Right, I always meant for their to be a prologue to this, I just never meant to wait this long to do it. This should answer some wayward questions. Also it should make more sense now with the latest manga chapters. WARNING- THIS HAS MAJOR SPOILERS IF YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT UP WITH MANGA!
13 Years Prior
Black skies, light zephyrs, humidity that would make an ox sweat; these were all signs of an impending storm, one that was most appropriate when taking into account the ambience of the land it would soon rage upon. This particular land was more a city, it was a capital one to be exact. It's architecture ranged from thatched huts to concrete compounds, the eclectic use in material each representing a different fiscal background. The city itself was massive, with an equally massive structure erupting out of the ground at its epicenter.
The structure in question was a castle, and not just any castle, but one that radiated power like an active volcano with its many spires and ledges, one that left the rest of the city in a massive shadow at all times except for when the sun was merciful, and one, that harbored many a dangerous mind, who all were fixated upon one goal, one target, their neurons pulsing as one while they ran with the efficiency of an engine.
Maybe a few thousand feet or so away from the castle, a cloaked and hooded man, presumably, was making his way carefully along the streets of the city, cautious of wandering eyes and suspicious minds. He drew stares for his attire, but he had anticipated the rain and preferred not to get wet when his destination was what it was. The city stretched out on from to him like one endless bazaar, as if each different section would offer him tales untold and adventure worth embarking upon.
Catching sight of the main street, the man hopped onto the sidewalk and continued his brisk pace, not too fast as to arouse suspicion, but not too slow as to miss his appointment. He passed newspaper stands among other things as he walked by stores and peoples, finding himself on a busier road, but the newspapers were what drew his attention. Pausing briefly to inspect the papers, he proceeded to pay the small fee that would allow him to take it along and started to read while strolling, his eyes flitting over the myriad headlines.
What most piqued his interest was a rather peculiar piece of text on the back page, seeming to have been purposefully put there out of necessity and a longing to stay aloof. Still, it was technically a headline, even though it had been relegated to the post-pages with the invariably usual junk that was found there. What raised the man's interest the most was not so much the headline as the body of the story.
The title was simple enough, "Clever Experiment is a Rousing Success", and had just the right amount of vagueness to steer away the eyes of the impetuous and the arrogant, seemingly too short to interest yet at the same time too tiring to read fully. The man was not fooled though, and these standout features did nothing to sway his gaze, in fact they drew his trained eyes in even more. Similar to its title, the article itself was rather ambiguous. It seemed to talk about particular advancements in the field of genetics.
It was not the area of the man's expertise; he had many, but this certainly was not one of them. As such, it was difficult for him to read between the lines, but he was able to figure out a couple of key points. One, was that fairly recently, someone had succeeded in procreating without the use of viviparous means; an astonishing feat in its own right, and two, the operation had been overseen by the emperor himself; it was very odd that such an important man would take the time out of his life for an experiment that at first had probably seemed fantastical. The finer details of just how the experiment was able to succeed were passed over in the article, and, the man mused, even if they had been included, he would have likely not understood them. What was most striking about it was that usually any news involving the emperor was either broadcast widely over television or, at the very least, adorned the front page of the paper, never the back.
Caught up in his own rumination, the man did not notice the spear aimed at his head until he sensed it out of the corner of his eyes and had immediately moved backwards in one, swift motion. He turned to glare at the perpetrator, only to have that anger directed to realization as it dawned on him that he was standing in front of the gates to the castle; he was technically no longer in the city of Vistarion, even though it surrounded the castle. It was raining now.
He thrust his gaze from the gates back to the guard, who was adorned with the crest of the empire and had a machine gun strapped to his back. The man could not make out the guard's face under his helmet as he said with a still suspicious voice, "State your business stranger, you will find that we do not appreciate arbitrary persons loitering upon our doorstep."
The man smirked before removing his hood, "Gladly I will, but you will find that my face is enough to extradite any suspicion you might have soldier."
The guard's dubious countenance was transformed by surprise, "Oh, sir Hallow, I did not know it was you. Please forgive me for my rude behavior, but the emperor has called for heightened security as of now."
The man, known now as sir Hallow, had pleasant surprise written on his face, "Heightened security?" he repeated questioningly, "Pray tell, whatever for?"
The guard gulped a little before leaning in closer to his ear and muttering softly, "The rumor is, that something or someone has been extricated from the castle, seemingly recent too; I've never seen the sire in such distress."
Sir Hallow was shocked at this, nobody in their right mind would attempt to commit a crime right under his majesty's nose; it was basically a suicide attempt. But now, if what this guard had told him was true, then someone had attempted exactly that, and they had done so with success as well, something that should have been impossible. He realized that instead of standing outside and wondering about a paradox, he might as well continue on to his audience, "Hmm, right, well anyway soldier, I have a meeting with his majesty, one that is of the utmost importance, so I really will have to excuse myself now."
The soldier looked a little taken aback, but complied with his superior's orders, "Oh, of course sir. Musn't keep his majesty waiting now should we?"
"No, we should not." and with that, he shouldered past the slightly confused guard and eased open that gate, making it creak after years of use as he did. He entered the courtyard, beautiful in its own right with its lush gardens and magnificent fountains, and he headed for a location straight in front of him, the steps that led to the throne room that was located at the front of the castle. His feet lightly tapped on each step as he quickly bounded up the stairs, careful to not be too loud; serenity was much appreciated by his majesty.
Of course, when he stepped inside the throne room, it was impossible to stop the echoes that resounded from his steps as tried to walk in without making a sound; it was futile. When he was able to fully inspect the throne room, he noticed that there was another who was already there, someone who was not the emperor. They seemed to be conversing in low tones. The man decided to linger behind a pillar for now, intent on catching some snippets of conversation, "Brandish, I wish for you to assemble the twelve, I have urgent matters I must discuss with them."
"That may prove a bit hard your majesty, as the twelve take a bit of time before yielding to anything."
"Well, tell them it is of utmost importance and should not be taken lightly. I do not summon them frequently after all."
"I shall, and I should also warn you that Marin stands a mere 40 feet away, behind that pillar over there." Brandish said, pointing in said direction with her hand.
Marin, also known as a certain sir Hallow, cursed to himself inwardly; this did not look good. He strode forward, hands raised apprehensively, as if to mask his attempt at secrecy by abandoning it openly, "Lord Spriggan, I meant no disrespect, it is just that I saw that you had a prior engagement with Brandish here, and I simply wished to not disturb you."
The man known as Spriggan smiled gently, masking his entire ambience with that boyish smile, "It's alright Brandish," he added as the woman had made to move toward Marin, "I did call Marin here after all." he paused for a moment, looking down from the throne as he pondered on something until looking back at Marin, "What have you got for me?"
Marin smiled lightly with relief as he knew he was in no immediate danger, or so he thought, "Well your majesty, it is as you predicted. The prize you say ravenously covet, Lumen Histoire, is in fact located in Ishgar, Fiore to be exact, our spies in Magnolia were able to tell this much. You were also right when you guessed that Layla Heartfilia is the key to unlocking its power, whatever it may be."
Spriggan chuckled at this information, so he had been right all along, "Thank you Marin, I believe you deserve a reward for your troubles."
The said man leaned forward expectantly, a little bit of greed in his eyes; he was too preoccupied with the promise of a prize to notice the emperor's slight jerk towards Brandish.
This proved his downfall, as he lay dead a moment later, causing the emperor to sigh a bit, "Whew, he was loyal, but this sort of information can only be allowed to taint so many minds; I cannot have it enter so many that its potency is utterly lost."
"Your majesty, why can we not just storm the country and take your prize, surely we can do it?" Brandish asked incredulously.
"We do not have the necessary power as of now, we are still in need of more." Spriggan said gravely before adopting a cheerier tone, "However, there is a fix for that as our enemies are bound to be moving along now, same as us. I trust the infiltration spies have been recruited?"
"Yes, three boys, all 4 years old to be exact. The plan is to train them until they are around twelve years of age, at which time their memories will be wiped and they will be released upon our target area, that of Layla Heartfilia. We plan to encode a genomic sequence into their DNA during training, which will allow us to reset their lost memories. This will then let us to order them once they have been properly assimilated in Fiore." she finished as she smiled lightly; it really was a clever plan.
"Hmmm, that is all well, but what of the theft of my greatest creation, do you have any updates on that front?" Spriggan asked, making it painstakingly aware that this issues caused him much pain."
"I'm sorry sir, but... there is no news as of now." Brandish said, clearly afraid of his reaction. Surprisingly, the emperor remained calm, not succumbing to his very special condition this time around.
"Very well then," he said heavily, "I will have to deem that a lost cause for now, what with everything else that is going on."
"I'm sure something will turn up." the woman said carefully, as if she was unsure of herself. Trying to tip the conversation elsewhere she quickly continued, "Sir, what other enemies were you speaking of before?"
The man stopped his musings as sat up straighter, as if he remembered something pleasant; he laughed, "Why, Ishgar for one of course, but you probably already knew that." here he paused as a tingling aura began to develop around him; it was one of unconfined malice and excitement, even Brandish was chilled, though she didn't let it show, "The second of course... is one Acnologia."
Brandish gasped as though ice water had been dropped on her head, "Surely... you do not mean him of all people."
"I do, I built Arbaless because of him after all" Spriggan said as he nodded his head gravely. A lengthy silence approached the two, Spriggan was introspective and Brandish rather calm, if only because she did not let her anticipation show. The silence was broken by Spriggan himself as he looked up again, "I have decided that I will be traveling to Ishgar... I need to gather more information about Ragnorak. Of course, I will be coming back here to Vistarion sparingly to check up on things, but, it will be your job to impart this information to the rest of the twelve."
Brandish merely nodded, still in a daze at the turn of events, but then she remembered something, "Sire, where will you head first to begin your journey?"
At this, Spriggan truly smiled for the first time that day, and, as he stepped down from his throne, he gave her his answer, "Why, Magnolia of course."
Well, this is the prologue, as always leave reviews! Oh, I also wrote some other stories, if anyone cares to check them out. I'm sorry about the delay in the chapter, I was working on the other stories.