Once, there was a Hallow.
It was the only one of its kind, so it split into five – the four Hallows we know, and the consciousness, which took the form of a boy. But that boy was lonely, so as the Hallows scattered, he split himself in two. This pair of brothers wandered about the lands, knowing they would never be lonely, for the other was always there.
Once, there was a forest.
It was lonely, so it took the clay from the banks of the river that ran through it, needles from the pines, wood from the trees, and shaped all that into a child that would run through the forest and bring it joy. Then it realized the boy would also be lonely, and gave him a twin brother. They ran and skipped and danced about the forest, alive and ecstatic in the way only small children can be, and they never saw a sad day.
Once, there was an abandoned egg.
It would've frozen in the winter, if not for an intrepid goose who sheltered it within her wings. She didn't know what or whose the egg was, but it was an egg, and she didn't want it to die. Come spring, it hatched. It was not a single gosling, but instead twin boys. They crawled out of the egg and thanked the goose who'd saved them. Together they walked the width of the earth, seeing every wonder.
"Do Dixingians hatch from eggs?" Zhao Yunlan asked.
"Probably not, but I was a young orphan, and no-one had given me any sex ed," Shen Wei said. The memories were there, stories he and Ye Zun had told each other, gilded by contrast with proceeding events. Now he tried sharing some of that – some of the few happy memories he had – with Zhao Yunlan. It had perhaps been a mistake; Zhao Yunlan was unfortunately perceptive.
"And your brother?" Zhao Yunlan softly asked, proving Shen Wei right.
Shen Wei stared out the window. The streetlamps hazily illuminated the world, little pockets of light that modern humans took for granted but would've caused amazement in Shen Wei's era of birth, or present-day Dixing. "No-one is immune to calamity." He swallowed. "I wish it had all gone differently."
He wished the Rebel Leader had taken a different route to them. He wished he'd learned his teleportation powers by then so he could've saved Ye Zun as well. He wished he'd found his brother before whatever it was that had made him hate him.
Zhao Yunlan placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.
Once, there was a pair of brothers.
The older vowed to protect the younger all their life. But the younger one grew ill, and the older one didn't wish to shoulder such a burden, so he sold his brother to slavery without a second thought.
"Really," Zhao Yunlan asked the pillar.
The pillar loomed. "Why would I lie to you?" it asked in a treacly tone.
Zhao Yunlan could come up with lots of reasons, but he didn't say any of them. Instead, he said, "Because it seems your brother is Shen Wei, and he'd never do such things. So either you're lying or you're mistaken."
"But he really did do that!" the pillar raged. "He is an evil traitor who'll go back on every promise he has ever made and thinks only of himself!"
"Have you talked to him about this?" Zhao Yunlan asked. The nonsensical accusations had little to do with reality, but perhaps Shen Wei could see which incidents had been twisted.
"...no," the pillar admitted.
"How about we do it like this?" Zhao Yunlan suggested. "I bring Shen Wei over, you tell him why you hate him, and then you can discuss it."
Before the pillar could agree to it, the trio of troublemakers Zhao Yunlan had thrown the Regent at turned up. He had to leg it.
Once, there was a pair of brothers.
The older had his powers already, but the younger didn't. This made the younger one sad, as he couldn't help his brother get them food or shelter. In an effort to cheer him up, the older brother started calling him Ye Zun, Lord of the Night. The younger was happy – his brother might have powers, but he was the Lord of the Night.
And thus as Ye Zun he was known forevermore.
The phone rang in Shen Wei's office, jolting him from his memories. He answered it.
"We need to go back to Dixing immediately," Zhao Yunlan said.
"You almost died," Shen Wei snapped. "I'm not letting you go back there."
On the other end of the line, Zhao Yunlan sighed. Shen Wei wished he could see his expression. "It's – look, your brother's in that pillar, right? I promised him I'd bring you over and he'd tell you why he hated you."
The phone receiver clattered out of Shen Wei's hand. All the things he'd struggled to get Ye Zun to tell, now offered out to him on a silver platter.
"Shen Wei?" Zhao Yunlan asked.
He picked up the receiver and said, "You're at the SID? I'll be right there."
Then he cut the call and stood up. He called upon the ancient power flowing through him and transformed his modern suit into layered black robes and a mask whose wearer had the authority to summon the Chief of the SID to Dixing and opened a portal to do just so.
Once, there was a pair of brothers.
They had a sad beginning, and a tragic middle, but they earned their happy ending.