A Story of Life and Death

Once upon a time, in a world devoid of vibrancy and light, there were two sisters born with color in their veins. Their names were Asha and Luciana, and they would change the world.

In the world they were born into, almost all the colors we know of were leached from the land. There was no green, or blue, or purple, or even reds or orange. They knew black, white, grey, and the occasional diluted yellow when their weak sun chose to make a brief appearance. That all changed the day Asha and Luciana were born.

Their parents, Nicholas and Adelaide, had asked one of the most powerful witches in the land to come and bless their children. The witch knew their land could be more than the drab place it was, so she had been biding her time to bestow the gifts that would change the world to someone. She knew it would be the last spell she ever cast, so she drew up all her magic in preparation for the spell that would likely kill her. The moment Adelaide and Nicholas called upon her to oversee the birth, she heard the threads of fate whispering, telling her these were children meant for her gifts.

The moment the girls took their first breath, she blessed them with all she had. As she felt her life draining with the force of that spell, she looked to Adelaide and told her, “Your children will change this world, and that is a great gift. But beware, should you lose one of them, you shall lose both—”

There was more to this warning of course, but the witch died before she could finish. That will come into play later.

When Adelaide, understandably shaken, looked back to her children, she saw two quiet girls with eyes of the brightest blue and the most vibrant green she had ever seen. She could’ve stared at the eyes of her daughters all day, had she not heard the shouts.

Nicholas, carrying the children, rushed to the window to see what the commotion was about. What he saw stopped him dead in his tracks. His wife asked from the bed behind him, “What is it, Nicholas? What are the shouts about?” But he could not respond, for he had no words to describe what he saw.

The witch had spoken true. Asha and Luciana had already changed the world. Nicholas, staring at the window had never seen such beauty before in his life. As soon as the witch had finished her spell, a shockwave of power had erupted from the girls and brought color into everything. The grey haze that had always covered the sky and relinquished its hold to reveal a bright blue sky with a deliciously warm, yellow sun shining down upon them. Beyond that, the hills that had always housed what the people had always assumed to be long dead grass had transformed into rolling green hills, bursting with wildflowers of every color.

The girls just silently watched from their father’s arms as he wept at the joy his daughters already brought him.

As the years went on, Luciana and Asha brought joy to everyone they came across. They brought light, and color, and laughter wherever they went. As they matured. they realized the limits of the vibrancy they brought to life. Luciana, they discovered could only work her magic in the sky, and Asha, the land. They never questioned why it was split up that way, it was the way it was, and they would not complain.

They were happy, those girls. For many years, they were happy. And then, as everyone must do, they experienced a great loss.

When they were 24 years old, Luciana developed a cough. Nicholas, Adelaide, and Asha, all thought it was a cold, brought on by exerting her magic too much. She always seemed to be working on how to make the sun brighter, the sky more vibrant behind it. She even worked on the night sky for their enjoyment. She brought light and warmth to their days, and beauty to their nights. Her family loved her and did want her to exhaust herself for the sake of others. They told her to rest and recover. And she did. But the cough did not fade.

For months, Luciana’s health declined while people within their village brought her gifts and well wishes. She did not get better. Asha was at her bedside day and night; Adelaide and Nicholas could barely drag her away from her twin’s bedside long enough to eat. Soon, Luciana stopped eating. Her sickness did not diminish, in fact, it worsened.

When she began to cough up blood, her parents grew terrified. Sickness was not incredibly common among their village, but occasionally someone died from illness.

In the middle of the night one night, Adelaide jerked awake covered in sweat, a scream building in her throat. Nicholas woke right beside her.

“What’s wrong, darling?”

Adelaide, still panicked, could not answer for a long minute. “The witch,” she finally said.

“What witch?”

“The one who blessed Luciana and Asha.”

“What about her?”

“She—she said if we lost one of them, we’d lose the other. Oh Nicholas, what if we lose Luciana? Will Asha go too? I can’t bear the thought of losing my girls.” She buried her face into her husband’s chest as his arms wrapped around her.

“We won’t my dear, we won’t.”

But they did.

Two days later, they went into Luciana’s room, with Asha by her side and listened to the rattle of her breath. They knew there was nothing to do. They knew they were about to lose a daughter, but they didn’t know if they’d lose two. Adelaide was sobbing into her husband as Asha was sobbing into her sister, praying for her to wake up, to get better. Luciana’s chest rose once more, and then stopped entirely.

Asha’s scream in that moment was heard across the entire land.

At this point, we will pause the story. There is something you must know before we continue. I told you the witch’s warning was not completed before she died. So, knowing what they knew, Adelaide and Nicholas thought they were about to watch both their daughters die. They would not.

You see, the rest of the witch’s curse, had she lived, would have been, "your children will change this world, and that is a great gift. But beware, should you lose one of them, you shall lose both, for the power is too great for one person. If one should die, the other will inherit her power, and will not survive the transition." And that is the moment we shall return to.

As Luciana took her final breath, Asha felt the magic of the sky pass to her, and she knew her sister was gone. Her scream swept through the land and soon other voices joined hers.

The sky darkened and lightning cracked across the valley, rain began to pour down, and wind whipped over structures and blew over trees. Every bit of green in the valley withered to a sickly grey color, and every bloom wilted into ash on the wind.

In a moment, Asha had killed everything she and Luciana had made. She took away the vibrancy and joy and light in the world because all of that had been stolen away from her. She began to cry then, and it was not tears that soaked her sister’s deathbed, but pure night. The magic was overflowing inside her, so the night sky Luciana had made began to pour from her eyes. It had felt like ink and fire had begun to cascade down her face, but she couldn’t stop it.

Her parents watched on in horror and black flowers began to spring up from Asha’s black tears. It was a gruesome sight and one they never wished to see again.

When her sobbing finally subsided, Luciana’s limp arms were splattered with black and her bed was covered in black, thorned flowers. But Asha was still alive. Though it had torn her soul to shreds, she had not died when her sister’s magic was gifted to her. She wished for many years, that it had.

Life without her sister was the one thing Asha never thought she’d have to endure, she thought they’d be together till the end, and they’d go together. She did not touch her magic, or her sister’s, after that day. She could not bear the thought of bringing back that life to the valley, so once again, their world lacked vibrancy, color, life. But as long as Asha longed to die, she could not bring back such magic to the land. As cruel as she knew it was, Asha wanted the people in the valley to know a sliver of the pain she felt every day. And so they suffered.

For many years, Asha suffered that pain, and never attempted to change it.

One day, years after Luciana died, Asha looked up at the dark sky beyond her window and longed to see the stars her sister had worked so hard on. She realized she could make it happen. She was grappling with the decision when the first break in the haze in years happened right above her window. For a brief moment, Asha saw the stars beyond the smoke and clouds in the sky. She finally grasped what everyone had told her since the day Luciana died: Her sister had never truly left her. Her body was no longer here, but perhaps her spirit lived on in that sky she loved so much. The thought brought tears to Asha’s eyes. She decided in that moment, it was time. The people of the valley did not deserve to suffer as she had.

With a thought, Asha cleared the haze from the sky and gazed upon the stars.

The next morning, she brought the green back to the hills, she could not yet bear the brightness of flowers, but she could manage grass. The villagers rejoiced; their savior had brought life back yet again.

For months she kept the valley green and the sky clear. But when her sister’s magic had transferred to Asha, it had given her a secret. The magic had killed Luciana. She had used it for too long without rest, and the toll was taken on her body, her health.

So, Asha decided she could only use her magic for months at a time. She informed the villagers and they begged and pleaded that she take the rest she needed, they could not bear to lose her too.

For five to six months of the year, Asha preserved her magic. She always chose the months surrounding Luciana’s decline and her death. Whenever Asha began to remove the colors, she started slowly. They faded gradually, like Luciana, and when the light died, Asha mourned her sister all over again. But soon after, Asha always brought the light back. She started slowly, bringing the life back just as gradually as she had taken it.

Asha always tried to keep it the most vibrant the farthest away from Luciana’s death. She kept the sky clear, and the world full of flowers, and green, and beauty, so her sister could watch on from the stars.

On those nights, in the height of her magic, she would sit on the roof of her home, and gaze up at those stars. She could’ve sworn she felt Luciana’s presence sitting right beside her, gazing at those same stars.