The False Twins (Old)

α: Sauphia

The sun rose in the horizon across the village of Gogro. To anyone, today is just a plain day, one like any other. But to Sauphia, today is special: Xavoss' letter is supposed to arrive today. And it surely did.

"Sauphia, Xavoss' letter is here!" Her mom shouted from downstairs.

"Coming!" Sauphia said as she ran downstairs.

She took the letter from her mom, and quickly opened it.

Dear Sauphia,

How are you? Heh, it's just a month since I've last sent a letter, and I've asked you like we hadn't had contact for years.

Sauphia chuckled. She decided to continue reading the letter upstairs.

"Aren't you having breakfast yet? It's ready." Her mother asked. Despite being of monsterkind (a Magnus, to be exact), Sauphia's mother is very kind, same with the monsters in the neighboring continent of Fragmaten. Monsters and humans live with one another in Gogro and believe it or not, Sauphia is the fruit of love of a Magnus and a human, resulting to her having the inhuman ears. Her father, on the other hand, is a human. He currently works as a sentry, so he isn't in the household today.

"I'll eat later mom! I still have to clean up." Sauphia said as she climbed the stairs. She quickly went to her room and placed the letter on the table.

She decided to clean her room up first before continuing to read Xavoss' letter. 

Though, there is something important that I have to tell you. Last night, I dreamed that I got lost in a forest. After a few hours, I managed to find my way, but when I did, one tree suddenly started burning. Then another, until the entire forest was ablaze. From the blazing forest, I heard screams calling out to me, and what terrified me was the fact that one of the voices was yours.

Sauphia felt a chill. "Something feels wrong about this dream", she thought.

That's when I woke up. 

I consulted the seer about my dream, and he said that a tragedy is about to happen somewhere, and someone I know will die. 

I know that you will get to read this letter after thirty days, so please, send me another letter to rid me of my worry. I heard your voice in my dream. There is a chance that you are the one to...

"Sauphia dear, can you help me?" Her mother shouted from downstairs.

"Coming!"

***

Sauphia returned upstairs after the task. She finished reading the letter, then folded the parchment with a tender smile. She decided to write a letter back to his friend. After she was done in writing it, she read it.

Dear Xavoss,

I don't know how I should respond, but...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHH!"

Sauphia's reading was stopped by a scream from outside. She went to her window to look, and saw terrified people and monsters running towards a certain direction: to the Gogro lighthouse.

***

Screams rang through the village of Gogro as terrified townspeople ran to seek refuge in the lighthouse.

"The lizardmen are attacking us! Gather your family and head to the lighthouse!"

Those words rang through the air with the help of air magic. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to run: most were slain by the enemy, especially the sentries, who were killed by assassins hidden with an invisibility spell.

"The lizardmen have gone berserk! Negotiating with them didn't work!"
"How can they do this!?"
"We hadn't done anything wrong, right?"

Cries of children mixed with the screams of grown ups in the hysteria produced by the attacking monsters. Slowly, but surely, the rhythmic sounds of the march of the approaching lizardmen increased in volume.

Suddenly, loud screams, both of terror and agony, came from the forest near the lighthouse. More marches echoed in the air.

"We have been cornered!" Someone screamed.

In minutes, all of Gogro's townsfolk was killed. Houses were burned. Animals were taken, and all the fields were destroyed. The lizardmen, done with their task, returned to the wastelands of Fragmaten.

***

"Wha... What happened here?" An adventurer said. She, along with her friend, decided to take a break from their life at Aggta, and took a vacation to the neighboring city six kilometers away.

"We... We should tell this to the officials...!" The other one said, using magic to conjure a piece of parchment and a pen. She wrote what they saw, and asked that help be sent immediately. The letter was sent through a portal created by her friend.

After forty minutes, people came and investigated the ruined village. All of the buildings are destroyed, and only a few were left standing. The village was in a total state of ruin. They noticed that the corpses were concentrated in the field to the south of the village, to the direction of the nearest lighthouse.

Except one.

The corpse, found in a ruined house to the north of the village, was beyond unrecognizable, and held a piece of paper burnt at the edges, which appeared to be a part of a letter.

On the paper was:

oss, I love you too.

With love,

Sa

The other pieces were not found. The investigators decided to bring the paper to their headquarters for further inspection.

***

After thirty years, the letter fragment was sent to a museum for preservation.

It was recognized as a sign of true love, but the kind where the two are separated.

The city of Gogro, unfortunately, was never restored. Monsters from Fragmaten don't seem to be coming to the ruined land.

~~~~~

Ooh, backstories! I think a pronunciation guide isn't even needed for this chapter. Everything is sort of... read as usual?

Anyway, though you might not care, Sauphia used a different date notation (is that even a thing?) in the past chapter. That was completely intentional, and in fact, Xavoss even used that in his school days! The calendar in this book almost aligns with the real life calendar we have: the First Sprout is from January to March, Warm Rains are from April to June… you probably get the idea. Now, here's why I said it just almost aligns: since a season only has 90 days, we will have to remove a day from the months with 31 days, and add two days to February to make it another 30. Though, this results in exactly 360 days each year. And no leap years.

Now, in Sauphia's notation, she used the notation used five canturies ago, and this is much much closer to original date notation. The first sun is January, second sun is February, and so on. They still have 30 days each sun. Why they used suns instead of months is a secret *wink*.

That's all, congratulations for getting this far. Thanks to-- I… don't think I want to mention his name anymore. Anyway, because he interrupted my words in the last chapter, I'll put them here instead. Also, how dare me insult my writing! (He's right though.)

Well… I originally finished the other chapter a few days ago, but decided to put them on hold in case I wanted to add something else. I did add a few details, and reworded a few phrases… but, let me be frank, I didn't publish it immediately because… laziness. Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter (and the one before this)!