, smoothing his denial as it writhed in response to her words. "But do you remember why you made the mistake that you did? Why you took quellwort?" The younger twin looked down and she gentled her voice. "Because you wanted to give the Trellis back. You feared what might happen if you kept it any longer. You wanted the world to be safe and didn't feel like you could keep it safe if you carried the Trellis, so you wanted to give it back."

"You make it sound so honorable," he said, far too much bitterness and guilt in his voice for someone so young. He shook his head hard, jaw clenching, and she eased the protective resistance within him enough to let him speak the words he wanted to say without crying. "I got mad." He looked at his brother and away. "Dae made me mad because he said he was a better Princeps, so I threw a temper tantrum like a little toddler and it killed millions."

"Domi," Daedalus whispered, heartbreak washing over Buccina's awareness.

"We feel anger when we're scared, Domi," Buccina explained. "When something important to us is threatened, our body and mind prepare us to fight. You feared that your brother was right. That you were a less capable Princeps and that the world was in danger if you kept the Trellis." She shrugged. "So you acted to give it back, as many people in your position would have wanted to do." She glanced at his older twin. "Daedalus, do you think that the Eternal Radiance faults your brother's desire?"

"No."

"No indeed," Buccina agreed. "I think it even loves him for it. And I think it grieves with him that something so contrary to what he hoped for happened when he acted on that desire. It knows he didn't mean to hurt anyone." She nodded to the younger twin as he trembled in reaction. "Domi, it knows your heart. It knows you didn't want to hurt anyone."

"Still, I did," he said in a small voice. "I hurt so many people."

"I know," she said, soothing the guilt with care. She must not destroy it, for that would be unhealthy, but she bled some of the strength from it and guided his habitual thoughts in a new direction. "And now you are going to the night-side to ease the suffering by restoring the Trellis, but this time you have people with you to help you do that. So I want you to remember three things." She waited until he looked up at her, his eyes red but not tearing as she helped him hold his emotions. "This pain you feel is because you're a good person who didn't want to hurt anyone. The Eternal Radiance knows that and loves you. And you are not alone. You have your brother, Valens, and Aix at your side. Let them help you." She looked at the other boy. "And Daedalus?"

"Yes?"

"I wish that I could show you the Eternal Radiance's love. Its mind is the only one that I lack the power to feel or sway. But we carry the Divine Light within us. And our love is a reflection of its perfect, unconditional love. Yes?"

He frowned. "Yes. But--"

"No buts, Daedalus." She offered a gentle smile as he lifted his head to peer at her. "There are no buts with unconditional love. That's why it's unconditional. And you have felt a human version of such love."

"I have?" He paused, and she felt the awareness surface. "My daughters."

"Yes, Daedalus. You have twin daughters, as the Eternal Radiance has twin sons. You love them both equally, do you not? So why would the Eternal Radiance love you less than Domi?"

"But--" He broke off as she gave him a stern look. "I am sorry. I just mean..." He nibbled his lip. "Well, Domi was created for a purpose. But I--"

"So you know the divine's plans?" she asked. "Or do you believe that the divine is so stingy it includes only one of you in its plans?" She smiled as he frowned at her. "Cannot the Eternal Radiance make good use of everything and everyone in creation? Why bring you into being, only to discard you?"

"But what is my purpose, if I have one?"

Buccina shrugged. "I don't know, dear boy. To learn that, you must live your life and discover along the way what it is you have been put here to do." She leaned forward. "Now, I want you both to remember what I said today, so my magic is helping with that. And I want you to help each other remember. Daedalus, help your brother remember he's a good person, and even what happened stemmed from good intentions. Sometimes bad things happen that are beyond our ability to predict or control. We can only try to be good people." She turned to the younger twin as Daedalus nodded. "And Domi, help your brother remember that he has worth and a purpose even if he doesn't know it yet. He's worthy of love and life and there is nothing wrong with him that isn't also wrong with all of us. And Valens and Aix, try to help them both remember. My magic will help, but they need your help too."

The former started, but Aix inclined his head. "Yes, of course, Basilicus."

"Good." She withdrew her promenia and rose to her feet, nodding as Valens and Aix hurried to do likewise. "One more thing. Daedalus, I set the illusion to rise and fall at your discretion. If you are safe and trust those around you, you will be able to dismiss it. But I suggest wearing it at all times in public. Even people who are not angry at you two personally may feel uncomfortable if they know you're twins. It may be wise to claim you're Domi's older sister by a year, just in case."

"Why can't I be the older one?" Domi asked, arching a brow.

Valens snorted. "Because no one will believe it, Domi."

Buccina smiled at the younger twin's scowl. "Goodbye." She nodded politely as everyone turned to look at her. "I will release the attendants' minds so that you can depart. Safe travels, all of you."