Rook

Myfanwy vaguely. “Youdon’t need to worry, it’s not a genetic problem. But I really don’t like talking about it.”
    “But you got better?”
    “About four years ago, they figured out a drug regimen that let me function. Still, it was a huge deal getting me cleaned up. I’d been on some of the medication for years, and had a few pretty serious addictions going on,” said Myfanwy, mildly impressed with how easily the lies were coming.
    “That’s dreadful!” exclaimed Bronwyn. “But you never thought of trying to contact us?” It was clear she didn’t want to offend Myfanwy but also felt hurt. It was incomprehensible to her that her sister wouldn’t immediately try to find her family.
    “There was so much coming at me so fast,” said Myfanwy. “I’d been living in this drug-induced fog. I was given help finding a flat, a job. I was so used to focusing exclusively on just one thing, there didn’t seem room for anything other than work, and detox. I still hardly go out in the real world. I get nervous.” She looked intently at Bronwyn, willing her not to be upset. “And my memories of you all were so vague. It was like a dream, when I thought about it at all.”
    Bronwyn nodded, looking dazed. It turned out her sister was a recovering drug addict and an agoraphobic.
    “I don’t know what to say,” said Bronwyn. “This is a lot to process. It must have been so hard for you.”
    “Yeah, well,” said Myfanwy, shrugging easily. “Them’s the breaks, and I’m really grateful for how everything turned out.”
    “Yeah,” said Bronwyn softly. She looked down at her hands, stroking Wolfgang.
    “You okay?” asked Myfanwy uncertainly.
    “Yeah, it’s just that it would be intense if it were just a friend telling me this, and you’re my sister,” said Bronwyn, still staring down. She took a deep breath. “I feel like I’m already supposed to know all of it, like this is supposed to be part of
our
past, and the family just let you go. You must feel that way too, like we didn’t even care.” She looked up, and Myfanwy saw tears in her eyes. “There’s no reason for you to feel anything for me, but I want you to know that eventhough I don’t remember you, and maybe you don’t remember me, I’m glad I found you. I really do want you to be my sister.”
    And Myfanwy felt those words within her heart.
    “I do too,” she said.
    Then she was moving forward, and she and Bronwyn were holding each other and weeping, but laughing at the same time. As she embraced the woman, Myfanwy felt a flaring in her powers, as if gasoline had been poured onto a fire. She could sense the genetic ties she held with this girl, her own patterns mirrored, to a certain extent, within her sister. Myfanwy pushed gently away, examined Bronwyn at arm’s length, and then drew her back in, laughing again.
    Everything else seemed like a part of Thomas’s life,
she thought.
Something inherited. But this, this is mine as much as it could have been hers. This girl is the sister of this body, and this is just as much my body as Thomas’s.
And with that, she felt herself finally relax into her own self.
    N ow,” said Myfanwy after they’d calmed down and wiped their faces. “Tell me all about you. And the family.”
    “Oh God. Well, I hate having to tell you this, but our parents are dead,” Bronwyn said sadly. This didn’t come as a surprise; Myfanwy had read it in the files. But now, when her sister said it, she felt a shock go through her. Somehow, it was more real, more relevant. They weren’t just the parents of a body she’d inherited, they were
her
parents. She felt a piercing regret, and she knew it showed on her face.
    “They died eight years ago in a car accident,” her sister continued. “It was a drunk driver. I moved up to London to live with Jonathan. He’s a banker; he’s thirty-three. When Mum and Dad died, he became my legal guardian. It wasn’t easy, being in a new school and everything. I finished, but just barely. And then I bummed around for a couple of years, worked a bunch of crap jobs. Then Jonathan said I’d had enough time to get over it, so now I’m studying. We Thomases do better when we have a mission. You probably figured that out for yourself.” They smiled at each other, and Myfanwy feltvery strange. Seeing her own features stamped on someone else’s face was somehow comforting.
    “We believed you were still alive,” said Bronwyn quietly. “Jonathan and I went through