"Assumed Dead - 02, Leniency" by Melia Arney

That vile, wretched woman! Iranias Joent paced in his rooms, irate after the meeting of the Board of Nobles. How dare Talio do this to him? He’d put too much work into Jaerri. Granted none of it seemed to do much good; she still hated him for some incomprehensible reason. He’d done everything in his power to make her like and trust him. He’d given her presents, money, treats, praises, but nothing worked. Curse the girl for that and curse her mother for making things more difficult. It was hard enough trying to forge a bond of trust with the bull-headed child behind Talio’s back when she was only two planets away in Diomair Edria. Now he’d have to work even more in secret. And for what gain? If Jaerri became corrupted by the pansy ideals of the Offworlders, she’d be no good to him. She was hardly useful now.

Jaerri was too naïve, too hopeful, too attached to useless ideas of friendship and love. He needed a way to break her of that, but what could he do now that she would soon be out of his reach? And if Talio ever suspected his interest in her daughter, the heir to one of the most powerful Houses on the planet…

Or worse, if his brother ever suspected. Erom was a constant annoyance; always prying his nose into what was none of his business. Life would be much easier with that pair out of the way.

Joent stopped his pacing and smiled. Why not? He’d dealt with those nuisances long enough. They had both outlived their usefulness. He had the title of husband to the head of House Taren and he had the heir he needed to control it. He’d never gain the true power of Talio’s House while she was still alive. Organizing her demise would take time, though. Every detail would have to be perfect. Fortunately, he had time. Perhaps while he waited for an opening at Jaerri, he could focus his attentions on his dear brother and fake wife.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jaerri Taren fumed in her seat onboard the Dejine transport. She’d spent months arguing with her mother about leaving Diomair. Jaerri did not want to go to the Dejine. Not that anyone seemed to care what she wanted. No one had even thought to ask her opinion, though she’d given it anyway. She liked Diomair. She liked weapons and she liked fighting and she liked learning the Elemental Talents.

She did not like Offworlders or Dejine or leaving home or having to learn a new language, and she most definitely did not like leaving Diomair.

The Dejine did everything wrong. They didn’t even use the right name for the Talents, let alone the two sides of them. They called the Elemental Talents the Tainted Arts and the Mental ones the Refined Arts. And she wouldn’t get to learn a weapon until she became an Acolyte. That was at least two years away. Knowing she would be learning a new hand-to-hand fighting style between now and then did nothing to remove the sting of having her favorite weapons classes taken away from her.

She’d even have to give up learning the Elemental Talents. Or the Tainted Arts or whatever it was she’d have to call them now. The Dejine said that they were evil. They were not evil. Only an idiot would think so. They were fun. She’d only get to learn the Mental ones now. They weren’t nearly as much fun, and more importantly, Jaerri wasn’t as good with them.

For the fiftieth time in an hour Jaerri cursed her mother’s meddling with the bitterest curses an eight-year-old could know. Let Talio talk all day about threats to the Imperium, the necessity of accurate intelligence on the Dejine, the honor of serving her people; none of it made any impression on Jaerri. All she heard was that once again someone else was deciding what she did and when she did it.

A sound to Jaerri’s right made her turn and did nothing to improve her mood. In a chair across the room, her twin sister Mia sat reading a book. Jaerri glowered at her sister. Mia ignored her as she’d been doing since they left Kaesyn 3 and would probably continue doing as long as possible.

They were identical twins, though someone not of the Kaesynalic Imperium might not catch it. Mia’s hair and eyes were ebony black while Jaerri’s were a red not seen naturally among humans. There were several unusual characteristics that marked Kaesynalic twins; one was the mutation of hair and eye genes after the egg split in the womb so that no set of identical twins had ever been born truly identical.

Mismatched hair, though, was the least of the differences between Jaerri and her sister. Mia kept her hair cut short, just above her shoulders. Jaerri’s was long and loosely braided. Jaerri was blunt; Mia was tactful. Mia could fit well into any social circle; Jaerri could care less. They were not just two sides of one coin; they were two entirely different forms of currency, and they most definitely did not get along.

In fact, they hated each other, which was perfectly normal for Kaesynalic twins, especially Caster twins. It was considered wise to raise twins to have a certain level of animosity between them. It made it easier for one to kill the other when the time came. Normally that’d be when they turned fourteen. Upon graduating primary school, the two would have a fight to the death to decide who was the one worthy of surviving. Though it wasn’t unusual for one of the pair to kill their sibling before that if the chance arose.

Whether the parties involved liked it or not, it had to be done. If one Caster born twin didn’t die, then both would soon after reaching adulthood. No one really knew why. There’d been lots of studies done into it, but never any definitive results.

And now Jaerri was headed out of the Imperium, away from everyone who understood the importance of Mia’s death. Talio had warned them that the Offworlders would never understand and that they should either not pursue each other’s deaths while with the Dejine or, if it didn’t look like they’d be returning home soon, to at least be circumspect in their attempts. She’d made if very clear that while they were out of the Imperium they would have to follow the laws of the outside world. Fratricide was quite clearly against those laws.

There was only one thing that surpassed Jaerri’s loathing for Mia. That was her tendency toward boredom, and bored she was. Bored enough to actually talk to her sister, though not nearly bored enough to be polite.

"Why are you reading a history on Dejine? We haven’t been out of the Imperium more than a day and you’ve already joined the side of the enemy?"

"It’s called adapting, idiot. Try it sometime."

"I don’t need to adapt. I know where I belong."

"So do I, in a coffin."

"Shut up, Mia."

"Make me."

Currently lacking anything lethal to throw at her sister, Jaerri stuck her tongue out at her instead.

"You’re the one who started talking first. Don’t go crying just because you can’t take a little dose of the truth."

"You’re just happy we left Diomair Edria today instead of tomorrow. You would have failed the combat test that was scheduled for this afternoon."

"And you’re just mad you didn’t get to beat something up. The galaxy will be such a nicer place without you."

"You know what Mother said."

"She said to make sure we didn’t get caught. Trust me, I won’t get caught."

Before Jaerri could come up with a reply, one of their Dejine escorts, or captors as Jaerri saw it, entered the room. "We’ll be arriving on Ekarku in the next three hours or so. Perhaps you’d like to change now."

It wasn’t really a question. Mia and Jaerri looked at each other, completely agreed on their reluctance to don the green robes of a Dejine Initiate they’d been brought hours before. The robes covered far more than their regular clothes did, but they had no gashil underneath. The thought of wearing anything without a gashil was indecent.

Mia relinquished first, or maybe it was just more of her ‘adapting.’

"Of course, Savant Sennle. We would be delighted." She nodded deeply to the Dejine Savant, as close as a Kaesynalic would come to bowing towards an Offworlder. Jaerri tried not to gag.

Mia lost her resolve once the Savant had left the room, however. She stared at the robes, then down at her Kaesynalic garb. The plain green of the Dejine clothes with its minimal decorations paled against the swirling pinks and oranges, fringes, tassels, and jewelry of her current outfit. A rustling from behind made her turn.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, seeing Jaerri pulling the new clothes on over her gashil and having some trouble figuring out how they were supposed to hang.

"Adapting," was her sister’s curt reply.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Savant Issol looked over the two new students with interest. Never before had a Kaesynalic set foot on Ekarku, let alone been a member of the Dejine Order of Casters. This was a momentous day and she was the one who would be listed in the history books as the Mother of Initiates at the Holdfast Sanctuary during the years these two were present.

She frowned slightly at the unusual bodysuits they were wearing under their robes, but Savant Sennle whispered that all the Kaesynalics she’d seen during the transfer from the Taren House yacht to the Dejine transport vessel had been wearing the undergarment. At least until the girls were settled in, they’d ignore the breech in dress code. It was not like Issol to be lenient in any respect concerning the rules, but she assumed a pair of children never before exposed to any other culture warranted some leeway.

The black-haired girl looked around the spacedock, what she could see of the Sanctuary, and especially at the nearby forest with open-faced amazement. The other one made a similar circuit of the surroundings with her eyes with no less amazement, but upon looking at the sky she put on a frown that deepened as Issol explained the life of Dejine Initiates and what would be expected of them while they were here. The fact that the red-head, introduced as Jaerri, seemed more interested in the placement of the sun than in even one word the Savant said, left her with an almost instant prejudice towards the older of the twins. The that she also took every pausing for breath on Issol’s part as an excuse to dart glances at the doors leading inside didn’t help her case either.

Eventually, Dejine Savant Issol, Mother of Initiates – Jaerri wondered if they had to say all of that every time they spoke to her – finally stopped talking and led them inside. The girl sighed in relief. She’d been beginning to think the crazy woman would keep talking forever without even noticing it was nearly midday. The last thing Jaerri ever wanted to experience was having her skin ripped off by a massive sandstorm. Stupid time changes. It would be almost full dark back home with the onset of Moira’s Fury many long hours away. A glance down the hallway they were walking through, though, took away her ease.

"Where are your window shields?! It’s midday!"

"It’s a different planet, Jaerri," Mia said, all false consolation and sisterly affection. "They don’t have Moira’s Fury here. We can go outside at midday all we want."

[Get bit by a sandviper,] Jaerri shot back in their native language. She mentally called herself every form of stupid she knew for looking dumb in front of Mia. She’d known there’d be no midday winds here, but habit had spoken louder than newfound knowledge.

Savant Issol did not understand what Jaerri had said to her sister, but she did recognize the tone and could easily guess it had not been complimentary. Her like of the redhead dropped even more.

"That is no way to respond to someone who was only attempting to allay your fears, young lady. I expect you to be more civil from here on." Jaerri’s look of surprise infuriated the Savant even more. Had this child never been disciplined for being rude to her sister? How did these Kaesynalics raise their children? Or maybe it was just that, being a noble, she’d never been disciplined at all. Well, that was certainly going to change.

As they walked Issol pointed out parts of the Sanctuary that they would need to know and cautioned them towards parts they were forbidden from entering. The roof was strictly off limits as were the Nesaddi training yards and offices of the priests and priestesses not attached to the teaching of Initiates. The dormitories and rooms not assigned to Initiates were equally forbidden. The areas outside the Sanctuary grounds could be not visited without permission from herself, which would only be given as rewards for good behavior and grades. This last part she emphasized while looking at Jaerri, who was not paying any attention to her.

"This will be your dormitory." Issol stopped and pushed open a green door marked with a large number three. Mia and Jaerri stared at the door, then at each other in horror.

"Savant," Mia ventured hesitantly, "you do not mean both of us, do you?"

"Of course I do. You two are lucky that we had spaces open in this sanctuary or you would have been sent to one of the various other minor ones."

"But we can’t sleep together!" Jaerri exclaimed with her usual bluntness. She only just stopped herself from saying why before she remembered that these Offworlders would not understand that one or the other was likely to smother her sister in her sleep if given the chance.

Mia decided to take things into her own hands before Jaerri managed to annoy the Savant into refusing no matter what. The idea of helping Jaerri’s argument was abhorrent, but Mia had her own interests to protect.

"What Jaerri means is that it is tradition for twins to sleep in different rooms or even different parts of the building. Isn’t there room in another dormitory for one of us? I would be willing to sleep on a floor if there isn’t a spare bed available. It really is important. We wouldn’t get any sleep if we were together."

Savant Issol was more persuaded by Mia’s gentle urgings than Jaerri’s outright denial, though she might have still refused if she hadn’t already decided to be slightly lenient. There were no other spaces in the other dormitories, but it would be a simple matter to move another student into number three to open a space. Somewhat annoyed at herself for being so generous, Issol agreed. However, this would be the end of the special treatment for the twins.