sparrow and lion

The Tale of the Twin Warriors

Long ago, before the time of peace, the world was ruled by ceaseless violence between kingdoms. Kings fought queens. Women battled men. Land was won and lost and won again. Alliances were formed and shattered. Promises were made and broken. Years might pass without war, but war always came again.

Until the monsters rose from the abyss. And then the battles between kingdoms were abandoned and the wars were fought between monsters and men. There was not one day without battle. The rivers ran with blood and the ground was stained red with it. The humans were greater in number, but numbers don't always win wars.

One by one, the kingdoms of men fell to the endless onslaught. At last, only three remained: The Kingdom of Warriors, the Queendom of Sorcerers, and the Land of Inventors.

The Land of Inventors battled the monsters with things that seemed like magic but were not. The Queendom of Sorcerers fought with the powers imbued upon them by their weather witch queen. The Kingdom of Warriors defended themselves with life after life.

But lives lost cannot be regained and the Warrior King knew that his kingdom, too, would fall. The Sorcerer Queen and the Leader of Inventors had long ago set aside the petty squabbles between men for the good of humanity and wished for nothing more than survival of the human race. Yet, when the Sorcerer Queen and the Leader of Inventors offered aid and alliance, the Warrior King refused. For, even facing extinction, he could not forgive those who had once opposed him.

And so, instead, the Warrior King arranged a meeting with a General of the monstrous hoard in secret and a strange offer was made: One daughter for one month.

The Warrior King, having taken many wives from many battles and in possession of even more daughters, agreed. Each month, he would hold a ball to present which of his daughters would be sacrificed to the hoard. And the battles that ravaged the land would part around his keep like water around a boulder in return for every sacrifice.

The things that happened to the Warrior King's daughters at the hands of the hoard were unthinkable. Every girl sent to the monsters was sentenced to a fate worse than death. A death that would never come. Upon hearing this, one of the Warrior King's sons disappeared from the castle. But the Warrior King persisted and, in cowardice and fear, no one spoke against him.

Until the day came when the Warrior King intended to sacrifice his final daughter, Alizeth, daughter of Aelia the Honest.

Like many of his wives, Aelia had born more than one child for the Warrior King. But Aelia, alone amongst his wives, had come from a nomadic clan in the Queendom of Sorcerers, where blood was valued above all and sons and daughters were of equal value.

Aelia rose against the Warrior King when he came for Alizeth. It was said she battled like a rabid beast. But the Warrior King, they said, was equally merciless to his wives as to his enemies. And thus Aelia was cut down by her husband with the same brutality as he would have used to slay his most hated foe.

Alizeth was taken from her quarters and presented to the courts as had her half-sisters been before her. The night, it is said, was filled with revelry and abundance as her father's court danced and celebrated her impending doom. The festivities would last from dusk until dawn and then Alizeth would face her fate at the hands of the monsters.

But just before the first light of day, a bloody, filthy figure burst into the ballroom. It was the missing prince, Alizeth's twin brother, Alderoth! Even if the members of the court had not known him already, the similarities between the siblings was obvious. The members of the court, of course, were startled at Alderoth's bloodied state, but he ignored their questions and rushed to find his sister.

When he came to her in the crowded ballroom, Alizeth had already been ensconced in chains. Alderoth had arrived just in time. In front of the entire court of the Kingdom of Warriors, Alderoth declared himself as Alizeth's older brother and sworn protector. With the same blood rushing in their two sets of veins, he announced, it was he, not their father, who had the right to decide Alizeth's fate. And this was not the fate he chose for her.

It was the way, in those days, for an older male of the household to hold just as much sway over a girl's future as her father. Unlike the brothers of the Warrior King's other daughters, Alizeth's brother had declared, under the law, that none of the half-sisters of whom he was older was not to be sacrificed. Upon hearing this, their father had beaten him and locked him in the dungeons to silence him. But Alderoth had escaped at last and here he had come, to save his beloved sister.

Even the most loyal to the Warrior King were appalled. But fear of the hoard outweighed honor. A fight ensued inside the ballroom. Despite his confinement and starvation, it is said that Alderoth fought like twenty men, slaying many who meant his sister harm.

But, at last, even his strength ebbed. It was his father's sword that pierced his breast and opened his heart. As Alderoth fell, though, his eyes were on his sisters. His fingers reached for her as he died.

Seeing her brother brought down, Alizeth was overcome with rage and grief the likes of which the Kingdom of Warriors had never known. She screamed her agony and, as her cries reached a crescendo, the chains that bound her shattered. Alizeth rushed to her brother's side and cradled his lifeless body in her lap.

The Warrior King approached her with his sword drawn. Alizeth reached her hand towards him and then squeezed it tight. The Warrior King fell to the floor. His heart had been crushed in his chest as though in a fist. Alizeth's eyes had never left her brother's still face.

It is said that she pressed that same hand to Alderoth's chest and held it there. They say that Alizeth pressed her forehead against his and whispered into his ear for so long that the servants who cowered under the tables thought that she had gone mad with grief.

But then Alderoth opened his eyes.

And, though the tales of their deeds number in the hundreds, all that anyone needs to know is that it was Alizeth and Alderoth alone who fought back the monstrous hoards. She used her hands to harm and heal and he used his sword and words for justice. The Twin Warriors, as they were known, saved the remaining kingdoms from destruction and freed their sisters from the monster's clutches.

When the last monster had been felled and the last sister had been healed, Alderoth and Alizeth did not claim their father's throne. Instead, they simply disappeared. As if they ceased to exist.

Years later, only one truth about them ever came to light: Aelia the Honest, in all her life,  had told a single lie. Though they truly were twins, Alizeth had been born a full three days before her brother.