𝐖𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐇 || ᵇ.ᵏᵃᵗˢᵘᵏⁱ

XLIII

"Dalnim was not born a goddess, she was born human like us. One day she and her sister climbed to the top of the highest mountain, so high that they could touch the clouds with their fingertips and see the sun and moon up close. They began to pray, Dalnim prayed to the moon and her sister, Haenim, prayed to the sun. They started to notice that they were becoming stronger and people began to call them the blessed sisters. Until one day, a man followed them up the mountain and hid whilst they prayed. he snuck up on the sisters and stabbed them in the back in the hopes that in their death, the power would be passed over to him."

"The man left thinking he was stronger but the sisters rose to the sun and moon respectively and became deities that watched over us from their new homes. They each chose a family to bless and then the females in that family would have power to pass down to their daughters. Our family is blessed by Dalnim. She wanted to give the daughters of the family a chance to be powerful and blessed after a man took her life out of jealousy. And then for years, the girls in our family and the Hae Clan were worshipped for their power."

Aeri listened to the story intently, barely even remembering to blink as she took in the origin story of Dalnim and her family. "But how is it decided who gets the power? We have female cousins born before me."

"Our mom was the last inheritor and she was the only girl out of her mother's 5 children. If she did not have you, the power would've gone to one of her brother's oldest daughters." Jinyoung explained with a small smile. "Our uncles were rather annoyed when you were born." He laughed.

Aeri blanched. "Is that why the cousins never liked me? Because I took away their chance of power just by being born?"

"Yuna and Eunseo don't like you for that reason, they both wanted to be the worshipped one for their own selfish reasons, but Eunji was thankful to you. She didn't want to be a hero, she was the oldest and most likely to inherit if mom didn't have a daughter but then you came along and took the responsibility away from her. She would visit you every time mom brought you and Jungwon to Korea but unfortunately, when you were 4 and she was 16, she was hit by a car on her way to school. She died on impact." Jinyoung told her, reminiscent. He'd been a similar age to Eunji and they probably grew up close considering how the family lived on one big estate before her mother moved to Japan.

"They knew about Dalnim? But I thought any inheritors had to find out by themselves?"

Jinyoung shook his head. "They were taught after the family got the confirmation of your birth. Yuna didn't really care at first because she was only 6 and didn't really know what it meant but Eunseo was 9 and drilled it into her head that you stole something from them. Eunji was eternally grateful and would tell off her sister and cousin for being mean to a baby." Aeri laughed at that.

"I don't remember her. I remember her name but I can't recall her face or voice." She said bashfully.

"Do you remember eating choco-pies whenever we'd go to Korea?" Jinyoung asked, Aeri nodded. "She was the one always buying them for you, she'd spoil you with snacks behind all the grown-ups' backs and I'd watch the doors just in case mom or your dad came in."

Aeri matched Jinyoung's bright smile, enjoying the family talk, especially when she could finally put together prices of her past that made no sense before—like her cousins' unprovoked hatred towards her.

"What's that book?" Aeri pointed to the relatively thick leather-bound book he'd placed on the desk.

"It's the book of every inheritor the Moon Clan had had over the past 1000 years. All the family members get a copy once they pass their moonstone ceremony. It has the inheritor's date of birth, quirk, age and year of inheritance, and name etched onto a page..." He began to flip the pages until he got to the one he needed. "Yours was added to everyone's books last week." He spun the book around and tapped lightly on the thin parchment where her name was etched, underneath her mother's and grandmother's.

"There's so many things I didn't know about..." Aeri flipped to the first ever page, wanting to know who the first of her ancestors to receive Dalnim's power was. She gasped when she read the name and Jinyoung held back a knowing smile.

"I was named after the first inheritor?" Her eyes flicked up to Jinyoung. He nodded.

"You also have the same hair and eye colour and you were born 1000 years apart exactly. You inherited the power at the same age too. It's a joke amongst the elders that you're the reincarnation of her." Jinyoung chuckled, excited to be the one to tell his sister about the origin of her name.

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Dalnim's real story:

Named Dalsun in her mortal years, Dalnim is the sister god to the goddess of the sun, Haemosu.
In one mythological tale, Dalnim climbed so high up that she reached the moon and ended up as the goddess of the moon. In another, she and her brother were trapped in a tree after being chased by a tiger. She then prayed to the heavens and a rope came down from the skies and pulled them up to safety which is how they became Dalnim and Haenim respectively.