Two days passed. During those days I worked as hard as I could to squirrel away valuables. Especially the ones that could be sold without causing suspicion. I had managed to under the money for our voyage through Adora, getting the treasurer to pay her for three dresses through my dowry, none of which would actually be made. For that she had bought passage on a merchant ship for me and Alvar. No-one knew we would be there except for the captain. He was not told who we really were and was paid handsomely for his silence.

  Every time I stuck a gold chain to the inside of the dress I would wear, every time I packed a silk handkerchief away in my bag, I felt a terrible pang of guilt. Because the action was connected to the fact that I was leaving, each action felt a little bit like leaving Virtus.

  At night I would hold him, look at him, try to commit every inch of his being to memory. I would try to record the sound of his voice in my mind and with my fingers I tried to memorize exactly how his skin and hair felt. Perhaps it was an impossible task.

  ***

  It was the night before we were going to leave. We were supposed to go see Adora, but Virtus wouldn't leave my doorway.

  “My darling are you mad at me?”

  “No, Virtus it’s not that.”

  “I just don’t understand why you won’t sleep in my room tonight, or let me sleep in yours.”

  “Like I said, I just need a bit of time to myself.”

  “Is this because I’ve been talking to Karina the st days? I thought you wanted me to, you keep encouraging it.”

  “It’s not that, darling.”

  “Then come sleep in my bed, please.”

  I opened the door to my room and stuck my head out.

  “I’m actually having some digestive troubles,” I whispered. “I think I’ll be using the chamberpot all night.”

  I could see Alvar almost cracking up in the corner of my eye, the bastard.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” Virtus blushed. “I shouldn’t have pushed it. Should I send for the medics?”

  “No, thank you.”

  Virtus leaned in and kissed me. Alvar winced.

  “Good night, I hope you’ll feel better tomorrow my love”

  “Thank you, and good night,” I said back.

  Just like the st time we went to Adoras at night, I wore my dark blue woollen dress. Alvar came in to my room and needed my help with taking his armour off. The room was dead silent, as I tiptoed around his strong body, undoing the fastenings as deftly as I could and trying not to touch him at all. He had not tried to touch me or kiss me since that day in the garden.

  “Alvar,” I whispered.

  “Yes, Your Highness?” he replied.

  “I’ve said it before, please call me Talia when we are alone,” I said softly

  “I’m sorry. Yes Talia?”

  “I’m sorry I fell in love with Virtus, I know it’s not fair to you.”

  “It’s fine, I suspected you would when I saw him, he’s handsome.”

  “I still love you too, it’s all so confusing. I’m sorry if it’s hurting you.”

  “It’s fine, I can wait. We’ll have a long time to sort everything out in the Midway Isles.”

  “Yes,” I sighed.

  Sneaking out with Alvar the second time had worked almost just like the first. We took his horse, and he pretended that I was a scullery maid. We were out of the castle gate in what felt like no time at all.

  We rode into the city, which was quieter than the st time we had been there. People were still drinking and revelling, but there were fewer of them, and the music was not as loud. Alvar’s body embraced mine from all sides. The soft, rhythmic movement of his horse made us rub against each other. I tensed up and tried to touch him as little as possible, but sitting together on the saddle that was not really an option. The more I tried to stay away from him the more intoxicating the heat of his body felt to me.

  We rode among the people that tumbled around the streets. The night was cloudy, so the only light we had was the sparse light spilling out of the taverns around us.

  Alvar seemed uneasy. He kept looking behind us.

  “What is it?” I whispered.

  “Don’t worry about it,” he replied.

  We continued on our way, and I furtively gnced around us. I couldn’t look behind us, because it would mean having to look around Alvar. Was I crazy or did I hear the same footsteps following us the whole time? I thought perhaps I was imagining it, but once I focused on it I could swear I heard the same steady footsteps in the night, surrounded by the waxing and waning sounds of the drunks.

  “Is someone following us?” I whispered.

  I wondered who it was, perhaps one of the other knights who had suspected something?

  “Yes,” Alvar whispered back.

  He started riding faster. I looked around. The steps behind us sped up into a run. I saw the person briefly beside us. It was a man. It was very dark and he had covered his head and face with scarves, but you could see the outline of a strong body. He had a sword at his side. Alvar tried to go even faster, but it was hard to do so in the crowded streets of Medolina.

  “Who is that?” I asked, louder now.

  We were already drawing attention by going so fast.

  “I don’t know,” he told me.

  He took a turn away from the direction of Adora’s shop, trying to shake the man off. I held as tightly as I could on to the pommel of the saddle. Alvar’s body tensed around mine, and his legs squeezed the back of my thighs. The cold night air rushed into my face, and I hoped the horse could see where he was going, because I had no idea.

  The man followed, but eventually he started to g behind. This street was wider and emptier, and finally we could ride fast enough to shake the man off. As we rode away the man emitted a horrible guttural scream. I shuddered to hear it. There was something wrong with his voice.

  We rode for a while until Alvar circled back to head towards Adora’s pce again. We showed up at her door a while ter than we said we would. Adora received us herself at the door.

  “Where were you?” she asked as she ushered us inside.

  “Someone was chasing us,” I told her.

  “Who?”

  “We couldn’t see who it was, he had his face covered. When we shook him off he screamed in a really strange way, almost inhuman.”

  She gred at Alvar.

  “Did you manage to shake him off?”

  “Yes,” Alvar told her.

  “That’s good.”

  She led us into the centre of the shop.

  “Alvar, could you keep guard here? I will take Talia to the back room to help me with what I need.”

  Alvar frowned, and seemed like he was going to say something but then changed his mind.

  Adora led me to the back room and lit a candle. The room was small, and was now almost filled with a big table which had been set in the middle. On the table there was a cy figure, which had been shaped into the form of a woman. It had no hair or features, only beige cy in a vaguely humanoid form.

  “What’s that?” I asked Adora.

  “It’s a homunculus,” she replied. “It’s a magical artefact that can perfectly mimic any one person’s body for ten days.”

  “It doesn’t look like anyone,” I told her.

  “Soon it will look like you. That’s why I needed you here in person now, we need to connect you to it. Then when it looks like you we can use it to make it look like you died.”

  “All right,” I told her. “What do we need to do?”

  “First we need to take some hairs from your head,” she told me. “Pick out a few hairs, and I will pce them.”

  I did as she told me, plucking hairs out of random pces on my scalp. She then pced them in the scalp of the cy figure.

  “Now I will need you to cut your nails and put them on the figure’s nails.”

  I did as she told me.

  “Now this is the hardest part,” she finally told me. “It needs your blood.”

  “How much?” I asked her.

  “Not so much, but it needs to be connected to your body through the veins for a while. Don’t worry, we’ll be done before the morning. It will feel strange and off putting. I’ve gotten you something to drink to help with it.”

  She handed me a cup. I took a sip. It burned my throat, making me cough.

  “What is that?” I asked her.

  “Alcohol, keep it on hand.”

  Then she gently took my hand into her two hands and carefully slit a wound into it with a razor. Then she pced it so that I was holding the hand of the homunculus.

  “No matter what happens, no matter what you see, don’t let go until it stops taking your blood. If you let go the process stops and it cannot start again after that.”

  I nodded.

  I felt the blood start to flow out of me. It was not painful, but deeply unsettling, as it felt like the blood was being sucked out of my hand by the cy. I winced, but did not let go.

  Adora sat with me as the change started to take pce. The room was fairly dark, lit only by four candles, no fire. At first nothing happened, then I thought I noticed the colour of the cy starting to change. It was hard to tell in the flickering lights. I looked at Adora, and she nodded. I was not just imagining it. Then more hair started to spring from the scalp, the shape of the homunculus started to become more defined. The thing was naked. I wished that Adora had covered it with a sheet or something. I could see the pubic hair sprouting, and the nipples start to form on the breasts. The hand I was holding went from being soft cy to feeling like it had bones inside. I took another sip of the drink and shuddered.

  We sat there for a while. The most unsettling part started when I saw it starting to become not just a person, but me. The eyebrows started to sprout on the brow ridge. The nose found it’s way to attain the same shape as mine. The lips plumped up into shape. I was looking at myself from the side. I had never seen that before. It felt strange, wrong.

  Thud! Thud! Thud! There was a loud noise from the outside. My head snapped up.

  “Alvar, what’s happening!?” I called.

  “There’s someone at the door,” he replied.

  “What should we do?” I asked Adora.

  “Let’s wait,” she told us. “Maybe they will go away.”

  Thud! Thud! Thud! The noise started again, this time more intense.

  “They seem pretty determined,” I told her.

  “I’ll go out to check,” she told me. “You stay here, and remember not to let go, no matter what.”

  I nodded.

  There was a terrible squealing neigh, followed by the sound of gurgling.

  “Strawberry!” Alvar shouted. “He killed my horse!”

  Thud! Thud! Crash! A terrible sound of breaking carried in to the back room, and a cool breeze from the outside followed. Whoever had been at the door had managed to break it down.

  That monstrous scream filled my ears again.

  ***

  Author's note: If you get this far in the story, I would love a like or comment, any comment. I always appreciate it :)