"So what's Elmessa like?"

Zince considered this as she intertwined her fingers with mine as we made our way down the corridor.

"You know the whole stereotype about mind magic users kind of... losing sight of reality?"

I swallowed. "...yes?"

"Well, she's a bit like that, but she's not a mind magic user-- she wanted to learn that, but our Princess forbade her. Why're we going there? ...assuming it isn't a secret you need to keep from me, of course. Usually the Princess only goes to her when strange magical emergencies come up."

I glanced over at her face nervously, but she was smiling. "Um... not really, no. Our Princess gave me a drop of that soul-intensification potion, and it didn't have any effect on me, so we're worried that it might be having an effect on Mistress Eve."

Zince slowly turned to me, stared for a long moment, and then picked me up and tossed me over her shoulder, causing me to yelp, but she didn't even pause, starting to slither down the hall at breakneck speed.

"I think the two of you are underestimating how dangerous this situation is," Zince stated, sounding surprisingly calm considering she was flinging doors open so quickly I could hear a loud crashing sound as the metal handles hit against the stone wall.

It was disorienting to watch her slithering beneath me as the floor slid rapidly past us, and I closed my eyes, trying to relax and not freak out, until finally I was set down.

I opened my eyes to find myself in a rather familiar looking alchemical laboratory, but there was a brown-haired woman in a black dress covered in stains with long hair who I could smell the mixture of unwashed body odor and chemicals from the entrance, muttering to herself as she sniffed at a vial.

"Elmessa," Zince said loudly. No response, so she slithered closer to the woman and cupped her hands to her mouth, leaning in towards her ear. "ELMESSA!"

Elmessa jumped at that, spilling the vial across the counter, where it ate into the metal of the table almost immediately, little drips of dissolving metal dripping to the floor and forming flowers along the floor where it dropped and the table itself.

"Zince." Elmessa glared at her. "I was just at the interesting part... could've accidentally killed either of us with that, probably. This better be something interesting."

"It is. Sasha, explain."

Elmessa looked at me with a wild look in her eyes, and moved closer, making the smell worse. I tried to ignore it, and looked into her eyes, forming a smile onto my face. "Um... so basically, Mistress Eve and I swapped souls a while back."

"Nope, no such thing. Come back when a real thing has happened." She waved her hand dismissively, and started to turn away.

I grabbed her shoulder. "Please listen. I'm-- my body was the Hero From Another World, right? And I took something that should mess with my soul, but it had no affect. We're worried it might be affecting her soul."

Elmessa glared back at me. "Yes, well, if Princess Asperia was kind enough to give me proper books on mind magic, I might have some sort of guess at what sort of crazy overwriting you did to herself and you to even make that possible. Sadly, I don't-- go away."

"It isn't overwriting. If it was overwriting, we wouldn't snap back to each other's respective minds when null was cast on one of our heads."

"Oh? That is interesting. I wonder... is it possible to pagefold souls?" Elmessa shrugged my hand off my shoulder and walked over to pull a monocle off of a shelf, holding it up to her eye as she looked at me. "Hmm. Maybe...."

"...um, pagefold?" I had no idea what she was talking about, and judging from Zince's expression, neither did she.

Elmessa stared at me for a long moment. "Do you even have basic magical training?"

I shrank back a little. "Um... The most basic, yes."

She glared at Zince. "I don't know why you bring utter neophytes like this here."

Zince shrugged. "She has interesting magic on her. If it's beyond you, I know someone else I can ask for help."

"Fine, fine." Elmessa closed her eyes for a long moment, then opened them, her gaze fiercely focused on mine. "Fine. Pagefolding. If you know... okay... so imagine there's a map, right? If you can precisely mark down the coordinates of both points on the map, you can Warp between two places, because rather than shift the entire physical entity along between the locations instantaneously, you just... the coordinates."

Elmessa gestured vaguely in the air. "Only... calling it coordinates is incredibly wrong, because it's not the actual coordinates you'd expect on a map, it's an absurdly complex magical symbol, and discovering them can take decades, and even if you can figure them out in people... oh, I do wonder if it could be used to prove or disprove reincarnation... hmm. Regardless. That's the only way I can think to do it. If it is true, I should be able to just..." Elmessa pulled a dagger off another shelf, and came towards me with an almost murderously scientific gleam in her eye.

Zince interposed herself between us. "What do you think you're doing?"

Elmessa huffed, and gestured strangely in the air with her dagger as she tried to explain what was going on. "If they're really... cross-referenced, something that shouldn't be even able to be between two people, I should be able to use this material's blood to see what's happening on the other end."

"...How much blood, Elmessa?" Zince's voice was calm and firm.

Elmessa glared at her. "...Oh... A silver saucerful, if you're going to be so stingy."

Zince looked at me, and I nodded, and she stepped aside.

Elmessa went back to to take a little silver tray from another shelf, keeping her eyes on me, and gestured. "Hold out your arm and make a fist."

I did so, and she slashed at me, what must have been opening a vein or something, and I screamed, trying not to flail and spill the blood everywhere, although it did squirt over myself and Elmessa a fair bit. She managed to interpose the tray in the way of the flow of blood, and the slapped my arm -- presumably a heal spell, because the cut she had made was mended.

Without further attention to me, she set the tray down on one of the tables and hummed a little to herself.

I walked closer, and I could see the blood shifting and changing in the tray. "Mmm, it's fine, she's all chained up with an anti-magic shield, I'm pretty sure. Can I study the material more now?"

"She's captured!? Can you throw a Null on my head quick?"

"And ruin the spell?" Elmessa looked at me quizically. "Why would I ever do that?"

"The one originally in this body is the one who cast this spell, and--" I paused. "You know, I'll just do it myself." It seemed simpler than explaining it at this point.

I raised my hand, placed it against my forehead, and slammed a massive null Spell into.

***

When everything finally stopped being disorienting and horrible and wrong, my now-more-muscular body was convulsing, my arms chained over my head, my back aching... I was naked and chained up in what looked at first glance like some sort of dungeon or basement.

"My Hero... did you just scream? Were you trying to escape again?" A woman with blue eyes and wavy yellow hair wearing a grey cape over a brown blouse that didn't cover her bosom and trousers came down the stairs, and smiled at me. "...Mmm... ooh, there's fear in your eyes now, I like that..." She pouted a little. "...did you somehow break yourself while I was gone?"

"Um... sorry, I don't remember anything about how I got here, Miss."

She blinked, coming closer as she looked into my eyes, staring for a long moment, then laughed. "You know, I might almost believe you if there was any way whatsoever it was believable. Wiping your mind would be fanatical, sure, but the Pretender's pets are all pretty loyal."

"The Pretender... do you mean Princess Asperia?"

"Awwhh... are you even pretending not to remember what I told you about saying her name?" The woman came closer, smiling up at me sweetly as she stroked my back, and then dug her fingers deep into my back, into the wounds on my back I apparently had, and it hurt terribly.

I screamed and cried and flailed, not even trying to hurt her, just desperately trying to get away from the intense , but I wasn't as strong or as fast as Eve's body should be. She stopped, and I cried and whimpered and patted softly.  "...what did you do to me, Miss?"

"The real question is what did you do to yourself? Brainwiping yourself shouldn't usually be possible inside those manacles, no magic should be...

"...did you check out the necklace, Miss?"

"Yes, I took that off, obviously." She gestured over to a hook on the wall from which it hung. I swallowed and hung my head.

"Sorry, Miss...."

The woman slowly licked my blood off her fingers as she looked into my eyes with an almost sultry expression. "Mmm, I do like how you're calling me 'Miss'... and that pathetic begging look in your eyes is so much cuter than the one before.... you know what? If you break from your previous loyalty right now and curse your former Mistress, and tell me everything, I'll let you stop suffering, and you can just be my slave from now on."

"I..." My body started trembling at the idea of insulting my Princess again. "I'm sorry, I... that's very flattering, but I genuinely don't know what's going on, Miss. I... imagine I was sent on some sort of mission against you but then freaked out."

"Not freaked out, no. You tried to kill me properly, just you were relying on speed. Do you want another shot at me?"

How did this body's ridiculous speed fail, exactly?

I shook my head vigorously. "...No, I wouldn't, never... you're stronger than me... somehow? I don't even like fighting in the first place, but I'm pretty sure I can't win against you if you can make my body weak like this."

The woman shrugged lazily. "Well, I guess if you won't tell me anything, nor forsake your former loyalties, I don't have much of a use for you... do you think I could torture you into talking?"

"Yes, Miss! I just don't know much, I promise. This body was sent on some missions by..." ...would Princess count it as a betrayal if I called her 'The Pretender'? "...by the one who owns that necklace."

She slapped my aching ass and my body twitched. "Explain precisely how you wouldn't know that."

"Um..." I closed my eyes and let myself whimper. "I... Miss... I used to own this body, but Mistress Eve wanted it, so I gave it to her."

She tilted her head to one side. "...own, even... Is this Mistress Eve some sort of goddess?"

"She's called herself a Goddess, but I don't know enough to be certain if she truly is one or not." Like, probably not... but was there actually any evidence against it? This was magic that a mad magi-scientist had basically called near-impossible.

"...hmm. Maybe the necklace was what was stopping her from leaving her possession of your body." She stepped behind me and began to play with my hair idly, her lips pressing close to my ear, almost kissing it. "Why are you so loyal to the Pretender if she gave your body to this 'goddess'?"

I teared up. "No, I... I willingly gave my body to Mistress Eve."

She laughed. "Quite the story... well, shall we get back to playing?" She swivelled me around away from the stairwell, to a wall covered with weapons and instruments of torture, along with some things I hadn't seen before that could be either.

She put her chin on my shoulder and wrapped her arms around me, rubbing her soft breasts against my back a little in a way that made my wounds sting as I sucked in my breath.

"I'm Carrion, by the way. Miss Carrion to you, I suppose... what should I call you? Eve?"

I nodded a little. That's what Mistress Eve had said to call this body.

Her voice softened, and became even more sultry and flirtatious as her body pressed a little closer. "I'm quite curious if your body, mind, or loyalty to the Pretender will break first... aren't you?"