No Difference - Apart from the Obvious One

"I don't see what other explanation there can be," Xyllis said. "My magic has shown, beyond any possibility of error, that we really do have two instances of Princess Astra. Therefore the second Astra must have come here from somewhere else. We have ruled out time travel, so as far as I can see that only leaves the alternate worlds possibility. It may be that the differences between the two worlds are so minute that we will never be able to identify them. Well, there's one obvious notable difference, of course. 'Our' Princess Astra never went to the Northern Caves. If that's genuinely the only difference, then that implies that the divergence between the worlds must have occurred when the two Astras made different decisions some six months or so ago, leading to one being captured by the dragon and the other escaping that fate. Perhaps the 'visiting' Astra could tell us how she came to be chained up in the Northern Caves? We've heard the story from that point, but not what led up to it."

1. So Astra recounted the events leading up to her discovery by Fred.
2. But just then they were interrupted.
3. Fred said: "Do we really need to find the divergence point? I don't want to go back to my own world whilst I'm like this anyway. What would I say to them? I suspect that Astra feels the same."

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