I awoke in the stillness of night, roused by a familiar discomfort—a full bladder, no doubt owing to Tirrha’s insistence that we partake in two glasses of sweet cream she had procured from Bernan just before retiring to bed. Yet, what truly unsettled me was the curious circumstance of being back in control. It was I who blinked, who felt inconvenienced by the sheets’ weight pressing against us, and who now moved to cast them off.

  “Princess?” I whispered, my voice barely audible, as I leaned towards the mirror, seeking her reflection. Silence answered me. Perhaps she slumbered.

  This was unprecedented. I felt… alone, isolated within a body that was not entirely mine. Princess’s consciousness, which normally lingered in the periphery, was conspicuously absent. I chose not to disturb the serenity of the room, where two others breathed in peaceful sleep. Slipping on sandals, I guided our body quietly to the lavatory.

  “Princess. Can you not hear me?” I inquired again, now addressing the hand mirror while raising our skirts and settling onto the chamber pot. “It seems I have regained the nights,” I mused aloud, yet no response stirred within my mind. This bodily task was mine alone to complete, though it was hardly unfamiliar.

  Once relieved, I decided upon an experiment. I pinched our arm—only to be met with the peculiar sensation of abruptly losing balance and collapsing onto the floor.

  “Huh? W-what? What?” Princess’s voice emerged, bewildered, as her eyes darted around in confusion. “What is…? Where is this?”

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  Her eyes then registered our surroundings—the chamber pot room—and the hand mirror still clutched in our grasp. “Dubart! Do you know why we are here?” she demanded, the grogginess of sleep still lingering.

  “Oh, you are awake. Good,” I remarked, now returned to my passive role. “I had begun to wonder if I had lost you.”

  “Why are we here? Ugh! It reeks in here. Let’s get out.”

  “We had the need to urinate. I brought us here since you were unresponsive until I pinched our arm.”

  “What?” she exclaimed as we exited the lavatory. “You controlled me again? And this time, I was completely unaware? I… I do not remember anything. I was asleep!”

  “I noticed. It appears that one of us can seize control when the other is unconscious.”

  A similar occurrence had transpired during our encounter with Chelyo, the magian apostate. It only begged the question of why we had switched the day and night cycle then but not now.

  “Maybe you can take over. I have never been able to take over from you!” Princess observed, her agitation growing. “Y-you did it again. You’re… eating into my time. Ah! C-crap!” She nearly stumbled on our way back to her chambers. “My leg went numb.”

  “Princess,” I interjected with an urgency that bordered on impatience, “I know this is sudden, but you must decide. We have reached a juncture that demands progress. Shall you venture to seek the knowledge we require in my infirmary, or shall you search my father’s office?”

  “Why are you asking me that? Fermina already said that-”

  “That was not your leg going numb,” I cut in. “I stopped it, merely to test if I could. You were correct, Princess. My strength is increasing, and I am slowly overtaking you. We are running out of time.”

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