--------
the Twins
They crept in like silent shadows, lingering near the back of the gathering for a few moments to try and understand what was happening. Meetings were commonplace within the Courts, but usually nothing this extensive ever happened unless something large transpired.
Erd stood in front of his brother, watching with wide, turquoise eyes as a burnished sorrel fellow began to preach and talk, introducing himself. Liam. Ah, that was right. He recalled their brief interaction.
They had met fleetingly in the past, but it had been a very bad mental health day for Ard and so the twins had not remained long enough to get to know the man beyond learning his name. Ard had been in the midst of a terrible episode and had wanted nothing more than to return to their small, comfortable, safe home, and Erd had been far too distracted with worry for his twin brother to really give the man -Sovereign, it seemed- any true time of day.
Guilt reared its ugly head now, as the two petite boys moved towards the front of the crowd where they could see better. Erd stopped, and Ard stepped up next to him, their sides pressed intimately close together as they took solace in one another’s company. They wore their matching cloaks and mantles, letting the weight of the matching fabric hide their petite, thin bodies from onlookers. Their hoods were down, however, revealing their sharp faces, so anyone would recognize them if they knew, but the older twin knew how much these outfits comforted Ard whenever he was feeling particularly overwhelmed.
Ard’s sharp, glassy stare surveyed the land with notable tension. His body quaked with shivers, and Erd pressed close, kissing the nape of his neck with reassurance before focusing entirely on Liam as the stallion moved, paced, and addressed.
The twins had witnessed many events like this; meetings that went over the exchange of power. No longer did it fill them with unbridled terror, however, as those who ruled Terrastella seemed to be just and kind, and nothing like their previous masters… But the fear never abated, not truly. Erd knew that Ard would be a mess for days to come after this, until they knew that this Liam would not be violent with them, would not force them to do things that they did not want to do.
It would take time. It always took time.
Erd just hoped that Liam was a patient man.
He preached about his prowess in battle and Erd shared a knowing glance with Ard. His twin seemed pensive and uncertain, the tremble to his frame impossible to miss as they stood pressed against one another, but Erd opened his mouth and called out amidst the much louder voices, and much larger bodies.
“You talk about your skills as a fighter, as a soldier,” he began, his voice quaking but strong, even as Ard cowed next to him and averted his gaze to not see the onslaught of eyes that would surely turn in their direction, “Terrastella does not need to be led with the mindset of a fighter. We have been here far longer than you, Your Majesty. We have seen Kings and Queens come and go. When the rains fell and water swallowed our Court, when Vespera turned her back on us, when time itself swallowed those who came before you, when we lived in fear because of Raum’s wrath within Solterra, we were here. Terrastella does not need a soldier to lead it, nor do we want it. We know the cruelty passed down by the hands of soldiers, so if there is any insight I can give you, is that those of Terrastella do not live by the voices of their minds, but the voice within their hearts...” And Erd knew, so very well, just Ard did, that soldiers did not live by the voices of their hearts.
Soldiers did not have hearts. They had only their minds, cold, brutal, manipulating, violating, dominating and conquering… Next to him, Ard shuddered, yet lifted his gaze as well. Both twins, identical in body, mind, and soul, held the King’s stare fiercely.
Erd spoke, knowing that Ard couldn’t, but he knew his brother’s sentiments mirrored his own when he said, “Defend us, if you wish, as a King should, but do not lose that voice in your heart. Because if you do, you no longer have our best interests in mind, and you will no longer deserve our fealty.”
