Kryssa watched Ratface walk away with some trepidation. The goblin girl had a habit of getting herself into trouble that an elf should be dealing with rather than a goblin. She wondered if the goblin really understood she was part of the most fragile race.

  The other part was being alone with the witch. Amber was staring at her with naked curiosity now that she’d agreed to her problem. The witch’s eyes followed the circuit of her mana in a way that made her feel vulnerable. It was a novel feeling, and she hated it.

  “Tea?” Amber asked.

  “Please,” said Kryssa. Food didn’t really do all that much for her, but it would at least stop her being put on display.

  Amber bustled around in her kitchen. She approached tea making in much the same way Kryssa imagined a potion was made. She even brought the tea in vials. She handed Kryssa a vial and the glamour took a polite sip.

  It was delicious. The drink moved through her and warmed her up. Settling a worry the glamour hadn’t know she had.

  The witch watched it all and nodded to herself. She was much less rushed now that it was just the two of us.

  “You’re an odd duck for a glamour, aren’t you?” Amber asked. Kryssa tilted her head. She wouldn’t frown all the time like her goblin.

  “In what way?”

  “You’re stable. Most glamours are more fluid than you are, particularly if they have a young charge who hasn’t mastered them yet.”

  Kryssa arched an eyebrow at that. She wanted to respond with rage, but she was better than that.

  “I have no master,” she said. The witch waved her off.

  “Yes, that’s the other thing. You’re centred around this core.” She gestured to where Kryssa’s core sat hidden in her body. Kryssa coiled like a snake at that. “It makes you so much more vulnerable, and yet, so much more real. I bet a punch from you hurts like hell.”

  “We can test it if you’d like?”

  The witch smiled like a cat.

  “An empty threat. You like my tea too much,” she said. Kryssa looked down and she’d nearly downed most of the drink. Amber wordlessly handed her one to Kryssa as well.

  “Yes, you’re like an experienced glamour in some ways, and totally new in others. Most glamours for instance, would recognise mana tea,” said Amber. She gestured at the vials in Kryssa’s hands. “They would have been taken with their elf as a special treat by the elf’s parent for growing up. A great treat what with elves and glamours both being notoriously sensitive to mana. That all but confirms it. You’re the goblins glamour, aren’t you?” Kryssa went to correct her, but the witch leaned forward and stared into her before. “No… not truly hers. Still connected but the core really is you. Well, this is confusing. The magic making you up shouldn’t even be possible.” She shook her head. “Distracting. My point is that you’re not using all of what a glamour can do. You fight more like an elf. It’s a waste.”

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  “I’m more scared of an elf than a glamour,” said Kryssa.

  “That’s because glamours are wasted on elves. They don’t really get them.” The witch rummaged around in her armour sets until she found a full mannequin. She gave it a tap and the thing turned on. It stood exactly like the witch did. The same pensive energy in both. They witch opened her mouth.

  “Let me ask you a question. Which one of us is me?” said both the witch and the mannequin. Kryssa stared in shock at the display of magic.

  “Is it me?” asked the witch, pacing around the room.

  “Or me?” said the mannequin, sitting down in front of Kryssa. It even leaned back into the chair like the witch.

  “A silly question. I watched you turn the mannequin on,” said Kryssa. She watched both of them as the witch moved about the room while the mannequin made more tea.

  “Ah so if you’d seen me first and I’d woken the body, I’d be real?” asked the mannequin.

  “No, the real body is flesh.”

  “But you’re not flesh. Your basically just magic. Are you not alive?” asked the witch. She’d gone behind Kryssa and was currently pick a book up about illusions.

  “…It’s different,” said Kryssa. “Ratface gave me a life when she gave me the core.”

  “Oh, so it’s autonomy that makes you alive?” asked the mannequin as it brought her a tea and sipped at its own. It enjoyed the tea far more than the witch had.

  “Let me ask you a question,” it said, sitting back in front of Kryssa.

  “How are you watching both of us?” they asked.

  Kryssa stilled. Stilled in a way that only something that had complete control of its image could do so. Not even the faint movement of breath betrayed her.

  She hadn’t even noticed she was doing it. She already knew that she saw different than the others, but it hadn’t really been so outlined for her. Her vision was related to her eyes but her focus.

  “So, which of us is me?” asked the mannequin. It leaned closer until she was forced to focus only on it, the witch fading from her vision as she did so. It tilted its head, and Kryssa could feel it smiling.

  “The answer is simple of course. It’s both.”

  The mannequin crumpled to the floor in front of her in a lifeless heap. Kryssa stared in horror before she heard a pained grunt behind her. She twisted around to see the witch munching on some herbs.

  “The last decade I’ve spent on that, and I can still barely last any time at all,” she said. She came over and pulled her mannequin back onto the seat, arranging it so it wouldn’t fall again.

  “The point of that little demonstration wasn’t to scare you,” she told Kryssa once the mannequin was settled. “The point was to remind you of something a goblin can’t really properly understand.” She gestured around them. “This isn’t just a physical world, but a magical one too. The two work together but they have their own rules.” She nodded to the mannequin.

  “I do that by infusing my will into the mana governing the mannequin. While the magic is linked and while I can keep that focus up. I can be both of them. If I was better at this, I wouldn’t even need a shell to do this.”

  “That’s impressive,” Kryssa admitted. The witch gave her a little laugh.

  “What I’m describing is what every glamour does naturally. The problem is they’re paired with elves. Self-centred monsters that they are. You’re so used to thinking like a physical creature instead of a magical one.” She grabbed Kryssa’s hand and placed the core Ratface had gotten into it.

  “So glamour Kryssa, what limits you to only one body?”

  The glamour shivered. Unbeknownst to her, her image flickered.