The village lay between low hills and dense forest, the kind of place people passed without remembering the name. It was quiet there-quiet enough that everyone knew one another's habits, quiet enough that absence was noticed.
Aristeia and Listeia were born into a family of means, but not one that stood apart. Their home was close to the village paths, close enough that the sounds of daily life carried through open windows. It had never felt important to keep distance. Wealth was useful, yes, but it was never treated as something to be protected from others.
Aristeia, the elder, grew into his role without realizing it. He had his father's dark hair and his mother's eyes-blue, clear, and steady, like polished agate. People trusted him easily. He listened more than he spoke, and when he did speak, it was usually because someone needed him to. He helped with disputes, carried heavy loads when backs gave out, stayed late when work ran long. None of it felt remarkable to him. It was simply what needed to be done.
Listeia followed him everywhere. She shared his dark hair, though hers was always loose, always a little unruly. Her eyes were different-bright, sharp, almost crystalline, like diamonds catching light at strange angles. People noticed them, sometimes uncomfortably so. She noticed things in return. A pause before an answer. A laugh that came too quickly. She asked questions that were innocent, but rarely shallow.
The villagers came to care for them not out of obligation, but familiarity. The siblings were present in small ways-shared meals, open doors, quiet assistance given without being asked. When a harvest failed or illness took hold, help arrived without ceremony. No one was made to feel like they owed anything in return.
Life moved gently then. Days blurred into one another. The kind of peace that makes you stop questioning it.
Looking back, it was that certainty that made what came next so cruel.
Because no one expects the ground beneath them to give way-not until it already has.
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Hellas: Dark Ages
Historical FictionAristeia and Listeia's peaceful life is destroyed in a single night. What begins as an ordinary day ends in violence, the death of their mother, and a separation that leaves both siblings lost and unprepared for what follows. They awaken to a new ex...
