Chapter 7: The Twins of Darkness and Light

Bant settled down on a low hanging branch of the Mano'ora while Chirrut made himself comfortable on the ground, leaning his back towards the trunk and still gazing distantly up to the twin stars in the sky.

"I guess it's only a children's story but I've always thought it beautiful even though it's sad," he said dreamingly. "I think they tell us the story so that we can understand that there is balance to be kept in everything."

"Tell it to me. Please?" Bant encouraged.

"Well, yes. So the story goes:

Anera and Awan were born a long long time ago on a planet that doesn't exist anymore. They were born as twins, Awan being a couple of minutes older than his sibling. From their earliest childhood they were inseparable as only twins can be. Where one was seen, the other followed. Always. But there the equality stopped.

Awan was golden and bright as the suns, with a mild personality that matched his looks. He had hair as red-golden as the sunset and eyes that resembled a calm blue-green lake. He was soft spoken and thoughtful and light seemed to radiate from him wherever he went. If a dispute was rising somewhere, even as a child he was called for because with his calm words and friendly manners all sentient beings felt soothed by his presence.

His sister, Anera, was his true opposite. She had black curls that framed a pale face. Her eyes were as golden as the twin suns of Tatooine and her temper was legendary, both within and outside their family. She had a fierce love for her brother, but her tantrums when he didn't want to play her games could be heard all over the neighbourhood. She was sparkling with love and warmth in one moment, but in the next she could be as icy and cold as the winter storms of Hoth.

Together they were balance.

Together they showed humanity's best and worst sides.

Together they were love and passion, calmness and patience.

And as such they lived in harmony until their thirteenth lifeday. That's when their world abruptly changed. Nobody knows what caused it. Nobody knows what really happened. Their planet died and it's population with it.

Only one person knew. Their father.

He possessed the twins combined strength, and their weaknesses. Because where strength can be found, so can weakness. His greatest weakness was his love for his children and the night before the catastrophe he sedated them and put them in two escape pods destined for the same location. He knew there were too few pods on the planet to make everyone flee, and he knew that even if he spoke of what he had foreseen nobody would believe him, because such is humanity: very few believes in disaster before they truly experience it.

But something went wrong. The coordinates in one of the pods had been set wrong and thus his children were shipped off to different destinations.

And such was it that when Awan woke of the artificial sleep the sedate had caused, he woke on a green beautiful planet with life singing in it's very soul. He felt at home at once. Only one thing was very very wrong. He didn't know where he was, and far less did he know where his sister was.

He managed to get out of the pod and soon realised that the planet was inhabited by numerous small clans that lived among the mountains and lakes. They were all fighting each other on every possible occasion. The appearance of 'the stranger from the sky' made them stop the bickering for a period. With his good looks and mild, yet stern, demeanour they mistook him for a God descending to their planet to end their internal wars. Within the first three years on planet he had roamed vast areas to find Anera, but she was nowhere to be found. Nor were there rumours of any other 'God from the skies', but in his wake people decided to bury their hatchets and try to live peacefully together.

Such he brought peace and prosperity to his planet.

As years went by he met a young women from one of the leading tribes and they fell in love. By appearance she was the opposite of his sister, but in her soul she had some resemblance. She was stubborn, headstrong and had a glowing temper, but she was also friendly and kind.

They were elected as the planet's ruling King and Queen and under their leadership the planet continued to thrive.

As more years went by they became happy parents of a boy who was strikingly resembling his father, though the stubborn streak in his mother's personality was his heritage from her. They only got one child.

As the boy grew his father apparently managed to refrain from searching for his sister. He took his new role as King and father seriously and developed a close relationship with his son. The harmonic family life came to an abrupt end when the Queen suddenly became ill and died. Awan was grief stricken for several years but kept on doing his duty. The day after his son had celebrated his 25th life day Awan abdicated and his son took over the throne.

Through the years Awan had never stopped missing his sister, his second half, and as his son grew old enough to become the new ruler he wanted to fulfil his quest for her. He left his son and the planet that had become his new home and where he'd had many happy years with his little family.

He roamed the galaxy but his sister was nowhere to be found. Not until the day he heard a story of a warrior queen on a small outer rim planet, with hair as black as the lava stones of Mustafar, a skin as white as Hoth's snow and eyes that glowed as coal.

That day he knew his sister was still alive.

He set off to the planet where she'd last been seen.

He came to the planet in the sunset. There was a tension in the capital that was almost palpable and he soon learned why. Rumours had it that the forces of the Warrior Queen from the stars were gathering and that they would soon march towards the capital.

The rumors were right.

The day before Awan had planned to leave the capital to search for his long gone twin, the enemy forces gathered around the city walls. The attack came swiftly and surprisingly quietly.

Awan joined the defenders of the city and soon he was fighting on the city walls with the other inhabitants, trying desperately to keep the attackers from invading the city. On the third day, in the third large battle he met his equal. An armour clad attacker was swinging his sword towards him and Awan found himself fighting for his life on top of the city walls. The attacker was a formidable opponent but throughout his life as Monarch Awan had maintained the fighting skills he learned when he and his sister had been taught the arts of sword fighting in their childhood. He had learned well, and new skills had been added to the old ones. After what felt like hours of fighting he finally saw a chance and took it. His sword slid smoothly under the attackers lifted arm and penetrated his chest. The attacker fell and Awan could hear him struggle for breath behind his helmet as he drew his last breaths. Filled with sadness he bent down and removed the helmet which had covered his opponents face and dark, curly hair with a few white stripes flooded out. Two golden eyes, clear as suns looked upon him, but he could already see the light dimming in those two orbs which he hadn't seen in more than a quarter of a century.

'Sister', he whispered with a lump in his throat, 'Anera?'

'Brother?' her voice could hardly be heard above the sounds from the battle surrounding them. Still it felt like they were alone on a desolated place where nothing or no-one could reach them.

Awan knelt down and took off his own helmet and their eyes met in a final moment before she let out a soft sigh and her eyes closed for the last time.

An overwhelming feeling of sadness flooded Awan's mind. 'No,' he whispered to himself,'you were my sister Anera. I loved you.'

And in that moment his heart stopped beating and he fell forward, partly covering her dead body with his own.

On the deep black night sky two new stars were lit: One golden, shining with a soft warm glow and one, equally sized, sparkling bright white with a shadow of black in it's middle.

That is the story about the twin stars Anera and Awan."

…..

Bant drew a shivering sigh: "Oh, Chirrut, that was beautiful. And sad."

She wiped off a silvery tear that was trailing down her cheek.

"Finally they found each other, even after so many years. And they were reunited again even for a moment."

"Yes."

it took a few moments before she was able to speak again.

"It is probably a myth, but Awan sounds so very much like my friend Obi-Wan back home. I wonder if there may be some truth behind the myth? But Obi doesn't have any siblings though. We have to tell Master Tahl about this in the morning. Maybe she is able to draw something out of this story. After all we're myth hunting right now."

"Speaking of which," Chirrut added, "it must have taken longer time than I intended to tell the story. I think we should retire for the night and get some sleep, then let's hear what your Master thinks about it tomorrow morning. After all it's just a story told for the young ones."

Bant nodded. "Master will know. She always does."