A Thousand Years Ago...

The large, golden doors of the Selene Palace flew open as Thesia came charging to her sister's chambers. Her eyes glowing orange with fury as she reaches Arista's chamber doors and began to bang against the silver lunar wood until it started to splinter.

"Arista! Don't you dare ignore me! Come out this instant!" She continued to rap onto the door until it jerked open. Arista's handmaiden stood at the entrance, frowning yet still bowing as Thesia charged past her. "Where is your mistress, you little brute?"

"I'm here."

Thesia turned to see her twin sister at the balcony. Standing calm, Arista's raven hair was twisted up into a bun, but her stray tendrils flew like banners in the wind. Thesia's frown intensified as she perceived the air of defiance in the room and the smug look of her sister. "Your creatures are an abomination! You lied to me!" She marched up closer to Arista, wanting to close the space between them.

Arista shook her head. "I did nothing of the sort and how dare you call them an abomination!"

"They don't respect me! You told me that they would love us both! That they would praise us both! But at night I hear them call to you Arista! They love only you and it's repulsive!" She folded her arms, making a barrier for her heaving angered breaths. "I will not stand by and be forgotten and disrespected by these creatures. You must destroy them now!"

Arista stepped forward to Thesia with a fierceness so intense, Thesia instinctively stepped back as she stared into the mirror image of her sister.

"You will not tell me what to do with my own people." Arista's voice was dark and stern. "It is not my fault they love me so fiercely. I made every effort for them to worship us both. This is not my doing."

When she molded the first of the ShadowShifters it was done out of love. The villagers worshiped the moon and it's gifts of the tides and harvest so deeply that she wanted to give them a reward for their honor. Her sister never really listened to them, but she did, and decided to transform them into beings who shared the essence of her and Thesia's beloved animal, the wolf. They were beautiful, loyal and cunning creatures who fought with valor and she was proud of them. She only wished Thesia made more effort to love them too. She will never learn that love isn't an obligation and that the truest love is out of respect.

Thesia scoffed at the remark. "Then if they are disobedient, why won't you smite them? Or punish them?" Thesia's eyes stung with the pain of her humiliation.

When Arista told her she created the ShadowShifters, she was concerned on the wrath that the other gods would put on them for tampering with nature. But when she observed them and remembered how they honored the moon, she agreed. The goddesses were to remain forever chaste and to never know a man's touch, so to Arista's point, she convinced Thesia that they would be her children. They would become the children that the goddesses could never have. But the ShadowShifters rarely acknowledge her. They were wayward, ungrateful children that only loved Arista.

"Do not ask me to hurt them, Thesia. Because I won't!"

"I see. You defend them because you condone their treatment of me." Thesia's eyes watered in spite of her fury. "They ignore your own sister. Your blood. And you condone this behavior."

"That's not true Thesia." Arista tried to grab her sister's hand but Thesia moved away. A pit grew in her stomach even thinking to hurt them, to scare them into praising Thesia. Why? Because they loved her instead of Thesia? Because her sister was jealous? It wasn't right. "You maybe a goddess who enjoys hurting the innocent, but I will not hurt them, just because of your ego. I love you sister with all of my heart, but you cannot ask me to force them to love you. You will have to prove to them you are worthy of their love, just as I have done."

Blinking the tears away, Thesia rubbed her eyes and exhaled, releasing some of the mounting tension within her. Her eyes turned orange again as she glared at her sister. She had some nerve to ask of such a thing. "Prove to them?" Her voice escalated as the lunar winds picked up through the balcony. "You expect a goddess of Selene to grovel and prove to your little beasts that I am worthy of their love?" Thesia walked slowly towards Arista, her hair and red chiton dress flapping in the wind. The windows began to rattle and Arista's handmaiden screamed as vases began to break around the chambers.

Arista's eyes glowed, beaming with an orange hue akin to the fires of the underworld. "Thesia, I'm warning you to let this go." Her hands tightening into fists, anticipating her sister to strike her. Just like her to throw a tandrum. But I'm not going to stand by and let her ruin this because her ego has gotten the better of her.

Thesia charged to Arista and gripped her throat. "You dare defy me? Defy us? We are of the same blood and you'd let them humiliate me? You enjoy this! If our lives weren't bound together I would break your neck!" Arista clawed at Thesia's hand. "Now you listen to me, sister. You will do as I say and punish those who do not pay me homage as their goddess, or I will reign down terror on them so furious the fields of earth would be wet with the blood of your precious ShadowShifters! Do you understand?!"

Arista growled and pushed her sister off of her with such force, Thesia flew across the room and against the wall and slid to the floor. Arista stood still, tears building in her eyes as she watched her sister slowly rise, mirroring eyes glaring in contempt. It was then, at that moment, that Arista felt her heart shatter. Never had they ever struck each other or intentionally hurt the other. A bond between them of kinship and love was now over.  Only obligation held them together and the pain of it hit Arista in the gut. "I'm sorry, sister. You left me no choice."

Thesia stood up firm and straightened her gown. "No Arista. It is you who left me no choice. Havoc awaits your creatures, you'll see. They can stay your children, for I am not their mother." She began to walk towards the doors. "I will create my own children, who will worship and adore me and only me." She stopped and whipped her head around to meet her sister's eyes. "And you will know what it's like to be hated and your children will never know peace! We are sisters only by blood, and I shall never forgive you for these creatures you have wrought! Never!"

With those damning words, Thesia stormed out of her twin sister's chambers and out of each other's graces. Arista cried as she knew their creations of ShadowShifters were fated to carry the feud of the goddesses onto the realms of earth. She knew that Thesia will make good on her vow and ensure her people will never know peace, just as she will never know her sister's love ever again.

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