A Silver Saint and his young relatives

Eastern Ireland, late summer of year 488:

It had been a rather good day for fishing despite the dry weather that threatened to make a long drought a huge danger for the intended harvest, the father noticed in pride as he carefully rowed his boat closer to the beach. And a good day to bring his seven-year-old sons as well, because this was a small village where most sons learned to become fishermen or some other work related to the sea from their fathers.

"Boys, do not get out of the boat before me, will you?"

The seven-year-old twins obeyed, trying to make sure that the catch of today would not be slipped overboard when handing the wicker baskets filled with fish to their father.

"Tiernan, mind the slippery stones now when you step into the water…ah!"

The older twin fell forwards into the water with a cry of surprise, Owen hurrying forwards to help his brother.

"I should have lifted you up on the shore, son, it was an error of mine," the father said in a gentle voice, comforting the older twin as he tried hard to not start crying from cutting up his hand palms on the stones and the wounds stinging from the salt water, which was not helped by that he also had gotten a few abrasions on the knees.

"Oowww! It hurts!"

"Granny should have some medicinal salve to help with that, right, Father?" Owen wondered, looking a little worried for his brother. This was not the first time that Tiernan had problems resulting from the nearsightedness he was born with, because it made certain chores in everyday life more difficult than for Owen who had no problems with his eyesight.

"Yes, if we try to divide what we are to carry back home, with Tiernan taking the fishing rods, we can get back home quickly for her to look at his palms."

Suddenly, there was a small rock being tossed from the upper part of the beach and hit Owen in the head.

"Ow!"

But the father stopped another rock from striking Tiernan, turning around with an angry look on his face.

"Hey! Stop treating my boys like some stray animals to be chased away with stones, brats!"

This was actually not the first time this happened, Tiernan and Owen being targeted by the more well-off village children for no other reasons than children sadly being cruel against others. And as always, the ringleader for the gang was twelve-year-old Pandora, the daughter of the village chief.

"You pagans do not belong in a Christian congregation! Worshiping idols of darkness with offering sacrifices, that is going to land you in hell after death!"

Normally, the father would have done his best to ignore those words, which the children picked up from the priest at church and many times did not really understand, but this was part of a deeper conflict within the village itself: Those who had converted to the new faith which came from foreign lands, and the few remaining families that still worshiped the Irish gods as part of their ancient culture as Celts.

"Watch that mouth of yours and what you are saying, Pandora! You never know what may listen or watch you!" Tiernan warned, yet not fully able to hide that some of her cruel words did hurt him.

"Yes! There are forces in the world that will not care for your social status for a human!" Owen added in, despite their father ordering them to be quiet. In fact, both the twins could sense something in the air around them all, beings that were not of the physical world. The Fair Folk.

"Boys! Ignore them and take your baskets! We are going home!"

Shooting a death glare towards Pandora who did not seem scared at all over their warning that was bound to be ignored anyway, the brothers obeyed their father. But another rock was tossed and the strike caused Tiernan to fall forwards in the sand, barely keeping himself from crying over how the sand got into his wounds from earlier.

"Hah! That is right, grovl in the dirt or I will tell Father…"

But before Pandora could start another verbal taunting of the fisherman and his sons by knowing that she would be protected by her status as the village chief's daughter, a melody was heard from a lyre in the air:

"It is not nice to attack someone who is already injured from an honest accident. Do as people around the Mediterranean, in this heat and take a short nap during the hottest hours of the day, children."

As the melody was focused on Pandora and her gang of bullies, they fell asleep rather fast as a person in plain yet clearly Irish clothing came out from the forest next to the beach, a small lyre held in his dominant arm.

"Great-uncle Cian! Granny will be happy that you are here on your annual visit!"

The Lyra Silver Saint nodded in greeting to his sister-son and grand-nephews, then started to pull the sleeping children into the shade so they were not getting sunburns from the afternoon sun.

Despite being happy to see Cian coming alongside the three male members of the family, it was not the most joyful mood within the roundhouse that evening, as the mother and grandmother learned of what had happened at the beach.

"Fewer and fewer believers of the old faith remain for each passing year, especially after really bad winters or other periods of fatal illnesses that can take both adults and children in different ages…it is almost only we outside six other families, and all of us are almost outcasts due to not following Jesus Christ. Our children are often attacked by the children from the Christian families if that girl Pandora leads them on, and comes home with signs of having suffered physical violence if they are alone…"

Due to a poor harvest the previous year followed by a very cold winter six months ago, their family had lost several relatives to the winter cold compinted with the starvation after the failed harvest, as had happened to nearly every family in the fishing village. Cian could understand how that made his sister and the other three adults extra protective of Tiernan and Owen, being the only children left apart from the unborn sibling that their mother would have in less than a month now.

"Oh, I really wish that I could slap that insolent girl without having to worry about the consequences that would come! She has some nerve, bullying the boys for being of a more humble background as well for that of our family still follows the old faith and because her family is the leaders of this village!" the old woman muttered in anger, stirring in the pot while her daughter-in-law kept weaving some fabric on the loom.

"Nothing has changed much from our own youth, indeed, apart from that the Christian faith has proved to be the stronger force…" Cian agreed, recalling how things had been more than fifty years ago as he had left to train in Greece in order to become a Saint of Athena. Even if he did only visit his birth village once a year, he knew from his sister and her family what kept happening in Ireland. His nephew spoke up again:

"The boys are old enough to be fostered out in other families now, but with Christanity being the dominant faith of so many, I fear that they may be forced into getting baptized against their will under threats of injury or even death and that they would be forced to give up all the ancient rituals we taught them…"

Cian could understand why his nephew and his pregnant wife hesitated to send away their twin sons, if they risked such treatment based on the fact that they still belonged to one of the families who worshiped the ancient gods.

"When were the boys born again? I can never keep the right date in mind," Cian wondered aloud, having a possible idea growing in his mind that could be a solution that would soothe the fears of his relatives. In response, the Silver Saint got a beheaded fish tossed at him from his sister.

"You are indeed starting to grow old if you are forgetting that detail despite being there to witness the birth, brother! They are born seven days before the summer solstice!"

14th June, just as he did actually recall. And that date was within the last six days of the Gemini constellation. Pope Darius had paid attention when Cian had told him of that detail after returning to the Sanctuary every summer, especially as both Tiernan and Owen had survived the birth and their childhood so far.

"How about that I may foster them, then? I may serve as a bard to a different Goddess in Greece, but no one is forcing me to convert to Christianity or some other belief in other gods there and I believe that the boys would thrive in an environment where they do not have to be ashamed of their faith."

At first, all the three other adults stared at him, even Tiernan and Owen looking up from their task of helping their grandmother with preparing the meal as if wondering if they really had been hearing right.

"You mean it, brother?! That foreign Goddess you serve, will really not allow anything such?!"

Cian did not talk much about Athena or the Sanctuary that much for the sake of its security from possible enemy attacks, but he knew that if his two great-nephews stayed here in the village, they would live as outcasts because they were not raised in the Christian faith.

"Athena herself is from an era long ago, way before Christianity even began in the East. If this Greek Goddess herself is still around, then there is still hope that our own Celtic Gods of Ireland will still be around for future generations as well. But with how Tiernan and Owen are treated by the Christian children here in our own village, especially by the chief's daughter, it is awfully clear that they are favorite targets of hers for some reason. Perhaps for that we are among the poorer families, perhaps for that both halves of a twin set rarely tends to survive long past birth."

In the end, they agreed that Cian would take his great-nephews with him away from the village after the birth of their sibling, so they did not miss that important family event.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

For some time, things were mostly the same in the village. But Cian proved that despite his high age, he could still play the lyre and sing like other visiting bards here in Ireland.

"Young miss, please leave my great-nephews alone."

Somehow, Pandora actually seemed scared of Cian from the moment she first saw him, and while she did not have the other children physically attack Tiernan and Owen anymore, she still tried with cruel words.

"They are freaks, for being born with more than one child just like animals! And the older one is worthless with that horrible eyesight of his!"

Judging from how the brothers visibly twitched at those words, it was not the first time that Pandora called them this.

"People with the habit of insulting others, will pay dearly for it at some point. Even if you were to grow up to become the most beautiful woman in the world as an adult, do you really think that my great-nephews will forget and forgive you for what you have done towards them now in childhood?"

With Pandora being five years older than Tiernan and Owen, Cian guessed that she had targeted them for her bullying because they would always be smaller and weaker than herself. But that was something which could change…in adulthood, when they no longer were children but fully grown men.

"Great-uncle, we will go to the beach and see if we can catch something for Mother with our fishing rods!"

Blocking Pandora from their sight, Cian refused to let her pass by him as the twins hurried away.

Six weeks later:

"Brianna, after her long-lived grandmother."

"A good name, and I have a strong feeling that she will become an adult as well, just like her brothers."

It was a healthy little sister that arrived into the Irish family, after a successful birth where both mother and child survived.

"Mother, we are sorry for leaving now when you need help in caring for Bria."

Their parents looked at them.

"Tiernan, Owen. This may be your best chance to see the wider world outside the village, so please, do not waste it."

"Become strong, so Pandora can not be mean to you anymore."

"And make sure to bring some harmless chaos in the life of your great-uncle without annoying him too much, alright?" their grandmother requested with a smile, pretending to not notice the annoyed look from her brother behind the children.

"I promise to bring them along every summer for their day of birth and for little Brianna. When they are old enough, they will be able to travel by themselves."

Hopefully, as the Gemini Gold Saints of this generation.

Cian did not say that, but he believed that there had to be a reason why both Tiernan and Owen had survived the early birth, and why they were born within the zodiac sign of the twins. That if they trained well and did awake their Cosmo within the coming years, they would become part of the Gold Saints for Athena.

"Come, boys, it is a long way to travel from Ireland to Greece."

Cian knew that even with his top speed that could be done at his age, he needed to carry the twins for a quicker journey. Waving goodbye to their family outside the roundhouse, they walked next to their great-uncle so he could see them at his side.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Author note: Cian is an Old Irish name meaning "ancient". I also wanted to play around with the different origins of the various Gemini twins, so Tiernan and Owen grew up with their biological family for their early childhood, with the Lyra Silver Saint as the brother to their paternal grandmother