#phasing worlds

The dancing of shadows and crackling of fire filled the else quiet royal library. Somewhere in the rows of bookshelves Charlie could hear faint whispering. Probably Zelda or Valerian playing around with incantations again. Not that he wasn’t curious what the twins were up to again, especially this late in the evening, but he had more important things to focus on. Charlie elected to ignore quiet sizzle and electricity that suddenly filled the room, when one of the spells had worked. As long as he didn’t smell anything new burned it was fine… probably.

The young historian took a breath when he flipped another page in his book. Slowly he was losing his patience with it. He wanted to know about the Twili and their culture, their day-to-day life and traditions, not about sealing stones and how the Phasing had worked. He lifted up the cover of the book to see if it had really been the right one. ‘Everything about the Twilight Realm and its inhabitants’ it read. Yeah, it was the right one.

With a sigh he started flipping through pages, hoping to find anything more related to Twili than the stones that kept their shared gateways intact. Charlie stopped when think bold letters lit up between the pages. He pulled flipped back until he found the page he had seen them on. And there it stood: “The Twilight Volk”.

With a new glimmer in his eyes Charlie sat straighter in his chair and began to read:

The Twilight Volk, also referred to as ‘Twili’ are the inhabitants of the Twilight Realm. First encountered after the phasing of our two realms happened, they are now in alliance with the Kingdom of Meradin.

The Twilight are humanoid beings of the dark, adapted to their surrounding environment. Because of this, their hair is the colour of a setting sun, the colour of their sky. The hair colour ranges from a bright yellowish-orange to a darker red. In most cases their hair fades to a lighter yellowish shade towards the tips and the roots of their hair are darker than their main hair colour. To mimic the play of shadow and light, Twili skin is a mix of ash-coloured blue, green and white hues, with bigger and smaller patches of dark skin all over their body. While some historians believe those to be shadow matter or even their clothing, I believe it to have evolutionary origin, perhaps to better hide or to better hunt.

Charlie squinted his eyes at the scrawled note he found written half under, half at the side of the paragraph:

It be noted, that Twili have skin covered in a thin layer of fur, similar to that of a seal.

For a moment Charlie just stared at the note, his brain having to adjust to this new information. Fur? Like… actual fur? Hold on… how long was that of a seal again? Not long. It looked more like skin most of the time but that might also be because they were always under water when he met them…

He shook his head in disbelieve. No way that was true. And how would Frederick even know that? He never met one in person…

Aside from these dark patches, Twili are adorned with a multitude of lowly glowing cyan symbols. The evolutionary sense behind these is still unclear, however, these symbols seem to be inheritable to a certain extend, as Twili children have a few similar symbols to their parents. The symbols grow with a Twili over the course of their entire life.

“Now that’s interesting!”, Charlie thought. At first one could think they were tattoos a Twili would earn throughout their life, but this sounds as if they are born with them instead… He’ll have to check that out once he’s in the Twilight Realm.

With anticipation Charlie flipped to the next page just to find that it was- empty. Utterly and fully empty. “Oh come on!” It came out louder than he wanted to and his exclamation echoed in the big room.

“Charlie?” The man in question turned to where he heard the voice from, to see both of the twins’ heads poke out from one of the many bookshelf rows. “Everything alright there, man?” asked Valerian from where he stood behind Zelda. “Yeah, everything alright. Sorry about that.” The historian waved his hand dismissively as he turned back to his book. “This book just doesn’t want to do what I want it to.” Someone snickered behind him. “I think I know the feeling.” Princess Zelda was now standing next to his chair. “What does this particular book in question- oh.” “It’s… empty?” Charlie glanced to his other side where Prince Valerian had come up and was now looking over his shoulder. Charlie sighed. “Yeah. Sadly.” “But… no pages look to have been ripped out.” “Because no pages were ripped out.” He confirms. “There is just nothing more in this book. No more information.” “Huh.”

Charlie sat back in his chair deflated. He had hoped so much, to find out more in this book. It had sounded so promising after all… “Everything about the Twilight Realm and its inhabitants…?” He looked up and met Valerians questioning look. “Oh that’s right!” Zelda piped up, “You’re going on an expedition soon! I didn’t know your destination was the Twilight Realm though.” Charlie shrugs as he closes the book and starts walking towards the shelf from where he got it. “I am indeed going into the Twilight Realm. The goal is to gather as much information about them as I can so we can finally fill up those gaps in our books.” “Understood.”

Charlie expected a follow up coming, but when nothing came turned around. The twins held a paper in their hands, paper which Charlie identified as his own notes. “Those are my notes for the expedition. Things I want to learn about and information gaps I want to fill.” “Ahhh,” sounded Valerian as he continued to read. Zelda next to him only nodded, her brows slightly furrowed.

Hopping down the last steps from the ladder, Charlie turned towards where the twins stood, intending to gather his things and call it a night. He paused when he saw them just looking at each other. A silent conversation between them before the prince shook his head. “I would ask her first. I don’t think she’d mind, but I wanna be sure she’s comfortable with it.” “Yeah okay.” Agreed Zelda to whatever they had just decided. “That sounds like a good idea.”

Charlie came up to them with an amused smile, “Do I… need to understand what you’re talking about?” The two teens shook their heads and Valerian flashed a grin, “No, don’t worry!” “We just might have someone who could help with the missing information situation, but we want to ask her first about it,” nodded Zelda. “Ah-ha…” “Really! We promise!” “I’m not doubting that, your highnesses,” Charlie smiled. He took his notes from Valerian and extinguished the candle at the table before he bowed.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I fear I have to go prepare my things.” “You’re excused- ““Oh actually, we also wanted to leave just now!” Zelda interrupted her brother. “We did?” “Yep!” she said, popping the ‘p’. Then proceeded to drag him out by his hands, past Charlie and down the hallway towards their private chambers.

“Zel, where-?” “Shhhh, trust me, ok?” “Really don’t know if that is such a smart thing to do…” “Oh come on! When have I ever-?” “Always, is the answer. You have always done shit like that!” The princess snickered, “Don’t let dad hear you said that.” “Said what, I didn’t hear anything.” Zelda scoffed, “You’re impossible.” “Hah! Wait until you hear about the thing Kayden did the other day…!”

History

“-thank you. Now, a word of our historian, Frederick.”

Queen Amélia steps away from the lectern and her places is taken by a lanky young. His brown curls were falling into his eyes, as he adjusted his big, round glasses. Thank you, your majesty,” he nods, before turning to the crowd gathered before him. They become quite in anticipation, and Frederick takes a deep breath before he begins.

“Millenia ago, a queen hailed from the clouds. A queen, which would give rise to the greatest of kingdoms in history, the Kingdom of Hyrule. Blessed by the golden goddesses themselves, it would grow old and prosper for centuries to come. Sadly, ‘eternity’ does not seem to be something mortals can achieve. So, like everything in this world, it ended, and the kingdom fell.”

With big eyes the crowd listened, interested in which direction this would go.

“Yet we are not gathered here today, to mourn the fall of a once great kingdom, no. Today, we are gathered here, to celebrate the present and future of our Kingdom, Meradin. So let us celebrate! Let us remember, who made all of this possible!”

Smiles crept on faces and the eyes of elders lit up at the chance to remember the past.

“Let us remember the Hero of Old. Clad in green and brown, he rose up to the evil, that destroyed a kingdom. He banished the darkness and cleansed the lands of its remains. Without him, we would have no land to live on today. Cheers to you, dear hero, for giving us a future.

A few scarce cheers rang out and people nodded. Many knew the stories of the Hero of Old. They were told as bedtime stories and kids loved to imagen themselves as said hero, banishing the evil monster.

“Let us remember a mother and her daughter, who brought us together and made us one again. For- “

Frederick wasn’t able to finish another sentence when loud cheers and applause erupted. For a moment he was startled, but then the historian smiled fondly and waited until the crowd became quite again. It was good to see people had not forgotten them and more so, to see them still held so highly.

Once the cheers returned to being murmurs, Frederick continued, “Yes, I agree, Meredith and Reina are incredible people.” People chuckled at the comment.

“But so, let’s pay our tribute and say thank you.” Quiet ’Thank you’ s rang out but this time Frederick kept going. “ “Thank you, for giving us a home. For making us one community. All hail Name bearer Meradith and First Queen Reina!”

“All hail the first Queen’s!” cheered the crowd.

Frederick smiled. “Our history is filled with mishaps and mistake, and while some may think them foolish and bad, I think they always gave us something to take with us into the future. Let that be an opportunity, a lesson or a new ally.

And 275 years ago, we gained exactly that, a new ally. Hailing from a Land of Twilight, a Realm beyond ours, I am grateful to know, that back then, we took our previous lessons to heart, and did not engage into conflict. Looking back, it would have been a shame. A shame on our country, a shame for all the missed opportunities and a shame for a future, which thanks to you, Twilight-Volk, is now looking brighter than ever.”

Sporadic cheers were heard and Fredericks eyes glinted at them.

“Over the past 2 centuries you have tremendously helped us improve our infrastructure and systems. You have given us resources and advice we didn’t know we needed. And for that we are grateful. Truly. As someone who holds history close to his heart, I do hope with all of it, that we can continue to work alongside each other so wonderfully.

So on today’s day, let us remember, who made it possible for us to grow and who has given us a future full of opportunities. Let us remember King Fenör of the Twili, and Queen Ezza of the Meradians.

People clapped and ‘Wooo’ed and it made Frederick smile again. He loved to see how much their society had changed and how mixed the crowd below him was now. He remembered times when that hadn’t been the case.

“And just as much as we remember the past, we should live in the present and look forward to the future. A future, lead by the next generation of regents. So if you will dear people, please pay your respects and hail to-!”

Frederick stepped aside and away from the lectern before he announced with a grin, 

“Princess Zelmarilda Freyen, Crown Princess and future Queen of Meradin!”

As expected, cheers and applause roared up from the crowd below as said princess came stepped on the stage. She smiled and waved, albeit Fredrick could see tense she was. part of the tenseness left when her brother stepped to her.

“Prince Valerian Freyen, Crown Prince and second heir to the throne, Future General of Meradin!"

The cheers continued and grew only stronger when the pair of twins was complete. Frederick hoped he wouldn’t have to scream his next announcement to still be heard. But if the crowd kept going like that, he might have to…

“Prince Sebastian Nígarii, Future King of the Twili!”

Someone whistled when the twilian prince joined the pair of twins on the stage. He seemed less tense than them which was surprising Frederick a bit.

“Infanta Miriam from the House of Enata, joined representative of the Osha and Meri!”

From the corner of his eye, Frederick saw hats being thrown in the air, which recognised as a sign of celebration under the Oshi. So even they showed up.

“Chieftain Vyk from the Clan of Maelik!”

Wings fluttered a little as the Istarí Chief entered the stage and took her place under her friends. The crowd cheered and hollered as the five future regents stood on stage, looking out on a crowd mix from all their people. Frederick took a few steps backwards and took his own place next to the kings. Just like them, he smiled with pride. He saw how Zelda nudged her head in direction of the lectern and the five of them moved towards it. Zelda took her place behind it, framed by her friends and waited until the crowd was quiet once more. With a quick glance to Frederick she started,

Mmmmmm ✨woman✨