Sxeiva's story took place a very long time ago, but begun with features all three girls found familiar. And in this story, sunlight once again split the dawn of a brand new day.
Jheiqs was a young boy who had gone through a lifetime of struggle already. His mother, a Wyxiri noblewoman, a friend of the crown. His father, a Qiciri nobleman, who also had close ties with the crown. This was back in a time of peace unlike the present day, where a union of nobles across nations could only be considered a way to strengthen the bonds between nations. However, there were a lot of complications in this union. The Wyxiri prince, now king, had been infatuated with the noblewoman, and had worked hard to attempt to win her hand, offering her a place as his queen. The Qiciri Princess herself had likewise been an admirer of the nobleman, and was eager to give him the throne. Both nobles had however turned down such offers, being far more interested in each other.
The result had left Jheiqs rather distant from both nations, where playing favourites could only make matters worse. As a result, his family had moved to the Magus Citadel, the only place of neutrality where they could keep moving forwards. This however left them with little remaining in the way of rank and status, being more of a visiting foreigner instead of a local noble. It left him without much of the way of lifestyle comforts, falling to the role of a simple commoner.
Back when he was twelve, his family had gone visit the Qiciri crown, as sort of a festive occasion for the princess. She was in fact going to take up the crown on that day, and wanted several of her important citizens present. His parents had already attended the Wyxiri king's coronation, so this was only fair. However, on that day, a disaster struck, causing danger to the crown family. The building had started to fall apart, for reasons still yet unknown. A local family had risen to the position of hero as a result of saving the crown family, but not everyone was saved in that incident. Jheiqs' own family died that night.
Without anyone explicit to blame for the incident, heat started to rise. The Wyxiri King was venomous, insisting that the whole operation was some ploy to assassinate the couple for their bond, he himself still in love with the noblewoman even after having adopted a political marriage. To him, it was more that the Qiciri hero was the one who was instead the assassin, ensuring that everything happened smoothly and disguising the incident as an overall issue in order to end the couple's lives. The newly crowned queen of the Qiciri did not take kindly to these accusations, herself still grieving the loss of the nobleman.
Tensions began to rise steadily since that day, putting both nations further and further on a path of war. But this was itself not the fate of young Jheiqs. He might not have had any of the other noble gifts given to him, but his blood was rich with the potential of both nations, it was gifted with its own power. And so, instead of going to attend the coronation, Jheiqs had spent yet another day in lecture in the Magus Citadel. The Arch-Magus was especially interested in the boy, considering just how gifted he truly was. The Arch-Magus was certain that, with the right training, the boy might actually become one of his greatest disciples one day.
On the day his parents died then, the Arch-Magus had found shelter for Jheiqs within the citadel itself, becoming a sort of guardian over the boy. He ensured that Jheiqs' education would continue, while ensuring that his family needs were met as best as possible. It meant having teachers in place of parents but it was still better than nothing. This continued a while, until one day Jheiqs was caught being delinquent and starting a fight with his peers. It seems an argument had risen about families, leading to some tension. It was decided after that, keeping Jheiqs this isolated was not doing any good for his psychology, it was instead having a negative impact on him.
So it was that day which Jheiqs was to bid farewell to his normal room and move into the home of the Arch-Magus himself. He arrived late that afternoon, after spending the entire day packing up his belongings. When he arrived, the first person he had met was the Arch-Magus' daughter. She had rushed to help him bring his stuff inside, into a room that had been provided for him. Quickly, he had found himself fully moved into his new room, but the girl was gone.
Two days later, he inquired directly with the Arch-Magus, wondering where the girl he had met then had vanished to, but the Arch-Magus was dismissive of the subject. Spanning over the days following, Jheiqs would continue to bring up the subject, only to be dismissed. This kept going for a year, until Jheiqs snapped and started a fight with the Arch-Magus himself. As a result, he was exiled from the citadel for three lunar cycles.
Jheiqs was starting to mentally fall apart at this point, much of his life had been spent suffering in hatred. Instead of fleeing to either of the two nations, he cross the great mountain, and took to the freedom he found beyond. There, he found a place he was free, and took to growing upon his own gift by himself. He fell in with some bandits, and was taken in out of his own gifts. There, to disguise his identity, he started using the ending portion of his name, rather than the start of it. Jheiqsylkhaexyn that day started going by the name Khaexyn.
However, even life with the bandits was not one without hatred. During a squabble between bandits, he found himself thrown between each.. out of their own defense, leaving him to realize how much he was in fact only being used. Even this far from civilization, he was still being used. Near the end of the fourth lunar cycle, he returned to the citadel, fully disillusioned with the bandits he found.
The Arch-Magus had been very worried in this time, having not expected Jheiqs to have gone so far away. In the time of worry, the Arch-Magus had decided to provide Jheiqs with details of their family secret, since Jheiqs was supposed to be a part of the family, and he had demonstrated so much curiosity about it. He was then reintroduced to the girl from all that time ago, the girl that he had been kept far away. But it wasn't that he was kept from her, but that she was kept from everyone.
He discovered then that she was in fact a half-elf, that her mother had died giving birth to her. Her mother in fact was one of the circle elves, who had been leading a good life among the elves with a lot of aspirations for the future. Her mother in fact was deemed a strong candidate for High-Seer, and had been raised accordingly by the current High-Seer herself, to learn everything she needed to know. She had then shared with her best friend her own experiences, even though such a friend was much younger than her, so that she could endure all of these expectations set upon her. However, on the day of the ritual, her mother was stunned to discover that it would not be her that would be gaining the position of High-Seer, but instead that same best friend she had been trusting all of these years.
Her mother had since then fled the circle in shame, tormented by feelings of unending betrayal. However, she had also found no place among the elves, and so had to flee her entire homeland itself. In the nations of the humans, she had also found no acceptance, only a dismissal for herself being a strange elf within their lands. It wasn't until she reached the citadel that she had finally found a place that would accept her. Since then, she had grown quite close to the Arch-Magus himself, since they were both in such high regards but so otherwise withdrawn from their societies.
The story fit Jheiqs' life all too well, being himself familiar with disregard. But what itself felt stronger was her own personal situation. Being a half-elf, her very existence was being rejected by all corners of society, being the greatest source of hatred possible for the people of the world. This stung him all too much, and he found himself compelled to her protection. He would not stand for her to be caged like this either, however. People would have to come to terms with half-elves, whether they wanted to or not. He would personally see to it.
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Jheiqs started taking her out for walks after managing to convince the Arch-Magus of his resolve. He had even agreed that he would not indicate she had any association to the Arch-Magus, so that there was no political problems, but that she was Jheiqs' personal charge. Handling her like a knight would care for a princess, he took her with him through the sights of the citadel.
It didn't take long for words to spread that Jheiqs was dating a half-elf, which had immediate issues for his own reputation. At that point, he found his peers picking on him every day, attempting to torment him. He would however stand up to them, in her defense, to whatever cost that brought to him. This continued for a few more years, until the boy and girl grew into adults.
It was not as if the torments had ended, only that they had gotten worse. Jheiqs had a collection of scars at this point from all the injuries he had sustained in her defense. There were a number of times where his own personal health made it too hard for him to be around, so he returned her to her father's care and fled back across the mountain, to people who did not know such grief. They instead didn't understand either, he knew, but the freedom here granted him room for discovery. And just almost half a year after his seventeenth birthday, he had fallen upon an amazing discovery.
His gift had revealed to him the veil of the world itself, the source of all gift. His own research discovered that this was what defined the world as a whole, not just the gift. It was a discovery capable of reshaping the world, changing everything. But he still didn't fully understand it. The veil itself, even after being discovered, shared little beyond it's own existence.
He would return home, still researching the veil in his spare time. To reduce questions about his return, he booked a room at the Citadel Inn, which would offer him an opportunity to collect his own thoughts. To that end, he made sure he had exclusive access to room 718 for the night. That night however, right after dinner, he found himself visited by the Arch-Magus' daughter, who had missed him and had grown worried. They spent the rest of the night together.
Late into the night, late enough to almost be early into the morning, they had yet another visitor. This one was much less welcoming, dagger in hand. Rather than stabbing Jheiqs' himself, the assassin turned to cause him the greatest torment possible, and stabbed the Half-Elf beside him, fatally. He woke to her death scream and the assassin fleeing. This instant tore upon his very heart in a searing anguish like nothing had ever before. He held her in his arms, no expanse of the gift able to restart a heart that wouldn't beat. Her wounds he could heal otherwise, but he had no way to restart her own heart.
Outraged, he turned back to the veil, demanding of it answers to his own grief. In a fury, he tore into it, and a hole formed through it. Through this hole, he found things beyond the world he knew, details no one of this would would understand. The foremost thing he found was details about how to get a heart to beat that had recently stopped. Something they called.. a 'defibrillator'. It would take an energy not unlike lighting to complete, used very carefully. He took to the lesson with all urgency, and carefully followed every step. Soon after, her heart started to beat once more. He had saved her from death itself, using what he had found beyond the veil.
From that moment, he had grown infatuated with his discovery beyond the veil. It became a life obsession for him, something he had need of exploring further. However, so much of what he had found did not work, or at least he had found no way to make work. Celesi laws itself seemed to make it not work, the world itself was far too different from the one beyond the veil. Earth, it called itself.
Nine months after the failed assassination, he found himself a father. There was concerns that her birth would kill her mother, like history repeating itself, but little Yhseliahysse was born without any problems.
His own research slowed down a bit, after becoming a father. He made sure to teach her how to read, and how to take care of herself. Her mother taught her things too, including both languages. While she was taught to defend herself, she was kept a distance from the uglier parts of the world, to defend her from the hatred that plagued her parents. As she grew older, he only grew more determined to find a way to better the world, to make it something she could truly find a place in without hatred. The world beyond the veil, it was the only clue he had for how this would even be possible.
While Yhse was still very little, they found themselves victim of another accident. While travelling from a visit from her father, the Arch-Magus' daughter was attacked by another assassin, this one resorting to poison instead of wounds. Finding his loved one collapsing in his arms again, he struggled to find a cure. This poison was very slow acting, so certainly she could be saved. However, upon further research, his hopes started to fall to despair. The poison given to her was reacting with her very blood, using the opposing factors of elf and human to tear the body apart. This was much like the same way people died giving birth to a half-elf, presumably an ending that they had expected for her during her pregnancy, but had found denied to her.
Jheiqs returned to the veil, searching for a cure for this, but Earth knew nothing honest about Celesi elves. It was the laws of this world that were killing her, Earth had no cure for that. With no recourse, he turned to his own gift, putting her into a deep sleep that dramatically slowed down the effects of the poison. It almost halted it completely, although it left her all but dead in the process. This wasn't a solution, he still needed to find another answer. He also needed to ensure the safety of his loved ones. He knew his love would be hunted like this going forward, even if he saved her, and there was little he could do here to find a solution for that. Taking her across the great mountain, that was his only possible recourse.
However, young Yhse was still too little to make this journey. Bringing her into the wild like that would put her life in danger as well. The conflict tore at him until he realized he had no other recourse. Yhse was still safe from being hunted, her grandfather could ensure her safety, much the same way he had done so before for the Arch-Magus' daughter. His gift itself could provide more, with something as simple as a hunger to escape civilization and discover the unknown. Curiosity was already in her nature, much like Yhse's mother, so feeding it with matters of coincidence would just keep things moving forward. When Yhse had grown enough to take care of herself, she would return to him. It was almost simply a gift of good fortune.
Yhse was also put into a much more temporary slumber, to keep her innocent of the situation. Then, he set to some more complicated illusions. He created an illusion of his own corpse, a stab wound delivered fatally, and then clouded himself with features that would prevent his own identification, with a uniform fitting for a grave-keeper. He then went to visit the citadel, bringing word of the death of the couple while also having his daughter awaken at the doorsteps of the Arch-Magus. His heart twisted at her inability to recognize him, but he left her to her own safety, and carried off the assumed corpses of his illusion and his love.
Both corpses were successfully identified. Jheiqs and Sxeiva, both confirmed dead. It was left to him to deal with the two bodies. He took them accordingly towards the great mountain, and once safely away dismissed the illusions. From there, he ensured Sxeiva was successfully brought across the great mountain, into the safety beyond. He knew it wouldn't be safe itself, he would need to keep working with the veil, with Earth, and find a way to make the world truthfully safe.
Sxeiva would be eventually saved by having a lot of her system replaced with artificial parts, something he had discovered and quickly worked upon since then. His prototypes were much less useful, but quickly grew in quality. Once he had enough progress achieved, he made use of the same discovery upon her. It left her feeling more artificial than alive, but she wasn't exactly dead. To Khaexyn, this was a victory. It had cost them both a lot, his previous live was basically discarded, he was now Khaexyn full time now. Sxeiva was now mostly artificial, metallic, but still partly alive. Their daughter, Yhse, taken from them, for a time at least.
Khaexyn however wasn't done, not until he had remade the world into one without this hatred which would consume everything he loved. The laws of the world needed to be remade in order to make a change, the only way he could do that would be to remake Celese in Earth's own image.