We were two people walking down the same road.

Me and Sole were both born without a surname. That was because nobody knew who were our parents.

Both of us lived as orphans, both of us showed incredible talent in magic, so much that we were called prodigies, the new generation and much more.

Both of us had no money and no family, which meant that we were picked up by the Aznav Church because of our talent.

I could go on and on and explain the other similarities between her and me, which made the fact that we had never known each other all the more incredible. 

But this story actually begins from the parts of us that are fundamentally different.

As I said, up until the age of twelve, I’ve never heard of Sole Egborough, the new adopted child of Cardinal Egborough. Before that moment, I lived a life that was not complete.

If I could even call that pile of nothingness life, that is. I had learned about my power at a very young age, using it to acquire money through various means and live, until the Church found me.

I wasn’t angered by how they pretended to be my parents as I was adopted by Cardinal Azimof, because after all I had nothing to live for, nor had I ever had a reason to live.

My life was meaningless. I trained everyday as they told me, I became one of the greatest magicians in the world after just a small amount of time — only her growth was parallel to mine — but at the same time, nothing really appealed to me.

For that reason, one day I was called by Cardinal Azimof into his room.

As he looked at me with severe eyes, he told me with a stern expression: 

“I have monitored your growth with attention. I do believe the opportunity we have granted you could never be wasted, but I have a hunch that you’re never going to grow up into the best mage.” He told me that with his grey eyes full of contempt and his old face struggling to keep a formal expression.

I knew what he meant on the spot.

“You think…” I tried to answer his words, but he cut me off in a second.

“Yes. I think you’re going to give up on your life soon enough if you stay like this.” 

I nodded.

That made him sigh, of course, as he then muttered: 

“When we decided to adopt you, the Pope told me you’d fall in love with magic because you were good at it. I guess you’re different from the other recruits, though…”

Again, I could only nod. I had never been like the others, after all. An empty head without goals can’t fall in love with anything.

But the next sentence he said would change that destiny.

“I think you should spend some time at the Cathedral’s Library. It’s the biggest in the world of Azalea and it keeps the most important and even the least known books of every subject. You’re definitely going to find something you like.” 

He muttered those last words with a feeling of hopelessness, as he believed little in what he had just said.

Back then, I could’ve never guessed that those signs of titanism showed that he really cared about me, more so than about his imminent failure. 

But still, the next day I headed to the Library.

It was like no place I had ever seen in my life. Stacks and stacks of books piled one in front of the other in what seemed like mountains with different heights, all across multiple floors and different pavilions. 

“If I really find books to my liking, this place will keep me interested for a long time.” I thought to myself as I entered the deepest part of the library, open only to the people directly under the Pontifices’s rule.

The Cardinal had told me that this side could’ve been interesting, as it kept all the religious myths that this place had to offer, along with the history of the Holy State I was living in.

And so, obeying his directions, I had headed there without much opposition. As I was alone, I saw another person seemingly alone too. She was sitting at a long, empty table, reading alone with a pen in her hand and a notebook in her hands.

Her face, inclined to the book, seemed gracious from afar and showed natural beauty, just like her messy, brazen hair. 

This person paid no interest in me as she kept reading, so I felt like I should have done the same and decided to take a book from the stacks in front of me.

“Everything’s fine, isn’t it?” Those were my thoughts as the pile of books presented to me kept increasing, their titles alluding to different stories or arguments, none of which I cared about.

“Religious myths about Aznav.” I whispered as I reached the end of the line, seeing a book clearly different from the others. It was much more antique, its pages seemed now yellow instead of the usual white, its cover was half broken too.

Curious, I picked it up and took my seat on the other side of the table, distant five or more meters from the person I didn’t want to disturb.

“So, I should read this….” I muttered to myself with a louder voice than before, alerting the girl who was quietly reading and hadn’t noticed my arrival at all.

“Ugh.” Immediately I heard her say.

“When did you get here?” Those were the first words coming out of her pure mouth, which seemed to hold a fair amount of poison inside.

“Just now.” I answered with the same formal and toneless voice that she had used, hoping to get back into that quiet atmosphere I had honestly not minded.

“And you are?” Again, she asked.

“My name is Luna Azimof. Yours?”

“Sole Egborough.” Was an immediate response coming from her.

“Did you know that Luna means Moon, while Sole means Sun in an ancient language?” Sole asked me, trying to alleviate the atmosphere.

“No, it’s the first time I hear of it.” I answered honestly.

“That means we’re complete opposites, doesn’t it?”

We spent the rest of the day reading our books in peace and only talking a small bit, only to realize we were really complementary just like the Sun and the Moon.

As I have already said previously, we found to be much of the same.

Just five days afterwards, our six meters distance had lessened to fifty centimeters.

The Cardinal could only be happy that I had found someone to bond with, but that day was important for me for two main reasons.

I found my first and only friend.

And I found my first and only objective.

-=-

After all, it would only be normal to consider that, with all the knowledge inside the library, one must form their own opinion.

For that, the book about the Religious Myths I had found helped me.

The feeling I had always felt since the beginning of my life was now explained by the words I read on a book whose date was five centuries before me: alienation.

Simply, I couldn’t understand I was in this world with all the others. I felt distant from everyone because I thought that they were extremely different, a whole new dimension.

But during all the time I’ve spent in the library, there’s one thing that seemed the clearest to me: people are all much of the same, they’re all good beings by nature.

As I kept reading about men making mistakes and being helped by the Generous God, I realized that evil doesn’t really exist. 

People act on the basis of what they find important — they think they’re doing a good thing all the time, doesn’t matter if it is to them or to others. They have no definition of evil beyond “what isn’t good.”

But as I read of the so called sins being committed by humans, punished by the so called Generous God with an infinite period of incredible torture, I felt another opinion form inside me.

Injustice.

Humans are made imperfect by the same God who can’t accept that they make mistakes. Then, they’re punished infinitely for a finite error, as if there was some sort of infinite evil inside of them.

And for the first time, I desired power. I wanted it to punish the only being that really deserved it.

While the Cardinals and the Pope thought it was just to kill people who commit wrongdoings, I realized you can’t punish someone who isn’t really at fault.

While these thoughts harbored inside me, my friendship with Sole bloomed.

She read the myths and shared her theories with me, realizing we had the same opinion. For so long we talked about the sacrifices that disgusted us, the fear of men and the power of an evil creature.

But I never really understood her, that I now know for sure.