Notes1: This was originally going to be a good-ish-sized short story (applied with very liberal doses of GP-patented headcanon, because I'm halfway through the MKR1 anime and just starting the MKR2 manga). However, this was written as being like a legend that's passed down after the ending of MKR2 regardless of which medium you are familiar with (anime or manga), and since it kind of emphasizes the repetition later on I figured it would be best to split this into five chapters: the beginning, the main "body" therein, and the ending.
Notes2: This should be best read under the assumption that, given the ending to MKR1, MKR2 still happened but Cephiro and the rest of the realms were able to prosper without the Pillar system thereafter, presumably some thousands of years later. However, it should be noted that, although Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are mentioned and only appear in the body of the work in the form of flashbacks (as befitting in the style of legends), whether or not they remained in Cephiro or were summoned back to Earth for the rest of their days is left open to interpretation.
Some minor notes: Liberal headcanon aside, this piece draws heavy inspiration not just from the World of Warcraft, but also Lionhead's Fable series, primarily The Lost Chapters edition with a sprinkling of Fable 2 (although it goes unstated, a lot of time has passed in this story, so therefore technology has hit a couple of advancement periods post-MKR2, whereas the Fable series evolves to the point where guns trump over a magic system that is, as of Fable 3, fading away from the world). The word 'draumir' comes from 'draumr', the Old Norse word for 'dream', and the basis of their occupation being the druids of the Emerald Dream from WoW. The term 'dreamwalk' refers to the teleportation spell druid players can use in Legion to get to the Emerald Dreamway, although ironically I had conceived this as a term for causal, ontological purposes in my Naruto/Tales of Berseria fanfic epic, Heart of Fire, Soul of Calamity. The statement our unnamed narrator makes, about his memory as 'not what it used to be', is a direct reference to the same line that's mentioned in the opening scene of the first Galaxy Fraulein Yuna OVA (based off the game series of the same name that was never brought to the US, although the dub for the anime is...meh). And lastly, the title comes from one of Beastmaster Rexxar's lines from Heroes of the Storm.
i.
legere (to read)
Magic is the foundation of the world; where it courses not through the blood of man, it is in the shapeless soul. To come from nothing and return to nothing, it can only be answered not on a whim—for magic is Chaos, and therefore it is no one's master, for even when bonded it does not always perform at one's demand.
Magic, as the people of Cephiro have long since learned (and drawn to their own conclusion, for better or worse), and as the Knights of Prophecy have come to learn, is a frivolous creature. But when it is beckoned, in this dark hour, and it responds, it is a godsend: wonderful and terrible in its power. It is the reason why sorcerers are given so wide a berth between respect and awe, knowing their lives can be ended as they can be saved. It is why their number pales in comparison to soldiers and swords-for-hire.
This is where those comparisons end between the commonfolk, the military, and the Knights of Prophecy. This is where the divide begins, and where the Knights must come into their own.
Though it may be the fount of the soul and it may flow as blood in their veins, it is more a tool to be treated with severity and convenience than it is a gift. For a Knight, magic is their blood and their life. It is the bond ever changing. It is eternal, the Bond of Boundaries.
It is the Call of the Wild, and only a Knight may hear the Call when their magic wakens, though they do not know this. It is more than a kinship between man and the arcane, of the cosmos whose secrets have not wholly been unearthed but are being tirelessly studied to this day. It is a trinity between man and world and nature—that is, the nature of the world given Will by the Pillar that has been woven unto its fabric since time immemorial. Or so it had been, at least before the system had been abolished and gave way to arcanomancy.
Nevertheless, this is Balance, and it must be established.
And so it does, when the Call resounds: in the night, where it can only be heard. In those days the Knights of Prophecy had come at last into Cephiro during the period of tumult and sundering of earth and heaven, and these were Hikaru and Umi and Fuu, girls from another world as the legend foretold. They were given a Task from Master Pharle Presea to recover the much sought-after escudo, an ore that cannot be mended and broken and shaped by neither hammer nor anvil nor fire; and once its making was complete would it bring them one step closer to the end of their Quest: to topple the fallen high priest, Zagato, from his throne and restore the Princess Emeraude, the Pillar of Cephiro, to her rightful place whence the darkness will be banished.
The escudo was to be found at the Spring of Eterna; but these girls, mere hatchlings following a given path and not yet blossomed into Knighthood, had not yet come upon it. The Master Mage Clef had presented to them a creature, a peculiar white rabbit (and for the sake of clarity, we will call 'him'—him being the engendered noun these texts describe him as being—a rabbit) named Mokona, to guide them on their journey, for the Knights were young and soft and come from a time and place beyond the roads of the Spaces In-Between where wars, if fought at all, would be conducted on a global scale that may equal or be greater than the magical might Cephiro had ever or may ever see, and they knew little of fighting save in recreational sport. They would be lost without Mokona, and they would be snared in Zagato's grip and ushered the world to its end had they not heeded Clef's pleas to take flight and find safety in Presea's abode.
So on that day the Knights decided to rest, and Mokona, being ever resourceful, conjured for them the house to eat and shelter in away from the prying eyes of wandering beasts in search for their scent. The girls were weary from the long trek and were gladdened, and for the rest of the day they enclosed themselves within and endured refreshment. Then, when the stars wheeled high on the zenith and the moor grew still, they went to sleep.
Now you must forgive me, for as much as people say I have studied everything there is to learn of the Knights of Prophecy (or Doom, if you feel particularly cynical...or realist, I should say), the Rune Gods, and the marriage between the arcane and proto-druidism, my memory is not as it used to be. Part of what means being a historian is separating fact from the myth, the truth from the opinionated gossip and heresy you must have surely heard from Chizeta, Fahren, and Autozam. But there is one thing you must keep in mind, and it is neither lie or hyperbole or gossip and heresy; and it is that the Call of the Wild varies. Each Knight may hear it all the same, but what they experience may differ from each other.
Or, that is, what I have always been told. It's been a long time since the fall of the Lady Debonair, and much longer yet since a new Trinity of Knights of Prophecy have been needed. I have poured through accounts by Master Pharle Presea, Master Mage Clef, Dhal Lafarga, and Beastmancer Ascot, among many others, who have been related to them the story of how the Knights awoke the Rune Gods from their slumber and truly came into their own. Let me tell you that it is considered a miracle to heed the Call of the Wild and, upon waking, remember the germ that is the dreamwalk in full detail. This is not a mere Opening, as the Knights before them have, where they only have a scrap of the idea that they should go somewhere and seek out the Gods in their natural habits. It is not a case of them finding the Balance of the Trinity all Knights must struggle to maintain.
No. This was an Awakening, a matter of must and not should, of we are and not we will. Although you can argue, and I would not blame you for thinking so, that they only awoke due to having Mokona at their side, but the fact remains: their eyes were opened, and they were wakened at the same time the Rune Gods reached out to them.
Although the accounts differ, I've managed to piece a small, cohesive narrative together that documents what Hikaru Shidou, Umi Ryuuzaki, and Fuu Hououji experienced in the dreamwalk on the night of the Calling. It is by no means perfect; obviously you and I weren't there to know exactly what they said, but this what how it happened according to them and thereon by their constituents.