Seiren.

"What?" Seiren said out loud, too broken to focus on her inner thoughts.

Take me over there.

Seiren frowned, lifting her head. The chaos -- no, celestial -- magic still swirled in her hands, brilliant white, but the room had dimmed. The ground that glowed the unnatural organic magic light faded back to the normal cracked marble. She touched the necklace and withdrew with a hiss. The stone was sizzling hot to touch, but didn't burn her.

"Over...?"

Maura.

Seiren struggled to her feet and stumbled outside the hall, the hushed voices of the other state mages disappearing into the background buzz. Maura's glassy eyes stared upwards at the night sky, the nearby flames throwing shadows across her body. The organic magic rune Kristen made had dissipated completely, but at the centre of Maura's chest was a little white glow. She still breathed -- just.

Seiren's necklace also glowed white.

"What is this?" she whispered, her voice hoarse.

The chaos outside makes this an ideal moment if you want to chance transplanting her soul into another body. Mother had said. But the necklace hadn't done this when Loren died, nor with any of the subjects Seiren had experimented on in Bicknor. Perhaps it was the catalysis happening right now that allowed it to respond so vibrantly. Perhaps it was her mother's magic flowing within her own body that made the power so palpable.

It's Mother's magic. The necklace is responding to Mother's magic in you.

"How?" It was a crazy thought.

It was her magic that night that kept me alive in here. And now you have her magic. Maybe...?

Seiren stared down at Maura's body.

I can't... surely not...?

Once you're a dead sack of meat, then it doesn't bloody matter what happens to you, or me, for that matter, but we can still change this. Maura's voice from merely a few hours ago rang clear. Maura wouldn't have minded, that was true.

But to transplant Madeleine's soul into her?

Madeleine pressed against the outer shell of Seiren's mind, with yearning.

It's calling me.

Seiren's ears rang, but Madeleine's voice was clear as glass. With trembling hands that still glowed with celestial magic, Seiren unfastened the necklace and knelt at Maura's side. Madeleine's presence vanished. Seiren gently placed the necklace over the glowing area on Maura's barely-moving chest and pressed. Kristen's magic poured down her arm like an opened tap. The white celestial magic flowed over her fingers, streaking through the stone, running over the blood rune, which glowed the same colour, and coursing over Maura's body. The insurmountable energy left Seiren breathless and faint, but she continued to press until there was nothing left of Kristen's presence in her body. The power left tingles all over; no doubt the catalysis by the deaths around them made the process all the more potent and possible. Maura's body bathed in the blinding white light until she was just a body outline with no features visible. Seiren sat back, eyes wide, her thoughts empty and her body drained.

She held her breath. The white glow seemed to take forever to dim, but it did. The light faded. Maura's face became visible again -- except she looked a little different. Her face was pointier, with a flatter nose, more prominent cheekbones, and thinner lips. The black hair faded to a medium brown. Her chest rose and fell with vigour. Colour returned to her cheeks.

After what felt like hours, the eyes opened. They were no longer the trademark blue-green of a Woodbead, but the same dark brown as Seiren's.

"Ma...Madeleine?" Seiren whispered. Those brown eyes stared up at the sky with a bewildered expression, the eyebrows knitting together. Maura -- or Madeleine -- took several deep breaths, blinking in surprise, before sitting up gingerly, fingers gripping the gravel and then bringing her hands up before her in delight. She turned to Seiren, a grin blossoming across her face.

"Seiren."

Even her voice sounded just like Madeleine's. Seiren's heart exploded. Warmth swamped her entire body as she threw herself forward and tackled Madeleine to the ground, a torrent of indescribable emotions swirling within her body like a typhoon. Noises came out of her throat, but she knew none of it made any sense. Tears poured from somewhere. Her body shook all over. Her hands roamed Madeleine's face, shoulders, arms, hips -- she was there. Madeleine was there. It was so real. She could touch her. She could smell her. Her skin was soft, those freckles returning. Her body shape still resembled Maura's, but just from contact, Seiren knew this was Madeleine.

"You're going to kill me the moment I come back to life?" Madeleine joked, laughing as Seiren sobbed. The sound was so clear, so present, not like the internal head voice Seiren had grown used to for the past six years. Seiren just about let her sit up. Madeleine grinned, stroking Seiren's cheeks, those familiar long-lashed brown eyes staring into her own. They pressed foreheads together like they used to as kids, Madeleine's smile stretching from ear to ear and Seiren snuffling with tears coursing down her face, her fingers digging deep into Madeleine's brown mage's uniform. Madeleine snaked her arms around Seiren and they kept their arms around each other for their lives, for what felt like forever.

When Seiren finally drew back, Maura's body had morphed even more into Madeleine. The hair neared blonde, the eyes were wider-set, the body plumper. Heat radiated from her despite the winter conditions. Seiren barely felt the cold or noticed the light that surrounded them. It was only when Madeleine looked up did Seiren follow her line of sight. Soldiers, tattered and bloodied, held fire torches up as if light runes had never existed.

Then she remembered the city-wide nullifier. She turned back to the crumbled remains of the front part of the palace, where the other state mages stood. Tied with the now de-magicked rope was Kristen Harred in the middle, flanked by Kommora and Halen Ashworth. Bellamy Southwark held up a barely-conscious Azriel Edevane, his junior. Two soldiers supported an unconscious Rowan between them. Seiren's throat tightened at the sight of him. She would have to explain what Maura had done -- and what she had done to Maura -- later.

The twins rose together, holding hands. Kristen smiled sadly at the sight of them as they approached. Kommora's eyes widened.

"I'd hoped this would happen," Kristen said in a gentle voice. "My magic still echoed. I'd hoped this would mean I get my girls back, but I hadn't banked on your stubbornness, Seiren. You're so much like your father."

Kommora yanked her forward, interrupting anything else she was going to say. She cast a single glance at Madeleine and took Kristen away.

"Perhaps I should have--" Seiren began. Madeleine shook her head.

"Taken her offer? No. You did the right thing."

"But... was it all lies?" The betrayal stabbed at her gut.

Madeleine watched their mother's retreating back, flanked by the fire torches of at least ten military personnel.

"I don't think so," she whispered. "She'd infused some of her own magic into the necklace. She wanted me to come back, given the right conditions. She gave me back to you even though she thought you might refuse her offer. She punished Karis Bonneville when she sent you after Halen Ashworth and you got hurt. She deliberately banished you to Moakai so you wouldn't be caught up in the country-wide reaping. I think, deep down, she does still love us."

"But she loves the plan for killing everyone in the country and gaining celestial magic even more."

Seiren stared down at her hands. Celestial magic. Chaos magic. Organic magic. Kristen had tried for years to mimic celestial magic in the form of organic magic and fell short of attaining it. Her plan to sacrifice Karmans to recreate celestial magic, just as the Teirrinese had before, was foiled.

"Is this the end of magic for me, then?" she said. Somehow, it didn't make her feel at as much of a loss as she'd envisioned. Magic defined her. But now...

Madeleine's hands clasped her own.

"We'll have to find out later, won't we?" she said with a smile.

****

"On this twelfth day of February, 1018, we declare the crowning of King Bolliver Woodbead of Karma. Long may he reign with justice and peace."

Seiren glanced at Rowan, who sat by her side, clad in his black state mage's cloak lined with rainbow. He was impossible to read. Ever since the Battle of Benover, she hadn't seen the usual carefree expression she'd grown to know so well. The loss of Maura and his father Edgard Woodbead had knocked him hard. She wasn't sure how much support he'd gotten from Bolliver, given how he was quick to mobilise the remaining men after losing significant portions of the army, including his own father, to Kristen Harred's remote bombs, and Seiren had barely seen Bolliver since as he and Kommora fought to reorganise the chaos the king's mages had left Karma in. The state mages had been working overtime for the past month, attempting to restore crucial buildings and tracks with the aid of the citizens, which took up much of Seiren's time to the point where she'd only seen Rowan twice.

He didn't meet her gaze. On Seiren's other side, Madeleine, also clad in the same plain black cloak as Seiren, squeezed her hand, aware of her concerns even without Seiren voicing them. She'd lived in her mind for so long they often didn't need to speak aloud, even though they had separate thoughts now. It took several more days before she became her own body, near-identical to Seiren, but with slightly straighter eyebrows, a wider mouth, and a rounder face. She kept her hair long, in a side plait in the same style as Kristen.

Bolliver sat down on the throne atop the steps in the newly-refurbished throne room, and a man Seiren didn't recognise, probably a higher-up from the Council of the Mages, placed the crown on his head. The place was unrecognisable from the one where Kristen had operated in with an attempt to sacrifice the entire country. The light poured from the outside, making the jewels on the crown sparkle. He looked a grand king, with his broad shoulders and embellished military uniform. Seiren hadn't seen him before, but he bore the classic Woodbead traits of a young face, jet black hair -- closely shaved -- and clear blue-green eyes. Seiren followed the attendants and stood up and knelt, one hand crossed across her chest. She straightened up. She spied the greying head of Kommora Haigh at the front, beside the salt-and-pepper head of Bellamy Southwark. Further along was the slicked-back black hair of Tahir Portendorfer, his wide-brimmed hat missing for a change.

After several more speeches, they were dismissed.

"Rowan--" Seiren's hand darted out and caught his wrist when he made to get away as soon as they were permitted. Rowan stopped and turned back, his face still impossible to decipher. "We should talk."

He hesitated, not meeting her eyes, and then nodded without a word. Seiren glanced at Madeleine, who bobbed her head with reassurance.

They moved several corridors away before Rowan sighed and turned to face her.

"You have to talk to me, Rowan. You haven't said a single word since Benover."

"What is there to say?" His voice was flat. He didn't meet her eyes.

"I'm sorry about Maura. I didn't have any time--"

"I don't blame you about it. It was what Maura would have wanted, too. She never had considerations for what remains of the dead. Once you're dead, you're dead."

"Then why...?"

"It's a lot to process, all right?" he said at length. "I lost my father that day, and my sister. And Tylene and Dent. None of them blamed me for my failures. My aides didn't blame me for failing Loren. My father said he was proud of me. My brother now sits on the throne. A Woodbead. I lost myself that day, too. I did things Loren would have been ashamed of. I almost hurt you. I shouldn't be here at all."

He was grieving. The realisation made Seiren's chest hurt. He regretted being left in the living world after what he'd done. She felt the same after that night six years ago.

"You have to keep moving forward. If you live in the past, the regrets will never give you peace. What has happened has happened. You'll lose yourself if you can't grow from it."

He gave a mirthless smile. "And here I am, getting lectured again by my former student."

Seiren froze. "Former?"

"I put in my assessment of your performance to the Council. You passed. As of next month, you're a fully-qualified state mage."

She wasn't sure if she should be delighted or devastated by his words. Her magic had remained; she suspected the celestial magic had used up Kristen's magic reserve in return for transplanting Madeleine's soul into Maura's body, leaving Seiren's relatively intact. It was all pure speculation between the twins; she would never find out for sure.

To her surprise, he cupped her cheek with a gentle hand.

"You did well, Seiren. You were exceptionally brave. Taking away her powers saved us all."

And yet his words were hollow. Kristen Harred, Zor Jarsdel, and Rinoa Gruger sat in the deepest dungeons beneath the Council as they spoke, the same cells that housed Seiren and Rowan not that long ago, awaiting their sentences. Kommora would chair it, and likely ensure they would never see the light of day again for their crimes. Domic Butterworth and Karis Bonneville's bodies were disposed of quietly.

Seiren touched his hand and clasped it. His fingers were icy cold.

"It gets better, Rowan. I promise. I've been there."

He smiled, a more genuine one this time. He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead, ruffling her short blonde hair like the old times.

"When's your trial?"

She tensed. "One week."

He squeezed her shoulders. "Bolliver is a fair man. Kommora will ensure you get a just trial."

She could only nod mutely, the exhilaration of being recommended for mageship replaced by the crippling anxiety of answering for her crimes. It was only expected. Her creations single-handedly murdered a significant portion of the casualties of war, both civilian and military. She was forbidden from leaving Benover in the meantime, although she was allowed freedom within the capital itself.

"The next time I see you, you'll be a full state mage, Seiren." He leaned back. "I hear Madeleine is to sit her probationary exams in a few weeks. Give her my best regards."

He drifted off. Seiren watched his short shape disappear out of one of the archways into the gardens, her emotions at odds with each other. Eventually, Madeleine's footsteps reached her ears.

"He'll be okay. It just takes some time. He'll come back when he's ready," Madeleine said.

"I hope so." Seiren continued to stare into the distance. Out of habit, her free hand reached up to touch the necklace. The crimson stone had cracked and the rune within disappeared, but the weight was a familiar presence. "I really hope so."

Madeleine twined her fingers into Seiren's and squeezed.

The End. Remember to vote!