(Written for @flashfictionfridayofficialââs prompt: FFF47: Donât Take My Heart. Set in Code F&D. Enjoy!!)
Her eyes were slits and inhuman and Iridesca tried to suppress her flinch. Castore saw through it and her fingers grew tighter, colder and longer at her wrist.
       âAurum is too kind to you.â Castore hissed. âDonât take the heart because frankly speaking, you. Do. Not. Deserve. It.â
       âNow, is that any way to greet your older sister you havenât seen in centuries?â Iridesca responded haughtily, removing her wrist from Castoreâs grip as gracefully as she could. âAnd Aurum and I are both older than you. Donât meddle in affairs you know nothing off, little sister.â
       Iridesca brushed her dress off, looking at Castore with feigned curiosity. Castore glared at her. âNow, shall we go off to the laboratory? I assume Aurum told you to come get me.â
       âStop pretending to be human. It doesnât suit you.â Castore said, turning away from Iridesca. âI volunteered to come get you. Aurumâs working on the heart you asked for.â
       Castore refused to acknowledge Iridesca for the rest of the way back, darting so that Iridesca had to twist and run to actually keep up with her. The path was forested and the feel of magic in the area was strong and deep. Iridesca had to fix her glamours by the time they reached the laboratory, but Castore just glanced at her and laughed.
       âDonât bother. No one here is human and the wards will just unravel your glamours anyway.â Castore opened the door and swept in without waiting for Iridescaâs response. True to her word, as soon as Iridesca stepped through the door, the glamours on her faded, unravelling her elaborate braids and her elaborate gown.
       âI donât recall the wards doing this when I was last here.â Iridesca said, following Castore into the kitchen.
       âSo it turns out that not visiting unless you need something from Aurum has its effects.â Castore remarked, pulling a knife out from a drawer and cleaning it.
       âWasnât Aurum living with the witch or something?â Iridesca asked, giving up on her glamours and sitting at the table.
       âHex is out. Which again, you would know if you visited or you know, so much as wrote to Aurum.â Castore tossed the knife back, letting it fly past Iridesca and embed itself into the wall.
       âIâm in the human court, you know that. I have-â
      âYeah, yeah you have important things that need to be done and important machinations and manipulations and whatnot.â Castore waved off Iridescaâs irritation. âYouâre so busy killing faerie and sanctioning magical beingâs deaths that you donât have time to write, yeah I understand that.â
       âDo not speak of things you do not understand.â
      âOh, you donât think I understand?â Castore changed her eyes again, turning the whites into the green of the forest and turning one iris pure silver. âI walk the Pathways every day and I hear about you, sister. Itâs not like no one knows who you are, dear Iridesca. Beings talk, you know. And even if they didnât, youâre not subtle at all.â
       Castore leaned in, letting her body become lean and faerie-like. âI know exactly why you want that heart and Iâm telling you now that you do not deserve it.â
       âAnd what do you know, kyosira votschi?â Iridesca slipped into the old dialect by accident as her eyes changed to slits. âYou were taken in when you were too young to understand and you never grew up in the faerie world. You donât understand how the only power is the one that you own, no? You donât understand how itâs kill or be killed? I control the courts of the humans now. You donât understand, so do not deign to tell me what I should or should not be doing.â
       âOne day, you will regret this, Iridesca-â Castore begins, only to be cut off by Aurum coming in.
       âOh, Des! I didnât hear you come in but Iâm done with the heart you asked for.â Aurumâs labcoat still bore the stains from her work. The heart itself was in her hands and her hair was a mess.
       The heart was beautiful, covered in silver and gold enchantments to keep it beating and to sustain whoever needed it. It was roughly the size of a humanâs closed fist, and it glowed.
       âYou mentioned in the letter that you needed something that would save someone on the brink of death, reso? I couldnât use necromancy per se because that requires access to the actual body but I did the next best thing.â
       âAurum-â Castore began, looking between Iridesca and Aurum. In this light, their similarities were clear. With Iridescaâs glamours removed, the fact that they were twins was obvious, what with their face shape, their tendencies, their fingers. Even the way that they began their magic was similar, Castore thought, as Iridesca took the heart and wrapped it softly in her own weaves.
       âCastore, kyosira, would you mind helping me with dinner? Hex should be coming back soon and I just realised we still donât have anything to eat today. Des, would you care to stay? We can catch up.â Aurumâs eyes were smiling, shining their normal soft gold. Her skin was still gleaming from her metalwork. âWe havenât talked in so long.â
       Castore very carefully did not laugh at that.
       âI didnât realise that you had a ward for removing glamours now.â Iridesca responded. âItâs a bit impolite if you have faerie, isnât it, kosi?â
       Aurum shrugged. âHecate figured out how to do it. Since so much of our work relies on the exact nature of magic, stripping off extraneous magic that isnât absolutely necessary is just good practice.â
       âIâm afraid I must decline then. I should get back to the palace soon.â Iridesca said, gripping the heart and walking out the door. âI assume you coded and wove it the way you normally do.â
       The door closed behind Iridesca. Aurum turned to her younger sister, expression quietly, bitterly sad. âItâs okay. Iridesca has always loved power and been vicious about getting it. Itâs how we survived our childhood, so I canât really blame her.â
       Castore did not say anything but began looking for food.
       Aurum would not witness the fury that Castore went into when Iridesca came back barely a year later to demand that she lift the âcurseâ placed over the kingdom, but only because she was a whisper away from actually being dead.