146. Entangled

"I had no idea." I almost mumbled the words. I was stunned. I was practically in shock, but at the same time I felt sick to my stomach. "Back when you two started playing up the twin stuff I was panicking about my spell doing something wrong, but I never even imagined..."

It was evening, the three of us were back home now. Our sept were over in the cottage, and we made sure the pixies were there too. My girlfriends and I needed to discuss the Kaitlyn situation and they wanted that conversation to be private. And as much as I loved Merryweather and Petunia, I didn't want them popping up while we were in the middle of a sensitive discussion.

Kelly put a hand on my arm and said "Don't beat yourself up over it babe. It never occurred to us either."

I sighed and shook my head, "But I should have known. I should have thought of that. It was my spell. I could have... Crap I don't even know? So much could have gone wrong. And I don't even... I mean should I be apologizing? Are you upset? Angry? Horrified? What does this mean to you two?"

The twins glanced at each other, but neither responded. And my head was still reeling over what they just told me, I hadn't even fully absorbed it all yet.

Kaitlyn was now part of their mental and emotional link. That connection between Kelly and Keira was an unexpected side-effect of me making the two of them fae while keeping them twins. And now their bond connected them to Kaitlyn as well, because of another unexpected side-effect.

All three of them were tied together by a bond that was even closer than I could have imagined. It was something I'd overlooked, something Kelly and Keira didn't realize either. And it was something Kaitlyn figured out on her own ages ago.

Kelly and Keira's mom was half-fae, their dad was human. Kelsey's mom was also human, and her dad was Kaitlyn. Or rather, the fae man Kaitlyn used to be. When I made my girlfriends fully fae, I effectively erased their human heritage. I basically removed all the humanity from them, which left the man Kaitlyn used to be as their sole progenitor.

If that was all my spell did, it might have made my girlfriends into clones of their grandfather. But I wanted to make sure they stayed identical, I wanted to be certain they remained twins. So part of my spell ensured their appearance wouldn't change. They became clones of that evil fae man, but in pretty female packaging.

And that in turn was the key to Kaitlyn making herself fae again. She'd already figured out their blood was her blood, they were duplicates of her former self, albeit with a different appearance. So she used blood she'd gathered from both twins as part of her ritual to break my spell. And that was why, in addition to making herself fae again, her appearance subtly shifted to match theirs. Kaitlyn was still smaller and younger, but apart from that she was otherwise identical to Kelly and Keira.

They weren't twins anymore, they were triplets. And that was how my girlfriends' link expanded to include Kaitlyn.

After I finally finished processing all of that, another thought occurred. I asked, "Ok wait. Why didn't you notice the link before? We've been back on Earth for four days, wouldn't you have noticed it as soon as we got back?"

They glanced at each other then Keira answered, "I think we were subconsciously blocking her out. We still thought of her as who she was before. We were distrustful, hateful. I think that kept the link from forming?"

"But this morning we realized we were wrong," Kelly stated. "We realized how much she'd changed. She wanted to be a better person, to keep being a better person. She wasn't him anymore."

Keira sighed, "And I realized what I'd done to her. What had happened to her because of me. And what I was still doing to her, with that mind-reading spell."

Kelly sighed as well, "I guess it hit both Keira and me at the same time? We realized who and what Kaitlyn was now, and we realized how we were all connected. And somehow the link formed spontaneously as all that dawned on the two of us."

I shook my head, "It's hard to believe. And even now, two thousand kilometers away, you're still connected."

With my sight on I could see the thread between the two of them was bowed a little more sharply, the bend pointed to the east. And the third branch was still there, running off into the distance.

"Yeah," Keira nodded. "We can still hear her, talk with her, just as easily as if she was in the room next door."

Kelly added, "We've already spent some time talking with her this afternoon, while we were hanging out in that bistro. We need to get her trained as quickly as possible on how it all works."

"Why?" I asked. "What's the rush?"

Keira smiled, "Do you remember when we first discussed it with you? When you first saw our link? We told you it let us share thoughts, emotions, and sensations."

I shrugged, "Yeah I guess? That was almost three years ago."

Kelly prompted, "Sensations? Like physical sensations?"

I looked at her, then my eyes widened. After three years it finally hit me what they meant. "Oh..."

"Yeah," Keira said with a grin. "That's one of the reasons I wound up in bed with you two so fast. Kelly and I could feel what each other was up to, and... It didn't make much sense to stay in separate rooms and separate beds when we were both feeling the exact same things regardless which one of us you were with at the time."

Kelly quickly added, "That doesn't change anything else about the three of us babe. It just sped things along over the first few days. It took me and Keira about a week to learn to control it better. With the most important lesson being, how to stop broadcasting every stray thought, emotion, and sensation back and forth between us."

"So that's why we need to get Kaitlyn up to speed as quick as possible," Keira concluded. "She's a horny teenager experiencing her very first crush, and her girlfriend just moved in with her."

I grimaced, "Oh. So if you two start acting a little strange, I can blame it on your connection to her?"

Kelly smiled, "For now. Hopefully it won't take long to teach her. She's very clever, and she doesn't have to figure it all out on her own like we did? We can just tell her how to do it."

"Ok," I was glad to hear that. A moment later I frowned, "Wait, when did Claire move in with Kaitlyn?"

I knew Claire was there this morning of course, but I just assumed she was sleeping over again like she did last month. That was probably some news I'd have gotten from Susan if we hadn't been shown the door as soon as the twins were done with the kid.

Kelly replied, "Last week Claire came out to her folks, and it went as poorly as she expected. Susan already had a room for her, so Claire's going to spend the summer in one of Sue's guest rooms. Then in September her and Katie will go into residence together at university."

"Claire asked Kaitlyn to use mind-magic on her folks, so they wouldn't be homophobic?" Keira added. "Katie refused. She also refused to teach that stuff to Claire. She didn't want to do anything that her old self would have done."

That surprised me. I remembered Susan asking me to use mind-magic on Claire's folks so I knew she'd have been ok with Kaitlyn doing it. Like the twins said, it really did sound like Kaitlyn was trying to be good.

I thought about that for a bit, before my mind drifted back to my girlfriends' situation. I still had some questions about that.

"So when I made you both fully fae... Is there anything else about that spell or the side-effects I should know about? Like I don't know, do you think there could be anything else that comes up? Or does Kaitlyn? I feel kind of foolish asking, but at this point it almost seems like she has a better understanding of it than I do."

The twins glanced at each other, then Keira shook her head "No Tegan. Hopefully that's the last of the unexpected surprises. There's nothing else Kaitlyn's aware of, probably nothing else to worry about."

"That's good," I stated. I looked back and forth between them again and asked, "So you didn't answer me earlier when I asked how you both feel about all this? I mean, the link with Kaitlyn, realizing how you three are practically triplets, what my spell did... Are you upset? Angry? Still in shock?"

Kelly shook her head, "We're not upset or angry Tegan. Maybe there's still a little shock? But don't worry. Actually you remember what you told us, about finding out you really are part pixie? Us finding this out now doesn't change anything. We're still the same people we were yesterday, last week, or the past three years. It hasn't changed anything, but it has explained something."

"What's that?" I asked. "What did it explain?"

She replied, "We're pretty strong with magic. Nowhere near you of course, but we're already stronger than the average fae. And we're still young right? We're only turning twenty-eight this month? At first we thought that strength was something you did on purpose? Like when you made us fae, we thought maybe you somehow gave us a little boost magic-wise? Now that we know we're almost duplicates of Kaitlyn's old self, it makes sense. She was one of the most powerful mages around, so we'll probably be the same. In another hundred years or so when we hit our prime, we could be as strong as she was before."

I frowned slightly as I thought about that. "What about her? I guess that means Kaitlyn will get that strength back again too?"

Kelly nodded, "Probably. It'll take time though, at least a hundred years. Maybe more, because she's starting off even younger than us? In fae terms she looks barely seventy now. I'm not sure if all three of us will eventually have the same strength, or if it'll be different for her compared to me and Keira? But either way, I'm sure it'll take at least a century for all three of us to reach our peak."

I was quiet for a few moments, then looked at Keira and asked "How about you Keira? How do you feel about all this?"

She sighed, "I'm upset, but not about your spell Tegan. I feel guilty about what I did to Kaitlyn this morning. And I feel guilty for what happened to her last year. The things I did to her mind back in Griofa contributed to her being assaulted last July. Then I made the whole thing worse by forcing her to relive all that today..."

Both me and Kelly pulled Keira into a hug.

"Don't beat yourself up Keira," Kelly whispered. "What happened last year wasn't your fault. And Kaitlyn already forgave us for what we did this morning."

We were all quiet for a few more moments, then I spoke up again. "I have one last question, and I'm sorry if this one's upsetting. You've mentioned a couple times today that Kaitlyn forgave you. Have you two forgiven her?"

Neither of them looked upset or angry with me for asking. Neither answered immediately though. Instead they both got thoughtful looks on their faces, which surprised me. They actually appeared to be considering it.

They were both quiet for about a minute or so, then Keira responded. "No. I can't forgive her for what she did to Amy. And what she was going to do to Kelly. Maybe someday I'll be able to forget or let go of that, but not yet."

Kelly agreed, "We're not ready to forgive her. But we've both let go of the anger and the hatred we had for her. We've both embraced her as our sister."

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