“Oh, that,” said Ashwini. “Suki loves dolls. I expect Lej will give it to her once he’s cleaned it up.”

Such a small, kind gesture seemed so completely unlike the Lej I had met that I gaped at her for a moment.

“Come on,” she said. “The twins are at the end of the hall.”

The last room on the second floor was the biggest of the three by far, which made sense because it was clear two people lived in it. There were identical twin beds in the room, one made and the other unmade, and there were identical twin girls, but other than that, the two halves of the room were so different it was almost comical.

One half was lined with bookshelves, each crammed with creased, cracked, old, and dusty books. There were neat piles of books on the bed, on the round yellow carpet, on the cool marble floor. There were books lying open, books with scribbles and sticky tags, notebooks, empty books, books so full of papers they were tied shut with ribbon. Titles like The (True) Illustrated Book of Indian Folklore and How to Beat a Big Bad Wolf winked up at me in the sunlight.

The other half of the room looked like someone had transplanted an entire garden indoors. The relatively small space was filled with big potted plants, packets of seeds, window boxes of herbs and succulents, glass terrariums filled with flowers, and a trellis covered with brightly flowered vines. Between the lush greens of the plants were even more unexpected objects: a microscope, an apothecary’s kit of bottles and beakers, and a small electric cauldron that appeared to be brewing something thick, gold, and bubbly.

The twins themselves were about ten years old, with brown skin, dark braids like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, and round cheeks that dimpled as they smiled. One of them stayed curled up on her neatly made bed, with her books, but the other beamed and bounded out of her indoor garden.

“I’m Suki,” she chirped, “and this is my sister Samara.”

“Hi,” said Samara shyly, and I recognized hers as the little voice I’d heard at the door saying “It’s you!” in such awe.

“Hi,” I said, possibly even more shyly. “It’s nice to meet you both.”

“We’ve been dying to meet you!” the less shy twin, Suki, said. “You’re the coolest person ever. You made this whole world!”

“Well, I—”

“And,” she continued, giddy with excitement, “you’re here to get rid of Mahishasura once and for all, so that’s obviously an awesome bonus!”

“Well, I—”

“Suki,” Ashwini warned, exasperated, “remember what we said about not piling on the pressure? Kiki’s still getting her head around all this.”

“I also haven’t had much sleep,” I added hastily. “It’s not you, honestly, it’s me. Everything feels like too much right now.”

Suki patted me on the shoulder. “Not to worry,” she said cheerfully. “You’ll feel a lot better after breakfast. I know I always do.”