Night and Day

The twins had arrived to the Cathedral of Hope when they were two, similar to Angel, only unlike him, they arrived with guards clad entirely in stone armour, three guards for Night and three for Day.

They also had twelve spellweavers following in tow, coming from both the Church of Darkness and the Church of Brightness.

As no-one apart from the received guests and those who had permits were allowed to enter, there had been a large ceremony that day, with two spellweavers binding three guards to each child.

However, only the spellweavers from the Church of Brightness attended to Day, binding the three guards into her skin in a swirl of moving tattoos of a sun, and only the spellweavers from the Church of Darkness attended to Night, similarly binding his three guards into his skin which swirled and showed tentacles of shadows.

While on Day the tattoos were emitting light and glowed softly, on Night they seemed to do the opposite and would instead instead seep darkness, making everything dimmer.

It was a strange sight, seeing two toddlers dressed in formal blue attire and so many people there to ensure to their well-being.

After the ceremony, the spellweavers seemed to each give a charm or pendant to the child they attended to, and then they left, leaving the two twins clutching each others hands as they walked inside the seemingly massive cathedral built from dark grey stone.

Angel at the time didn't know why they needed protection, nor who they needed it from, and he still wasn't sure, but after living in the city—or at least working there, if begging counted as work—and seeing how rare it was for anyone to get that many of guards or spellweavers following, especially from the two Churches, he was certain that the twins weren't just special.

From snippets of talk made by those in the inner sections of the city of the two prophesied, Angel had gathered that the twins were the ones they were talking about.

Who else fit the description: protected by light and protected by dark? No-one else Angel knew or had heard of did, apart from the twins. And if anyone else did, then they were either the ones who were talked about or weren't famous enough.

And if Angel's guess was right, then the twins would reside in the Temple of Ruin, positioned directly in between the Churches of Brightness and Darkness. Which meant that the twins were very likely the most protected people there were in the city.

Angel was not ignorant enough to think that it would be possible to sneak past a spellweaver or a guard that belonged to Ruin. Perhaps in the outer sections of the city, it was possible, since the guards, even if of an excellent order, were overly confident in their prowess, which they no doubt had, and would relax, making it possible for Angel to slip through.

And even then, he only did so when he was certain that none of their focus was on him. Sometimes he would have to wait for hours to find both the right condition and also the right place to slip away from.

And so, Angel's plans of entering the house of Night and Day's choosers vanished. However, that did not mean that he couldn't make another plan.

So Angel observed. He would watch from dawn to dusk for a day, rest for another, watch again, rest again, and repeat.

He continued this for two weeks.

He learned that no-one apart from those with a permit or those who traveled with a permit was allowed inside. If you were delivery food, then a guard would take the food from you, and as such, this route had been scratched off. He hadn't yet seen anyone selling anything, but he was quite certain that the result would be the same or you would be completely ignored, and if you annoyed the guards too much or distracted them from their work, you would likely be thrown away by the guards or bound in chains of silence by the spellweavers.

He also made notes of where there were certain areas of the temple he could sneak into, if not guarded. Since the Temple of Ruin was so immensely big and it was of no use to learn and map out the entire outer build, Angel only bothered to remember the areas it would be easiest to sneak in from.

However, this was still useless, as with guards and spellweavers surrounding the perimeter it was impossible for Angel to even try anything without being bound by chains or a blade by his neck. 

It appeared that he was stuck. There was no way for him to enter, no weak spots that he could exploit.

So Angel gave up. Learning from Night and Day's lessons had been something he was quite obsessed with, as from those he knew, they would be the most likely in getting the best education of training and weaving.

—————

'Hello.' The boy in blue and grey robes waved at the knight in front of him. The knight continued staring straight ahead, as if he couldn't hear what the boy was saying.

Not discouraged by this, the boy continued. 'I'm Angel. Can you tell Night and Day that I would like to see them, please?'

A priest of Ruin appeared in front of him, seemingly having appeared from thin air. 'Night and Day?' The steel mask made it impossible to determine wether it belonged to a male or female, nor any emotions, for that matter.

The young boy nodded encouragingly. 'Night and Day. They're twins. Night's got dark brown hair and blue eyes, and Day's also got dark brown hair and blue eyes.'

'Do not move,'the priest uttered, and vanished again.

The boy sat down on the steps of the temple. After a while, he leaned against the knight's leg and closed his eyes.

The knight seemed to frown for a brief second when he heard the natural sounds of the child's chest heaving up and down, then it was gone and he continued staring straight ahead.

————— 

Inside a room half lit by the artificial light of the screen and the other shadowed, two sat at a silver table. A board lay before them on which were grids coloured indigo and pale yellow.

Numerous carved stone figures lay discarded on each side, yet even more still remained on the board.

'Chosen of Death Night, Chosen of Life Day, there is a boy of around twelve waiting outside. He says that he would like to talk to you and that his name is Angel.'

The male of the two looked up, his hand still holding a yellow piece.

The female of the two lightly tapped her fingers on the table. 'A boy named Angel,'she mused, although her eyes never left the board. 'He is of no significance. Do not bother us with such things in the future.'

'No, Chosen of Life Day.' Then the voice and its presence was gone.

The two at the silver table sat in silence, which was only broken by the clinking of the stone figures.

Finally, the game seemed to stop as the blue grids covered all of the grids that used to be pale yellow, marking it as their win.

'I sometimes wonder if you would be a better Chosen of Death than I, sister. You are so proficient in Landowner when you play as Death,'the male of the two spoke, his bright blue eyes unreadable.

The female responded by a wave of her hands by which the board refreshed. 'Let us play a new game, then.'