simultaneously.
* * *
—
Sancia kept her eyes closed: much like an extremely bad bout of intoxication, it was easier to deal with the affliction the more you limited your sensations. But it grew difficult to understand exactly how long she’d had her eyes closed. She realized she wasn’t sure how to mentally measure time when she was aware of someone else in her head who also was attempting to mentally measure time—it was like trying to look at two clocks at once.
Yet as she miserably waited, eyes clamped shut, lost in the darkness with her cheek pressed to the cold floor, she slowly began to feel…different.
The change was slow and curious. The only comparison she had for it was the experience of being asleep in your own bed, and having your pet jump up and nestle in the back of your leg—the faint, warm awareness of another being nestling into you, whether you liked it or not.
A voice blossomed in her mind—a voice that was undeniably, absolutely, unquestionably Berenice:
Sancia fumbled in the darkness—in her mind, she supposed—for how to respond. This was different from the Mountain, or Clef, really: both of them had been separate entities she could access or engage with, but this was much more present. Berenice was not someone she was talking to. She was, in a very real way, someone Sancia was, to a certain extent: She was sharing her mind with her, her very self.
Sancia said:
She felt Berenice recoil at the volume of her thoughts.
said Berenice.
There was a pause as they gauged how connected they now were. It was the oddest experience: Sancia suddenly found memories present in her head that were not hers—memories of scriving, of working with Orso, of a childhood in the Commons spent before a game board…and yet there was the immediate sense that they were hers, since she was, to a degree, also this person.
Or she was sharing herself with this person. Or perhaps this person was sharing herself with Sancia. Or both at once.
said Berenice’s voice in her head,
said Sancia.
Sancia swallowed. She found this instinctive reaction was useful for helping her remember which body was hers, since that suddenly seemed rather fuzzy. Having located her own throat, she then located her face, and then she went about the process of opening her eyes…
Light poured in. She saw herself staring into Berenice’s cool, calm gaze, her face resting gently on the stone floor of the basement. And the sight of her, as well as the sight of herself from Berenice’s eyes, was overwhelming.
Yet it was also overwhelmingly beautiful. The experience was like nothing she’d ever had before. It was like returning to a childhood home that you’d left long ago: every aspect of the sight of Berenice was just so achingly familiar, so overlaid with memories and feelings and echoes of sensations…
They blinked in unison.
said Berenice.
said Sancia.
Then they heard Valeria say, “I believe alignment is near completion…”
They blinked again. said Sancia in her mind.
Silence.
said Berenice.