‘The left observatory floor cleared; all scientists have been captured or eliminated.’ Faint static voices echo from a man's ear.
The main observatory was almost pitch black, with only a beam of moonlight shining through the skylight, illuminating a man clad in blackout tactical gear with his arm extended, gripping a small matte black handgun. The man pointed the gun toward a distraught scientist trembling in front of the man.
The scientist, lifting her arms slowly, stared at the assailant and began to speak faintly.
“You don’t know what you're doing; this facility is gonna cure humanity,”
Looking back at the scientist, the man pointed his gun to the floor with indignation.
“Head on the ground.”
The scientist began lowering her gaze towards the floor with cold sweat beading down her face, but as she did so, she spotted a name tag on the man’s shirt: ‘A. Silver’. Upon this realisation, she froze, stuttering in place.
“B- Brother?”
The man staggered back, dropping his guard, as he stared back at the scientist inquisitively.
“Brother, please, you have to listen to me. I’m here to save humanity, not end-.” Said the scientist frantically before being cut short by a ringing gunshot.
A gunshot rang in the observatory, with a bullet hole blown from the back of the scientist's head, being shot from the corner of the room. Her body became limp, but the man caught her before she collapsed entirely to the floor. Taken back from the abrupt execution, he quickly darted his eyes towards the corner of the room where the gunshot originated from. The faint moonlight revealed a slight glint in the corner of the room. He quickly raised his arm, aiming his pistol towards the corner. Still, during this process, the man's arms faltered as he began to topple over as he was shot in the head, shattering his ballistic mask in half.
Two brilliant lights were born in the absolute darkness of space, spiralling around each other, flying through the endless universe. With the energy conjoining, the universe exploded in a violent array of colours as the energy began creating a world of purity created through their ideals. The energy of one of the lights started to falter as if frustrated. It spoke out to the universe it created, swearing an oath. “I will protect her.”
The other light, maintaining its shine, wished for nothing but freedom. As this wish repeated, the light did not fade. Still, it shone even more brilliantly, the energy dividing into an indescribable amount of shapes and colours filling the darkness of space.
As their energy began to dissipate, the two lights vanished into obscurity.
Tia:
Two curious purple eyes flutter open, darting around as they sparkle faintly in the dim light from the gas lantern, leaving hollow shadows around the room. Their attention finally fixated on the face of a tired woman smiling down at them.
“You’re both more radiant than I ever expected,”
the woman said, bringing her lips to the baby’s forehead and kissing it gently.
“The Ein Sof Family welcomes you.”
Resting in a large bed with opaque purple drapes surrounding the perimeter, she cradled two babies. A shadowy figure parted the drapes and called for the lady,
“Mrs. Hera, I have just been alerted that the father finally arrived at the premises.”
His voice was that of an elderly man, his face briefly illuminated by the lantern light, making out the face of a well-groomed butler.
“Thank you, Joseph.”
Hera responded, letting out a sigh of relief.
“It’s the birth of his children, and where is that man?!”
A different woman's voice can be heard from outside the drapes,
“He was fighting in the dungeons again! Can you believe that!”.
She continued, her voice shrill with annoyance. In response, Joseph sighed,
“It is not our job to question our master, Shilah; you must know your place.”
“I- Of course, of course. It’s not my place to chastise our master.”
“Do not apologise, Shilah,”
Mrs. Hera smiled kindly, but her eyes glared angrily toward the door,
“You raise a valid point; he better get a move on, or he will be sleeping with the pigs till he's Gray and old,”
Her smile weakened slightly as her face reddened with anger. The pounding of footsteps can be heard faintly, followed by incoherent shouting as someone rushes into the room. The sound of a door slamming open and the ripping open of the drapes revealed a large man covered head to toe in battle-damaged knight's armour, with a purple insignia placed over his heart on his chest piece, distinguishing the man as the patriarch of the Ein Sof household. Soaked in blood, he reached toward the woman cradling her babies,
“Tore, no!”
Mrs. Hera recoiled away, causing one of her babies to begin crying loudly,
“Clean yourself beforehand. I will not let you put monster blood on our children!”
The man backs away from the bed quickly, raising his hand to his mouth and coughing into it.
“Yes, you’re right. I apologise, darling, I will return soon,”
his eyes fierce with pride, resting and focusing on the baby’s,
“A girl and a boy…Twins ay?”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He chuckles faintly,
“Looks like our heritage is in good hands, ha ha!”
He turned towards the door partially broken on his entry,
“Shilah!”
“Yes, master.”
Shilah replied, bowing respectfully,
“Run me a bath and you, Joseph,”
he pointed to the butler standing next to a bed who had begun tending to Mrs. Hera,
“Please make arrangements to fix the door.”
Looking back at the door, he let out a sheepish grin and stomped out of the room down a hallway, with Shilah following closely behind.
Mrs. Hera sighed deeply, the exhaustion of giving birth to twins beginning to wear on her. The baby boy who had been crying quietened as the man left the room; the other baby looked at her brother with annoyance.
“Tia, do not look at your brother with eyes like that.”
Tia looked up to her mom, barely able to keep her eyes open.
“Maybe it is time for rest now.”
Joseph told her softly as he gently put his hand on her head and laid her down on her pillows, raising each baby into an arm. The lady fell asleep almost immediately, and Joseph carried the babies to a cradle on the edge of the room,
“Sorry, children, but we weren’t expecting two of you.”
He exclaimed quietly,
“For the children of Sir Tore Ein Sof, you are easygoing babies!”
Laying their heads gently onto the soft bottom layer. Joseph smiled kindly, turning to their mother, who slept soundly in her bed. The baby girl, Tia, looked towards the butler as he bent down, whispering something she couldn’t make out in the darkness. Mrs. Hera rolled over smiling, her eyes still closed, the butler leaving the room.
Tia tried moving her neck forward but didn’t have the strength; she was extraordinarily confused. It was not moments ago she swore she was in a laboratory being executed by her own brother. She rolled her head again to the other side, staring at her apparent new brother. At first, she thought this was some morbid dream, but it was far too real. Twins again? And why does she still have all her memories? These were all questions that seemed like needing immediate answers, but her new body wasn’t very cooperative. She let out a short breath in an attempt to sigh. She would just have to wait and find out.
6 Months later…
With minor control over herself, Tia had used every opportunity to learn about her new world, but her access to information was minimal. Often not let outside of a cradle or her mother's bedroom. Occasionally, she put on a large window sill with her brother and observed the outside of the complex where she was born.
Initially, she had assumed she was born in the same world, just in a different country, but from her view outside of the rustic window that towered over her, the whole area seemed straight out of a fantasy novel, or she was at least in the medieval era. The fact that people spoke a language she never heard before made her question where she was. Shuddering to herself, not the medieval period, she hoped. Tia was not excited to be married off to some random noble or anything of those sorts.
Propped up on the window, she was just out of viewing range to look, but she still couldn’t tilt her neck enough upward. Straining the little muscles in her neck, she felt tears well up automatically; she was just about sick of her newborn body. Then, a slight tugging from her cloth shirt, and her body shifted slightly towards the window, allowing her to see out the window. She peered in the direction of the pulling feeling. Her brother sat upright, staring at her blankly, gripping her shirt. Notably surprised by her twin's ability to move, Tia tried to speak out loud to her sibling but only let out mumbled gurgles. He smiled at her. Was he just like her? She hadn’t paid much attention to her brother; she knew his name was Tiago, and he was her twin, but she wrote him off as just a baby. She acknowledged this as something to look into. Tiago pointed past her out the window, attempting to direct her attention somewhere. Tia rolled her head again towards the window, and her eyes widened. On the fields that expanded below, there were farmers, scythes in hand, which was not surprising; however, there was something abnormal about it. They swept through the wheat like butter, and the grain strangely was replanting itself, and when they cut through, it would remove large arcs of the wheat well beyond the blade's edge. Her eyes glistened with curiosity.
They watched, fixated on the farmers; they seemed to almost dance through the field. After they had cut down the whole field, a young girl in a brown robe hiding her face walked to the centre. Raising her arms, she tossed a blue powder into the air, rotating her arms into an arc around herself in a circle; she spoke something Tia couldn’t make out; the powder then spread across the field, covering the seeded ground slightly hovering off the soil right above the girl's knee. The girl in the robe spoke again, pushing her arms forward into a triangle; the powder suddenly shone a bright blue, turning into water. Tia was shocked and couldn’t control her excitement, letting out some sounds of glee that turned into more random baby gurgling. This time, it didn’t bother her because the powder confirmed it for her; this world had magic!
4 years later…
Tia finally adapted to her new younger body; operating independently to walk around, she immediately explored her surroundings. She learned a lot about her family as her mother, Hera Ein Sof, is the mistress of the house and the wife to Tia’s father, Tore Ein Sof, a noble who hailed a fiefdom in exchange for the prowess of the Ein Sof sword arts that he had created himself. However, she hadn’t seen a lot of her father, who spent most of his time away from home. Apparently, he is quite the adrenaline junky and often raids dungeons within the area with adventurers. He is popular with said adventurers because of his adventurous nature. Her mother was kind but proper, and she immediately had her initial fears realised when, after gaining the ability to walk, her mother started to teach her proper ‘Walking’ etiquette for a girl of the Ein Sof family. She found these to be quite tiresome. Her brother Tiago had learned to walk not long after turning one. He seemed pretty gifted physically; he must take after his father, she thought to herself, which quelled most of Tia's suspicion for her brother but yet just couldn’t shake this familiar air about him.
Tia had become much more familiar with the residence staff; the old butler, Joseph, was their most trusted staff member who had been with their family for two generations. He was incredibly kind and patient, necessary for her sibling Tiago, who was quite abrasive for a young child. As well as the young maid, Shilah, an elf woman and the daughter of a well-respected Elf priestess, she is also in charge of protecting the twins as an expert archer. She had learned of her talents from the cooking staff on one of Tiago's runabout excursions wreaking havoc around the kitchen. Hiding her maturity for a child was easy, as, despite the age of her mind, her child-like instincts often were out of her control. Leading to more than one embarrassing bathroom incident she would rather forget.
From exploring the building she lived in, it was built like a small fort; it had three floors and solid stone walls that made winters cold, with torches mounting the hallways and dark oak floors that were hollow but sturdy. You would see it in an old Victorian castle but on a smaller scale. The living quarters were on the 2nd floor. They consisted of five bedrooms, including her parents' rooms and the two staff members' rooms reserved for her and her brother when they got older. The 1st floor had a large kitchen and living room, one room that looked extremely posh, and she had spent her time with her mother learning how she should act in their household. However, the 3rd floor is the only one she cared for, as it was where they kept the library.
She had first discovered the room when brought along with Shilah in search of her brother Tiago, who had apparently set his path of destruction up to that floor; it was packed with rows of old leather-backed books. Apparently, the books contained the history of her family and the kingdom, as her lineage had a long line of historians and aristocrats. She held Shiloh's hand as they searched for her brother among the books, which, given Tiago's track record, she doubted she’d find him there. Suddenly, a loud bang can be heard in the next room, and Shilah lets go of Tia's hand. Running to the noise, she yelled back to her,
“Just stay right there, ok!”
She slammed open the next door, leaving Tia standing amongst the books. Taking this small window of freedom, she opens one of the books. She discovers it's in a language she's never seen, something reminiscent of the Nordic alphabet. Still, she felt she could eventually interpret it if she spent some time on it. This became her obsession for the next few months, learning slowly from her mother and the books she read. She had a basic comprehension of the texts inside the book and was astounded to find magic spells in some of these books. A new world of possibilities opened up for her; in her previous life, she had felt she had mastered all there was to know about science, but now there existed something new to learn. Things would end up different this time, she swore to herself. The vivid memory of the gun pointed at her head, her final reunion with her last twin. He may have understood if she had only gotten in contact sooner or fixed things faster. She shook her head, determined to take a different path. This time, things will change.