There was a long moment of silence, and Ulva looked over at the mage.  To her surprise, his fists were clenched and he was obviously fuming.

The lycan woman let out a surprised yelp as she suddenly felt a giant, invisible hand wrap around her torso.

“You!  You are not!  Her!” he roared as the hand dragged Ulva out of her seat.  She stared at him in wide-eyed shock.  She didn’t understand how he knew!  The cloaked mage marched Ulva to the front door of the castle, and the invisible hand threw her out of the doors as they opened on his command.

Ulva landed in a heap on the snowy path.  She was too stunned to move for a moment.

“GET OUT!” the mage roared.

Ulva scrambled to her feet and ran to the stable in a panic.  She found her father’s chestnut bay untacked in a stall.  She quickly put on his saddle and bridle and haphazardly secured her bags.  She pulled herself awkwardly into the saddle and kicked the horse’s flanks, making it bolt out of the stable.  She pushed the horse hard, galloping all the way home.

She arrived just before sunrise, and left the horse in its stall without bothering to cool or groom or even untack it.  She ran into the house and locked herself in her room.

Ulva jumped when there came a knock on her door.

“Who is it?” she asked.

“Orfilia.”

“Oh, alright,” Ulva shakily got to her feet and unlocked her door to let her younger sister in.

“Is everything alright?” Orfilia asked, putting her hands on her hips as she looked Ulva up and down.

“Um… why do you ask?” Ulva asked nervously.

“Well, I went into the stable after breakfast, and found Papa’s bay mare in her stall, sweaty, saddled, gulping water, and carrying bags full of your clothes,” the redhead replied.  She stepped to the side of the doorway and returned with Ulva’s bags and tossed them into the middle of the room.

“Ah.”

“Planning on running away?  No, that doesn’t make sense, the horse was already ridden,” Orfilia noted, giving her sister a suspicious look, amber eyes narrowing.

Ulva pulled Orfilia all the way into the room and locked the door.

“Hey!” she protested.

“Shh,” Ulva held her finger in front of her lips, looking frightened.

“Alright…” Orfilia looked concerned as she sat down on the bed with Ulva.  “What the hell is going on?”

Ulva heaved a sigh and tried to steady herself.

“I went to the castle.”

“You what?!”

“Shhhh!”

“Sorry…”

“I don’t want Papa to die.  I don’t see anything good coming of it.”

“Well, obviously not!” Orfilia gave Ulva a strange look.

“Well, I thought I could pretend to be Calista.  I remember a lot of what Mama taught us.  I thought, if I could pretend for a year, we’d be paid enough to cover Papa’s new debts, he wouldn’t die, and Calista could keep doing her healer duties.”

“I’m guessing it didn’t go well.”

“No.  No it did not.  He found me out so fast!  I’m not sure what went wrong!”

“Alright, tell me everything,” Orfilia said firmly, patting Ulva’s hands comfortingly.  Ulva nodded and took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Well, the gate opened by itself.  And then he appeared on the path, looking just like Papa described.  I had him help me down from the horse, and went to the door.  He took the horse to the stable and took off her saddle and stuff, I guess, because it was off when I left.  He took too long to do it though.  Left me outside in the cold!” she folded her arms over her chest and looked sour.

“That wasn’t very polite of him.”

“No!  So then he led me to the smaller of two dining rooms.  It was a little too intimate, if you ask me.  But I guess he did it to make it easier to talk.  He left me alone there for a long time while he made supper.  He did fine with that, I guess, aside from being slow at it.  Calista is much faster.  But I guess that’s what happens when a nobleman is too cheap to hire servants!”

“So he is a nobleman?”

“Well, he didn’t deny it.  And he said his steward manages the duchy.  So I guess he’s a duke.  Anyway… He asked what I thought of the ugly flower arrangement he put on the table, and I admitted I hate it and prefer roses.  And that’s when he threw me out!  As if it’s my fault he has terrible taste in flowers!” Ulva sulked.  Orfilia shook her head.

“He sounds rather rude.  But it sounds like you were a bit rude as well,” she pointed out.

“Whatever!  You know I hate horses.  The damn mare wouldn’t cooperate with me!  It put me in a foul mood.  It’s not my fault!” Ulva insisted in a caustic tone.

Orfilia shook her head again and patted her older sister’s shoulder.  She left Ulva to stew in her poor mood.

“Well, I groomed the horse for you.  So no one should notice you were gone.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

Ulva spent the day in her room, and didn’t go out to meet her fiance that night.  She simply sulked and felt sorry for herself.

On the fourth day since Fridolf returned home, Orfilia sat thinking about what Ulva had done.  It had been on her mind a lot since she’d spoken to her about it.  She didn’t think her sister’s idea had been a bad one, it had just been poorly executed.  Ulva was much too ill tempered to pass herself off as Calista for any real length of time.

Orfilia thought she could do better.  She may not know as much about herbalism as Ulva or Calista, but she thought she knew enough to fake it for a year.  Perhaps she could convince the duke to marry her?  Normally, a pairing of a human and a lycan would be very taboo, but he was a mage!  He could probably change his shape using magic!  Even if he couldn’t, mages were good at keeping secrets and many knew about the non-humans that shared this world with them, so revealing herself as a lycan after he’d fallen in love with her should be alright, right?

She wanted a rich, powerful mate.  It was hard to argue that a wealthy, spellcasting duke wasn’t just that.  She could ensure the Hemming Shipping Company’s future as well as find herself the mate she’d always wanted.  She could tell him the truth later.  If he was in love with her, he’d forgive her deception!

Now determined, Orfilia began to pack for the trip.  She wouldn’t take as much of her clothing with her as Ulva had.  Her rich future-husband could just buy her new clothes!  She wanted to impress him so he’d see her as an equal, so she wore her best dress and finest jewelry set.

When the sun went down, she snuck out to the stable and saddled the horse and secured her bags.  It was a clear night, and Orfilia could see her and the horse’s breath as they traversed the icy road.  Orfilia didn’t have the same problem with prey animals that Ulva did, so the horse was docile and cooperative.

When they came to the overgrown side road that would lead them to the castle, the horse danced nervously and resisted going down the path.  But Orfilia muttered comforting words and patted the animal’s neck.  Once it calmed, she urged it forward, and they pressed on.

In due time, they reached the gate.  As with Ulva, the gate opened on its own as Orfilia approached.  The redheaded lycan was impressed by the display of magic.

She saw the black-cloaked figure on the path ahead.  She took a deep breath to steady her nerves now that she was almost face to face with him, and rode the horse forward.  She stopped in front of the stable, instead of down the path like Ulva had.

She held out her hands towards the mage.

“Would you help me down?” she asked sweetly.  He hesitated a moment, then nodded and approached to help her down.  Orfilia peeked in his hood, but was disappointed to see only blackness, and realized he must be concealing himself with magic.

“Are you Calista?”

“Yes!  Yes, I am.”

“A woman claiming to be you was here a couple days ago.”

“Yes, I know.  It was my elder sister.”

“Hmm.”

The two stood on the path in awkward silence for a moment.  Orfilia smiled a little and took the horse’s reins and led it into the stable and settled it in a stall.  She took her bags, but did not untack the horse.  She didn’t think of it.  She was only thinking about getting her bags inside and getting out of the cold.  The mage had followed her into the stable.  He watched as she headed for the door, glancing between her and the horse.  With a sigh, he moved to untack the animal.  Orfilia had the grace to blush, realizing her blunder.