Heyo, it's been a while since I've posted here! Life's been hectic and I haven't had much time to write fic.
This one has been a long time coming, however, having been in the works since February. I've been saving it just for today - the anniversary of the Tomix Saga Finale.
SInce I started writing it in February, very little of the new lore released since then is incorporated. As such, this fic is canon non-compliant for the Roirr Saga and all the points on the timeline after Piotr waking up.
Enjoy!
0. (Prologue)
The Danao twins had always had a connection to each other.
It was not an uncommon thing, in Tkaanie, in Mortem and the areas surrounding Edelia especially, for this to be so. Twins have always, across all cultures and worlds, had odd connections to each other, and in a land where the way of life is so intrinsically tied to souls and their ways, such connections being a little stronger was nothing anyone looked twice at.
But even so, what the Danao twins had was that little bit more.
Mostly, it showed itself in the small things through the years. When four year old Piotr fell and scraped his knees on a rock badly enough that they bled, there were healing scabs in the exact same place on Tomix's knees for the next week. The day after five year old Tomix's arm had an unfortunate collision with the kitchen table's leg, a bright purple bruise in the exact same shape was blooming on Piotr's arm. Six year old Tomix ran into a wall, and Piotr got a nosebleed. Seven year old Piotr fell ill with fever and his brother suffered right alongside him with no symptoms of the illness but that fever.
There were countless other, small and insignificant moments scattered through their lives. Many tumbles for one, with inexplicable bruises for the other. A paper cut to one and a wince from the other no matter if they saw the cut or not. Always the brothers seemed to mimic and mirror each other, in appearance, in mannerisms, in health.
It was noticed, of course, but never paid much attention to. It was just another odd twin connection, something that they may or may not grow out of someday. Nobody ever thought to tell the boys themselves, but then, surely of anyone who would know, the boys themselves would?
Yet both boys were rough and tumble beings and to them one more bruise or three more scabs were hardly noticeable among the many they accumulated each day.
They did not know.
If they had, perhaps things would have gone differently.
The day that it happens, they are eleven. They are eleven and the sun is shining in a bright, bright blue, cloudless sky, and anyone looking back on it would agree that the weather had been too beautiful for a day when such a tragedy occurred.
Tomix is in the courtyard. Piotr is not.
When the dare, the challenge, is issued and Tomix smirks in the way of an eleven year old who doesn't quite understand the concept of mortality just yet and accepts, Piotr, almost half a building away, freezes. A sharp, cold spike of dread spears through his heart and his books tumble from his arms to hit the ground as his head snaps to face the direction of the courtyard.
As Tomix slides the Headmaster's spiritlooms over his hands, Piotr's is running, running faster than he ever has in his life, an overwhelming sense of my brother is in danger pulsing along with his heartbeat, pushing him onwards.
As Tomix starts to weave, Piotr grows closer and closer and closer, almost there almost there...
He charges into the courtyard just as everything goes wrong. A soulthread whips loose and strikes Tomix across the face, and two twin cries of pain echo out across the cobblestone. Pain burns across Piotr's face and he finds himself stumbling to a stop.
The Corrupted Elemental Spirits break free and the air fills with twin screams, louder and shriller and more pain filled than they ever have been before.
As Tomix's hair bleaches white, Piotr's legs give way and he topples forwards, finds himself lying on the ground.
As Tomix's eyes turn gold, Pitor's burn, not only with pain but with tears as he reaches a hand out towards his brother, too far away for him to reach.
Tomix dies and Piotr screams again, even louder, even shriller, his heart feeling like it has been ripped from his chest and shoved back in the wrong way around, his very soul feeling like it has been torn in half.
And then, faintly, through the tears and through pain blurred vision, he sees green, which turns to purple, floating over his brother's...over his brother.
The last thing Piotr sees is tiny, almost invisible, smirk as Aspar sets to work.
His eyes flutter shut just as Tomix's flutter open.
They do not open again for thirteen years.