Robin opened his eyes, that in itself came as a shock, usually when the light leaves your eyes and your brain goes dead you’re gone, finished, the story’s over. However for Robin it seemed like this story was just beginning. He looked around and blinked stupidly as his eyes adjusted to the light. It was almost entirely white, so it took a few moments. He got to his feet, rising off the padded mattress he’d somehow been taken to without waking. The room had a single large window covering most of the wall to his west, a door directly in front of him and a wardrobe to his right. Standing up made him dizzy immediately so he lay back down, holding his head in both hands.
“What happened?” he was asking himself, not anyone else in particular so it was a shock to hear a response.
“You died,” it was a female voice, a woman, not a girl, but not particularly old either, if he had to guess. He looked at her for a second in disbelief, and then shook his head.
“Died? What do you mean died? I can’t have died! I’m right here!” he raised his hands and stared at them. “I can’t be dead.”
“The very fact you’re right here tells me just that, you are dead,” the woman had long red and black hair; it created an almost dazzling effect. She had a kind face and pure white eyes. As far as he could see she was just a normal woman, apart from the eyes. Those and the fact the white light filling the room actually seemed to be emitting from her. She leant over him and helped him slowly and gently to his feet. He felt another small rush, but it wasn’t unbearable this time.
“Lord Irien commanded you were to be brought to me, that I was supposed to train you, supposed to make you strong enough to face your duties.”
“Duties?” he shook his head. “What duties? I don’t have any duties!”
“It wasn’t explained to you?” she shook her head. “What have they told you? Just out of interest.”
“I don’t even know who ‘they’ are,” he sat back down on the bed and she almost absent mindedly pulled him to his feet again.
“Well let us begin with the very basics,” she put her hand comfortingly on his shoulder. “My name is Manola and I am a Guardian, it is our task to protect the balance of this universe, to make sure Chaos and Order are always at war, rather than any one clear winner emerging.”
“What?” he shook his head. “I don’t want any part of any of that!”
“You don’t get to choose,” Manola shook her head. “It’s either this, or you go back to being dead,” her face softened even further. “I don’t like delivering ultimatums. In fact I hate them. However those are your only two choices, die properly, or submit to my training.”
“I will submit,” he replied hurriedly, after all he could just break out after a while anyway. Once he figured out how.
“Good,” she smiled softly down on him. “Your training begins tomorrow. Get your rest for as long as you can young Robin, you will most definitely need it. The training is, strenuous to say the least.”
Robin drifted easily to sleep; after all, dying was an exhausting thing to do.

Half a universe away another one of the brothers awoke, his head was not dizzy, simply ringing. He quickly put it down to the guards beating him over the head with their sticks. He climbed up and sat on the bench that sat on the side of his cell.
“Did they have to hit me so damned hard?” he shook his head, slapping it to get it focused.
“Well,” said a man in the same cell as him. “From what I have heard from the guards as they brought you in you broke one’s arm and shattered the ribs of another. He’s never going to work as a city guard again.”
“So they responded by attempting to shatter my skull?” Raine put his head against the stone wall. “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind you know.”
“Where’d you get that?” the man laughed.
“My mother used to say it,” he replied.
“Why’d you do it?” the big man had a ragged beard and immense muscle, he was Raine’s physical superior by far. He had bright lively eyes and his fingers were twitching, unable to stay still.
“Kill my father or attack the guards?” Raine had a notion that pushed its way into his mind. This was a man he wanted as a friend and one he most definitely did not want as an enemy. It was time to humor him.
“Either or kid,” he smiled. “Either or.”
“I killed my father because he killed my little brother, I loved my brother, my fathers actions made me angry, there was a knife nearby. I think you can figure out the rest.”
“Fair enough kid,” he smiled a little. “Revenge is only right, what about the guards? Why does an unarmed teenager jump an entire battalion?”
“My brothers were running away,” he replied. “I knew none of us could get away with them chasing us. Difference was if either of them had done it they would have been beaten to a pulp and I still wouldn’t have gotten away. No matter what I was gonna end up here, so I figured I could take a shot or two to the head to keep them out of chains.”
“Nice work kid!” the big man embraced him. “Protecting your family, no matter what. That’s the kind of thing I can respect,” he grinned, the calloused beaten hand slapping the boy on the shoulder.
“Thank you,” Raine said, his discomfort evident. “I think.”
“Just for makin’ my day like that!” he offered a hand. “I’ll be your guardian angel.”
Raine took the hand despite his confusion. “What do you mean my guardian angel?”
“I’ll help you out around here,” he gestured to the walls. “Show you what’s what and if the time comes I see an escape opportunity, I’ll take you with me. On the condition that if you find one, same deal applies.”
“So, if one of us breaks out, both of us do?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” he smiled. “But that’s not likely to happen anytime in the next few years, so get used to the place. Some men go hard in prison, other men break. It’s always one of the two, now I can help and I’m gonna, but you gotta do something of your own. Tough it out, don’t give up and don’t do what you’re told by anyone you don’t absolutely have to. Got it?”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
“You don’t,” the big man got to his feet. “That’s another rule I’m gonna give you. Don’t trust anyone, especially not me. I’m not nicknamed Weasel for no reason.”
“Weasel?” Raine shook his head. “Not exactly the most flattering nickname in the world.”
“There’s a history behind it,” Weasel replied. “I got my reasons.”
“I’m Raine,” he said softly, Weasel nodded.
“Raine, I’ll remember it. Well then Raine,” he gestured around him. “Welcome to hell on Iria!”

“The Weasel?” Irien raised an eyebrow, unfortunately they both did it, and so the effect was largely ruined. “Out of all our old characters over the millions of years we play who are now in prison, the one you choose is the Weasel? You do remember how he won the game he was in?”
“He tied his wife to his sister and threw them both into a river,” Aros replied. “So what? He only killed five people, his opponents and his wife.”
“Yes,” Sakra nodded. “As well as the countless imprisonments, ruined lives and murder contracts that he has caused through betrayals.”
“Inconsequential,” Aros dismissed it. “I want to make him strong. I want him to survive. For that, a little betrayal is nothing to fear. Now will the two of you please make your move?”
Irien nodded, then looked over at Sakra.
“We need to separate the two of them.”
“Agreed,” the snake woman replied softly. “Any ideas?”
“Perhaps,” the two of them thought about it for around two weeks, and then decided to finally make their move.

Rabian returned from a hunt to his brother, Raven had been injured two days previous. He was beginning to walk as normal, but he wasn’t ready to hunt a wild animal yet. Together they built a fire. This was how it had been for the last few years, they lived in a place until news of the pair of them reached it, or they were run out of town for robbing a rich mans house, since they had no skills to work and heavy lifting did not suit their tastes, they felt it was the most viable option. On their roads from town to town they either spent the proceeds of their robberies or they did what Rabian had done today. The two of them ate in silence; there was nothing for them to talk about. After the meal Raven looked up at his older brother.
“What are we doing?”
“We’re eating, of course. People need to do it if they wish to live.”
“Bigger picture big brother, bigger picture, what are we going to do with our lives?”
“I don’t know,” Rabian replied simply. “Go to bed, I will take first watch tonight, I will wake you in four hours.”
The next day Rabian went ahead to scout a small town, to see if the word of their murder and robberies had spread to the backwaters. It was unlikely, but he hadn’t lasted this long by lowering his guard. He promised his brother he’d be back in an hour.
Ten minutes later Raven heard a rustling in the bushes. “Ahh, brother, you’re back earlier than I thought you would be.”
“Don’t know who you’re talking to my friend,” the man stepped out of the forest, a crossbow pointed at the injured boy. “But I’m afraid you’ll have to give me your money, or your life.”
“Sorry friend,” Raven raised his hands. “Don’t have any money, so I guess you’re going to just have to shoot me.”
“You misunderstand me,” the man stepped out of the shrubs. “You are going to give me everything you have, or I’m going to kill you.”  
“I don’t have anything of value,” he moved back step by step, trying to just get close enough to his knife, he got a firm hold on the  handle. “Even if I did, I wouldn’t give it to you, it’s my brothers, not mine.”
“Well then, we have a,” the knife was embedded in his throat before the sentence ended. He got to his feet and hobbled over to the body, running through the man's pockets.
“Why in Iria were you robbing me?” he lifted the would be robber's fat purse from his pocket and smiled. “I really am completely penniless.”
His gloating was however, quickly ruined by another mans voice yelling.
“Oi! Daygar, where are you? What’s taking so long?”
Raven panicked for a moment, then sat there, reviewing his options, he decided there was a total of one. Run away. He headed into town.

By the time Rabian got back to their camp he saw the dead man and his abandoned camp. He pursued the logical conclusion for a moment and nodded to himself.
“What’s done is done,” he said quietly, picking up all the gear he could carry, slinging it over his back. “There is no point wasting my time looking for him, he’s gone, I may find him in town when I go there. It is safe there and the word has not spread,” he walked down to the town. Despite each of them looking for the other, neither of them seemed to be able to locate his brother. Every time one of them called the others name, the other walked into a shop or a market. Every time one of them turned a corner, the other would turn one as well, disappearing out of sight. Iruel and Sakra had a grand time shifting opinions and emotions of the people around them to ensure they never met, until finally word of the brothers finally reached even this tiny town. Despite their kinship Rabian concluded there was no choice but to head north to the mountains. Raven’s decisions lead him into the forests in the east.
Irien and Sakra looked at each other for a second and shared a smile.
“That worked well,” Sakra said, a hint of camaraderie sneaking into her tone.
“Indeed,” Irien replied. “Now, we can get back to business,” obviously her attempt to foster an alliance wasn’t appreciated. Rivira smiled to herself, her uncle was still only her ally, this was good.

Sky was much better than before, her grubby ruined boots had been replaced by delicate sandals; her torn blouse had been thrown aside and replaced with an elegant long red dress. Over the last day she’d had a lot of dainty strange women with odd skin and bright adornments washing, patting, preening, plucking and dousing in a huge assortment of strange smelling things she knew very little about. Finally she was brought before the woman who had found her again, the woman all the others called Mother Shandia, despite the fact many of them appeared older than she did. The woman smiled at Sky and for the first time the little girl appreciated how pretty the woman was. Everything about her seemed perfect, flawless, like nothing but good could ever come from her. Sky trusted her instantly.
Shandia looked the young girl up and down, her eye for potential never failed her, now she’d been cleaned and prettied up the girl was like a living china doll. Delicate, beautiful and with just a hint of exotic in her nature. This one would be perfect.
“You have done well,” she climbed slowly down from her chair and bent down level with the girl.
“Would you like to travel with us little one? Would you like to be one of us?” the room was full of excitement just barely contained, they hadn’t had a new arrival in months, Mother Shandia very rarely accepted one, usually every three towns had one girl worth their while between them. This would be the second in one town.
“Yes please,” Sky said softly, her entire face flushed red and blushing. She wasn’t used to being looked at like that. The crowd immediately lit up, joy and celebration all round. Sky didn’t understand what was going on, but she was happy that so many people seemed to want to be her friend, everyone was happy, which made her happy. She hugged Mother Shadami and the kind young woman hugged her back. This was going to be great!

“The path is set,” Aros smiled. “For three of us at least,” he looked over to Tarconis, who nodded silently, watching with narrowed eyes the game board, so no one could sneak a move he hadn’t noticed, or trick him with slight of hand. He’d been trapped once before, never again.
Rivira was bouncing in her chair. Everyone, except silly the silly old bear had been so nice to her this game. She was on track now, this time she would take her chance to make her move.

Irien looked at the board, the two of them silently arguing, there were many characters to choose from, characters who roamed the mountains, the two of them smiled, a move formulating in their minds, the next move they made, would make or break them.

Sakra thought the same, who would train her dark boy? Who would look after his fragile mind? A grin split her face as she saw a small character, from many years ago, one all but forgotten these days. She reached out a hand and pushed him gently forward, moving him towards the lost young man.