Zafira Moonchild

Mom says we’ll make my favorite dish and asks to fetch the vegetables. When I return to the kitchen, she’s already preparing the dough. So I clean and cut the vegetables, like she always does. After half an hour, we put everything in the oven and sit at the table for a break. An awkward silence descends as she stares at me, struggling with something. “So, who are you really?” She says after a while.

My heart goes into overdrive. Where did I mess up? Did Timothy and dad notice anything? I swallow. “Sorry for not telling the whole truth. I didn’t want Timothy to know. And was planning to tell everything once he was asleep… What gave me away?”, I ask. Mom hesitates before replying. “Carnelia hates cutting vegetables and loves doing the seasoning. You enjoyed preparing everything, but touched none of the spices. However, you still knew her favorite dish and what goes in it. How do you know so much about our daughter?”

“Because I am your daughter. At least part of me is. There’s a lot to explain, and I would prefer to do that when dad is with us as well. But the gist of it is that there’s two of us sharing this body now. Carnelia is hearing and seeing everything at the moment. But she didn’t want to take control when we arrived. I don’t know why, do you?”

Mom sighs, “I can guess. Carnelia, if you can hear me, you did nothing wrong. I’m not disappointed or mad at you. I’m just glad you’re still alive.” While I thought mom’s words were comforting, I feel Carnelia retreating deeper into the darkness. And I realize something. Carnelia never made it out alive. Her soul got dragged off to divinity knows where. How does she see herself now? What is the part of her I call her personality? “I’m sorry,” I say, “she ran away and can no longer hear us. She’ll come back though. When she’s had enough time to work through her feelings.”

Mom’s eyes are tearing up. “Why won’t she talk to us? What happened to her?”

“I’m sorry, but I would rather not tell this part of our story twice. Can you please hold this a secret until Timothy has gone to sleep?”

She nods and asks me who I am then, if not her daughter. I tell her my name is Zafira and that I share all of Carnelia’s memories and past feelings. Which is why I consider them my family, even though we’ve never met before. However, I also lived a life before all of this happened. Which is why I’m different from Carnelia.

She wants to ask more, but we hear dad and Timothy enter the house, so the question remains in the air. By the time they have taken off their shoes, we’re already busy setting the table. The atmosphere returns to a joyful one, as we all gather around the table and chat until the food is ready. I tell some stories of my journey to entertain Timothy, some true, some made up. I tell them of my ability to heal wounds and purify poisonous food. When I talk about climbing trees and scaring off wolves, Timothy wants to see the magic I used to drive them off. But I don’t feel like showing the destructive side of my magic. So instead, I tell him I used the same magic that makes my staff float. When he doesn’t believe me, I challenge him to stay in the room. If he can touch me, he wins. If he can’t take it anymore, he can run out of the room and I will accept his surrender. With a smile, I hop on top of the closet and then steady myself between the beams of the roof. From my safe position, I use my telekinesis to tickle and poke him mercilessly. Using my guidance to find just the right places to affect him the most. He screams and curses at me. But he’s too small to get up where I am. And has no choice but to flee. Although I am surprised he holds out for several minutes. I come down as he enters the room again, and ask him with a smug face if he still thinks my spell isn’t enough. He looks sour, but agrees he has underestimated it. Dad was his usual stoic self throughout our shenanigans, but I can feel his mirth. And even mom has a smile on her face.

We spend a nice evening together, and they fill me in on what has happened in Elkhorn the past month. My disappearance was a hot topic, and they got as many hunters as possible to search for me. But in the end, none of them could trace me. I doubt their competence, and wonder if some of them were in league with my kidnappers. But I hold that thought for myself. Not everyone has the benefit of a magical guide that leads them. I wouldn’t have a clue how to track someone without that. When it’s time for Timothy to go to bed. I need to repeat a few times I will definitely be here in the morning. But in the end, I convince him and he drifts off to sleep. I nod at my mom, and whisper to dad that there are things we need to talk about that I didn’t want Timothy to hear. And ask them if they are fine with going outside to talk about it. So we don’t wake him up. Dad frowns at this, but he agrees, and together, we walk out into the still warm night. And find a comfortable spot away from the house. Where we can still see the door.

“Ok, spill it, young lady. What happened to our daughter?” Mom says, and dad’s eyes grow large. “Give me a moment,” I say, “I want to give Carnelia the chance to explain it herself.” Dad looks back and forth between me and mom with a lost look in his eyes. But he stays quiet and lets us do the talking. “She’s not answering.” I say. I turn to dad, with sorrowful eyes. “As mom already discovered, I’m not Carnelia. My name is Zafira, and I’m sharing this body with your daughter.” And, I say as I turn towards my mother. I’m older than you are, so young lady isn’t quite fitting. She doesn’t think my little joke is funny, and tells me to explain how this came to be. I take a deep breath, and tell them the truth: “Carnelia never made it out of the forest. She died there.” Mom gasps and father slams his hand in the ground. “She died from the snake poison?” Mother asks with a trembling voice. I consider lying and hiding that part from them. But I don’t want to lie. I love them as much as Carnelia does. And they deserve the truth. “No,” I whisper, “Carnelia didn’t die from a snake bite. Bandits kidnapped her. They … did horrible things to her … but couldn’t break her. She escaped, but her breakout left her mortally wounded.”

All blood drains from my parents’ faces, as my mother’s lips form a soundless “no”. I look away, unable to meet their eyes, and continue our story. I tell them about Carnelia’s fury during her last moments, and how she made a pact. Her soul for revenge. They recoil from me, fear in their eyes. “Are you an infernal? A vengeance demon?”, dad asks as he moves in front of mom. “No,” I tell them, “I am not the one she made a bargain with.” I’m the soul they put in her body to grant her request. A witch from another world. But the bastard she made a deal with tricked her. I had no memories of her past when I woke up here. And our body still had mortal wounds. I healed myself and sought shelter while learning how magic works in this world. Once I was confident I’d survive out in the wilderness. I set out to explore this world and learned what happened to Carnelia. I revived Carnelia’s memories, emotions, and personality. And helped her get revenge. After that, we returned here. I hope you can accept me the way I am now. Because I share all of her memories and love for you. To me, you are as much my parents as the ones from my old world. I say with tears in my eyes.

“You said that Carnelia’s personality is still inside of you,” mom says. “Why won’t she come out to talk to us?” I do not know, I admit. But I think she is scared because she doesn’t know what she is. She died, and while my soul got transferred to this body, hers got taken away somewhere. When I restored her memories, I also revive her feelings and personality. But that was unexpected. I do not know what made that possible.

“Oh for FRAQs sake”, I hear a voice in my head, “did you have to tell them that?”. I send a smile in her direction. That’s what you get for sticking your head in the ground. Now, everything is out in the open, and they haven’t chased us away yet. So how about you take control and talk to them?

I turn my attention back to the outside world and tell her parents that she might be ready to switch now. Carnelia grumbles in my head, as she asserts herself, and I visualize myself once again as a purple cat next to her. My posture changes as Carnelia takes the reins.

“Euh,” she starts, “it’s me now.” She says as she puts the little stick in her hair we’ve been using for Kathy as a force of habit. “I’m sorry for not coming out sooner.” She says while looking down at the ground. Before she realizes what’s happening, mom’s arms are around her. Dad looks at the two skeptically. “You believe all of this?” He asks mom. But she stares at him with lightning in her eyes. You think I wouldn’t recognize my daughter? She asks with ice in her voice. I knew it wasn’t her before, just like I know now it is. You didn’t even realize anything strange was going on. That shuts him up. But Carnelia chimes in as well. “How can you know? I don’t even know. I remember my soul leaving my body. And it never returned. I’m just a copy, an echo. How do you know that I’m real?” She asks with tears in her eyes.

Mom lifts her face gently, forcing Carnelia to look in the eyes. “I’m your mother, and I know you. So trust me when I say that whatever happened, you are as real as the day you left. You are my daughter, and nothing will change that.”