Tales Of Vesperia: Cask of Moonlight
Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Vesperia, and therefore claim not legal affinity over the property.
Chapter 1: Looking back
Death had followed her wherever she had gone for as long as she could remember. It loomed, ever present, over her shoulder, as if waiting for her to touch something else and summon it, like vultures to a rotting corpse. It was as if was a curse, harkened by her interest, flung about with much more frequency than was normal. Her precences had caused wars, the near extinction of an entire species, and even (though partly the fault of her bloodline and the former Commandant of the Imperial Knights) almost ushered in the complete eradication of human life. Indirectly, of course.
Had she been possessing of a cynical minds, she might have found it funny that as a child with the power to bring life, her greatest export was death. But her mind did not light upon these thoughts as she glanced out the window into the streets awash with the soft glow of the full moon. Indeed, such musings were so far from her own, that her mind could not form them without outside interference. Her mind was set firmly on the future, more specifically, the following couple of days. Tomorrow was the start of the annually meet between the Empire and the guilds. Much had changed since the events three years prior. The revolt of Alexei and resulting destabilization had been repaired. Flynn had been elected as Commandant, and the knights, while still being weeded out from the holdouts from the bad days, was shaping into a proud organization once again. Ioder had been nominated and instated as Emperor, and he was doing a pretty good job so far.
After Don Whitehorse's passing, and the death of 2 of the other 4 Master guilds, the Union managed to survive in large part thanks to effort of Miss Kauffman of Fortune's Market. It took a lot of wrangling and effort, but a lasting peace between the Guilds and the Empire seemed like a possibility for the first time in living memory. Each year, representatives and spectators would travel to the neutral meeting ground of the city Halure, and days of negations, treaties, parties and other events would take place as new friendships were sealed, and old qualms were settled. It was both good for business, and fun.
Personally, she didn't look forward to this event for the revelry or opportunities, but because it would be the first time in months she would have gotten to see her friends in months. Everyone was so busy once their quest had ended, each having they're own obligations to attend to, they had decided It was necessary to go their separate ways, but still kept up post.
She watched the evening changing of the guard stifling a yawn, then climbed into her bed, intending to get a little rest at least before rising to prepare.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to any other person within the capital, a Private sat alone, sharpening a oddly shaped knife, his plan to end the royal bloodline playing over his mind.
…
"Professor… Professor?"
"What! What do you want!" The instructor yelled as she turned away from the board she was inscribing a complicated series of glyphs upon. Her short brown hair seemed to flutter as if her harsh town was a physical emission. The student staggered as if hit.
"H-H-o…I don't understand. Without Blastia and Cores, how do these formulas have any effect to do anything?" The teacher sighed heavily, as if this question we're so far beneath her that she was insulted that the subject would even be broached.
"As I, and some of my other…peers…" she said it as if it tasted foul, "have endevered to instruct you upon, the Sidos Blastia is still a Blastia. This type of Blastia, instead of burning Aer as a fuel to cause otion or magic, it instead converts the Aer directly into the desired matter with minimal loss of actual Aer mass, thus not effecting the balance overall more than very slightly, as the Aer used reverts back to Aer. For those of you incapable of such simple understanding, think of it like this.
To make Ice, you freeze water. To get water, you melt the ice. Total water lost in the transition is minimal. The Sidos Blastia acts as the unit that converts the water to ice, and ice to water." She glared at the stuent, and after a moment, huffed loudly and continued her chalk scribbles. After abother minute her scribbles ended in a tangled mess of figures.
"Now, many of the formulas that allowed for certain magic only needed small tweeks in the absorption and distribution areas to compensate for the new amounts and processing of the Aer, and are still similar to the original. This simple spell I have inscribed upon the board should allow even of the simplest of you, "she shot a pointed glare at the mouthy one, "to conjure a flame wisp. I will demonstrait, and then you shall all try and replicate some semblance of the same." With a loud snap she unfurled a thing decretive strip of cloth from around her neck and waist, a gift from a friend, and wove simple cage of glowing orange thread around her. Symbols scrolled around the thread as the formula instructed, condensed, shaped, and regurgitated the Aer into a bright floating ball of crackling flame that bobbed in front of her. The cloth flowed back to it's resting place as the clas began to rise and attempt to replicate the effect with their own, of class issued Sidos Blastia.
…
The other staff of the Imperial College tended to keep to the outskirts of the lounge when Professor Mordio was in, but today found it empty. At Eighteen years old, she stood slight, pretty, and overwhelming. She burned with a passion and intellect few could match separately, let alone together. She was one of, if not the leading expert in Blastia, old and new, but especially new, as it had been her that had invented them, years before, when a friends life had been threatened by the very process that had allowed use of Blastia to begin with. She had few friends, but did not take kindly to anything that threatened them. Absently, she looked over the list of Teachers and bulletin board. She didn't usually, but decided to because there was nothing much to do as most of the recourses of the College were shipping out tomorrow for the presentation. She did not admit that she was looking forward to the show for anything other than the chance to show off her own prodigious power, but she slightly missed seeing the old gang.
She scrolled the names and recognized people from what used to be Aspio, before the …what did they deem it now, the Calamity?... happened. At the base was a little headed that said "Special Guest Leture: R. Sage and G. Sage on the use of Healing and Strike Magic."
She had heard something about this… Once the Tower had fallen after Duke was defeated, (they had destroyed it, as a weapon like that should not be remembered, let alone allowed to exist,) they had found an odd sort of door at the heart of the rubble. Apperently a whole other land was on the other side, similar to theirs but using funny terms for stuff. Quite stupid sounding, too. Stuff like Mana and Elves. Just plain weird. The discovery had lead more to the piece between Empire and Guilds than anything, because these strangers seemed all well and good, but one never could be too careful. Rita did not care as long as she did not have to be bothered with such non-sense, but she had seen some of the materials brought over for examination, and already saw possibilities for their use. She sighed deeply as she turned away.
Much as she was loath to admit it, she actually enjoyed the gathering of some of the brightest minds in the land, even if she was the youngest, and in her opinion, the brightest. She just wished she did not have to stay for the rest of the gathering. Sure, she got to see Yuri and the others, but she could get that done in about half an hour on the only day she really wanted to be there. But, damn it, Estelle wanted her to be there, sitting up with the Emperor, watching the stuff, and just be around her. She didn't understand it anymore after three years then she did when she was 15. She wanted to simply mark it off as Estelle being a sentimental fool, but that would have forced her to examine why she readily acceded to her desires. She sighed deeply again, remembering that after last year, she had vowed to purchase an ass cushion, because that idiot Flynn never failed to provide her with a wooden chair. She left the room and walked toward the entrance off the grounds of the Academy to the Capital. God help the vendors if she couldn't find what she needed.
…
Nor Harbor was still being flooded with ships, scooners, and private frigates even as the moon reached its zenith and began the slow steady plunge back toward the horizon. Those who had arrived earlier were camped out in the large barren clearing that had once been Emhead Hill, where they would march on the compound set around the city of Halure the following morning. The tents of the Master Guilds, Altosk, Fortunes Market, The Soul Smiths, The Blood Alliance, and Leviathans Claw, were easily the biggest and most impressive. They sat in a large pentagon, a enormous bonfire lit between the to share.
Harry had stepped up, and with a little help from some close allies, become a fairly decent leader of Altosk. The challenge of a more unified Union was handled very well with the support and skills of Fortunes Markey and the Soul Smiths. Those members of the Blood Alliance that had been loyal to the Guild rather than the old tyrant, Barbos, had done a terrific job of sorting and reforming into a respectable, and far less brutal Guild, and were again key in assisting the Merchant guilds. Gauche and Droite had emerged to take over both Leviathans Claw and Ruins Gate, and in an effort to return some of the positive association back to their fathers name, rather than the overly hostile and shady past they had due to Alexei's influence. The union may not be held together by the imposing figure it once was, but it held none the less.
The other camps radiated in ripples around this fixture, creating a sea of tents and fires. Flags and pennants bearing guild crests fluttered and snapped in the midnight breeze, showing off a wide variety of icons and garish colors. Out near the edge of the outer ring, a small camp without tents stood apart from the others in that it was not involved in the din of the community. A small flag bearing the Emerald Star that was the symbol the guild Brave Vesperia. It was a small guild, but one held in high esteem and notoriety within both the Guilds, and the Empire. It was rumored that most of the Master guild were indebted to the little guild, and they even held confidence with the Emperor personally. But no one really believed in such silly tales. Little was really known about the group, other than that the leader was a courageous warrior and also the youngest founder of a guild to be legitimized by the union, ever, at 12 years old. Dozens of most certain liars claimed to have been in guilds that had given the leader the boot, but none were believed, not even the esteemed Hunting Blades.
They were know to take on the oddest of jobs, and even refusing payment on occasion, if they judged the task to be necessary. The air of mystery helped spread the deeds, embellished wildly, of course, to all corners of the globe, and it had been heard somewhere that tales even trickled through the gate in the ruins of Aspio. But, they were also said to have a giant flying dragon, so that shows how far gossip can be trusted.
Their repute at being the ones to call when no one else could solve a problem did not fit the unobtrusive settings of four sleeping bags and a lone hound curled on a blanket sis not show anything odd about the group.
They were already asleep, ready for the coming Gathering, and business prepared for the coming days.
End One.
Hope you enjoy. Obviously I am threading in at least some of the Characters from Tales Of Symphonia, so Expect to see Raine, Genis, and Sheena, in the Next Episode. If I got some of the technicals wrong in the whole Blastia speech wrong, sorry, I'm stupid. So… Er… yeah, Thanks for watching.