Sylph knew she made a fatal mistake somewhere. As she stared at the ivory sword raised above her head, something flashed through her mind.
=[A few hundred years ago…]=
Slowly, a pair of saplings sprung forth in the middle of the towering trees. Its leaves steadily grew and grew, along with its bright and yellow petals. These two flowers entangled one another, covering their core for a second and releasing all together on the next. There, two tiny fairies laid asleep, with their hands tightly holding each other.
That moment marked the birth of the Twin Wind Spirits, Sylph and Aria.
Sylph possessed the color of nature; bright-emerald green. Her hair flowed smoothly like the rhythmic stream of a river, and her petite face carried the innocence one can usually find from such a newborn being. Aria’s hair, on the other hand, was white as the cold winters of December, while her skin held an unhealthy pale hue in them. Even asleep, her expression was as sharp and icy like the northern lands.
The first to wake up from the twin was Sylph. Inch by inch, she lifted her eyelids for the first time, and gazed upon the scenery of the forest they were in.
Sylph looked unamused. Bored, even.
Sylph sat up from their flower bed, yawning. “So this is my world…” she glanced from left to right, to the endless horizon of flora, and to the faraway kingdom of the humans. Sylph’s gaze stayed to her right, on the direction of the city.
She turned back her gaze beside her upon noticing the sudden movements of her ‘bed’. Her twin stretched up her arms in a lazy fashion and yawned.
Aria, the white-haired Wind Spirit, rubbed the corner of her eyes before she realized just what happened. “… Oh! I’m alive now! Yey!”
“... You’re so loud.” Sylph covered her ears, with a small frown on her face. “We just woke up.”
Ironically, their characters are the opposites of their appearance. While Sylph looked a lot more like the original wind spirit described from the legends, she always held that no-nonsense look on her face. Her tone always sounded dead, plus her words always held that phantom sting on them…
Sylph rolled her eyes in annoyance.
“Oh, don’t be like that, Sylph!” Aria shot up into a stand, giddy and smiling. “It’s our new world! Our new home! Isn’t it so pretty?”
Aria may literally look icy, weak, and gloomy with her pale skin, but she was nothing like that. Aria marveled on every butterfly that flew her way, smelled each flower that attracted her attention, and was that kind of person that always wished for world peace.
“I don’t like the smell here. Too earthy.” Sylph scratched her nose in irritation.
“It’s the smell of nature. It’s nice!” Aria flew away, going deeper into the forest.
Sylph resisted the urge to roll her eyes again, and followed.
Thus, the life of the Twin Wind Spirits began.
----------------------------------------
Aria loved her new home dearly. She mainly took care of the forest they were born in, talking to the plants every day and petting the occasional monsters that stray near her. Meanwhile, Sylph spent her days sleeping, idling and sleeping some more. This kind of mundane lifestyle went on for years and years, without anything in particular happening… at least, anything in particular for these two’s taste.
“Sylph, it’s our job to take care of the forest, you know…?” Aria nudged her sleeping twin.
Like every time, Sylph was lounging on a random leaf of a tree in the middle of the day. Since they cannot afford to neglect on taking care of their home, Aria was left to herself on making everything work, while her lazy, good-for-nothing twin slept all day.
“Shut up, will you? Can’t you see I’m resting here?” Sylph snapped back, her eyebrows furrowed in irritation.
“But, can’t you even just take care of the flowers here? At least help me with that…”
The green-haired wind spirit just rolled to her left in reply.
“M-Maybe later then, when you wake up.” Aria gave a nervous laugh, then flew off to a part of the forest that she hasn’t checked for that day.
Upon looking closer, it was obvious that Sylph was still awake, what with her eyes still wide open in annoyance. “Geez, you’re too perfect, Aria…” She whispered to nobody as she finally drifted into sleep.
----------------------------------------
Centuries have passed ever since. Humanity’s prowess and population began to swell on this age, giving birth to the powerful and talented humans called adventurers. Some of these people started seeking Sylph and Aria in hope of receiving the Wind Spirit’s Blessing, an innate power bestowed upon the heroes of the legend.
Well, mostly Aria.
“Oh great wind spirit, please bless us with your presence on our kingdom!”
One day, a platoon of humans visited the outskirts of their forest, and called themselves the ‘Holy Church’ or something of the humans. Apparently, the Elemental Spirits are a big part of humanity’s main religion, and are regarded as high as the saints themselves. Upon learning of the existence of the Wind Spirit residing on the nearby forest of their kingdom, these humans hastily traveled right away in order to make contact with them.
“A-Ah, I am not great or anything. I only take care of the forest, nothing more…” Aria was the one who answered the call of these humans. She quickly flew towards them as soon as she heard their voices from her dwelling.
“Of course, it was said in the holy script that the great wind spirit is the most humblest out of all the elemental spirits!” The old man with the ivory robe kept on rambling about Aria’s magnificence. Unsurprisingly, this did nothing but to embarrass the poor fairy.
Much to her relief, her twin sister Sylph swooped into her rescue, and literally dragged her by her dress back to their tree. Aria heard the distressed yells of the human until she and Sylph got too far.
“What are you doing talking to those things?” Her older sister threw her in the air in front. Aria steadied herself mid-air with a flap of her wings, but her eyes still spun in a daze for a moment there. “Stop associating yourself with those humans. They’ll never bring you anything good.”
“T-That’s a lie! Humans are kind!” Aria hands were closed in a tight fist, and a small pout could be seen on her face. “They always give me fruits when they see me!”
“How many times do I have to tell you… don’t trust humans-- don’t trust anyone! Even yourself!” their faces were red in anger as they glare at each other. “You’re too naive for your own good!”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Being naive isn’t a bad thing! Why do you always hate me!” tears spilled on Aria’s eyes as her lips trembled.
Sylph had her mouth wide open in surprise. She hastily shook her head right after, however. “I’ve never hated you. I just care for you!”
“No! You’re always lying! You always said that you’ll help me take care of the forest, but you never did!” She covered her eyes with her arm and fluttered away in a hurry. “If you hate me, then I hate you too!”
“Aria!” Sylph tried giving chase to her sister, but unsurprisingly, the younger fairy was faster than her. She was always flying every day, not to mention that she already knew the forest like the back of her hand.
Barely a minute passed and Aria already lost her.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” she covered her eyes as she flew blindly through the forest. “Sylph, why are you so stupid!”
She can’t understand her sister at all. There were days that she completely ignored her. Other times, like today, she scolded her as if she cared for her.
“... Stupid….”
----------------------------------------
One day, Aria woke up from the trickle of raindrops hitting her face. It had been a long time since it rained this hard. It was even reaching her even though she sleeps in the middle of a large tree.
Turning to her side, she noticed that her sister, who’s usually still sleeping at that time, wasn’t there. A quick glance to her surrounding further confirmed that Sylph was really missing.
“Sylph…?” Aria gingerly rubbed her puffy eyes and yawned. “Where are you?”
No answer. Only the rhythmic sound of the raindrops outside her literal tree house.
“Where did she go?” now wide awake, Aria began to worry for her sister’s well-being. Yes, she told Sylph that she hates her, but she can’t fool herself.
She could never hate anyone, let alone her sole sister.
Plucking a single piece of leaf from the thousands surrounding her, she flew out into the raging storm outside. She could hear the wind howl, and the thunder rumbling in the background didn’t sound nice at all. Nevertheless, she started looking for her missing sister.
She searched every tree in the forest, thinking that Sylph might just have moved into a different one. When she found no one, she then checked each leaf swaying about in the storm. Still nothing.
Desperate, she even started looking under rocks, wanting to think that it was just a bad joke and that Sylph was just playing hide and seek with her.
Nothing. She literally searched the entirety of the forest already, and not a single sign of her sister. Aria didn’t know what to do anymore.
Maybe she left her. Maybe she hated her so much that she couldn’t even stand living with her anymore. Aria stayed still in the air with all these thoughts plaguing her mind. Her hands holding her makeshift umbrella was shivering not from the cold, but from the fear being possibly abandoned by Sylph.
“Sylph, where are you?! Please answer me!” high and low, she never stopped. She accidentally let go of her leaf after a particularly strong gust of wind, but she didn’t even care anymore. She just wanted to find her sister. “Sylph! Sylph! P-please don’t leave me! I don’t hate you!”
She didn’t know that Sylph would leave her just for that. Maybe deep inside, Sylph actually really care for her, and after hearing her say that… even anyone would probably be devastated too.
Thinking more and more about it just further worsened her anxiety and despair. Now truly desperate for anything, she began to fly outside the forest…
Not even after a minute of flying, she reached a wrecked plain littered with human corpses. Sword, spears, and arrows were scattered about around the battlefield, while large craters can be seen here and there. There were also uprooted trees thrown about from her forest. All in all, it looked like a tornado from hell ran through the whole place.
On the middle laid a single hill; thousands of swords were stabbed on the ground, along with a lone spear at its highest point.
There, on top of the blade of this mysterious golden weapon was her sister’s cold corpse. Skewered right on the center of her stomach, the tip of the blade even reached past her back, nearly tearing her tiny figure in two.
Lightning roared on the background, while the rain and wind got fiercer and wilder. Aria’s mind couldn’t comprehend what she’s seeing.
Spear, blood, Sylph… she repeated these words over and over inside her mind. Each cycle, she flew closer to her sister, along with her mind to reality.
A foot away from Sylph, Aria finally realized just what happened.
“Sister… Sister…” She wanted to help her, to touch her, but couldn’t. Afraid that she’ll bring her even more pain than what she’s already suffering from. Instead, she could only bawl in sorrow in front of the green-haired wind spirit. “W-Wake up, sister… Why aren’t you waking up? What happened?”
“Who did this to you?”
Sylph remained unresponsive. Her glassy eyes never changed.
The sound of clanking metal instantly alerted the fae to something behind her. There, a survivor soldier was sneakily trying to crawl away from her, even with a missing foot and amputated arm. Looking at the other humans surrounding him, this man got the least amount of damage, it seemed. Hence him still being alive.
Aria pointed her palm towards the bleeding soldier and levitated him in the air. He started panicking when he saw how furious Aria was.
“Who are you? We’re you the one who killed my sister?”
“W-We were the soldiers sent by the nearby kingdom of Gurendon. We were supposed to guide the great Wind Spirit to the capital, and--”
Some flew near his right cheek. A small cut appeared, followed by the small trickle of blood.
“Don’t take me for a fool. Who are you people?!” tears streamed down her face even as she screamed.
The soldier could only gulp.
“... The king heard about the Wind Spirit existing on this forest. He ordered us to eliminate you.” With a desperate laugh, the man sneered at the quiet fairy. “You may look harmless, but a monster is a monster! It’ll only be a matter of time before you lash out and try to destroy our kingdom! Anything we do to you, you deserve it and some mo--”
He didn’t get the time to finish his sentence before he started gasping for air. Aria watched with her uncaring eyes as the man slowly choked to death from the lack of air. Aria was blocking his nose and mouth with her wind, preventing anything to enter and exit.
Then all of a sudden, she filled his lungs with a huge amount of air. His lungs ruptured from being stretched out too much. She let go of her magic when the man’s remaining foot stopped kicking.
Her killing the human wasn’t the result of her anger to him. It was the result of her anger to herself. All this time, her sister kept on telling her to never trust anyone, especially humans. Aria always tried to defend them, but…
It looks like she was horribly wrong.
The humans never worshiped her. They were slowly planning out her demise. She could have died.
But why did Sylph try to save her? Why did she fight them alone? Did she not trust Aria to be much of a help in an actual fight? No, that wasn’t it.
“I’ve never hated you. I just care for you!”
All this time, Sylph really did love her. Sylph really did consider her as her twin. Sylph… really was her sister.
And now, because of Aria’s naivety and foolishness, her sister is dead. All because of her.
This morning sucked. Aria doesn’t feel like taking care of the forest for today… or tomorrow. Or even the next-next day.
Actually, no. Who is Aria?… That’s right. Aria’s supposed to be dead. No, she is dead. Because she was naive and stupid.
Yes, that was it.
In respect of her deceased sister, Ari--, Sylph made a small grave right where she died. She knelt in front of it for weeks, never moving for even an inch. She just kept her gaze on the small tombstone she erected above her sister’s grave, never uttering a single word.
Before long, a small sapling began to grow on her sister’s grave.
----------------------------------------
Sylph stared at the great tree of Yggdrasil, crying. For a moment there, she saw her entire life flash right before her eyes. She’s probably going to die now.
And she… doesn’t want to.
“P… Please… don’t…” she tried hard to move her frozen lips. Word by word, she tried to convey what could be likely her final words. “Please… don’t kill Sylph…! I’m begging you!”
The alien doesn’t really seem to understand her. But she doesn’t care. There’s nothing else that she can do.
“I’ll… do anything… everything… just… don’t kill…” ‘Sylph’ closed her eyes in a vain attempt to stop her cry. “my sister…!”
A swing from that sword will undoubtedly kill her. These next few seconds will be the most crucial moment of her lifetime.