Chapter 1. Bad Omens
"Born under a black moon." That's what the inhabitants of the village of Gardinia call it when a child's birth is marked by bad omens and ill events. In a time when life is fraught with disease, famine and natural disasters, people can't help but be superstitious. Every little cloud or sneeze is a sign of possible disaster. A dark way to live life, but for the townspeople of Gardinia, it was the only way they had. It was impossible to remember a time when things seemed to be improving. Things were either bad, or worse. So Gardiniains adapted by clinging to hope of staving off suffering through superstition and use of charms.
One had only to walk through Gardinia to know that it was similar to all settled communities on the eastern continent. The whole world suffered from a steady decline, a rot that lay upon the land and all that lived there. Diseases and a general state of poor health reduced the population in growing increments year after year. The land refused the very work done upon it, producing precious little, either cultivated or wild. Domesticated livestock were as sickly and rare as wild game. With such hardships, it's a wonder that any amount of civilization and organized life endured. To be fair, much of what was, was now gone, though such a thing was hard to verify. When towns and villages vanish, there were usually none left to tell their tale, much less to prove it had once existed. One day there was group of people living in a place, and the next, there was nothing. Such was the fate of many settlements.
Gardinia had the slight fortune of being a little larger and a little less cursed than most. But of course, that only served to make the towns people that much more fearful and suspicious. Outsiders were not only unwelcome; they were run out of town. Anyone baring a sign of illness or any bad luck was similarly removed. Bad as life was in the towns, it was worse in exile. This is why some families were so very guarded; hiding secrets from the town that otherwise might result in their expulsion. Families like the Devrons, one of the least poor families in Gardinia.
It had taken the Lady Devron a very long time to conceive (which in Gardinia was usually seen as a sign that it's best not to try). Still, whether by luck or ill fate, the Lady Devron became pregnant. The following months did not go smoothly for her. The lady suffered most terrible dreams and sickness. She refused to leave the house, in the hopes that keeping her locked away would prevent evil spirits from finding her. However, it did not seem to help, and Lord Devron was worried. He brought the most aged woman in the town, Reza, to his home desperate that she might be able to ease his wife's suffering. But far from easing the Lord Devron's mind, Reza could only offer warnings in a low voice.
"Your wife's unborn fights within her. They are beings of darkness and will cause nothing but the destruction of your line. Nothing good will come of this pregnancy. Be wise and destroy them, before they destroy you."
But the Lady refused to believe it, ignoring both Reza's advice and her husband's pleading. In the end, she locked herself in her room, and refused to see anyone until the time her baby would be born. Reza was sworn to secrecy under threat of death. To ensure her silence, she was kept in the Devron's house to await the birth. She passed the time telling everyone in the house of bad omens she witnessed on a daily basis, more proof that the child had to be destroyed before it was born.
"And in the end, all will crumble and fall. This child will end our way of life. Monsters will live and roam the earth under this demon's reign, and the people of Gardinia will suffer and die. This child will bring about the destruction of the world." The people of the Devron household tried their best to ignore such warnings, but one by one, people disappeared, slinking off during the night, terrified to stay and see what would happen. Eventually, on the day of birthing, none but the Lord and Lady Devron, and Reza, remained within the dwelling.
That was the day that the whole earth shook. When the tremors stopped, there were two new lives, and at least one lost soul. The twins, with hair and eyes as dark as their first night in this world, had brought about the death of their own mother before they'd drawn their first breaths. Their appearance, as much as the death of their mother, seemed to confirm the haunting words of Reza, who was never able to share her ominous prophesy about the twins. The rumors were she died in the tremors, pitifully trapped beneath a clay urn. Lord Devron never spoke of it, and no one thought to question him. And so the passing of the Lady Devron was concealed, her burial occurring under the cover of darkness. None outside the household was to know of her death. In Gardinia it was quite easy for people to disappear into their homes and no one would question it. After all, the world was a dangerous place, one never knew what could be lurking just outside. It was easy to hide the death and keep the ill omens of the late Reza quiet. There was just one problem. The Lord Devron with now left with twin girls, marked by the black moon, and without someone to care for them.
But fate has a funny way of turning misfortune around to be another's luck. The twin's birthday, here after called the Day of Shakes by the people of Gardinia, resulted in the deaths and loss of homes of many of the poorer residents of the town. One such unlucky soul, by the name of Saylira, lost her whole family and home. A girl of only twelve, she most likely would have died, as no one would be willing to take such an unlucky child into their home. But it was just what the Lord Devron needed. Saylira was desperate. She had nowhere else to turn. In exchange for a home, food and protection, she would take care of the children, and hide the Devron secret from the outside world. And so it happened that after the day of Shakes, the young Saylira was taken into the house of Devron to raise the Kyrin and Jensa, children of the Black Moon.