Hamartia

Noun: The flaw in character which leads to the downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy. From the Greek word hamartanein, meaning to miss the mark, err.

Warning: This story is 99% fiction based on head canons and little canon hints.

Arc One: Darmoor, Transcendent of Life

The prince stood in the middle of his castle's throne room, stricken and pale. Around him the remains of the former inhabitants of the palace lay strewn around carelessly, their killers having not cared or respected them enough to treat them decently even after their life was abruptly taken away from them.

Kaiser couldn't even imagine what the young prince of the High Flora was going through. To see and realize that he was the last member of his family, his race, to come back after finally managing to convince a greedy and selfish council to help only to find that his family and loved ones were murdered, to know that their killers all belonged to a branch of your race and were family in the beginning of it all.

And at the same time an overwhelming amount of guilt nearly drowned Kaiser. If only he had managed to convince the council to agree to send help earlier. If only he could have simply led a rescue force somehow and managed to stop the bloodshed before it had happened. If only . . . .

The prince screamed. Once, a yell of hysteric denial, twice, a cry of desperation, before they all blended into one agonized shriek of grief and anguish.

Kaiser watched from the sideline, hesitant to approach the prince in his suffering. While he had been in support of ending the conflict between the High and Verdant Flora when Prince Gerald Darmoor had approached the Nova to plead for their help, he still felt responsible for this. For this terrible genocide, for this ugly bloodstain on Grandis and her land.

One of the healers began to cautiously approach the keening prince, a bottle of medicine in her hand. Kaiser recognized her to be an apt healer and silently thanked her for her kindness.

That was before the pillar of light consumed the prince and blinded him, knocking him unconscious.

When he regained consciousness, Kaiser found a healer looking into his eyes.

"Oh, good," the man said crisply, "you're awake. For a moment I thought that you were in a coma."

The man's crisp, business-like tone and neutral-coloured wings contrasted sharply with his healer's robe.

Kaiser sat up. It took three tries, which was quite embarrassing, but he managed to do so without needing another's help. "What about Prince Darmoor?" he asked hoarsely, wincing at the grating soreness in his throat.

"The prince?" the healer checked something off a clipboard. "He's achieved Transcendentalism, the lucky magic-loving Flora."

"Transcendentalism," Kaiser repeated, his head moving far too slowly for his liking. "He's a Transcendent of Grandis now."

"The Transcendent of Life, too," the healer nodded in satisfaction as he signed off whatever he'd been scrawling on. "Again, lucky magic-loving Flora."

"I'd hardly call him lucky," Kaiser said, but his voice was too quiet to be picked up by the healer who had already turned away.

The prince looked the same, and yet it was as if he had changed. He appeared the same, retaining the basic features of the High Flora, and he was easily recognizable as Gerald Darmoor, Prince of the High Flora even if he was the only non-Nova in Pantheon, but there was something different about him now, in the very air around him. His aura had changed into something completely unlike his original self.

It was like the first time Kaiser had looked into a mirror after realizing that he was the latest incarnation of the Guardian of Nova.

"Greetings, Kaiser," the prince said in a quiet voice. It wasn't his usual peaceful voice or the tone that he had used when he had desperately begged the council to help his people but something like resignation. It was empty. Devoid of meaning or passion.

Kaiser tried to not dwell on that. "Greetings, Prince Darmoor. Or is it Transcendent of Life now?"

He received a hollow, meaningless smile from the newly awakened Transcendent. "Prince Darmoor will do just fine. It was my title from birth, after all, and I am who I am even after my awakening. Even if," and there was a frown on his face now, "I suppose it is odd to call myself a prince when I have no people to rule over."

Uncomfortable, Kaiser decided to ignore the last part.

The prince continued on. "Kaiser, I have absolutely no wish to impose upon you and your people any longer than I must. However, I feel uncertain of myself, and there is a conflict within my heart that clouds my judgement on my path."

"By all means, my good man," Kaiser said, slightly relieved at the change in topic, "share with me your concerns. A heart burdened may be lightened if the burden is shared."

The prince's smile was a ghost of his former smiles from the days when his people were alive and he was a gentle-hearted man who sought peace, but it was a step in the right direction. "Thank you, kind sir, but that is not a burden I cannot share. It is one I, and only I, must carry. Although, given the circumstances, you would be the one who would understand my situation best."

Kaiser didn't get to ask about his statement.

"Tell me, Kaiser, my friend, what is your opinion on the thought of being born again and again for the sake of others?"

His thoughts? He didn't care that his life was a sacrifice for everyone else, as the prince implied. As long as the Nova existed, the Kaiser would always be reborn to protect them, and it was an honour to be the one to carry the Nova Essence. "It is the Kaiser's duty," he said softly, "and I am honoured to be the one to fulfil it."

It wasn't a satisfactory response, but the prince only nodded. "I see," he said. Then he stood up and wrapped the travelling cloak given to him by another Nova a bit more tightly. It was slightly too big, but it did its job. "Then this is goodbye for now, Kaiser."

Kaiser shook the hand that was offered to him. "Goodbye, Prince Darmoor."

Something, a glint of madness, fury, exasperation, desperation, insanity, something flashed in the prince's eyes for a moment. But just for that moment before everything was hollow again. "Goodbye," the Transcendent said softly before he left.

Filled with unease Kaiser returned to his duties, trying to forget that unknown glint.

First of the many stories for an AU that I plan on writing.

EDIT: Uses same Transcendent form as Yggdrasil Wiegenlied now.