"The Pious is not a woman many would like to interact with. She is impulsive, violent and dangerous when she needs to be, yet she can also be cunning, conniving and careless when she desires to be."
- The Eternal Scholar Ranken of the Great house Yudi
The door hissed open and as Sol had expected the room was empty. The usual chatter which filled the hall was absent. The tables and food which crammed the room were gone. It was a grey empty room only occupied by a single woman sitting in a single stone chair.
"Come," Pious said to Sol, "you may stand as you have wasted my time."
Sol walked over towards Pious and stood in front of her. The Pious was a woman of ninety six yet she masked it incredibly well, the veil across her face covered all but her mouth and eyes. The rest of her body was kept robed in a black gown similar to that of Juno's.
"Juno."
Juno turned towards Pious.
"Leave us, you're not permitted in here till I tell you."
Juno gave Sol a solemn look before turning towards the room and leaving it.
As the door hissed shut Sol scowled at the Pious.
"You dare to insult my mother in such a way? You treat her as if she was your servant girl in your home, she's the keeper of this ancient fortress and you stain her with disrespect."
The Pious held up her gloved hand. "Are you finished? The girl is a servant, she's nothing more than a concubine to your father, and you an anomaly. You're a house of rebellion sitting on the edge of an unbalanced knife. When it falls you all will be the first to die."
Sol turned and walked over towards a chair within the corner of the room.
"It's rude to turn you back towards someone of my stature," the Pious said, "turn."
Sol felt his body act with his permission until he was facing the woman and kneeling down in front of her.
"Is this what you have come to do? Simply order me and my mother around in our own home?"
The Pious under her veil smirked at Sol. "You have a sharp tongue boy, too sharp of a tongue for what you are."
"And I am what?"
"An anomaly?"
"To what degree? Because me and Venus were the first set of twins born in two hundred generations of Hidiyan's?"
"Because you didn't die within childbirth like you were supposed to," the Pious said, "No pair of twins have lived past the age of two in over six hundred years, yet you two did. You've broken a cycle that you were supposed to follow."
Sol stared at Pious. The woman was telling the truth, twins were an impossible feat, none bar Juno had accomplished the feat and had children to tell the tale. No one knew why the phenomenon seemingly so common only eight thousand years ago began to dry up and then completely disappeared. Some argued that it was the next stage within human development and that eventually twins would be merged into singular bodies while within the womb. Juno had previously told Sol that she feared for their safety inside the womb, statistically he should've died, he was beyond lucky to have been born let alone survived.
"How does such a thing make me important?" Sol asked Pious.
"Twins are not like normal siblings, they share unbreakable bonds between each other, something that overcomes the physical realm. Not even the Order has figured out exactly what it is as there have been no people to successfully test it upon."
Sol tightened his fist and slowly stood up over the woman. "Are you inferring that me and my sister are to become lab subjects for the Order?"
"Kneel!"
Sol felt his knees back upon the floor as he was once again underneath the woman's gaze. Sol wanted to curse at the woman but knew better, if she could control him like that then he knew the consequences could be far worse if he insulted her.
"Not in the slightest boy, to confine you two would be spoiling excellent specimens and we wouldn't want that would we?" Pious said.
"If you're finished with your explanation about me and my sister, perhaps it's important for you to tell me why you have come here."
The Pious smirked slightly before revealing what appeared to be a visor of some sort. It hovered in the air for a few moments before appearing in the lap of the women. There was a sudden click and the visor appeared to change slightly.
"Your sister is within a Shenalshir."
"A Shenalshir?"
"A dream enforced upon her by me, right now she is likely clawing her own eyes out at the pain thats being inflicted upon her."
Sol clenched his fist again. He wanted to kill this woman for what she was doing to his sister.
"You want me to do what about it?"
"Reach into her mind and force her out of it, failure to do so will prove that you are both incompatible stock."
"You speak of us as simple statistics, animals to be traded and bread."
"We all came from animals, child, you and I are no different." She lifted the visor and handed it to him. "Now. put it on."
Sol looked down at the visor and then up to the Pious. "What will this do?"
"It will enhance your mind."
"To do what?"
The Pious scowled at Sol. "That is what we are to discover."
Sol reluctantly placed the visor over his head and fastened it carefully. The visor seemed to come alive and crawled it's way around Sol's skull before securing itself. The machine was eerily similar to that of the machines they'd fought so many thousands of years ago to crush and destroy. Yet the Order, the most mysterious organisation, still abused the privilege of its control. The clerics of the Imperial cult would've been in a frenzied fury at the sight.
Sol looked down; he was one foot deep within sand, he surveyed the surrounding land. Sol stood in an endless field of rolling sand dunes with raging winds that seemed to rip pieces of his flesh off simply from its ferocity.
Sol touched his face and sighed a breath of relief when he realised it was covered by some form of clothing. He looked up into the sky to see the red sun occupy a place far more prominently than it should've. He looked down towards his hands and realised that they too were covered.
"What game are you playing witch?" Sol asked.
Sol turned around looking for someone, anyone. There was no one. He continued to search and yet there was nothing. He shouted and shouted, yet the winds drowned out all hope of anyone hearing. He was lost in a desert without water or food.