They had been abandoned as infants, together, so the ones who found them assumed they were siblings. They had the same markings on their fur, the brilliant blood-red ear tips and a splash of color down their forehead and onto their short noses. Usagi children frequently looked radically different from one another, even within the same family, thus there was really no need to question their parentage.

Both were reasonably quiet, though as they grew it became apparent that the boy was silent, and the girl chose just the right moments to speak. Clearly intelligent, at the age of 3 they were handed off from one homeless family to another, though raised early on by a generous matron of a soup kitchen. They didn't have the luxury of a pampered life anywhere. Worse: they were claimed by a group of black-clad, generally scary folk who haunted the underground caverns and catacombs of Thohauxa. None challenged the Tenebrous, none dared. If they thought this pair belonged with them, so be it, they were to be forgotten.

That isn't to say that they were killed, enslaved or otherwise made captive by the unusual group. They were brought to a vast underground courtyard, where spotty lights were seen through the odd latticework of ancient brick walls. The children remained silent on their strange journey through this dark city, knowing that their prior caretakers would have snatched them away from the darkness and scolded them for wandering too far away from the light.

But their eyes got used to the dim light quickly. All around them, eyes peered at the pair, and though some were worn with time or weary with wrinkles, none were angry or frightening.

"Two new Tenebrous," said their current, black-swathed caretaker. He was tall and wide, a lumbering man looking more like a stack of rags than human. "Where is the Master?"

Momentarily, another man was brought near - complaining gently to the girl that was sent to get him, that he had work to do and shouldn't have been interrupted. But when he saw the children his human face changed dramatically. He was an old man, Human, and seemed far better kept than many others. His head was bald, but he had tattoos upon his leather-yellow skin, his eyes were small and bright. "Well well what have we here!" He glanced at the taller man, "they've shown some promise?"

"They have," he replied simply.

"Then come along, children. I will finish my work and you may even watch if you're up to it." He waggled his long, slightly knotted fingers at them, and they trotted next to him. Never once in this time, had they ever thought anyone might turn on them or harm them - they knew better. They wound their way back into a well-lit set of rooms where this man, the Master, worked and obviously also lived. The ceilings were tall and curved, darkened by hundreds of years worth of soot from torches and candles or oil lamps. Mysteriously enough, no smoke was truly visible anywhere, vanishing through magically aided channels into the upper city.

In the rooms were things that the children didn't truly understand quite yet but almost - almost. There was a dead man's body laid out on a slab, with books and charts opened or slung on the walls. It was the boy who first looked closely at this, his red eyes wide and unblinking but also fearless. His sister sniffed at the air, deciding it was a little rank in here, but nothing too bad.

The old man spoke in quiet tones, clear words but most of them were way over the childrens' heads in terms of definition. But they did understand one important thing: he was going to train them, to do his job.

The Tenebrous - the grave diggers, embalmers, keepers of the dead... They had many other facets that not everyone above knew about. And over the years, the children learned all of them.

When they were twelve, or as near to twelve as could be reckoned, the old man, who was now almost too dottering to stand and do his work, bade them approach in front of an audience.

"You've gone by other names before now," he said, his clear voice all but transparent, "but now you will be known to the world by titles more appropriate. Rose," he dubbed the girl, "your lovely fur is the color of a blushing flower, but the blood red there," he touched her nose delicately, making her smirk, "proves it's more than just skin deep." He turned to the boy, "and every Rose has a Thorn to go with it, your thorns are well-chosen, son." It was moderately ironic that Rose's weapons of choice were sharp surgical scalpels, while his were tainted with chemicals. Thus Rose and Thorn were reborn, the newest of the Tenebrous.

***

They were expected to know pretty much every body part, every illness, and anything that could wound a body. They did, they learned inside and out, using the cadavers of homeless dead to experiment upon, and those who paid to be embalmed. Embalming was something done only for the very rich, for it was a useless thing to have a body sitting around longer than a few years here in a city the size of Thohauxa. Though it wasn't as large as Gelgela, it was certainly bigger than any nearby habitation, and older as well. There were plentiful dead here.

However, shortly after they'd reached their new 'era', both siblings began to feel something was missing about themselves.

It was only when another Usagi was brought through the catacombs, a dead one, that it clicked. Not that they'd been unaware of their Usagi heritage - they'd been told of the breed, and its history, by the other elders. There were more than just Humans here in the catacombs too, the Tenebrous were composed of many other species from fae to demonic. Mostly Humans, and most Humans didn't have the level of magical ability that was inherent to Usagi.

They knew that their breed was reasonably rare, at least here in Thohauxa, so on the occasion of getting a dead one, it was something that both Rose and Thorn knew they had to exploit. They didn't put scalpels to his body, he was a greyish color but that might have been the soot on his fur. His ear tips were a faded orange, and his head hair was sparse and wiry, also grey. The pair stood and looked him over for a very long time, and perhaps it was an accident that they both reached out to touch him at the same moment.

He opened his bloodshot orange eyes, and wheezed in a hard, horrible breath.

Had they been Human the blood would easily have been seen to drain from their faces. This was something that just wasn't right - they were the keepers of the dead, weren't they? He was dead, wasn't he?

Well perhaps he still was, but for the moment this Usagi on their worn work slab was drawing another aching and ugly breath. His furry lips formed words, and his breath exited them with, "what have you done".

He expired again, shortly - there had been such damage done to his body over the years he worked in the mines nearby, that he could hardly breathe when he was properly alive.

"Don't - don't touch him," Rose said, her own voice barely over a whisper.

"I'm not touching him again." Thorn replied.

They stood there for a while, unsure of what to do if not touch him. Thorn approached him first, looking at his chest. "I ... can see something, not on his skin. Inside. Why can I see that?"

"That big ugly black mess?" Rose said, "Yes, I see it too. But it isn't really there."

"Yes, it is," Thorn said, groping for his equipment. "Yes, it is."

The body wasn't warm, even though they'd briefly seen it move and speak. The blood within was coagulated, dark, pooled in the depths of his back and legs. So when Thorn pulled open his chest, it was as normal for an autopsy - and there was a dark, dully black mass within his chest. His lungs, coated with soot and dust, rock and grime. It didn't look exactly like what Rose saw, but she reached out to touch it anyway, knowing that now it wouldn't dare come to life again.

"It's just miner's lung," she said, "like many others. But why can we see it?"

"Because... maybe... He's one of us?" Thorn said simply. It was the truth, the Usagi magic called to its own. They finished working on him, preparing his body for interment and wrapping it so that it would be presentable. Then, they went to the elders.

***

"It's possible that we've neglected an aspect of your education," one of the wise women said, "you are after all part of a breed that is inherently magical."

"I wish we would have seen this before," said a man, pulling at his beard. "But you are so rare here..."

"We don't lay blame," Rose said, "but now what? I would like to know what else... if anything, we can do?"

"Aren't there any other Usagi around nearby?" Thorn asked. "Maybe they would know more."

The handful of elders turned to one another and conferred quietly. It was more a matter of privacy and tradition that Rose and Thorn didn't listen in, after all they could hear a pin drop through the catacombs with their keen hearing. They busied themselves by looking around with their new magical sight - and saw things that they hardly understood.

The glow from a young child was different than that of a mother, and still different from an aged man. The way an aura drifted off of a Human, the way it spiked jaggedly off a summoned creature. Colors that had no names lept around, in their vision.

"Though it is unusual," they were brought out of their odd peering into the magical realm by the bearded man's voice, "we have sent Tenebrous outside to gather information or console families. Amrin was one of those," he mentioned the large blocky man that had brought Rose and Thorn as children, though he'd recently passed away himself. "Would you like to be prepared for journeying above? We already know your medical and other skills are extensive."

The other elders nodded and smiled, they were indeed prodigy-level talents, and the way that the Tenebrous lived there would be more to replace them, already there were a dozen younger children in various stages of training scattered around the catacombs. Their presence would be missed, but it would not mean they were lacking in talent.

"Above," Rose said, "in the city?"

"That would be great," Thorn said, "when can we start?"

***

They showed no fear, but the warnings about how people would react to them when they saw they were Tenebrous would deter them a bit. Rose and Thorn were young, attractive Usagi. Vital, reasonably happy - but they were untouchable, they were outcast. They were grave-diggers, keepers of the secrets of how to make the dead stay dead, how to keep worried families from being harried by ill-buried ancestors.

They knew that most of the superstitions about their work were just that - superstition. However there were ghosts, plenty of them, and there were cases of undeath from accidental improper burial. And then... There was the fact that they caused a dead body to speak, and that was what drove them on.

They dressed in black, of course - that was what Tenebrous did. There was no way to get the scent of chemicals and death off of them, but they'd been so used to it for many, many years that they didn't even realize they smelled.

"You'll need these," said one helpful ancient little half-fey woman. She trundled up to them, waddling - she still made them giggle even though they were hardly children any more. She perched a pair of shaded lenses on each of their muzzles, "the sky is bright, you won't be used to it, these will help you adjust. Plus," she cackled, "they look wonderful!"

The pair turned to one another and appraised their looks - they did look pretty cool. In as much as 'cool' could be known among the young Tenebrous, which wasn't much, they could think of worse ways to dress. Amrin had done so - piling himself until he looked like a shambling mess of homeless leper. He didn't have to do that, but it kept appearances up.

Well, appearances to a teenager were far different than to those elders. Perhaps if they appeared to be more normal, they'd be more easily accepted. It turned out they were hardly normal, but they were definitely cool.

***

They went up at night, because the elders said they'd have an easier time adjusting to the daylight as it appeared normally. The pair knew of the stars, sun, moons, all those things... But they'd only the faintest memories of ever having seen them. The moons and stars, certainly, but hardly ever a rainstorm or a dawn, well-lit was not something that the Tenebrous did.

Walking the odd crooked stairs up to the central entrance to the catacombs, both Rose and Thorn admitted to each other they were nervous, but they weren't scared. What did they have to be frightened of? They had mastered all the various methods of death - they'd seen it all. They were not afraid of death, so there was little they could say they worried about otherwise. If only they'd known the big outside world was a little different...

It was mostly quiet at this time of night in Thohauxa, though there were revelers here and there in taverns. There were night birds, probably the most foreign sounds to their ears - there were bats and other animals underground, but hardly any birds. The sky was clear, cold, and black. The fresh air was overwhelming, but it was also tainted by the smells that slowly came to the pair's sensitive noses.

Well, they had been sensitive before, but years of exposure to harsh chemicals - both for embalming and for cleaning up after the dead - had taken their toll.

A whiff of urine from an alley, the smell of old wine wafting from a closed restaurant, the very-early morning start to baking in a shop... These things were quite new to the pair. Especially when they were no longer combined with the everlasting smell of the catacombs. They walked around somewhat aimlessly, knowing that they needed only to look for the Tenebrous symbol on the side of a wall or on a sign, to know there was an entrance to the catacombs and comfortable safety.

No one would ever, in their right mind, chase someone into the catacombs. Thankfully, there were no insane folk nearby, when the pair encountered their first people.

A small group of urchins, more Human than not but one or two with a notable feature that was certainly not human, gazed at the pair as they walked through the streets. "We're being followed," Thorn said, quietly.

"I know," Rose replied, "would you like to scare them off, or should I?"

"Maybe we should just ask them, where Usagi might be found?" Was his reply, and Rose had to pause with that.

"Hm. Well, sure. Might as well try."

They turned as one, they were used to doing so, having done most of their work in tandem and therefore twice as quicly as most other students underground. This obviously startled the leader of the urchins, who was a skinny, reasonably tall youth. But he recovered quickly, and didn't let any of his friends run away.

"We're trying to find other Usagi," Rose said simply, "have you seen any?"

This also took the group by surprise, they weren't used to being addressed so casually, normally it would be with anger or abruptly shooing them away. Their leader pulled himself up, and said, "can't say there are any nearby," which caused the pair to look a little downcast. "But for the right price we might be able to find one."

"Ah, well, we don't have too much money," Thorn said.

He heard the snort from one of the other urchins, "obviously," he said, but was silenced by his superior.

"So you're new in town, eh?" The leader said, gaining confidence by the moment, and making Rose and Thorn wary. "Looking for people that might not even be here. That's not really wise."

"No, it isn't, but you're wrong," Rose said, "we're local. We've been here all our lives."

"Then you're just stupid?" Was a sharp reply from behind the young urchin, but he didn't stop them this time.

"No, we're Tenebrous," Thorn said, and watched as their expressions fell. "We've been living right here, under you, for almost fourteen years. Where have you been?"

They picked out, "we don't mess with those," and "I don't want to get involved with the grave-diggers" and "I didn't know rabbits did that" - and they focused on the speaker of the last comment.

"What do rabbits do," Rose said, sliding up next to them with ease, as her brother moved around the other side. The group fell apart, not even attempting to save one another, just scattering like roaches under light.

"We're curious," Thorn said. The little girl was terrified, she was perhaps half their height and not quite two thirds of their age. It was different when she was surrounded by her friends, but now that they were gone, she all but lost her voice.

"... I ..."

"We're just looking for someone like us, that's all," Rose assured her. Though she was about to get as irate as she normally seemed, the girl wasn't harming anyone by being scared of them. They hadn't intended to go out into the world like this. "Even if you have only seen them, you don't even have to know them. We just need to head in the right direction."

"I ... I only know Hebs, but - but she's mad, you don't want to see her!" The girl seemed honest enough about that, and Thorn brushed her hand away from his pocket, which there was nothing in, but she seemed to be on full automatic as far as thieving went. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Thorn smiled. "We said we didn't have much money. That doesn't mean I'm going to share it with just anyone."

"You don't know of any other than this mad Hebs?" Rose asked, and the girl shook her head.

"I'm sorry, we just - Humans is way more easy than anyone else, so we don't go after anyone else much."

They stood in silence for a moment, and when the girl was about to bolt away, Thorn said, "just point us at Hebs' place, please, we won't bother you again."

The girl rattled off a series of directions, only some of which were clear - it was enough to start exploring the city, though, and they let the urchin rejoin her friends who had collected at the edge of the alley across the way. Rose and Thorn started walking away, listening in on the hushed conversation that the kids gave one another, but nothing of value came to their long ears.

***

Dawn was bringing a tint of grey to the sky, and though it was slow - it was something that both siblings noted. They'd gotten good and lost, but now and then they recognized a street sign name that the child had given them, and continued to hope that their luck held out in finding Hebs. By this time, there were other people on the streets and waking for their daily routines. Milk and cheeses were being delivered to people's homes, taverns were booting out inebriated or half-awake freeloaders, bakeries were putting the finishing touches on their day's works.

Since the nearest bakery was opening, and smelled delicious, the pair went inside. The place smelled so much better than the small kitchens that they were used to underground. The woman behind the counter was unloading several loaf pans into a bin, when she noticed something odd and muttered to herself, "what's that smell?"

"Sorry, that would be us," Rose said, suddenly aware that yes, they had years worth of death on them - even more so because their clothing was steeped in whoever had worn them before. Startled, the woman dropped the last pan she held, and then rushed to pick it up.

"You -oh - I ..." She looked closer, squinting. "You are rather furry, aren't you? I mean... for a Tenebrous?" Her voice all but vanished with the last word, she knew by the smell and the garments now, who she was looking at.

"More furry than most, yes," Rose rolled her eyes. "Though there was one old man we know..." She made a mock shudder, and the woman laughed. She continued to work, but looked at the pair hoping they'd buy something.

"We're Usagi, and we're looking for a woman, Hebs is her name." Thorn said.

"Why," the baker's expression told them that the girl urchin's description of madness was not an exaggeration, "- she's not dead, is she?"

"I hope not," Rose replied, her brother nodding, "we're just trying to find anyone that can help us ..."

"Are you in trouble? What's wrong?" The baker slid the doors shut on the oven, when she was certain it contained the right items, and turned back to the pair.

"Oh no - no, we're..." Rose said, shrugging. "We're just looking for someone like us, to teach us more about... us."

"I'm sorry," Thorn added, "we're really, really new up here. And it is getting bright, isn't it?"

His sister glanced through the half-glazed windows, and her violet eyes almost entirely squinted shut.

"It's going to be a beautiful day, it's a Springfest, don't ... you don't celebrate Springfest, do you?" The woman sounded disappointed and slightly confused at their bewildered looks.

"Well, no," Rose said, "to us underground it's all the same, and people die every day. Whether it's spring or summer, day or night."

"Yes, that's... true," the baker nodded slowly. She was a kindly woman, the siblings decided. Thorn looked closer into the display case, was curious about the colorful cookies and cakes he saw there.

"Are those for this Springfest?" He pointed at them, and the baker nodded and grinned.

"Yes, they're a local specialty. It's berries and nuts as they ripen, it's been a long Winter, so now we celebrate Spring since everything is coming to life again. It must be sort of odd to concentrate only on one part of ... life?" The baker pondered.

"Death is a part of life," Rose muttered. She wasn't nearly as interested in the flower-shaped goodies, more at the cheese breads and other solid foods. "Can I have one of those? Is that cheese?"

"Yes, it's a butter-cheese spread," the baker was happy that the Usagi each produced enough coin for their purchases. She put a few cookies and one of the cakes into a thin paper wrapper, and did the same for the larger chunk of bread for Rose. "So... I hope you don't mind me asking, but what is it like, ... below?"

"Dark," they both intoned, laughing.

"Oh hey, those glasses," Thorn said, when he was looking for a better place to put his coin purse than would be easily stolen by another urchin. He patted himself down and found his shaded glasses, and put them onto his muzzle. "That's better, much better," he said. The baker seemed to think it was hilarious, but the twins enjoyed a laugh with her.

The bakery was going to become busy reasonably soon, the woman told them. But she gave them directions to Hebs' place, which wasn't far at all from their current location. Since she seemed rather sensible, the baker also told them of a few customs they might not know, especially during Springfest. They weren't sure that it would really be an issue, but they thanked her, took their breads, and were on their way.

***

Their little dark glasses did help, but still it was so different to be topside during the day that Rose and Thorn practially dove into the nearest Tenebrus entrance to sleep the brightness away. And it was noisy, not like the Underground, where it was echo-ridden and you could tell the exact location of something by how it bounced from hall to hall. There were sounds they'd never experienced: horns, they'd be far too loud underground! Plentiful music? They were familiar enough with the dirges and funerary tunes, but almost no bright sounds like these. Flowers - the smell of them, normally they only had three or four kinds of flowers for making dead people look pretty or mask the scent. So the smells of these delicate blooms were as delectable as the bread and cookies they'd bought earlier. And the colors!

Tenebrous dress in black, head to foot - with some exceptions, gauze and wrappings or the occasional bright-red scarf. They began to feel even more out of place as people dressed in their Spring finest started coming to the streets in family units - girls wearing lovely lilac and pink dresses with white skirts, and boys with sky blue (how odd, the sky was black to the twins!) jumpsuits and gold shirts. Hardly anyone had black on - they could tell the religious leaders, who did, by their sedate and somber close-cut suits. The religious were some of the few who visited the underground lairs, after all they had to escort the soul of the dead person into their afterlife.

Neither Rose nor Thorn had been brought up with a faith, their religion was science, their subject was death.

But now they had this odd feeling that their magic, inherent to Usagi, would be bringing them up here more often to see what life was like.

They walked slowly and carefully through the now-crowded daylit streets, seeing that not everything was perfect and shiny up here, just like below. There were buildings whose ancient walls were worn and cracked, and the steps up to Hebs' home were so well-trodden after these long years that they were shallow and bowed down in the middle even though they were stone. Thohauxa was old, and though they knew it to be true, it was easier to see how old, not just from the volume of the dead filling the catacombs, but from above in the light.

But every year, apparently, this festival went on. Rose wasn't really that intrigued by it all, she thought it was noisy and indulgent. Thorn on the other hand thought it was marvelous fun, the streamers and flags snapping on the morning breeze, the laughter of children and the songs... He liked the songs. He didn't know what any of them meant, nor did he catch all that many words but he did like the tunes. Rose didn't smack him to stop him from humming along to one, as they ascended Hebs' steps - he stopped all by himself when he caught a whif of the smell coming from her home.

"It's not food, is it?" Thorn said.

"You're always thinking of food," Rose grunted. "I think it's spices, maybe."

"I wonder if this smell keeps the humans away?" Thorn pondered, and Rose shrugged. She reached the old tightly-fitting thick wooden door, and used the knocker that was extremely difficult to pry up from its long-unused position. From the edge of the little landing, they could see over plenty of buildings, the town rose and fell having been built over the hills - hollow hills - and not really paying any attention to leveling the land beforehand. Hebs' house wasn't the highest, it bordered a much steeper grade beyond, and was almost the only one in sight that didn't have some form of banner or happy indication of Spring on it. It was painted white, like most of the homes and buildings, but it was dirty. Not filthy, but certainly not inviting.

Hebs was not inviting either. She had come to the door while the pair were gazing out over the city they lived underneath, and almost slammed the door before they turned to see her. But she noticed that they were 'her kind' and paused. That gave them time enough to look her over, and decide whether it was wise to have asked to come here...

Hebs was ancient. Positively the most ancient living thing they'd ever seen, and likey more ancient than some of the dead things. Rose's red-tipped ears sank a little, betraying a momentary lapse in confidence. Hebs had grungy grey-green fur, it might have been bright - almost like the festive grass-color seen on many banners. But now it was ill-kept, spotty, patchy... Covered in a smock, they couldn't see the condition of her rather slender body, but they both guessed it was wiry and all but bones. Her hands were gnarled, and her nails had turned a color darker than dried blood. Perhaps it was dried blood. Her hair, what there was of it, was wispy yellow in shade, and apparently had a sort of brownish green tint at the ends, though most were gone by now. Her ears...

Her ears were notched, but also had studs and rings in them, some of which had grown over with skin and fur. Lumpy. Thorn almost bolted, seeing that. Compulsively he dropped his own ears, and held on to one of them - he did that when nervous, which wasn't often. Hebs eyes were bloodshot green, a much brighter green for all that. They were narrow, and grew more so, as the pair stood wordlessly in her doorstep.

"Well, what do you want?" Hebs said, her voice exactly as scratchy as one would expect from such a visage. "I haven't got all day. Too much noise out here, too much bluster."

"... It is noisy," Rose said, "and a bit bright for us. We're... We seek knowledge, and we were directed to you because we need to speak with a Usagi, like you."

"No one needs to speak to anyone like me," Hebs said, with a sickening cackle. But she widened the door, and stood behind it while the pair entered her home. "They all say I'm mad, and I am," she said. "But Usagi I am, so what do you want to hear?"

Thorn stood again agast at the condition of her home, which was crammed to the ceilings with shelves, boxes, buckets, and all filled with things. Dead, broken, manufactured, magical, things. While looked around, Rose again took the lead.

She carefully explained who they were, not even eliciting a tiny response from the woman. Then, told her of their experience of raising - briefly - the dead Usagi miner, and how they could now see things that others didn't.

"Ah. Leave it to the Tenebrous to give you everything but the right knowledge," Hebs grunted. Rose was almost offended, but Thorn nudged her and gently indicated the mounted, stuffed head of what appeared to be another Usagi on the shelf closest to a window. Rose bit her tongue, and let the old woman shuffle around a pile of stuff.

"You've never been taught your magic," she said simply, Hebs seemed to know that both of them were connected. She too saw their auras, how they were not exactly alike, but complimented one another flawlessly. "You're twins, born under a dark moon, in the season of fire." Hebs stated. She gave them a look with one twitchy eye. "Now, about here, would be where I'd start speaking in mad verse about doom and gloom - Humans love that portent stuff. But you're not human, and I can see you've got potential if only you could tap into it. So I'll skip the routine."

"It's... an act?" Rose said, quietly.

"Oh no, no," Hebs chuckled, "no, I'm mad all right. But I respond to... I'm an empath. It's ... it's hard. I could never ever be like you two."

They didn't really understand, and Hebs automatically added, "I sense emotions. And, unfortunately, I've always been a bit subject to them. Excited kids make me angry and nervous. Curious onlookers make me paranoid. You... You make me wonder whether I should have stayed with the studies I did long ago, and learned to fix that."

She waddled past another pile of books and boxes, and urged them to follow. "Never mind the things that move, and don't touch anything that doesn't."

The kichen wasn't much cleaner than the main room, but it was where the scent of spices and peppers was coming from. "See I told you it was spices," Rose said.

"Well it's more than that," Thorn said. "Look, that's wargwort, and tunneltongue."

"Ah, so they teach you some herbs, do they?" Hebs said.

"Well, we have to know poisons, their effects, and that kind of thing," Thorn said, shyly. "But I like learning about them. I won't say it's 'fun' but... it's not 'work' either."

"That's true," Hebs said. "And no, I'm not a poison maker, I'm mixing these - in the right amounts, and with the right other ingredients, instead of stiffening the tongue to block your breath, tunneltongue can prevent nausea. Of course half the people who try making the stuff wind up dead from forgetting not to taste it too early..."

The twins looked at each other surprised, and at the same time said, "the chef!"

"Wh- ah, that right bastard, I remember, not too many years ago. Such the bold idiot. He wound up with you two?"

"We did his preparations, yes," Thorn said. "He'd all the symptoms of tunneltongue but we practically couldn't find it when we did our tests."

"But it was because of the spices and peppers," Rose asked, "right?"

"Exactly," Hebs cackled. "Now... Sit. Somewhere." She waved her hand at the table where there were only two chairs, and she'd already taken one. Rose took the other, and Thorn leaned against the wall once he'd determined nothing would grab him or he wouldn't break through it.

Over the next few hours, until the grumbling of Thorn's stomach interrupted, Hebs patiently tried to remember her old schooling. Her mother had taught her most of what she knew, but she also attended some higher level classes... Until the flood, and she had to leave her old home. This was so long ago, that neither Thorn nor Rose dared ask how old she was.

Hebs managed to get Thorn to heal a burn that Hebs deliberately gave herself, while tending to her chilis. She then stomped abruptly on a small mouse, and presented it to Rose.

"Why thank you," Rose said, causing the old woman to erupt into the most sincere mad laughter either had ever heard.

"No no, girl, bring it back. You both have healing, you both have a strong connection to the dead. That's why the man chose you to become Tenebrous, of course." Rose had explained their 'story', though she'd never really bothered to think on why they would have been presented as such young children, to a dark art like funerary care.

"Won't it need to be healed?"

"It's a mouse, I'm just going to kill it again anyway," Hebs said curtly.

Thorn was positive she should have added and eat it, to the end of that, but only watched as his sister infused the little creature with life energy - momentarily. It was dead, but it didn't act dead.

"Look at its spirit," Hebs said. It had an aura, fading rapidly, that was simpler than any intelligent being. But it did have color, it had an essence.

"There's... what is that around it?" Thorn said. It was easier for him to see, since he wasn't the one performing the magic. "There's a bit of Rose around it, you're keeping its spirit intact, animating it."

"I am?" Rose said, gingerly holding the staggering little beast. Its legs weren't on right any more, so it wasn't really going to enjoy being 'alive' much longer. But the moment that Rose removed her magical influence again, it sputtered, and died in her hand. Thorn confirmed, its little spirit had evaporated like steam.

"Now... I can't imagine you'll want to eat what I'm having for lunch," Hebs gave a tiny glance toward a second large pot beside her toxic brew, "so ... well, come back when you need to. I can't really see much more than your two abilities, but that's pretty common for us folk. Two more than most, anyway."

"Aren't you going to enjoy the festival?" Rose prodded, and Hebs gave her a look that Thorn swore was a mirror image of his sister's.

"I can't go out with that many people about," Hebs reminded them. "All those people, all the emotion, it's too much. I really would be mad, then. Like trying to listen to only one note whenever it's played, pick out the things I need... it's too hard. Rather stay here where I can just tend to the tunneltongue."

"Well I am," Thorn announced, "and I'm going to try and not squint so much. And I saw candies, Rose, come on you know you want those."

"As long as they're not covered in little bitty bows and flowers," Rose wiggled her fingers like they were crawling spiders. "You're such a girl," she laughed to her brother.

It was nearing midday, it was no wonder they were both tired and hungry: they'd been up since long before dawn! Food wasn't hard to come by, in fact there was so much of it it was hard to avoid. They did have to use their quickly-learned custom that the baker showed them, of holding their hands up in front of their chest, fingers up and hand-heels close, like a flower, it was a traditional greeting when you didn't have a flower actually on you or in your hand. Everyone traded flowers, when they had them - Rose rolled her eyes, what a custom.

"The flowers are all going to be dead by tomorrow anyway," she muttered as they ate a hearty pasta and salad with cheeses sprinkled on it.

"Well, yeah, but ... they're pretty now." Thorn said. "I swear, when did you get so grumpy."

"When did you get so bubbly?"

They stuck their tongues out at each other, laughed, and watched the nearby festivities.

***

Though they came back to see Hebs once more, they were pretty sure that she was right: they didn't need to know much more about what they could do - healing and necromancy were the two things she could say for sure they did, and not much else. Their magical vision was inherent, but for whatever reason had been latent until their other powers surfaced.

The Spring festival below her home went on for another week, and toward the end of it, with Rose and Thorn sleeping in the Underground at little stations they hadn't realized were made for such topside jaunts, there was another special event. Many religions came together, it was the first day of Spring properly, and that was always a very holy day. And on this day, too, a pair of dragons along with several smaller ones in attendance, came flying down to one of the courtyards. Like the rest of the crowd, Rose and Thorn were eager to look these massive creatures over.

As well, they were very interested in who was riding them. Dragons hadn't really existed around their city of many, many hundreds of years. And nothing like these, colorful and very differently sized.

And then the rider of the smaller, white and red dragon took off her headgear. She was Usagi! Her partner, a blond haired human, and she went up to one of the officials at the gathering, and - he bowed down to them?

What was going on? The crowd seemed impressed, though not everyone knelt when the pair passed by. Thorn noticed that the big brassy-copper shaded dragon that the man had ridden was looking their direction. Shortly, the man was looking in their direction, and Rose and Thorn wanted to turn invisible. They'd never had this kind of attention placed on them, but the Usagi and Human pair came toward them. It was obvious to some in the crowd that the female and the siblings were connected somehow. The woman was bright white, with blood red tips - just like they had - on her hair and ears.

"She's beautiful," Thorn said, and Rose nodded mutely.

"She's us," Rose replied in a moment.

Thorn cast a glance sideways, and muttered, "what?"

But by then, the Usagi woman and her Human man came close. They were both reasonably tall, and looked for all the world like the most elegant and comfortable couple in the world.

"Sapadt's dragon Birth says you're dragon material," the Usagi woman said, "but I say you're much, much more..."

Completely dumbfounded, Rose and Thorn stood in silence. Sapadt, who was the blond man, smirked. "They're not getting it, I think we'll have a little sitdown, eh?"

Many in the crowd had been whispering or gossiping behind their hands, and though they weren't silent at this, it was obvious that Rose and Thorn were missing something. Until Rose caught another voice, and confirmed what she'd suspected.

"You're... related to us, aren't you?" Rose said to the Usagi.

"Yes, it's easier to say you're related to us," she said. "And yes, that means that we should have found you much earlier than this. And for that, I apologize."

"There's no need, we're good at what we do, and now we know how to--" Thorn said, "you're... what, our cousin?"

"My dear you're our grandson," the woman laughed, "I thought it would be obvious."

"You don't look nearly old enough for that," Thorn said, unsure of what else to say.

"You're the King and Queen of Gelgela," Rose asserted, abruptly.

"Yes, we are. They don't teach you anything out here..." Sapadt said, again with a smirk, so obviously it wasn't going to be an issue. Besides... If they were royal and they were grandparents, it meant...

"I don't want to stop doing what we do," Rose said, "it's... good to know who we are."

"You can come along, can't you? For a ride? We do need to talk," the woman, Sean, said. "We weren't expecting to see you here, but we knew some day you'd come up for air."

"It's not bad down there," Thorn said. He glanced around, "it could do with a little color," he added.

***

"So not only are we royal, but you want us to ... find dragons. What about being underground?" Rose said, after Sapadt and Sean had explained themselves up on a blooming hillside near Thohauxa's farms. The dragons rested comfortably, joined by a couple others now.

"Well there are some dragons that love being underground or in the dark, but frankly... You're necromancers, healers. The keepers of the dead here in Thohauxa are ... so much more insular than they are in Gelgela," Sean said. "You could actually go outside to do the work you do. Plus, you could heal the sick or injured to boot."

Thorn looked at his sister, and they both shared a narrow-eyed glance. "A ... traveling... funeral..."

"A mobile mortician," Rose giggled.

"Or, a battlefield mage," Sean suggested. "Your skills would be ideal for such a place. Healing those who are wounded but not mortally so, and raising those who are dead but can still heft a sword."

"You can do that?!" Rose blurted. Sapadt lifted his eyebrows and blinked innocently, and Sean laughed again.

"Yes, that's ... sort of how we met, sort of."

And it turned out that both Sean and Sapadt were quite a lot older than they looked, and - had had at their last count fourteen children. It was one of the 'middle' children, who had found himself a lovely partner, and sired the twins. Why they'd been left, a mystery except that Rose had the nagging feeling that it was a setup from the start. They were necromancers and healers. Their entire family did things akin to those, and even some empathic like Hebs, so it was kind of a nobrainer to become a funerary official.

The training for such a field was, as Sean pointed out, insular no matter where they went. People didn't just ask to become grave-diggers. It was something that happened, maybe it was fate, maybe magic, or perhaps it was just what their parents wanted to happen. What their grandparents wanted to happen, though... Was complicated.

"We do have access to plenty of dragons," Sapadt said. "They make travel much easier, if they fly. They don't all fly," he added.

With the last of the festival below visible, lovely flags snapping over white-washed homes, Thorn said, "I'd love to find a dragon, it sounds really fun. Battle medic. I think I would like that."

"Field necromancer," Rose nodded. "And... well, maybe bringing a little color to the catacombs would be a good idea."

"You... have the same colors as the egg that my..." Rose said, of the cyan-speckled orange bunny that bounded into view. The egg of her now-... well, let's call it 'in stasis' former bond. "I'm glad you've come to me. I'll take good care of you."

Name: Hineo
Gender: female
Colors: Cyan Speckled Orange
Size: small, 4'9" shoulder (plus about 1.5' ears...)
Abilities: Fast Running - Hineo is superb at tricky terrain
Teleportation - Able to blip past things that would otherwise block her passage
Telepathy - Hineo's mind is bright and clear, sparkling with alertness
Fertility - it's obvious that like her companions, Hineo's hutch will be fit to burst at some point...

Thorn's smile grew wide, as a purple and orange spotted bunny deliberately hopped over to him. His own sort-of-stalled bond wouldn't mind, this confident little guy would be sure to keep watch over them all.

Name: Shuga
Gender: Male
Colors: Orange-Speckled Dark Violet
Size: small, 4'10" shoulder
Abilities: Fast Running - Shuga isn't as speedy as some, choosing his path carefully
Teleportation - however he can move virtually anywhere he's ever seen, or can detect through Thorn's mind
Telepathy - he is always in contact, gently but present, and seems to be just as careful where his mind treads as his feet do
Fertility - some day he will make a great sire, we'll see with whom!

The darker green of the pair that appeared to the twins came to Rose, If you will have me, I'd like to join your group...

"Of course you can, little Iveke, you're more than welcome!" Rose hugged the little bun.

Name: Iveke
Gender: Male
Colors: Mint-Spotted Green
Size: small, 3'10" shoulder
Abilities: Fast Running - Iveke is silent even in the underbrush and dry leaves of an autumn forest
Teleport - he is adept with short bursts but not longer range, but he also likes going upwards into trees or onto cliff edges
Telepathy - quiet, gentle, he is not afraid or shy, but he is rarely loud
Fertility - it's clear that whoever becomes his partner will enjoy his calm presence

Thorn's mind became aware that another little bunny was ready and waiting. "Oh, who's this now?" He asked of the paler green-yellow bun.

Marvi! Got anything to eat? She made Thorn's stomach rumble in sympathy!

Name: Marvi
Gender: Female
Colors: Green-Spotted Green-Tipped Yellow
Size: small, 4' shoulder
Abilities: Fast Running - an all-around athlete, capable of running almost straight up walls
Teleport - quite adept and tends to use this to get out of danger (that she runs into)
Telepathy - chipper, overly bubbly sometimes, but capable of reaching distant minds
Fertility - certainly will be looking for a partner, but might not be the most attentive mom