The Trio Odyssey

Part I: Soul to Soul

Chapter 3: The Mirror

Raesha mutters her final words before preparing for the event.

‘The crucial event of today is a must. Anyway, I must not overlook the things that occurred all over today.’

She invites her daughter to go for preparation, again.

“Oh, honey, let’s go. We must dress up for the event.”

Raeké is left confused by the event mentioned by Lord Chamberlain, but her body responds before she could even think.

“Okay, Mom.”

Thus, she, her mother, and Lord Chamberlain walk into the Heto Palace, preparing for the event.

Raesha and her daughter walk past the corridors, holding hands together as they walk, showing a mutual affectionateness.

And, Lord Chamberlain’s walking at the left flank in front of the mother and the daughter, while leading the way for them.

Raeké looks at the grand architectural interior of Heto Palace, giving her a sense of jamais vu.

‘I might’ve seen this place before… but why does it feel foreign to me?’

She faces down, responding to the most dominant feeling she has in her chest, which possesses stronger emotional weight.

She feels it so much, like a longing for returning home she knows it exists.

‘I want to go home…’

‘This is home.’

‘Wait, who’s talking?’

The silence is filled with footsteps, and Raeké stays silent too, sighing.

‘Where’s exactly my home? It seems like I-I can’t remember it at all.’

‘This feels so wrong. Just what’s going on?’

Raeké looks up, staring at her mother’s face.

Suddenly, her tongue moves on its own, randomly blurting a question.

“Mom, what’s Gantae Equatorial Syzygy?”

Immediately, she covers her mouth as soon as she thinks that none of that action she did just now was voluntary.

‘Wait, since when did I want to say that?’

Raesha looks into her daughter’s face with a gentle expression, breaking down her words, and keeping her explanations plain and simple for her daughter’s childish understanding.

“Let’s see…”

“It’s a celestial phenomenon, sweetie.”

“From humans’ view on Nulhym, we will see the host star rises and aligns with the Gantae Ring like its path.”

“Therefore, it’s called the Gantae Equatorial Syzygy!”

Her daughter nods excitedly and comments.

“Wow—that’s cool.”

Lord Chamberlain pauses at the front entrance of a room.

Then, he starts welcoming the Princess to enter the room.

He bows his head slightly, sweeps his arm to his chest, and places his forearm to the side, pointing toward the room for each time he greets the Royals.

“Your Highness, pray enter the Infirmary.”

The Queen and the Princess stop, looking into each other’s faces for a moment.

Raesha lets go of her hand that has been holding the hand of her daughter.

Her daughter knows what to do: she relaxes her arms and faces toward the Infirmary.

Raesha bids her adieu to her daughter with a subtle smile and a light wave of her hand. 

“Until we meet again, honey.”

The Princess walks toward the entrance, entering the Infirmary.

A man in his formal attire, believably Physician Hite, gives a subtle neck bow to welcome the Princess. 

“Your Highness, please take a seat here for an immediate diagnosis and treatment.”

The Physician performs his diagnosis method: summoning multiple small, chubby, featherful birds to fly around the Princess and making visible rays of light to emit from the birds around her body. 

Raeké mutters as though he’s using some sort of magic, although it’s just for medication. 

‘What’s he doing with me—x-raying me?’

Other than the Princess’s wounded fingers and cracked nails, the Physician notices something unusual: a fresh, finger-length, shallow slit on her forearm, bleeding out until now under her sleeve.

Without further ado, the Physician asks the Princess.

“Ma’am, please come to the washing unit and unsheathe your right sleeve posthaste.”

“Um—okay…”

She pulls her right sleeve up off her dress once she reaches the washing unit per instructed.

She sees an unexplained, gruesome wound she doesn’t know was there this whole time.

Additionally, she doesn't even feel the pain, unless she touches it or washes it. 

The Physician is compassionate to the Princess as he washes her wounds, flowing the tap water in a gentle stream atop of her wounds. 

“This is no ordinary wound, Ma’am. Who sliced your forearm?”

She answers while wincing, groaning and stuttering.

“Ah—that hurts! I-I don’t know...”

Then, the Physician uses one of his medication methods, though slightly different than before: the rays come again from the birds and they layer every surface of the Princess’s wounds. 

“One moment please, if you don’t mind, Ma’am. ”

She nods and waits, looking at her wound.

Subsequently, she suddenly remembers a moment back at the coast. 

She witnesses that she’s holding the same knife that her mother took. 

By that time, she held it in trembles, pointing downwards.

While beneath it, it was full of incomprehensible blurs and darkness.

‘Huh—that knife?’

The Physician returns to the washing unit while bringing the medications, addressing the Princess.

“Ma’am, the treatment is ready.”

She’s immobilized, staring at her forearm.

“Ma’am?”

He unintentionally interrupts her silent moment of rewinding.

Therefore, she’s called back to reality, feeling a fleeting mental blurring.

‘Eh—?’

She breaks a sweat, asking for the Physician to repeat his sentence.

“Um—, come up again, Physician?”

“I have prepared the medical supplies for your treatment, Ma’am.”

“Elevate your forearm, please, Ma’am.”

The Princess lifts her forearm, especially the wounded part closer to the Physician.

The Physician tends all of the Princess’s wounds in the medical dressings until all of them are sealed well.

“It’s all done now, Ma’am.”

The Princess sincerely appreciates the Physician’s aid as she’s relieved, brightening her face with a faint smile. 

“Much obliged!”

The Physician bows his head subtly and slowly to acknowledge the Princess’s appreciation.

“The pleasure is entirely mine, Ma’am.”

The same Lord Chamberlain returns to the Infirmary, waiting at the entrance for the Princess’s presence.

With his usual formalities, he greets the Princess that just came out. 

“Your Highness, may I safely escort you to the Dressing Room?”

The Princess nods in front of Lord Chamberlain, signaling that she’s prepared.

A little while later, both of them reached a similar entrance like the Infirmary but it varied in design. 

“The Dressing Room is this way, if you’re willing, Ma’am.”

There is a group of female workers in the Royal Household, or in other words, dressers, all lined up, welcoming the Princess’s arrival into the Dressing Room. 

The Princess proceeds to walk into the Dressing Room, and the dressers perform subtle curtsies as the Princess enters. 

Thereafter, the path to the wardrobe is shown by the lead dresser, justifying for the Princess the way to dress up. 

The Princess takes her time to make it out to the wardrobe.

Almost everything was taken care of by the dressers, facilitating the Princess’s dressing processes, faster than ever. 

Until some time, the Princess is brought by the lead dresser to do make-up in front of the mirror.

“Allow us to guide you to the mirror, Ma’am.”

Raeké walks toward the space that has the mirror installed.

From afar, she sees a tall, huge, flat mirror.

Once her silhouette is captured by the mirror, the first thing that she notices from afar is a vivid difference that only she’s able to tell.

She reaches in front of the mirror, reflecting a face that isn’t hers. 

It’s true that her hands and feet are too small, her height to the floor is strangely close and her voice is too babyish. 

Her look is what draws a clear line between her consciousness and her body.

She runs closer to the mirror, taking a closer look at the appearance entirely, seeing what’s captured, live.

The face she’s looking at through the reflection is none other than the Princess’s: the ruby-red, wavelike, round eyes; the childish face and body; the curly, bronze hair; the white, ceremonial, Royal dress. 

She anxiously touches her cheek and strokes her hair, mumbling about the face she possesses.

‘Huh—my face… Who is this child?’

This is her first time seeing the Princess’s face.

By that fact, she has forgotten her own face as soon as she tries to recall it.

With no evidence of her memories, she quickly shifts her focus toward the Princess’s movements.

She tries to move her body parts around whatsoever, surprisingly knowing the fact that she’s moving the Princess’s body as exactly as she wants it to be. 

And she also changes her expressions to check if her movements are genuinely in her control; the Princess’s expression follows the shape of her soul too. 

To think that these things are unbelievable, she’s possessing a body that isn’t hers, which is the body of the Princess, Raeké Issocelle Cazdae.

She comes to wonder about what’s happening in her shoes, and why she’s able to control the Princess’s body.

‘Is it just me… or I’m actually transmigrated? If that’s so, what could’ve happened to the real Raeké?’

She’s desperately denying the fact that she had undergone a transmigration, thinking that she still has the hope to return to her normal state and go back to her home.

‘No, that's a novel thing, and it shouldn’t be real. I’m pretty sure, there must be a way out for this.’

She tries to recall her old memories in the world she believes she has previously lived, specifically her name.

‘If I’m not this Raeké, then what is my actual identity?’

Nevertheless, she failed to do so due to her memory loss.

‘Ugh—no way… I’m having amnesia now…? I’m not sure if my memories are retrievable.’

She becomes somehow upset by her memory loss; it feels like she has lost her own self or even a big part of herself. 

One of the dressers comes to address the Princess, who's been zoning out in front of the mirror for quite a while. 

“Ma’am, shall we aid your grooming, now?”

The Princess blinks excessively and averts her gaze quickly, responding to the dressers. 

“Oh—so sorry. I’m up.”

While the dressers groom the Princess all over, the Princess attempts to take some time to think of a ritual, spell or anything that might help her expelling her soul out of the Princess’s body, even inflexibly, using any means she has. 

She feels a cold, vibrating sensation across her body, pointing her head toward her right; it’s the direction that kind of leads to the sensation.

‘Why did that dresser bring out her Chimeric?’

She looks back into the mirror.

‘Hm—whatever. This must be another diagnosis, but for make-up or something.’

She closes her eyes tightly, desiring to go outside and be freed.

‘This isn’t what I wanted all along…’