Kin and More Kin

After Kith & Kin


“There are ten,” Caitrin told Regine. “Ten of them, and as far as I can tell they’re genetically identical. You can’t bring them in all at once; it would be half a class. But if they Change early…”

Regine had considered the problem for a moment. “We’ll start them early, and bring them in two at a time. That should give them time to adjust to their clone siblings.”

“At least one more.” Trijntje walked into the suite she shared with Kat and two non-clones. The non-clones — Aria and Mariah — were nowhere to be seen, common for when they had sister-company over. “She looks like she belongs to one of the superreligious cults, that’ll be fun.”

Caileigh coughed quietly. She was the one of the two fourth-year sister-clones this year, and had always been the shyest of them. “Maybe, ah, maybe I should talk to her? It can be hard, coming here, if you grew up in a Simple place.”

Only Caileigh could capitalize Simple with her voice. She capitalized a lot of words; Trijntje couldn’t imagine what she’d been like when she first showed up. “You’re in charge this year. You and Ríona.” She nodded her head at the other older-sister-clone. “She’s pretty obvious, I mean, she’s wearing one of those smock-dress things.” Her hands trailed over her tight shirt, indicating the baggy pleated-front of the new clone-sister’s dress. “And a bonnet. And also, she might be fainting.”

“Three!” Ríona glared disapprovingly at Trijntje. “You didn’t let yourself get seen, did you?”

“Well, a little, yeah.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m new at this, remember? Last year, I was the new girl.

“Besides,” she added, in a mutter she knew her sister-clones would hear, “I wanted to see if she recognized me.”

Echoing silence pounded at Trijntje from all three of her sister-clones. She turned away and stared resolutely at the wall. How had she ended up the freak, when they were all, technically, the same person?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/945410.html. You can comment here or there.

4 thoughts on “Kin and More Kin

  1. So, Regine is now studying their Changes, is she? Are they all identical Changes and if not, what is the variation?

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