Long ago, there was nothing in existence except darkness. Then six immortal beings were created out of nothing. The first one was called Eldest and, yes, he was the oldest of the five. Eldest represented the start to something and new beginnings, the light in the darkness. He was then joined by Mira, who represented bravery, courage and war. Then it was Mira’s sister, Liena, who appeared. Her meaning to never be first but always invisible as her light in the dark abyss was not as bright. Next came Ki, who was not as bright as Eldest but brighter than Liena. They represented being in the middle, not quite something but also not nothing, as well as having no gender like the other immortals. Juni shined nearly as brightly as Eldest yet he represented lying and deceit, being fake and misleading. The youngest was Gryffyth, representing knowledge, curiosity and later creation. He didn’t shine brightly on his outside appearance but inside he was the brightest of all of them.

Liena and Juni had a child together and while Liena was filled with joy from her newborn daughter, Juni was not. He wished the child to be gone and took matters into his own hands. Before Juni could continue with his plans for the child, Gryffyth rescued the child from the god of dishonesty and looked after the small child who grew up to be one of the wisest and kindest goddesses, unlike her parents. After the loss her of her daughter, Liena went into a state of grieving and was unstable, leaving her able to be manipulated by Juni. He said that the other immortals had caused her child’s death and Liena’s sorrow turned into rage. Juni made a plan for the two of them to overthrow the gods as revenge.

When the plan was put into action, Gryffyth caught on immediately. After informing Eldest, who led them all as he was the oldest and the brightest but was not at all rational, they fought back. While Juni fled and went into hiding, Liena faced them. She was furious. She had been under the impression that her friends had lied to her and took away her only happiness and sought vengeance in the gods and comfort in the closest one to her, Juni, as she didn’t know his true meaning. The battle between them was short. There were four of them and only one Liena. Even if Juni hadn’t hidden like a coward, she would’ve still been outnumbered. Liena was still weak and emotionally unstable, even if she wasn’t in that state Mira was extremely strong and followed Eldest’s unreasonable orders. Liena was titled as a traitor with no motive but corruption, which Gryffyth understood she wasn’t. Despite Liena being immortal, Mira’s powers were especially harmful to them.

Liena was dying on the ground below them. That’s when Gryffyth knelt beside her and, using all of the life and goodness that remained in her declining soul, Gryffyth created Earth and humans. Those beings were just as imperfect and flawed as Liena had been portrayed as but still had goodness in them. From then on, Gryffyth was also known as the Creator and Liena as the Mother of Humans. Liena’s soul was sent off along with Juni where they couldn’t rise again until…

☯

Alto & Reigne

“No one cares about you and your love life, Alto,” said Reigne, the goddess of the oceans and weather. She looked up at the tall, overdramatic god whom she hated to call her brother.

“I’m the god of love! Everyone should care about my love life! If I have no lover, my relationship advice for mortals is irrelevant! I cannot live like this, Reigne!” Alto exaggerated, his white wings spreading out.

Reigne groaned. “Mortals don’t even know who we are! They believe in other gods and your ‘advice’ has always been irrelevant, brother.”

“What are you two arguing about now?”

Althea, their older sister, had entered the room and stood unimpressed while looking between the two twins.

Alto spoke up first. “She says that no one even knows who I, the god of love and music, am and my advice in relationships, which is my speciality, is and always has been irrelevant!” he complained childishly.

“That’s because it’s true! We may be the creators of their world but they don’t know who we are, that’s the way it should be anyway! Plus, your advice never does anyone good! Remember Thea and Lyre?”

Althea sighed. “You two are such a headache.” She shook her head. “Alto, Reigne’s right. Mortals don’t know of our existence, some don’t even believe in a higher power. Therefore, your love life is somewhat pointless as mortals don’t know of you.”

Reigne smiled smugly at Alto who stood with his arms crossed, staring at his feet.

“Reigne, Alto’s advice may not always do good, but most the time it does. He’s the god of love for a reason. His love life does matter though, his advice is always more helpful when he’s in a relationship. The main reason Thea and Lyre happened because Alto was new to love and had no experience,”

Now Reigne seemed defeated and Alto smirked at his twin with pride.

“Okay?” Althea asked.

“Okay,” the two gods responded quietly in unison.

“Good, you two need to start getting along. You give me and everyone else migraines,” said Althea. “Just, stay away from each other. For at least an Earth Day?” Once they nodded in response, Althea left with Reigne following.

☯

Later, the two troublesome twins stood before Gryffyth, the god of creation, knowledge and curiosity as well as the King of Gods. And Alto and Reigne’s dad.

“You two… As much as I love you guys, you are a pain.” Gryffyth sighed and rested his head in his hand.

“Wow, thanks, dad,” Reigne smirked. “Feeling the love right now,”

Gryffyth smiled down at Reigne. “You know what I mean.” His smile then vanished and an emotionless and nonchalant expression replaced it. “But whenever you two fight, something bad comes out of it, especially on Earth. I can’t just let you two go unpunished.”

Reigne and Alto shared nervous looks. Never before had they been punished by Gryffyth. Barely anyone has as he often let people go for small things, which it mostly was. The only bad situations he’s faced was Before Earth and a few incidents centuries ago when some minor gods tried to overthrow him. But those events were bigger than Reigne and Alto’s fighting, so they weren’t going to be cast out for all eternity or faced with difficult challenges for the rest of their existence, right?

“To show you how you should act, I’m sending you down to Earth.”

Alto’s face paled and Reigne stared up at her father in shock. “What?!” she exclaimed. “You can’t do that!”

Alto spoke quietly. “He can. But for how long?”

Gryffyth looked down at him, surprised by his voice’s quietness and tenderness. “Part of the reason why I’m sending you two down is that Eldest and I suspect the uprising of ancient spirits–”

“You mean like Juni and Liena?!” Reigne gasped. “Oh, sorry for interrupting, dad…”

“As I was saying, we suspect ancient spirits have managed to escape and have possessed mortals. You will remain on Earth for as long as it takes for you to stop the spirit from taking control and causing chaos. To prevent suspicion, you two shall pose as mortal teenagers, trying to find the humans a spirit possesses,” Gryffyth explained.

“This isn’t fair, dad–” Reigne started.

“Okay.” Alto interrupted.

Reigne turned to him. “How are you so chill with this?”

“This isn’t just punishment, Reigne. It’s a quest and a way to redeem ourselves to everyone. To show both mortals and gods that we are capable of good and not just constant squabbles. The fate of the universe lies in our hands, sister.”

Reigne was silent for a while before she nodded. “You have a point and, for once, I agree with you.” She turned to her father. “We’ll do it.”

“You’ll attend Willows High to keep up your appearance as mortal teenagers,” Gryffyth said. “Don’t disappoint me.” Then he snapped his fingers and everything went black.

☯

The two gods appeared standing outside of a big building with a sign that read ‘WILLOWS HIGH’. They could see mortal students sitting on the steps out front and entering the building, going on with their days. No one seemed to notice their sudden appearance or strike it as out of the ordinary.

“What am I wearing?!” Reigne shrieked, causing looks from passing humans.

She wore a lavender crop top with high-waisted pale blue jeans. Her raven hair was tied back in a high ponytail and a white hoodie was wrapped around her waist. Her new outfit was almost completely different from her usual attire, a simple white dress and gold sandals.

“I quite like my outfit,” said Alto as he examined himself. He wore an oversized strawberry pink hoodie and old, ripped denim jeans paired with tall black boots. “Quite trendy for humans and it’s in our colours. I think dad did well.”

Reigne frowned. “I don’t care. I much prefer my usual dress,” she said, crossing her arms.

Before Alto could respond, a respectable-looking man approached the siblings. “You must be the two new students, Reigne and Alto?”

The twins nodded in reply.

The man smiled at them. “I’m Principal Fletcher and I trust you will enjoy your experience here at Willows High.” He then gestured to the short girl next to him. “This is Maria Stewarts, she will show you around the school before the day starts.” Principal Fletcher waved to them and walked into the school.

Maria smiled cheerily at the two. “Hi, I’m Maria! It’s nice to meet you, we don’t normally have new students here so it’s my first time doing this so I’m a bit nervous.” Maria had long wavy jet black hair and bright green eyes that lit up. She had a bronze complexion with freckles dotted on her cheeks. “I’ll show you to the office so you can get your schedule and then I’ll show you all the classrooms,” She grinned.

Reigne nodded “Uh-huh,” she replied, not paying attention to the short girl and stared up at the cloudy blue sky instead.

Alto smiled apologetically at Maria. “Sorry about Reinge, she means well but she’s still a bit homesick,”

“Oh, that’s fine! I get homesick a lot when I got on trips,” Maria then turned her attention to Reinge. “Do you cloud gaze? My friends and I have an unofficial Cloud Gazing group, we’d be glad to have a new member!”

“What?” Regine stared down at her. “Oh, sorry. Uh, no thanks…?”

Maria smiled. “That’s okay, don’t worry. Come on, let’s get going,”

☯