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“Do you truly have to leave?” Padma glanced up from where she was checking over her scale-mail one last time, and was unable to resist the soft smile that curled her lips when she saw her mother standing in the doorway, wringing her hands. She set her armour aside and crossed to the petite witch who had raised her, ducking her head to press a kiss to her forehead.
“It’s time for us to seek our fortunes, Mother,” she murmured, and knew without looking that her twin was approaching. A moment later, Parvati dropped a kiss to their mother’s cheek.
“We must go, but we will return when we have discovered our fates,” Parvati said, and their mother’s eyes filled with tears. She had a tremulous smile on her face, though, and nodded.
“I understand. Be safe, and return to me,” she whispered, and Padma hugged her tightly just as Parvati did the same from her other side.
“We will,” they both said, and held their mother between them until their father came and gently gathered their petite mother to his side.
“Take care of each other best you can, my girls,” he said gruffly, and Padma touched her cheek to his whiskery one. Parvati mirrored her actions exactly.
“We will,” they said again, and then they donned their fish-scale armour and took up blade and bag.
They said their farewells to their parents, and stopped by the grave of their god-fish progenitor before they took the road towards the closest city – away from the witch and ex-knight who had raised and trained them.
They travelled in near silence, comfortable together and having no need to speak, until they reached the first fork in the road. Padma paused, and turned to her twin. Parvati smiled at her, though Padma could see the hesitance lingering in her dark eyes.
“This is where we part ways, dear sister,” Padma said, and Parvati gave a slightly shaky smile.
“I’ll miss you,” she said simply, and then they embraced tightly.
“I’ll miss you too, but we’ll see each other again,” Padma whispered. She held tight to her twin, and then they separated to grasp each other’s forearms and rest their gold-scale-marked foreheads together. Their bond resonated softly for a moment, and then they drew apart. Padma glanced at each path before them.
“Any preference?” Parvati asked, voice light, and Padma hummed thoughtfully as she considered the almost identical roads. There was something about the left which pulled to her, and she took a step towards it. “I guess I’m going right, then,” her twin commented, and then threw her arms around Padma once more in a tight hug. “Take care, and be safe,” she whispered. Padma hugged her back just as fiercely.
“You too,” she murmured.
They went their separate ways – Parvati to the right, Padma to the left – each hoping their twin would be well until they met once more.
The first large city she came to, Padma was instantly made wary by the weeping and mourning of the entire population. A quiet and sombre air filled the streets, and Padma could see no true reason for it. There was a wariness about the people, too; they kept glancing fearfully at the sky, and murmuring to each other and eyeing Padma in a manner that had her curious as to why they seemed so interested in her.
She paused as a small child stumbled over to her and grasped the edge of her mail skirt, tugging insistently at the enchanted silver-gold scales.
“Lady Knight, have you come to save Princess Luna?” the child lisped, and Padma gently tugged her skirt from the grasping hands to kneel before the child. She couldn’t be more than seven, and was missing two front teeth.
“What does Princess Luna need saving from?” she asked, and the girl-child frowned slightly. “I cannot save her if I do not know what my enemy might be,” she added calmly, and the child’s frown cleared.
“A dragon!” she declared. A mortified sound came from nearby, and a young woman who looked much like the child came rushing over.
“Forgive my daughter, Lady Knight!” she cried, and Padma smiled reassuringly at her as she stood and dusted off her knees.
“There is nothing to forgive,” she assured the worried woman. “Is there someone who can give me more information about this dragon problem?” The young mother blinked at her bewilderedly, and then flushed pink and nodded, gesturing to the castle visible atop the hill.
“The palace guard can give you information, Lady Knight.” She hesitated, biting her lower lip, and then added, “the dragon has killed many, Lady Knight. It has demanded the princess in payment for leaving our people and herds alone.”
“Thank you for your honesty.” Padma inclined her head politely to the young woman, who gave a hesitant smile and then ushered her daughter away. Padma straightened, ran a hand over her long braid, and then started for the castle.
She was being pulled to the west, and if this dragon was there, then perhaps that was her fate.
It would be quite exciting to defeat a dragon…
At the castle gates, a pair of identical redheaded soldiers barred her way.
“Good day,” she greeted calmly, making no move to draw her blade. “I hear you have a dragon problem?”
The guards exchanged glances and then looked back at her.
“We might,” one said.
“What is it to you?” the other asked.
“All knights who’ve previously—”
“—attempted to slay it—”
“—have ended up dead.” Padma’s lips curled slightly in a tiny smile.
“I believe I may be of some assistance.” She lifted one hand to hover palm-up in front of her, and her silver-gold magic shimmered around it. “I am no regular knight.” The twin guards cocked their heads and then grinned mischievously.
“That might do it,” they chorused, and then stepped apart and drew their pikes close to their bodies once more.
“Go to the barracks—”
“—to your left when you—”
“—pass through the gates. Tell the woman there—”
“—that Fred and George cleared you for—”
“—information on the dragon.”
“Thank you,” Padma told them, and they offered her jaunty salutes the moment before she strode past them.
At the barracks, she received the information she needed, and spent a moment in deep thought before a potential solution presented itself.
“I believe I can resolve the dragon problem and return the princess safely,” she told the head guard, a redheaded woman who looked much like Fred and George.
“Many have tried and failed,” the woman warned, and Padma nodded.
“I understand that. However, I am no ordinary knight nor witch, and believe it is my fate to face this dragon,” she admitted easily. The redheaded woman eyed her a moment longer, then sighed.
“Very well. It’s not like things can be much worse,” she muttered. “Please bring Luna back.”
“I will do my very best.”
The dragon was easy to find, and the princess even easier. The immensely beautiful blonde woman was shackled to a boulder in the middle of a field, and Padma could see the smoke rising from the wyrm’s fires as it approached.
“Oh!” the princess exclaimed, her beautiful blue eyes wide with surprise when Padma removed her shackles with a mere touch of her finger. “I had not expected a rescue.” Padma smiled at her, and the petite royal beauty smiled back at her. A delicate hand was placed upon Padma’s arm, and the princess murmured, “Do be careful, Lady Knight.”
“I shall, your highness,” Padma assured her, and gave a bow as she took the princess’s hand from her arm and brushed a kiss to her knuckles. She then drew her sword and raised her free hand as she turned to face the approaching wyrm. She called her magic to her upraised palm, and the princess gasped quietly. “Please hide, your highness. I will take care of the wyrm.”
She heard the princess move, apparently obeying, and conjured a large mirror to rest in front of the boulder to which the princess had been chained. Wyrms such as this one were not very intelligent, and so a simple trick would be enough to distract it so Padma could creep up and end its woeful existence. With the mirror in place, Padma cast a concealment over herself, turning invisible to any who might seek her.
Sure enough, as Padma had expected, the wyrm roared in outrage when it saw the mirror, and attacked it in a frenzy. Padma used the distraction to approach unnoticed, and just as the mirror was smashed, she drove her blade up into the wyrm’s tender underbelly. Her sword, crafted from a rib of her god-fish progenitor, pierced the beast’s heart in one clean stroke.
The sound the wyrm made as it died was surprisingly soft, but die it did. Padma removed her concealment spell and wiped the wyrm’s blood from her blade, and then turned to the princess once more. The beautiful maiden smiled at her, an almost dreamy cast to her expression. She then curtseyed deeply.
“You have my gratitude and that of my entire kingdom, Lady Knight,” she murmured, and Padma once more bowed to her respectfully. “Might I know the name of my rescuer?”
“I am Padma, your highness. And it was my pleasure.”
“You may call me Luna, Lady Padma.” Luna was still smiling, and there was a slight flush to her pale cheeks. “Return with me to the castle? I know my father will wish to thank you, too.” Padma nodded and offered her arm, and Luna’s small hand settled into the crook of her elbow.
“It would be my pleasure to escort you home, Princess Luna.”
“You may simply call me Luna, Lady Knight.”
“Then it is Padma to you… Luna.”
King Xenophilius was overjoyed to have his daughter – his only child – returned to him safely, and was almost as delighted to learn that the wyrm would no longer plague their small kingdom. He offered Padma a reward, anything she might desire, but the lady knight had no need nor desire for any of the fineries he offered her. Yet the king refused to accept Padma’s denial of any reward.
“Then I offer you that which is most dear to me,” the king declared, and Padma startled.
“Your Majesty, truly, I have no need for recompense for dealing with the wyrm,” she tried to convince him, but he waved a hand at her dismissively and then beckoned his daughter forward.
“My daughter will be a beloved and benevolent queen, but she needs a strong spouse at her side,” King Xenophilius declared. Padma’s eyes widened at the realisation of what he intended, and she opened her mouth to protest.
Her words died in her throat as Luna smiled and blushed when the king grabbed Padma’s hand and placed Luna’s in it.
“I… would be honoured,” Padma murmured instead of protesting, “Though only if you truly wish it, Princess Luna,” she added, her voice growing stronger. Luna’s smile brightened, her cheeks still flushed a fetching pink and her blue eyes vibrant.
“I do wish it, Lady Padma,” the princess murmured, and Padma bowed over her hand to kiss her knuckles gently, just as she had done when she first freed the princess from her shackles.
King Xenophilius laughed merrily and clapped his hands together once in apparent delight.
“Then we shall have a wedding!”
Padma watched him bound off to speak to the reluctantly-amused-looking chamberlain – who shared the fiery red hair Padma had seen on Fred, George, and the Head Guard – and then she turned her attention back to the blonde princess whose hand she was still clasping firmly.
“You are a much better choice than those who have demanded my hand, Lady Padma,” Luna murmured. “At least I can be certain that you do not wish to wed me for the power it may bring you.”
“You honour me, Princess,” Padma said softly, and Luna’s brilliant smile returned. “I would be blessed to call you my wife.”
Luna’s blush was lovely, and Padma smiled a little to herself. It might not be what she had expected when she had gone seeking the wyrm, but she would not complain. Luna was a beautiful woman, and Padma knew in her heart that her fate was here. Her fate was with Luna, not in killing the wyrm.
And what a blessed fate it was.
***
One Year Later…
She had done much since she parted ways with Padma, but Parvati felt she had yet to truly find her fate. She had saved villages, defeated monstrous creatures, rescued princes and princesses from beasts and curses alike, and yet she still felt she was being pulled ever-onward.
The pull had led her here, to the small kingdom of Rook, and as she walked through the streets Parvati was certain that her sister had already been here. People greeted her with smiles and waves and nods (and some by her sister’s name), and Parvati followed the pull towards the castle atop the hill.
The guards greeted her (“You’ve finally returned, Lady Padma!”) and ushered her on, and Parvati kept a smile on her face (and her confusion hidden) as she was eventually taken before the king and princess. The king greeted her just as cheerfully and familiarly as the townspeople had, and the princess descended from her throne to embrace her and press their cheeks together.
“Play along,” the princess whispered, and Parvati was only just able to mask her surprise before it could show on her face. The princess was still smiling when she drew back from the embrace, and held one of Parvati’s hands in hers as she turned to the king. “Father, I believe Padma is in need of a bath and some rest,” she declared, and the king nodded indulgently.
“Of course, of course. Off you go, my dear daughter,” the king said with a smile and a wave of his hand, and Parvati allowed the princess to lead her from the throne room in silence.
Once alone, the pretty blonde woman’s smile dropped, and she released Parvati’s hand to turn and face her.
“You are my wife’s twin,” the princess said, and Parvati’s eyes widened.
“Padma married?” she blurted, and the princess’s smile returned briefly before it faded once more. “Where is she? What has happened?”
“She left a moon ago to fight the evil sorceress Bellatrix,” the princess explained, blue eyes sad and lips downturned. “I believe she has been captured or killed.” Parvati’s chest ached, and she closed her eyes briefly.
“That would explain fate pulling me here,” she murmured, and then fixed her gaze on her sister’s wife. “Where can I find this sorceress? I will retrieve my sister, dead or alive.”
The princess’s eyes filled with tears even as her expression became one of relief.
“Thank you. I’ll send you with the best of my guard, and hopefully they will mean the difference between failure and success.”
It took seven days for Parvati and her new companions – five of Princess Luna’s personal guard, including three spellcasters and two of the best knights in the kingdom – to reach the dwelling of the sorceress Bellatrix. It appeared nondescript enough at first glance, but Parvati did not trust the aura about the place. She frowned, eyeing the structure, and then glanced at her companions.
“I will confront the sorceress, as she will likely not expect my appearance if she has encountered my twin as we believe. I will need one or two of you to watch my back, and the rest of you will need to search for Padma,” she said quietly, and the five of them looked between each other.
“We’ll go in search of Padma,” Seamus said, gesturing to Dean and Hermione, and offering Parvati a grin. “Ginny and Lavender will stay with you.” Parvati nodded, accepting it at face value.
“Very well. Let’s move.”
And move they did. Lavender’s magic concealed her and Ginny, while Parvati strode up to the front door of the large house without even a shred of stealth. She knocked briskly, and a few moments later a wild-haired sorceress with crazed eyes opened it. She screeched wordlessly and scrambled back upon seeing Parvati, her crazed eyes becoming wilder with panic. Parvati took a step after her, frowning.
“You’re dead!” the sorceress screamed hysterically, pointing a ragged-nailed finger at Parvati, and Parvati snarled wordlessly as she drew her sword.
“I do not die,” she said darkly, and lunged for the terrified sorceress with her blade leading the way.
After a prolonged battle, which Parvati only won through the invisible help of Ginny and Lavender, Bellatrix’s headless body lay cooling on the floor of her foyer. Parvati wiped the sweat from her brow and the blood from her blade, and then called out to the others.
“The sorceress is dead. Any luck?”
“We found her!” Dean’s voice called back, coming from downstairs, and Parvati raced towards the source with Ginny and Lavender – now visible once more – hot on her heels.
She fell to her knees, blade falling to the floor, when she saw Hermione, Seamus, and Dean kneeling beside the waxy corpse of her twin.
“Padma,” Parvati whispered, voice cracking, and pressed a hand to her mouth. She closed her eyes briefly, holding back her tears, and then crawled the short distance between herself and her twin’s immaculately-preserved body. Hermione was weeping silently, and both men looked solemn as they allowed Parvati to gather Padma up in her arms.
“I’m so sorry, Parvati,” Lavender said softly, placing a hand on her shoulder, and Parvati shook her head.
“There’s nothing to apologise for,” she managed, and then bent her head to press the golden mark on her forehead to the identical one on Padma’s brow. She closed her eyes, tears dripping from beneath her lashes to land upon Padma’s cheeks, and breathed out slowly as she reached for the bond they shared.
It resonated faintly, and then in a rush of silver-gold magic it flared to full power.
Padma’s body jerked in her arms, hands clutching at her sleeves as her twin took a sudden, deep breath. There were cries of shock and horror from those who had accompanied Parvati, but she ignored them in favour of gripping her twin tight, keeping their heads pressed together as Padma clutched her back.
“Parvati?” Padma asked, voice rough from disuse, and Parvati opened her eyes to see her sister staring back at her in terrified confusion. Parvati sobbed, unable to help it, and then smiled through her tears as she held her bewildered twin close and was held close in turn.
“You’re going to be fine,” Parvati managed, and gave a trembling laugh. “You aren’t allowed to die before me, Padma. We go together or not at all.”
It was a promise they had made as children, and Padma’s face softened into a gentle smile.
“We go together or not at all,” she repeated quietly, and they embraced properly. The magic around them faded, and Parvati stood and hauled Padma to her feet.
“Your wife misses you,” Parvati said, and Padma blushed. Parvati laughed, and turned to explain to the stunned quintet who had accompanied her.
Her heart no longer ached, and instead she could only feel her fate tugging her gently towards the pretty witch who had tried to comfort her when they thought Padma dead.
It seemed Padma was not the only one who had found her fate in the kingdom of Rook.