Okay, this is another one of my early fanfics. It's about Pronyma, one of my favourite characters.
DISCLAIMER TIME!
drags brainwashed katz in front of herself
Me: Come on, say it!
Brainwashed katz: I like carrots and not fish. I like carrots and not fish. I like carrots and not...
Me: Stop!
pushes brainwashed katz aside
Me: Sorry 'bout that! Angelofdarkjugdement does not own Tales of Symphonia...
sighs
Xxx
Shades of crimson
Meltokio, Tethe' Alla's capital city, was well known for its big, beautiful houses and the impressive castle. But there were by far less people who knew the city's darker side. And even of them, there were few who actually had experienced it. Hidden near the city's outskirts, but still inside the walls surrounding Meltokio they lay. The Meltokio slums, full of poor people.
Few of the families were lucky enough to be able to rent, not to mention own an own house. And even fewer half-elves could count themselves as that lucky. But the drawback of being a half-elf owning an own house, even if it only was in the slums, meant that the chances of being discovered and taken to a research facility dramatically increased. As a young half-elf experienced herself…
It was so long ago… yet she could remember every single detail…
The young woman sent an angry glare to the older man in front of her.
"Why can't you just leave us alone?" She spat out the words, which were filled with hate.
"That's the fault with you humans, you don't stop no matter how many times we tell you to!" She continued, anger in her voice.
The man just gave her a stern look. The harsh words did not seem to impress him much. The woman took a deep breath, and made another futile effort to get the man to react in some way.
"I'm not going to that laboratory, and neither is my sister! Do you hear me!" She screamed at him.
Once again her words left the man unimpressed. But what did she expect? After all, this was the sort of things he had to do daily, after all, it was his job.
"Protesting will not help. It's the law. Every half-elf in Tethe' Alla goes to one of the research academies in Meltokio or Sybak. And we do not make any exceptions. If the two of you do not come by your free will, we will have to use force."
The young half-elven woman sent him a confused look.
"The two of us? I thought… we are four people! Me… my sister, mom and dad!" her tone of voice grew more desperate for each family member she mentioned.
The man looked coldly at her. Then he said those words she'd hate ever since.
"They will be executed."
But what shocked her most were not his words. It was the icy, careless tone of voice he said it in. He didn't care at all. To him, this was nothing but business. The young half-elf felt the hatred flaming up inside her.
She collected all of her strength and formed a dark ball pulsing with energy. The man actually looked frightened this time, and the half-elf held the ball back, but still dangerously close.
"I want you to listen this time", she hissed. "Nobody of this family is going to be executed, brought to a research facility, captured or harmed an any other way. Understood?"
The man nodded and took a step backwards, shaking in fear. To the half-elf's great amusement, the man had totally forgotten that there were stairs behind him. He tried to take a step backward into thin air, lost his balance and fell onto his back.
The half-elf only whispered the words, but the man had no problems hearing everyone of them.
"The next time I see you here, you are a dead man."
She did not move before the man was out of sight, and then she went inside again.
Pronyma, leader of the grand cardinals, sighed. Why was she remembering this, all of a sudden? The green-haired half-elf stood up from her chair, and slowly walked out of her office. It was just… wrong. She had been done with these memories, all this stuff about Tethe' Alla. Her friends… her family… The sight of an angel with long, blonde hair and huge, purple wings made her thoughts jump back to reality.
"Oh, Lord Yggdrasil, I'm sorry for blocking your path…" she apologized as she bowed down deeply, and the angel floated past her.
Pronyma left out a sigh of relief, it was best to stay on that man's good side… She knew some of the things that had happened to those who angered their leader. And those things were anything but pretty for sure… But suddenly Lord Yggdrasil turned his head toward her. Pronyma stiffened.
"And, Pronyma, just before I forget… Could you go inspect Magnius' ranch?"
"Of course, my Lord", she replied quickly and headed for the teleporter. Yggdrasil's lips curled into a small smile. It seemed like she was in a hurry.
As soon as Yggdrasil was out of sight, Pronyma lowered her speed, and relaxed. She had plenty of time. After walking past some of the higher ranked angels, the green-haired woman arrived in the teleporter room. Pronyma exchanged some words with the angel in charge of maintenance of the teleporters, but he didn't say much, just as usual. Then she went into one of the teleporters and entered her destination. A small smile lightened up her face, as she began to imagine the look on Magnius' face when she'd arrive.
Meanwhile, Magnius was sitting alone in the control room, doing one of his favourite things; watch humans work. But suddenly, there was the annoying sound that told him somebody had used the teleporter, and that always meant that something was wrong. He turned his chair around and got a very funny look on his face.
"Lady Pronyma?" He asked in disbelief.
Pronyma stepped out of the teleporter, and smirked. Just like she had expected, Magnius wasn't exactly thrilled to see her, and he had great difficulties trying to hide it. The green-haired woman just barely managed to hold back a grin as she declared she was going to inspect the ranch right now.
To her big disappointment, Magnius did not seem troubled by this at all. He continued looking at Pronyma for a moment, but then turned his glance toward the computer screens again.
Pronyma left the room by another teleporter, and was met by Magnius' "security system", which consisted of a labyrinth of warps. The truth was, it was more annoying than secure. Even the biggest fool would eventually make his way through… Or maybe that was the reason Magnius had chosen to do it this way? She thought to herself. After all he appeared to have more muscles than brains. And the longer Pronyma considered this option, the more logical it seemed to her.
She walked straight to the next warp. This was so easy… Pronyma had changed her opinion after five minutes of walking around, trying out every warp she could find. Finally, she had to admit her defeat by Magnius' security system. It didn't seem so stupid to her anymore either. After being lead to the final warp, she could at last begin her inspection.
As soon as Pronyma got outside to where the humans worked, a desian called her over. The first thing she noticed about him was that he was holding his whip the wrong way.
"Lady Pronyma, I have to show you something!" He explained. "See, I just got this great idea; if you hold a whip the opposite way and hit somebody with the handle, it'll hurt so much more!"
He turned to an unfortunate human prisoner, who desperately tried to push a huge boulder.
Pronyma went on the other side in case the prisoner would try to escape. The desian took aim, lifted his whip, but it slipped out of his hand, and headed straight toward the poor prisoner. But the human had noticed, and ducked. And instead it hit Pronyma's head.
"L-lady Pronyma! I'm so sorry… are you-" he stuttered.
"JUST LET ME BE!" Pronyma screamed at the desian and ran off into the opposite direction.
Pronyma's mood had darkened considerably, and she was looking for someone to take it out on. And then she got sight of her prey. A female desian was struggling to get the humans to work, and she didn't seem to be able to work up enough courage to use her spear against them. Probably, she was new. Pronyma slowly walked toward the female, eager to see if she would notice. The female desian didn't notice, until Pronyma was just a few steps behind her. She whirled around and gave Pronyma a surprised look.
"First rule; never turn your back to a human", Pronyma explained in a cold voice.
The female turned around to see one of the human prisoners run away. Just as she was going to follow him, she was ordered by Pronyma to ignore him, and a few other desians quickly took care of him.
"Secondly, can you explain to me why you refrained from using your spear?" Pronyma asked.
The female took a deep breath and stepped toward Pronyma.
"And just who do you think you are, and what do you have to do with my methods of making humans work?" she asked, trying to sound angry.
Pronyma answered her question with an evil smile.
"Who I think I am? How amusing. I am Lady Pronyma, leader of the five grand cardinals! And I think I might have quite a few things to say when it comes to your methods."
The desian female paled and stepped backwards.
"I apologize… Lady Pronyma… it's just… I-I'm new here…"
Luckily for the female, Pronyma's mood had lightened up a bit after taking it out on her. Pronyma considered the situation for a little while before she told the female to go back to work again.
The green-haired half-elf continued her inspection. She walked slowly past the walking humans, who were pushing big rocks and were dripping with sweat.
Pronyma then went inside, her eyes carefully watching some desians trying to get control over a bunch of new prisoners. She guessed the prisoners were from Palmacosta, like most of the prisoners in this ranch were. She then proceeded to the host body check room, and scolded a pair of slackers.
When Pronyma had finished the inspection, she didn't waste any time at all trying to find the way through Magnius' labyrinth. You'd have to either be extremely stupid or extremely stubborn to try that again. Or maybe a combination of both. Instead Pronyma decided to test the new female's abilities. She called her to her side and asked her to show her the way. The female desian seemed quite nervous, and went the wrong path multiple times. She then muttered something about
Tethe' Alla, and mumbled a curse on elvish. Pronyma spoke a few friendly words with the female, and she relaxed and finally managed to remember the right path. Pronyma let out one of her extremely rare "thanks" and went to see how Magnius was doing.
But this time she couldn't manage to hold back a grin.
Magnius was sleeping in front of the computer screens, leaned back into his chair, snoring loudly.
"Magnius?" Pronyma asked in a loud voice. He woke up an instant, and understood that she had seen him slack off.
"Uh… Lady Pronyma? So… how was it? I'm sure you've noticed how many creative, well-trained and energetic half-elves there are under my commando?"
"Of course, Magnius…" she could see that he began to relax again. Apparently, he didn't know her too well…
"…none!" She said in a highly arrogant tone of voice.
Magnius froze an instant. And this time, he looked shocked.
Then Pronyma went into the teleporter, and returned to her office. She looked at her desk, where a couple of new papers about exsphere research and the current state of the angelus project were laying. It looked like her work for tomorrow had arrived. Pronyma sighed. At least, she hoped it was for tomorrow. She didn't want to displease her lord either. But the inspection had taken up quite a bit of her time, so she locked the door and prepared for going to bed.
"Tethe' Alla… Tethe' Alla…" a voice in her head whispered to her.
Pronyma rolled over to her side and tried to ignore her own thoughts, but with little success. Instead, she decided to read a bit to get other thoughts into her head. After reading for some hours, the green-haired half-elf fell asleep…
Tethe' Alla… Sybak…
The only light in the lab was the weak yellowish light, given by a small lamp. It was supposed to lighten the atmosphere inside a bit, but only made it darker, because everyone inside knew that the sun was shining outside. The fact that the walls were made of solid stone, and the entrance was under strict guard did not help either. A green-haired half-elf stood directly under the lamp, trying to read a letter.
She couldn't believe it. It was simply impossible.
The young Pronyma shook her head, not wanting to accept the truth. The execution of her parents had been real enough, but this… She shook her head again. One of the other half-elves in the lab looked at her with a pitying look.
She turned her glance toward the grey stone walls instead. Nothing looked different, and, as always, there were lots of bottles filled with strange mixtures. A couple of exspheres were lying in a corner, where a pink-haired half-elf woman worked. The half-elf who had looked at Pronyma came closer, trying to get her attention.
"I'm certain it's hard to believe… but-"
"It's not true! It's a lie! A LIE!" She screamed at him. Then she broke down, crying. "It can't be true.. it just can't…" the green-haired half-elf sniffed.
-Mom… dad… and now… my sister? Pronyma still couldn't believe it. "Why… What did she do wrong" She asked.
The other half-elves gave her a pitying look, and the pink-haired half-elven woman, named Lyla, took a step forward.
"I've heard she tried to sabotage an important experiment involving exspheres". Lyla shuddered. "They were experimenting on half-elves… so I can understand her…"
Pronyma looked at Lyla, her eyes still filled with tears.
"Experimenting on half-elves? It's just too cruel…"
Lyla sent Pronyma a warm smile.
"I know. Those humans… first asking us to work for them, and then…" Lyla sighed. "If I had been I her place, I think I might have done the same thing…"
Still filled with anger and sadness, unable to control her feelings, Pronyma got up and stepped in front of Lyla.
"And why couldn't you've been in her place then?" Pronyma asked in a mean and arrogant tone of voice.
Lyla froze for a moment, but then she slapped Pronyma and went back to work with the exspheres, her back turned to Pronyma. The usually cheery woman, muttered a couple of rude words on elvish.
Elvish was seldom spoken in the research labs, and for a good reason. It was a beautiful language, and the only thing the half-elves had left, but not all half-elves knew it. Therefore, they spoke the normal language so everyone could understand each other.
And cursing on elvish just seemed more natural to those speaking the language. That way, not everyone would understand it.
"Lyla, calm down, she is just a bit confused…" Pronyma could hear one of them whisper.
Pronyma turned to the others.
"Does anyone know… where and when she was executed?" She asked in a tone of voice which told them that Pronyma was in a very dangerous mood.
Nobody said a word until Lyla stopped working and turned toward Pronyma again. She seemed like she had forgiven Pronyma, and was wearing her usual warm smile.
"Yesterday, in Meltokio, you know, the coliseum…" She saw the look on Pronyma's face and quickly added: "But don't do anything stupid, do you promise?"
Pronyma nodded and thought to herself, "and avenging my sister does not count as stupid."
Pronyma ran past the guards and rushed through a group of confused students, and continued outside. The green-haired half-elf didn't waste any time, and ran straight toward the Tethe' Alla bridge. Luckily for her, a group of students seemed to approach the bridge, so Pronyma hid among them.
After about 20 minutes, they finally had crossed the bridge, and Meltokio wasn't far away. Pronyma continued to walk with the clueless students until they split up. Pronyma headed in the direction of the huge Meltokio coliseum. If she found out whoever or whatever had killed her sister… it was going to pay for sure!
She rushed up to the counter and declared her want to enter.
"Just a moment", the receptionist answered, and took up something from behind the counter.
"Don't worry, this is just a routine check."
But Pronyma suddenly began to feel very bad about the "routine check" as the woman pressed something against her skin. She didn't like the look on the receptionist's face. The receptionist slowly began to pale.
"Is something wrong?" Pronyma asked.
"Guards! GUARDS! A half-elf!" The receptionist screamed.
Two guards hurried to the woman's side, and she pointed to Pronyma. Pronyma readied herself for a fight, but before she managed to attack, she was hit on the head by something hard.
Pronyma woke up, shaking and dripping with sweat. Her eyes were wide open, and she took a walk around her room to reassure herself that it only had been a dream. She didn't want to remember… if she only had been able to choose what she wanted to dream…
The dream had brutally ripped open an old wound Pronyma had not thought about for years, a memory she thought she had nearly had forgotten… And yet she could still remember everything… The seemingly endless days at the research academy, the pain she had felt when she got the news, how she had broken down and cried… She could even remember the sticky smell of the room they had been forced to do research in…
Pronyma closed her eyes. If the memories would come, she would let them. She would not refuse, nor hide away. And she was certain they would come…
Pronyma woke up in a dark, small cell. She could barely see that there were half-elves in some of the other cells too, and even some humans. A cold gust of wind blew through as a guard opened the door to the room with the cells, and a thin ray of light fell onto the stone floor. It took Pronyma some time to figure out that the guard actually was headed her way.
The guard grabbed her arms without saying a single word, and he ignored Pronyma's protests as he shoved up the stairs. He looked over to the man in charge, mumbled some words and the man in charge nodded.
Then, he forced the unarmed Pronyma into the dusty arena. He ignored her wild protests, and closed the door he had pushed her through. The young half-elf looked around. The coliseum was filled to the brink with people, and they shouted, filled with excitement and expectations. She could hear people shouting things like "Down with the half-elves".
The shouting only got louder as a black dragon was sent into the arena. Pronyma could do nothing but face the truth; she didn't stand a chance.
Yellow, mean eyes looked at her, and then the dragon took a deep breath. Pronyma managed to step aside just in time, but the air around the dragon's fire was still burning hot. Not wanting to think about the consequences of being hit by the fire, she continued to dodge its attacks, but that was the only thing she could do.
But she wouldn't give up. Maybe this was the creature that had killed her sister? The thought made Pronyma forget how exhausted she was, and gave her new strength.
"You're going down, and that's for sure!" she hissed to the dragon.
Her words were answered by yet another thousand-degree blaze, which she barely managed to dodge. She then stepped on something hard. While the dragon still was getting ready for the next attack, Pronyma picked it up. It was a small stone.
Pronyma recognized it at once, it was an exsphere. She was unsure whether it had a key crest or not, but that wasn't her main concern right now. The half-elf quickly attached the stone to her skin, and felt a new kind of power inside her.
But then she realized she had done something very stupid. The dragon was right in front of her, and she would be hit by its fire, regardless of which way she'd run. Pronyma readied herself for the blast and closed her eyes, but when she opened them again, she was standing at least five meters away from where she had been standing just a moment ago.
This was the opportunity. The dragon was still confused, and wondered where its prey had gone. The young half-elf formed a dark ball of pure magic, and fired it at the dragon. It gave a loud scream, fell to the floor, and didn't move anymore.
She had survived.
After the battle, she had been released for some strange reason, and then she had met him. Mithos Yggdrasil, the hero of the ancient war, and the leader of cruxis and the desians. Words weren't necessary to tell that he had been the one who threw the exsphere to her.
He had then asked her to join them, and she had agreed immediately. To make the deal even sweeter, Yggdrasil had insisted on giving her a rank above the average rank of newcomers. It had not taken much time until she became a grand cardinal, and finally, their leader. There was a special relationship between her and Yggdrasil, and many others envied her for that.
Pronyma continued reflecting about it, and realized that she had been thinking about the last part by her own free will. She would focus on the future and her relationship, but never again would she try to forget her past like she had done until now.
The end