Through the pantheon of oak and pine, a wide and misty clearing appears, and the brothers stand in awe of this unchanged place.

Sindr: Do you come here still, brother?

Thanos (ashamed): Never since that day, Sindr, I can't bear it.

Sindr: Haha! Thanos, you can't be serious! You're still brooding away on that day? We were children!

Thanos: Children are capable of wrongdoing just as men...

Sindr: Come now, brother… all was not lost on that day. Remember the splendor, the world we created. No one knew the wonders and visions we saw, the dreams we dreamt. You and I birthed a new age of creation in the world, you and I brought magic to Erthwile man! Thanks to your abilities and my inventions, I have shown the world that there is more than hunger, death, and suffering in this life; there are wonders yet to be known. How many can say their dreams became reality? How many can even remember the visions of their youth?

There are few of us who know
What wonders we were shown
In the stories and fables
And visions of our youth
For children, as we were,
Think only half formed thoughts
And now, as men, we recollect
A dull and shattered dream

Sindr speaks, and the forest echoes his poetry:

“To trace the remote in the immediate;
the eternal in the ephemeral;
the past in the present;
the infinite in the finite;
these are the springs of delight and beauty”

Both sing:

But some of us awake
With phantasms so strange;
Enchanted hills and golden plains
And cities made of stone
Where ancient heroes rode
Caparisoned with gold
We come alive and then we know
We’ve looked back through the gates,
The gates the Forest Keeper made

Years earlier:

A much younger Sindr stands in the same forest clearing where we just were. Thanos looks on from behind a bush in fascinated confusion as his brother makes strange movements, odd gestures with his hands, and foreign grunts and shouts. The spectacle is too much and Thanos lets a muted laugh slip. Sindr whips around and immediately spots Thanos amidst the trees, walks swiftly over to him and drags him into the clearing.

Sindr: Alright, little brother; since you seem to think it looks so easy, why don't you give it a try...

Thanos (mockingly): try what? Dancing around in the forest like a fairy?!

Sindr (angrily flicks his brother’s ear): I’m not dancing you idiot! This is ancient Relic magic, I've seen the Fendwellers do it. They can control the wind, the rocks and trees and vines, they can shift the flow of the stream, or tame the wildest beast with just a touch… Do you want to try it or not?!

Thanos: … how do I do it?

Sindr performs his well-practiced moves slowly, and Thanos mimics them one after the other.

Sindr: Good work, Thanos, now the trick is to do it all as one motion. I have been practicing for weeks now, so don't expect to…

Thanos performs the move with swift precision, and a surge of energy bursts from the palms of his hands up through the tall forest canopy, ripping through the leaves and knocking branches aside as it climbs skyward.

Sindr stands in silent amazement: … how did you do that?

Thanos: I don't know… I just did what you said! I don't know what that was!

Sindr: That was magic, little brother. The magic of the immortals who have long since gone from this world; their energies flow freely in this place. Few can sense them, and fewer still can do what you just did. Come with me, Thanos. We have much to learn.

As the brothers strode deeper into the woods, they passed by a tree which had dropped a large branch when Thanos cast that magical burst. As he walked closer, he saw a deer sifting the soil where the branch had fallen, the deer quickly ran off and Thanos ran towards the branch. To his horror, a faun lay helplessly crushed beneath the branch. Retching and gasping for breath, the tiny animal clearly had very little time left. Thanos stepped backward slowly, and hung his head in shame.

Sindr, undaunted by the gruesome scene, walks casually toward the fragile creature and turns toward Thanos:

Sindr: What are you crying about? It’s just a deer…

*Thanos gives Sindr a scathing, tearful look*

Sindr: All right, all right, here; try this. I’ve seen the fendwellers do this before.

*Sindr places both his hands on the faun’s rib cage and begins to chant some foreign spell*
Sindr (to Thanos): Here, do it with me, since you seem to have the magic touch…

Thanos: Do what? Mumble some Fen gibberish? I don’t even know what you’re saying!

Sindr: Just try it; breathe deeply, put your hands here, and make the sounds I make.

Thanos places both his hands on the tiny animal, and speaks the incantation as best he can. A powerful, crimson glowing energy emanates from his palms, and Sindr once again stares wide-eyed at his little brother, hiding his jealousy behind his amazement.

Sindr: That’s it, Thanos! Keep going, louder! Faster!

Thanos chants faster, speaking the words as if they were his mother tongue, and he can hardly stand the force of the energy flowing through him. The faun’s chest begins heaving and he perks up his head. Sindr lifts the felled branch as much as he can, but before the faun can attempt to move he vomits and writhes in his final death spasm. Horrified, Thanos runs back home, ignoring the scornful laughter of his brother.

*Back to present*

Sindr looks sincerely to Thanos,

Sindr: I am sorry for that, brother, I was young and cruel and eager! I was toying with forces I knew nothing of and you were my instrument. For that I can only beg your forgiveness… please, Thanos I have come to acknowledge my wrongs.

Thanos: It was long ago, my resentment is well outweighed by the joy your return has brought me.

Sindr: Good! Excellent brother! Besides, that old magic was a mere trifle compared to what I've come to learn, and I don't need you for an instrument anymore, I've fashioned many of my own design, I’ll show you tomorrow… Come now, let's rest, I am aching!

Thanos and Sindr walk back home in the afterglow of their reconciliation, the morning light seeps through the trees as they finally lay down to sleep.