Echoes On The Lake
Hello, everyone. I'm not going to say much before I start this, because there is not much I can say. If you want to hear me say things, I suggest you read my profile.
Warning: AU, minor language, minor suggestive themes, crude humor, etcetera. Don't read if you can't handle those things, plus many more that remain unknown.
Synopsis: Once something is gone, all that is left is an echo, a clue to where it might have gone. Following such clues, the lives of many youths are about to change, for better, or…for worst.
Romances: Ephraim/L'Archael, Eirika/Seth, Innes/OC, Forde/OC, One-sided Vanessa/Innes, Amelia/Ewan, Joshua/Natasha. Open for more suggestions.
Disclaimer: Look, I'm only going to say this once. I do NOT own Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, the plot, the characters, and all pertaining to it. I DO, however, own the characters, buildings, and all pertaining to Blue Star Valley. This includes Echo Lake, Echo Lake Inn, and Starville.
Let us begin…
Prologue: Vanishing
Continent of Magvel
Before the sun rose, all of the Sacred Stones had vanished.
The empire of Grado was first. Ruled by the Silent Emperor Vigarde, no one could fathom how a thief could slip into the mighty palace unnoticed and escape with the treasure of the empire in hand. Yet, deep into the night, the stone faded into nothing.
Second was the desert of Jehanna. In the royal palace that sits majestically upon the sand, the Stone lay with close reach to the Queen of the White Dunes, Ismaire. How could a queen who protected her land and ruled with a fair and firm grip let the holy light that banished evil slip away? No one knew.
The Theocracy of Rausten was third to be struck by terror as their relic vanished right out from under the nose of the Divine Emperor, Mansel. Though the palace tried to keep the news a secret, praying that it was simply a servant playing a sick joke, word soon spread throughout the theocracy, shocking those who were awake and awakening those who slept.
Fourth was the land of Frelia. Perched on an engraved alter high atop the Tower of Valni, the Sacred Stone of Frelia seemed to melt into an invisible existence, gone from sight and long out of touch or smell. Jolted from his sleep and filled with terror, the Sage King Hayden tried to calm his fretful daughter and enraged son as he tried to calm himself.
Finally, the Kingdom of Renais was struck by this intangible demon. The peerless Warrior King Fado had vowed at his ascension to the throne that he would protect the Stone of Renais. Yet, now, it was gone. And not a soul in the kingdom knew where it went.
Now, the sun was barely over the horizon, and King Fado paced up and down length of the well-furnished living room, located in the private wing where royalty slept.
"How could something like this happen? What sort of magic is there that can make solid object vanish without a trace?" he asked aloud, talking to himself, thinking he was alone. He wasn't.
"A dark magic, no doubt, and a powerful one to be able to work on the Sacred Stones," his son Ephraim said, striding into the room, half-dressed and deprived of a real night's sleep. His aqua hair was messier than usual, and he wore his sleeping shirt tucked hastily into a pair of pants.
Fado continued to pace. "This is outrageous. I've never heard of such magic. A sacred relic, vanishing without a trace? It's a kings' worst nightmare."
Ephraim sensed his father's worry, and placed a hand on his shoulder as he strode past, halting his endless pacing. Blue eyes met blue eyes, and father and son exchanged a message. "Calm down, father. If you do something drastic in your confusion, then it will only cost the kingdom more. We must do what is best for Renais."
"Tell me then, son. What is best for Renais now that her precious Stone has been stolen?" Fado asked, placing a hand on his son's shoulder, feeling the strength of his son's muscles, and of his faith.
"We must call a Royal Summon. Gather the kings, queens, princes, princesses of Magvel together, and we shall decide what to do then. I am positive that our Stone was not the only one that was taken," he said.
Fado released his son. "What leads you to believe that other Stones have vanished?"
Ephraim turned on his heel and walked over to the window. Gazing out in the predawn sky, filled with fading stars and a few clouds that cast shadows onto the world below. "It would be foolish, don't you think? If I had a magic that could destroy sacred relics instantly, I wouldn't settle for just one."
Fado knew his son was right. He walked over to the doorway, reached up to ring a bell that sent dainty rings echoing throughout the hallway. Within moments, a bed-tussled man with deep red hair and eyes strode into the room. He was dressed as Ephraim was, with a nightshirt tucked into a pair of pants, though unlike the prince of Renais, he wore boots.
"You called for me, Your Majesty?" The red-haired man bowed. Fado nodded, motioning for the man to rise.
"Forgive me, Seth, for waking you at this hour, but I have need of your assistance," Fado began. Ephraim watched their reflections in the window across the room. "I wish to initiate a Royal Summon. We will need messengers sent out to all the surrounding kingdoms, not including the mercantile Carcino-"
Ephraim interrupted, turning to face his father. "Why not Carcino?"
His father had an answer. "Carcino has no Sacred Stone. They have no part in this, and I do not want to include them where it is not necessary."
Ephraim thought for a moment, and then shook his head slowly. "No…include Carcino. It is because they do not have a Sacred Stone that they should be our first suspects. What if, hypothetically, they were jealous of the other nations, and invented a magic to make the Stones disappear into nothing."
Fado looked at his son for a long moment. His eyes were filled with pride. One day, Ephraim would be king, and perhaps a smarter king than he was. "Fine then, son. Seth, include Carcino in the Royal Summon."
Seth nodded, bowing again to the king and his son, before leaving to rouse a few knights to serve as messengers. Fado sighed, hanging his head and rubbing his temple. Ephraim looked at his father in sympathy. Never in his life had he imagined that the Stones would have disappeared. Luckily, both he and his father were reasonably calm men.
Even though they were breaking down on the inside, they had to remain strong for Renais.
Blue Star Valley
Somewhere in the Northern US
Echo Lake Inn, Third Floor
Second Door on the Right
"...urgh..."
A lump of cotton comforters decorated with floral patterns moved slightly on the large bed. Whoever the blankets had ensnared was beginning to stir, poking for a way out of her burrow. Slowly, two legs found their way out of the mass, stretching and shivering in the cold air of the room.
Carefully, a head of tangled red hair peeked out. Green eyes squinted, peering at the digital alarm clock on the near-by nightstand, and glared at the time. She stared.
4:57 a.m.
With a quiet groan, her head fell back onto the pillows. To herself, she wondered why she had ever agreed to her mother's proposition two years ago. There were plenty of other people in the world who could have been hired to serve as the cook for the Echo Lake Inn, but it was extraneous to pay money to hire them when you could simply enlist the help of your magnanimous daughter, who just happened to attend culinary school.
Francesca Amairea shot up into a sitting position when her alarm clock shrilled into action, turning on at exactly five o'clock in the morning. Quickly, her hand flew out and clicked it off. Just because she hated to get out of bed in the morning didn't mean she had to wake anyone else with her insanely loud alarm clock.
She blinked, looking around her room. Convinced that nothing had changed, she untangled her limbs from her comforters and swung her bare legs over the edge of the bed. She shivered. The inn could get drafty in the morning. The wooden floor was colder than the air under her socked feet as she stretched and stumbled over to her wardrobe. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her arm, yawning.
Francesca gazed at herself in the mirror. Two dull green eyes stared back at her amongst the freckles the dominated her face, framed with thick strands of red hair. Sighing, knowing there was no time to dawdle if she wanted to squeeze in a morning job before breakfast, she yanked off the oversized flannel shirt she slept in, and pulled on a dark yellow sports bra. Once matching running shorts were pulled up over her noticeable hips, she pulled her hair up in an elastic scrunchie, and walked quietly out of her room.
"Breakfast today is eggs, bread and bagels, the fruit of the week, microwave bacon, coffee, tea, juice, milk," she said under her breath as she made her way down the stairs and landings to the first floor. She was greeted by the large, lonely room. As if to say "hello", the wind whistled through the crack in the window.
Normally, her parents would have been awake by now. However, neither of her parents, nor her siblings, were here. It was just Francesca, and it would remain just Francesca for most of autumn and winter while the rest of her family vacationed in Europe. Not being a big fan of travel, and shy to new experiences, she had opted to stay here and watch the inn.
Coming into the large kitchen that adjoined directly to the dining room and lobby, she checked the clock on the wall. It was 5:05.
"Perfect. Take jog, get back within the half hour, fix breakfast," she said to herself, so she wouldn't forget. She crouched down to look under the table, and found her sneaker right where she had left them last night. Once she had pulled them on, set the stove to preheat, and turned the dining room lights on, she headed for the backdoor.
The screen door squeaked and banged as it opened and shut, announcing her arrival to the backyard. Francesca paused for a moment to look around, smiling at the dawn sky reflecting on the surface of Echo Lake, namesake to the Inn that watched over it. It wasn't a large lake, but it wasn't small. A field of dewy grass stretched to the shore of the lake, littered with bunches of dandelions that Francesca didn't have the heart to uproot. Trees encircled the lake, cradling it as the mountains cradled the valley. She smiled as she saw a family of ducks come out from the reeds for a morning swim.
Movement among the dawn clouds drew her attention away from the lake. A few stars still shone bright in the sky, hiding from the stretching light of the rising sun. To her surprise, a shooting star zipped across the sky. She squinted, and saw two more stars shoot after the first one. Her brows knitted in confusion as two other stars shot in the opposite direction. Weren't shooting stars supposed to shoot in the same direction?
She shook her head, reminded herself that there was no reason to worry about stars right now, seeing as she was a chef and not as astronomer. Let the star people worry about stars. Let the food people worry about getting breakfast ready on time.
Her jogging trail led her around half of the valley, occasionally running up the side of one of the many mountains, before looping back around up the driveway back to the inn. If she concentrated on the movement of her feet, she could complete it in thirty minutes.
Unfortunately, this particular morning, she could not concentrate on moving her feet. Her mind kept going back to the stars. She kicked herself mentally, inwardly yelling that if shooting stars were dangerous, there would be warning signs everywhere.
"Stop worrying, self. Mental note: Google it later," she shrugged as she jogged, looking up to the sky, where the stars had vanished.
Continent of Magvel
Grado Keep, Southern Tower
He clutched the windowsill, cold beads of sweat running down his face and falling onto the cold marble beneath his hand. His soft lilac hair was damp, his clothes soaked in perspiration.
"No…I d-didn't want to…" He gasped for air, "Why….oh, why did you make me?"
A cold laugh bounced off the walls of the circular chamber as a tall, broad, strong figure stepped into the sunlight. His face was distorted with mirth and sick obsessions, his eyes twinkled ominously with a wry humor. Strands of oily dull blue hair fell in ragged curls around his face, onto his shoulders. He laughed at his prince.
"Are you ashamed of your action, oh prince of misery? I wonder how you will ever live with be to live with yourself now. Just think, what would your darling Princess Eirika think of you if she knew it was by your hand that the darkness is freed?" The man taunted. The prince's body jerked as he cried, moaning.
"Oh, Eirika…please, forgive me! I did not want to listen to them, to the demon…but I had no choice. They would kill you…kill you…" He cried. The man laughed again.
"The Stones must be gone. Gone forever from this world. Then, they must disappear looking for them. Lost in another world, they will all die. Magvel, without the next generation of royalty, will crumble, and I shall rule this land while the Demon King moves on to other worlds. Soon, the entire universe will be ours!"
Prince Lyon of Grado cried harder, shaking, before collapsing in a heap at the base of the window. He felt helpless. There was nothing he could do, but pray that there was some way, some person, some creature out there, anywhere, that could stop this. Stop the madman Valter. Stop his master, the Demon King.
Stop him, with his new, terrible magic that he was forced to connect with; forced to wield against he people he loved. His cries echoed off the cold walls of the room.
If nothing was done, then everyone would vanish into nothing.
End of Prologue
Yeah, it's a little strange. I hope everyone doesn't think it sounds to weird. Trust me, I it gets better.
Please review, people! I love reviews. I love to meet new people. New people are fun, and interesting. I like people.
Stay safe, everyone.
With Luck and Love,
Becca