Notes:

Grab a pen, kids, we're talking lore!
1.This is an AU where we're still in the Tower but you don't climb the Tower as a test, if that makes sense?

2.Rachel betrayed Bam and handed him over to FUG but instead of pushing him during the test, she literally handed him over to them (her motive is not really strong *but* I'm planning on explaining it either way)

3.Rak, Kiseia and a bunch of others are working with FUG because I said so

4.Mentions of violence but nothing graphic

5.New Rule for Princesses: You can never be with your soulmate

6.I will put symbolism in everything. This is a threat.

Chapter 1

There are many myths regarding soulmates. Some speak of one being split in two, others of lines of destiny made by the same thread. One theory in the entire universe and every other is correct but we are not to find out which one. The only thing one needs to know, or to be more precise, what you ought to know is that soulmates are parallel contradictions.

.

There are two women, different place, different time.

.

There is a woman with soft eyes. She is crying, screaming and curses the sky. She is on her knees and though it looks like she is slowly and painfully dying, it's a beautiful sight. A young girl, a child by all accounts, stands a little further away. She looks sad but her body is frozen and no words or sobs come out.

"Give him back to me!" the weeping woman screams and slams her fists on the ground. She isn't pleading. She's demanding. But there is no human nor God to give her what she craves.

.

There is a woman with piercing blue eyes. She's panting. Her legs are trembling as she stumbles inside a room. Soon, a small girl follows after her, she opens her mouth to speak but closes it at the last second. The woman moves towards a cradle and almost collapses, still, she manages to hold on to the wooden structure. Fourteen hours, she thinks, fourteen hours for this.

"I'm going to rest." She whispers and exits the room. The girl who was with her doesn't follow. Instead, she approaches the cradle and stands on her tiptoes to look inside. The baby stares at her-slightly frightened-and though she has learned to always be brave, she can't help sharing that sentiment. She moves her hand to touch it when suddenly the baby smiles and makes a sound. She thinks it's laughter.

(She leaves.)

.

There is a boy in front of a gate who has lost his light. It's cruel for someone to live in a dark world, that much it's true, but it's undeniably worse for someone who has known the warmth of the sun to be without it. This is why the boy weeps like others before him, curses the stars and pleads for the only family he has ever known to return to him. And it's true, no men and no Gods tend to grant wishes to tortured souls but this is different.

Gods can't stand supernovas crying for a candle's light.

.

She's beautiful. There are no scars or bruises visible on her other than a small cut on her left cheek. It feels almost fake. She wears a bright blue dress and her hair fall on her shoulders. She looks like a porcelain doll. It's almost like she's meant to be like that; beautiful and everlasting. This is the only thing he can think of. The only thing he can pay attention to. He refuses to see the bloodstains, the traces of tears near her eyes or the way his mother clenches to her dead body wrinkling her dress. Even so, he can feel his own eyes watering up as a hand lands on his shoulder.

The bubble he was living suddenly bursts. His mother is screaming, Kiseia is hitting him. She's younger than him and her hits don't sting. He is prideful, stands still and takes small punches to his chest, his mother doesn't bat an eye.

.

The turning point, much like the beginning and much like their beginning, starts with a woman.

.

The day the Twenty-Fifth Baam dies, he spends his last moments gripping a blonde girl's hand. There are two men watching from not very far away. One of them looks almost sad for the boy trying to hold on to her. "Please don't go." He whispers to her and for a second she seems almost hesitant to walk away. "I can't do this without you."

FUG is watching like always. They wait patiently for the crucifixion. Wait for the birth of a God. The man from before is waiting with them and yet, in the back of his head, he wishes the girl doesn't honour the deal. He wishes she saves the child while there is still time.

.

Aguero is certain he will die. The Wives of Khun Eduan are merciless, Jahad is ruthless and Khun Eduan waits for entertainment. A common occurrence. His own mother, his own cousin, they both testify against him. The Family demands blood. Killing their own for the death of, again, their own. Killing Aguero for doing exactly what the Khuns do; manipulate, deceive, destroy. They admire those things in relation to other families or when they're used in favour of them, but never when it's a betrayal of their own blood. And yet, the bastard children of Khun Eduan fight to the death for a crest as the wives degrade each other. It isn't a loving Family-it's barely a family-and that's why it punishes Aguero; for love.

"The punishment is banishment." Khun Maschenny, the most important of the wives, the true soulmate of Khun Eduan, announces. There is no hesitation in her voice, no sadness and no pity. It seems more like an announcement for an upcoming celebration than a death sentence-for it is the slowest of deaths-perhaps it is. The children remain silent for the most part but Aguero can see some of the older ones, unsurprisingly the girls, smiling. Eduan nods and sips his wine. Next to him, he sees Jahad with the usual cohort of four princesses. He doesn't recognize the brown-haired woman who avoids his eyes nor the grey-haired one who stood closer to Jahad carefully examining the room. He did, however, know that the girl standing between Jahad and Khun Eduan was Khun Maschenny Jahad. The, until a month ago, most recent Khun to be in the Princesses. A wonder child. Finally, much to her discomfort, the last Princess was Maria.

Aguero looked away.

.

"I'm sorry, Bam. But I don't want to be a sidekick." She smiles sweetly at him "Great things wait for me and they don't include you." Each word pushes Baam to an edge and suddenly he's falling until he reaches the end. But even then, he doesn't stop dying. He hides his head between his knees-like a child-he is a child and he learns the world is unfairly cruel.

(FUG acts.)

.

"Wait," she shouts and Aguero is suddenly frozen to his place. The wives turn to look at her along with Eduan and Jahad. He spots his mother looking at Maria with pure hatred. Maria seems absolutely terrified and doesn't even try to hide it. She looks at Aguero and takes a long pause before turning to Jahad with as much courage as she can muster up. "I want to take him with me."

Many people gasp, others seem to want to kill Maria for daring to speak against them, even her own mother refuses to look at her. Eduan peeks at her curiously. "Many Princesses have people helping them."

"Guides." Eduan tells her "Rankers."

"He can become one."

"He is a child."

"He's not just a child. He bares your crest." Maria tells him, her voice rising slightly "He's the reason I'm here in the first place. I know he can do it and I know I need him."

"It's not your decision to make," Eduan tells her sternly. Jahad doesn't look at either of them, instead analyzes Aguero from head to toe. Aguero doesn't show it but inside he's hoping Maria provoking them will grant him an actual death sentence.

"You're right. It's the King's."-Jahad turns to look at her- "His word comes before everything else."

"The child is to be banished," Jahad says. Aguero holds his breath, since the start of his trial, he had been ready for death. "So I don't see why he can't come with you."

But death never came.

(Maschenny Jahad makes plans.)