Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

The cursed twins

They had been in the well for ten days, without eating and barely drinking. They had been abandoned there, not only because killing them was against the law, but they also had no courage to do so. Leaving them in that place to die wasn't explicitly forbidden, and they didn't have to see them die.

Líodon hugged his sister and she hugged him, trying to better withstand the cold that was chilling them at night. Other seven-year-old children would have already died, but they haven't, they were cursed children after all.

Their parents had been claimed by a plague that had killed almost half of the village's population. The survivors discriminated against them because of the color of their eyes, and made them responsible for their troubles, including the plague. But the worst was when it became clear that their bodies were developing slower. Now, being seven, they seemed to be only five years old.

The fear of an unknown curse had been growing among the villagers, the same ones who were taking care of them reluctantly and by obligation. And in the end, getting carried away by superstitions and fear, they had decided to get rid of them, abandoning them in the well. Pitying them, some had brought them food and water, but no one had approached in the last days.

"Look Lío, another visitor," she said.

In the days they had been surviving in that forgotten hole, from time to time, one of those beings peeked in the well, but soon they left. As if they didn't see them. Or as if they weren't interested in two cursed children. They saw visitors as blurry forms, for those beings weren't completely there, but between two worlds. Or something like that they had heard from the elders.

They called it with their few remaining forces, but the diffuse silhouette didn't listen to them, or ignored them. It left like all the others, leaving only the light from a few stars in the pit's mouth.

They slept next to each other, not knowing if they would see the sky again.

His sister's scream woke him up.

"Ah!" he shouted too.

They were still at the well, but, in front of them, there was a visitor as they had never seen. His figure was clear, almost as if he were a real being.

His sister had been scared after waking up and seeing that visitor, just like him. But there was nothing threatening in his eyes, there was no hatred or fear, not even pity. Just tenderness and worry.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you. I will help you out, but first... Drink, you must be thirsty," he offered after seeing their lips dry and chapped.

Without thinking for a moment, both children took the bottles, drinking desperately.

"Slowly, it won't agree with you," they heard him say as they were swallowing water in great sips.

Both ended up choking and coughing. And then, they kept drinking. After that, they received some food from that strange man who was helping them, although he made them promise to eat slowly. He didn't give them enough to quench their several days hunger, because he feared that eating too much at once might be harmful. But it was enough for them to not be too hungry.

"Are you cursed too?" the girl asked, staring at him.

"Cursed? Why should I be?"

"You have eyes like us. Those eyes are like that because we are cursed," the girl answered.

"Who has said that?"

"All, in the village. That's why they left us here," the boy replied.

They were a little scared when they saw the man's angry face, but he soon took a deep breath and calmed down. He felt angry at those who had abandoned a couple of children to die, but not at those children.

"Let's start from the beginning," he murmured. "I'm Eldi. And you?"

"I'm Líodon."

"I'm Lidia."

"I'm a high human, that's why my eyes are golden. And that's why yours are, and your hair is as dark as mine," he assured them, since the game's interface identified them as such.

"Are we high humans? Is that the curse?" Líodon asked.

"It's not a curse. You're only different."

"But we grow slower. That's why they kicked us out, because we're cursed," Lidia protested.

"High humans live longer and develop slower. Some time ago, they mixed with humans to survive, and occasionally someone is born with the characteristics of their ancestors," explained Eldi, almost reading the description of his race.

"That is very difficult," the boy complained.

"So, aren't we cursed?" asked his sister.

"No, you aren't. Come with me, I'll take you to a safe place."

Eldi took them to a village where he had carried out a unique mission, and that wasn't far from Melia's forest. No one hesitated to welcome those children who had the same eyes as their hero, to whom they owed their life and prosperity.

He went regularly to visit them, to see how they were, sometimes when returning to talk to the dryad, or when planning to do so later. He taught them magic, skills and crafting, something that, at the time, he believed it was a hidden function of the game for some special cases. That maybe they were testing it and would make it available to the rest of the players later, something that never happened.

He became so fond of them, that he even cried in front of the computer screen when they called him "dad" for the first time. The interaction he thought the game developers had programmed was extraordinary, as it even let him create new activities with the children.

But one day, he didn't return. It hurt him not to go to see them, or her, but he felt he was getting too obsessed with a game. And just like Melia, he never forgot them.

"It's been a long time since I hugged you," Lidia sobbed.

"You know, you're not a child anymore," he scolded her, too sweetly to be a real reprimand.

She pouted and sank her face back into her adoptive father's chest, despite being in her eighties and looking like her twenties.

"Only a little more... We've missed you so much..."

"I'm sorry, I should've never left."

"We didn't understand, we thought we had done something wrong, and that's why you didn't come back," she sobbed again.

"I'm sorry," repeated Eldi, heart broken, while gently stroking her hair.

"But mom explained it to us. That your world was in other place. That you had already done a lot. That you were thinking in us. And that, maybe, one day you would come back. We've been waiting for you."

"Mom?"

"Hey... This... A woman who... from the town...," she panicked.

"Oh. I would like to thank you one day," he said, not noticing her momentary nervousness.

"This... Yes, someday..."

"And Líodon?" Eldi asked somewhat worried, fearing something might have happened to him.

"Well, he will be cursing and jealous when I'll tell him that I've found you," she teased, raising her head and looking with her beautiful golden eyes at a confused Eldi.

"He chose another area where you could appear, and I chose this one. I've won!" she explained, amused.

He laughed. He had always seen them competing, to see who was the first to understand what he had explained. Or in the game they just learned. And even, many times they fought each other. But at the end of the day, they slept together, embraced, as they had done for many years.

He still felt guilty, but there were other stronger feelings that were invading his heart. Looking at his daughter again. Have her in his arms. Knowing that his son was fine too.