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It caused a brief stir and wonder when a lady in the city of Messaline gave birth to twin girls—or so they believed—so alike in appearance that none could tell them apart. The resemblance did not lessen as they grew older, so that seeing the two of them together was like seeing a single face reflected in a mirror. When their father passed away on their thirteenth birthday, their mother too having died some years before, they were nominally placed in the care of a distant cousin who let them have whatever tutors they wanted—whether it was one twin who wanted music lessons or the other who wanted to learn fencing.So they learned and grew, in Messaline by the sea. And when they were grown, they thought to seek their fortune in the rich merchant republic of Venice.While preparing for the journey, one of the twins—the younger by an hour—said, “Sister, it would be safer as we travel for one of us to be a boy.”“Thou speakest well! Which of us two shall don hose and breeches?”“That shall I—let me be the brother, and thou the sister.”“As it please thee, brother! And how shall I call thee, when thou art a man?”Her twin hesitated only a moment. “Sebastian, after our father.”It took less than half the journey for Viola to say, “Sebastian, meseems thou art happier thus.”Sebastian nodded vigorously, setting the plume on his hat to dancing. “Would I could remain a man, and never return to maiden’s garments!”“In truth, thy borrowed feathers suit thee well!” Viola tilted Sebastian’s hat to a dashing angle. “Then thou shalt be my brother in truth, and not in seeming. We are unknown in Venice, by name or features. If we arrive as brother and sister, who shall say us nay?”Sebastian looked much lighter, as if a great weight had fallen from his shoulders. “Thy brother, from this moment—but my sister shall be as dear to me as ever!”“And thy sister hath for her brother no less love.”And so the sea, which has great power to change all things, set them ashore as brother and sister.It was after another sea voyage that Viola found herself alone, cast adrift on a strange shore without her brother. For safety’s sake, she dressed in man’s garments as Sebastian had done—though for her it was truly a pretense, one that she would lay aside when she could. Mourning him, she remembered how Sebastian used to stand, walk, dress, and did her best to imitate him, and bound her chest as she had seen her brother do.When Oliva ran from her house to stop the fight between her uncle Toby and Cesario, her heart was in her throat.The Cesario of yesterday had frowned coldly and looked away; today, he looked at her like she was something wondrous. When she took his hand, his own hand grasped hers with a gentle and warm pressure. His eyes met her eyes with equal warmth, and he traded her sigh for sigh. If this was a dream, Olivia wished never to wake; and if truth, she wished to keep it forever.She gave him a pearl brooch set in gold, and with rising hope saw him pin it to his doublet, over his heart. Olivia herself felt like the pearl, drawn from the depths of the sea when she was drowning in sorrow. She had lost so much—her father, her brother, almost herself. She could not bear to lose Cesario too, this new Cesario who looked at her with such adoration. Olivia could only think to bind him to herself in a way that could not be broken. She sent her servant to fetch the priest.Cesario kissed her tenderly after the exchange of rings, and Olivia knew she would never regret her choice. (Nor did she, when she saw Cesario-Viola throw herself into Orsino’s arms and looked to Cesario-Sebastian beside her, who gave her that same look of love and devotion—nor when Sebastian spoke softly into her ear and told her his last secret.)