Creating bonds for the future

The Sanctuary of Athena, late summer of year 723 AD:

There were not many mourners around the newly dug grave in the graveyard of deceased Saints as the body wrapped in a simple shroud was lowered into the earth. A widow, her son and daughter, and a young foster child that had joined the family not long before the death of the family patriarch from high age. But one of them stood out by his role in the Sanctuary when Athena was not there.

"You did not need to come here when Father is laid to his final rest, Pope Ishir. People have already spent the past seven years wondering why you let Father return from his banishment in the first place. They will gossip about why you would even be here."

The former Virgo Saint looked at Sade, who stood beside her twin brother, both hugging their crying mother in this very emotionally difficult scene. Seventeen years old, ranking as the new Gemini Saint since a few months ago, yet also carrying the burden of the deed which had given their birth father a such questionable reputation for posterity.

"Ayaan had no wicked intentions when he stole the Scythe of Chronos seventeen years ago, when you two were less than a day old," Ishir said with a sorrowful look at the grave as it was being covered over by earth, "Even if he could not break the "Curse of Gemini" which you was branded with, he wanted to try freeing you from dying before the Holy War. It is true that he committed a crime, but his motive for said action is not what I would call treason against Lady Athena. Rather, an act of desperation to prevent a disaster for the Saints when the Holy War comes."

They knew the tale. They had heard their Father explain his actions so many times over their childhood, about the "Curse of Gemini" that had started almost five hundred years ago, and how they were tangled into it as the next set of twins who would fight for Athena as the Gemini Saint.

"...thank you for understanding why he did it, your Holiness. Without it, our lives would have been much harder," Fatima, the mother of Amari and Sade, spoke without looking away from the grave that held the body of her late husband.

"Lady Athena may not be here right now, but if her incoming incarnation is anything like her previous self that I served as the Virgo Saint in 296, then she would never accept that Ayaan had been executed without us at least asking him about the motive why he committed his crime. After all, such a quick action can prove to be a grave mistake in the longer term, not seen in the moment it is done."

Ishir could not blame the brother and sister for feeling conflicted yet not wanting to admit it openly. On one hand, he had shown mercy to their father despite that Ayaan normally would have been executed, but at the same time, this meant that the whole Sanctuary was viewing them with distrust because of his actions, and whispers about them possibly going down the same path as Ayaan had done.

With the burial over and escorting their mother back home to the cottage where they had lived in the past seven years, Amari and Sade knew that they had to return to their duties in three days when the mourning period was over.

"Anshu, can you please stay with Mother while we are returning to our duties? The healers said that you can not restart your training yet, because of the injuries you had when coming here."

The seven-year-old looked at Sade, trying to understand her attempt to speak in Hindi since he did not understand much Greek or Arabic yet. Four months ago, Ayaan had informed Pope Ishir that there was something suspicious with the increasing number of new graves on the edge of the rose garden around the Pisces Temple, and during the investigation, it was revealed that the not exactly mentally stable Pisces Saint had hidden a high number of orphans from across the known world and mixed his blood with them all in an attempt to find a successor, almost all of those children had been poisoned to death. Being the only child left alive, with a broken arm and covered in rather nasty bruises that was from the hand size of a adult, Anshu had been brought to the family of the former Gemini Saint since Ishir had hoped that being in a nuclear family may help the traumatized boy to open up and recover from what he had witnessed.

"...help…? Sweeping?" the Indian boy asked slowly, pointing towards the broom used to clean out the henhouse when he did not find the right words. He had begun to talk more and did understand Greek a lot better than before, but today he had been almost as quiet as when he first came to the family, clearly being affected by the death of Ayaan.

"No, no! Just…stay with her, please? She is very sad now because Father is gone," Amari hurried to add in, lifting up his ten years younger foster brother in his arms and carrying him inside to where Fatima had seated herself at her loom to weave more fabric.

"Mrs Fatima!" Anshu said in a slightly raised voice to get her attention.

"Ah, thank you for bringing Anshu indoors, I was worried that he would trip because he was crying so hard earlier. Please, could you bring some more water from the well, please?" Fatima asked as Amari set Anshu down beside her.

"Yes, Mother."

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

Three days later:

Coming near the training area, the twins spit up, with Sade taking the Gemini Cloth.

"I will take the patrol, brother, and you training on developing that new attack that we hope will help you in the future with your congenital hearing impairment?"

He nodded in return. From an early age when their parents had realized why Amari often asked people to repeat themselves or seemed to not hear things clearly when they were in a rather noisy place like a market, they had known that his handicap risked becoming a fatal flaw in battle, especially if he kept losing his hearing over time and eventually went deaf for real.

"Right. Do not let those bullies think that they can target you for their mean words and cruelty about your poor hearing. Remember how Father always said that not all historical Saints in Athena have been of perfect health, be it physical or mentally. Unlike what those poorly educated idiots think, some of the most famous Saints have been among those "flawed" ones that seemed most unlikely to succeed in becoming a Saint and serving Athena."

It was information like this that had helped Amari to not feel like he was worth less than his sister, that his handicap was not an obstacle in the dream of following in their father's footsteps and serving Athena as the Gemini Saint.

"Yes, sweet sister of mine."

For Sade, it was perfectly normal to try supporting her brother at times when she knew that he needed it, but she had also learned from an early age that she had to allow Amari to deal with difficult situations himself. If she acted as if he was helpless without her, then their sibling relationship risked being strained because Amari resented that he was treated like he could not do anything himself and was dependent on others for everything.

Personally, Amari preferred to train in places where other Saint apprentices would be, partly for the fact that he did not want any innocents to end up caught in his slowly developed and more refined new attack.

"Focus on my Cosmo…make a clear image of it in my mind…"

A glowing image of the Zodric showed up under his feet, and it spread out in a very wide circle around him as the center.

"...yes. I can sense something in the distance, since I am using my Seventh Sense to strengthen the reading of my surroundings. A disturbance?"

"Amari!"

Suddenly his focus broke at the cry from Arash, a young student of the Scorpio Saint, who came running. In haste, Amari ended the Cosmo circle so the younger boy were not hurt by mistake.

"Is something wrong…."

"The new Persian girl! Those mean guys who always say that only Greeks should become Saints of Athena! They stole both her clothing and her mask right now when she was washing off in the river after training! I saw them run off with her stuff while she screamed for them to give the clothes back!"

Oh, oh. It was true that female Saints would rather be seen naked than without their masks, unless it was for someone they loved or saw as a very dear friend, but having to remain in the river water, which was rather cold even now in summer?

"I will help. And I will tell Sade about it, too."

Hopefully, his long caftan was enough to cover her up and the sleeves an alternative to cover her face. Not to mention, his sister and her fellow female Saints would never let this go unpunished.

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

Indeed, Sade had met up with the other female Saints for a short talk, when they became aware of an incoming presence.

"Isn't that your twin, Sade?"

Amari landed with grace next to them, carrying a slightly younger person in his arms.

"Nasrin!? What happened, sir Amari?!"

"Her clothes and mask got stolen earlier, which Arash witnessed and came to get me in the hope that I would be able to help her from getting sick, after needing to remain in the river."

Of course, this information caused the atmosphere around all the female Saints to drop in temperature, though it was not aimed at Amari. He always treated them with respect, and this was returned.

"What?!"

"Both her clothes and mask?!"

"Those guys who always look down on you for your hearing problems?" Sade asked in a chilly tone, showing why she was sometimes referred to as the leader of the female Saints.

"Yes."

"Tell young Arash that we will return this favor later, when we have found something suitable for a boy his age. This is a good example of why we Saints should help each other and build up bonds of trust between us."

Taking the twelve-year-old girl from her brother, Nasrin using a wide sleeve on his craftan to cover her face, Sade gave out orders to the others about what to do:

"Spit up in pairs and search for those guys around the Sanctuary! When finding them, let them have a taste of what we female Saints think of this "prank" of theirs!"

Alrough Nasrin was looking away from him, Amari showed why many of the younger children would admire him:

"Let the healers check on you so you do not fall sick from the long stay in the cold water, alright, miss Nasrin?"

Even with the wide sleeve covering her face, it was rather obvious that she was blushing.

"...y-yes!" she said in her native Persian, trying to not stare at him for too long. And Sade had to hold back a smile over that Nasrin would become yet another member of the future Saints who would not view Amari and herself in a negative light for what their late father had done almost two decades ago. That the next generation would see them, the twins who were the current Gemini Saint, as role models.

Helping Nasrin over to a hut where the women and girls would have some spare clothing for this sort of situation, Sade also took the chance to ask:

"Did they…see more of you than your back?"

Realizing what the African woman referred to, Nasrin violently shook her head.

"N…no! I…do not think so…nor did sir Amari…"

"That is good. Those who feel that their souls are not in the right body, are having enough trouble in their everyday life and revealing their naked bodies to others. Poor Anshu will have a hell starting when he starts to bleed every month as a reminder that he actually was born as a girl, and you being a eunuch yet viewing yourself as a girl…"

Althougth Nasrin had not spoken much of it during the months that she had spent so far in the Sanctuary, the scars on her lower body was enough proof of what birth gender she had been originally, and what sort of horror she had faced at a younger age when getting caught by slave traders who specialisted in delivering "safe" workers for royal courts in the East who did not want the women of the royal harem to be guarded by intact men and risk having children not sired by the ruler. In other words, eunuchs, enslaved boys who had been castrated at a young age.

"There is no rule saying that the Saints of Athena must be intact men or following rigid gender norms, Nasrin. You have the same chance to become the Sagittarius Saint, just like all the under students of your trainer."

"You think so, miss Sade?"

Some doubt was understandable, since Nasrin already had faced some difficulties in life so far due to identifying as a girl.

"Yes. It is those like you and Anshu, who must remind those narrow-minded ones that the wearers of the Cloths are all different personalities, strengths and abilities. If Athena did not allow those to become Saints or dismissed them for not living up to an rather limiting ideal of perfectly able bodies and minds with no handicaps at all, quite a few of the historical Holy Wars would have ended with Hades winning."

Those were the teachings of the late Gemini Ayaan to his son and daughter as they grew up, to prepare them for what sort of Goddess they would serve, if they managed to take over his role as the Gemini Saint. And both Amari and Sade had sworn to pass on those teachings to their fellow Saints and new generations.

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

Author note: The future Sagittarius Saint, Nasrin, is a transwoman and Anshu, the future Pisces Saint, is a transman. Arash is the future Scorpio Saint. All three of them are going to be comrades in arms for Amari and Sade in the Holy War

Given the nature of the "Red Blood" ceremony where the Pisces Saints would mix their blood and one of them dying, as well that not all of them may react well to possibly have to live a isolated life away from those who fears the poisonous blood, I think there are some Pisces Saints who have snapped and not proved themselves good trainers for their eventual successors. This is why Pope Ishir ordered that Anshu was to be taken away from his Master to instead be trained by someone else and their contact very limited to only the needed daily mixing of their blood when he is a few years older.