[AnimeTheia]

Snow Seidaku trotted happily along the wide glowing white streets of Aldrect City, she felt at home here, this place was pure and clean, the buildings and streets shone with a brilliant whiteness that she felt could never be equaled. She smiled to herself imagining all the beautiful fabrics and trinkets she would find when she finally reached the market street. It was rumoured that Aldrect Market had the finest display and variety of wares in the whole of Lambastia, merchants came from practically everywhere to show and sell their items, and this is what Snow had come to see, she had saved herself a good mound of keystones, for the items were rarely cheap, nor would you want them to be, if they were then anybody could buy them and pretend to be wealthy and higher bred, their cost was part of their value.

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A short distance behind Snow trotted another Rexxel, this one however was not snow white in colour like her sister, but coal black, she had vibrant colour changing shimmery lines running all over her body and it was from these that she got her name 'Shimmer'. Unlike Snow Shimmer was not particularly happy to be here, she disliked the white buildings, feeling as if the brightness was blinding her. If she had had her way she would have taken Snow to the market in Lamenolai, it may be the Guardian City but at least it wasn't as Holy. However she had given into Snow today, she had to admit that the promise of rare and expensive fabrics from Aldrect market was very enticing and like Snow she had brought along her own mound of keystones, hoping to find the gauzy shimmery veil for her face that she had been dreaming of for years.

This wasn't about to stop her from grumbling at her sister, she couldn't let it be thought that she would bow and scrape to her sisters whim, "Why did we have to come here Snow?, The market in Lamenolai is better".

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Looking back at Shimmer, Snow smiled, "You don't really believe that, do you?" she asked, her voice was quiet and had a musical quality to it, enhanced by the tinkling of her bells which sounded much like the tinkling of a gentle waterfall, a constant background music to her fluid movements. "We'll have more money to spend at Adrect market anyway" she explained "You know how expensive it is to get over to Barraka, not to mention the time the journey would waste, you'll enjoy it here, I know you will!", Snow was always very logical like this, practicality was practically her middle name! But she cared deeply for her sister as well, although they often disagreed, and wanted her to enjoy herself, you might not think it to look at them but they were in fact twins, their parents had named them Snow and Shimmer Seidaku which meant 'purity and impurity' a very fitting surname for them both. Dropping back so they were trotting side by side she briefly nuzzled Shimmer, "It's not much further".

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Shimmer allowed a small smile to brighten her face as she was nuzzled by Snow, she knew her sister had good arguements for coming here, and just hoped the market was as good as the rumours said it was.

However feeling slightly bored by the walk, she started looking around herself for a likely victim, she hadn't practised her abilities for a while.

Spotting a male Common Rexxel headed towards them, she fell behind her sister again a short way, and as the male got near she slowed and stilled her bells, giving the faintest of smiles to the male she waited for him to come to her. The male slowed down, intrigued by this odd female who's bells were silent, he barely even noticed her smile at him but felt compelled to go over to her. Once the male had noticed her Shimmer knew he was all hers, she created an illusion that they were all alone, and speaking softly to him told him how amazingly handsome he was, he must be very rich, he nodded away enraptured by her, she explained how sore her poor feet were from all this walking, how perhaps he could pay for a cart to take her to and from her destination, for he wouldn't want such dainty paws and such a beautiful lady to be in pain, throughout her illusion and speech she made subtle movements, causing her bells to ring at important words, they rang harshly when she said things like 'sore' and 'pain' and tinkled prettily when she said things like 'beautiful'. She had learned this trick long before she had gained the gift of illusions, she was aware how much more powerful it made her words. The male nodded once more and without a word handed her enough keystones to get her practically all the way across Lambastia and back again, smiling graciously she made him see her simply vanish, and raced off to catch up with her sister, dispelling the illusion shortly after.

The male rexxel found himself standing in the middle of the street, looking at thin air, he couldn't recall what exactly had happened barring having seen a dazzlingly beautiful female Rexxel, but quickly noticed his moneypouch was a lot lighter than it had been, however it was still there, so the money hadn't been stolen, shaking his head with a confused sigh he continued on to his destination, trying to puzzle out how he had spent such a lot of money without even realising it.

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Snow was furious, she had turned around to find that Shimmer had gone, trotting back the way she had come she spotted snow talking to some common male rexxel, and quickly worked out what she must be doing, before she could intervene however and save the poor guy from whatever fate Shimmer had decided for him, some of the Imperial armed forces had walked by, Snow hadn't known what to do, she knew that the Imperials weren't all bad, but had heard stories where they made examples of Purines they found in their city not caring they were old enough to have partcipated in the war or not, whether the stories were true or not Snow didn't know, but she wasn't about to stick around and find out, especially whilst her sister wasn't around to help.

Turning around she quickly hurried off in the direction of the market again, figuring the milling crowds would be the best place to lose them if they were to come after her.

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Hurrying to catch up with Snow, Shimmer spotted the Imperials that had scared Snow off, but Shimmer knew her sister was safe and had not gone far. The sisters had a vague link between them, much like the ones that many twins have, where they can tell if their sibling is in trouble or not and whether they are nearby or not.

Reaching the market a short while later, Shimmer instinctively knew that this is where her sister was. Making her way into the crowd it did not take her long to spot Snow perusing the contents of a market stall with piles upon piles of luxurious looking fabrics. As she watched Snow selected a pure white piece of material, it looked floaty and fine, and gently sparkled in the sunlight as though it were embedded with thousands of tiny diamonds.

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Once Snow had reached the market she looked around for the Imperials she had seen, she couldn't see them behind her, but not wanting to take any chances she went up to one of the fabric stalls to find something she could wear that would hide the fact that she was a Purine.

Being a well bred lady, she didn't just buy the first thing she found of course, she visited several nearby fabric stalls before she found something worthy of her interest, the material she chose was a delight both to the touch and to the eyes, pure white with diamond dust cunningly wrought into it (or so the vendor told her, and she was inclined to believe him), she paid a princely price for the garment and swept it up and over her body, wrapping it once around her neck and nose and making a hood to cover her head (much like a Burka), so that only her feet and eyes showed, she looked like a princess from a faraway land.

As she preened her knew outfit, making sure everything was in place Shimmer came up to her, a look of wonder in her eyes at the beautiful material. Snow glared coldly at her sister, she had no doubt Shimmer had wronged the male Rexxel that she had seen her with earlier. "What have you done this time Shimmer?" she hissed quietly, the musical tones of her voice now gone, "You know I don't agree with the things you do, it's wrong!".

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Shimmer was taken aback by Snows anger, she didn't know she had been seen with the male Rexxel, and didn't know quite what to say at first. Although she personally had no qualms about the things she did, it was different when Snow found out about it, they were like two different sides of the same coin. She shuffled her feet nervously and tried to avoid eye contact, she needed to mollify her sister or she wouldn't speak to her for at least a month and they were supposed to be having fun shopping together, or worse she would try to make her find the male and give him his money back, she vowed that she would never undo an evil thing she had done.
"That's a beautiful outfit you have!" she told her, trying to avoid the subject, causing Snow to growl quietly at her. Shimmer started creating an illusion of happy times, trying to make Snow feel calm and forget her ire. But the illusion wavered and vanished. "How about I pay for that material for you, I have plenty of money, I can even get us a cartride home or... or a room to stay overnight if we don't have time to finish looking around the market..." her voice trailed off under her sister's gaze.

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Snow growled at her sister, quietly of course, she didn't which to make a scene and draw unwanted attention to them. She couldn't believe how dishonest Shimmer could be, evidently this money she talked about was that males money. And she had the nerve to try and cast an illusion on her? She obviously wasn't thinking straight, as soon as Snow had noticed the beginnings of the illusion she had dispelled it with a mere thought.

"You stole that money didn't you? From that common Rexxel I saw you with?, how could you do such a thing? I swear at times like this I can't even believe we're sisters!", Snow kept her voice low, this argument was between them, not every street vendor and commoner from here to Basantha.

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Shimmer flinched at Snow's harsh words, it upset her to think of her not wanting to be sisters, they were lifebonded to each other and had been since they were born. She wouldn't lie to Snow, but she would happily bend the truth if it meant they could continue to enjoy their outing, speaking just as quietly she explained "I didn't steal it from him, I just asked for it, he happily gave the money to me, something about not wanting pretty ladies such as ourselves to hurt our feet...", it was a weak excuse, and she knew that Snow would see right through it.

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Snow saw the hurt in Shimmers face when she spoke those harsh words, it went to her heart and she softened a bit. "Well I suppose it's too late to give it back to him now", she pondered for a bit, "But once we're done shopping we're going to visit the churches and you are going to pay penance, at each church you will donate a portion of the money you stole, and you are not going to do this again during this trip!" Snow seemed to understand that this was a part of Shimmer and it would be unfair to try and make her promise to give up this part of her forever, but so long as amends were made Snow would be happy and they could do what they had come here to do - shop!. As an after thought she added "You had best give me the money to hold onto for you, so you don't spend it".

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Shimmer wasn't sure what to think, she was happy that Snow seemed prepared to forgive her, but it came at such a cost, her love for her sister and her vow to never undo an evil deed clashed violently against each other in her mind.

But Snow was waiting for the money, and Shimmer couldn't make her wait too long, reaching down she grabbed hold of her own pouch, it contained about half of what the male rexxel had given her, and she hoped that Snow wasn't aware just how much she had gained. Handing her pouch over to her sister she was relieved to see that Snow didn't scrutinise it, and didn't notice that the pouch was Shimmer's, but then it's not like they spent a lot of time fawning over money pouches, so long as they were sturdy and spacious the two didn't mind what their pouches looked like or were made of, provided they weren't ugly or cheap looking. She kept her stolen money in a spare pouch, which blended in with her fur well and was made of a special material which helped to muffle the sounds of keystones clinking against themselves, this was specially made for a quiet and quick getaway, as well as to prevent Snow from noticing anything was different.

It wrenched her to be giving away any of the money that she had gained, but the happy look on her sisters face healed the distress somewhat. She did not look forward to having to donate all that lovely money to the churches though, she sneered to herself even as she thought about it. But maybe, just maybe, if she didn't draw attention to the money or what had happened again her sister might forget about it, then she'd just have to take the pouch back off of her without her noticing.

Suddenly she realised that Snow was looking at her expectantly, "Oh! Uh, yes, of course I won't do it again during this trip" she promised, and she meant it, after all taking the money back off of Snow again, didn't count as stealing, it was more regaining what she had already gained.

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Snow stored the stolen money with her own pouch, it seemed to her to have quiet a bit of money in it, and it didn't cross her mind that Shimmer could have stolen more than that, despite the fact that they were near a market at the time that she stole it and it was very likely that pets would carry lots of money around with them for the expensive and rare items. Her sister had looked so torn when she handed to pouch over, and Snow could only imagine she looked that way because she was having to give up all her stolen money.

Her sour mood was now gone, she didn't feel totally absolved of the evil deed yet, but that would come later, she had decided on a course of action to donate the money and she fully intended to see it through. Smiling brightly (although it was mostly hidden beneath her new outfit), she turned and led her sister towards the material stalls, she was perfectly satisfied with Shimmer's promise, and intended that the rest of the day would not be wasted or ruined.

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With lingering feelings of loss Shimmer followed Snow towards the fabric stalls, reaching them she gasped with shock and the past few moments of anguish faded quickly from her memory.

Such beauty! she thought mouth agape. So many fine fabrics and materials, so many colours and designs vied for her attention, she knew now that if she couldn't find the material she wanted somewhere at this market then she would never find it.

She took her time sorting through the neat piles, touching and caressing the finely woven items, her eyes shining with delight at the unimaginable colours represented before her. Shimmer was lost in her own little world, heedless of all about her, even her beloved sister.

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Snow had been watching Shimmer as she arrived at the first material stall, the same one from which she had just purchased her diamond dust encrusted white cloth. The look of awe and wonder on Shimmers face was glorious to behold in Snows' opinion, a delighted smile crept onto Snows face, the best thing in the world to her was to see her sister happy (so long as it wasn't a result of evil deeds), today was not going to be a waste after all.

Snow gently nudged her sister, bringing her mind back to the market, "There are plenty of other stalls to visit, bigger and better ones further in. Which neither of us have seen the likes of yet! Follow me" she told her. She herself couldn't wait to see what other treasures awaited them in the market centre, where the best, rarest and most unusual goods were most likely to be found. Making sure that Shimmer had paid attention to her and hadn't gotten lost in another daydream of fabrics, she led her away towards the centre, perusing the smaller stalls lining the street on the way.