They showed up the same morning on different doorsteps. Two baby girls, each in a small basket with a mewling kitten. Each doorstep was owned by a childless couple, content with being such until that morning. Each couple was immediately captivated, and spared no energy or expense to adopt the small girl and bring her into their home.

The girls were miracles, gifted and well behaved. The years turned, and they attended school. They were magnetic and physically attractive, yet none came close, for peers and teachers alike could sense their otherness. In this way, the girls stepped through their lives, alone except for their feline companions.

One day, on the same day, the couples took their girls to a fair. Now teenaged, each girl left her parents to explore alone. At separate fairs, divided by an ocean, the girls stopped to have their fortunes told by seers in gaudy tents. Moments later they left the tents, each of which now housed a seer struck blind and mute by the brilliance of the portents she had seen.