Arizium

Chapter 25

Amaria heard Phoenix call for a stop for the night, interrupting her and Lucius's talk of war. She was surprised to find that they had spent the entire day simply talking about the future of the kingdom and laughing at random fantasies. It was moments like these that she truly relished, just being able to laugh and talk with her brother was like a blessing. Thankfully Raven remembered to bring bedrolls for everyone, so at least they didn't have to sleep directly on the cold dirty ground.

As the twins unrolled their bedrolls at the edge of the cluster of all the others, everyone except for Arro (who seemed content to talk quietly to Guertena on her make-shift bed) went to find Phoenix and her knapsack of Arizium. Amaria wanted to laugh at how their entire existence revolved around a flower with magical properties as she smoothed out the last wrinkle in her bedroll.

"What do think of all of them?" Lucius asked as he unrolled his own.

Amaria thought as she pulled sticks from under the foam, "Hmm, Wolf seems like a coward, while that Lynx girl is a sociopath. Phoenix would do anything for these people, if she had the choice of saving herself or the group, she would jump into a fire before you could say "Wait". Raven seems distant, but I have heard her talking to Arro, she gets sarcastic once she get comfortable. Madelina... do not even mention her name, as soon as we are done with all of this I am going to put her in a nasty dungeon. Bear is confident, but also easy going, she would be the one to tell you to go clean up, but then give you the day off from duties immediately afterwards. If Phoenix was not here, she would be the leader. And Arro... she irks me. I do not trust her, especially after she nearly killed me."

Lucius nodded thoughtfully and grabbed his greatsword from the side of his bedroll. Examining it, he said "Have I ever taught you how to swordfight?"

Amaria was surprised by the sudden question, when she shook her head, Lucius poked around until he found two big sticks that were roughly the same length and height, "Here, let us see what you can do. Try and hit me," He commanded with a sly grin.

Amaria furrowed her brow in concentration before coming at him with a flurry of thrusts and slashes with the piece of wood. Every attack she threw at him though, he managed to block with ease. Amaria huffed angrily and pressed the attack harder, only managing to throw him back a step. After a few moments, she finally gave in and threw the stick on the ground, "I do not see how this is helping, Lucy," She said scornfully, using the childhood nickname that she knew he loathed.

He smiled in response "It is all in the eye contact, you can easily predict someone's next move in their eyes. Every time you go to slash, I see your eyes flicker to the spot that you expect to hit, so I move to deflect it. Now, let's see if you can block my attacks," he stated and lunged forward at her. Amaria didn't get the stick up in time though, and instead got hit painfully in the ribs.

"Ow!" She yowled and held her ribs. Lucius flinched and felt a tingling sensation in his own chest.

"Sorry, try harder this time, I will try to hit lighter. And this time bloody focus, would you?" He demanded and immediately went to slash at her left side. Thankfully, this time Amaria saw it coming and brought the stick up to shove the boy back.

"There you go!" Lucius said encouragingly and thrusted at her shoulder. Amaria slowly got the hang of things as she stared into her twin's matching pair of violet eyes, calculating his movements and thinking of how to react. She started to slash back, and soon enough they were locked in a duel with pieces of wood. Amaria was so fed up in concentrating, she didn't see the root in front of her and ended up tripping over it.

Lucius snickered and said, "Alright, we will work on footwork some other time, yeah?"

Amaria glared at him and snapped the stick over his knee. That was a mistake, she realized, as she felt the same pain in her own knee. Wait... why can I feel his pain? Amaria thought.

"...Lucius?" Amaria said hesitantly.

"What?" He said through gritted teeth as he held his knee.

"Hit me," She demanded.

"Gladly," He growled and hit her on the back with his own makeshift weapon.

Amaria ignored the pain and instead asked curiously, "Did you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

"The pain, did you feel it? Does your back feel tingly?"

Lucius hesitated and shook his head, "I wasn't paying attention."

Amaria rolled her eyes and commanded him to lift his shirt. He did as he was bid, and Amaria's eyes widened when she saw a red mark across his back. She touched it gingerly, which elected a groan from Lucius "That hurts," he muttered.

"Yeah and it's your fault," Amaria said and pulled his shirt back down, "When you hit me with the stick on my back, the same wound reflected back onto you."

When Lucius looked at her like she was crazy, Amaria frustratingly tugged his trouser leg up and exposed his red knee, "See, that's from me hitting you, right?" She stated and then showed her own knee, which was also red, "Look you dolt, we have the same red hit marks. We share our pain."

Lucius's eyes widened as he understood, "How long has this been happening?"

Amaria tried to think, "Uhm, whenever I watched you playfight in the courtyard, I swore I could feel every hit that was made against you, but I never got the same bruises that you did. When you fell out of that tree, I felt a tingling in my back, but I didn't get your nosebleed."

"But now it is actually reflecting everything," Lucius said in disbelief and then groaned, "First mental telepathy, and now this? Gods what is happening to us?"

"I am not sure," Amaria admitted "but whatever it is, I have a sickening feeling that it is related to all of this Arizium crap."

(A/N: You can't convince me that this isn't what every twin goes through at some time or another. They have to share EVERYTHING man)