Tales from The Lands Between: An Age of Unalloyed Gold
"Miquella, where are we exactly?"
Malenia looked around the field of white flowers around them, struck by the serenity of it all. To her, they resembled the water lilys her twin loved so much.
"I haven't quite picked out a name for it yet truth be told." Miquella's smile was soft and thoughtful, the golden hair that he had inherited from their Mother loosely flowing down his back, matching Malenia's own red hair from their Father. "But I have decided that this will be the place."
"The place?" Malenia asked, the puzzled look on her face making the smaller twin chuckle, a sound that carried on the breeze like a bell. "The place for what exactly?"
Miquella, who had been cradling something close to him during their trip, did not answer right away. Instead, he stepped forward, to the edge of the field, searching, seemingly, for something. After finding a spot, Miquella bent down and began to dig. "My dearest sister, I must apologize to you."
"Miquella, you are making no sense now." Malenia stated as she made her way to her brother. She reached out to hold onto the right arm that was no longer there, a habit she had from when she was younger; from when the rot had left her body somewhat intact. "Please dear brother, talk to me."
He sighed. Malenia hated when he sighed, for it was his own way of telling her that he was carrying a great burden upon his shoulders. And he always seemed to be carrying a great burden.
"It is the role of the older siblings to protect their younger ones. Of all of Mother's offspring, we are the youngest. But even between us…you are younger still. And before you say anything Malenia, the amount of time does not matter."
Malenia, who had opened her mouth, shut it again.
"I promised you that I would rid you of your accursed scarlet rot. Father and Mother, and by extension the Golden Order could do nothing to stop you losing your arm. The Greater Will either cannot or will not help you. Not even my time looking into sleep gave me any real answer to this. I only found a way to slow the rot's advance, not completely cure you of it. But I think I finally know why."
The rot. She had known that that was what was bothering him. Malenia knew that Miquella had traveled across the lands between after leaving the Golden Order in a search for a cure to the rot that had afflicted her since birth. He had broken down upon returning to Leyndell only to see that in the time he had been gone, the rot had taken her arm…
"The Golden Order is flawed. Plain and simple. It may be an age of gold, but it is gold that is alloyed by Gods even greater than Mother. Gods very much like that of the Greater Will. Gods that cursed me with everlasting youth…and you with rot." Miquella, who had finished digging by this point, placed something that Malenia couldn't see into the hole, then began replacing the earth back to its place. "Everything is the way it is now due to these Gods. Our afflictions, the discrimination of those like the Tarnished and 'lesser' beings, Mother's…situation. Everything. I am finished with Gods, I am finished with it all."
"Miquella, what is it that you are saying? You have already turned your back to the Golden Order, what more could you possibly be searching for?"
At this, Miquella turned to look at his sister, and she was able to see what he had been burying this entire time. No, not burying…planting. It was a sapling.
"This, dear sister. This is what I am searching for. This is the answer I have been seeking." He smiled that warm smile that seemed to almost bewitch those who glimpsed it. "This shall be my Haligtree, and with it, I plan on ushering a new age."
Malenia's eyes widened at his words. "A new age? Miquella, what you speak of is the end of the Edrtree, the end of the Golden Order itself. Do you truly plan on going to war with the Golden Order? With Mother and the Greater Will itself?"
Returning his gaze to the sapling before him, Miquella seemed to consider it with great pride. Even for Malenia, who had been raised beside her brother from the moment they had been born, sometimes even she forgot that he was, mentally, as much of an adult as she was. It was the dichotomy of Miquella that she felt drew so many to him. "Can you not feel it on the winds, Malenia? Just as stagnant water turns to rot, an age never changing will stagnate just the same. A change is needed, and whether we like it or not, a change will happen. The Greater Will and the Two Fingers would not have named us and Ranni as Emperyeans had this not been the case."
Miquella drew an erdsteel dagger from his side, holding it rather clumsily. It was just a little too large for his child-sized hands, but as he drew it across his open palm, his hand was steady, and his gaze never changing. Blood dripped from the cut in droplets, spilling onto the sapling's leaves, before dripping into the soil beneath and being absorbed within seconds. "I refuse to allow myself to be controlled by a God that cannot or will not help you Malenia. If I am to be made to lead a new age, it will be one led by my will, and mine alone. On my name as Miquella, son of Marika and Radagon, I will usher in an age of unalloyed gold, an age untouched by the meddling of outer gods. I will accept all those who are lost and rejected. I will cure you of your rot, and this Haligtree will be a physical manifestation of this oath. This Haligtree, which I hope one day, will become an Erdtree itself."
Malenia couldn't speak. How could she, after a declaration such as that? All she could do was watch as Miquella looked at the sapling like a parent would look at a child, even as he watered it with his own blood. She had always known that Miquella was great, had always known that he was destined for greater things. But this…this was too much, even for him. She could not…no, she would not allow him to take such a stand on his own. How could she? After all…he was doing this for her.
"Miquella." Malenia knelt down beside him, and when she spoke, her tone was deadly calm, unwavering and unyielding. "I am your sister. Your twin. In many ways, I am your other half. Where you go, I shall follow to my last breath. But I want to do more for you, aid you in the only way I can. Allow me to be your blade, Miquella. I will cut down any foe who dares stand against you. I will never falter and never fail. I will make your dream come to, until my last breath."
The siblings stared at each other silently, neither one blinking, speaking, or seemingly even breathing. It was Miquella who broke the silence, drawing his already healing hand back to his chest. He smiled again, a smile that was reserved only for her.
"Thank you Malenia. I don't think I'd be able to do it without you, to be honest."
Standing up, the twins gripped their hands tightly as they looked down at the little Haligtree sapling before them. Together, Miquella and Malenia would go on to do great things in the history of The Lands Between, but the age of unalloyed gold would never come. Things would happen to both siblings that would forever change the tides of history…
But those tales are for another time.