Long ago...
The forest elves left their main forest after being driven out by other elf peoples: the clan of the flower elf sinner, and the traitors of the ice elves.
The three elf peoples began to fall into conflict.
Then...
The village chief of the elves at that time, the very first forest elf who was deeply beloved by the spirits, sought protection from one of the conflict's victims: the second great spirit, who governed dimensions, wielded the crystal element, had silvery-white hair, luminous pink skin, and red eyes patterned like diamonds, as though carved directly from ruby gemstones.
She was the mother of the first Winter, Yuki White.
She created a dimensional collision between an ordinary rainforest and the desert of the fire spirits, which also served as one of the border gateways to the island of the Winter Kingdom.
In exchange for that gift of a home, the forest elves would guard the gateway and protect any Winter Kingdom citizens who found themselves in danger.
However, the forest elf tribes still had to remain prepared for unpleasant circumstances, specifically a situation in which they might have to leave.
They crafted a portal from a magical liquid they had discovered in the color-changing magical lake.
They found that the water of that lake contained an extraordinarily large number of fragments of the Creator's magic, more than enough to teleport a great number of people to a distant location on a large scale.
The village chief at that time began searching for a suitable material to build that emergency portal.
Thousands of years passed, yet the material for the portal had still not been found, until at last a gleaming stone in the desert was discovered by the granddaughter of the first village chief.
She studied the stone carefully.
And indeed, it turned out to be the very material the forest elves had been searching for all this time to construct the portal.
The portal was fashioned in the form of a purple orb, which was ultimately stored in the village chief's storage room.
The emergency portal orb was guarded closely by each successive generation of village chief heirs.
The stone was cleaned once every five years by the village chief.
Time passed all too quickly, and now the wife of the sixth village chief was in labor.
She gripped the cloth tied around the wooden bar above the bed with all her strength, groaning and drenched in sweat.
"Heugh."
"Come on, Madam, you can do it!" Said one of the doctors.
"Breathe in! And out!"
From outside the room, the village chief at that time was filled with anxiety. He paced back and forth in the corridor in front of his home, biting his fingernails.
One of the servants, who was Seren's mother in those days, saw this.
"Sir, please stay calm."
"How can I stay calm?! With what's happening in there!"
Sure enough, the village chief's wife suffered severe hemorrhaging immediately after Astella was born.
Because the elves' equipment was inadequate, the village chief's wife passed away at that very moment.
The village chief was utterly broken. He came to resent Astella, seeing her as a curse, since his wife had died after Astella's birth.
At his wife's funeral, the village chief held only Stella in his arms and left Astella unattended.
He cast a vacant stare toward his wife's gravestone.
"You should have lived on..."
The village chief tightened his fist.
In accordance with elven tradition, near the end of a funeral, all portraits of the deceased are burned as a symbol of releasing them in peace.
The gravestone driven into the earth is also crushed into grains of sand.
The funeral ceremony concluded, and the elf villagers made their way home in groups as rain suddenly began to fall, all except the village chief and Stella, whom he held in his arms.
After standing in the rain for a brief moment, Stella let out a small, soft sneeze.
The village chief looked at her and stroked her gently.
"I'm sorry, my darling. I was too lost in my own emotions. I even considered abandoning your twin sister. I don't know how I could ever face her. I can't bring myself to. I am truly a terrible father."
Though he felt some reluctance toward Astella, he still gave the two girls one shared room when they were small. It may have seemed a little unfair, yet somewhere within himself he was struggling hard not to blame Astella.
Witnessing the unfairness Astella endured, the other forest elves began to gossip, saying that Astella was a cursed child who had consumed the soul of her own mother.
Every time Astella moved, she was mocked by those around her.
Of course, seeing her younger sister treated that way, Stella did not simply stand by.
Every time Stella witnessed anyone behaving unkindly toward Astella, she would immediately embrace her with all her strength. This had been happening since they were infants.
Until, at the age of 500 by elf reckoning (100 years equaling 1 year in elf age), Stella suddenly produced a light that shone all the way out of the room.
That light emerged alongside a strong yet gentle wind, leaving Astella wide-eyed and awestruck at the beauty of the light that had appeared.
The village chief saw it and immediately hurried to where his children were.
He broke open the door and shouted.
"Children! What's happening?!"
He went silent as he took in the sight of Stella surrounded by the golden light of the spirits.
"This can't be..."
The village chief gripped Stella's hand firmly and pulled her away, leaving Astella behind.
"Sister?!" Astella cried out.
It was at that moment that the village chief announced Stella as a child beloved by the spirits.
All the forest elf villagers rejoiced at her emergence.
Cheers rang out from every direction, welcomed by flower petals drifting through the air.
From the day of that announcement, the bond between Stella and Astella began to pull apart, as Stella was kept in continuous training and gradually forgot to spend time with Astella.
Every time Astella called for her, Stella would answer with "later."
That went on for hundreds of years, until Astella, thoroughly fed up, stood before her father with a straight and steady posture.
"Father, I want to train in swordsmanship!"
The village chief only replied: "Do as you like." He had not paid any real attention to Astella from the very start, and simply looked through his documents with a flat expression.
He did not even know that Astella had been receiving injuries from the bullying inflicted on her by those in her surrounding environment.
Astella walked out of the room with unsteady steps.
Outside, she collapsed after holding back the pain she carried, both in her body and in her heart.
Astella sat on the ground, her back against the wooden wall outside her father's room.
Her hands clutched the earth below her.
The wound on her arm still throbbed. It was a mark left by the blows of elf children that very morning, blows that no one would ever report, because no one cared enough to listen.
The wind blew softly.
The leaves above her head swayed.
Cursed child.
One who consumed her own mother's soul.
Those words had been said to her for so long that she had memorized their rhythm.
Even though Astella tried to grow used to it, the pain was still very much there.
Then Teacher Basoa approached her.
Basoa quietly administered first aid to Astella's wounds.
"There. Now it should heal quickly."
"Teacher..." Said Astella, holding back her tears.
Basoa stroked Astella's hair.
"I will always be waiting for you when you're ready to train." Basoa left with a smile.
However, Astella's softness did not last long, and she eventually tried to escape into the desert.
The scorching heat of the desert sun was truly unlike anything felt in the forest.
Astella ran without bringing any supplies and collapsed in the middle of the barren desert.
There, she was found by the Gun Fairy who was on duty at the time.
The Gun Fairy gave Astella many things: good food and drink, someone to confide in, advice, and more.
Until the child who had known so little love finally gave way.
And that was where Astella's betrayal began.
To Be Continued~