The Princesses Luna

”So the blades are what, ethereal or something? ” Cassandra was asking as she rode between Mona and Aadhira on top of the carriage.

She had been asking nonstop questions about the Illusory Damage enchantment that made fatal wounds disappear since they had left the clearing.

Aadhira pulled her lips to one side. ”Thats not quite it, ” she said. ”Look. ”

Metal flashed from whatever extradimensional space Aadhira kept her body weight of weaponry in, and a dagger appeared in the wooden top of the carriage with a thunk.

She flicked the side of the blade with her finger, and a pure metallic tone rang out.

”The blade is definitely there, ” she said. She then pulled the dagger out of the wood and drew it across her palm.

Blood immediately began pouring out of the open wound, but Aadhira continued talking as if she did this every day.

For all Cassandra knew, she did.

”The blood looks real, ” she was saying as it dripped onto the hole the dagger had left in the wood.

She leaned over her hand and inhaled sharply through her nose. ”Smells real. ” Her tongue came out. ”Tastes– ” she stopped and grinned at the expression on the halfcats face.

”Well, you
e gonna have to trust me on that one. ”

Then she held her hand so that the blood ran down her fingers before dripping into the growing pool.

”Feels real. ”

She closed her eyes with a rapt expression on her face, to Cassandras growing disconcertment. ”Let it go long enough, the lightheadedness feels real. ”

One eye opened toward the tutor. ”You might want to trust me on that one too. ”

”Aadhira, ” a sharp voice came from the side of the carriage.

Aadhira looked at Luna atop her horse and followed her gaze to where the city gates were drawing close.

”Sorry, ” she said. ”We were about to the point you were waiting for anyway.

”Abate! ”

A gong sounded, attracting the attention of some of the closest commoners before they recognized royal heraldry and realized that their attention should be elsewhere.

And the blood dripping down Aadhiras fingers began flowing in reverse.

Cassandras uneasiness turned to fascination as she watched the blood poor unnaturally upward to the wound that was already visibly sealing.

”Definitely interesting, ” she said, ”but you did say the enchantment is called illusory damage, right? I don see why– ”

”Thats because you
e looking in the wrong place, ” Aadhira interrupted. ”You
e looking up here ” – she waggled her fingers – ”when you should be looking down here. ”

She pointed at the pooled blood on the carriage top as it disappeared into the–

”The hole, ” Cassandra breathed. ”The hole is still there. ” She looked up at Aadhira in bewilderment.

”That does not fit my hypothesis at all. ”

Aadhira smiled triumphantly as the carriage rumbled past the gate guards into the shadow of the North Gate.

Cassandra had collected her thoughts by the time they passed back into the sunlight and entered the hustle and bustle of the merchant sector.

”So it seems it does real damage, just not to anything thats alive? ” she posited.

Aadhira shrugged uncomfortably and looked around. On seeing that the crowd had given them some space between the carriage and Luna, she beckoned Cassandra in close and extended her pinkie finger.

”What am I looking at? ”

”You see that faint little line there? The little indentation? ”

Cassandra could just barely see it if she strained her eyes hard enough.

”It doesn fix anything that is no longer attached, ” Aadhira said with an air of finality.

Cassandra processed this as the carriage rumbled down a street filled with crowd-thronged shops, people, half-people, and beings of every race and color personifying the pulse of the city.

”So what you
e saying is, ” she finally said, ”is that you
e the crazy one. ”

It was a risk, saying that when she still didn know the princesses well enough to be certain how they would respond, but she had a feeling–

Aadhira chortled at the same time Mona settled for a more traditional guffaw.

Cassandra spotted the Soggy Kitty, her brothers inn, down a street filled with an abundance of fur, and knew the castle wasn far off.

”This enchantment seems really useful, ” she said. ”Why is it that Ive never heard of it before? ”

”It would be quite useful for constabulary forces, ” Mona pointed out.

Cassandra tilted her head in thought. ”I don know. Constables aren usually known for their mercy, but its not like they can do too much damage with truncheons. Even if they were to beat someone too far, a visit from a cleric can clear up pretty much anything short of death. ”

”You
e right, of course, ” Mona replied, and somberly turned her head away.

Cassandra shared a look with Aadhira, who shrugged.

”Anyway, ” the princess said, ”like all enchantments, Illusory Damage is pretty expensive. Even the temporary version requires a decently powerful magic user and a good fifteen minutes to apply. ”

Cassandra thought about this as they traveled through the gate into the Palace courtyard, then drew the dagger she had used during the training exercise earlier.

”Is that how I ended up not killing that archer? ” she asked.

”Oh, yeah, ” Aadhira replied. ”When you handed it over to Captain Trent, he passed it on to Master Tsukis, who had it back to him by the time your interview with him was over.

Cassandras face grew a look of concern as the carriage came to a half in front of the residential entrance to the castle.

”But what about my other daggers? ”

Aadhira hopped down from the carriage and extended her hand up to help the tutor down. ”What other daggers? ”

General Hatha sent the troop off toward the guard house while Cassandra replied, but stayed with the princesses himself.

”When Captain Trent showed no concern about me bringing my own weapons, I didn think there was any reason to tell him about the ones hidden in my boots or– ”

”You had undeclared weapons hidden in your boots? ” Aadhira whispered harshly as they entered the building.

She smiled weakly at Luna when she looked over, causing the elder sister to roll her eyes and mutter something inaudible to Selena, who in turn rolled her eyes and shook her head as they put some distance between the two groups.

Mona continued walking beside them, still lost in her thoughts.

”How many weapons are we talking about? ”

”How many – uhhh…. ” Cassandra bent over quickly and came up with metal in her hands.

”Two from my boots, and ” – a flick of her wrists – ”two from my sleeves. ”

Aadhira combined a look of disappointment and anger. ”You brought four undeclared weapons to a training exercise! ” she whispered, hands closing on Cassandras hands.

”I – Im sorry! ” the halfcat replied, terror etching its way onto her face. ”I didn know– ”

”Do you realize what could have happened if someone had grabbed the wrong weapons? ” Aadhira went on as she took two of Cassandras daggers out of her unresisting hands.

Cassandra froze as her eyes met Lunas resigned gaze from across the corridor.

”Something like this! ” Aadhira yelled, thrusting one of the daggers with all her might just below Cassandras breast.

Leaving the dagger in place, she then whirled and slashed with the other one across Monas throat, leaving an oozing red line.

Cassandras hands came reflexively to the dagger in her chest as Mona collapsed.

Eyes closed, Cassandra focused on the pain, the feeling of the thin metal driving into her lung, making it harder and harder to breathe.

She opened an eye and looked at Mona, motionless on the floor beside her, before switching to Aadhira, watching her expectantly.

The same expression was on the face of her sisters and the general behind her.

Cassandra licked her lips and forced her mouth to move.

”Abate? ” she forced out.

The now-familiar gong sounded.

Instantly the pressure inside her… abated… as the feeling of metal forcing her insides apart changed to a light mist. The dagger fell out of the wound with hardly any pressure applied, and seemed to reassert its solidity once removed.

”You okay? ” Aadhira asked, her tone unexpectedly tender as she helped the halfcat into a chair she hadn noticed at the side of the corridor.

”The first time is always a bitch. ”

”First time? ” Cassandra asked, noting Mona rising to her feet with a queasy look.

”If you train with us, you
e going to be on the receiving end of a lot more fatal wounds than that, ” Aadhira said. ”But just to make sure everyone takes it seriously, nobody is allowed to play without making sure theyve experienced it at least once.

”So congratulations. You
e initiated. ”

”Was it strictly necessary to include me, though? ” Mona asked, hand lightly massaging her throat.

Aadhira shrugged. ”You were there, you were moping about something or other. Consider it payback for something I don feel like making up right now. ”

Mona grimaced.

”So, when? ” Cassandra asked. ”How? ”

Aadhira grinned. ”I could ask you the same vague questions. But I picked your pocket before you even arrived at the castle this morning, and returned them while I was helping you into the coach. ”

”What? You helped me into the– ” she didn even remember needing help into the coach, but now that she mentioned it–

”Everybody always seems to forget that red hair can be hidden under a hat, same as any other hair, ” Aadhira said as if that explained everything.

”Anyway, your honesty this morning actually had Captain Trent concerned that you were going to discover that they were missing. He said he had to change the subject rather forcefully when he saw you start reaching for them. ”

Aadhira eyed her. ”Feeling better? ”

Cassandra nodded and let the princess help her back to her feet.

”So I answered your vague questions, ” Aadhira prompted.

”Huh? Oh. You really had me going, ” Cassandra said, then nodded at the three watching them from across the corridor. ”It wasn until I noticed them wondering what I was going to do that I realized what was coming. ”

”Which sounds like as good a lead-in as any to ask if you
e ready to meet the king and queen, ” Luna said, stepping forward.

Cassandra felt a faint panic threaten to invade her mind, but stilled it with a thought. ”Can be worse than meeting their daughters, can they? ”

”One last question, ” Aadhira asked as the General led the way to a set of large, dark wooden double doors. ”Why didn you mention the dagger in the small of your back? ”

Cassandra froze as her hand went instinctively to the forgotten hiding place.

”Where is– ” she began on not finding it, then rested her brow on her hand on seeing it balanced, point down, on Aadhiras pointer finger.

”Just what have I gotten myself into? ”