The Celestial Circle

Book One: The Blackened Moons

by Quel33

This is a work of fanfiction, there is no relation to any real events, places, organizations, etc.

Author's Note

I dedicate this work of fanfiction to all of those who have supported me in my life beyond all hopes and expectations, all of whom I plan on repaying with interest.

It should be noted that a.c. means After Circle, so 1391 years have passed since the cataclysm and the rebuilding of civilization across the Circle and beyond.

Synopsis

The Celestial Circle is an accident. It is more a creation of misfortune than of providence. From the fires of a war only vaguely remembered in obscure legends the Circle was born; a war fought by the two most powerful species in the known universe: the Humans of 1st Earth and the Godlike Precursors. The war supposedly lasted for over a century and ended abruptly. A weapon was set off, ripping the very fabric of the universe apart and forming what we now call the Celestial Circle and its surroundings. Over a thousand years have passed since then and we have lost much, but we have also gained much in return. Worlds, realms and universes that had never encountered each other have had a chance to cross-pollinate and the resulting amalgamation of cultures, ideas and beliefs has made for an entirely new and wondrous universe. A universe that is not entirely as it could be, a universe that is in the hold of an impenetrable darkness no one seems to understand. This darkness is the shell that both protects and smothers the Circle. It is the Sea of Chaos that surrounds all of the Circle, with the mysterious "Tethers" being the only way to travel between them. The Cataclysm destroyed all civilization, but it did not eradicate it. The populations of numerous planets have recovered in the past millennia and have branched out, communicating and learning from one another. Five known galaxies survived the Cataclysm and have begun trying to establish footholds within the Circle. A new age of change and strife is about to begin. This is the Celestial Circle, a universe in the throes of strife and change. It is a world you are about to dive into in the following pages. It is a story long in the telling, fragmented and almost forgotten in the mists of time. It is a story of life.

Welcome to the Celestial Circle

Part One: The Thief

Sometimes as I sit and stare at the stars I think back on my life and I remember all of the wrongs I've committed to do things of good intent. You could say I've lived on borrowed time since I was ten years old, when I was adopted by a tribe of beings beyond the comprehension of mortals.

You could say I was the luckiest boy alive to be accepted by such an extraordinary race. You could say my long life of suffering and joy, of laughter and sorrow has been well worth it. You could say all of these things.

But, you're not me and you have no idea of the life I've led, or the prices I have paid throughout it.

Let me enlighten you...

Beyond the end of the icebound shell

To the halls of our ancestors long silent

To the graves of the fallen long unkempt

We will at last return to our homeland

The aspects of the Harbingers will gather once more

The regalia will light the path and bar the way

The unsung will finally be recalled

Under the light of the blood filled moon

Our dying Will shall reach its conclusion

The Chosen will cross the Threshold

And the worlds of men will be born anew

Prelude: Blackened Bones

Planet Vetus, the City of Länis Tuuli, 456 a.c.( After Circle )

When the Celestial Circle was created chaos ruled. Countless dimensions and worlds that had been separated were now joined forever. In this time of trials there existed a hidden force, a group of beings known collectively as The Tribes. To this day no one knows anything of them; they left behind little evidence of their existence. These Tribes protected the people from the most powerful evils that had unfortunately followed them all to the Circle. Among the Tribes there was one who stood out among all of their kin, this was the Kestävä tribe, the embodiment of courage. Their entire tribe had the appearance of wolfish humans with radiant white hair and unsurpassed beauty. This enigmatic tribe was the most technologically advanced military force in the entire Circle, with their very own fleet of warships and strategic outposts all throughout the Circle. It was thanks to this fearsome tribe that many evils capable of vast devastation were kept at bay and suppressed. The Kestävä had kept the peace for over four and a half centuries, since the inception of the Circle during the Cataclysm.

Our story begins on planet Kotimaa, the home world of the Kestävä tribe, one of the many they dwelled on in the Vetus System. Our protagonist is Quel Tiin, a man orphaned at a young age and taken in by the Kestävä and raised to be one of them. He has grown into a burgeoning warrior within their ranks and serves on the august body of the Fellowship of Kest, the elite guard of the Kestävä Royal Family. Today is the system-wide festival in honor of the Council of Kest's four hundredth and seventh convocation. The Council is the main ruling body of the tribe in affairs of state and is composed of the wisest elders from all corners of the tribe. The current council is said to be made up of sages with unparalleled wisdom and foresight. It is because of them that the entire Circle has been experiencing an extended time of peace and prosperity.

High up on Mt. Arvoa, near the summit, the Council meets in the Hall of the Ancestors. In the royal capital of Kantäisa Syvä the Lantern Ceremony is about to commence. This ceremony is as old as the tribe itself and honors those who died in the tribe's long journey from wherever it was they had come from to the Circle. None remembered their people's origins, only that the journey had been hard and full of peril. While the majority of the royal family was attending the Lantern Ceremony, a few of the children of the king and queen were playing hooky. One such child was the third daughter of the royal couple. She had instead opted to have a private visit with the ancient sage Overrim, the Eyeless.

This is the setting we dive into, right before everything goes to hell...

"I have so missed your stories Overrim." Princess Selvittää, seventh in line to the throne and Third Daughter of the King and Queen of Kest said. The Princess was known for her sharp mind and love of knowledge. Her birthday gifts from her parents had usually been rare and expensive books. Once possessed of an intellect unrivaled by all, save for one other, Overrim was in failing health and would likely not live through the coming winter.

"I have not seen you or your siblings in many years Your Highness. My stories are perhaps too dull for a woman grown." Overrim looked older than some planets and had so many wrinkles his face resembled the map of a continent. He was a tarutaru from Vana'diel, dressed in flowing robes and seemed particularly small for his already tiny race.

"Nonsense!" she replied. "I will always treasure your stories for the rest of my days. Please share one with me. Please, please, pleaaaasssee!" Selvittää was a rarity among her kin, with hair the color of wheat in full bloom. It was considered sacred to have yellow hair and Selvittää, being of royal blood, was doubly honored for having it. Her eyes were the color of the cerulean skies in autumn and her skin the color of the purest ivory. She had great beauty and did not realize it yet, being too young and innocent to see the way she was looked at by men and women both.

"Very well..." Overrim said in resignation, coughing into a handkerchief. "Do you have any requests?"

They sat around a small table in a cozy study in a remote part of the palace. Bookshelves lined two of the walls, another wall having the large double doors that was the only entrance to the room and the final wall being a giant floor to ceiling stained glass window depicting seagulls in flight over a stormy sea. Off to the side, almost in the shadows of the room's far corner, but not quite, was a group of four people. Three men and one woman, all silently meditating and aware of their surroundings. They paid little attention to their mistresses' conversation with the elder one, but instead focused on everything outside of that. Nothing got past their notice, their vigilance was supreme. These were members of the Fellowship of Kest, the oldest band of siblings in arms that had protected the royal family of the Kestävä since time immemorial. A group of Jedi Knights of equal number to a band of Fellows would be hard pressed to come out the better in a fight. Quel was the youngest member of this foursome and deferred to the others in all things. He had much to learn and to prove.

When the double doors had a knock resound through their thickness the four were not the least bit surprised. They had heard footfalls approaching long before this new arrival had announced themselves. One of the other two men rose and opened the door. Selvittää and Overrim paused in their conversation, curious about who was disturbing them at this time. The Lantern Ceremony should just be commencing, with most of the planet's population packing the large thoroughfares of the capital in eager anticipation of the event.

It was Valkon, one of the commanders of the Fellowship. His long bristly white hair was always perpetually tied in a long flowing pony-tail and his stern countenance was famously permanent. The newer recruits into the Fellowship often joked about why he was so somber, with wild speculation ranging from his wife's possible infidelity, to his bowels being in constant agony. No one answer was accepted.

"Excuse my intrusion Your Highness, Wise One." Valkon said to Selvittää and Overrim in turn. "But I have been sent by His Royal Majesty to escort you to the ceremony." His stern expression wavered for a moment and a smile peeked forth. "My apologies."

Selvittää sighed dramatically. "Don't bother Valkon, I'm sure my father has his reasons. Perhaps we can continue later tonight Overrim?"

"Of course Your Highness, as long as I haven't died of old age by then or fallen asleep."

"Hopefully the later of the two." She smiled and gave the old man a curtsy before heading towards the door.

The attack came without warning and was flawlessly executed. Not one single person in the room saw it take place, but one moment the Princess was walking, all five of her guards gathering to escort her. The next moment, Overrim and all of the Fellowship members had fallen over, mortally wounded. Only Valkon was unharmed, but his soul was irredeemable. Selvittää's eyes grew wide in fear.

"Valkon!? What are you doing?!"

"Only what's necessary Your Highness," he replied too calmly. He grabbed her roughly by the arm and swept her from the room. Her protectors and old tutor's bodies were still warm, and ghostly images of their hearts were rising up from their bodies, forever separated. Out in the corridor, Valkon paused just long enough to make sure everything was quiet before forcefully dragging the Princess alongside him. She was too frightened to cry out, but quickly realized her mistake.

"GUARDS!" she screamed.

A knife, seemingly out of thin air, appeared next to her throat. Valkon's threat was clear, he didn't need to tell her to shut up after that. The palace was too still, something was wrong. Before she could figure out just what was nagging at the back of her mind they came through a four-way intersection and she found out the cause of the unnatural silence: the bodies of servants, regular palace guards and even a few Fellows lay in slowly growing puddles of their own lifeblood. Everyone was far too still, the holes in their bodies ghastly, disgusting. She silently began to cry.

That was when a gust of wind raged down the corridor from the direction they had come. It knocked them to their knees and would have done more if Valkon hadn't been strong enough to hold them both up. Faster than the eye could follow, Quel Tiin appeared before them with the instantaneous speed of a flash step, or shunpo.

Laughing once, Valkon stood back up to his full height, dragging Selvittää with him. "I should have realized you wouldn't die so easily boy. You are partway dead to begin with."

"Having Soul Reaper powers doesn't make me part dead. But if I betrayed my brothers and sisters in arms and the royal family, then I'd be part dead." Quel was coldly collected, a sheen of sweat the only indicator he wasn't as calm as he seemed. "And not long for this world." He growled out between clenched teeth.

Valkon, being a commander of the Fellowship of Kest was ordained to carry a multitude of advanced weaponry. Facing Quel, who had already drawn his soul cutter sword, his zanpakuto, Valkon didn't hesitate. Drawing forth his Pyhä Liekki, his Sword of the Sacred Flame, a weapon given to all Fellows, Valkon pointed it at Quel. His blade was composed of a thousand separate shards of firecell stones and eltalite ore, two of the hardest ores in the known multiverse found only on the world of Minegarde. The blades numerous shards of metal were conjoined by a secret technique the Kestävä tribe's smiths had invented long ago that created a volatile energy matrix. This energy matrix could form a variety of shapes that responded to the user's will. Valkon wanted his to become a giant spinning saw and so the blade did. It buzzed, flying through the air straight for Quel. Raising his sword to block, Quel was nearly thrown off of his feet by the force of the blow. Sparks flew from his blade as he was pushed back. Giving a mighty cry, he swept his blade down and to the side, diverting the course of the flying sawblade. It dissolved into a thousand tiny shards of metal that then sped at Quel from behind, cutting into his entire back and right leg. He cried out in pain, doubled over and nearly passed out. Anger gave him focus beyond measure and with a swing of his soul cutter he collapsed the entire length of the corridor around them.

Selvittää screamed, Valkon cursed and Quel laughed.

Fear is known by many, but it is hard to share with the unlearned what true terror and despair is like. On that day Quel felt the dark emotions entering deep into the marrow of his being. Their escape from the doomed royal capital was not easy. They passed thousands of dead and met up with a large band of survivors, all of whom pledged themselves to protect the Princess. The protections that had been put in place around the Pit of Muhre, a place the Kestävä tribe used to imprison all of the beings too evil and dangerous to let go free, had fallen. Everything inside, horrors beyond your imagining, had been allowed to ravage the Vetus System. Someone or something had released them. The Kestävä would not go down so easily, they would not allow this to be a total victory. But that was all in the past. Nothing would ever be like it was.

Now, in the very surreal present, Quel was dying from blood loss and had a dozen new wounds all over his body to match the ones he had in his back from Valkon. Selvittää supported his weight on her left shoulder and the two of them staggered through the streets of Länis Tuuli, a small city hundreds of miles to the southeast of Kantäisa Syvä. It was in this town that they hoped to find one of the many hidden escape pods designed to safeguard the royal family. The Kestävä were nothing if not paranoid and it seemed it had paid off on this day.

But then fate is not always kind. In front of the hidden safe house containing the pod, with frightful stillness, stood a small army of their enemies. The fallen dead of the Kestävä tribe had been viciously transformed into lakastua, undead abominations who's disfigured state mirrored their weak spirit's torment. Dizzy and dead on his feet, Quel nonetheless stood to fight them. Their eyes permanently glassed over, the lakastua parted like the Red Sea for Moses, allowing something far worse to approach. It was a Tahrata Priestking, an anthropomorphic spider-man dressed in flowing robes. The Tahrata were the underlings of the Hämähäkit, another tribe like the Kestävä who had been wiped out a hundred years ago in the Blood Wars. Apparently some had survived. He raised his hand and crushed Quel's ribs with a mere gesture before telekinetically tossing him to land in a bloody heap.

"You are the last of the pure-blooded descendants of the Kestävä. You will die. I will skin you alive. There will be no mercy." It said to the Princess.

"Not while I'm here." Quel gasped, barely raising himself up off the ground, blood pooling around his broken body and a wet cough following his words. "BANKAI!" he yelled, a gale whipping through the street.

"It is my burden to bear!" Princess Selvittää screamed, raising her hands in a brilliant halo of light as she cast a holy spell.

The Priestking simply vanished, its eyes glowing briefly right beforehand.

The smoke cleared, revealing all three had fallen. The lakastua had been obliterated and the Priestking was dead. Crawling on his stomach, Quel neared the Princesses' side. She was badly wounded, bleeding her darkest arterial blood, her lifeblood, out onto the ground.

"Your name is Quel, right?" Her voice was very quiet and he had to strain to hear it.

"Yes."

"I have had a small crush on you since you entered my... service. I know about your past, where it was you... came from."

"Please Your Highness, you're dying. Let me go and get help, there's still time!"

She grabbed his face with her hand, gently yet firmly. "I never accomplished anything of meaning in my life Quel. I was only able to watch as my people were slaughtered around me... Don't let yourself be like me...don't be...powerless when you are...truly needed. Don't...be like...me."

Her hand fell from his face to smack deafeningly loud against the ground in a pool of her own blood.

Tears flowed down Quel's face. He screamed in rage and despair, experiencing death for the first time up close and personal. He had failed to protect her and so his regret and guilt were colossal. They seeped into his bones and turned them black with shame. He would honor her dying words and live on in his disgrace, forever chained to this moment. He would do what she had asked and spread the word of what had taken place here. He would live on, but a small part of him died on that day.

Author's Note: So yeah, comment and review if possible and let me know what you think of my writing style and the story too...