"It’ll be alright,” a stocky female nurse told the red faced, straining mother-to-be. “It won’t be much longer now dear, and then you’ll be able to rest.”

Gritting her teeth, the woman managed a slight smile, “We can hope,” she muttered with bated breath. A moment later she grimaced, and a machine started wailing its mechanical alarms- which were soon drowned out by the shrill cries of a new life brought forth into the world, three minutes after his twin sister. His mother smiled, this time a true, albeit exhausted, smile, her joy shining clearly, with no needs for words- as if such things could describe the exuberance of a newly crowned mother.

“See, dear, it’s all fine. You were worried for nothing,” a man said from her side, smiling even wider than she was, mind-boggling though that may be. Harvon Fremont hadn’t left his wife Julia’s side for the entire seven hours she was in labor, lightly grasping her hand every step of the way. Among other things, his wife was prone to two particular conditions; paranoia and anxiety. Julia being a firm believer in Murphy’s Law, Harvon knew she had been fretting about her pregnancy for months- more so than a typical first-time mother, or so he thought, and the fact that she was bearing twins hadn’t helped the matter. “All’s well, both are perfect,” he added, love gleaming through his eyes. “Both Ariel and Isaac are perfect,” he murmured adoringly.

A great distance away, across a vast void that would boggle the greatest minds, even if it were truly only physical distance that separated them, a cowled figure sat cross-legged on a stone floor- a natural one, for this being was deep within an immense cave system. It had taken four days of walking to reach the place he rested at, discounting the odd breaks taken to sup and drink; truly, though, those rests were of minutes’ length, no more- the being could not afford to be late to this ritual.

Abruptly the figure made the slightest of motions; perhaps it shook its head the tiniest bit, or perhaps it had shivered; even, perhaps, some gust of air in the cavern had rustled its cloak- though whence it came was indiscernible. Whatever the case, it merely preluded the being rapidly reaching up and tearing down the cowl- suddenly drenching the formerly gloomy cave with a sickly, yellow-green light, refracting from various crystalline formations, back and forth across the vast underground expanse, even unto the surface, four day’s walk away, whereat the entrance to the caverns emitted a sinister luminescence.

Far above the cave, in the vast starry expanse itself, two moons shone brightly; one was twice the size of the other, radiating a calm blue light, whilst the other, smaller of the two gleamed white, purer than the freshest snow- yet such was not to last. Perhaps the sharpest of eyes might have noticed it begin, had they chanced to glance upon their beloved moons, but soon enough all would see. Upon the edge of the blue moon a shadow encroached, but it was not satisfied with merely the boundaries of the great mass; nay, rapidly it approached the very core of the celestial body, threatening to blot out its cerulean light; and so it did, and the moon was dark.

Yet, the night sky’s otherworldly events did not halt there; for soon enough, the shadow found itself beset, and crimson shone brightly from the precise center of the great moon; rapidly it expanded, casting out the shadow, projecting its bloody light upon the world, and thus it stayed, and the shifting of the heavens ceased.

Below in the vast underground grottoes, had there been any witnesses, they would have seen the face of the cowled being. While oddly effeminate, the being was certainly male, merely one of quite fine and fragile features. He had a graying beard that might hesitantly be called a goatee; yet, it was clear that the being cared nothing for it, nor his general appearance, in fact. The man’s lips were full, his nose decidedly large, and his fine eyebrows topped gray eyes- eyes which somehow simultaneously held the chaos of a raging storm and the serenity of a bubbling brook on a midsummer day.

To finish his appearance, the man wore his steel-gray hair long, yet in a tight ponytail. While wearing his cloak, one could not tell if he was thin or fat, strong or weak; yet his very presence felt threatening to anything more intelligent than a squirrel. One could tell he had been in more fights than most soldiers; true, hardened soldiers, not the pathetic militias oft used for fodder- and had not a scar to show from it. Dangerous was a word that came to mind when seeing him- and quite an apt word, at that!

Yet, the most curious- and perhaps the most startling- aspect of the man was undeniably the stone that rested on his forehead; it resembled a gem, and was perhaps an inch across, perfectly circular, held in place by a thin silver band. Its clouded depths shone with the same ill light that illuminated the cave; indeed, it was the source of the light- a light that soon grew blindingly bright over the course of a few minutes, until even the entrance to the cavern, so far away, sent a beacon of the sickly light into the sky- directly towards the large moon, which was a mere moment from turning fully crimson.

Three events occurred that fateful night; yet, only one was known to most people. The inhabitants of the world Argandia saw their beloved moon, seemingly desecrated; this was the event known to most. In contrast, only the strange figure in the deep caverns knew about the blinding light that had emitted from his own forehead; perhaps others had seen the beacon rising from the entrance, but only he truly knew the cause.

Then, there was the middle ground; an event known to a mere handful of people. A set of twins was born that night- or more specifically, both birthed and named on that night. On that auspicious moment, when his parents took upon themselves to grant their child a name, an equally inauspicious event took place- and poor little Isaac Fremont was on that night ripped away from his mother’s womb, his twin sister, his parents, the hospital they were in, the country, aye, even the planet itself- and further still could be added to that list, but would be incomprehensible to mere mortal minds and comprehension.