Daughters of Fire and Ice

Long ago the world was not dominated by humans as it is today. The night sky was not blocked by their towering skyscrapers, nor was the birdsong trumped by the roar of engines. The world was ruled by Nature, and the creatures protected by the seven houses of Fae. House of the Roc protected the birds and the skies, house of the Serpent cared for Reptiles and ice, house of the Dirawong cared for amphibians and fire, House of the Wendigo controlled Fungi and darkness, and so on. Each house had a role to play in the complex ecosystem and under the rule of the seven houses all was peaceful. Until the Twins appeared. Born to the ruler of the House of Snakes and a peasant from the house of the Dirawong. One child was born more powerful than any before her, and one child with no power at all. In the beginning they were treated equally as all their predecessors were. Until the day the younger, more powerful sister, Lume, started to train to be Queen. The Powerless sister, Nil, was cast aside and all but forgotten and ignored, her anger grew and simmered inside of her, her heart grew dark and she became resentful towards her twin. When tragedy struck and their mother died, Lume took the throne. Then the powerless sister disappeared, and a plague hit the house of the Dirawong. A plague unlike any other, instead of falling ill, the Fae started losing power. Their magic was drained. Lume, wanting to find a way to save her people, went to the wisest Fae there was. A Prophet from the house of the Baku, he gave her the Prophecy of Fire and Ice,  
When Nothing rises, Light goes dark
Till long through time
  We lose our mark
              
Two girls, two souls,      
 our saviors rise
Lead by the Wolf with stardust eyes 
In the heart of Ice and Fire,
Given by the Sky, A key, a bloom, a needle
What’s heartless cannot die
daughter of fire, daughter of ice, on our darkest day
 Find the place where nothing sleeps
For your choice the world might pay 
            
 The fae will rise once more
What was taken will be lost
Tears, and blood, and broken hearts
With power comes great cost
Lume understood, she would not be the one to save her people. The magic would drain from the fae. And she would be lost. She gave the prophecy to each of the leaders of the houses, each took their most trusted and went into hiding. Then Lume went to see the king of the house of the Wendigo. She demanded to see her sister, who he had made his Queen. She barely recognized her sister, Nil had gained magic. It was she, the forgotten princess, who had been stealing the magic from the world. Lume, in her anger, declared a battle. She shifted into her true form. Her already greenish-brown skin hardened into armor-like scales, her hands into claws, her head into a long, thin snout and her eyes glowed with the red of a wildfire. Interi too took her true form, like her sister, her skin turned to scales, hers though were in all ranges of colors, like the different types of magic she had sucked from the fae. Her body merged into one long tail, her oddly flat and blunt teeth grew into long, sharp, fangs. Her eyes burned with rage, hate, and loathing for those who had left her behind and robbed her of her birthright. The battle was long, the blood spilled could fill an entire lakebed. In the end, Nil was cornered, but Lume could not find it in her kind heart to kill the girl she once called a sister, her weakness was her downfall. The snake, feeling no remorse, injected her dark venom into her sister’s bloodstream and fled, nobody knows where she went. Some say she fled into the ocean and died of blood loss, Some say she burrowed deep into the earth and let loose her magic, and some say she is lying in wait till the day she can finally take the world as her own.