BEFORE
"Are you comfortable?"
The boy and the girl nodded enthusiastically as they snuggled deeper into the woman's warm arms. Little stars of lights drifted across the ceiling from the little nightlight on the table beside the bed, brightening the otherwise dark room.
"Where do I start?" The woman looked down at her daughter, whose bright eyes reflected the innocence of childhood, and though she would have done anything to keep the light in her eyes, it was fading every night.
"From the beginning! Sai hasn't heard it yet so he'll be lost," the little girl turned her attention to the boy whose pale eyes stared at her in amusement. " Mama tells the best stories but this is my favorite. "
The woman's chest shook slightly with laughter as she ran her fingers through their hair.
"From the beginning it is," The woman closed her eyes, mentally stringing the sentences of her story together. " When our worlds were still new, there was beauty and wonder—"
"Wait!" The little girl jolted up, her curls bouncing in her pigtails. " I have to get Mr. Bearingtonn! He'll want to hear too! " She scampered off the bed, her thin little limbs drowning in her pajamas.
Her mother worried for her; she wasn't sure she'd make it until her next birthday. The poor thing had been bedridden the entire week, her frail body condemned to chills as her fever rose by the minute. Her small feet ran towards the other side of the room, grabbing a little brown bear that her father gifted her for her sixth birthday the year before.
Her mother helped her back onto the bed, holding her tighter than before, and pressed a kiss on her warm forehead." Can I continue, Mr. Bearingtonn? "
The little girl placed the bear to her ears, nodding to an answer only she heard. " Yes. We're all ready. "
" Where was I? "
"The world was new and full of wonder,"
" Right. From the inception of creation itself, the world was inhabited by species of great power; immortal beings whose veins flowed with magic." The children grew silent as they immersed themselves into the story and snuggled deeper into the woman's arms. "The Seelie court, inhabited by kind and peaceful fae was to the south, and the Unseelie– their crueler and harsher brethren was to the far North. Everything in-between and around was divided by the moon-children and other shifters, the Night Kin, and Lilith's offspring. The world emanated magic from its highest peak to its deepest trench, and this place was called Ilairk. Now Eçalis,"
The little girl gasped, excitement etched into her face from a newfound discovery. "Sai, that's where you're from! "
Sairen laughed at her excitement, " Yeah,"
"Coool."
" Soli, do you want to hear the rest of the story or not? "
"Sorry, mama. You can continue."
" Eçalis was once a part of Ilairk, a great continent off its main coast. There were no barriers between Eçalis and Ilairk since their people were very close, and they would visit eachother's lands freely. They would join together in festivities, celebrating the solstices and holidays and there was peace for millennia. Then, by some miraculous twist of fate, a new species was born in Ilairk–a genetic mutation that seemingly had no abilities but mortality and vulnerability. "
"They were called humans, and as centuries passed, their numbers grew and so did their jealousy and greed. They wanted the power that the Creatures possessed; they wanted the same immortality and invulnerability and the same magic, and when their wish to be turned was denied, they grew bitter. And so began the hunt for Creatures. They made their hides into rugs and pinned their wings on their walls, their horns and hooves were brandished as trophies and their fangs were made into jewelry. This sparked war, and for years there was bloodshed."
"Alessia?" Sairen spoke up, his eyes brimming with curiosity and a deep confusion. "I remember reading about the Divide in a book a few years ago, but I never understood why they didn't just kill all the humans; they had the power and the numbers to, so why didn't they? "
Alessia looked down at the boy and smiled at how she sometimes forgot that he was only nine years old. He had such an advanced mind for a child his age, his mannerisms and the way he spoke were way beyond his time from the years he spent living alone with his grandfather; but he was still a little boy and the past three months he spent with them brought back a bit of his childhood.
"Some did want to, and some tried, yet no Creature was as cruel as the humans were. And though it was frowned upon, some humans and Creatures came to love each other and bore children, creating other species. So, the rulers both mortal and immortal alike came to an agreement: the mortal kings would take their people and find their home in a neighboring dimension, ending the bloodshed."
"Now, the mortals sent scouts to different dimensions to see if they were habitable and while they waited, they did so in strained peace. When they sent for their people months later they found that only one of the many dimensions was safe to live and years had already passed there, and they had already created civilizations. After they left Ilairk it was shut off from other dimensions, only accessible to their rulers, and Eçalis was separated as well. After countless years of war, the rulers became obsessive and paranoid, and the relationship that was once beautiful with Eçalis became strained with caution. So our Goddess took our land and emancipated us, we were shielded as well and took someplace else, away from the place that was once our home. And so, event turned history and history turned legend and the mortals who once were able to see us Creatures were cursed to not be able to witness the beauty they tried to destroy, and were blinded."
" So love? " Sairen furrowed his little eyebrows, "That's what ended it all? My grandfather told me it took years of hostages and trades to finally come to that decision."
Alessia laughed and kissed the crescent between his brows that had creased with his scrunched-up face. " Your grandfather isn't a romantic. Love is the most powerful thing in existence — stronger than any magic. It has the power to start and end a war. Always remember that little one. "
"Mama?" Soli's soft voice was heavy with sleep, her eyes were closing as she spoke. "How do you know it's love like you and papa and not love like me and you? "
" Well that's easy; it'll feel like the Goddess herself aligned the stars in a way that'll bring you together, and you'll feel it in every gaze, in every touch, and whenever the other walks into a room. And you'll simply know that this is the one. "
Soli looked up and grasped Sairen's slightly bigger hand, her large eyes staring intently into his. " Will you be my love like mama and papa's? "
Sairen's smile lit up his entire face and she didn't know for sure, but in her little heart, she thought she felt the stars align. " Of course. "