The Twins - NaNoWriMo '07

Chapter 2: Revelations

“Not in my own world? What do you mean?” said Ana.

“You haven’t figured it out yet? All this talk about different Lands? This is not the world you have grown up in, the Land of the Godless. No, you are in the Land of the Goddess: the Land of your father.” Cael said.

“That… that’s impossible,” said Stefan.

“Of course it’s possible. Have you ever seen anything remotely like this?” Cael flung his arm out, encompassing the room. Responding to his gesture, the dark purple curtains folded themselves upwards, revealing a panoramic view from the tower. A wall came to about waist height, and then slender arches met overhead. The countryside was visible for miles around. A sun shined brightly in a turquoise sky, benevolently showering light on orange fields and towering red trees. The place they were in had palace-like dimensions and was built of ivory-colored stone. Pale lavender clouds drifted in the distance. Roads of beaten earth marked the edge of the fields. A road of yellow brick led away from the castle… or was it to?

Ana and Stefan turned every way, their eyes wide and drinking in the landscape.

“My gosh…” Ana breathed, filled with fear and awe, “We’re not even close to home…”

“It’s a shame it isn’t evening, or you would see a spectacular sunset, and the moonrise of our two moons and the Sister Stars. In fact, it is in one of the Sister Stars that your world is located.” He continued.

“You can see Earth from here?” said Stefan.

“No, but we can see what you call the Milky Way – what we call the White Light,” replied Cael.

“How long have we been here?” Ana asked abruptly.

“The end of the day and a night. Time works the same in our worlds,” Elena replied.

Ana looked horrified, “Louise and Joe will be missing us! As well as Mrs MacMillan and Mr Nepo! And our friends! Stefan, we have to go back!” She turned to her brother.

“Ana, you can’t,” Elena said sternly. Cael laid a hand on her arm. She softened, “The destiny of my world rests on you and your brother’s shoulders. The destiny of your world potentially does too, as our two worlds are closely linked.”

“How so?” Ana asked defiantly.

“We are the in the Land of the Goddess. The Goddess’s personal retreat, once a month. In your world, the moon goes through phases – and they are important.”

“Yeah, with the whole oceans’ tide thing and women’s periods. We know that.” Said Stefan.

“But what you do not know, is that a Goddess controls this. And that Goddess is the Goddess of the Moon, Lady Selene. My patron.”

“So you’re saying we’re on the moon?” said Stefan.

“No idiot, Cael said that they could see the Milky Way rise.” Retorted Ana, lightly punching his arm. He frowned at her.

“You are on a far more sacred place. The worshippers of the Moon Cult come here when they depart your Land or any other Land,” continued Elena.

“So we’re in a sort of graveyard for souls?” said Ana.

“No. You are in the Moon’s Heaven.”

Stefan was sceptical. Neither he nor Ana had ever been brought up religiously, and didn’t believe in heaven or hell, or any greater power except for Nature.

“You are sceptical,” said Elena, “I don’t blame you. After all, you do come from the Land of the Godless… I suppose it was too much of me to think that you would instantly accept everything we told you.”

Ana gave a short nod of agreement, and exchanged a glance with her brother. Who the hell were these people?! She was beginning to think that they had just been kidnapped by some kind of fanatic couple.

“Surely there are others of …you.” She said, “I mean, the two of you don’t just live in this castle fortress thing alone, do you?”

Elena and Cael openly laughed.

“Dear Lady, no, we definitely do not live here alone. There are servants – you have met Shanah –”

“Speaking of which, why are her eyes all white? You and Cael have normal enough eyes.” Stefan asked.

“She is a Sol girl, she comes from a tribe of desert-dwellers. Her eyes are a little disconcerting at first, it is true.” Elena answered, “Other members of the household include my husband and three children, Cael’s sister and her family, as well as various members of both extended families. It may seem imposing, but it is really a homey place.”

A bell discreetly rang in the room.

“Ah, lunch is ready!” exclaimed Cael, rubbing his hands, “I believe you two can just meet most of the family now.” Ana and Stefan looked at each other, surprised and apprehensive.

“Isn’t our presence here somewhat …compromising?” said Stefan.

“And wouldn’t it be better for us to eat in our room instead? To mull over everything you’ve told us?” Ana added.

“I don’t quite see how your presence is compromising,” said Cael, “But I suppose you may eat in your rooms if you wish. After all, some members of my family will be doing so.”

“I’ll help you find your way,” said Elena, “Go on Cael, I’ll join you after in the main hall.”

“Alright… do show them where we’ll be, in case they change their minds.” He replied, before she and the twins walked out of the tower room. Cael looked around him, then swept his left arm downwards; the dark purple curtains replaced themselves where they were previously, hiding the fiery landscape from view.

“Indeed, I’ll meet you later my sweet Elena,” the mage murmured, “But first, I must contact someone…”


Ana and Stefan strained to keep note of the corridors and halls they passed through to get an idea of how to navigate themselves through the fortress. Elena showed them the main hall where family members were already gathering for a meal around two or three long tables. As it turned out, their rooms were only two staircases and four hallways away, and the first door on the left.

“I’ll send Shanah up with a selection of food. Come to the main hall when you feel ready, if not, I’ll be back in a couple hours or so.” She bade them a good meal and left. Ana listened for her steps to echo down the hall and, when she was sure she was gone, she stood and closed the door.

“Sweet mother of Mary, what the hell was that all about?! Sprouting magic and prophecies, and we’re not even close to home apparently, and supposedly we’ve got magic?” She looked at her arms, half-expecting to see glittery lines belying the presence of something she had never believed in previously.

Stefan looked at her curiously. His head was throbbing a little from where he had taken a hit on the bus, but apart from that, he was doing fine. Unlike his sister, he was beginning to believe Elena and Cael. It was as though his thoughts and Ana’s regarding the whole matter had switched at some point when they were in the tower.

“It does kind of make sense though…” he ventured.

“How? We’ve never shown any signs of magic or anything. We’re just a pair of fraternal twins who never knew their father – and that isn’t so uncommon anymore – and whose mother died when we were at an early age. It’s not like it’s our fault. We don’t even look that special! In all the books where kids are the miracle prodigy, they always look special: either they’ve got an unusual eye/hair/skin color combination, or they’re poor but crazy smart, or, or, they’re really unhappy and then they discover that they can do amazing things. None of that has ever happened to us.”

“We’re not in a fantasy novel Ana… we’re in real life.” He walked over and pinched her really hard on the arm.

“OW!” Ana yelled, “What was that for?”

“Real life check,” Stefan cheekily smiled.

“You didn’t have to do it so hard,” Ana frowned, rubbing at the spot. She would have a bruise for sure.

Someone knocked at the door. Stefan went to open it, and Shanah walked in with a large tray, heavily laden with food.

“Oh good! Thanks Shanah,” Ana forced herself to look into the girls’ eyes and smile. She received a timid smile in return.

“Will you be needing anything else?” she asked in a soft voice.

“No, thanks,” Ana smiled again. Shanah bowed, and left the room. Stefan closed the door, and walked to the table where they had previously eaten the stew. Ana crossed the room and firmly slid the bolt home.

“You’re suspicious, aren’t you?”

“Darn right I am. Although the idea of magic is tempting me,” Ana grinned wickedly at her brother, “Aah, the pranks I could pull…”

“Ana! If we do go through the awakening of our powers, which I still think is a dangerous idea, we would have to use it for the power of good, just like in the novels,”

“Aha! Now you’re the one who’s placing us in a novel!” She wagged her finger at him, as she picked up a piece of bread and bit into it.

“But you’ve got to admit, so much of this just doesn’t make sense.”

“So? Since when has any of this strange adventure made sense?” Ana popped a cherry in her mouth, “I’m game. Are you?”

“Well… Yes, I guess I am.” He grinned at his sister.

Just then, the door flew open clean off its hinges. Tendrils of grey smoke curled around the doorframe. Ana and Stefan backed to the wall, between the two beds. It wasn’t the ideal hiding place, but it would do. A thick odor of decomposition hit them in a wave, before clearing again. The smoke, however, stayed. The twins looked at each other in fear, wondering what was going on. Ana’s memory flashed back to the bus: there too there had been a smell of decomposition along with burning rubber. Just then, a black flame appeared in the bottom left corner of the doorframe. Rather than burn the wood as would’ve been expected, it just quivered there, as though it were …‘searching!’ Ana thought.

“Stefan, we have to get out of here. Don’t react, but the black flame there is the same as there was on the bus’ wheels.” She heard him gasp lightly.

“There is a door on the other side of the bed on my left. I think we should try it. There’s no way we’re getting past the main door.

Just then, they heard Elena’s frantic voice, “Ana! Stefan! Where are you?”

Ana didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t respond; the flame would pinpoint her in an instant. On the other hand, she and Stefan would have to climb over the bed to get to the door, and the flame would definitely see them then.

“On my count to three, you go over the bed first and get through the door. I’m going to tell Elena we’re in here and follow you.” she whispered to her brother. He nodded shortly. “One… two… three! WE’RE IN HERE ELENA!” she yelled, pushing her brother over the bed and following him.

The black flame reared instantly, shining darkly like tainted silver. Stefan reached the door and turned the handle, pushing. It wouldn’t give. He pushed as hard as he could, and it resisted.

“PULL STEFAN!” He pulled, and the door swung open easily. Feeling very foolish, he darted inside and Ana followed him, pulling the door closed behind her. She slid the bolt, and turned to her brother and the room. It was not a room properly said, as she expected. Instead, a torch was in its torch hold on the right wall, and it feebly illuminated what seemed to be a passage. Pressing her ear to the door, she could hear movement. Not wanting to find out if it was Elena or the flame, Ana took the torch and motioned to her brother to stay silent and to follow her. The passage had to end somewhere. Ana just hoped it was somewhere friendly.


They hadn’t walked for a long time, when they came to another door. There was another torch hold, with a new torch at the ready. Ana handed the lit torch to Stefan, and tentatively touched the wood. It felt normal to the touch, not burning or weak. She felt for a handle, and found a knob with a ring attached to it on the right. Grasping the ring, she turned, and slowly inched the door forward. It gave way easily, and Ana peered carefully into the space beyond.

It bore no significant decorations. A lone and dusty tapestry hung on the far wall. There was a desk, a couple chairs, a table, and a fireplace – all cold and empty. Ana motioned to Stefan to come in, and she closed the door behind him. A little cloud of dust puffed from the doorframe. They turned to the room. All the furniture was dulled by a thick layer of dust. There were two windows. The light streamed through with difficulty, and a few dust motes hovered in the rays.

“It looks like no one’s been here in years,” whispered Ana.

“Why are you whispering?” asked Stefan. His voice reverberated “ ‘re you whispering… ‘ispering… ering…”

“That’s why.” She rolled her eyes.

“So, mighty leader, where are we off to from here?” Stefan asked mockingly.

“I don’t know, I think we need to hook up with Elena and Cael. Preferably before anyone follows us down that passage.” She walked back up to the door and pulled it open. The passageway was dark. She closed and locked the door again.

“I think we have just one problem,” said Stefan.

“Which is…?”

“There is no other door.”

Ana looked around carefully, but her brother was right: Apart from the door to the passageway, there was no other door. It was then that she noticed the bed. From the four posters hung curtains that were so incrusted with dirt and dust that they had blended with the wall at first.

“Stefan, look! There’s a bed.”

“Yeah… So?”

“I don’t know… but doesn’t it strike you as odd for there to be a bed in a corner when the room looks like a deserted study?”

Stefan shrugged, “Not so much, no.”

Ana sighed, “Let’s go have a look,” she held the torch up and walked to the bed. The curtains were hanging shut, which also struck her as strange. Fumbling, she looked for the opening. As she found it and began to separate the curtains one-handed, a thin bony claw seemed to grip her wrist in a vice.

“STEFAN!!” she yelled. He ran over, and wrenched the curtains open. A wraith-like creature stared back at them with huge pale eyes and small sharp teeth. Its eyes glittered with madness.

“Masters is finally bringing food! Yesssss yessss Masters know Hrael is hungry!” Its hissing sent foul-smelling spit on Ana’s face.

“What are you? Let go of me!” Ana cried. Hrael let go abruptly.

“Why is they speaking? Masters know Hrael don’t like talkers. Masters know Hrael just want food, juicy meat.” It retreated in the corner, squatting on it’s thin limbs.

“Ana, are you okay?” Stefan looked at his sister with concern. She looked at her wrist: there were dark red marks where the wraith had held her.

“I’ll be fine. What is this place?”

“Who is you?” Hrael asked, tentatively coming forward, “Why is Masters sending you to Hrael?”

“We… Your masters didn’t send us. We found this place accidentally.” Stefan replied, thinking this little wraith might be able to show them another way out.

“How is you coming here?”

“Through that door,” Stefan pointed, looking at the same time. He gasped. The wall was completely smooth. There was no door. “Whaa…?”

Hrael laughed raucously, “You is crazy man. You is coming here by magic, yes?”

“No, no. I swear, there was a door there, and we came from the other room. The guest bedroom Elena put us in!” Stefan looked at his sister for support. She nodded, but her eyes were confused.

“Stefan… I think we really need to get out of here now.” She said.

He nodded his agreement, “But where to? And how?”

“We need to find Elena and Cael. She was looking for us before we came here,”

Hrael hissed and retreated further, “Why you want business with bad bad persons?”

Stefan frowned, “What do you mean?”

“The man is bad bad. He is not caring about you. He is not caring about woman or anyone. He is just caring for him. Him and power.”

“Cael?” Ana said incredulously. Hrael shuddered at the name.

“Me calls him Master. Me is scared of Master.” He bowed his head, and scratched it over backwards.

“And who are you?” Ana asked.

“Me is Hrael. Me is not wanted in main hall. Me is a disgrace and a shame. Me is Master’s son.”

Ana and Stefan gasped. “But he told us he had no family.”

“He is a liar.” Hrael spat on he bedcovers, “And he is forgetting Hrael again. Me has no food for very long time now. Me is hungry.” He hissed, showing his pointy teeth.

“Hrael,” Ana said his name softly. His head jerked up, his eyes wide, as though no one had ever called him by his name before, “Is there a way to get out of here? To leave?”

He laughed gutturally, “No miss, is there no exit. Otherwise, Hrael be long gone.”


Ana and Stefan sat on the edge of the couch, lifting a cloud of dust in the process. Hrael did not leave the bed.

“We’re trapped,” said Stefan, “We’re trapped in another world than our own, no one knows were here, and we’re in the company of the illegitimate son of a guy we thought was on our side. Then again, he might still be on our side and it might just be Hrael’s resentment and anger at being shut up his whole life that fuels his opinion.”

Ana sighed, “We should’ve had our powers awakened. Maybe with those we could’ve… I don’t know, teleported ourselves home.”

“Hey… that’s just it! We need to awaken our powers!”

“Are you crazy?! We don’t know how and besides, don’t you need magic to awaken the powers of another?”

He sighed against the couch, “I suppose you’re right.”

“Might me be of help?” said Hrael from his bed, “I is knowing magic.”

“You do?” Ana said, sitting up.

“I is able to not do very much,” he looked sad, and hit his head with his fist, “But I is able to try and talk to Master. I is needing food, and I is not wanting to eat you. If Master is looking for you, he will be happy to find you, and maybe happy with Hrael too.” His face lit up at the prospect.

Stefan and Ana looked at each other.

“It could work…” she said.

“I feel bad about leaving him here though. Seeing how he’s been treated, I highly doubt that Cael’s going to welcome him home.”

“I know… We should definitely come back for him though. Strange as he is, he’s starting to grow on me.” Ana smiled and spoke up, “Okay Hrael, go ahead.”

The wraith stood in the center of his bed, and put his hands together. A rope of sparkly reddish light twined around his hands, then his throat and head before shooting upwards through the ceiling.

“Now we wait.” He stated, and promptly sat down.

Cael was not long in coming. He appeared in a whirlwind of pale vapor, a scowl on his face, which was immediately replaced by slight confusion.

“What are you two doing here?” He exclaimed, entirely disregarding Hrael, “Elena and I have been looking all over the castle for you.”

“We don’t know how we got here. We just sort of… got here accidentally,” said Ana, omitting the presence of the doors and passageway.

“It’s really thanks to Hrael that you’ve been able to find us. We have no way of getting out of here, or of communicating with you,” added Stefan, emphasizing the wraith’s role in the situation.

Cael seemed confused, “Hrael? Who’s this?”

“Your son, Cael… The poor boy on the bed,” said Ana, and instantly realized she had made a mistake in calling Hrael his son. Cael’s face clouded darkly and he glanced at the wraith on the bed.

“Is that what he calls himself now? He is no son of mine,” he said angrily, “Come you two, I’ll magic us out of here to my tower. Elena is waiting for us up there.” Stefan rose to stand by Cael, but Ana walked away at first. She went to the bed, and sat on the edge.

Looking into Hrael’s eyes, she said, “Don’t worry, we’ll come back for you. We won’t forget.” Hrael’s eyes shined brightly and he nodded once.

“Me thanks you,” he whispered, “Go now, before Master gets very angry.” Ana nodded and went to stand next to Stefan. She gripped his hand, and made a small wave to Hrael. He returned the gesture. Cael saw none of it. Grasping Stefan and Ana’s shoulders, they dissolved in thin air...


…And reappeared in a room neither twin had been in before. Cael held their shoulders firmly, and led them to two chairs. The room was faintly lit by candles in a few candleholders that were dispersed around the room. There were no windows. Ana and Stefan sat down, and Cael released their shoulders to walk around to face them. Wit his feet planted firmly on the ground, anger painted his features as he looked at the two people who had discovered his darkest and most shameful secret.

“You are not to tell anyone what you saw in that room. You are not even to say you were in such a room.” He said harshly, “That creature is no son of mine.”

Ana, who had always been very motivated to defend the rights of anybody, be they human or animal, spoke up.

“Then why do you keep him?”

The question caught him off-guard. He had no answer, and only fixed her with his blue eyes that had be come as hard as chips of ice. Ana stared unwaveringly into his eyes, until he finally glanced away. ‘One point to me,’ she thought.

“If we’ve apparently never been to this room,” drawled Stefan, “Then what are we supposed to tell Elena? She must be frantic with worry, because she heard us say we were in the room where she left us, and then we disappeared.”

Cael turned his head to look at him, “What makes you think you are going to see her any time soon?” he asked softly, “She doesn’t know of the room where the creature is… the same way she doesn’t know about this room. For a traveler like she, she is remarkably unaware of the secrets of her own surroundings.”

Ana tried very hard not to let her fear flicker across her face. She thought of a blank wall to block Cael’s potential prodding of her mind, and hoped Stefan would think of the same. She may not have her awakened powers or have been instructed in magic, but she knew a trick or two, and the rest she could figure out for herself.

“I am going to go and inform Elena that my search was unsuccessful,” Cael said tonelessly, “And then… who knows when I’ll be back for you?” His dark blue eyes glittered, and he vanished in a cloud of vapor.

“Ana…”

“Shh. In a minute,”

When she was sure they were entirely alone, she said, “Go on.”

“What are we going to do? We, once again, have no idea where we are.”

“Yes we do. We know we haven’t left the castle. And if we haven’t left the castle, then there must be another way out. The door may have vanished after we came through it, but it was there. And if there are occurrences like those, it seems that even Cael doesn’t know the entire extent of the castle’s possessions.”

“Ana, you’re a genius. I don’t know what I would do without you.” Stefan looked immensely relieved. Though the older of the two by seven minutes, he was much more content with following instructions than making up his own.

“When he told us that Elena didn’t know about this room, were you scared?” Ana asked.

“Shitless,” was his uncouth reply.

“And what did you do?”

“I just thought about wanting to go home and wanting this to be over I guess…”

Ana sighed, “Here’s what you’ve got to do around him: veil your thoughts. Remember how Elena showed us how she could know what we were thinking? Well I think Cael can do the same. I think that if our powers had been awakened, we would’ve been able to feel them tiptoeing around our minds, but at this point, I think that the best thing we can do is keep our thoughts hidden at all times.”

“But how do we do that?”

“Easy. You imagine a wall, or a blank board, for example, and you put it at the front of your thoughts. Like something enveloping everything else. And I think that the important thing is to believe it’s strong enough to resist anyone who tries to come in, so to speak.”

“Okay… but doesn’t that sound easier than it seems?”

“Not really,” Ana replied, “Then again, I couldn’t feel him testing our waters either way, so I don’t know. But we can try.”

They sat in silence for a minute, then Ana picked up one of the candle holders and held it up.

“Since we’ve got nothing else to do, we might as well check out exactly what this room looks like.”

Sadly, that was accomplished faster than they wished. It was about three meters by four meters, and very Spartan. There was nothing adorning the walls of solid stone. The floor had no rug, and besides the two chairs, there was a small table and a washbasin with no water. Judging from the moist feel in the corners, Ana presumed they were in a dungeon of some sort.

“The problem is, we know very little about what powers we’re supposed to have and how to use them…” murmured Ana.

“Huh? What did you say?”

“Not much, just talking out loud. I knew we should’ve had our powers awakened earlier today! Not that I knew this was going to happen, but… I don’t know. It’s kind of all confused.” She sighed, “At least we know Cael’s not on our side.”

“Yeah, although knowing that earlier would’ve been helpful,” Stefan said dryly.

“You don’t think –? No, I’m sure he didn’t,”

“Ana, you’re talking in half sentences again.”

“I meant Hrael. You don’t think he knew that Cael might not bring us back to where we wanted to be?”

“No. I think he was genuinely trying to help us. I don’t know why I think that, but I do. He looked totally starved, but seemed to only communicate with Cael. He also didn’t talk about Elena at all, which leads me to believe that he doesn’t know who she is, or that she possesses magic, like Cael,” said Stefan, “I think we probably should’ve pushed the issue a little farther and asked him to try and contact Elena. The only problem with that is –”

“–that maybe he can only communicate with people he knows. Which, in this case, is only Cael. And that brings us back to our starting point.” Ana sighed, frustrated.

Stefan whacked her on the head.

“Ow! What was that for?!” She rubbed the place where he hit her.

“‘Doesn’t matta, it’s in the past!’ ” He imitated Rafiki from The Lion King, their favorite Disney movie, “‘So! What are you going to do?’ ” He shrugged, smiling in a silly way, “Ah, I don’t know… I guess there’s nothing much to do.” He sat down on the chair again. Well, he slumped on it, more like. Ana shoved herself off from the table against which she had been leaning, and it skidded across the room. She righted the candlestick before the fire caught on the wooden table. She began to pace, when the ground suddenly felt different under her feet. Grabbing the candlestick, she brought it down to the ground.

“Stefan, look!” She gestured the ground. Instead of stone, there was a smooth square of wood, measuring about a fifty centimeters by fifty centimeters.

“It looks like a trapdoor!” she said.

“With no ring to pull it up,” noticed Stefan. He got up and pulled the table closer so they could set the candlestick on it and search with both their hands. The edges seemed melded with the stone: there was practically no seam.

“Aha!” Stefan exclaimed softly. His fingers hooked under the wood in the narrow crevice. A prickling at the nape of Ana’s neck and a sense of foreboding made her stand up.

“Quick, help me pull the table over the trapdoor!”

“What? But we just found it!”

“Be quiet, I think someone’s coming. Hurry!”

They pulled the table and Ana sat on its edge, with the candlestick next to her. Stefan sat on the chair facing her.

“Don’t forget to hide your thoughts,” she murmured, just as Cael appeared in the corner of the room.