Prologue
In the heart of the transitory lands, a duel to decide the fate of the world takes place. A champion of ash and the soul of the lords do battle for the linking of the fire. The fight is long, but at last a final blow is struck, and the Soul of Cinder falls. Their journey over, the champion of ash steps forward to link the flame…
The Hunter's Dream, a place of refuge and safety, now lay wreathed in flames. In its ever growing cemetery, master and student clash over a difference in morality, and in the end only one can truly be freed from the nightmare with their death. It is not a glorious battle, and as Gehrman fades from the dream, the young hunter sheds a tear of regret. When it is done, the Moon Presence descends upon them, to forever seal their fate…
Grimm are rampaging through the streets below, White Fang are attacking in droves, and the Altesian forces are scattered or turned hostile. Ruby Rose races towards the top of Beacon, Jaune's message filling her with dread. She will not let the people responsible for this take another friend from her, not if she can just get there in time. But when at last she reaches the top, all that awaits her is the sight of Pyrrha Nikos burning away, Cinder standing over her. Deep down, a power never before felt rages within Ruby, and as she cries out in grief, it all comes surging forth in a brilliant light…
Silver eyes. The First Flame. The end of a dream. Three different events, wholly unrelated, but when the threads of fate align…anything is possible. Even the end of the world. Or, perhaps the start of a new one.
The sky is dim when she awakens, not that the Firekeeper ever remembers seeing a sky to begin with. Still, it is an unusual sight nonetheless. Slowly, feeling returns to her body, and she begins to rise. When at last she makes it to her feet, she is unnerved to discover that it was in fact a coffin she had been laying in. Not far away, there lies several others, all covered in ash. In fact, everything she can see is covered in ash. The ability to see had long since been forbidden to Firekeepers, but the reasoning as to why remained a mystery. No matter, now it was more important to find out where she was, why she was here, and what was going on. The train of thought made her pause, never knowing herself to be so willful in her thinking.
"What's gotten into me?" said a woman's voice she didn't know.
The Firekeeper was alarmed to hear that she had company, then further disturbed upon realizing that the voice had come from her own lips. Looking around, she noticed a small stream running nearby, remarkably clear compared to the ash covered earth around her. Once at the stream, she found herself gazing at a mature woman with platinum blonde hair done up in a bun, with bright green eyes and strange little panes of glass affixed to some contraption on her face held over them. Her apparel was largely the same as it had once been, only now her shoulder cape had a distinct interior purple lining.
"Something is wrong. Something is very wrong. This is not my face, or at least it should not be, but then, why does it feel as though this is how I am supposed to look, and my clothes are the true oddity?" spoke her reflection.
While the Firekeeper warred internally over what should and should not have been correct about her form, the sound of heavy footsteps crunching through the ash sounded behind her. Alarmed, the Firekeeper turned around. Standing a few paces away from her stood another woman, this one far younger in appearance. She wore clothing befitting of a young girl's doll, and the brightness of her pink bow, her red hair, lime green eyes, her freckled face, and generally everything about her seemed to further her doll like image. If that were not enough, the clearly symmetrical and abnormal lines on her hands made it clear that this woman, nay, this girl was not human, but rather an automaton of sorts. The girl smiled happily at her upon finding she'd been acknowledged.
"Salutations!" the girl spoke in a sing song voice. "Who might you be?"
"….I am a Firekeeper." The woman replied after a time. "And, what of you? You do not appear to be human."
"That's correct. I am a doll, set here to help the good hunter however I can."
The automaton's words reminded the Firekeeper of her own duty.
"Just as I am to aid my champion of ash in whatever way is necessary. It seems we share a similar burden."
The girl nodded in understanding.
"It would certainly seem so. But this doesn't feel right, for some reason. I think that I am meant to be taller, and not nearly as bright. Even the way I speak seems foreign to me."
"So it's not just me. Doll, I believe something is wrong with the world, not just the two of us. Take a look around."
The woman indicated a large structure of black brick, with a large bell at the top of a massive tower standing a few dozen steps up the ash covered hillside.
"That is Firelink Shrine, where I carry out my duty. That much is clear to me-"
She then turned in the direction the automaton had come from, and took note of how the ashen hillside morphed into a field of pale flowers, with headstones interspersed throughout, ultimately leading up to a neighboring hill with a small wooden structure at its top, a pair of fountains next to it.
"-but that building, that entire hillside has never existed before now. I do not know it, nor do I know of it."
"Ah," the girl began, stepping alongside her. "that is the Hunter's Workshop, the hill is part of the Hunter's Dream. At least, all the land not covered in ash is a part of the dream. That is where the good hunter may rest on their journey, where I attend to them."
"And before now, you'd never heard of this place, had you?"
"No, I had not."
The two of them went into thought. They were very alike, but also different. Their roles, their homes, their purpose was much the same, but they both felt far different than they should. Their worlds were not supposed to connect like this, they were likely not even supposed to know of each other's existence. So their worlds had somehow become one, that much could be inferred. But what of their appearance? It was clear that neither the Firekeeper nor the Doll looked the way they should. In that case, there were only a few major possibilities.
"Doll, do you recognize my face? Does it strike a chord with you at all?" the woman asked.
"No, it does not. Actually, I was just about to ask you the same thing."
"I'm sorry, but you don't look like any unkindled I've ever met."
"Nor do you resemble any of the hunters I have cared for."
"Then if you are not of my world, or yours-"
"Then we should consider the possibility that, however unlikely-"
"There is a third world that has merged with ours."
Maybe there was another possibility, but at that moment, it was the only one that made any sense. A third universe, alien to the both of them, had merged along with the two of theirs. It would certainly explain their new bodies and mannerisms. Who was to say they didn't actually know each other, and would just remember in time? But for now neither could really say.
"Well," the Firekeeper began. "regardless of our circumstances, the fact remains that we are stuck like this for the time being. But how did this happen?"
The Doll looked to be in thought already on the matter when she returned her attention to the woman.
"What was the last thing that happened before you awoke?"
"I…I was watching my champion, they had just finished defeating the soul of the lords of cinder, and were about to link the fire. It is the most powerful artifact in our world, and each time it is kindled all will reset."
"The same could be said for me. My hunter had just bested Gehrman, the first hunter, and was about to be embraced by the old one that created the Hunter's Dream."
The Firekeeper rubbed her temples and pressed the spectacles on her face upwards, her face contorting in frustration and her head aching with frustration.
"So our worlds reset at the same time, and somehow, a third world was drawn in. This is utter madness, but I can't think of any other way to explain it."
Frowning, the Doll felt something close to frustration herself as the sheer ridiculousness of the situation set in. For some reason it really didn't sit well with her, as if such a thing was wrong on every level. But even with this mounting irritation, the fact remained that something had to be done about this situation. She did not desire to remain in this vastly altered state, nor did she believe the Firekeeper grinding her teeth nearby would like to stay as she was. But how to solve this? Neither of them seemed to possess the ability to change the very fabric of their reality, and neither had any purpose beyond serving their respective champions. Speaking of which, she had yet to receive a new hunter, and Gehrman had not returned to his post. There was no one else around but the two of them, so no 'champion of ash' as the FIrekeeper had called them had arrived yet either. That in itself was a problem. Without their champions, how were they to know of the outside world? How were they to fulfill their purpose? How-
"Listen, Doll, I have something to say concerning our situation." The woman spoke suddenly, breaking the girl from her thoughts.
"I believe, that the best way to solve this problem, is to recreate the events that led to our being trapped here to begin with. Perhaps we might become unstuck, as it were."
The Doll processed this.
"I understand, but there is still a great problem. I require a good hunter."
"And I a champion of ash. With those we swore to guide, we could unravel the mystery as to what has befallen our worlds, perhaps we might even save them. But to do that, we must have warriors, fighters, sorcerers, scholars, heroes who can face down the unknown and persevere in the darkest of times. I do not know how a hunter is called upon to your world, but in mine…"
She and the Doll turned to the bell atop Firelink Shrine.
"When the bell tolls, the unkindled will rise, and so too a champion of ash. It may even bring forth this hunter you speak of as well. In any case, it is worth a try."
Unable to form a solid argument against such an idea, the Doll nodded in agreement, and joined the Firekeeper in ascending the tower. Once at the top, the two shot each other one last look of hesitation, then rang the bell. As the Firekeeper covered her ears, forgetting in her excitement the volume of such a large instrument, the Doll peered over the ledge at the cemeteries below. For a moment, all was still. Then, at last, one of the coffins in the ashen hill slowly slid open. At the same time, a hand shot out from in front of one of the headstones in the field. From the coffin, a small young woman with hair of snow garbed in fine white cloth and brandishing an ornate straight sword arose, ash falling off her as she opened her bright blue eyes. In the flower covered field, a taller, almost beast like woman of raven hair topped with feline ears garbed in a simple grey coat and pants clawed her way out from the earth, amber eyes wide as she gasped for breath. And so, the two caretakers gazed upon their new charges.
A snow white champion of ash.
And a wild black hunter of beasts.
A/N: And that's how it begins. I know some of you are expecting me to go back to doing Spider of the Stars, but I'm sad to say that I've really just lost all interest in that one. So if you followed it, I'm very sorry.
For those who are new, I welcome any questions and concerns you have about how this new story will go, what sort of rules will change, all that stuff.
Hope you enjoyed the beginning! Please be sure to review, it really helps me know if I'm doing a good job or not. Till next time! Dark Novelist out.