Chapter 98: Mara Belongs To Herself

"Some translations?" Marek asked.

"The record is old enough that different surviving versions don’t use the same wording. Some were copied through different House languages, and the meaning changed slightly depending on who translated them."

Marek’s expression darkened. "So True One might not even be the original wording."

"That’s part of the problem," Mara said. "One version can make it sound like a title. Another makes it sound more like a description."

"And people choose whichever one supports what they already think it means."

Mara nodded with an air of exaggerated maturity. "Exactly."

Then she continued, "Lady Venielle told me one version translates it as the One True Twice."

Marek stared at her. "That sounds worse."

"I know. It sounds like somebody made a mistake halfway through naming a person."

Rhovan laughed from near the window, earning a look from Mara.

"You think it’s funny now, but if somebody actually calls me that, I’m making you deal with them."

Rhovan’s smile widened. "Gladly. I would first ask whether they heard themselves when they said it out loud."

Mara stared at him. "You’re supposed to help me."

"I am."

"By making fun of them?"

"Public embarrassment is remarkably educational."

Mara turned back toward Marek. "See? This is what he calls helping."

Marek remained focused on the record. "So people may already be treating an interpretation like it’s the original record."

"Yes," Mara replied. "And I don’t want either title until somebody can explain what it’s actually supposed to mean."

Marek nodded.

Rhovan turned toward Venielle. "Which translation are you using?"

Venielle studied him briefly. "The fact that you have to ask should tell you why I don’t consider any of them definitive."

Rhovan usually had no problem pressing when something interested him, but this time, he let Venielle’s answer stand. He just leaned back near the window. The way he had asked the question, and the way Venielle had answered him, made it clear that neither of them was hearing about these translations for the first time.

Marek decided he could ask about that later and returned his attention to Mara.

"Did the dream ever name her?"

"No," Venielle answered.

"Birth date? Family? Anything that points specifically to Mara Vale?"

"Nothing that precise."

Marek frowned. "So the world matching Earth isn’t enough. The mirrors are what connected the record to Mara."

"Yes," Venielle replied. "That is when the possibility became considerably harder to dismiss."

Marek leaned back and looked toward Mara.

His first impulse was to get Mara away from all of it, somewhere the House of Gemini could not involve her in ancient records or paired mirrors, somewhere the Houses would never decide that a fourteen-year-old girl from Earth was the answer to something written long before she was born.

For more than a week, the need to reach Mara had kept him moving through Linden. Whenever a record told him Mara had gone somewhere else, he followed. Whenever the city stopped obeying its own map, he found another way forward.

But Mara was not missing anymore.

She was sitting directly in front of him, capable of hearing every plan he might make for her and telling him no.

Venielle slid the folded cloth and emblem closer to Mara.

"You can refuse the title," she said. "You can refuse the House of Gemini and every interpretation people eventually attach to the record. Refusal will not necessarily make people stop believing those things concern you."

Mara looked down at the emblem. "Then what am I supposed to do if I don’t want any of it?"

"Learn enough that other people cannot decide your life just because they believe the record gives them the right to."

Marek thought of their mother and finally understood why she had allowed Mara to stay.

Venielle had not promised their mother that the House of Gemini was harmless. She had not claimed training would make Mara safe, nor had she promised that the old Pisces record would remain buried once the Houses began involving themselves with Earth.

She had given Mara enough information to recognize what she could accept, what she could refuse, and when someone was trying to make one look like the other.

Marek searched for a flaw in Venielle’s reasoning and found none.

"So if somebody from the House of Gemini comes later and tells Mara she owes them something because of the mirrors, the training, or that emblem?"

"They would have to prove she agreed to it," Venielle replied.

"And if she didn’t?"

"Then, they have no claim based on the emblem, the mirrors, or her training. Nothing about the Pisces record creates that agreement for her."

Marek nodded slowly before looking at his sister.

The final part was harder because it included him.

"And not me either."

Mara’s expression changed.

Marek continued before he could reconsider saying it aloud. "If you tell me no, being your brother doesn’t magically turn it into yes."

For a few seconds, Mara said nothing before eventually nodding.

"Correct."

Marek reached for his notebook and opened it to a clean portion of the page. He wrote one sentence in letters large enough that everyone nearby could probably read them.

MARA BELONGS TO HERSELF.

Rhovan leaned slightly sideways.

Marek immediately closed the notebook. "Do not."

Rhovan looked offended. "I had only intended to approve."

"I know."

"Your hostility toward support continues to fascinate me."

"Survive it."

Mara laughed and reached across the table before Marek could move the notebook farther away. She pulled it toward herself and opened it again.

Marek looked at her, his mouth slightly open. "You weren’t supposed to read that."

"You wrote it this big."

"That doesn’t remove the concept of privacy," he grumbled.

"It worked for me."

"That is not how privacy works."

"Then, write smaller next time."

Marek tried to take the notebook back, but Mara moved it beyond his hand, which only encouraged Rhovan to laugh harder from the window.

The argument lasted longer than necessary, and Marek allowed it.

For the first time since Venielle had placed the emblem on the table, it no longer looked like a claim waiting to be made.

The emblem could come from the House of Gemini without Mara belonging to the House of Gemini.

Before leaving the table, Mara folded the silver-white fabric around the emblem and placed both inside her own bag instead of returning them to Venielle.

Marek noticed that too.

"You’re staring again," Mara said.

"I’m thinking."

Marek watched her close the bag. "If somebody from the House of Gemini tells you later that the emblem means something different, what do you do?"

Mara sighed. "You are not giving me a test."

"I’m asking a question."

"That’s what people say before giving tests."

"Mara."

Her shoulders dropped, but there was no hesitation when she finally answered. "I ask them to show me where it says that, when I supposedly agreed to it, and what happens if I say no. If they can’t answer me properly, then I’m not accepting it."

Rhovan’s eyebrows rose.

Marek pointed toward him immediately. "Don’t."

Rhovan slowly turned his head. "I had not spoken."

"Your face did."

Mara laughed again.

This time, even Venielle almost smiled before looking away.