In all of the dimensions, there were two that were very similar. Two planets, one of these was known as Earth, the other as Gaia. Few differences seperated the two, both had humans as the dominating surface animal, both had reached points in society where politics had become a regulated sport, and each had their seperated society classes. Gaia is where we find our focus, in a large city that luminesed pale blue light and held the name of Esthar.
Most often recognized as "xenophobic Esthar", the city fears outside outside contact after a terrible Sorceress War. Each time one person left they had to obtain permisson through the government. The strange colored glow was caused by the constant hum of self-suficiant electricity coursing through each vein of the technologically advanced civilization. In the following of the infamous war many scientists were recruited to research those who carried "The Gift of Hyne" as they called it, and the magic these beings used.
One of these scientists specialized in genetic altering for use in strengths against future sorceresses. During work, Dr. Brad Skal was a diligent, helpful, and optimistic person. However, every night as he went home a small part of his humanity and sanity were lost among his home-cooked experiments. He was making the ideal image that he, himself, could never achieve. After he felt he had perfected his formula, he needed a subject.
A yound and naive girl from a tiny, rural, and underveloped town outside of Esthar caught Brad's interest. Though he had never really been interested in the opposite sex, this one was nesessary for his experiment. Janet Weiss was a delicately tanned woman with soft cerulean eyes, and a short, choppy bit of honey-colored hair. It was quite a comparison to Brad's crisp, clean form (with his close-cropped brown hair and hard chocolate eyes) but somehow he managed to seduce her for at least one night. Thus the conception of our hero.
Janet's family and ways were old-fashioned and set, so the only logical thing to do seemed for the two to marry. This went right along with Brad's plan. The couple did not get along well, but nothing more than a small disagreement would occur since Brad was always goen for work and tired when he came home. Janet spent her days in the gardens she had surrounded their home in Esthar with. During the duration of the pregnancy Brad would give Janet medicine, telling her it was to make sure their baby was healthy and strong. She took it, believing in his ability as a doctor, but kept many secrets to herself.
When the time came for Janet to give birth, she smiled to herself, the living aura inside her had split with it's development and it was only now evident with the birth. Brad was aghast, for he did not mean for his wife to have twins. A boy and a girl, with pearlescent white skin and the barest hint of lavender as the only color to their hair. Their eyes were red, the entire orb, with orange cat-like slits as the pupil. The male was dubbed Jack, and his sister Jill.
The children had a good childhood, though it was short-lived. When they turned six, Brad lost his job in Esthar due to the lack of new research and sorceresses, and the family was exiled. They moved to a barren and large island, mostly uninhabited with the few trees and craters, and even fewer towns. This place was called Centra. It was a rocky landscape, populated with villages of rough, surly men, most recently discharged from the Army or prison coloney of Galbadia.
Brad became abusive of his young son, and neglectful of his daughter. Janet refused to intervein because any of her attempts resulted in physical violence for her as well as additional pain to her son. The rest of the town simply turned the other way and a hero was unheard of.
Gradually, Jack became stronger and faster. He trained with the weapon he had forged himself and by the time he reached ten, Jack could weild it well. But, as the abuse still continued, the family became more and more unstable. Jill, who had become well-versed in her natural ability of magic left when she was twelve. This made Jack reach his limit and face his father on the battlefeild with the intent to kill.
Brad had never been, by any means, a strong or large man. He really fit the profile of mad scientist quite well. It did not take much for the young man to defeat his father, but as he raised his weapon up for the finishing blow, humanity held his arm back. He chased the old man out of the house with threats for his return.
For the next year, Jack and his mother lived in happiness, enjoying the months they had together without pain. But when the winter came to Centra, Janet fell ill, and the sickness proved fatal. She held on for months as the disease ate away at her brain and flesh with extreme fevers, each leaving her less sane than the last. Jack tried to save her, using every breath that cycled through his body in an effort to find a cure. Unfortunately there was onyl so much the boy could do, and as he held his mother's hand on her dying heartbeats, his tears fell at her words.
"Find your sister." She had rasped. "Look in the garden, where the seeds grow with vicious thorns to defend their flowers. Show her my grave, ask her to heal the earth of the things that I have allowed here."
Heeding the fractured sentences, Jack buried his mother behind their house, marking the grave among the roses. The meaning of her message was unclear, but Jack knew it had not been litteral. Figuring he was not looking for a place on their barren continent, Jack dismantled his parents bed and build a small raft to cross between the islands with.
On the dawn of his departure a young woman with a pentacle brand on her forhead approached him on the shore. The gossamer crimson gown that draped among her chesnut locks was proof to her alien origin. Few women lived on Centra, and none so beautiful. Feathery and delicate hawk wings hovered translucently behind her shoulders and matched her ever-changing eyes.
"My name is Korelia. Don't be frightened, I am kindred to your soul." She pursued him every slow backward step he took. "You must trust me, for your mother's sake."
At this, Jack immediately trusted the girl and found a strange companionship just as she mentioned. She asked a favor of him and told her story of agony and betrayal. The girl's spirit was trapped between worlds and she needed Jack to bring the death of the murder of her family before she could commit to one or the other. Kore promised that she would help Jack find his sister if he did this.
Agreeing quickly with the aberation, Jack nodded and began to push his raft out to sea. As he bent and flexed his muscles, Kore pressed her hands into his back and he felt an intense stinging there. Large black scaly wings printed themselves in permenant ink from his shoulderblades to the dip in his lower back. This did not stop him and he followed the angelic image in his raft, taking the current out towards the other islands.
For five years Jack followed Korelia from continent to continent, searching for his twin. The description wasn't hard. At last, in a place called Galbadia, Jack found a school where mercenaries were trained for war, and rumor of the powerful girl with lavender hair floated through the halls like ghosts. Jill had been there, served, and disappeared. The rumors led them back to Centra, their origin.
A clan called the Wolves were a rebel force against the Galbadian school where Jill had served. The before Jack arrived, a young woman with a purple braid had been executed and was counted as a casualty of war. They were quite proud and forth-coming with the body and unattached head.
In a flash, as Jack carried his sister's head back to the shore, Kore wiped each member of the faction from existence. He cried, not only for his sister, but also for his mother, who could never see her wish become true. In a large animal bladder, Jack set the head and left land again. As Kore levitated next to him, she guided him to where he could fulfill his side of the bargin.
An ancient ruin stood on a nearby island of rock and monsters. When he was led inside the building, Jack found his father piddling about the crumbling statues. It was an upsetting site to him, and Jack simply watched for a long time. Brad was an old man. He looked very frail and decaying, it was nearly a wonder he still moved, but out of instinct Jack drew his sword from the scabbard on his back.
"That's the one." Kore whispered into his ear, as if she was seducing him. "You must kill him for the revenge I cannot take. Do it quickly, before the sleeping dragon reveals it's teeth."
Jack nodded and crept quietly forward until he was nearly on the man, brought his sword down in a heavy stroke. But metal clanged as it his only stone and the old man giggled from across the room. Jack could feel the prints on his back springing through his flesh to create wings of flesh and bone. They were wet with the blood of their birth and Jack had to take a few moments adjusting to the light feeling and the soft wind that dried his back.
Brad was behind him now and taunted Korelia with whispers of her siblings and parents, killing her with them. Their voices echoed oddly out of throat, but it was a perfect imitation. He beat her down with it, making her fall and curl on the molding stones. But while his attention was distracted, Jack snuck up behind him again and this time swung his sword for his father's neck. The last imitation from Brad's mouth was of Jack's own voice.
As the head rolled away to rest at the feet of a sorceress' tribute statue, Kore still lay in pain on the floor. Sanguin spilled from all around her and stained the area. Jack knelt by her and held her head in his hands as Korelia died.
"Why?" Confusion garbled Jack's words, and they tumbled clumsily out. "Why, Korelia? I have done everything you asked, and still you fade from my arms."
She coughed and blood painted her lips like a faint touch of stage make-up. "I am done now, and I can leave. The world I have chosen is of another plane, dearest brother. I will always watch over you though."
Jack sobbed into air as the girl slipped away into mist, but as he dried his tears a dagger and opal caught the light of the rising dawn. Pressing the opal into his hand, it became forever fixed in his palm, guiding and discriminating his every swing. The dagger was tucked away until he reached home, using it to bind Jill's braid to the marked soil.
Though Jack wittnessed no immediate change, he felt cleansed of his father's blood and bruises. Where the house of his later childhood had stood as a grim reminder, a garden of white roses grew in a tear forever.
End