Evelyn slowed to a stop as well, breathless, then turned back in confusion.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Why did you stop? They’re not that far behind us yet.”

The young woman who looked exactly like Kayla stared at her, eyes trembling, chest rising and falling too fast.

“How…” Her voice cracked.

“How do you know something like that?”

She tried to sound composed, but she failed. Her hands curled into fists at her sides, knuckles white, as if holding herself together through sheer will. That fragile, unguarded expression finally confirmed what Evelyn had suspected all along.

“You’re finally listening, huh?” Evelyn said softly, a crooked smile tugging at her lips.

“How did it sound? Familiar?”

She tilted her head slightly, studying her face.

“How do you think I know that, hm?” Her voice lowered.

“What do you think, Kayla?”

The name hit her like a physical blow.

The twenty-year-old woman froze. For a heartbeat, the world seemed to stall. Then everything Evelyn had said, every strange word, every oddly familiar tone, crashed into place.

Her composure shattered, her restraint collapsed.

“Waaah—!”

She surged forward, arms wrapping around Evelyn with desperate force, clutching her as if letting go would mean losing her forever. Her fingers dug into the rough fabric of Evelyn’s clothes, trembling, her entire body shaking as sobs tore out of her.

“You’re here… you’re really here…” Kayla cried, voice breaking over and over, completely breaking down. Her grip tightened, almost painfully so.

 “Sister, you’re here, you’re truly here! I thought I was all alone! I thought I was going to—”

Her words dissolved into sobs.

“Waaah… it’s so scary here. Everything’s scary. I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t understand anything. I was so scared, so, so scared…”

Evelyn staggered slightly from the force of the embrace, then steadied herself and wrapped her arms around Kayla in return. One hand pressed firmly against her back, the other cradling her head, anchoring her there.

Evelyn murmured, voice low and steady.

“I’m here now.”

Kayla clung to her harder, face buried against her chest, shoulders heaving as she cried without restraint, loud, messy, and utterly unguarded.

“Want me to describe what you look like right now?” Evelyn teased softly, attempting to lighten the moment.

“Red-eyed, ugly-crying, completely shameless—”

“Shut up!” Kayla snapped between sobs.

She pushed forward without warning, still clinging to her elder sister like a leech: frustrated, overwhelmed, yet relieved to know she was not alone in this world that her sister was here with her.

“Oof—” Evelyn staggered slightly.

“You know,” she said with a breathless laugh,

“just earlier you were looking at me like I was something rotten because of how I smelled. And now you’re hugging me.”

“I’m sorry,” Kayla muffled into her chest.

Evelyn sighed, fingers brushing gently through her younger sister red-orange hair.

“I was just kidding,” she exhaled slowly, relief softening her voice.

“It’s good to know I wasn’t wrong,” she added quietly.

“That you really are my adorable younger sister.”

Kayla sniffed and pulled back just enough to look up at her, eyes still wet.

“If it wasn’t me,” she said stubbornly,

“then who else would it be?”

That earned a soft chuckle.

“Were you really that scared?” Evelyn asked.

Kayla nodded immediately.

“So much.” She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, then frowned and finally stepped back.

“But, wait.”

She stared at Evelyn again, confusion slowly replacing fear.

“What happened to you?” she asked.

“Why are you like this? The last time I saw my elder sister… she was still a woman.”

Evelyn opened her mouth to answer, but a sharp, anxious voice from behind them cut through the moment.

“Young miss!”

Evelyn’s expression shifted instantly. She glanced over Kayla’s shoulder, spotting the noblewoman and the two armored men closing in.

“Yeah,” she said dryly, already grabbing Kayla’s right hand.

“As much as I’d love to explain my entire life story right now…”

She tugged her forward.

“We’d better run farther first.”

And without waiting for a reply, they took off again.