[center]On the Exaltation of the She and the He.[/center] [url=https://youtu.be/s8gm5SlI6nY]Eyes shifted under lids of flesh palpable and mortal,[/url] they blocked light out of grasp of understanding, and they soon parted to a great caravan, rickety in its motion upon a road, curved by the passage of wheels and hooves underfoot. She felt the cavalry trample brick and fauna beneath them as they paved the way for more people she and her sibling had ever seen - or even thought possible to be in a place at once. The refugee had no name, just an expression assigned to her identity; she referred to herself as "the She", and her twin "the He", both of which had experienced wrath unbeknownst to them just months ago. Now the She traveled with thousands when she only knew of dozens within her hovel. She kept to herself, both siblings did, and the singing Alefprians tried to converse with them, but the She did not feel like she belonged, nor did the He. They both wore the same type of wares, they both wore their white hair in the same tightly knit bun, and they both thought the same thoughts. Each had existed for sixteen birthdeaths of the world, the earth would become cool, and then it would become warm again, as it always had and it always will, but this place was odd. Where they came from, the planet was cold, as it should be for a time, but here the earth was alive, it was not resting in a deathly state as it should have. Great cliff faces surrounded the path, and a canopy of strange plants threatened to swallow them whole, blotting out the sun with impertinent sloth. The caravan stretched further than their eyes could see, so they refrained to observing the hundreds nearby, each one picked from the ashes of destruction, as they were. [center]---[/center] Another day down the path and they were in a city greater than thatch and wood, or the twisted machinations of their Sculptor guardian - a frighteningly massive place called Alefpria. It had nestled itself into a place unseen, and built civilization within a space alien to the steppe they had grown up in. The caravan was led to a wide square, and there they were settled for a day, until a being wrapped in sparkling chitin, not unlike the army that had taken them, descended from a distance palace. He perused the thousands of other arrivals, all of which seemed to look upon him with fear. He appeared a beetle with great purple wings, an insect humanoid like them. Soon enough, however, the lofty creature had a soothing presence about it. graceful movements reposed it along, and it wafted to the She and her brother. In tow it had a woman with a bow, and a fearsome horned creature similar to many of the Alefprian warriors that hosted them, and they spirited them away to this dream-like niche. The twins thought to eachother: "What is this feeling? This apogee of empathy and familiarity?" They then saw the head of the great beetle monster split open, revealing the face of a beautiful man - or was it a woman? Underneath. The godly being carried a sense of resolve, and beckoned the pairing up. [color=orange]"You will be my first exalted mortals. You will brazenly take a path less followed, and these lost souls will follow into a mightier form."[/color] Somehow, this sounded agreeable, it sounded good. [center]---[/center] For months they would dwell within the Emperor Lifprasil's great palace, he spoke to them like they spoke to eachother, but they did not question this notion; that somebody had the same abilities as them. He had them washed, fed, and then he tested them in strange ways. He commanded them to exemplify their power both mentally and physically. Susa, the woman with the bow, made a point of treating them kindly, even though they did not speak to her, both she and the horned monster were gentle with them. There was another girl of a similar age to them named Tira, but they saw little of her. Most of their time was with Lifprasil and his purple guards as the Twins attempted to absorb concepts like magic and martial combat. On a day dreery, when rain fell in a thick matte in front of the agape portal that overlooked Alefpria in its entirety, The She fiddled with a clay cup. Flanked by two Troll guards in regal garb, she imagined crushing the cup with her mind, like she often did with small objects in her hovel. Her home former wasn't particularly typical, she remembered it as a single, giant structure of wood, clay, topped off by an expansive roof of thatch that needed a lot of maintenance. The only residents were the Twins and a dozen other humans and Hain; all of which lived under the leadership of an extravegant, tall creature. She was pallor, bald, and wore a hat that was almost as large as the She, experimentations served as idle nothings for everyone - subjects to odd activities at the mercy of the Jvanic emissary. Neither sibling really minded the life, they enjoyed the enclosed, sheltered existence - claustorphobia felt familiar to them, which made the Palace a dizzying experience. [center]---[/center] They were to become knights of unimaginable power, they were told. It was like falling back into a state that the She only had vague memories of, both she and her twin, floating without purpose as Father Dominus held them and changed them. There was no protest from Dabbles as he operated the biomechanisms, as Lifprasil was intent upon, changing these two wayward orphans into 'exalted mortals', as he called the process. They floated in a perfect orbit of an affixed point between themselves, their bodies were painlessly torn apart and transformed, and with each change, the She felt her psychic link to her brother follow. Soon they knew what it was like to be separate for the first time, and alone with her thoughts, the She saw foreboding images of the future. She saw great beings similar to what she and her brother were becoming, they marched under Lifprasil covered in shapely armor akin to his own. They appeared insects in dazzling shells that protected them from harm, and they were strong, strong like the changing earth as it moved from birth to death, careening towards the latter like droplets of sultry rain. Thousands of insects fought for Lifprasil and died for Lifprasil in a deathly spiral, and at the front of this tidal wave of power, she saw herself, gazing from the inside of one of the Sentinels Three. It was a spiral of power unimaginable. Would-be kingdoms were destroyed like earth under the Caravan that heralded them, these places were preened from roughness into a path towards unity. Just beyond the reach of this prophetic vision, however, were visions of a deafening reprecussion that would bring ruin from far away. On the nature of this canvas, a monoexistence was non-permissible, even to the divinity with the best of intentions. The fever ended, and the Twins rose from the bosom of Father Dominus as something greater, they were sexless now, save for defining features distinguishable between either gender. Either Twin was covered in riveted holes along their limbs identical to the other, layered with broiling muscle and thick, ebony hide that covered their body from the neck to the feet. They found one another within their thoughts soon after resurfacing from their rebirth and attempted to embrace the other - but fell weak, each to a knee as Lifprasil stood above them. Either one craned a head to look up to their Emperor, who stood tall in his silence before he extended a glimmering hand to either newborn to grasp.