Slam!

The wind was knocked from Arian’s body as she fell face first into something liquid. Liquid, but not wet. As soon as her body made contact the wetness solidified, forming solid ground. She closed her eyes and shook her head, but when she opened them, she flinched. 

The black glassy surface had shifted into dirt. She looked around and saw she was in a forest clearing, tall skinny trees surrounding her, leaves and debris on her clothes and in her hair.

Arian pushed herself onto her knees and inhaled the overly fresh woodland air. The irregular scent made her nose twitch as she breathed, it did not smell like the city. 

She sent her awareness throughout her body to assess for injuries. No significant pain anywhere except her brain. Her confusion was a stark contrast to her stoic face as she took in her surroundings.

Where am I? How did I get into the woods? What happened?

Fingers began to unconsciously clench at her jacket as fear began to eat at the edges of her confusion, but she halted the feeling. Solutions. She needed to focus on answers not feelings. Arian unzipped her fanny pack to get her phone and opened her map app. Nothing generated, no service. She turned her phone off to save battery life until she was somewhere with a signal.

Suddenly a golden glow swirled in the air and Ellura appeared. She still had blood on her face and Arian was deeply concerned for the welfare of her landlord. Ellura held up her hand with her fingertips all touching and pressed them outward. As she did this, fine lines appeared to form an ornate circular dial. She flicked her wrist and the dial spun, glowing gold, and then fading away.

“What was that?” Arian asked aloud, her face desperate for information but her tone filled with disdain. While she had once admired Ellura, Arian’s voice revealed her new mistrust.

Ellura was startled at the sound and turned to look at her. Seeing Arian for the first time, one of her eyebrows lifted and a genuine look of disbelief spread across her bloody face. Her glance was brief, ignoring the question as she turned to look around the forest.

“Where are we?” Arian asked in a more insistent tone as she made her way to standing, brushing off her clothes. She unconsciously clenched her fists, prepared for another fight.

Ellura sighed deeply, clearly annoyed with Arian’s questions and presence. In a golden flash her body morphed into a barn owl, and she flew away. Arian stood watching the bird abandoning her, mouth agape.

“What in the fu-”

“AAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

She quickly turned, finding a small red-headed woman wearing a fitted bodice gown running straight towards her. Tears in her eyes and fear on her face, she was being chased by a massive knight in full armor. 

One of his strides was easily three of hers, but he was weighed down by plate. Had the dainty woman not been wearing such full skirts she might have outrun her assailant, but she would be caught in less than a dozen strides. Her desperate eyes locked on Arian.

“Please!” she yelled, “Help me, please!”

Arian was a good fighter, but engaging a massive man in full body armor was absolute madness. Without a weapon she would be demolished in the encounter of flesh against steel. The most intelligent thing a fighter could do was know their limits and when to walk away. She reached into her fanny pack to pull out her keys. Taking a few steps forward to meet them, she assumed a strong stance.

I’ve got this, she thought with unrealistic confidence.

Without hesitation, she extended one arm to grab the woman and pull her safely behind her. Arian's other hand held a keychain canister of mace and she sprayed a cloud in the pathway of the charging knight. When he hit the burning mist, his steps faltered and slowed.

Retreating and spraying, Arian continued to aim at his visor until she hit him directly in the eyes. He fell to his knees a couple feet in front of her and scrambled to take off his helmet, groaning in pain. Instinctively, she took a few steps back to create more distance and bumped into a small body. The abrupt contact caused the woman to squeak in surprise.

“Are you a witch?” the woman said fearfully. She was cowering behind Arian staring at the knight with concern.

“No,” Arian said abruptly, not wanting to accidentally condemn herself. “I just... uh, I stole this from a witch,” the lie fumbled out of her mouth. 

The explanation was weak, and Arian hoped no more questions would follow.  How ironic would it be to finally become a doctor only to be burned as a witch?

“The effect isn’t permanent. We need to go!” 

Arian grabbed the woman’s hand and ran towards the trees. They needed to put distance between themselves and the threat. There were a few problems with that plan: she didn’t know where she was, she didn’t know where to go, or who she was with, and she didn’t know if there were more knights in the trees.

This was not how she expected her first day as a doctor to go.

An old city saw a strange occurrence that day. An owl out in the daylight flew around to perch in areas too close to people, as if to eavesdrop. After hours of what seemed to be aimless behavior, it faded from the sky, as if consumed by the sun.

Stepping through a golden door, Ellura walked back into her clinic office. The wrinkled old woman was sitting at Ellura’s desk. Elbows resting on the desk with fingertips pressed together, Tena had been waiting for her.

“Your accuracy is dreadful,” Ellura said. The golden door faded, and she leaned casually against the wall where it had been seconds before. 

“Forgive me,” the old woman spoke cooly, “it’s hard to be precise in creating a new time door while you’re beating the shit out of me.”

“Don’t be so dramatic. We’re immortal.”

“That makes us immune from death, not pain.” Tena retorted.

“I wouldn’t have to beat you if you would comply. You force me to hurt you.”

“Well, I complied, you got your door into the past.”

“About five hundred years too early, and no important nexus events for decades,” Ellura said, frustration evident in her voice.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Tena mocked, “We’re immortal. It will pass in the blink of an eye.”

Ellura pushed off the wall as if to attack her sister again, but then began to pace instead. “How did you get into my office? Who let you in?”

 “I’m your identical twin you idiot,” Tena snapped. “I walked in with a younger face on, and no one thought anything of it.”

Ellura rolled her golden eyes, switching to her owl form made her brown contacts disappear. “I forget that you are obsessed with looking old this time around. Why you chose to put that ugly form back on is beyond me.”

“You’re one to talk to me about obsession.”

At this, Ellura’s nostrils flared, and her anger spiked.  They couldn’t fight here without drawing the attention of her colleagues and blowing her mortal cover. She needed to get her sister out before she lost her temper.

“Why are you here?” Ellura said in an exasperated tone.

Tena inhaled deeply and sat back in the chair, her wrinkled face getting serious.

“How did the girl survive the door?”

Ellura shrugged, she had been just as surprised to see her inside the reflection. “How did you know that she survived?”

“I didn’t feel her shatter. I felt her pass through, the same way it feels when you cross.”

Ellura’s face was uninterested, and she waved her sister on, trying to get to the point of the conversation so she would leave.

“Why didn’t you bring her back?”

“Because I do not care,” Ellura said, over-enunciating each individual word.

“One of us must stay in the reflection for time to be dilated. How can you leave her there and let her be missing from her own time? It would have been so simple for you to bring her back.”

“Simple? She saw us and we would both be exposed. Let her be missing and we can continue as we have without complication.”

Tena’s eyes were aghast at this response. She knew her sister had become more and more deranged over the last few centuries, but this was a new level of apathy. They had re-written their mortal lives hundreds of times. This was a trivial matter to let someone potentially die over.

“She’s not a reflected soul, Ellura. She is from this time and is supposed to exist now.”

“If you are so worried about her, you go get her.”

“You know if I go back, I cannot bring her forward.”

“The magic won’t let us be apart for long,” Ellura sighed regretfully. “An artifact will present itself eventually.”

“Artifacts can take years to manifest,” Tena stated flatly.

“What are a few years to an immortal?” Ellura sneered back at her sister, “It will pass by in the blink of an eye.”

The twins stared into one another's eyes, irritation creating tension in the muscles of their faces.  Eventually, Tena rose from the desk chair and began to leave.  She paused and spoke as calmly as she could manage. 

"The magic has never done this before, mortals have never survived a crossing.  This girl could be the key to setting ourselves free."

"I am not interested in being free, Tena.  I need our magic to get my happiness."

Tena sighed, this impasse was too familiar.  This was the rift that drove them apart centuries ago and they never found a way to cross it.

"You can't find happiness in a dead end."