The story begins some 3,000 years ago in the city of Na'vock, with loving feathered avarri couple Vesvi and Milnor Sildarus. There is peace in the land, harvest is plentiful, the gods are merciful and skarrid are but a debated myth amongst the avarris populace. The young Sildarus family settles in a humble home up high in the hanging gardens of the town and begins decorating a nursery. Months later, four eggs hatch. First are Milohi and Balu, little boat-tailed grackles with identical markings they've clearly gotten from dear daddy. Hatched at the same time, they're considered twins. Next is Yiona, proud bluejay like mom, a little late and fussy, but equally as beloved. The fourth egg is twice the size of its brothers and sister and they could've sworn it's even grown a little throughout the last month, so the Sildadus clan gathers to excitedly welcome the final addition. And keeps waiting.

It takes a month more until it finally happens. The egg's grown to the size of a kitchen pot by then and anticipation has turned into apprehension. The child is abnormal according to the grandparents, mutated if you ask the gossiping aunts and certain neighbours say it's infidelity. Whatever the rumour, not much can prepare Vesvi and Milnor for Tesei Sildarus. The child is born with horns fully formed, six eyes in peculiar places, with a centaur lower half, not even the rudiment of wings to be found, a strange symbol on their tail and the most brilliant veil of the night sky draping from their head instead of hair.

Tesei's family looks the other way and mentions nothing of their very existence, worried the child's birth would attract the wrong attention - danger, ridicule, dishonor on their name. Still, among themselves they whisper that the gods have blessed their bloodline with a skarrid. They've heard the rumour and myth. Could it be true? A demigod in their midst. And so it goes Tesei grows up well-protected. Not quite hidden; simply kept away from the spotlight for fear of questions. And there are questions plenty. In comparison to their siblings Tesei is a sweet, sensitive child much to Vesvi and Milnor's delight, yet most peculiar in their amassing of oddities. First it's the 'sun woman in the sky' which, in its persistence as a phenomenon Tesei claims to experience, leads to the slow dawning realization that the child can see Ankarresh herself - the sun goddess, the posited mother of all skarrid. Second it's Tesei's penchant for knowing far too much than they should. Thoughts, actions, even dreams cannot escape their odd semi-omniscience. When their knowledge transcends their family and people most familiar to them and extends to pure strangers, Milnor knows they have a mind reader on their hands.

Tesei's thankfully a quiet, reserved kid, their family a source of love and happiness sufficient enough for them to not seek any elsewhere. This spares them the odd stares and ridicule until late childhood, though bullying doesn't stay a foreign concept for long. Even unettered slights hurt when one can hear them thought. It doesn't help that of all the eyes they' ve been blessed with, none but the ones on their palms allow for clear eyesight, forcing them to explore the world with arms extended. Shy and scholarly, Tesei's a terribly easy target, and even though few dare raise their hand against a child as large and strong beyond their age, words cut as deep as knives. A sweet respite they find in the most modest temple of worship in town - a place quiet and rarely busy, and thusly used to store what few scripts of written word the priests'd managed to obtain. There Tesei finds peace, companionship and, for the first time, reverence unfamiliar to them before. The scribe tells them of their own myth, even teaches them to read per request so they may see for themself. Soon introduced to the art of written word as well and curious about their heritage, Tesei is indicted into a scribe apprenticeship. Of all books they make copies of, they are allowed to keep one of each, as payment. And so they begin to amass their first, modest, tiny library.

The letter arrives for them on their 50th birthday. A summons from the mysterious Council of A'vock - the governmental power of their world - bidding Tesei appear before them to reclaim their birthright as Virgo of the Skarrid. Their family laments the call as blatant theft, Yiona most of all, but all make peace with Tesei's heritage. Along with the letter has come a wood and leather bound tome titled 'Denna. Memoirs.' and from the pages within, written and adressed as letters to some purported ancestor, the young skarrid learns the ancestor is indeed them and the life detailed in the tome - the one of the Virgo before them. Denna tells them of how the skarrid are reborn, that she is the second Virgo and that Tesei would be the third and gives them brief introductions to the other 11 firstborn they will meet and grow to love. Of them all, closest and most beloved seems to be Estriis. Denna's adoptive father. It turns out, he is exactly the man Tesei will apprentice under in the Council.

And so Tesei disembarks to Sa'vel. To the Great Spire, and arrives a bright-eyed young protege, only to meet the most sullen old man imaginable. Estriis is a cold, distant figure, far from fatherly and heads inevitably butt soon enough. But though he be unpleasant, the elder skarrid mentors Tesei on their powers, helps with duties and grants them access to the extended volumes of Virgo's History of The World - the library where all the Virgos thus far have gathered their memoirs. From the hundreds of books there Tesei learns the myth of their own creation and of their ancestors' past lives, a variety of facts both fascinating and.. disturbing. The extend of Denna's lifestory is a rather cruel, revolting affair to the young skarrid - it's difficult to reconcile their own soft, bleeding heart with a cold, bitter, warmongerer past self. They follow Denna as she grow from a hurt child into a violent god-hating adult with several terrifying skillsets, one of which telepathic ability, who sees no morally reprehensible issue with utilizing them to meddle in sensitive politics. Namely, wars... The only digestible part of Denna's tale is the shift that gradually befalls their writing as they meet and later fall in love with an intelligent, kind human man named Kevar from a diplomatic envoy. Ever a lover of sweet, romantic tales and swayed by their predecessor's generous rhapsodizing, Tesei too find themself growing fond of a man who was, by all means, once another self's love... and therefore their own. Right?

Stories of Denna strike Tesei with a deep-seated guilt. All their strongly calculated violence, the horrid way they die in the elf-avarri war, leaving a bereaved human husband behind to wander the land aimless and the loving letter they write for him before disembarking to her demise. Driven by their own hatred of cruelty, a need to atone for the crimes from a life they don't even remember living and perhaps a silly, lovestruck desire to honor Kevar's name, they vow to dedicate their life to peace this time around and throw themselves into politics and diplomacy education. Amongst Denna's writings Tesei finds correspondence between the two - relics of a deep, fascinating love between two creatures with natures at odd with one another. Creatures who do not change for each other, but love one another all the same from the two sides of a great conflict; who even marry, til death do them part.

Proof enough that commonground could be found anywhere, even at odd places, their tale inspires Tesei to personally involve themself in brokering peace once tension in the land peaks and war breaks out again. Through diplomatic envoys they suspend two grand battles and get grievously injured in a third where fighting turns inevitable. They suffer a horrid spinal fracture and multiple lacerations - a near loss of their life which Nephthis herself barely staves off with her healing. The war concludes in peace treaties some months later and Tesei retreats into hiding to lick their wounds. Recovery takes years, relearning to walk takes longer, but a restless mind makes up for a restful body. Tesei dedicates themself to intellectual and scholarly pursuit. Important new laws are drafted, several books get written, a library is opened in Kevar's name and Tesei moves their residence to it. They never quite exit hermitdom, never become as gregarious and welcoming as they once were. A new, wearier Virgo comes out the other end of that war, though, one even more determined to make change in the world.

Their heart they open fully again only with the arrival of the Gemini twins. Discovered to have died brutally, been reborn and orphaned swiftly, and put into an unpleasant environment after the fact, they're a task Estriis consigns to Tesei almost authoritatively. Yet the skarrid takes responsibility regardless, unprepared for fostering - nay, parenthood - as they are. Calixis and Cassius prove a melancholy challenge.. Weary and skittish, they're a pair of deeply hurt children whose trust is rarely, strenuously earned, if greatly rewarding. It takes a while to build a family with them, but soon beneath the terrified exterior emerge the darling sweetheart and troublemaker Tesei loves to this day..