A/N: This oneshot is set in the world of Before We Leave, the AMAZING story by my bestie , totally go check them out! These two twins, my newest favorite characters in BWL (Sapphire is my OC!!!! :DDDD), have yet to be properly introduced as of Chapter 27, and I was too excited to wait >:D

Enjoyyyyy! :DDDD

~~~

The wind was brisk, this high up.

The top of Pixandria's newest building, fondly nicknamed the Anthill by the people, made to house the newest group of immigrants from Colossus, hundreds of tunnels and nooks and homes and workplaces nestled within.

And at the top, the perfect spot for them to see for miles around, the seemingly-endless desert stretching till the horizon.

A gust of wind, strong enough that they had to wrap a hand around the railing to keep from swaying. They let their mind ripple out, the view fading in favor of the billions of bright stars, dark pathways, nebulous trails of the futures incoming. They soared among them, until the ripples returned, answers to their unspoken question whispered, hissed, echoing in their mind and ears.

Not a sandstorm, not this time. Just a few daredevils twisting about. They would have to let the king know, to keep from preparing for a storm that would never arrive.

Another vision, this one triggered, not sought out. A boy, young and newly hired by the palace, sent to ask the resident seer the very question they had just asked themself.

Sapphire gazed at the sky and sand, ears detecting the sound of footsteps, the pale, sandy haired boy bursting out of the stairwell that led up to the top of the Anthill and their little sanctuary, mouth already opening to speak.

(-Sanctuary, a jungle, a scarred man making amends for the past, a goddess of gold and life, once a warrior of death, the King, the demon, darkness, evil, corruption-)

"Not a sandstorm," fae said suddenly, answering the question the boy had been about to ask, knowing without looking behind starself that the boy had paled, knowing that the stories of the woman with pale eyes that saw everything wasn't a prank his friends had been playing on him. He nodded, scampering back into the safety of the Anthill to give the message to the king, fleeing from the unnatural aura surrounding them and their visions.

They sighed, rubbing their eyes tiredly. The visions were getting stronger, and they were stretching far past what fae was supposed to be able to see. Saph's visions went days, sometimes weeks ahead, and rarely years ahead, but never thousands of years into the future.

And they knew it was the future, knew it stretched so far beyond the flashes, the pained glimpses and screams that haunted their dreams and waking moments. Something awful, something horrible was going to happen, thousands of years from now. Nothing they could stop or prevent, as with most of their visions.

But something had to connect that future to their present, otherwise fae wouldn't be seeing it in the first place. Emeryld had said that some of the rulers had an odd aura, something it couldn't make out. Saph suspected that was connected to it, but there was nothing they could do to further it until the right time came, stars visions whispered.

Until someone died. That's what the future told them. Someone had to die, and then the path forward would be clear.

(-A scream of anguish and rage and pain, a soft plea, amethyst magic shining with tears, red eyes fading to blue filled with gratitude, the darkness will come for them and they will fall-)

Sapphire and Emeryld, their twin sibling, they had always been different.

Ever since their birth, the whispers of them being cursed when their mother went into labor a month early and bore surprise twins under a blood moon. Ever since they had grown into young teens, both with pale eyes that saw too much.

Ever since Sapphire had foretold the plague that had swept Colossus a full year early (not that anyone had understood their babbling of red and blood and sickness after waking up screaming from yet another nightmare, not until it was too late).

Ever since Emeryld had been able to tell who was sick with a single glance and avoided them long before the person had even so much as a sniffle.

They hadn't been able to stop so many things. People whispered, hissed that they were evil, because they never stopped anything that came to pass, but it just didn't work like that. Fate would do as Fate pleased, and trying to stop it always made it worse.

When you look into the future, the future looks back. And it is not a look of kindness.

(-"you betrayed me, you betrayed us all!" "At least I fought back! At least I did something, when you stood by and watched-)

When she had died, their younger cousin that everyone loved, Aeres with her bright smile and cheerfulness that contrasted their older sibling's near-constant scowl, Sapphire had been grieving for days before. Even if fae didn't know it yet, didn't know why they had woken up from their usual nightmares sobbing, they knew something bad was coming. And then she died, and Emeryld had looked at faers sibling and they had both known.

The government was to blame. They hadn't done anything to stop the rampant crime in Colossus, too busy dancing with the rich and throwing parties and ignoring the lower classes in poverty as criminals got more powerful and forced everyone to make awful choices to survive.

Forced Aeron to a life of death to live, forced them to do things that had consequences, had led to Aeres' death by the hand of someone we had all trusted, Aeron most of all.

Sapphire and Emeryld had revolted, had fought back, and of course they had lost, two teenagers were no match against an entire bureaucracy. But they had tried.

They had been 'exiled' to the Land Beyond as a result, which was just the government not wanting to deal with them and sending them off along with the rest of the immigrants, all of them volunteers except the pair.

Caspian had welcomed his old friends with open arms, and it was really an improvement to their old life in Colossus.

(-sand tumbling in a great roaring wave, the ocean's rumble no match, homes drowning in grains, a small child crying in a cave, trapped-)

There it was. Saph had gotten better at navigating the visions over the years, but it was still overwhelming, seeing fragments of things without context, phantom emotions and sensations and sounds hitting like one brick after another on their fragile mortal mind. It was a miracle they were still sane, all these years later.

A whistle summoned a nearby messenger pigeon, probably out for a practice flight so as to not atrophy in its coop while waiting to be sent out for a message. Sapphire quickly scrawled a set of coordinates and the information they had gleaned from their vision about the upcoming storm about to hit the eastern Pixandrian coast, ink drying quickly in the brisk breeze.

After a moment of hesitation, Sapphire added a quick postscript, make sure all the children are accounted for, before rolling it up and sliding the sheet of paper into the small mag attached to the pigeons leg, making a set of clicks with stars tongue to tell the pigeon who to take the note to. Cooing, it fluttered into flight, soaring in search of Caspian.

The wind was getting chillier. Sapphire blinked the visions out of faers eyes, a quick glance at the sky confirming their thoughts. Sun was setting, that was why it was getting cold.

Wrapping their soft green shawl –imported from Gilded Helianthia, a gift from their cousin to welcome them to the Land Beyond– tighter around starself with a small shiver, Saph entered the warm shelter of the Anthill, torchlight replacing the dimming glow of the sun guiding their way.

Emeryld was in the entrance of the building, propped up against a stack of crates as it flipped avidly through a book, eyes occasionally flicking up to inspect the people entering and exiting.

Their Sight, a counterpoint to Saph's foresight, was powerful, which made them an excellent guard. They were able to see lies, sickness, ill will, and much more, information taken from a person's aura directly.

Sapphire strolled across the busy marketplace that dominated the main square at the entrance to the Anthill, hopping up to sit onto one of the crates next to Em, head almost level with theirs now that they were sitting somewhere elevated and Emeryld was standing.

"Hey," Em said nonchalantly, eyes still focusing on their book. Saph echoed the greeting, peering over at the book to see what was so interesting. "Since when are you interested in woodcraft?"

Em rolled its eyes, snapping the book closed and sliding it into their messenger bag. "Since I realized that whittling means it'd be perfectly socially acceptable for me to carry a sharp knife and a bat around," they snarked, a sharp smirk gleaming on their face in the faint light from distant lamps.

Saph laughed. "Of course you would. Just like I started knitting so that it'd be socially acceptable for me to carry two large, pointy metal sticks and rope around."

"See, I knew you'd get it!" The twins shared a laugh together, earning a few odd looks from passing folk, which were quickly glanced away from them once the unlucky person realized they were looking at the two "cursed" twins, and promptly ran away.

Quieting, Emeryld took a moment to look over their twin, noticing the eye bags and pained look hidden behind the cheerful smile star had on faers face.

"More visions?" Fae asked sympathetically, and Saph nodded, letting the exhaustion show, shoulders sagging.

"It's coming closer," they whispered, leaning into their twin. Emery wrapped an arm around Sappho, emerald-dyed hair tickling the top of the sapphire-dyed head of their shorter sibling.

It took a moment for Emeryld to place what Sapphire was talking about, before it clicked: the recurring vision, the one that foretold death and could save or doom them all. That's all Saph knew, that someone would die and what happened after that would decide the future of someone thousands of years still unborn.

They hugged star tighter, the pressure helping ground Sappho, who sighed and hugged Emery back, inhaling the warm scent of wood and honey from their twin's clothing and letting it bring them back to earth.

"C'mon," Em said after another few moments of hugging. "How about we go find Cas and go see how the empire is handling the new influx of immigrants? Some nice organizing should help you out, that'll do the trick!"

Sapphire snickered, leaning back and straightening their long tunic dress, smiling softly in agreement. "Yeah, I gotta make sure Caspian got my message about the upcoming sandstorm anyways- we're safe here, but some of the eastern villages need to bunker up," star explained, Emeryld nodding along.

They left the Anthill, whispers following them, as they always did. The twins that were human and not, the Diviner and the Seer, one who saw the future and one who saw beyond the mortal eye, blessed or cursed or both by the gods or something even greater.

The universe loved the twins, it was said. Fate itself granted them view of things beyond human reach, of wars not yet fought and truths veiled by the eyes themselves.

It is dangerous to be loved by such a great thing.