Follow the Gold

Disclaimer: I don't own Unison League, which is what this story is based on. I don't know a lot about the canon of the game. I've been making up my own story as I've played. All OCs present are actual players within the game.

FIC START!

Gold...

I see it, everywhere... Golden objects of all kinds. Like curtains, flowing in the wind from the outside, or a golden kite, soaring through the sky without strings to keep it in one place.

And when I reach out for it, out of curiosity, I hear a woman's voice.

Follow the Gold, she says.

So I do. I try my best to follow it, but by the time I wake up... I never manage to reach it.

What is it? Is it money? Is it an actual gold vein in the ground somewhere? What is this gold?!

...

Deema Bluestar was tired of having to use the heaviest object they could find within their government-provided guild house to wake up her cousin, Dhalia, every damn morning. She stood at the foot of her cousin's bed before reaching to snatch the spear that was hanging from the wall and smashed it mere inches away from her actual head. It didn't leave a dent in her bed frame, as she'd been doing this for about a week now, and there was all ready a spearhead shaped mark in that exact spot.

"GAHHHHH!" Dhalia sprang right up, gasping for air. "Deema!? What the hell?! Every morning?" It took her a few seconds to catch her breath.

"You've slept well past noon since we got this place," Deema pointed at the window to remind her exactly how high the sun was up in the sky. "If we're going to make this whole guild thing work, we're gonna have to actually... Y'know, work?"

"I do work," Dhalia said. "We're pretty damn set as far as money goes."

"Money isn't how this place really works, and you know it. All money here does is go to the blacksmiths. All of the economy around here is based on the guild league and those who support it," Deema said, shaking her head. "Well, anyway, you're up now. Time to get started."

"With what? Last time we did a guild league match, we got our asses handed to us."

"Because we're the only two members right now, if you haven't noticed. C'mon. We should at least go find someone to back us up," Deema tried to be encouraging, but she didn't know how long it would take before she just gave up on her naturally lazy cousin. "If nothing else, go train or something. Get out of bed and show you give a shit about what we set out to do."

Dhalia let out a long yawn before picking herself out of her blankets and giving herself a good stretch."Maybe I should have founded the guild with my brother."

"So you'd both just sleep all day? That's... productive."

"Whatever," she grunted, shoving Deema out of her room so she could get herself equipped. It wasn't going to take long. She usually just wore the same old stuff anyway. She took her time brushing out her long, auburn hair and pulling it into twin braids. Dhalia knew it would be better if her hair wasn't getting in the way of her fighting monsters. Even so, as she topped her head with her Hime Crown, she couldn't get the voice she heard in her dreams out of her head. She didn't understand what it meant at all, even though she'd been having these dreams for quite some time. Dhalia went out of her way to make all the gold coins she could possibly make, figuring the dream meant securing their financial future. As soon as she was ready to head out, she snatched up her Gungir and headed out of her room. All the thoughts in her head was too much.

"Eat before you go," Deema said, also getting herself equipped.

"Nah, I'll stop by the meeting hall before I go out in the field," Dhalia said, closing the front door of their guild house as she stepped off their porch and headed into town.

"What the hell's gotten into her?" Deema asked as she strapped her quiver to her arm and picking up her bow. "If she didn't want this, then she shouldn't have told me to start a guild in the first place."

...

Dhalia headed up to the meeting hall, finding the entire place full of so many other league members that it was almost overwhelming standing in there. All she could hear until she got close to the merchants stands was a constant dull chatter, like absolutely everyone in the place was talking but no one was listening. She fetched her purse, ordering something she could eat before heading over to the warp crystal.

"Anyone interested in joining my guild?!" someone yelled right up next to her while she was trying to chomp on her sandwich, almost knocking her off her feet and causing the other half of the sub to fall from her hand.

"My lunch!" she gasped in horror, reaching to catch it when another hand caught it instead.

"Looks like it's my lunch now," the catcher said, looking at it. He then turned to look at her, a big grin on his face, with his fluffy blondish-brown bangs hanging in his face. "So what's on it?"

"Seared tauros meat sub," Dhalia answered, more annoyed than ever with the day so far. She'd been kicked out of bed only to trip and have some weird handsome stranger steal half her lunch! What luck! "With extra veggies."

"Oh man, now I want one," he said, handing it back to her. He walked up to the vendor and ordered one for himself. "Tauros meat's not something I get to eat every day."

"Ah... Right..." Dhalia rolled her eyes, doing all she could to politely ignore the guy who ate next to her after having ordered the same thing she was eating. She wasn't sure if she was creeped out or not by this.

She wasn't sure what to make of this, but considering she wasn't exactly happy with how the day was going, she decided to just eat silently as quickly as possible and head out. Dhalia wiped her face clean once she finished, heading over to the quests open board to confirm her next destination. There were a few open she wanted to try, so she got out a tiny little notebook and did some planning. Because of her rank within the league, there were only so many quests she could take within an amount of time. She scribbled onto her tiny pad, trying to divide her points evenly between trying to gain more gold, to increasing her rank, to training missions to increase her expertise with her spear.

"Miss?" a voice called her attention from it.

"Huh?" Dhalia lifted her head to see the same stranger from before standing there next to her.

"I think the blacksmith over there is trying to talk to you," he said, pointing over to where all the vendors were set up.

She turned to see that was exactly the case. The blacksmith came running up to her, holding up a box. "Dhalia, your order is complete," he said with a smile. "I managed to make all the infusions work like a charm..." The stranger slipped off on his own, heading towards the warp crystal to do his own questing.

"Fantastic!" Dhalia said, taking the box. She pressed on her Unison League badge, causing it to take the box into itself, placing it inside her digital inventory. "You're a lifesaver. Oh, right, what about this?" she made a motion up to the tiara on her head. "I want to take it further. Is that possible?"

"Oh- oh my..." the blacksmith said. "That'll take some rare materials."

"Give me a list."

"But, you may not be of the rank needed to go where those spawn," the blacksmith said, shaking his head. "I can't allow you to-"

She stared at him, as if the red from her hair had caused her eyes to catch fire. "Give. Me. A. List." she demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

"...yes, Dhalia," he muttered softly, taking her pad and scribbling down some details. "Be careful, please."

"Yeah, yeah," she grunted, snatching the list to read it. "King Kepasas, huh? Thanks so much, sir. I'll be back~" Suddenly, her mood turned right back to being chipper. Well, as chipper as she could be because of the day she'd been having so far. She shoved the list into her pocket and turned to head towards the warp crystal.

She noticed that the stranger that had changed the course of her day didn't take long to determine where he was going. She didn't know his rank, but how was he going to be able to do everything he wanted if he was just going in blindly? But that's when she heard the voice from her dream, like an echo that drowned out all of the rest of the noise behind her.

Follow the gold...

Dhalia took one look at her messy list from before and shrugged, tossing it behind her. She decided to run after the stranger with the hair that shimmered just like gold when standing next to the warp crystal. The crystal was still configured for wherever he was going, and she told it to take her to the same place.

The arrival into battle was instant. She landed in the front of the party line up, her spearhead in her left hand. The enemies were familiar. She'd been in here before. She thrust her spear into one of the creatures and it faded away.

"I didn't think you needed to come to the Ordeal of Light," the stranger said beside her after he had finished off another monster. "Considering your guardian spirit is none other than Luminous."

"...you looked at my profile while I was talking with the blacksmith," she didn't even have to think about it. There's no other way he could have known that.

"That is what its there for," he replied. "Your name is Dhalia Bluestar."

Suddenly she was annoyed with herself for not checking his information, but while in battle there was no access to it. Dhalia just told him that he was right, focusing on the battle in front of them.

Eventually they had gone through four waves, eventually facing off with a monster that looked very much like her guardian spirit, Luminous. But something wasn't right. Some of the details were different. Dhalia wasn't sure exactly what this was, but it didn't make sense for her to be pointing her weapon at Luminous!

The battle went just as expected. Many of their other party members through out spells and physical attacks, but the goddess before them was able to cast powerful magics to both assault the party and heal herself. It was a frustrating struggle, some party members fell against the might of Divine Luminous. A ray of light hit Dhalia and caused her to fall over. The stranger ran to stand in front of her, guarding her from a few blows.

"You don't have to do that," she said, raising her hands up to cast an Area Heal, giving both of them a rain of magical green light that soothed their wounds.

"Nonsense. I'm a paladin. I protect those around me who need protecting."

"You think I need your protection?" she snapped, using her lance to support her weight enough to bring herself to a stand. Concentrating her aura, she called forth a healing spell to numb the pains of her current wounds.

"Given the fact that this monster knocked you off your feet and sent you wailing in pain," the blonde stranger said, beginning to be irritated at her stubbornness. "I'd say yes."

"I've faced off with bigger fights than this."

"...and probably lost them, too."

"Why, you!" Dhalia turned her anger on him. "I'm a dragoon! I don't have to take your shi-"

One swift magical blow from the moon goddess while she had her attention focused on something else knocked her not only off her feet, but also completely out to boot. The stranger shook his head, giving a sigh, deciding that it would be best to at least take her back to her guild. If she didn't want him around, there was no point in trying to force it. He'd just take her to her guild mates and let it go. He looked for her identification badge, which she had tied to a sash around her waist. Her guild was the Stars of Blue. Not a guild he'd ever heard of. He picked her up into his arms as gently as he could manage, carrying her off the battlefield and back to the market.

No one seemed to notice he'd been carrying her through there. Even though the place was full of people. He made his way to the path that led to the guild houses, and through the wealthy rich ones, through the middle-line ones, all the way to the dirt ones where some of the houses were missing sections of the roof. He didn't want to seem rude and piss off what could be a potentially more stressful guild inside, so he simply just walked up to the door and rang the bell.

The door opened, luckily. There he found another young woman with a quiver strapped to her shoulder.

"Miss Archer?" he said. "Your guild mate has suffered injuries during a fight and I thought it would be a kind gesture to at least bring her home."

Deema stared down at her cousin. "All right, bring her in," she said, holding the door open. "Her room's over there. Just plop her in bed, she'll recover in a bit."

"Right, thank you," he said, giving a nod. He did exactly as he was told, carrying her over to her room and putting her down as gently as he picked her up. The room may not have been in the best shape, but it was decorated with cute things. Even if she put up defenses towards him, he didn't hate her. There had to have been some reason why she fought him off.

When he came out, Deema approached him. "Thanks for bringing her home. I'm Deema. Dhalia's my cousin. You are?"

"Ciresso."

"What guild are you in, Ciresso? I'll have to give a commendation to your guild leader." Deema expected him to say one of those big guilds, the ones loaded with money and resources, who did good deeds simply because they wanted the good favor of the community.

"Actually, I'm not affiliated. I've been looking around for a guild to join, as that's mandatory within the league rules, but nothing's really called out to me," Ciresso said, shrugging. "Most of them are so... I don't know, so arrogant that it's overwhelming. I get it, we're all doing this for money, fame, glory, but... Do we all have to be so focused on that to forget that the other people we're competing against are also people?"

"You certainly don't have the attitude befitting one of those hoity-toity guilds."

"I'd feel more at home in a crumbly mess like this place than one of those."

"...crumbly... Mess?!" Deema put her hands on her hips.

"I guess quick tempers run in the family," Ciresso said, turning to leave. "I'll get out of your hair, then. Tell Dhalia that I'm sorry I pissed her off so much. I really didn't mean it."

"You can tell me yourself," Dhalia's voice came from her room door. "I'm sorry that I got angry with you. I shouldn't have taken my frustration out on you." She was blushing almost as bright as her red hair.

"I'm not even mad," Ciresso said. "I figured there's gotta be some reason a lovely lady like you would have a trigger temper. I wasn't what put you in the mood to be set off, I was just the last thing that pushed you over the edge." He smiled and shrugged. "It's not a big deal. Though next time, you should probably do your best to stay focused on the monsters." He turned to leave, heading out the door.

When it closed, Deema stared at her cousin. "...well?"

"Well, what?"

"How'd you come to know such a beautiful stranger?!"

Dhalia turned away. "It was completely by accident."

Deema sighed. "There are some who say that nothing is completely by accident."

Dhalia started to head back to her room, when she heard the voice from her dream again. It told her to follow the gold. And there were so many ways that she tried to interpret that statement, but none of them had really been what she needed. Ciresso's hair was long and gold, which even reminded her of Luminous. Suddenly she just rushed out the door, slamming it behind her. Deema giggled.

Dhalia saw Ciresso walking the street, heading back up to the market. She followed him as fast as she could. "Ciresso!" she shouted, catching his attention.

He turned around. "Yes?" he asked.

"If you don't have a guild, that means you're homeless here."

"Indeed it does."

"Well. Our guild house isn't very nice, but..." she extended her hand to him, "You're more than welcome in Stars of Blue."

"With such a nice offer, I think I'll have to take you up on it," Ciresso said, taking that hand. "Though I've only known you a short while, I'm quite certain you and I will become quite the team."

"C'mon, then, if you'd like to get started on the paperwork for enrollment," Dhalia said. "I'm acting guild leader right now."

"You're the guild leader?!"

"Yep. I founded it myself."

"Why'd you do that?"

She didn't want to tell him about the dream she'd been having for a long time. Honestly, she was embarrassed about it. "There was something I came here to find," she said.

"And what is that thing?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't have said something."

"Ahhh."

They walked back to the Stars of Blue guild house and immediately began making Ciresso an official member.

Piece End