“I would say it’s about enough, wouldn’t it be?” Sophia eyed me as I did a nervous twirl for Jen. I had traded the servant gray for a light green dress that was still plain, but lacked the apron and felt much lighter. The skirt draped around my legs and teased them gently as it fell back into place. I smiled widely and heard Jen giggle. Miah and Sophia had insisted on outfitting me, ever since I had officially become one of them. Since my title of nobility had become forfeit and it was clear that I would never leave.

1 Year and 5 Months Ago

“Father believes you’ve gotten soft,” Robin told me. “since the Stormveil incident.”

Lanie gaped at Angelina. Deep down, she knew Angelina was telling the truth, but she still couldn't get herself to believe it. A horrible woman like Angelina...Lanie's mother? The idea sickened her to her very core. "But how?" Lanie asked. "How can you be my mother?"

"I hooked up with your father nearly seventeen years ago," Angelina answered.

"What?" Lanie asked. "I thought you hated men."

No map ever drawn, on earth, on sea, or in outer space,
has ever presented a cartographer as daunting a challenge
as the seating chart for a wedding reception.

“Lyra, do hurry with that,” Sheena snapped at me as I carried a wooden box of silverware toward the front of the kitchen. I was already sweating inside the uniform I’d been issued. Most days of the week I wore the simple gray service uniform but today we’d been issued longer black uniforms complete with white aprons that cris-crossed in the back. The skirt dropped to just below the knee, and it felt extremely odd to wear the same color as Sheena for once. Though, the biggest difference between our uniforms was in the collar.

It took Rachel all day to finish her homework. Since yesterday was so busy with her and Lanie helping set up Jenny's funeral, she hadn't had time to work on her homework. But, after hours of hard work, she finally finished her assignments.

Rachel laid on her bed and sighed. What she really needed right now was a nice, warm bath to relax. Unfortunately, her dorm's bathroom didn't have a bathtub, so she couldn't exactly fulfill that need. Plus, she'd already taken a shower that morning, so she didn't really feel up for taking another one.

“What happened next?” Lord Radon asked. I looked up from my barely-touched sandwich and tea cup. He was watching me intently, chin rested on his fists while Sheena gave me a completely different expression. Her lip was curled in an expression of disgust, her fists were clenched, knuckles white. I watched her as she glared and my confusion grew.

“Er…” I said, looking away from Sheena and feeling my pulse quicken. “I don’t…I don’t know. I woke up in a field, miles away. Naked, mind you. I walked to the nearest town and-”

Mirror Changed – Chapter 02
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Jayde~

I didn’t really know where I was. I felt that I should know, but for some reason it was just out of my reach. I stood on a barren path of sorts. Rather indistinct. Looking down I saw that I had nothing on, but it felt natural to be that way here.

Where ever here happened to be.

Could I be dreaming? Since I rarely remembered my dreams I had a hard time telling. However there seemed to be very little of … well anything where I found myself. Wasn’t that a hallmark of dream logic?

From that point on, it seemed like all anyone could talk about at school was the fact that Conner Hawkins was now dating that girl Lanie Evans, who'd just came in out of nowhere and surprised everyone with her charm and her good looks. Heads in the hallways turned whenever they saw Conner and Lanie walking together. Both Conner and Lanie loved the attention and soaked it in. Neither of them had been particularly famous at school before, so it felt great to be treated like celebrities.

CHAPTER 39
It was a musical non-music night, if that makes any sense. In short, the actual folk club wasn’t on, but several of the regular musicians were up for a play, and as the ‘club’ was in reality just an extension of the pub’s normal commercial activities, it ended up much as would be expected. The clientele were mostly locals that night, apart from that woman with ‘Pat’ again, and a larger group of girls. Sali whispered to me as we carried a couple of trays of drinks back to our tables.

“Those girls over there, the Hwntw lot? I think they’re all…”

Idol

Idol - 1989- Age 20

The next day was Friday. Lanie went to her Fourth and Fifth Period classes with Rachel, then went to Mrs. Lin's classroom for the board game club. Lanie was eager to see Conner, since she knew Rachel had let it slip to him that she wanted to date him. But as it turned out, she and Rachel got to the classroom early. The only other person there was Justin.

"Hey guys," Justin said when he saw Lanie and Rachel. "You're a little earlier than usual."

Lanie shrugged. "The early bird gets the worm," she said.

Right then, Conner came into the room. "Hi Lanie," he said.

And so we wave goodbye to Frankie and Mathew. Their story together comes to an end. Remember until I post again, that there are stories galore on Amazon that I've written that you can browse.

NINE

Four weeks later, Mathew and Frankie had each tried to settle into their old routine. Mathew was back to running their company, and Frankie was back to playing golf and tennis. She spent a lot of time in the gym. They’d been going to their doctors together, so there were no secrets.

The two sat together on the couch facing Ruth Savage, their psychiatrist.

For the next couple weeks, Lanie and Rachel continued to go to the board game club and hang out with Conner, Justin, and the other guys there. Outside of the club, Lanie practiced playing checkers at the orphanage with Rachel, Aaron, Trevor, and some of the other kids at the orphanage. It took some time, but she was able to improve. And it got to a point where one day, in the game club, Lanie actually beat Conner in a game of checkers. She felt proud of her victory-but she didn't let it cloud her feelings for Conner.

"Women!" he exclaimed. "You can't keep a secret! None of you!"

"Well, to be fair," I interjected, "I wasn't a woman at the time."

He gaped at me, incredulous. "Seriously? Seriously now? That's your excuse?
That's supposed to somehow make it better?"
 

2 Years Ago

I could see the Stormveil from my vantage point, safe behind the steel-glass port of my father’s airship. To see it for the first time was beyond breathtaking; a perpetual storm four hundred and fifty meters high, running the length of the continent, stretched out along the horizon. A rush of wind enraptured millions of specks of dirt, debris, and even rock, swirling and blowing, tearing through the sky to create an immense wall of pitch blackness, broken only by the period lightning flash from beyond the event horizon.

“Jen!” My voice echoed breathlessly down the hall as I watched her petite form bob further and further away from me. She half turned and watched me as I collapsed to the floor; the balls of my feet ached and throbbed in tandem, but were then overtaken by an almost soothing pain as the pressure was alleviated from them. I gasped and wheezed, my back to the wall just in front of a series of blue-tinted windows that bathed cool light over my crumpled form.

There was nothing in the whole of Faidyre that could have prepared me for the following morning. In my life I had undertaken difficult tasks, from military training, to the art of swordsmanship, but it was, perhaps, that I had never labored as the common man, or woman.