Season 4: Episode 4 – What Holds-What Breaks
This series contains mature themes and is intended for adult listeners.
© 2026 Heather L. McMillan / Anturia LLC. All rights reserved. This episode is provided for personal reading only. Reproduction, redistribution, republication, or commercial use without permission is prohibited.
Imprint of Dahlfia Dewr
I kissed Bryn on the cheek as she slept and left the bed without waking her.
Since their arrival, I had been working with the Immortaleum individually, in pairs, and in small groups to evaluate their emotional conditions.
Most were predictable, but the twins were not. I had not yet seen enough of them directly to make a final assessment. Today would correct that. Twins were not a genetic possibility for Tylwyth Teg.
As I pulled on my boots, I set aside all prior observations. Assumptions only serve to cloud judgment.
The truth presents itself, yet it does not always wait to be found.
The truth also does not care who breaks when it is found.
I left our temporary housing unit and moved to Facility Two. I made my way down the hallway to a room where I had instructed her to meet me.
I opened the door and remained at the threshold. Kerrih was already waiting. She sat at the table with Lixand. They were not speaking; they did not need to.
Lixand noticed me first. He spread his wings, lifted from the table, and took a position on a shelf above us, his shrewd eyes watching everything.
Kerrih leaned back in her seat as his flight surprised her.
“Good morning, Dahlfia Dewr,” she said, using my Ffurfiol.
“Dahlfia will suffice,” I told her, then sat down across from her. I observed her, keeping the bird in my peripheral vision.
She studied me with the same clinical gaze I was giving her. She did not move or speak but simply waited.
The bird remained still above us, watching.
Her breathing shifted slightly as she noticed me monitoring the bird out of the corner of my eye, but she did not move.
After several minutes, I said, “If this is understood correctly, it changes what he is.” I paused. “And what he is worth.”
Her gaze shifted to Lixand and back to me. After a moment, her head tilted slightly as she asked, “Who else knows?”
“Your sister will notice.” Again, I was quiet for a moment as her gaze found mine and held it. “I suspect she already has.”
She held my gaze, then shifted in her seat. “I can manage, Karrah.”
“What do you think this is between the two of you?” I asked.
She looked back at Lixand. “I’m connected to him. It puts me at risk if others know.”
“Do you trust yourself with this information?”
She did not answer immediately. She blinked once, and then she said, “I understand the consequence.”
“Good.” I stood, and she rose after me. “Let’s move to your sister.”
I exited the room and walked down the hallway again. I opened the door three rooms down where Karrah stood waiting for us. The room contained no furniture. Kerrih and I stepped inside.
Karrah’s eyes sought Kerrih out first, but Kerrih did not acknowledge her. Kerrih understood this was an observation, and reactions of any kind tell stories. However, she failed to realize that a lack of reaction also tells stories.
Karrah looked at me after her eyes left Kerrih.
“Face me,” I commanded quietly to both.
Kerrih moved over to stand beside Karrah and faced me. With a slight hesitation, Karrah glanced at Kerrih and then faced me after seeing that Kerrih had already complied.
“Practice the arm movements from your dagger training with Kylah,” I ordered.
They began to move, pretending to hold a dagger and fighting each other. I observed without remark or interference.
A few minutes into the exercise, Kerrih reached over to correct how Karrah swung her arm as Karrah struggled without a real dagger in it.
“Let me help you,” Kerrih told her.
Karrah pulled her arm back from her sister. “I can do it.” She adjusted and then made a better swing but still overextended.
Kerrih said nothing and returned to her own movements.
“Enough,” I said after about fifteen minutes.
Karrah checked that Kerrih stopped first before she stopped.
“Each of you take a box.” I pointed to two small wooden boxes on the floor. “Then go to opposite sides of the room and solve the puzzle within the box on your own.”
They both did as I instructed, and I moved to stand between them in the center of the room, watching them work independently.
Kerrih finished her puzzle quickly. Then she stood up and brushed herself off. After a minute, she leaned over, reviewing Karrah’s remaining pieces. She opened her mouth to speak to Karrah, saw me watching her, and instantly stopped. Kerrih continued to watch for a few minutes, craning her neck to see Karrah slowly figure out the pieces on her own.
Turning my back to Kerrih, I stepped over to Karrah and bent down. Quietly, I said to her, “Your sister finished quickly.”
Karrah fumbled with the last two pieces, turning them over as she tried to fit them together. After five more minutes, she finally shoved the remaining pieces into place, finishing the puzzle.
Karrah stood up now, too.
I stepped out from the middle of the room and moved back toward the wall again. “For this next section, I need one of you to lead while the other follows.” I did not assign them but left the assigning to them.
Kerrih opened her mouth to speak first but then looked at Karrah and said nothing. They both stood silently staring at each other. I let the silence continue. Finally, with her cheeks slightly reddened, Karrah said to Kerrih, “You lead.”
Kerrih hesitated but she did not argue with her sister.
“Kerrih, you make movements. Karrah, you mimic the movements,” I instructed them.
“What movements?” Kerrih asked.
“Whatever movements you wish,” I answered.
Kerrih skipped, and Karrah followed. They continued skipping around the room for a minute. Then Kerrih began adding turns or spins in between the skipping. Karrah followed, but sometimes she turned or spun in the opposite direction from Kerrih.
Kerrih stopped moving and stood still, thinking for a minute, and Karrah copied her. Then Kerrih began to clap in patterns, at first just a few claps, and Karrah would repeat them. Then she started making the patterns more complex with several claps strung together. Karrah hesitated as she tried to recall the more complex patterns.
After a couple of minutes of observation, I said, “Stop.”
They both returned to stand in front of me, facing me.
“In the future, you will not always be placed together.” I let my eyes drift from one to the other.
They stared at me. Kerrih continued to hold my gaze, while Karrah began to fidget before looking toward her sister, concern etched on her face.
“You can return to your rooms,” I said. I turned and left the room first without looking back at them.
It was lunchtime now, and I went into the mess hall of Facility Two and found Bryn there at a table watching Kylah train others through the window.
I sat down next to her at the table and slid my hand into hers, clasping her fingers.
She turned to me, about to smile, until she saw my face. “Tell me.”
“They function together, albeit with one dominant over the other. They do not function apart, at least not cleanly.”
I paused, considering my words carefully. There was another possibility, but I would not give voice to it yet. The suggestion would terrify Bryn, and I had not observed them long enough to justify it.
“Their relationship may have implications for us,” I said finally.
Bryn’s eyes stayed on me a moment longer than the answer deserved. She could always tell when I was holding something back.
>End Porta Cor imprint.<
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