I have set my eyes upon the walls of sweet Babylon, which is a bustling street for carriages, the statue of Zeus of the Alpheus, the hanging gardens, the Colossus of the Sun, and the grand work of the towering Pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis, which reached up to the clouds, those other marbles lost their shine, and I said, "Behold, besides Olympus, the sun has never beheld something so grand."

Antipater of Sidon

The night had begun to fall in the historic Turkish city of Selcuk. A strong wind made the branches of the trees dance, but it also pushed a caravan of clouds that overshadowed a timid full moon, which intermittently illuminated the remains of what was once one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the Artemision.

For Ephesus, Artemis was an untamable goddess who not only gave life but could also take it away. Wild, independent, and of superior strength and beauty, the representation of Artemis as the goddess of fertility, hunting, and war was worshiped there, even before King Croesus of Lydia ordered the construction of the temple in her honor. The temple was the result of poems and writings by those who visited it, until the ego of a nobody set it on fire, destroying it forever.

In those perennial ruins, a portal had opened, allowing a huntress to cross over and appear in that sacred place.

One thousand three hundred meters separated the extinct Artemision from the "Cave of the Seven Sleepers," a site popularized by a legend in which seven young men persecuted for paganism were locked inside while they slept, awakening three hundred years later. Inside, a pregnant young woman who lived in hiding, preparing for the arrival of her offspring, sensed the arrival of that huntress.

Her condition did not allow her to run long distances quickly, so time was crucial to escape. She took a flask, to which she tied a small string, and hung it around her neck. She gathered some things from the site, which seemed to have served as a refuge, and fled. However, she had only traveled a few meters when she heard a familiar rhythm, that of the huntress's footsteps. A thousand meters ahead, she would be caught at the feet of the Temple of Hadrian.

The moon, now free from the cloudy veil, illuminated arrogantly the bust of Tyche, which shone like a pearl in the characteristic arch of that site.

"What irony, don't you think, Iphigenia?" asked the huntress. "The image of the goddess of destiny reveals itself among us... just as fatigue begins to take effect on you."

Iphigenia, of slight build but clearly marked by martial training, showed some scars on her body from her warrior past. However, her right eye seemed to have suffered a burn that had not healed very well.

The huntress, in an inquisitive tone, attacked again.

"I have always wondered if the oracles allow themselves to see their own death. I suspect you have never dared to see yours. If you had, you wouldn't be trying to escape. You know that I have never let a prey escape."

"Why have you come? Did Calisto send you?"

"I came down to visit the tomb of a sweet woman whom I trusted as a friend. And I discovered that she had never died."

"I'm sorry, Lascoumoune, I couldn't reveal anything to you..."

"Sorry? How dare you ask for forgiveness! I thought you were a sister, I mourned your loss, I carried your lifeless body to the place where you made me promise to take you if something happened to you. Do you understand that? Was everything, even your friendship, just a trompe-l'œil to escape? I no longer have a heart that allows me to forgive."

Tears welled up in the huntress's eyes; she had tensed her bow, aiming it at young Iphigenia, but she couldn't focus her aim. She was trembling. Iphigenia began to approach slowly, until a contraction stopped her, forcing her to kneel. Lascoumoune, beside herself with a mix of hatred and compassion for the intention to assist the young girl, released the bowstring along with the arrow, hitting her friend in the side of the abdomen.

The huntress panicked and tried to run to her aid. As she was about to take her in her arms, something sharp pierced through her head, paralyzing her in that spot.

"Genrōken."

A young warrior with long blue hair, clad in armor whose plates resembled scales of intense gold, appeared.

"...Is it you?" The warrior rushed to assist the young pregnant woman.

"Iphigenia, I'm sorry. I... I didn't know, I couldn't..."

The young woman simply smiled, her eyes telling her that there was nothing to regret. She was happy to see him again.

In front of the image of Tique, that young man examined the wound. The puncture was slight, but he removed the tip of a crimson arrow from it; remnants of a shaft, probably from poison derived from some poisonous berry. That was a problem.

"I must get you out of here."

He took the woman in his arms and ran until they reached the coast, where they boarded a rickety boat. That apostate would never forget the heart-wrenching screams with which that young woman, with a wound in her belly, used her last strength to hear, perhaps one last time, the voices of her offspring.

That young man didn't know how to help the girl. He had been trained in the arts of war, knew many ways to end a life, but none to bring them into the world.

The young woman, on the verge of losing consciousness, called him, and he leaned closer to her lips to better hear what she had to say.

"Do you remember the afternoons when you used to visit me there on Star Hill, and I practiced summonings?"

He had no choice. Although his devotion had always been doubted, Iphigenia's had always been genuine. He took her hand and repeated the words she had reminded him of.

Lady of the dark side of the night,

Goddess of the threefold paths,

Through the Lunar Gate, I seek you,

In the circle of the night, I stand forsaken,

Grant me the solace of your dark embrace,

Oh infernal Queen with eyes of green.

Then, the young man cut his wrist and let his blood drop into the raft.

After a few minutes, the clouds completely obscured the moonlight, and the sea and everyone in it were consumed by darkness. Except in the distance, where the light from a lantern approached, and as it drew nearer, the silhouette of an old woman sailing towards them in another boat became clearer.

"I can do nothing for her," pointed out the girl's wound, "Atropa Belladonna has given her life thread to the Moirai, they must be sharpening their scissors at this moment," said the old woman, making a gesture with her fingers that the young man found unpleasant. "However, the children she carries in her womb can be saved. Are you aware of the star under which these creatures will be born into the world by this young woman?"

Ifigenia looked at the warrior who seemed to be the only one listening to this tragic news, as if he understood the pleading message her gaze held.

"I would give anything for her and the children to be saved."

"And what are you willing to offer in return?"

The warrior pondered for a moment and finally replied, "The 'inexorable' knows the length of the thread of my life, so I will give her half of what remains of it so that Ifigenia can safely give birth."

Minutes before midnight, in the boat sailing towards Psara, the old woman assisted in helping the first of the children take their first breath: a girl.

Ifigenia mumbled "Raidne," and after a while, an owl hooted. As if marking the beginning of a new day, the old woman announced the birth of the younger of the two, a boy.

The young woman could no longer see with her remaining eye, nor could she hardly breathe. The boy tried to encourage her, but Ifigenia could no longer bear it. After hearing the cry of the youngest of the twins, she smiled with tears in her eyes and then reached for the warrior's hands, handing him the vial that hung from her neck, and with a weak voice, she said:

"I don't have much time left. This vial comes from a place we won't be able to access while alive. I trust that you will know to keep it in a safe place."

The young man remained silent.

"It's my final wish... promise me that you will take care of them with your life... as if they were your own. Raidne with your people, and Basti among mine..."

"I promise. But before you go, tell me, how...?"

"Kanon... that no longer matters, my love..."

After those words, stripped of their traditional jovial melody, the oracle of Star Hill, Ifigenia of Sextante, closed her eyes and slept forever.

The warrior gazed upon the lifeless body of the young girl, whose only sin had been to love a Saint of Athena. His eyes filled with fury, resentment, and helplessness searched for someone to punish for this.

He hated himself for the powerlessness of not being able to protect the life of the only person who had approached him without fear.

His whole life, he had trained to serve a goddess, yet he couldn't protect a human life. In a fit of anger, he grabbed the old woman by her tattered shoulders.

"What kind of justice do the gods deliver, leaving two newborns without their mother!? We made a deal, you old witch!!"

The old woman erupted into hysterical laughter.

"You are a wretched fool. Do you forget how you were raised? The Moirai simply weren't satisfied with the trade."

Enraged, the young man tried to release his fury by squeezing the old woman in his hands, but he noticed they were empty. The old woman drifted away from him in her boat, while the lantern's glow faded.

"Don't worry, I will know how to make use of what remains of your life. Let us enjoy it, apostate." And the old woman vanished into the darkness, an instant that felt eternal, while her laughter continued to echo.

The warrior screamed with such fury that they say it could be heard from the Great Rock on the island of Icaria, two hundred kilometers away from where they stood.

When they reached the island's coast, the babies started crying incessantly, their sobs merging with the warrior's. Sensing imminent danger, the warrior removed his cloak and tied it to carry both children around his chest, and he began his walk towards solid ground. After a while, the warmth of the warrior calmed the cries of both children, and their warmth eased his anguish.

The huntress, who had awakened from the nightmare that had left her immobilized for a while, started to track the scent of Ifigenia's blood until she found the boat where her lifeless body lay adrift in the sea, where the huntress discovered remnants of Atropa Belladonna berries on her body.

"You faked your death with this. You miserable wretch. The dose of my arrows was too much for you to endure a second time."

The huntress raised her nose and sniffed suspiciously. Immediately, she grabbed a handful of arrows from her quiver and shot them all into the sky at once.

Several meters away, the young warrior attempted to flee from the coast at full speed, but a buzzing sound made him stop. A crimson arrow grazed his forehead and ended up embedded in the sand in front of him, followed by a shower of arrows that grazed every part of his body, unable to impact him but surrounding and anchoring him to the ground.

"So, you are the apostate of the Goddess Athena."

"Sorry, I didn't have a chance to ask your name."

"I am Lascomoune, the leader of the command unit. I have come for the children of the oracle, whom she herself entrusted to our care."

"I don't care what she said months ago. Minutes before she died, she left the children under my protection, and I don't intend to go against her will."

"No one who becomes my prey escapes me. Just as I found her, I also managed to find you. The blood on the boat was enough to trace you here. You haven't noticed yet, but one of my arrows has wounded you." Kanon immediately realized it and saw a trickle of blood flowing from his arm. "Soon, you will start to feel your strength diminishing."

The warrior observed the crimson arrows of that Amazon and grasped the crystal vial filled with the poison that had taken the life of his beloved Ifigenia hours earlier.

This young man harbored much resentment in his heart. Since childhood, his destiny had been sealed as the shadow of his twin brother. Identical in appearance, they had managed to convince even their own comrades-in-arms to the point where no one knew of his existence. Unless his brother died, he could never bear the title of Athena's Saint; he was just a substitute. The only one that existed within the entire sanctuary.

The only one who noticed his existence had been Ifigenia, and he couldn't even reveal the truth to her before her exile.

"If you were responsible for Ifigenia's death, then I will take you to hell with me, Lascomoune."

"Death? I saved her life after a despicable being violated her devotion as a Priestess of Athena in her own Sanctuary. That episode robbed Ifigenia of her will to live. And you? Where were you? You left her to fend for herself."

Kanon squeezed the arrowhead so tightly that his hand started to bleed. When he opened his palm, the blade of the crimson arrowhead blinded him with anger.

"That's not true!" he exclaimed, raising his trembling fist to the level of his head. "You're lying!"

And as if about to deliver a simple blow, he propelled the arrowhead like a projectile towards the huntress's face.

"Ahg! My eye!" The arrowhead had struck the huntress's face, piercing her cornea. "You cursed wretch! I won't rest until you pay for this!"

The huntress shot another arrow at the warrior, who tried to block them with his armored forearm, but it still managed to wound him superficially, and a dose of poison began to course through his system.

Kanon, injured and poisoned, did not hesitate to open a small portal and escape from the huntress. He arrived at the place where his brother had locked him away. Ironically, something in that place gave him hope, although he wasn't exactly sure what.

With dawn approaching and bleeding profusely, he readjusted the cloak that held the newborns against his chest as he walked towards a chapel that could be seen from the coast. A woman dressed in silver armor, with long, ash-colored curls, appeared before him, blocking his path.

"Who are you? Another one of Artemis' deer? I'll tell you the same thing I told your companion, I won't give you the babies."

"I like your sense of humor, especially because you still retain it even when you're about to die. My name is Calisto."

The woman observed Kanon's gaze and recognized something in it, as if she could see through his soul.

"You know what, apostate? Deep down, you and I are very similar. We both want things a certain way, and we're willing to do anything to achieve our goals."

"Similar to you? In your dreams, witch... What do you know about me?"

"Well, a few things. For example, I know that Ifigenia faked her death because she sensed that you would come looking for her. However, she never calculated that Lascoumoune would visit her 'grave'..."

Calisto paused to savor the effect of those words on the young man's face before continuing.

"The poison on Lascoumoune's arrows varies depending on the prey, and I suspect he used a neurotoxin derived from the saliva of a dendroaspis on you. On the other hand, if you don't feed those children soon, they will die of starvation. Despite your slow demise, death is not an option for you. I propose a pact. If you hand over one of them, I will give you the antidote to these arrows. Think it over, either you lose half or you lose it all."

"You're lying! You need them too, you wouldn't let them die if I refuse."

"You're astute. It's true, I could take both or just one. I give you the opportunity to save the fate of one of them."

In ancient times, it was said that the tribe of warrior women known as the Amazons used to get rid of male children. Kanon had only known two women devoted to Artemis, and he feared that if Calisto took one of them, she would only allow the little girl to live and raise her as a Satellite, while the boy would perish right there.

Kanon firmly rejected the offer, and immediately Calisto took her strange crescent-shaped spear, piercing his chest to lift him off the ground and hurl him into the air, leaving the young man unconscious after the fall. As she prepared to deliver the final blow to Kanon, for reasons unknown, she changed her mind.

"Something or someone envelops you with their cosmos and does not want me to take your life. Is it because of the pact with Hecate? Poor devil!" She approached the small Basti and took him in her arms. "Raidne with your people, and Basti among mine. After all, you have fulfilled your promise to Ifigenia."

Then she approached the baby girl, marking a crescent moon on her tiny forehead with her finger, and placed a golden Hanzashi, a hairpin with a crescent moon ornamented with a small moldavite inset, among her clothes.

"I also have plans for you, little one. In a hundred full moons, the moon will resonate with the moldavite in the hairpin and serve as a guide to find your mortal vessel. We will meet again."

The next morning, two very young children were playing on a beach near Cape Sounion.

The girl with pink hair approached the injured man and, after seeing him holding a baby, began to shout, "Julian, Julian... we need to get help!"

The infant with aquamarine hair approached out of curiosity to see what his cousin had found, and when he saw the scale of that man, something changed in his childish demeanor. He approached the warrior's ear and, with a voice that seemed mature for such a young child, said, "The wheel of your destiny has started to turn, Sea Dragon. Nothing binds you to this decaying world anymore. Without nostalgia for the past, all that remains is for us to create a better future. We will meet again in thirteen years."