Sorrowful Twilight: Chapter 1.

Sorrowful Twilight: Chapter 1.
The thick foliage of the forest was decorated by flowers in many colours, above where the crown of threes that hid the blue sky and left the floor in a weak shadow. Movement of rabbits among the bushes, of birds among the leaves. Twigs cracking below soft leather boots and voices breaking the silence as if it was a shard of glass.
         "I told him, but he did not listen." The young girls blue hair was braided and rested on her shoulders and the surface of her thin cotton blouse, around her waist a large piece of cloth was wrapped and fastened with a metal pin. Her face was still childlike, large eyes, a twitching nose and a mouth surrounded by awkwardly shaped lips. "But I'm sure my brother will cover for me until I'm back." She smiled and looked up at the young woman beside her.
         Mashira replied to the girls smile with her own. Her lips shaped carefully into a knot distorting their surface making her face even more complex. She was dressed in a comfortable tunic, a long skirt that dragged against the dirt of the forest floor. Her arms where naked and the elaborate tattoos of Mira was visible and glowing in the weak light, each of her fingers had ornamented rings and in her ears several beads hung each corresponding to a goddess. "I am sure it will be fine." She said in a soft tune. "A bath with a maiden is never a sin." She extended her calm and enveloped the girl.
         "You are right dear Mashira." The girl kept her eyes at the maiden. "But I need to do my share of work." The girl scratched her elbow and inhaled feeling the heat stick to her skin. "Dad and Kimo can't do everything."
         The maiden lowered her peach eyebrows, gathered her pink hair over her left shoulder and caressed it with her hands. "A day like this can devour the little strength you have, a bath will rejuvenate you and release the poison of Mzark from your body." Mashira reached for the girl and nudged her with careful fingers. "And more important, we can't walk around smelling like dirt."¨
         "Correct." Loa replied rubbing two fingers against her smooth right armpit, received a thin residue onto her fingers and smelled it, crinkled her nose then looked at the maiden. "It has gotten worse since the city-folk came." She said as the worry grew in her eyes. "My father don't like them."
         Mashira joined her lips to a smile as she brought her adult façade to her face. "Your father has his reasons to mistrust them, but they are our only way to survive in days like these." The maiden felt a root below her soft leather boot as she stepped on it.
         "He told me I can't leave the house alone." Loa looked ahead and saw the spring between the trees. "Kimo has been nervous too, despite working all day he can't seem to find peace at night." She looked up at the maiden who had sunk deep into thoughts. "He's up walking in the garden, checking the animals. He is very worried about something."
         "Yes." Mashira replied as they entered into the small glade where the fresh water spring was, the trees above them brought shadow from the hot sun and the girl crouched down and felt the water with two fingers.
         "It's cold." Loa said then splashed the water and made the maiden chuckle. "So soft, almost magical."
         Mashira began to remove her blouse then the long skirt, untied the ribbon around chest then replied the girl. "Water is magical, water is the liquid of life. Without it nothing can be." She exhaled as she looked the curious child in the eyes. "Few natural sources of water remains, the great war brought the hatred of the goddesses and since most of our water is created in the cities."
         The girl began to remove her clothes as the older slipped out of her underwear then into the water. Mashira felt the cold sensation against her skin, felt how she was touched by the goddesses and closed her eyes. Sank below the surface and surrounded herself with the images of power, granted her mind release from the taint of the dark one while her skin was relieved of the poison of Mzark.
         Loa touched the water with her toes, smiled as her feet received the complete touch of the water and her mind crumbled into a happy laughter then she moved deeper into the water to join with Mashira. Below she could feel the never ending water, as she looked down and saw the darkness beneath. Her father had told her that it was dangerous to swim above the patches of darkness, monsters lived in the world below, hideous creatures with fangs and claws. A nervousness sprouted from her chest and she looked at the maiden. "My father has told me it's dangerous to swim where the water is dark."
         "The Dwellers will bring no harm to us." Mashira said while she with a hand aided the girl to keep afloat. "I am a maiden of the goddesses, to bring harm to me or my escort would be a great sin for a Dweller."
         Loa felt the heat of the maiden through the water as she came closer. "The Dwellers. My father always called them hideous creatures, or Downers." Felt the aiding hand at her waist and peace came to her.
         Mashira looked down. "Humans say many stupid things, but so too do the Dwellers. Two creations of the divine that equally fear each other, that both aided the dark one in his vile assault on the Palace of Ephyros." Her touch of the girl became stronger and the child comfortably rested her head against the maidens shoulder.
         "You know so many things, It's no wonder the goddesses choose you to be their light." The girl smiled and exhaled much of her worry towards the water. Felt the presence of Mashira sooth her soul and the touch of the maidens skin elevate her, made her one with the existence of the divine, sheltered by the hand of the goddesses and cradled in the arms of justice. But the emotions was nothing but a mirage, her weak human body would never survive the true power of sky and only to be this close to Mashira made her mind twitch with the power of divine. Ecstasy her father called it, the affect when human mind where distorted by the power of the goddesses, Mashira was a embodiment of that distortion, as a pillar that connected the sky and earth she could one moment be sane and the next lost. Loa had seen it several times, how her dear friend Mashira had fallen into sleep murmuring the riddles of above. One time it had happened during the harvest festival, Loa had been with her brother watching the maiden doing the dance of fertility. It was then it happened, Mashira fell and Kimo rushed to catch her. For three days Mashira was lost, Loa had helped care for her but was not there to see her reawakening.
         "Do you feel it?" Mashira said guiding the girls body over the depth. "Close your eyes." She advised and Loa did as asked.
         Loa became worried again, she was in the middle of a dark patch, what if a Dweller came to steal her. "I feel nothing special." She replied but the maiden noticed the scare in her tone and held her closer to show that there was nothing to worry about. Mashira had said so and a Maiden of the goddesses never lie.
         It was then Loa felt it, it wandered up her legs, wrapped around them like fingers of a newborn child, brought no pain, no suffering, only a sensation. "What is it?" She asked.
         Mashira smiled, softly, effortlessly and brought the girl closer to her so she would not be stolen. "Millennia ago a ancient God was sealed in the water, when the great mass of water separated he now only remains as spirits in ponds."
         Loa opened her eyes and looked down into the water, there she saw no movement. "Can you take me to land?" She asked the maiden who obeyed. Aided the girl to land but remained herself as the girl climbed from the safety of the water to the cold enveloping wind.
         "I will remain." Mashira smiled as she regarded her friend. "Wake me if I fall asleep."
         Loa nodded and sat down at the root of a tree with the thick moss as a cushion.



Kimo looked up, saw the hot blue sky above with the bright sun tearing into his skin and tormenting every moment of his work. His torso, legs and short worn trousers where covered with dirt and from his face and armpits poured sweat that no amount of water or minerals could replace. He forced the shovel deep into the dry dirt, felt that he hit a stone and cursed, felt like giving up but knew that this trap had to be finished by nightfall. He managed to pry the stone loose then forced the shovel up and tossed the dirt away. There was noise coming from his fathers workshop, there was noise coming from the wood but from the town all was silent. It was because of the city-folk, they had come with their dirt so most people stayed inside. Kimo dried the sweat from his forehead, felt his shoulders and neck glow with pain, felt his legs weak but the push within him was stronger. The trap needed to be complete, he needed to check on the animals and made sure that Loa came home. He looked towards the forest, saw no trace of his sister but no worry awoke in him. Loa was together with Mashira, the maiden and under the protection of the goddesses no harm would come to them. Also he had hoped that Loa would bring back something to eat, all they had was dry bread. Kimo continued digging while his thoughts kept him busy. The city-folk had brought food, water but non of that had reached the outlying farms. It had only been used to bribe the town officials, the rich city-folk used this drought to occupy more and more land and extend their greed. Everyone knew it, the town officials knew it but they wanted to eat more then they wanted freedom. Kimo also wanted to eat, he wanted his father and sister to eat to. He was afraid that Loa had stopped growing, he fed her everything he could spare but it was not enough, he knew. A part of him wanted Mashira to take Loa away, find a place for his sister in a shrine or palace. Everywhere was better then here, even if it meant that he would loose her at least she would be alive. Kimo felt like crying but it would be a waste of water. Mashira had always been a friend but her visits less frequent since the city-folk came, they too wanted a maiden to sing and dance for them and as reward Mashira got to eat and drink. She had told him but also promised that her songs where not as strong and her dances not as elaborate as when she danced for the townsfolk. He trusted her, each day she danced for rain, sang for water and asked the goddesses for aid. She too was weakened by her own failures, she too wanted away. She had never said it but he had seen it, in her face, eyes and gestures she wished to leave this land of dry dirt and nauseating city people. If only it where to rain, rain would remove all the problems, liberate them from outside powers and render them free once again. Kimo shook his head, fell into doubt. Had the goddesses abandoned them? Where their prayers to weak and gifts to shallow. He and Loa struggled each year to bring something worthy to the altar and repayment was a drought. Was this judgement?



Loa looked at Mashira who rested in the water with her eyes closed, she was no longer a woman lying in the water but a part of the water itself. Fed upon the powers it contained while she sought guidance in the deep mind of a ancient god. Loa smiled, scratched her chest while a thought entered her mind, a thought very childish and odd but strong enough to stick. A ancient god once trapped in water was now separated. Had he died with all the natural sources of water? She looked at Mashira but did not ask, did not want to disturb her friend and instead closed her eyes and bent all thoughts inwards. She had never heard of a god that died, none of her fathers stories had said so and neither had any of Mashira's. Maybe the god had began to destroy his own prison, was part by part becoming free. Loa brought her knees close to the body, did not want to think any more.
         All forces converging into one, that was the visual Mashira kept in her head as she rested in the water tapping into the flow of power within it. All the elements had a certain touch, water, fire, wind and earth. Mashira had touched them all but none she had found pleasant, each had a drowsy feeling that remained for days and sometimes weeks and made each thought and action slow. Among the maidens it was called Spell-fatigue and the phenomenon also occurred in ancient tales long before the rule of the Orhotox Queen.
         The four elements had at one time been joined in the shard of Eveglow, the life source of the Manrakaian's. It was shattered in a great battle between the High Priest Eudro and the Mosaiq Imka. The shattering of the crystal had been the dawn of the new world, from it the goddesses where born, so to where the gods.
         "I need to go home." Loa said and rose. Her words made the woman open her eyes and nod, add a comfortable smile to her lips and Loa felt a motherly warmth suddenly reach her. "I need to work." She added and walked to her clothes, dressed herself while the woman climbed from the water giving the air allowance to dry her skin.
         "I understand." Mashira said as she closed her mind from the powers around her and focused all attention on the girl. "Is Kimo pushing you to hard?" She asked with words very careful to avoid any harm they could bring.
         Loa shook her head. "He's the one doing most of the work, dad is a little tired to." Guilt came to her face and she looked away from Mashira. "I wish that I could do more work." She began wrapping the cloth around her waist while regarding the forest floor.
         Mashira felt bad, she did not walk with hunger tearing at her bones or thirst ripping at her throat. In the town she was well fed for her services and knew that she was unable to feel what Loa and Kimo felt. Even if they still where friends they belonged to different worlds, she to one of laughter and drunken joy while theirs was a hot famine.
         Mashira took a step forward and embraced Loa as a mother would have done, felt the head against her belly, felt the braids against deforming her skin as the girl squeezed closer to take shelter in the arms of a maiden, in the arms of a friend.
         "Will you dance for Kimo?" Loa said with eyes closed while feeling the warmth of Mashira's body brush her cheek. "He needs it." Her voice was breaking and she closed her lips allowing the herself only to feel comfortable with Mashira, to feel hands holding her.
         Time passed without a reply, time passed as Mashira only patted the girls back to aid in the healing of her guilt. "If he allows me." She finally said making the girl open her eyes and smile as she left the tight embrace.
         "But we can't give you anything." Loa continued, it was custom to pay a maiden for her services.
         Mashira crouched down before Loa and took the girls two hands, held them while she delved deep into her friends eyes. "Your friendship is gift enough." She said then leaned forward gently kissing Loa's fragrant forehead.
         Please, the thought grew in an instant and washed any emptiness from her leaving only the distant image of a mother to linger in her head, a shape that shifted, changed until it became Mashira. Please, Loa begged the goddesses once more to make her dream to come true.



Imagine a old powerful tree with roots that through the ages has ventured down into the earth and reached the very source of life itself, fed on this liquid and received the power of a long lost god and slowly the tree awoke. Became aware of his presence, aware of the feud around him, aware of the threat looming above. Unable to do anything himself he cried out for a saviour, asked the flowers, asked the pine and spruce, even went to far as to ask the halfbreed of Lichen but none had heard of a hero. Alone he watched the sky above feeling the threat come closer, feeling hope slipping through his branches and that he as the reincarnation of a ancient god could do nothing. Little did he know that the words of his search had spread through the undergrowth and reached the abode of a humble deity.



Kimo felt the pain sear from his spine as he climbed out of the trap and looked down at the dry dirt, tossed his shovel to the side and rubbed his hands together popping a few blisters releasing a rancid odour that came towards him. The trap was complete, if they had luck and the favour of the goddesses maybe some dew and groundwater would have gathered there in the morning. He looked towards the forest, saw two shadows move below the trees and calm came to his mind when he saw Loa emerge into the raypath of the bright sun. Then he saw Mashira, she was smiling in his direction and guided the girl towards him.
         "Loa is back father." He shouted at the top of his voice. "Maybe we should eat a little." His voice was strong enough to reach the workshop but he received no reply. "Father!" He shouted once more and began to walk towards the workshop entered through the open door, his eyes needed a moment to adjust then he saw it. From the wooden girder hung his father, the rope had cut into this neck and the death had been slow, painful but now the body was at peace.
         Kimo fell to his knees, felt the burdens of life crash down on his shoulders and rendered him exposed. Felt his eyes fill with tears and he wasted water on his fathers death, covered his face with work worn hands and the shock was replaced by grief, sadness and a emptiness he had not felt since his mother died. Now he was responsible for everything, he had to take care of Loa, he had to bring food to the table and keep the farm safe. His father had sacrificed himself to keep them alive; now there was one less mouth to feed, one less thirst to quench. Kimo removed his hands, regarded his fathers dead corpse, took a step away from his emotions. He needed to be strong, for Loa's sake and for his own. He inhaled, dried his tears then moved to cut the corpse down.



Something was wrong, Mashira felt it radiating from the workshop and gently she stayed Loa with her hand. They had both seen Kimo enter, she felt that he remained but something else was gone.
         "What is it?" Loa asked and looked up at the maiden, saw a smile forced its way to the lips and the voice that Mashira spoke with did not sound true.
         "Let us go inside..." Her voice trailed of at the end as she saw Kimo exit the workshop and he was a human held together by the love for his sister, the only thing he had left living for, it was the power that made him stand, made him breath and his heart beat. "No." Mashira said as all the elements cried out to her, Mr Faait was dead, Loa and Kimo's father was dead. To her eyes came tears and she failed to blink them away, the shriek of the world around her became louder, pleas from the earth, wind and fire mourning a dead one, mourning as they always did as one passed into the nether. At the distance she met his eyes, Kimo looked at her, he too had cried, wasted his water. She wanted to comfort him, hold him and say that everything would be alright. But she would lie, he would know that she lied and her comfort would become a curse. "Something terrible has happened."
         Loa saw her brother come towards her, his footsteps heavy, his back bent as if a weight was strapped to his shoulders and his face was a sorrowful mask that still hid the true image below. She looked at the friend beside her, Mashira was she too a blank canvas, had taken a step away from the human realm and escaped into the sky. What had happened? Loa looked back to her brother, he was now closer and she saw that he had been crying. Why would he cry; where they out of bread? Had something happened to her father?
         "Loa." Kimo said and fell to his knees in front of her, embraced her and held her feeling worth return to his existence. "Father is dead."
         A deep well empty of water, at the bottom sat a girl. She was naked to the truth of reality and starred up through the dark tunnel and saw light, a warmth and a hope of being saved. Then came a noise, at first she could not determine what it was, she rose to her feet and looked up, focused her eyes on the light as the noise grew. Then she saw it, sorrow, grief and unhappiness came to drown her. She felt the thick darkness gather around her, stick to her like tar as it slowly worked its way up. Her legs disappeared, her waist was swallowed and she felt her chest consumed by her emotions. She looked up towards the light that was soon to be swallowed by the torrent of grief, sorrow and unhappiness. Then there was a voice, at first the girl did not hear it clearly, then it shouted. "Loa! Loa!" It was her name, someone was calling her back from the darkness, there was someone there to save her. The darkness was about to devour her, her life was only a brisk twig about to be snapped by her fathers death. The voice came again, this time more desperate. "Loa!" There was no longer light above her, she was the only light remaining.
         Kimo held her closer, rested her head against his chest with hands tight against her clothes. "Loa." He said with a weak voice breaking as he began to cry.
         "Yes." Loa replied, could force no more words from her lips and only soaked herself in her brothers love. He was there, had always been there for her, by her side to aid her, care for her and comfort her. Now that her father had been ripped away Kimo would always ne beside her, as long as she was he would be.



They had taken shelter from the sun inside the house, Mashira stood in the kitchen looking into Loa's bedroom. The girl rested with her head in her brothers lap and they both where silent. There where no words for them to say, their minds were thick with thoughts; memories that came rushing from the depth of their minds and made heart race and tears flow to their eyes. Mashira had escaped from the sadness that radiated from them, she had elevated herself closer to the goddesses and she looked at them with fear. She had never met her parents, the Seekers that raised said that she had been found by a old couple and handed to the monastery as a sacrifice to the goddesses. She could never relate to the pain Loa and Kimo felt, it was one thing to say farewell to a friend or a teacher, but another thing to say farewell to a father or mother. Loa and Kimo had said there farewells to both, witnessed the death of their land, the death of their freedom and now maybe the death of their family. Did Kimo have strength enough to both carry this sorrow and continue, did Loa have heart enough to not fall into the darkness of loss. Mashira closed her eyes, said a prayer while allowing the images and memories of her friends to fill her.



Kimo rested his hand against her forehead, felt the cold skin as he shaped his fingers to follow the curve of her cranium. Her eyes where closed, the face peaceful and from her mouth and nose came breaths of air that rushed towards him. She was asleep, finally she had fallen asleep and could escape the torment for a few hours.
         "Is she asleep?" Mashira said in low voice and made him turn his head, smiled weakly towards him and made a gesture with her hands. Invited to a embrace and he smiled, gently removed his sisters head from his lap.
         "Watch her while I go to the animals." He said, walked past her and she followed him with her gaze.
         "She is worried about you?" Mashira's voice once again made him turn his head. He looked at her more deeply this time, noticed her second gesture for a embrace but did not move to accept it. "Asked me to dance for you."
         Her face was a canvas of gold, her hair lost rays of sunshine and her eyes pearls with a trapped blue sky within them. Her body a artefact, elaborate, mysterious and inviting. "I am not worthy." He replied and turned away from her but did not walk. "Dance for me when Loa doesn't go hungry any more." His voice was sharp, sharper then he had intended and instantly regret came to his face.
         Mashira saw it, smiled as she approached him. "I will keep a watch on Loa for you." He only replied her with a weak nod and time passed between them as his eyes remained on her, she caught them, kept them with hers. "I will be here when you come back."



There was no motion to his face as he looked at his fathers corpse but it brought him to a stop, made him once more aware of his own sorrow, the sorrow he had tucked deep inside while aiding Loa deal with her sorrow. But he knew there was no time for sadness and grief, not for him, he had to be a pillar of strength and make sure that his sister was spared from pain. She was a fragile life, had at age of ten faced the death of her mother and now her fathers, faced the greatest draught ever recorded in the journal of the Ebon Prophet. If she died every reason for him to live was gone, she was the foundation of his existence.
         Kimo sunk to his knees. "Father." He said touching the rough floor of the workshop with his hands. "I will take care of Loa." It was there he made his promise, made it to his fathers dead body and made it with a heart heavy with sorrow and responsibility. Made it without noticing the twitching in the fabric of the world, without noticing the threat above, without noticing the woman looking at him from house.