Excerpt: Pitch and Pearl

Pitch Brosnachain stood on the jutted rocks atop Ogham Peak overlooking the small village nestled in the valley below. The wind whipped her black hair and stung her porcelain face with sleet, but she did not feel it. Her mind had turned deep within and only held a consciousness of the thoughts it examined.
“Sister!” The only sound that could penetrate her deep thoughts came from her twin sister, Pearl. She turned and looked back to find her standing there.
“Pearl,” she smiled. She knew her deep blue eyes sparkled with the joy that always filled her heart when Pearl was near. She watched her sister’s silken white hair toss wickedly in the wind as the sleet attached itself to it. Her black skin glistened as the pellets melted at the touch of its warmth. Pitch’s mirrored image, yet opposite in color.
“What are doing up here on such a horrid night?”
“Thinking, sister. Making peace with myself about what I must do.”
“What are you talking about? We discussed this. We decided you would not go through with it.”
“I know, Pearl. That was in the light of day. In the stillness of the night, it’s not so simple. In the darkness, reality becomes the beacon of light and I stand here in it with nowhere to hide.”
“This beacon of yours has you going through with this barbaric marriage to a foreign king who will take your body as though you are disposable, and have you spit out his children while he ravages our home! You cannot be serious!” She watched Pearl’s matching blue eyes flash with anger, but her resolve to do what was best for both them, and their people, kept her from rising to the bait laid before her in words.