Banshee stood in the presence of the other Yggdrasil Guardians, of which there were eight, plus the Infinity Guardian. All would live forever, soul unchanged, all save for the Infinity Guardians, of which there were two.
"'Tis time now for our departure from this plane." Valkyrie remarked, staring down at the world below.
"Indeed, for humanity is yet young and tender, so let us live among them, and guard them from the things that crawl out of the darkness to feed on their fears and ambitions." The Guardian of Darkness held out her hands and parted the branches before them, and gazed out at the world dappled by light and dark, disorganized and chaotically predisposed.
The Guardian of Light nodded and pulled back , "And from their own ignorance, too, lest they be blinded by their own radiance and sense of justice, and succumb to perhaps an even worse destiny than being overran by the creatures of the night."
Banshee and the others arranged themselves in a circular fashion around the Infinity Guardians, and they held out their hands, offered a portion of their powers to the two in the middle, who created a bridge of elements to the world below.
"So that was how it all began." Banshee took a moment to pause before continuing, "When we walked upon the earth that first, seasonless day, the creatures of the night meet with those of the day whenever they unknowingly passed from one unstable area of light or dark, and into the other, most creatures could fly or run, but the humans lacked natural power, and while they bore a degree of ingenuity, life was hard for them. The Infinity Guardians saw that, and decided that, although they hated being apart, there was a sacrifice that had to be made."
Foce stared intensely at the story teller, who's eyes darted back and forth between the members of her audience, "What kind of sacrifice?"
"The choice they made was a hard one...one they would never have volunteered for otherwise." Banshee smiled sadly and took a deep breath before continuing.
The white robed Guardian of Light turned to her dark robed counterpart, "Look at the darkness and the light, muddled so, each bearing its own threat, yes, but human eyes are fit only to receive light directly from that which it is reflected from, they cannot perceive those things that exist in puddles of night."
"It is sad...but there is no easy solution to this problem." the Guardian of Darkness replied, wrapping her arms around the Guardian of Light's arm, "I know, though...I know."
"I wish there was another way...but for me to gather the light, and you to collect the darkness, and to move them apart from the other...night and day will no longer be sections scattered over the world, intermingled." the white robed guardian pulled back her hood to release dark locks of hair from their confinement, "I we must now stand on two separate ends of the world."
She pulled back the dark hood and smiled at the guardian under it, "I really wish there was another way...I-I really don't want to have to...but if it's the only way we have..." the Guardian of Darkness covered her face in the bend of her elbow and choked back a cry, readily falling into the arms that started to wrap around her, "I want to stay with you forever."
"As do I, and I thought we always would, but we are only two and they are many, we are their Guardians, they are our mortals...but I don't plan on never seeing you again, in fact, I wish to see you all the time, to speak to you from afar." the white robed woman stared up at the mingling boundaries of light and dark up above them, tears in her slowly closing eyes.
"You'll always have a place in my heart!" the dark one breathed, squeezing her love tightly, "I'll always answer back to you!"
The Guardian of Light gave the other a kiss on the forehead, "You too, and my feelings for you will never change! Even in the next life...I'll find you, if only you tell me where you are."
"Then my heart will fly me to you the next we meet." the light haired guardian cried, clinging her dark haired lover.
"I'll be glad to see you again...do me a favor, love, stay among the humans and other Guardians, I don't want you to have to be alone, and Feyerous has taught the mortals how to use fire to keep the area lit and warm."
"But what about you?"
"I will lead a potion of humanity halfway across the world from here, and then I will sleep in the sky, follow the path I set myself on, and the light I carry will eventually reach every part of the earth...I'll have a surprise for you, too."
"I'll be looking forward to your surprise."
"Then I just hope--after waiting in the dark for so long--that it'll all be worth it to you."
Banshee had heard their voices in a pool of darkness, and when she sought them out, she found them holding onto each other like they were never going to let go. She stepped back into the shadows. The blue guardian struggled fruitlessly for an alternate solution, but the time the plan was officially revealed came and went, the humans the Guardian of Light would take gathered supplies for their journey.
Banshee watched from Yggdrasil as the two parted ways, and when the vibrant hues in the sky grew and spread to fill the distance growing between day and night. The tears of the Guardian of Light rose to the sky, glowing brightly as they remained suspended in the sky. Banshee, so affected by what she saw, began to sing, and an icy chill swirled out from her tearful words; she unknowingly set winter into motion.
The ice blue guardian stayed behind with the Guardian of Darkness until one day the light haired Infinity Guardian stared up at the sky. Banshee couldn't see anything, aside from the stars, but slowly a silver light appeared and grew until it was a large disk in the sky.
"What is it...what is that large shiny thing?" Banshee wondered aloud, staring up at the odd looking circle hanging in the sky.
"Her gift to me," the light haired guardian smiled, "Banshee...that's little of her power, her presence..."
"I can sense her, too." Banshee confirmed, "That will let you feel close to her, then?"
"Not just that...she's planning on sleeping in the sky, and I can go to this other light up in the sky and live in it, the darkness will be bound to me, and so the darkness will follow the light, that way the humans can be safe in the dark, that way...I can rest...it's as close as I can get to her." slowly the light haired guardian drifted up on her back like she was floating, drawn in by the faint glow from the Guardian of Light's welcomed power and cried out as she was enveloped in the light, "I-it was...so worth the wait!"
Banshee smiled as she watched the resolution to the challenge of keeping the humans safe, and watched the days go by. Her song still echoed on the wind, and winter returned, staying only one fourth the time that it was gone for, the absence of winter that lasted three times longer than it's reign was evenly split by gradients of warmth and cold.
"Things continued on after they left the world for the sky." Banshee reported, "But then...something happened that's rare now, but back then it was just odd..."
"Huh, what happened?!" Jessie sat up as she stared excitedly at Banshee, "Was it an eclipse, or-"
"Yes...remind me never to bet against you in a guessing game." Banshee smirked playfully and and took a glass of water that Jacob had poured for her, "Thanks, knight. Back to it, yes, it was an eclipse, but that wasn't the strangest thing...it lasted a full week, over Yggdrasil, right where they parted ways. I thought for sure that light and darkness were going to violently collide, but instead the world peacefully saw the week long event conclude with the moon leaving the sun again, but that was also the first time in a long time I sensed their presences so fully, as though they had awoken...and I know deep in my heart that they did. I know that they were reunited.
"During the eclipse, monsters ran rampant, but oddly, we didn't have to fight many of them, I was worried it was just a fluke for me and that the other Guardians had to fight hordes of monsters while my realm was in peace."
"Yes, we were all under the impression that we were excluded from some horrendous monster stampede." Feyerous agreed, nodding slowly, "Anyway, after--ah, you can, you've gone this far."
"Mm, I'll rest my voice." Banshee waved her hand dismissively, "I could only tell so much of what happened because I stumbled upon them even before they had reached their conclusion, and felt inclined to stay with the Guardian of Darkness."
"Alright, well, my story begins when they were reborn...that first time the intensity of the fires increased dramatically before steeling down, but on the second eclipse...I do know for sure that their lifetime in that era came to an end with the return of the sun; I sensed something in the sun and something similar in the moon, like two fires being dowsed--I felt the fire of life in the sun and moon as they flickered out." Feyerous held a palm over his face and sighed, "I remember it well...they did live for a good long time, fifty years they shared a slumber above our world, and stirred from their sleep one last time...well, for that life time, anyways."
Feyerous watched the crazed monsters retreat into the darkness as the moon slid from the sun. He still hadn't grown used to the life of a divided day and night, but it had it's perks, the monsters slept during the day, hiding in caves or deep forests, while the humans worked on their defenses, and if ever large monsters attacked, the Guardians were there in their respective cities, ready to fight.
"I should go to Yggdrasil and see if the others had gotten off so lucky, none of my wards were harmed by those crazy imps." he leapt from his tower and used a blast of fire from his hands to break his fall, and began his sprint to the great tree, the ground shaking under his heavy footfalls, more light returning as he ran past a few monsters who hadn't found their shelter yet.
He saw that the others hadn't yet arrived, and as the full light of the sun returned, he sensed the sudden extinguishing of two lives somewhere in the sky. The others had reached his location by that time.962Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnalw2jdAac
Feyerous led them into the tree's crown, where they found two human children waiting for them, eyes shining with wisdom beyond their years.962Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1cD5kAEMVy
"We must journey to the heavens from here." was all that was said before they began their ascent. The Guardians followed as the girls climbed higher into the branches, and they spent years seeking the path into the sun and moon, when they finally found the answer in the roots of the tree. 962Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlYkMb4lMdG
Below was another world full of monsters, chaos, and floating islands. Within they found a monster of death born from life itself, upon it's defeat, a bridge opened that led to a red light in the sky. When the two girls reached the top, they regained their awareness of their duties as Guardians of Light and Darkness.962Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxz30w1SzqU
"Ever since then," Feyerous concluded, "it has been necessary for them to go on that journey, though they aren't always immediately reborn, sometimes we can't find them until their current lives reach their end...to say the humans were angered by their lack of reliability would be an understatement; they believed the two to be incompetent Guardians who decided to consolidate light and dark so they could abandon humanity, the days came when those who were led to that conclusion petitioned for a replacement, one human who would stand alone and fulfill all the duties of the Infinity Guardians."962Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡph4jrRUHCh
Banshee nodded slowly, "We tried to tell them that no one else could take on that role, but the leaders of that train of thought weren't easily dismissed, and so we were confronted by the populace, we refused to fight back, and fled instead, so that we didn't suffer by their hands. We remained in Yggdrasil's branches, watching as they uselessly laid siege to the tree, we protected it as much as we drew mana from it, and then created a plan.962Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZWNil1ssjx
"We would strip humanity of the power they had grown used to wielding, first we needed the humans to retreat, so we fought back, destroying all they built up, even killing the leaders of their revolt; they retreated, no doubt to come up with another plan, but we laid our hands on the roots of the world and caused the mana to collect over the roots instead of spreading out into the world; when the humans returned, they were surprised to find elemental crystals standing around Yggdrasil, and even more surprised when the elements ignored their calls. We were sure that was the end of it, but our troubles were just beginning..."962Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQc8mXivWyY
