Lightning tore the sky open.
Deep in the unmarked wilds, far from any royal crest or courtly claim, fire raged across the forested hills. At the center of the devastation, a house, no, a sanctuary, was collapsing into ruin.
Inside, a man knelt in the rubble, cradling the still, broken body of a woman. Her pale hand rested limp against his bloodstained tunic. Her final act had been shielding their children from the blades meant for him.
He whispered her name, though no one remained to hear it.
Behind him, two bundles cried in woven cloth. Newborn twins squirmed with instinct, unknowingly bathed in the scent of ash and blood.
Footsteps approached. Two figures emerged through the firelight. The woman moved like a shadow, the man like iron. His apprentices. His final card.
"Take them," he said without turning.
The silver-haired woman hesitated only a moment before lifting the girl. "What of the curse?"
"I've sealed it into their mana," he said, voice cold and hollow. "If they reunite... if they stand side by side..." He paused. "It will be the end of everything."
The black-armored man picked up the boy. "Then this is goodbye."
He nodded. "You will raise them apart. Teach them. Hide the truth."
"And you?" the woman asked quietly.
The man looked down at his wife's face. His fingers trembled as he brushed away the soot clinging to her cheek. "I'll make sure they get away."
Then came the sound of armor and steel, shouts, enemy footsteps closing in. Too many. Too fast.
The apprentices turned. "We must leave."
He didn't look back. "Go. Now."
They vanished into the smoke, each carrying half of a legacy that could tear the world in two.
When he heard the last trace of their magic vanish into the night, the man stood, still holding his wife. He walked to the center of the chamber and closed his eyes.
And then he whispered a single word.
The ground shook.
From miles away, the explosion could be seen, red, violent, unnatural. A pillar of fire devoured the trees, cracked the sky, and burned away all who followed.
No name was left in the wreckage. Only silence...
Years later…
In a quiet border village, a girl with black eyes laughed under the morning sun.