But I'll know (I'll know)

Prologue

Xelqua was born a watcher. Grian was born a player. They are one and the same.

Watchers can have two sets of parents. Sometimes they have two or three biological parents. Grian happened to have four. Watchers are typically raised by the players whom the watchers make them with.

The first watcher is one of his mothers. She would visit him in person if she could and in his dreams if she couldn't. She made him feel like the prince that he technically was.

The second watcher was another one of his mothers. She seldom saw him in person. But almost always joined her wife in his dreams. She made him feel exactly the same as his Muzza.

Grian's player parents didn't like him very much. Eventually, they left him alone a lot.

Grian didn't care very much. He had his two godly moms and their love for him was more than enough.
Grian didn't have a place to stay for a long time. Grian was a player and Xelqua was a watcher. While they were the same, and his mothers loved him, he couldn't stay with them long-term.

Xelqua and Grian were the same age. They were practically children. Watchers could stay in the end forever, but players couldn't. Grian could stay in the deep end for much longer than a regular player without getting sick, but it's not enough to live there, to make it his home.

Grian was almost alone for years. He went to school, he trained his powers, and he flew. Grians wings were a brilliant red. A cardinal, when he was fully a player. In his dreams, he was taller, he had two pairs of dark purple wings on his back and he had a pair of lilac wings behind his ears. He had two extra pairs of eyes on his cheekbones and jaws but he couldn't control them or see out of them very well. His skin was darker, closer to his watcher moms instead of looking like his human mother. It was a good thing too, seeing as his player parents were mortal and if everything went well in Grian's life, Xelqua would not. Xelqua would be able to take his rightful place as heir to the not-quite throne of the watcher pantheon.

He was asleep right now. He inhales the air, it always smells like it did in the end. To him, it smelled more like a home than the overworld.

"Hey, kiddo," a woman's voice sounded behind him. He smiled and turned.

Xelqua looked up at Avis, also known as Watcher 1, but to him, it was just his mother. "Hello Muzza," he whispered and he walked into her embrace. One would think that being held by a godly being that is twice their height would be a bit frightening, but to Xelqua, it was just as safe- if not safer, than any other sort of hug from a parent.

Avis hugged him. Covering him in her billowing robes. Her dark hair was braided tightly along her scalp. Her skin was only a few shades lighter than the portal black color of her hair. Eyes and halos surrounded her head and more eyes covered and floated by her body. Some inspected Xelqua's body, possibly searching for injuries or feathers that needed to be preened.

"How are you? I'm sorry that we haven't been here," Avis's fingers trailed through his wings, breaking through the occasional pin of keratin that houses a new feather.

"I've been alright, is Mum here?" Xelqua as he slowly pulls away from her embrace.

Another voice popped up from behind Avis. "You can bet your feathered ass I am."

"Mum!" Grian went and hugged Watcher 2, his mum, around the legs.

"Hey Victoria," Avis greets her wife.

"Hey, sweetie." Victoria kisses Avis on the cheek.

Avis smiles.

Xelqua is still holding onto his mum's robes. "Is there anything you want to do?" He lets go of her clothes, flaps both pairs of his wings and hops onto a branch of a chorus tree.

Victoria nods. "Yeah, we found out that my cousin had a kid a while ago. We're gonna introduce the two of you. Maybe then you'll have friends." Victoria wasn't like some other moms. Victoria treats her adult son like an adult and doesn't baby him. But, of course, she's still there for him and Xelqua wouldn't have it any other way. Victoria and Xelqua tended to tease each other a lot, like how Xelqua has no friends and Victoria brings it up a lot. But don't worry, Xelqua has free range to tease his mom back and say how she also has no friends aside from her wife and son.

Avis rolls her (many, so many) eyes at her family's antics. "We're meeting our cousin because we should meet the new family member. She's about your age anyways."

Xelqua perches on the branch and he sees someone new come to their meeting spot.

It was a young woman around his age, that was true. She had one pair of moth wings, unlike Xelqua and his parents.

"Xelqua, meet your cousin, Pearlescentmoon."