This is supposed to go at the end of the book.

[therealkaichan]

Final Bonus

Coin.



It was time.

Both were sitting on the grass, a little far from the country house. They would’ve been mirror images if it weren’t for a few small differences.

The elder one had his brown hair slicked back, and his clothes were formal. His green eyes looked cold, distant... The younger one was playing his guitar, in comfortable clothing. His hair was messy and his warm green eyes were looking at the sky as he played.

They had chosen the names Kael and Kean. They liked them because they were alike but different, just like them.


Not too far from them, their horses were drinking some water from the stream. The usual place looked a little different today, it was the first time in a while that they decided to come here in the afternoon instead of in the morning.

Kael had said something about it being something poetic, a choice over life and death would be made as the sun was setting. Kean wasn’t really paying attention, but it was as much of a valid reason as any. Kael had those strange ideas all the time.

“It’s time.” Kael spoke. He looked at the setting sun for a moment before turning to his younger brother.
“Already?”
“The fated day is approaching. We must choose.”
“I can’t say I’m looking forward to that...” The younger brother smiled a little, plucking absently the strings of his guitar. “But I understand we have to.”
“Then...” Kael reached to his pocket, taking a coin out. Kean didn’t even look at it. “The winner will be the one to stay. The loser will die at the fated time.”
“Fine.”

Kael brought the coin up, and got ready to flip it.
“You call first, Kean.”
“Tails.”
“As always.”
“You always called first, after all, and you always choose heads.”
“So you’re sticking with that?”
“It has worked just okay like, half of the times.”
“But there is no second time this time.”
“It’ll be fine. Anything that comes out will be sad anyway. If I have to die, then it will suck... And if you have to die, I can’t say I’ll be happy about living anyway. So it’s okay. I can handle it.”
“So you say.”

There was a small pause then. Kael still had the coin in his hand, and hadn’t flipped it yet. He knew Kean still had something to say... They were twins after all. He could tell those things.
“Hey Kael.”
“Yes?”
“If I lose, will you take care of our little sister?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because you are horrible.”
“All I have done is to set her free from the cycle. You should know that full well.”
“I do, but I know you well too.”
“I will, Kean.”
“Okay. If I win, then I’ll take care of her too. She will need someone to be around once she’s out.”
“I know.”
“Okay. It’s tails. So flip it already.”
“Yes.”

The coin spent a moment in the air, before Kael caught it and covered it with his hand.
“Come on, don’t take too long, the suspense is killing me.”
“You’ll be getting killed anyway if it comes up heads.”
“Man, do you even care?”
“I don’t. We are all tools for the goddess. Tools are replaceable.”
“Just like you, huh?”
“Just like me.”
“Then let me see already!”


Somehow, the coin survived the experience and was there, unlike most of the group and unlike Kean’s body, that could not be found anywhere.
Kael wondered exactly when his brother had stolen the coin from him, and why he hadn’t done a thing even knowing that it had been a two-headed coin all along. He wondered why the Mother had chosen to leave the coin behind, when she could’ve taken it away too.

He leaned down to pick it up, and white hair fell over his face. That was an unexpected change, all right... But it wasn’t something he cared about. This was just the beginning of what would be a long journey. His fingers absently fiddled with the coin as he surveyed his surroundings, there was little time before the reinforcements arrived, so he had to take action quickly.

He put the coin in his right pocket without even noticing. It was something that someday he would find strange, as he was always the kind of person who put important things on the left side, but that could be easily blamed on Kean’s presence.

It was then that he noticed the girl. Mariam Colburn from their class. She was still alive, somehow, even though she seemed to be missing most of the right side of her body.

She was probably too far from the magic wave that opening the capsules had caused. That had probably saved her life, and at the same time it had turned her into the mess she was right now. He wondered how she was still alive, but that was probably just another of the Mother’s whims. He walked up to her and crouched by her side.

“Mariam.” He said but got no answer, not that he expected it. “Let me take care of this.”

He knew how to solve this. He knew that the Mother had denied them of the capability to heal as a punishment for harming her... But she had forgiven him. She had forgiven them both. And he would now use her forgiveness to bring her rest.

Drawing energy and shaping to heal was possible for him now. Maybe he hadn’t become that ultimate magician that Gabriel Rhodes had been searching for so long, but now he was beyond ‘fate’ and beyond ‘magic’...

“Mariam.” He called once more, and this time, the girl opened her left eye.
“Bystrom...?” She muttered.
“Don’t move. You have been chosen, and I will save you now.”
“Chosen?”
“We will stop this war. And we will bring peace to the Goddess.”
“But... How...?”
“Don’t talk. I’ll show you.”


Mariam had been sitting silently by the wall for a few minutes. She could hear the sound of the reinforcements working trough the walls, attempting to enter the sealed room, but she couldn’t bring herself to stand. Her left side hurt all over, and her right side felt both strange and normal at the same time.

Kael had seen something. He had shown her that thing, but she couldn’t really understand it. She had to close her only eye, but somehow she found that she could still see. Her right side was there, as suddenly as it had been gone just minutes before. Her right eye wouldn’t close. Not even to avoid the pain... Her right eye could see things she couldn’t understand, or better put, it wanted to see things.

“What did you do?”
“I asked Her to give you a new chance. And she granted it.”
“But... I was...”
“Yes. And she willed you back to completeness in exchange for your help. Will you deny her request?”
“No. I’ll help.”
“Then let’s move.”

Kael walked back to one of the capsules, and picked what seemed to be a person up. Mariam quickly got up, taking off whatever was left of her jacket and putting it over the body. When she looked, she saw a young girl, about seven years old. She was confused and in pain, but that little girl... Who knew what she had gone trough.

“Who is she?”
“She’s my younger sister. You could call her our messiah, but that is not something for me to decide.”
“And why is she here...?”
“It had to be done, in order to cleanse her of the sin of being human.”
“I see... But she’s free now, right?”
“That’s right. She can now learn to walk on her own.”
“Can I help...?”
“We all will. You and the others that are like us. We will help her grow and then see what her answer is.”
“You aren’t as bad as I used to think.”
“If I mistreated you, it was as it had to be. You are a coincidence, Mariam. Something that is not fated to be.”
“I don’t really get it.”
“I will explain later, but you will understand everything eventually. You are no longer a rotten cell, you are now a tool of the goddess.”
“It’s fine, then...”

The soldiers managed to open the door just a few minutes after that. By then Kael was quite ready to leave and so was Mariam, or whatever she was right now.


The first thing he did was to leave Mariam and the little girl in the hands of the doctors. He of course would get analyzed as well. The physical changes were obvious enough, but he was quite sure that nothing other than his white hair would come up. After all, their science couldn’t study the soul, could it? It couldn’t study two souls that had become one as they should have been.

His hand went to his right pocket, and he started fiddling with the coin there. The true weapon that had killed Kean, with him knowing and accepting it.

It was stupid to wonder about his motivations now, he could just know. Kean had chosen to stay behind because he knew he wasn’t the proper tool. He wasn’t ready for what he would have to say and do. He was the good twin. The kind one.

But Kael was the proper tool, and now that he was complete he would serve the goddess as he had to.

And because of that, their plan couldn’t fail.



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Note:

:D?