Open Chronicles A Story of Twins

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Sol Eclipse

Sol Eclipse

The Cautious Heart
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"Next time, don't try to screw over the guy doing YOUR work. Might not get such a decent guy like me." Sol breathed a sigh of frustration as he slammed the door to the store. He had only recently started working as a mercenary, but already most of the people who have hired him tried to pay him less than agreed.

He pockets his day's earnings before looking up to the sun, judging it was later in the afternoon. Luna would be expecting him back soon, and he wasn't usually one to leave her alone too long. He turns his gaze back to the street and heads farther into the city.

Alleria was perfect for Sol and his sister. The number of people in the merchant city made it difficult for them to be picked out so easily, and they have finally been able to just relax instead of running. He just hoped not everyone was like his previous contract.

Before heading home right away he decides to stop in a shop not far from where Luna's shop was, this specific one being a blacksmith. Luna had recently run out of nails which she used to hang her tapestries so customers could see them.

Nails in hand, Sol steps back out into the street, only to hear a word of warning from the blacksmith. He turns just in time to see a glimpse of who he was being warned about, almost running into them, only dodging by grabbing onto the doorframe of the shop and pulling himself back.

"I am so sorry! I guess I still need to get used to the city life."
 
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The small person Sol nearly tripped over could have been a child, but for her slightly sharp ears and more adult facial proportions. The halfling, who had up to this point had her attention fully focused on a small leather-bound book in her hand, glanced up at the apologetic figure in the doorway and grinned.

"Hello there, friend!" She didn't seem to mind, nor notice, their near-collision. Instead she looked at her book with a raised eyebrow for a moment, then back at him with an intense stare. "Would you be so kind as to answer a few questions for my survey? For research purposes?"

Sol Eclipse
 
Sol found himself staring at a child. No, wait, Luna had told him about these people before. Her voice rang in his head, reminding him of what she had told him of the different races and how to identify them.

A second later and he recognized her as a halfling, not a child like he though before.

Her forward and rather cheerfuly friendly demeanor caught him off guard, as he was expecting to get into an argument with yet another person.

"Oh, uh, hi. A survey? I mean, I guess I could, if you're willing to walk and talk. I got somewhere I need to be and I'm running a little late."

As he said this he gestures off down the road, thumb pointed farther in the city, the shop set up just outside the Inner City itself, a spot picked by Luna.
 
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Pim nodded, excited to have a willing participant for her survey. She was about to follow Sol down the street when the blacksmith appeared in the doorway of his shop, looking agitated. His apron had a mysterious blue smudge mixed with soot.

"Um, miss! Your... oven... is ready. Please tell me you are here to pick it up?" He glanced into the room behind him, as if someone was there holding him at knifepoint.

A hint of recognition crossed the halfling's face, as if she suddenly remembered something. She beamed a wide grin.

"Wonderful!" she exclaimed, withdrawing a jingling pouch from her belt and dropping a few coins into the blacksmith's hands. He nodded wearily and pocketed the payment.

"Smokey! Come!" Pim put a finger to her lips and blew a shrill whistle, surprising a few passersby; though not any more than the rumbling and creak of metal that issued from the blacksmith's shop. The blacksmith himself leaped away with surprising alacrity just as a large metal dog galloped out of the building and came to a heel at her feet.

In the sunlight, the thing looked more like a mobile iron oven, with a front grate and a small chimney stack on top of a rounded body and four jointed metal legs. Its metal exterior had been polished to a shine.

Pim gave the shiny metal creature a loving pat on what looked like a face - if one squinted at it just right. It gave a small metallic squeak in response.

"Yes, you are very shiny! Who's a good boy?!" Pim gushed at the oven before turning back to Sol like nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"Sorry, where were we...? Oh yes, question one: Have you ever eaten a pie?" she asked, ready to follow Sol through the Allirian streets.

Sol Eclipse​

 
While he had been around for 10 years, he had seen quite a few things in those shorts years. All manner of beasts and a variety of different warriors had blocked their path to Alleria, one group specifically.

This, however, was something completely new to him. Dogs were nothing new, but one made of metal, like a golem. Plus this creature seemed to have quite personality, not like the golem he had seen before who didn't even show the simplest of emotion.

He stared at the dog both while the woman was petting it and after, during her question. He hoped he could ask questions about it before they parted ways, but for now turned to her to answer.

"Hmm? Pies? Can't say I have. Never had time to enjoy such leisure before moving to this place."
 
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Smokey, following behind, bounced in what one might interpret as excitement, causing a nearby merchant to drop a bag of potatoes. Pim shushed the oven and wagged a finger at it.

"Not yet," she chuckled. She took a charcoal stick out of a square bag and, flipping through her notebook, prepared to record Sol's answers. She tsked at his first response, a frown of dismay darkening her features for a moment.

"Sadly, 30% of surveyed adult humanoids have given that response. To be remedied. Well, that invalidates questions two through twelve and thirty-three to thirty-seven. We'll come back around to those. So then, question thirteen: what is your race, and do you feel that your race influences your taste preferences in some way?"

Sol Eclipse
 
Sol couldn't help but laugh a little, finding the dog's behavior rather humorous. Least it was keeping a path clear for them as most seemed to at least step to the side for the metallic canine.

Hearing how many questions the woman had, and how many that first question marked off, made him wonder if he should have just led her to Luna.

If only he hadn't promised his sister he would try to be more social.

Especially with these next questions.

He turns to her as he hears the first one, glancing at her with a raised eyebrow. She didn't look the part of a Tracer, and she was much more friendly than the ones he had met.

"Doubt you'll have heard of them, but the race that claims me are known as Anomalous Gemini. As for how it affects my preferences, couldn't tell you. I myself barely know anything beyond the basics of the Gemini."

*This better not come back to bite me. Least I'll know who to blame if the Tracers suddenly know we're here.*
 
Pim didn't look up from her little book as she scribbled some notes. "I'm not familiar with that species. I'm just going to note the followup answer as 'no'." She paused, her freckled face scrunched as a wayward thought became momentarily caught in the workings of her mind. "I think I remember the word gemini referring to twins, or a pair. Is that related somehow?"

Meeting a new race was always exciting to Pim - a chance to expand her knowledge of the various spices and flavors across Arethil. So long as they weren't goblins. This tallfolk didn't look much like a goblin, at least, but he seemed to be just as culinarily confused. Clearly, a survey wasn't the best way to get data here. An experiment, then!

"How would you like to try a pie?" she asked suddenly, glancing back at him.

Sol Eclipse​

 
He was a little surprised. Besides the very few of their own kind they had met, neither he nor his sister had met anyone besides the Tracers who had even a hint to the Anomalous Gemini.

"Yes, actually. What little we know is our people's name and what we as individuals can do as members of the Gemini race."

A small smile crossed his lips again, realizing Luna would love a conversation with this woman. Not only an interesting companion, but some possible insight as to what they were.

The smile would change to a look of contemplation. The idea of trying a pie was a nice one, but he knew Luna loved pie. She had tried one since she was in the city all day, unlike him who traveled outside for most of his contracts.

"I wouldn't mind. I would ask we wait till we get to my home, however. It's just around the corner, near the entrance to the Inner City."
 
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"Great!" Pim was quite pleased at this turn of events, and not simply because of the possibility of doing what she loved best; her new acquaintance had also been at least fifty percent more patient with her survey than any other Allirian, even if he didn't have a lot of answers.

Now she had the challenge of figuring out what kind of pie would be a good start. Sol looked more-or-less human, even if he wasn't really. She figured statistically, a meat or berry pie would be the best choice. Or maybe both...

So involved was Pim in her own world that she nearly walked into a parked cart along the street. She righted her path at the last moment but didn't so much as glance sideways at the obstacle. Instead she flipped through her notebook as if on a quest.

The Inner City had a decent fruit market, as she recalled.

Sol Eclipse​

 
It took just a couple more minutes, and one more turn, before Sol had led his new travel companion to a small but well maintained shop.

The front had a sign above that read 'Over the Moon Tapestries', Luna's own choice for the name. The door had the emblem of a crescent moon etched into its surface and a smaller tapestry hung on either side of the door.

These two tapestries had been made by Luna, the left depicting a sun rising with golden rays over the ocean, while right showed a silver moon casting it's light over a verdant forest.

Sol held the door open for her, gesturing to let her go in first.
 
Pim closed her notebook as she entered the shop and looked around the place. It seemed to be a textile shop, full of intricate and artful tapestries. The stove stomped in obediently behind her, turning this way and that. It made a soft metallic whine, like a creaky old door hinge opening in the distance.

"No, not a bakery," Pim replied as if to an unspoken question, her curious glance soaking up every detail of the interior.

"You make tapestries?" she asked Sol with some reverence, thinking him to be a fellow artisan.

​

Sol Eclipse​

 
Sol steps in behind her, closing the door before he turns to her. He chuckles a little, shaking his head and holding a finger up, summoning a candle fire on his finger tip to show her why that wouldn't be smart.

"That would be a no. Even if I wanted to take the time for these, my nature would make it impossible. That would be my sister, Luna."

And as though on cue, the backdoor to the room opened, a young woman with long, silvery white hair soft silver eyes walked in.
 
Luna had been bored most of the day, with few customers to keep her occupied. Her soft voice echoed through the backroom of the shop as she hummed to herself.

She kept herself busy by organizing her threads, making sure she had everything she needed for upcoming orders. This only took half of the day, and so she took up the next few hours working on a tapestry she hoped she could surprise her brother with.

That was when she hears his voice, though he wasn't calling for her like he usually did, but instead seemed to be talking to someone else.

She found herself perking up as a single word popped into her head:

*Customer?*

This thought barely crossed her thoughts before she made her way into the front of the shop, spotting her brother standing there with what she recognized as a halfling and a... metal dog?

Her voice was soft and soothing as she spoke, her tone pleasant to most who hears her. "Hello, dear brother. I see you finally made a new friend."
 
Pim watched the tiny flame on Sol's finger with interest. "Perhaps not a useful trait for working with anything flammable, true, but the nobles in Oban have popularized a cooking technique called flambé-" she lost her thought when a woman with a kind voice addressed them.

Turning to Luna, Pim waved with a friendly smile. "Hello! I am conducting an experiment. Do you have a kitchen? And also, do you like pie?"

Luna Eclipse
 
She heard a little bit of what their visitor had said, a little curious as to the cooking method. She wanted to learn herself how to cook, mainly because she found the skill intriguing.

She would get to that later, however. For now she simply gave a small bow of her head in greeting to the woman, a small giggle escaping her in reaction to the barrage of questions.

"Yee, I do enjoy pies. They have a flavor you can't quite get from other foods. Our kitchen isn't exactly a kitchen though. It's just a stove and table in the corner of the backroom. Oh, I'm Luna, by the way. And I am sure my brother, Sol, forgot to introduce himself, as well?"

Sol simply froze for a second on the other side of the room, about to hammer in a nail before quietly confirming he had indeed forgotten.
 
Pim introduced herself in turn to Luna and Sol. Luna. Sol. Moon and sun. Celestial opposites, in all of the mythologies she'd heard of. Her brain was bubbling over with inquiries.

"Are all Gemini opposites, I wonder?" she thought aloud more than asked. "And what makes them - or some of them - anomalous?"

Of course, she was a bit of an anomaly herself when compared with other halflings. Or so other smallfolk had always told her. Her baked goods, too, were sometimes an anomaly - but that's what made them special, in her mind.

Pim didn't realize she'd been standing there staring off into space in the course of her mental meandering. Smokey rubbed its metal body gently against her side, drawing her attention back to the present.

"Oh, yes.... pie!" she exclaimed, gazing back at Luna. "If you show me to the kitchen, I will get to work straightaway!" She patted the rugged pack strapped to her back. "I have all the tools I need right here - minus some ingredients of course."

Luna Eclipse​

 
Luna went quiet at these questions. Neither her nor her brother barely knew anything of their own race, which was in itself an anomaly. Though they had met few other Gemini, each one they had met seemed to have been born with the knowledge of basically everything pertaining to what the Gemini were.

Or at least most of it. Some had different information than others, some had less. But each were able to recall what made a Gemini a Gemini.

Luna shook this feeling off, her bright smile returning as she gestures to the back.

"How about this. You can use our kitchen, and in return for the pie, Sol and I will answer every question that we are able to. As for ingredients, not far through the nearest Inner City gate is the food market. We need supplies anyways, so I can join you."
 
Sol, meanwhile, simple kept hammering the nails into the wall. He wasn't one to show it, but the lack of information on themselves bugged the crap out of him. And a woman they had barely known for a few minutes asking such questions made him wary.

But then again, if she really wasn't a Tracer but still had heard of their kind...

He put the hammer down and turned to face the other two, the last nail sticking out for Luna's next tapestry.

"Tell you what, we'll make another deal. We'll buy your ingredients, if you can tell me where you heard of the Gemini. I remember you said something about having heard of us before. Think you can show us where?"
 
"That would be perfect! Then you can pick out which ingredients you like. I can make a pie out of pretty much anything," Pim cheerfully replied to Luna's request. She frowned. "Except bloodstone. Thankfully, they don't sell that anywhere, really."

Pim was always happy to be paid for her baking skills, though she had to pause at Sol's question. Where exactly had she'd seen the reference to Gemini before?

"I know I've seen the word before, but I don't think it pertained to any specific race. It was in an astrology book I read a long time ago. I would say the city library probably has something about it. Or... well, there's the secret library too. I'd bet Smokey you can find information on anything in the whole universe in Kin'Kenny's collection!"

Although Kin'Kenny might not be so happy to see her. Not after the incident with smokey throwing pies at people.

Smokey, on hearing this, lowered itself to the floor with the dejected moan of a metal sheet caught in the wind.

"No, I wouldn't really do that," Pim muttered with a frown. "But you know you aren't allowed in there anymore."

Sol Eclipse​

 
"Then it's settled. I'll keep an eye on the shop while you two grab things from the market. Still a bit early to close, so I can manage it. Have a few things I have to do, anyways. Luna, where is my records book?

As he waited for her answer, Sol looked down at the metallic mut, stepping a little closer and kneeling down to get a better look at it. He could understand why the blacksmith called it an oven, but if it was one he had never seen anything close to it.

"It's like a golem... but obviously has personality. Such a strange yet intriguing creature."
 
Luna's eyes lit up when she heard Pim's answer, quite literally as they flashed a brighter silver as she clapped her hands together once before they returned to normal. She had been wanting to get out of the shop today, and then hearing they might finally be able to learn more about themselves made her that much more excited.

"Perfect! Kitchen is this way. If you wish, you can set some of your stuff down in the back room as well. Sol won't let anyone touch anything they aren't supposed to."

She steps behind the counter, roughly ten feet in length to make it easier to wrap tapestries. She grabs a leather-bound journal from behind it, as well as a pair of thick leather gloves, ink and a quill, setting them both in front of Sol.

"Cateful not to burn it this time. Won't let you buy another one for a week if you do."

Sol would simply sigh and put on the gloves before opening the book to write in it.
 
The rabbit quickly hopped through the various stands and buildings, a gleeful yet panicked expression on their face as they entertained the person chasing he. He quickly lost the follower too easily, he thought sadly, and entered a small shop in case he was being followed. Sure, life as a thief wasn't glorious, but it was something that he was good at, being as quick and stealthy as he was with endless energy. Percy gently closed the door behind him before checking his satchel for the various gems he had, and thankfully, they were still there. He sighed a breath of relief before his ears twitched, picking up the noises in the room. Without looking up, hear the sounds of roughly three footsteps, followed by voices. He curiously looked around, and noticed three people together near the kitchen-like area.

"I'm terribly sorry, but do you mind if I rest here for a bit?" He asked politely, speaking mostly to the sun boy and mood daughter. Perfect nicknames, he thought, as it summed up their appearances well. Percy gave his most dashing smile he could muster, ignoring the sudden pang in his foot. Had he stepped on a particularly sharp rock? Maybe barefooting it all the time wasn't a good idea, but alas, he could find no-one to create good enough shoes to fit his rabbit feet.
 
Sol looked up with a raised eyebrow as the rabbit hopped in, seemingly quite out of breath. He couldn't be sure if the rabbit was just in a hurry or being chased, but either way he wasn't able to say no, especially with his sister there.

He slid a stool across the floor towards the newcomer, gesturing to it before he starts writing again. The scratching of the quill was just enough to be heard along with his voice as he spoke.

"Feel free. Better than sitting here bored while they go shopping. You in a hurry or something?"

Percy Slayer
 
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"Er- Yes, you could say that," the boy said simply, and did a small hop forward, wincing as it dug whatever was in his foot farther in. He adjusted his satchel, and sat next to the boy, who he presumed was older than him. He sat in the chair next to him, wincing as he put pressure on his foot, pushing the foreign object deeper in. He swung his legs, and hummed a tune as he looked around the small shop. "Beautiful," he breathed, as he set his sights on every piece of tapestry in the room. He meant to ask who made them, but a different question slipped past his lips.

"How come you and the fair lady look like opposites?" Followed by an attempt to make it seem like he meant to say it, panicking to cover up his mistake.

"Sorry! It's just that...you look like you're holding the sun...and the lady looks like she has the moon in her grasp..." he trailed off at the end, and smiled shyly, like he said a big secret.
 
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