The Kindgom of Heaven and Hell

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Faline all but cowered at the back of the great hall. She hated meetings. They were often times full of loud angry men who had a tendency to throw things. This night was no different. The entire village had shown up, despite the raging storm outside. Every man from every family was there, shouting to be heard over the next.
Her father, the Jarl, was seated at the head of it all, one long leg draped over his ornate throne. For a while he remained silent, his eyes not one the villagers, but going from the young woman hiding under one of the tables near the door to her sister who sat on top of it, holding onto a rather heavy broad sword. He shook his head at both of them. 
Oalf sighed heavily and held up a hand to silence the crowd. "I am fully aware of the danger we now face from the outlanders. And I am aware that those who cross our borders are far from human. However, I am not sure if we warrant help from out bordering villages. If we decide to seek help, we will need to go to the king. But...he is a bartering man. I am not sure we have anything he will find worthy enough..."

Faline shook her head. "I don't know. I'm so confused, Lucian. I feel so lost. Everything I know is wrong and..." She closed her eyes, unable to stop the tears that slid down her cheeks. "I'm so afraid. I don't understand anything anymore. Not even you. You're not who I thought you were..." 

"Don't...go too...far..." Braun muttered. Her warmth was stealing over him like sleeping potion. He was having trouble fighting it. "Stay where I can feel you." It wasn't more than a moment later and he was snoring loudly. 

Serah closed her eyes, the laughter gone but not the tears. "It was not my fault this time, my lord. I know I still have a job to do." She whispered, her teeth gritted in hate. She didn't turn to him. It was rare that she looked at him. He'd never given her that curtousy. Why should she do that much for him?

"I don't think that's it at all." Lucian breathed, catching the tear with his thumb. "You do know who I am, you are just uncertain of what, I am."

Cessily used Braun's dagger to tear off the bottom off her dress before using it to keep a fire going. That done, she picked up the bow she had made the previous day and set off into the trees. Whatever that thing was that had attacked them hours ago... It was still out there.

"You got careless." Sandman breathed. "I know my baby brother came for a visit. You allowed him to control you, and you did it because you were trying to escape me."

"I was taught from birth to fear you and yet...here you are and you're kind. You whisper words to me that I've never dreamed anyone would ever say. Inside I feel that everything father said was wrong but...my brain tells me I should still obey him. He is my father after all. Isn't that what good girls are supposed to do?" Faline whispered. 

"You can't prove anything. I didn't see anything." Serah muttered, keeping her eyes on the darkness ahead. Where was Lord Death? Why wouldn't he come for her? She was dead. She had the same rights as every other creature. Didn't she?

"Who defines what is good?" Lucian breathed gently. "What if good girls are supposed to question everything and find answers for themselves?"

"Then you meant every word you said to my lovely prize?" Sandman asked, his town making it clear that Serah should choose her words carefully.

Faline laughed softly at this. "More proof that you and I do not live in the same world. Good girls keep their mouth shut and their hands to themselves. One can never catch a husband by being curious my father always said. My sister was everything you just said and look where it has gotten her." 

Serah snorted at this, rubbing her arms at the bitter cold that surrounded her. "I said so many things, my lord. I'm not sure which you are referring to. But if it makes you feel better, probably."

"It's gotten her travelling with the man she was destined to be with." Lucian breathed. "If someone as annoying as her can find someone, maybe there is hope for us?" He teased.

Sandman clucked his tongue. "Wrong answer, little one." He breathed, the darkness fading and the snowy forest coming back into focus. "You belong to me, you will never be free until I have everything I deserve."

Faline laughed openly at this, the sound no longer guarded. Her smile was once again her own, warm and inviting. "Perhaps you are right." She nodded, sliding his hands into hers. "So, tell me more about your little brother while I find us something to eat. I'm only a little ashamed to admit I'm starving, sire." 

Serah took in a gasping breath, horrified to find herself lying on the ground and not still pinned to the tree. "No. No. No!" She screamed this at the top of her lungs. The sound sent crows wheeling into the air, protesting all the way.

"Should I be jealous?" Lucian asked with a smirk as he took Faline's hand and pulled her in the direction of the kitchen. "He's rather annoying, you know."

"Your sister accepted it." Sandman mocked as he simply looked down at Serah.

"Why would you be jealous?" Faline asked, raising an eyebrow as she followed him. "I would think you of all people would know he is way too high strung for me. Just listening to him from the window made a nervous wreck." She laughed. She was glad when they were back in the kitchen. She felt back in her element here. 

"My sister was going to be a queen. She was trained to do that." Serah whispered, her chest rising and falling as she began to sob. She wasn't sure she could take this anymore. She was so alone. She couldn't handle being alone. She needed people. She needed beauty. This world of ice and snow gave her none of those things. "Please. You have to let me go."

Lucian only smiled, nor answering Faline's question. "I can tell you your father is still alive." He confessed after a moment. "He never crossed over to the afterlife, or I would have felt it."

"And what were you trained for, little one?" Sandman asked, ignoring her plea. "You hated your youngest sister simply because Cordelia told you to, what does that say about you?"

Faline gave a smile sigh of relief. "That's a bit of good news I suppose. You probably also know whether he's really sick or not, right?" She asked, glancing over her shoulder as she looked through the cabinet for something that looked edible. "I feel guilty about leaving him alone out there." 

"I don't have to explain myself to you." Serah snapped, careful to keep her eyes on anything but him. Off in the distance she could again hear the sound of a man's laughter. "I owe you nothing. You are my jailer. Not my lover or my husband. I owe you nothing but a good death, you son of a bitch!"

"The only place your father is sick, is in the head." Lucian replied with a bitter snort. "The way he treated you was inexcusable!"

"But you wish it wasn't so." Sandman cooed in Serah's ear. "You wish you were the one I chose, that is why you really hate little Lily."

"He was just scared, Lucian." Faline said softly, frowning at the thought that she'd almost called him the name of the character from a story. "He probably senses the wrold is changing too. With all these gods waking up, the human world has got to be feeling it too." 

"I didn't want you." Serah spat. "My sister and I saw you when you rode into the castle the night before. I was praying my father saw you for the monster you were. I acted like a spoiled brat for a reason, Sandman. I was waiting for a handsome man. Not an ugly toad!"

"Being afraid is no reason to treat you like an object to be traded." Lucian insisted. "He had your sister to protect him anyway."

"You would have been waiting a very long time, no one man would ever want you." Sandman sneered in Serah's face.

"And then she left too and he was alone...Hade....Lucian...there is no food here. We need to eat something. You said yourself a part of you is human. I'm sure I heard your stomach growling too." Faline sighed, partly because she wanted to change the subject away from her father. 

Serah slammed her eyes closed so that she wouldn't see him. He could stand there as long as he wanted and she wouldn't open them again until he was gone. "Go away, toad. You don't scare me." She said softly, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

Right on cue Lucian's stomach growled loudly. The king smiled sheepishly and ran his fingers through his well groomed hair. "You're right, I can't keep you locked away here with me forever."

"You couldn't even overpower your baby sister." Sandman sneered before disappearing right as one of Cessily's arrows came whizzing through the trees to hit the space where he had previously been stood.

Faline laughed, her grin infectious. "All right then. So how are you at hunting? I've told you how I am at it. That leaves just leaves you." She tapped him on the nose. 

"I wasn't trying." Serah muttered, opening her eyes as the arrow thudded into the tree in front of her. "Still trying to kill me, little sister?" She called out. "You are seriously bad at this killing thing aren't you?"

Lucian grinned again. "I am Lord Death, aren't i?" He teased, opening the back door and gesturing Faline outside. "Let us see what I can do..."

Cessily stepped from behind a tree not far away, her deep green eyes narrowed when she saw Serah alive and well. "Or perhaps you are simply not human."

Faline shook her head, clearly not impressed. "It's one thing to collect a soul, Hades. It's another to hunt for food." She reminded him. "I will believe those hunter skills when I see them, my darling." 

"Puppet. Same thing." Serah said, resting her hand at her throat. "Your brute snores like a bear. I guess you could say he wakes the dead." She muttered, her thoughts dark as she found herself hating Hades. He'd ignored her soul and once again left her for the puppet master. He was almost as crule as his brother.

"And I suppose you are any better, princess?" Lucian mused, his brow arched in amusement. "Do you even know how to ride a horse?"

"He is exhausted because of you." Cessily replied thinly, her fingers still holding her bow, ready to tense it at any moment.

"I'm afraid of horses." Faline muttered, turning her head at just the right moment so that it was hard to hear her. "Are you going to use magick, Lucian? Because that would be cheating." She said, turning back to grin at him and effectively change the subject. 

"And none of it was your fault?" The ice nymph asked, raising an eyebrow at her younger sister. "You were the one murdering things last night. Not me. I have to add you failed miserably at that, by the way." She snorted, looking at her nails. "He's given me another face, hasn't he?" She asked, now reaching up to touch her features. "Good for him. Don't suppose you're willing to tell me what I look like, are you?"

"What exactly do you consider magick?" Lucian asked with a smirk as a breeze flew past Faline and whipped her silken hair around.

"After the way you treated Braun, why would I do a thing to help you?" Cessily snorted, not caring what Serah had done to he as much as what she had said about Braun.

The breeze felt so good to her. Faline couldn't help but close her eyes for a moment or two. "That's not magick." She whispered. "That was a breeze and a luck guess." She laughed softly, her eyes still closed. 

"I called him a few bad names. It wasn't like I raped him or stabbed him or anything like that." Serah snorted, rolling her eyes. "You're being a bit dramatic. You remind me so much of..." She paused, finding herself suddenly unable to even speak her elder sister's name.

The breeze blew again and a single snowflake fell in the tip of Faline's pert nose. "You're right, mere luck." Lucian agreed with a click of his tongue.

Cessily snorted and rolled her eyes. "What do you know of over dramatic? I have only ever done what was needed to keep Faline safe! She is my sister, no one else!"

Faline laughed again, shaking her head. She peeked through her lashes at him, seeing him in a different light. "You should have shown me this side of you from the very beginning." She breathed. "I think I like this." 

"Again. Not your sister." Serah said, though she was beginning to get the idea that their realtionship as siblings was much deeper than the one that she remembered. The hatred she held for her was rooted in something much darker than just a few lifetimes. Something else had happened. Something to do with someone named... "Apollo...does that name mean anything to you?" Even saying made her stomach churn. Like she was forgetting something that should be very important to her.

"Ŷou may have cried witch craft and had them trying to burn me at the stake." Lucian chuckled,a few more flakes of snow falling.

"Apollo?" Cessily asked with a frown. "I don't know, who is it?" She asked, feeling like maybe she was supposed to know, but had simply forgotten.

Faline opened her eyes, watching the flakes falling all around her. She found beauty where most did not. "I'd be afraid I would lose you." She whispered, turning to him so that they were now standing face to face. "I have a strange feeling I have lost you more than once...Hades..." 

Serah shook her head. For some reason her sister saying the name only made her feel that much worse. "Just...don't say it again." She muttered, rubbing at her elbows. It reminded her of golden eyes and a laughing smile. Of sunshine. "I haven't seen the sun in so long." She whispered. "What's it like?"

The snow suddenly stopped, Lucian watching Faline with a rather pained expression. "Hades... I haven't heard you call me that in so long..." He breathed, looking like someone had just ripped his heart out. "Do you... Remember anything else?"

"Hot. Disgusting. I don't like it." Cessily snorted. "It bleaches the colour from everything and leaves it looking old and worn."

"I remember..." Faline surprised them both by pressing her lips to his. The kiss was deep and filled with longing. It wasn't something a timid girl would give to a possible lover. It was one a wife would give to her husband. Her fingers threaded through his hair as she dared to pull him closer to her. 

Serah gave an anguished cry and dove on the younger woman, tackling her into the snow. "Don't you ever say that again!" She shouted. Through her rage she was unable to hear the sound of a man's laughter. She didn't even know why she was so upset. She just knew that the words made her so angry she could no longer do anything but try and pull out Cessily's hair.

Lucian was clearly quite surprised by the kiss, but he instantly recognised the woman giving it to him. His Persephone was right there, teasing him. He knew she wouldn't stay forever, Faline's own memories would return and he would be left hurting from this one delicious kiss. As it was, he planned to a joy every moment of it. His hands held the young woman tight against him, longing to feel her skin against his own.

Cessily was giving as good as she got, jabbing a few pinches into Serah's ribs as they rolled through the snow. Even she didn't hear the mans laughter, all she knew was that she was not going to let this woman, whoever she really was, get the better of her.