http://www.classicreader.com/book/995/28/The emperor was tricked by his deceitful and jealous step mother after he happily married a young woman named Laptitza who bore him two twin sons with stars on their heads, just as she had promised him before their marriage. The emperor’s step mother buried the sons outside before the emperor even knew he was a father, she replaced the boys with puppies. Thinking he was tricked by his own wife, the emperor buried her in the ground up to her neck to let her live her shame in front of everyone. The emperor married his step mother’s daughter who knew the truth of the boys birth and demise. From the burial spot of the boys though, grew two large and magnificent aspen trees, the trees haunted his wife so but the emperor found himself inextricably comforted and drawn to them. In an attempt to get rid of the trees, she had them made into beds for her and her husband. The beds haunted the empress, keeping her awake through the night while the comforted the emperor. Soon they were replaced by normal beds and burned but from the flames they were born into fish, twin fish who were caught by a fisher and spoke to them. They gave the fisher instructions on what to do with them and after following their instructions, the twins were born again into this world as baby boys. They grew astonishingly quick in a course of days and returned to the palce to confront their father’s wife and tell the truth of their story. After telling their tale and proving that they were the true sons of the emperor, things were as they should have been with the boys and their parents happy together as a family and the evil step mother dragged along the ground by horses.After finally being accepted by their father and freeing their mother from her shame, they boys did their best to reinsert themselves back into daily life. It was a challenge as they were only really weeks old with the bodies of men. It was an awkward fit in their new lives, but after several years they started adjusting.
The boys started to grow apart as they grew older. Claus felt betrayed by his father and could never forgive him for the way his mother was treated. He was angry that he was only accepted by his father after having gone through several ordeals and proving himself. Lucas was more forgiving, easily letting his family back into his life and training for the day that he and his brother would take over the empire.
Rather than finding a creative outlet for his emotions, Claus let them eat him up inside. He let the anger grow and he trained himself for the day that he would betray the man who had betrayed him. He would never forgive his father, he would never share the empire with his twin who had so easily fallen into the trap of family. A greedy and nefarious advisor to the King named Henry had seen this spark in the boy, he had seen the anger and pursued. Claus needed a male role model he could trust and Henry needed one of the boys to betray the other so Henry himself could reap the benefits of civil war.
Claus was trained in the ways of deception and war and within years Henry was sure that he was ready. He convinced Claus that he needed to kill his father and brother. It was easy enough to convince Claus, as Henry had bolstered the boys confidence and told him he would make the best leader out of the three royal men. Henry was the only person that Claus truly trusted and so with one swift nod, the plan was set into motion.
One night, when the boys had only lived fifteen years, they went hunting with their father. Claus used his power of projecting images into people’s minds to confuse Lucas and lead him astray. While he was alone with his father he stared him down coldly and shot an arrow through his heart. He yelled for Lucas to make it look as though an accident had happened. The boys brought him back to the palace, but the emperor had died of his wounds the next morning.
It had not been settled as to how the empire would have been split up between the boys so the fighting began. The empire was completely split in half, one side supporting Claus’s total domination of the kingdom, the other half wanting Lucas to have total control. Claus wanted total domination but he hid his power hungry nature from his brother. War broke out among the people of the kingdom while the brothers remained apparently neutral. Henry stepped forward as a general and prospered because of the war, everything was going according to plan.
The body count was rising and Lucas was getting anxious, ridden with anxiety he asked his brother what they should do. With Henry’s suggestion, Claus convinced his brother to travel out of the empire to get advice from a distant relative. Claus had plans to dispose of his brother and go back to the empire, sole ruler of their people. While traveling by themselves Claus was beginning to have second thoughts about the plan, he did not want to hurt his brother the way he had hurt their father and he knew by killing Lucas he would have broken his mother’s heart. Just when he was about to tell his brother to turn back, the brothers heard a strange piping they couldn’t resist. They were lead to a fork in the road and met by a man who asked them simply if they were good or bad. Lucas answered quickly “Good!” and was sent on his way. Claus waited for his brother to be out of ear shot before he smirked at the man in the road and said “bad.” He carried on his own way, quietly contemplating his next move, but he is lost without Henry’s guidance.
