REBIS

Combining two people into one somehow seemed more fantastical to Chinatsu than just creating a person from magic, but as he stared at Peony’s differently colored eyes, the reality began to sink in.

“I used to have a twin sister. Her name was Lily,” Peony began. They tapped their cheek under the blue eye with their index finger. “Now this is all I have left of her.”

“What do you mean?” Chinatsu asked.

“I was born with red eyes, and my sister was born with blue eyes.” A glimmer of sadness seemed to flash across their face before disappearing.

Chills ran down Chinatsu’s spine.

Peony took a deep breath and continued, “In my world, the Saint is the avatar of the Supreme Goddess and the only being who can use healing magic. When one dies, another is reborn. The identity of the Saint is known from birth–always born as an Elf of the fairest complexion, with hair as white as fresh snow and eyes the color of rubies. But most importantly, the Saint is always female.”

Peony stopped speaking for a moment and looked at Chinatsu and Miyabi as if to make sure they were listening. Chinatsu glanced over at Miyabi. She was sitting up stiffly, looking towards Peony but not directly at them. He leaned forward a bit as a signal for Peony to continue.

“I’m sure you can imagine the shock they experienced when not only was their new Saint born as a twin, but also male,” Peony chuckled while gesturing downward. Chinatsu, who kept his eyes focused above the neck, felt himself flush at the remark. “Like all previous Saints, the Church took us from our mother to raise us. The fact that we were twins was kept secret, but I don’t think they were sure what to do past that.”

He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to laugh along or not. Sure, there was a sense of irony in what Peony said, but he knew something darker loomed on the horizon. Just waiting for it felt like anticipating a scary part in a horror movie. He wanted to get it over with, but this was a story that Peony needed to tell at their own pace.

“They all hoped that she would be the one to have inherited the powers. I had overheard clergy members say once that if she had the powers, they could just give her my eyes and dispose of me,” Peony said, drawing their finger across their throat. They sighed. “When I told her that, my sister said that we could simply trade eyes and stay together. She always comforted me by telling me that if she were to become the Saint, she would always protect me.”

Peony drew their knees to their chest. “But in the end, it was me who inherited the healing powers. I understand now that I was born with them. Any pinprick or papercut would heal instantly–I just didn’t know it was abnormal.”

“Nobody noticed?” Miyabi asked. Peony shook their head.

“You have to understand that my sister and I were cloistered. Our whole life was spent inside church grounds. We didn’t have many opportunities for scrapes and bruises,” they said, looking at their hand. “One day, I came across an injured dove. A cat must have gotten it, but not finished it off, so the poor thing was barely clinging to life. I didn’t even consciously do it–I just held the bird with my hands and prayed it would live. When I let go, it flew away. A member of the clergy witnessed the whole thing.”

“So what did the Church do with this information?” Chinatsu asked. He was leaning forward unconsciously, eager to hear more.

“Well, I was still a child, but they began to parade me around as the Saint. A bit hypocritical of them, right?” Peony scoffed. “It divided the Clergy, though. Some insisted that I could be raised as a girl, and the rest could be kept a secret. Others insisted my existence itself was heretical. The whole thing was quite vexing to them.”

“But what about Lily?”

Peony seemed surprised at the question, but their expression soon turned melancholic.

“She was under immense pressure and started having nightmares. It culminated one night when she woke up screaming and inconsolable. She had awakened to the memories of every Saint that came before all at once.” Peony leaned against the edge of the pool and looked off into the distance. “I learned later that for prior Saints, it was usually like a slow trickle. But for Lily, it was like a flood. It changed her from the gentle, protective Lily I knew into a cold and distant sage. We were still children, but it was like she’d aged a thousand years overnight.”

“What happened after that?” Miyabi asked quietly. Peony sighed and continued to look over the edge of the pool.

“It caused more uproar within the Church as they argued over it for years. They tested our abilities while the gulf between my sister and me grew larger. Lily’s healing powers never came to her, and past-life memories never came to me. One of us could exorcise spirits, and one of us could cleanse curses. Eventually, they concluded that the Saint’s powers had been split between us, and it would have to be rectified,” Peony explained.

These two children had been pulled in different directions their whole lives, deciding nothing for themselves. This was it, though–the thing that forced Peony down the path that made them this way. Chinatsu knew that all he could do now was listen.

“They began to refer to us as ‘the two halves.’ There were some within the Church who wanted us eliminated so that the Saint could be unified and properly reborn, but there was no patience left for that. Rumors were beginning to spread that a great Demon was building an army, and the Saint was going to be integral in the battle to come. Lily and I were already fifteen–there would be no time left to even let us finish growing, let alone raise a new child.

“Instead, they secretly brought in Alchemists who promised to make us ‘whole.’ They never explained to us what would happen, only that it had been agreed upon by all clergy members. On the day of our ‘unification’ as they called it, my last memory of Lily is holding her hand after she told me she was afraid.

“The ‘Rebis,’ as the Alchemists referred to it, is made up of equal parts of opposing qualities of spirit and matter,” Peony explained. “I don’t know how long the process actually took–all I know is that my healing ability was integral to it. When I woke up a year later, she was gone. I was told that she was neither alive nor dead, but instead had become an equal part of me. And well, I’m sure you can figure out what that means. Everything extra simply became soil and ash.”

The unparalleled cruelty. Chinatsu felt nauseous from just filling in the blanks with his mind. Most of all, the way Peony had told all of it so nonchalantly, like someone recounting the plot from a novel, felt especially disturbing. Chinatsu felt lightheaded as the world around him seemed to spin.

“Chinatsu!? Are you okay!?” With a feeling of deja vu, Miyabi leaned over him while Chinatsu looked up to the sky.

“What happened?” he asked, sitting up slowly.

“You fainted,” Peony said, buttoning up their shirt.

“I think maybe you were in the bath too long,” Miyabi added.

“I see…” He was still wet, so it didn’t seem that much time had passed since he fainted, at least.

Chinatsu looked around to see the Dryads watching him with curiosity, yet maintaining their cautious distance away from the trio. He was sure the commotion of his fainting drew their attention. As he stared off into the distance at nothing in particular, Chinatsu felt cloth drape over his head and shoulders. He could tell from the trim that it was Peony’s cloak.

He lifted the fabric off his head to look up at the Elf, standing over him from behind.

“You can use that to dry off!” Peony said with a smile.

“Really!?” Chinatsu asked while feeling the fine, heavy fabric of the cloak. It felt like a waste to use such high-quality fabric in that way…

“It’s fine! I don’t mind,” Peony said, rubbing the fabric against Chinatsu’s wet hair.

Peony had shared more about themself than Chinatsu could have ever imagined, but his curiosity was still not sated. There was something that still bothered him.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Hm?” Peony stopped drying Chinatsu off with the cloak.

“What happened after all of that? To you, I mean.”

“I became the Saint, and of course, you know the rest,” Peony chuckled.

“That’s not what I meant…” Chinatsu turned to face Peony. They seemed surprised at the sudden directness, but just as quickly, the Elf was able to put up a mask.

“I know.” Peony smiled–but not with their eyes. They patted his shoulder before walking away. The conversation was shut down.

Miyabi dropped clothes in Chinatsu’s lap. It felt a little gross to be putting the dirty clothes back on, but they had no choice. Now more than ever, he wished he still had that deodorant.

Miyabi yawned as Chinatsu started to get dressed. He glared at her.

“What?” she said, meeting his glare. “Taking a bath just made me sleepy, is all.”

“Then should we rest for a little longer?” Peony asked.

“Should we?” Chinatsu looked to Miyabi for confirmation.

“Um…I suppose we could take a nap, since we didn’t get much sleep last night,” she mumbled. “But would it be safe?”

“Oh, I’m not tired at all! But I can watch out for any danger if that makes you feel better,” Peony said with a smile.

On a flat portion of the terrace, they got comfortable as best as they could on the hard stone surface under the shade of a yew tree. Even in the shade, the sun provided comfortable warmth. The trickle of water down the edges of the terraces and the soft splashing of the Dryad moving around provided an impeccable white noise soundscape. Chinatsu felt the fatigue of his travels in his bones.

So why couldn’t he fall asleep?

Miyabi seemed to fall asleep right away, judging by the snoring Chinatsu heard. He wanted to get a nap in before the next leg of their journey to the tower, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to fall asleep. It was like every time his body was on the cusp of sleep, he woke back up. Worst of all, he couldn’t tell how long they’d been resting or how much more time they had before Peony would wake them up.

Once more, as Chinatsu was on the cusp of sleep, he heard mumbling.

“Was it a good idea to tell them about that?”

Was that Peony? It sounded like them, but not quite. It was higher and harsher in tone.

“I had no choice. You worry too much.”

It was almost like Peony was talking to themself but doing two voices. Chinatsu remembered the story he told Peony before and wondered if the Elf was just remembering that and trying to prank him.

“You had a choice. You always have a choice. You just make bad choices,” the harsh voice scolded.

Chinatsu was starting to feel weird about this. If it was a prank, it was more creepy than it was funny, and he was starting to feel bad hearing Peony be so self-depricating out of nowhere.

“It’s going to be different this time,” Peony said softly. “They’re special.”

Chinatsu froze. They? Did that mean him and Miyabi? Was Peony talking about them? It really sounded like two different people, but the more Chinatsu thought about it, there couldn’t be anyone else there. Just who was Peony talking to!?