~~~

Their acrobatic balance fell apart: the twins landed on the training room mat, nearly breaking their necks, and their screams could be heard almost on the other side of the building.

“What are you doing, Elia?!”

“What are YOU doing, Elio?!”

“I followed the routine, as usual!”

“Me too. That means we’re both to blame.”

“Don’t put it on me,” Elio said sourly while helping his sister get up. “Who’s the central brain here?”

“And who’s the naughty limbs?!” she seethed with rage.

“Oh my, what fancy name-calling!”

Elio gave his sister a penetrating glare and moved to the exit. He almost bumped into Aoi who entered the room to settle down the conflict. The Celestial tried to stop the young man, but he uttered a few curses—which had hardly ever happened before—and disappeared. Elia plopped back onto the mat and pouted her lips.

“What’s wrong with you two?” the Unit leader asked with a heavy sigh.

“I can’t understand him any longer.” The Amber was both angry and distressed. “He is so distant. Like he learned how to hide his own thoughts from me. Even if I touch the amplifier… I feel nothing.”

“Looks like you’ve desynchronized a bit. Might be dangerous.”

Aoi got worried: the special nature of Elio and Elia’s existence required a scrupulous supervision of their emotional states. The twins hadn’t had a single argument in ten years as they’d always been in accord with each other at the most initial stage of every thought. But the recent events in the otherworld made the two parts of Eleonor split apart. It was hard to imagine what would happen if she lost connection with her brother; but nothing good, apparently.

“What do we do now?” the mage girl glanced at her boss with distrust.

“Follow me. Let’s try something.”

~~~

Elia was seated on a couch in the magic operations room. She unbuttoned her white shirt halfway as Aoi fumbled at the table preparing the potion. Shadow leaned against the wall, busy reading from his smart in order to not embarrass the girl with his observation—he was asked to be on duty “just in case.” You never know what could happen to a person who has been divided in two by magic.

Taking a cotton pad and mixture, Aoi slightly tilted her patient's head to the side. The neck tattoo looked more dim than it used to be.

“Can you fix our connection?” the Amber asked.

“I’ll try, dearie. We’ll start with you, then I’ll do the same for Elio after he cools down a little.”

As Aoi bent down to clean the amplifier on her neck, Elia said, “It’s all her fault.”

“Her?”

“Shiningreel Bunch Of Names Omnious.”

“Why?”

“He’s in love with her. He wants her. She’s all he thinks about. Since I’ve told him he shouldn’t fall for her our bond is getting weaker. He’s drifting away.”

For a second Shadow looked up from his smart and buried himself back into the text, blushing like a schoolboy. Aoi turned away to place the bottle on the table.

“You shouldn’t have brought up the subject. You’ve just planted the thought in his head.”

“No, I haven’t!”

The enchantress directed her hand, smeared with the substance she’d created, at the amplifier, and light blue energy began to circulate under her fingers. “Tell me, who’s Elio to you?”

“He’s my brother.”

“That’s why you’re jealous of him?”

“I’m not jealous, I… I… I just want nobody else between us.”

“But you want him to be happy, don’t you?”

“Nobody can make him happier than me. I am his essence. I am the reason he exists. He must do what I tell him!”

“So… you do understand his… special condition?” Shadow asked.

Elia’s skin broke out in goosebumps, either from the procedure or unpleasant thoughts and memories.

“In that sick world… I remembered who I am. And now I’m even more convinced that we should stay together for our own good. I’m afraid he… he will be forever lost to me.”

“He won’t leave you if he falls for Shiny a little. Your bond is stronger than that of any twins.”

“You just don’t understand. Nobody does! Nobody knows what’s going on in my head. How difficult it is to be magically attached to someone.”

“You’re right,” Shadow nodded. “For an outsider it’s quite a difficult thing to imagine. Please describe to us what you’re going through.”

“I... I can feel his every emotion. We share everything. All our experience. All our senses. When Elio is happy, I feel the same for no reason. When he’s angry, it hurts me too. When he gets drunk, I am tipsy as well. And when he... when he... when he thinks about her... I... I also start thinking about her. In a manner he does. But I don’t want it to be that way. I don’t like her! His unwelcomed affection just gets in the way.”

“Curious. So, it’s not jealousy, but more like reluctance to experience unnatural attraction to another person.”

“Shadow!” Aoi exclaimed with reproach as she had just finished her arcane session. The amplifier became more distinct, which gave her the hope the twins’ link would stabilize.

“I… I don’t know…” Elia started buttoning up her shirt back. “But if this goes on, I will explode from these filthy thoughts of his. We had a deal: not to fall in love with anyone. It’s too hard for the other to process.”

“What if Elio could live separately with no consequences for both of you…” Shadow asked with caution. “Would you leave him be?”

Eleanor looked at the healer with unfocused eyes. She had no clue. It was unlikely that he could exist without her, but the mere thought of the possibility that he would trade her for Shiningreel scared Elia to death.

“Can I go now?” the Amber asked gloomily, ignoring the question.

“Yes, dearie, we’re done here. It might tingle for a while. If something’s bothering you, feel free to tell me. For now, let’s just wait a bit.”

“Many thanks,” Elia mumbled and went out the room.

Aoi saw her leaving and sighed, “Guess I’m too weak after all.”

“Hm?” her nephew was still busy reading something from the screen.

“My powers… something weird is happening to them. Not that I was a master in amplifiers, but now I feel… useless.”

“This is a complicated case, Aoi. We really need a dedicated specialist to handle it. We should probably ask Kassandra Omnious.”

“That old hag? She’ll scream my ears out when she knows what’s happened.”

Aoi cracked a smile. Deep down, she knew that the problem wasn’t with the specifics of the job. It was hard to admit that maintaining a magical aura had become even more difficult for her. However, she decided she would grieve for it later.

“Anyway… what do you think?” she asked.

The healer brushed the silvery hair from his face and replied, “I am currently studying Edward’s notes that I’ve uploaded after text recognition. There’s a lot of data about custom amplifiers. For example, his research shows that communication tattoos, the type that the twins have, were very widespread a few centuries ago. Usually they were used to transmit thoughts or even abilities to each other from a distance.”

“Yeah, that’s it. Now it’s extremely rare and only Kassandra is capable of doing such an amp.”

“It’s interesting that Edward classifies amplifiers that are gained from a relic as part of the communication type as well. His hypothesis is that the bearer of the tattoo uses the power of an object, and kind of ‘connects’ to it on a magical level. I tried to find more detailed information on how one can properly ‘restore’ the sync, but I’ve discovered something else…”

“What, exactly?”

Shadow began to speak faster, as if trying to catch up with his thoughts, “It says here: it is noteworthy that mages can communicate with each other regardless of their type of spectrum cells. However, there are several records—an asterisk—that a color mixture occurred as a result of bonding, and a carrier of such an amplifier, possessing the magic of two shades, became cursed. Presumptive condition for such an effect is the death of one that has been connected or the destruction of the source artifact. Incredible!”

“Never heard of it. And I don’t think it’s related,” Aoi frowned. “Eleonor is a single person, and she will stay alive if Elio disappears, though her psyche will certainly be damaged. In addition, they both have Amber cells. We check them from time to time.”

“Oh, sorry, I’m not talking about them now. Actually, I’ve been thinking about Niji Murasaki. She used a lot of Celestial Shield spellforce in the illusionary world, and Hitomi mentioned it in her report of the Viol hunt a month ago. I also saw her tattoo and felt a rather disturbing aura when I touched her. But I couldn’t explain it back then. I thought it was the overall effect of the dimension as it was all created from unspeakable amounts of Cursed magic.”

“Celestial Shield… a top-tier spell of healers…” Aoi pondered it. “That means, if the source was destroyed, but the link has been already established, there’s a possibility that Murasaki has gone Violet?”

“If we can trust this research… and my gut feelings… then she might have.”

“Wait a minute…”

Aoi froze. Niji Murasaki, who was a part of the artifact search party during the Academy field trip and who claimed to have failed her task. Who fled to M.A.G.E. right after her graduation without warning even her close friends—and who had been frantically eager to join the task force for all her student years. Aoi wasn't sure, no, not at all. There was too much unverified information to draw conclusions. If only…

“Rem Oswald! I need Rem Oswald right now, where the hell is he?!”