February 15, 2005
High Mage Finnas clapped his hand, followed by Emery and Panjik.
"The world is right to fear you two and our kind's biggest mistake was to underestimate you, the both of you. What you two just performed is something we knew could be done in theory, but not something that is taught in practice and definitively not something that should be done by a pair of mages as young as you," said High Mage Finnas.
Coralis sat on the ground in the middle of a pool of blood and was busy sowing the skin around her neck, while Sonylla drank a vial of mighty monster juice. After months of practice, they successfully reattached their head when cut off. Giving them the green light, Panjik passed a blade through Sonylla's neck first, then through Coralis's when they had recovered their stamina. High Mage Finnas and Emery witnessed it.
"I knew Blue wasn't to be underestimated, or she wouldn't be on the top 10 most wanted witches… but this? This is something I hope to be able to do if my twinning partner or I ever get beheaded!" said Emery.
"Pairing Blue Thunder and Sonylla Windflame together for a twinning bond spell is by far the greatest combination we have seen in a long time. They took to the idea of using that spell to their benefit to stay alive to a degree that, at times, frightened me. I am certainly thankful to see you two fighting on our side," said Panjik, handing a vial of mighty monster juice to Coralis, seeing she was done sowing her head.
Coralis massaged her neck and was surprised she wasn't feeling any pain.
"I think next, we should practice when it's separated for a longer time. I hope it will never happen for real, but we need to be ready to survive against anything. Even when this war ends, what will come next?" said Coralis.
"I would like to try for when someone tries to pull our heart, but I can't think of a fool-proof way to do it safely, even if we do it gradually," said Sonylla.
"If a foe ever pulls the heart out of any of you, the other should try forming a new one, a replica of their own heart. However, there is indeed no method to practice it safely. You will have to trust your skills when the time comes if it ever does," said High Mage Finnas.
Coralis and Sonylla looked at each other.
"I don't like that look, you aren't considering trying it, aren't you?" said Emery.
"No, we aren't, but I'm thinking about how we can practice replicating one of our body parts to heal the other. There's got to be an organ that is safe to practice on… or a nail maybe?" said Coralis.
"Oooh, nails are a good idea to practice on! I know our foes want us killed on sight, but you know we're more likely to get captured and tortured instead, especially if they don't know how to kill us. Pulling nails out sounds like something people would do," said Sonylla.
"I think you just created monsters, Panjik," said Emery.
"Like I said earlier, be glad they aren't against us. That being said, ladies, if you can smoothly create new nails on each other like you can change your shirt, you should be skilled enough to recreate any organ you need to heal on your partner without the need to practice it," said Panjik while cleaning the blood on the floor using his elemental magic.
"Stay tuned to each other and keep working on improving your stamina. You will need that to be unkillable," said High Mage Finnas.
High Mage Finnas and Emery left when Panjik's mate entered the room with a platter of mini-sandwiches.
"We should reach out to our mates before they think we're dead," said Sonylla as they both grabbed one.
"Definitively, I promised mine I'd call him as soon as we were done. I should call him before he gets Sebastian to blow up your hologram. Although, wouldn't yours have felt it through the mate-bond?"
"Hmm, probably."
Coralis thanked Sara and grabbed a mini-sandwich before heading outside to call Frank.
"Thank God you succeeded! I was getting worried."
"It was trickier than we thought, but surprisingly painless. I'd like to say we got it easy, but given how exhausted we both were when done, I think we definitively need to keep working on our stamina."
"I don't ever want to receive a phone call telling me you got killed, so if I'm honest, I'm happy to hear that a blade isn't going to kill you. Is there a stunt more dangerous than that you are planning on practicing?"
"I could think of more dangerous stunts we could be trying, such as using a silver blade or removing the heart, but don't worry, we aren't going to practice that. At most, we might practice with the head detached for a longer time, but even that one, I don't think we'll try it out."
She could hear Frank sigh over the phone.
"I can almost hear my sister observing how we wonder why people fear you."
"She's not the only one saying that," said Coralis, chuckling. "High Mage Finnas told us the same thing today and it's the second time I hear him telling me that. Audrey couldn't have said it better on Christmas Eve. As a people, we're brutal against one another. In a war context, we must be ready to survive against anything. People want me dead, I can't let them succeed. Plus, if my foes fear me enough, hopefully, they won't try anything against you."
She returned to the room where Panjik and Sonylla were. Both had a sombre expression.
"Holy gods from above, what did I miss?"
"Janne had been missing for 2 weeks. We found out today that she had been executed in New Zealand. We didn't even know she had been captured," said Sonylla.
"High Mage Janne? How? I mean, how come it wasn't known she had been captured? And for 2 weeks? High Mage Ferlow was her twinning partner, right?"
"Yes, the High Mage Janne who was listed as the 14th most wanted. I do not have all the details yet and we do not know how she got captured. Ferlow had told the elders Janne was negotiating treaties with local elf clans and couldn't tell us why she wasn't answering her hologram. We do not know how Ferlow broke his twinning spell, but it seems that Janne has been betrayed by her twinning partner."