When the morning’s light forced Dusk’s eyes open, Dawn’s followed despite sleeping face down.
““Ugh…””
For a moment, seeing double confused them.
Then they remembered.
“Oh…”
Dawn turned to face the ceiling like Dusk. Then the two proceeded to stare at it.
“…So. We’re… I am two now.”
“Yeah… I… Actually, we shouldn’t say things like that. People would figure it out.”
“Right. Keep pretending to be twins then.”
“It’s safer.”
Double sigh.
“We should visit an Archivist. Maybe we can get rid of that card.”
“Do we want to, though…? I dunno about that… And we might get in trouble for having a weird card like that anyway.”
“Should we keep being two then?”
They grimaced.
“…We wanted to visit an Archivist to sell essences anyway. We can ask stuff while we’re there.”
“Fine.”
With that decided, they finally got out of their beds as one and took a look around the room they had ignored last night.
Other than the two beds framing both sides of the wall and the window between them, the room only featured a small cabinet.
…Which reminded them that they’d left stuff in their old room. They really hoped nobody had taken it.
With a groan, the twins left their room and went down to the reception. It was eerily empty. Had they overslept?
The inn lady perked up from where she idly polished a table.
“Ah, you two. Good morning.”
They didn’t like the sharp glint in her eye.
““Good morning!””
“Slow business today?”
She grunted.
“Most people are helping underground. The others skipped town.”
That gave them a pause.
“The rift is still active?”
“It is. I’m starting to worry we’re gonna have to ditch the city entirely if it’s not culled soon.”
Something cold settled in their stomach. Would Anxia be another Jesterocco?
“Bah! I’m just messing with you. Don’t show me those frowns. You want breakfast or not?”
“Uh, sure! That sounds great.”
Dawn forced a smile.
“Also, I–”
Wrong body.
“I kind of forgot some things in my old room. Can I go get it real quick?”
The lady gave her a side-eye, before addressing Dusk.
“Ah, of course. My bad. I assumed you already took everything since you didn’t say anything last night. Hold on, let me get the key.”
After receiving the key, the twins started going up… then realized that they didn’t need both bodies for this.
So while Dusk quickly climbed up and found his old room, Dawn sat down at one of the tables and requested breakfast from the inn lady.
“Perks of having two bodies…” Dusk murmured as he took in the mess inside the room.
A half-eaten breakfast from yesterday, an opened cabinet, a spare cloak tossed on the ground. Anyone could tell that he’d left in a hurry when the warning about the fresh rifts had gone out.
He set out to gather all the things.
The cold porridge and stale bread went into a sack – no need to waste food – the extra cloak bundled up, and finally…
Dusk picked up the harmonica with a sigh of relief. The old thing had scratches all over, but still worked fine. Even if it didn’t, they would never throw away their memento–
Slam.
“Gwah, wha–“ Dawn shot up from where she’d face-planted into the table.
“Still sleepy, are we?” The inn lady asked with a teasing smile.
“…Uh. Yes.”
She left two bowls of vegetable stew and two mugs of ale on the table while Dawn tried not to die of embarrassment.
Double sigh.
“We blanked out again.”
“Gotta figure out why that happens…”
They paused, realizing that they had gone back to talking to each other despite not even being in the same room.
With a shake of his head, Dusk finished up gathering everything and went down again while Dawn stared at the table for a while in thought.
Once together again, they began eating.
Could it be… when they focused too much on a single body? Thinking back, they had blanked like that every time they had sort of forgotten to focus on the other body as well. When learning to separate their movement, when climbing the wall, and now when getting lost in thought…
Ah, dammit. That was probably it.
If so, then they better learn how to divide their focus equally between the bodies if they didn’t get rid of the skill.
After breakfast, they returned the keys to the innkeeper and left the inn.
They paused to take in the sight of the morning sunlight reflecting off the city’s leathery walls. While more relaxed than yesterday, the city’s atmosphere still put them on edge.
“I hope they conquer it soon…”
“Maybe we could help?”
“We’ll die.”
Putting that aside, they took their time walking through their city this time. With no monsters threatening them, they were free to practice acting separately without catching the stutters. It came with more difficulty than they would have liked.
They asked a passing hunter where to find an Archivist and she pointed them to the main square. They continued practicing as they made their way there.
Down the street, up the elevator, and then past the fountain near which they – or at least one of them – had been performing just two days ago and they finally stood before the Archive.
The door rang as they entered to the scent of dusty vellum and took a look around. White marrowstone bookcases filled with books, decks of cards, and a few Epic essences in their own glass cases. At the far end sat a desk made out of the same polished marrowstone as everything else in here.
The twins blinked at the sight of the large collection of wood and branches shaped like a person with two big black marble-like stones for eyes sitting behind the desk.
A spriggan? Huh.
“Hello!”
“Hi!”
“Ah. Customers. Welcome. What brings you here?”
“Right! We wanted to sell some essences?”
“And maybe hoping to get advice on some… new cards?”
“Essences. I can do. New cards. What might those be?”
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The twins approached the Archivist’s desk.
“Well, we joined the rift subjugation yesterday and I made these–” Dawn pulled out [Branching Rampart] and [Cliffhide Fist]. “And, you know… my deck feels heavier than before and we heard we might go crazy if we add too many skills to our decks.”
“Crazy. Not necessarily. Limited. More accurate.”
“Limited?”
“In what way?”
“Hand size. What is yours?”
“Uhhh, hand size?” Dawn looked at her free hand in bewilderment.
“Wrong hand. Active skill card number. It’s the limit.”
The twins found the spriggan’s speech hard to decipher, but could sort of understand what they were saying.
“I have…”
Six skills… but [Soul Split] felt like a passive. And [Branching Rampart] was a toggle.
“Four active skills.”
“Hand size of four. The base hand. Can get higher. But four for you. Four for most.”
“Uh, right. So what happens if I get another active skill then…?”
“Discard on use. Draw another skill. Only four in hand.”
“Oh! Actually, I heard about that!”
“Yeah! So if I had five skills and used one of them, I wouldn’t be able to use it until I draw it again? Is that it?”
“Use skill. It discards. Then it re-sparks. And you draw it again.”
“Right… Okay! Makes sense!”
“But why did people say you go crazy if you have too many cards?! We were scared for no reason!”
“Some… depend on skills. Too much. Too many skills. Luck dependence.”
“But that still–”
“You can… force a draw. Or force discard. For a price.”
The spriggan leaned closer, their black orbs gleamed in the lamp light, sending a shiver down their spines.
“R-Right…”
“So… It… Eats your sanity or something? Constantly discarding and forcing draws?”
“Correct.” A pause. “Temptation kills.”
They gulped.
“That’s… alright. Thanks for the information!”
“My pleasure.”
They let out a wooden rumble.
“Now. Essences?”
“Oh! Right! Uh, we got a bunch of essences in there, but we’re not sure which ones are worth anything.”
“I do.”
Obviously.
The twins pulled out all the essences they had gotten from the rift. Between the two of them, they had six Rares and five Very Rares.
The spriggan immediately pointed at one of them.
“Fortification. Very useful. Ten-thousand Gil.”
Their jaws dropped in unison.
“Ten-thousand?!”
“For a Very Rare?!”
And they had used one in the rift! This could have been twenty-thousand instead! A full year’s worth of rations and inn fees!
“Shield staple. Inscription. Epic and higher difficult to get.”
Damn. If only they had known…
“Deal?”
“Deal–”
“Wait! If it’s that useful, could we get more than ten?”
The spriggan tilted their head.
“No. My shop. Set prices. No haggling.”
The twins deflated.
“Right… Okay. Hmm… So, what about these?”
The spriggan looked at the other essences.
“Snipe. Four thousand. Barrage. Three thousand. Steam. Two and a half.” Their branches shifted with a rustle. “Scorch. Two thousand. Camouflage. Two thousand. Stomp. One thousand.”
That would still be quite a bit of money, even if they only sold the Rare essences. Or they could save the essences and try to sell them for more elsewhere? Hmm… Nah.
“Okay! We’ll sell two Steam and two Scorch essences then!”
The spriggan looked at the other twin.
“Yeah. What she said.”
“Nine thousand Gil. Agreed?”
“Yeah!”
“Coins? Card?”
They were about to say coins, but then decided to get it on Dawn’s card, since it said her name anyway.
“Card, please!”
They looked over at Dusk.
“Just give it all to her.”
The spriggan nodded and pulled out their own money card and tapped it against Dawn’s.
“Transferring nine thousand Gil.”
The text on Dawn’s card then shimmered and changed from ‘467 Gil’ to ‘9 467 Gil’. Dawn beamed at it and handed over the four essences. They disappeared into their soul pocket as soon as the Archivist held them.
Tension left their shoulders, looking at the number on the card that should last them a good few months now.
“Other business?”
“Well… We also wanted to ask about…”
“Weird skills?”
“Weird. Meaning?”
“Well… Have you ever seen a skill that had… wrong colors?”
“And like, it moved and bulged out and stuff?”
Branches slid down to cover the top half of the spriggan’s black orbs.
“Inverted colors? Negative card. Owned by murderers.”
The twins forced themselves not to flinch.
“Moving cards? Three-dimensional? Prime. Historical. Priceless.”
They stared.
“Priceless?”
“Immune to Null. Can’t silence. Can’t steal. Can’t delete. Permanent.”
Their breaths hitched.
“Both? Prime and Negative in one?” The wooden shopkeeper paused. “Never witnessed it. Insanity kills negative owners. Negative Primes don’t last long.”
They swallowed thickly as they took in the horrifying implications of the Archivist’s words. Their own synchronized heartbeats drummed in their ears.
“O-Oh. Huh…” Dusk forced himself to say.
“You did?”
“Ah… I-I guess we must have seen wrong…”
“Felt like it was moving, but I guess not…?”
The Archivist stared at them.
“You did. Where?”
Drat.
“Uh… Someone in the rift. A guy in a gray robe,” Dawn lied.
“We only saw from a distance. Didn’t get a good look.”
Their branches shifted as the twin black orbs drilled into Dusk, then shifted to Dawn.
“I see… Interesting,” they finally said.
The Archivist then lifted the cluster of branches holding the black orbs and seemed to look at the ceiling. Then their gaze fell back down on the twins.
“Other business?”
“Ah, no. We’re good!”
“Thanks for the trade! It’s about time we get going.”
“I see. Thank you. Goodbye.”
“Bye!”
They left the Archivist’s store, quicker than might be polite. Once outside, they found a dark corner devoid of people and breathed a shaky sigh.
“Historical.”
“Priceless.”
A pause.
““Permanent.””
“I guess there goes our plan to get rid of that card…”
“Well, on the bright side, at least nobody can steal it from us.”
“What if the thieves don’t know that, though? They would still come after us.”
“And with it being… priceless, it’s even more likely.”
“Ugh, this sucks…”
The twins looked into each other’s yellow eyes.
“They said… insanity kills the owners.”
“Are we going insane?”
“We are talking to ourselves all the time…”
“But that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Maybe we got lucky?”
“Us? Lucky?”
“You think it’s gonna get worse?”
They grimaced.
“I hope not.”
“We’ll just have to deal with it. Like everything else.”
“I mean, it’s not that bad, right?”
“It’s pretty cool being two, gotta admit.”
“Yeah. Actually, we can do so many tricks with it! Like double handstand! Oh! And we can play two different instruments at once!”
They giggled, imagining starting their own band with just themselves.
“Yeah, maybe we can make it work.”
“We will make it work!”
With a pair of smiles, they left their dark corner and set out again.
They just had to not think about all the people who would literally kill to get their cursed skill.
