Not My Pyre (A Pearl-Centric Double Life FanFic)

Prologue: Eighteen

Pearl had been awake for twenty-four hours now. She hadn't meant to do it, but... Well. She was excited. It was her eighteenth birthday, and her brothers had been talking about the gifts they had gotten her for a week. Also, she was turning eighteen. That's big and important.

Of course, the Esent-Moon family didn't really pay attention to the importance of age. They just lied. Pearl had been calling herself twenty-one for a year now, and her little brothers had been calling themselves ten - so they could get jobs - for two years.

But it was official! No risk of being caught lying and punished. Pearl was eighteen.

She ran to the dining/living room/kitchen - their house was too small to have those be separate - and was greeted with the sight of her whole family.

Her mother, Maria Esent, who ran an apothecary that may or may not have had a few illegal things in it (doing legal things was not an effective way of getting money in the country of Misharin), sat next to her father, Dan Moon, who had been a bounty hunter and hitman, at the table. Her little brothers, Frey and Jupiter, who were twins, were fighting over something, as usual, while her older brother, Apollo, tried to break it up.

All the Esent-Moon kids were named after a god or goddess from old mythology. Pearl was named after the Gilded Helenthian goddess of farming, Frey was named after the Norse god of summer, Jupiter was named after the Roman god of the sky, and Apollo was named after the Greek god of the sun.

Pearl's mother caught sight of her. "Boys!" She called. "Break it up. The birthday girl's here."

Frey and Jupiter glanced at Pearl, then each other.

"I bet I'll get her my present first - and she'll like it better!" Frey burst into a run, heading in the direction of their room.

"No you won't!" Jupiter chased after him.

Maria sighed. "I told them to have your presents waiting for you, Pearl, but they never listen." She smiled at her daughter. "Luckily, we have a small house and it won't take them long to get the gifts." Said house was so small that Pearl shared a room with her parents and her brothers all shared the second.

"Unless they end up brawling in the hallway. Then they'll take ages." Pearl pointed out.

Apollo laughed. "That does seem likely."

At that moment, the twins came racing back in, Frey two steps ahead of his brother. He rammed into his sister, shoving a package into her hands. "Happy birthday, Pearl!"

Jupiter stopped moments before running into Frey. He reached out and handed his package to Pearl. "Happy birthday, Pearl," he said, sounding slightly defeated.

Pearl balanced both packages in one hand and used the other to mess up her brothers' hair. "Thanks, you two." She smiled.

"You haven't even opened them yet!" Frey laughed.

"Open them!" Jupiter said.

"Fine, fine." Pearl set the packages down on the table and started unwrapping the brown paper from one.

"She's opening mine first!" Jupiter cried triumphantly.

"That doesn't mean she likes it better! She doesn't even know what it is yet!" Frey argued.

They were so competitive, but they loved each other. Everyone in the Esent-Moon family loved each other.

Pearl finished unwrapping the first package. It was a navy blue hoodie - and it was brand-new. It had tags and everything. Very few things were brand-new in their house.