Niamh and Niall

When Niamh had suggested switching places with Niall so he could go to mage school and she could go to knight training instead of finishing school, she’d thought there would be a haircut, some awkward and painful chest binding, and promises to keep each other’s secrets.


She hadn’t planned on waking up in Niall’s body to find Niall standing over her in her body, holding a grimoire and looking disturbingly self-satisfied.

“So...just answer my name and I’ll answer to yours,” he - she - said.

Niamh might have quibbled about that more if she hadn’t suddenly had to answer the call of nature and ducked out of the cave, into the bushes. Where she had a quiet panic attack, did her business, and then strode back into the cave in time to find Declan, the man-at-arms sent to escort them to the capital, packing up their gear.

“You took your royal time, Master Niall,” Declan said. “Come along, help your sister onto the horse. We’ve got to make the capital before sundown.”

Niall smirked when Niamh struggled to help him onto the horse, but she got the satisfaction of wearing the sword that Niall despised.

The Capital rose against the horizon in the distance, the palace towers gleaming in the early morning light. Somewhere, amidst those bright white towers, the King’s Knights trained. Niamh had seen the King’s Knights once before, when she was a child, and she’d been enchanted by their shining armor, their seeming endless strength as their sparred in a tourney held in the neighboring baronet, and she’d decided then and there that she wanted to be one of them.

If only she could get used to her brother’s gangly, clumsy body. She wasn’t sure that Niall even needed to go to mage school if he could do something like this just by reading out of a book, but...she had been afforded a unique chance. And she was going to take it. When they stopped for lunch, she practiced drills with the swords, ones she’d bribed Declan into teaching her while Niall helped Declan prepare the food.

She almost tripped and fell on her face, but once she became accustomed to Niall’s body’s balance, it’d be worth it.

“Master Niall, it’s so good to see you taking an interest in a man’s work,” Declan said.

Master Niall. Maybe Niamh could get used to that.