Chapter Text
Crow- first
A child is a blessing to the world. Twins are a blessing of the gods.
Two small little heads, black hair plentiful, skin softer than velvet.
Crow looks at his new-borns laying in their cribs, heart too heavy with love. He had thought that his love for Ender would be divided over the three of them, but instead it had only seemed to multiply for each and every one of his babies. It was strange, in a way it scared him even. The King-consort felt vulnerable, as if it was his own beating heart laying in those cribs, ready to be slain.
Crow wants to hold a dagger, or sword. Anything to kill who tries to slay his heart.
His boy wakes up, big purple eyes stare at him for the first time. He is the calmer of the two. Not even a few hours old and Crow already knows it. When he offers his finger to the baby, he takes it with his little hand.
Fluixon of house Aculon, second prince of the empire.
A little baby with chubby cheeks, swaddled in a sea of fluffy blankets.
Fluixon looks strikingly like the emperor, even with all his little baby features. Crow thought it only fair, after all Ender looked like him, so Elanualo deserved a son in his image. Crow would be lying if he said he hadn't prayed for it. It was proof the Emperor needed that his blood also bled from the wound of his children.
A little bubbly noise escapes his little prince's lips, followed by a short cry.
The cry is joined by a louder cry, coming from the other crib. Teary little red eyes look at him. Cynikka has joined her brother in the land of the waking.
Ah, they are hungry then.
--
Ender- first
They were ugly little beans. Ender doesn't understand the awe of the grown-ups around him. Like, like, they don't even have arms- Oh no, they have now. Why would they put away their arms? Don't you need your arms? Are those beans dumb?
"Ender, come, meet your siblings", dad calls out.
those things? his siblings? But- ew?
Why is everyone looking at him? Surely they don't expect him to go closer? Well, his dad did say he should come over... But he can meet them from a distance, right?
Like, like, like, ummm. Ender knows he isn't supposed to touch expensive paintings or, or, like, those round thingies.
"Ender, it's okay, you can come closer"
Well Ender does miss dad. He hasn't seen dad in like, umm, a day or two or maybe it was three. No, no, it was three Ender counted them himself.
And not even father was there, cause he went somewhere... Ender doesn't remember where father went....
"Ender...?"
Right, the beans. He walks to his dad. Dad lifts him up, placing him on his legs.
"there you go big man"
Dad is warm. Ender wants to never leave his hug again.
"Look Ender", his dad points to one of the beans,"This is your little sister, Cynikka", he points to the other, "and this is your little brother, Fluixon".
Sister? Brother?
"beans"
--
Elanuelo- first
The news had reached him right when they had been halfway on route. And Elanuelo had rushed back with a few of his personal guards.
And now here he is, at his glorious capital. Many people are on the street, they are screaming their joys and congratulations to him. Flowers are thrown on the ground in front of their horses.
Elanuelo is the emperor of Aculon. He is no fool. He knows they would rip those of his line apart had they been given access to them.
Even of his guard he would trust none to hold any of his children. All powerful sons of lords, aiming for his throne.
Oh, but Elanuelo can't show this. If they knew he knew the truth, there would be no reason to lie anymore. His family would be dead.
Every man and woman in the palace congratulates him. Keeping him up longer than he wanted to.
The route to the Queens room, currently inhabited by a King, his fathers genius idea to marry him off to a shape-shifter, One from the lands of sand none the less, feels longer than usual.
He knows from the report of the head midwife, that nothing went wrong, still liars are no myth and Elanuelo only trusts his own eyes and ears.
The guard next to the door whispers congratulations. Then the door opens into quiet.
Filtered through the curtains, the light shines a soft orange as it falls into the room. At first Elanuelo thinks there is nobody there, but as his eyes scan the room, they find Crow sitting in a chair next to the window. His little Ender is curled up on Crows lap, both are fast asleep.
And next to them, stand two cribs.
When his step towards the cribs makes steel clank together, Elanualo puts away his sword on the sofa to his right. Cursing at his incompetence to not have done it earlier.
They look identical, sleeping in matching blankets, little heads with puffy dark hairs.
Fluixon and Cynikka.
The names were chosen from a list with two boy names and two girl names. Respectable names for members of house Aculon.
Welcome little ones, you already have a dozen enemies.
--
Cynikka- first
In Cynikka's earliest memory, she is running through the halls of Castle Aculon with Flux. She thinks that they had just escaped their boring madam, vaguely remembering a secret tunnel behind a bed and barely being small enough to fit between the wall and the bed to get to it.
They are laughing, looking behind them to see if anybody was following them or not. Giant halls surround her and her brother.
They catch their breath at the top of the stairs before racing off of it.
They are having so much fun, until they aren't.
Maybe he just stumbled on his own feet, maybe it was her feet or maybe it was the thick carpet covering the stairs, it doesn't matter because Flux trips and falls.
Then screams, blood, her own crying, fathers angry shouts.
Flux is fine in the end, maybe too scared to run down stairs now.
It isn't a happy first memory, yet sad it doesn't feel either.
--
Elanuelo- last
"Father?"
Ender is twelve years of age. Heir to a throne he will never sit on, an empire he will never rule.
Elanuelo had failed him, failed all of them. That much is clear when they are starving in a castle under siege.
"Go Ender, follow your dad and leave", every word shatters his heart more and more. An emperor without an heir, without a dynasty, is no emperor.
A father without children is no man.
Elanuelo is neither. Just a name without meaning. The emperor that failed his empire. The father that failed his children.
Ender still looks at him, he is the only one that understands what is happening. Fluixon holding his brother's tunic with a white balled hand, tears streaming down his face. Cynikka is in a similar state, but clinging onto Crows cloak instead.
"Why can't you come with us?", Ender pleads softly with him.
"You know why"
Ender shakes his head, but doesn't ask anymore questions. Good.
Elanuelo takes his oldest son's head in his hands, giving him a kiss on the forehead.
"Be brave, protect your siblings", a shaky nod is all he gets in return.
Terrified purple eyes now stare at him. Letting go of Ender's tunic to run into his arms when Elanuelo lowers himself to the ground. He is soon joined by Cynikka. The twins clinging to his battle armour.
"You too be brave, little ones, all will be well"
Fluixon sniffles, lifting his face to look him in the eye.
"When will we see you again?"
Purple eyes meet black.
"When the time is there for us to meet again"
It takes them a while to drag Fluixon and Cynikka away from him. Into the passage. Crow and Ender keep the twins inside as his guards start to close the secret passage again.
He meets Crow's dark eyes one last time, hears his children's cries echo.
Then he turns around, ready to command his men to die.
--
The lands of Aculon- last
The snowy tundra, the frozen rivers.
They remember.
Shivering hands, cold feet.
Being of royalty means nothing to nature.
So she says goodbye.
Goodbye to the emperor, not last of his line.
Goodbye to the consort, you never belonged to the snow.
Goodbye to the heir, never will you rule this land.
Goodbye to the daughter, you burned too bright anyways.
Goodbye to the son, your fate is greater than the ice.
The snow will still fall after your leave.
Like she said before, nature has no care for roles.
She says goodbye, and the sun rises the next morning.
The fields will stay unchanged, the forests still standing.
As your feet leave the snowy ground, as the boat drifts away.
Aculon says goodbye to you all.