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- Mae walks through the streets to their hideout, yapping away with Qimir all the while
- Suddenly she feels the tug of the Thread pulling her from behind
- She halts, Qimir stopping too, and she turns around only to come face to face with her own reflection
- Distantly, Mae can hear Qimir repeating her name, trying to catch her attention, but she barely notices
-“Oshie?”
-“Mae Mae?”
-“Wait what?” Qimir interrupts, “What’s going on?”
- Mae’s mind catches up first, her mouth widening, first in a small smile, growing wider and wider until she feels her cheeks ache with it
- She can feel the tears stinging her eyes, but she hardly cares
- If she were wholly in her right mind, she would be questioning the possibility of how this was even happening, but she’d had a hard week, and she cares little for that too
-“Oshie!” Mae runs to her sister, throwing her arms out for a hug, which is immediately and vehemently reciprocated.
-“Mae Mae, is this real, is it really you?”
-“Yes, yes, it’s me, how- how are you- are you…? Are you?”
- Osha nods, eyes streaming, or maybe that’s just Mae’s tears blurring her vision.
-“Yes, Mae. It’s me, I’m here, I’m real.”
- After a few more moments of heartfelt embracing, Qimir awkwardly coughs from the side.
-“You guys, I’d hate to be the one to break the moment, but we should maybe continue this inside.”
- They gather back into the hideout, Mae and Osha’s arms intertwined so tight, they almost look fused together.
- Mae startles as Qimir pushes a steaming cup of something in her direction with a pointed look.
-“Thank you,” she mumbles, still too far in shock from her reunion.
- Qimir gives her a small smile and a nod, and turns back to Osha.
-“So,” he starts, “wanna tell us how you’re here, mystery sister?”
- Osha nodded, letting out a shaky breath.
-“I, um. Mae, before I say anything else, I want to say- I want to tell you that I’m sorry.”
-“Sorry? For what?”
-“For leaving you. For giving up on you. For going with the Jedi.”
- Mae frowned.
-“The Jedi?”
-“Yes. After the fire, after you fell, Mas-,” she cut off, “Jedi Master Sol, found me and took me with him and the other Jedi back to the Temple to be trained.”
- The tension that formed could have been cut by a knife.
-“You- you’re a Jedi?”
- Osha turned completely towards her sister, face set with desperation.
-“I was, but I left. And after the- my-,” she cut off with frustrated huff. Slowing down, she continued. “Two weeks ago. I had a vision. I saw- Mae, I saw you. And him,” she nodded at Qimir, “I saw you hunting down the Jedi who came to Brendok and killing them one by one. At first, I didn’t know what to do. I thought- Master Sol said-”
-“What, Osha? What did he say?”
-“Master Sol had been telling me for the last sixteen years that it was you who did it. You who started the fire, you who killed our mothers, our whole coven.”
- Mae could barely breathe. She felt a slight ringing go through her head as a numbness filled her body. Sol had told her what?
- The gentle warmth of Qimir’s hand on her knee broke her out of her numbness, and just as quickly, an icy inferno swept through her in waves, filling her with rage so powerful, it rendered her speechless.
-“If you think it was Mae who did it, what are you doing here now?” Qimir asked cautiously.
-“I thought it was her. But then I had the vision, and Mae, I saw what really happened. The whole thing. All of it. I saw Mama trying to save you, I saw Sol killing her for it, I saw Indara corrupting the coven’s magic, killing them. I saw you crawl to the tree, I saw you waiting. And I saw what happened after too. Mae, I saw everything.”
- Mae hitched out a sob, remembering with her sister’s words, the unspeakable horrors of that night, and every night that had followed it. The things that were done to her, the things that she had to do, all in the name of survival. Until Qimir, that is.
- Qimir had found her in her darkest hour and showed her how to find herself again. With help from the Master.
-“When I’d realised what happened, I realised you were still alive. I found it, Mae Mae. I found our Thread. I followed it here, to you. And to him.”
- Mae looked at Qimir, suddenly realising that she’d completely forgotten to introduce him.
-“Oshie, this is Qimir. He found me, after-... he’s my… friend.”
- Mae looked down, lost in her thoughts as her accomplice-maybe-friend and sister introduced each other.
-“Wait, so. What happens now?” she asked, “Because, I don’t know about you. But I have spent sixteen years having known that man’s crimes, and even still he’s managed to find a way to outdo himself.” Mae hesitated, turning to Osha. “Oshie, you know we’re going to kill him, right?”
- Her sister looked back at her, eyes grim and dead.
-“I know. He killed our mother. He stood by as our coven died and he had no qualms blaming you for the whole thing. Turning me against you, my other half. Mae Mae, I can’t wait for him to die.”
- Mae took her sister in truly for the first time in sixteen years. Gone was the optimism and hope of her childhood. In its place, lay grief and betrayal, spreading through her heart so wildly, Mae could feel it without even trying. But then, she’d always been more in-tune to her sister’s mind and heart than what would be considered normal. Something about always one, born as two.
- Mae turned to Qimir, one final obstacle before she could really let the hope of being reunited with her twin sink in.
-“Think the Master would be okay if she tagged along?”
- Qimir looked between the two sisters, his words coming out with hesitation.
-“Well, what about that whole ‘rule of two’ thing? Wouldn’t that get in the way of the Master’s deal with you?”
- Mae felt her heart sink for a moment, before it was lifted again by her sister.
-“That won’t be a problem,” she said, “Mae Mae and I are basically the same anyways. Two bodies, one mind. Always one, born as two.”
- Qimir eyed them again, remaining quiet, before he slowly reached forward and slid his hand into hers.
-“What- what are you…?” Mae trailed off as she suddenly felt it within her.
- The Thread connecting her heart to Osha’s reaching across in the opposite direction, reaching towards Qimir, who suddenly now that she thought about it, looked a little different. Usually barren of any sign of the Thread, he suddenly looked as though he were wrapped in it. Cool darkness winding round and round, forming, Mae thought with a tinge of hysteria, a very familiar picture.
-“...Master?”
- Qimir looked at her then, the glint in his eyes changing so instantaneously, Mae thought she’d completely imagined it.
-“Huh?” Osha asked. Oh, Mae thought.
-“Oshie, hold his hand.”
-“What? Why?”
-“Just do it.”
- Osha warily leaned forward and grasped Qimir- no, her Master’s open hand, and with only a moment’s pause, she gasped. Osha’s head swivelled back and forth between her Master and her.
-“What just happened?”
-Her Master’s eyes moved as rapidly as Osha’s head, finally grasping the truth of her words. Mae and Osha were always one, it didn’t matter if they had different bodies and different lives. They were always one and her Master was always theirs. The seconds ticked passed as they waited for something to break the moment of total completeness that had just consumed them. It was, of course, her Master who recovered first.
-“Yes, Mae,” he said. “I’d be happy to have her with us.”