Chapter 41 - The Seraphim Twins P10
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"So what is the esteemed World Tree doing here in Elysium?" I asked before taking a bite of bacon. "Mmm... bacon."
"Hmm..." the blonde tree spirit mused as she sniffed her own strip of bacon. "You really outdid yourself, Eli."
"What do you mean? With what?"
"It really smells like bacon."
"Because it's bacon..." I raised an eyebrow at her question as she took a bite. "And Luma cooked, not me."
"And it tastes like bacon."
"Because-"
"It's mana. Everything here is mana. Your bodies are made of mana, except our lovely Mavel. This table is made of mana. This planet, this galaxy, the entire damn universe is made of mana. But you made it indistinguishably realistic. It's a marvel that not even Luna and her peers managed to do."
I shrugged. "It wasn't that hard."
"Not for you or Fia, perhaps. You are the most gifted at mana manipulation, period. Even Luna isn't as skilled as you."
"Is that why you're here?"
She shook her head, and her eyes went from awe to exasperation. She glanced around the table, her eyes settling on the twins, causing them to freeze under her gaze.
"Tell me, any of you," she said, "how rare are twins in Eden?"
"Why are you asking that?" Alethea asked. "That seems like a strange topic to switch to."
"Humor me."
"They're rare enough that Lily and Ally are considered a miracle."
"Alright. Next question, what happens when twins are expected initially, but only one child is born?"
"I just want to say, before I answer that, your questions are suspicious," Michelle said. "You show up and the topic you want to talk about is this? What are you getting at?"
"Just answer the question."
Michelle sighed. "Twins are very rarely born because Transcendent souls are very dense. Multiple births were thought to be a miracle until we started observing how common they are among mortals. Because we figured out that our souls are much denser, that explains why we have so much more mana than mortals. Mothers can't nurture two fetuses at once except under rare circumstances. Usually, one child is born while the second is absorbed by..."
Her eyes widened as she looked directly at me.
"There's a lightbulb," Larie said.
Surely she's not insinuating...
Michelle stood up, walked around the table, and held her palm in front of my face. "Let me in your soul world."
Alfia looked at me with a mix of curiosity and concern, Alethea was suspicious, Mavel had a look just like Alfia, Adele was confused, Luma was shocked, Lily was worried, and Ally was shaking her head.
"In Eden, you're the only one of us that had twins. You carried Azalea, Maya carried Kaede, Luma carried Lux, I carried Ariel and then Adriel separately, Adele carried Anna... but you had Kyra and Liya at the same time."
"And Lily and Ally's mother is exceptionally strong as well," Alethea added.
"Speak plainly, what are you getting at?" I asked. I already had a good idea. It'd been on my mind since I started the storytelling, because of Fia's comments of it being weird seeing the memories from someone else's point of view.
"I want to confirm with... the other you in your soul world."
"We're in the middle of breakfast..."
"Larie didn't bring this up for no reason. She is the World Tree and came here of all places to visit us." She turned to the blonde tree spirit, her eyes full of suspicion. "Well? Am I wrong? You show up after these four make contact with their other selves in their soul worlds, and spark this conversation."
Larie chuckle. "You always were quickest to pick things up, Adara. Go ahead, Eli. Take all of us in with you."
I sighed and snapped my fingers, pulled the entire room into my soul world.
I'm not sure if I want to know where this is going.
In my soul world, the dining room had no walls and the two in question were just waiting having tea at a nearby small circle table like what I have in my bedroom.
"Okay, spit it out," Michelle said as she unhesitantly stomped up to them. "Larie is getting at something here. Clearly she already knows everything, but I imagine the two of you don't want her to say anything."
The other me sighed. "It doesn't matter what we want. It matters what they want." She gestured at me and Fia, then Alethea and Mavel.
"Were they supposed to be twins from the very start? Are Elysia and Alfia separate entities? Not two halves of one soul? Explain! Same question for the pink cats."
I stood up and walked over to them. "Now that Adara has put that together, how about you let us have the last few memories you've been withholding from us? What is the truth?"
"Before I answer that, I'll tell you what we are," the other me said. "We are mental constructs created at the time of your respective splits. We are not living entities, we are merely a representation of who you think you were before the split."
"For the sake of names," I gestured at them, "let's continue referring to you as Elise and you as Maya, while all of us are here together." I glanced at Sanae, Alethea, and Mavel. "You three okay with that?"
Each nodded.
"So then, the answer to the main question... are Alfia and I halves of Elysia, or were we twins and I absorbed her soul into mine? Like most cases of not twins in Eden."
Elise and Maya exchanged glances and both nodded, Elise answered, "Yes. That's correct. Both pairs were supposed to be twins when you were born in Eden. But as you know about twins among Transcendents, it's not possible in most cases and one twin absorbs the other's soul."
"Usually," Michelle said, "that results in a new soul. Neither twin is the person born, but rather a third from the combination of the original two. So how did it work for them?"
"They remained distinct but undetectable. Alfia's and Mavel's souls were kept within Elysia and Maya's cores. Nobody could detect their presence, except Lady Lariette and Lady Luna."
I turned to Larie, and she was already looking at me. She knew what I was going to ask. "We didn't tell you or anyone else for one simple purpose. You would have tried to separate your twin had we done so, which is extraordinarily dangerous. It has never been done successfully before. Yet, on Gaia and then in Elysium, both of you split your souls where in truth you successfully separated your twins souls from your own."
"Then what about the whole idea of finding a way to keep them separate?" Michelle asked. "Was Lady Luna going to simply allow me to slave away at an impossible task?"
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Revision: 2025-7-29