A/N: So, I'm back, after several months of trying and failing to recover the documents of my old stories that got lost when my last laptop died. But I'm gonna be saving the rest of the A/N for the end. So I hope you enjoy.

Prologue

The land of Fiore, once known as a kingdom of peace and magic, had fallen. Not to invaders with hostile ambitions or anything of the sort, but rather to a civil uprising, one that demanded that peace be achieved through strength and victory in battle, so that the nation would not suffer as it did in the past during the Alvaren invasion. Now in the year X847, Fiore has become the most powerful military force in western Ishgar, as the nation's mages had been subjugated by the state with many of the legal mage guilds being ruled directly by the government and their appointed Guild Masters.

But with the subjugation of the guilds, the mages of Fiore grew more and more irritated with the state of the nation and many fled to join what Fiore would call a new breed of Dark Guild that opposes the state and would go on to lay the blame of many of the nation's problems solely on them. But not all guilds were subjugated or turned dark and Lucent Knights is one of those few guilds.

August 20th, X847

Two figures stood atop the stone walls, looking over the parapet and out to the western ocean, the red sun dipping down below the horizon, concern and stress very visible in their eyes, even as the cool ocean breeze blew over the castle wall and through their hair as the squawking of seagulls could be heard all around them.

"A decision will have to be made soon, Master," the taller, male figure announced, "The Prime Minister is not a patient man and he will use any excuse to bring us under his thumb."

"I know Mordekai," the smaller, female figure sighed, "It's just difficult to deal with that man. I can't tell him no, but I can't let him feel like he can just push Lucent Knights around either. He'll get too many ideas in his head if we just bend the knee and do as he says."

Mordekai looked down towards his Guild Master, a small hint of pride visible in his expression, "If it means anything, I believe that you're right to think so. Caution is vital in this day and age."

"Right. Especially after that whole Knights Harrowing fiasco. I said too many of the wrong things at the wrong time and that cost us far too much," the Guild Master said, turning around, away from the sea to look up at the guildhall behind her.

"It could not be avoided. They made their decision to leave and fight the Prime Minister. There was nothing that could be done to stop them."

"I'm not so sure… If I had been a better leader, if I had been more understanding, more willing to stand up for the guild when it needed me most…"

"Stop talking like that, Aliah," Mordekai interrupted, turning completely towards the woman and placing one of his armored hands on her shoulder, "It will do no good to dwell on such negative thoughts. Focus on what you did right, how you can learn from your mistakes and improve on them. By doing that, you will be doing the best thing that you can for the guild."

"This is why I always say you would be a much better guild master than I could ever be. You're so much wiser and stronger than I am," Aliah stated as she looked up at the man in front of her, her dark red hair blowing behind her in the wind, "Why did my mother choose me, her bastard daughter, instead of her strong, loyal brother that everyone already respected?"

"Aliah, she chose you because she knew that it would be what is best for you and for the guild," Mordekai explained, as he had many times before.

"But is that what you think is best for the guild?" Aliah questioned.

"It is. You have already done what I would be unable to do. I would have lost the guild by now to civil war if I had been Guild Master and we would all be dead or part of Knights Harrowing," Mordekai said as his blue eyes looked into her gold ones, "You are the only one who can lead the guild through these troubled times."

All Aliah could do was look up at her uncle, shocked that he would say that, and a bit embarrassed as well, but she could feel something bubbling up inside her akin to pride and confidence.

"Well, if you really believe so, I think we have a guild that needs running in there. I'm sure everyone's starting to get rowdy now," Aliah stated, a small laugh rising in her voice as she thought of her mage's antics.

"Of course. And we need to make sure morale is high as well," Mordekai added, "Blood Moon will be upon us very soon."

"Right, just another thing the Prime Minister is happy to blame the mages for and make the mages deal with," Aliah said as the two turned and began to walk back into the guildhall.

A/N: Right, well there's the prologue and I'm sure you've got a few questions.

Credits:

Aliah Merle – Dreadburner94

Mordekai Norwood – Dreadburner94

First off though, special thanks to MyDearWatson, Origm2012 and The Impostor for letting me bounce ideas off of them a bit while setting this up.

But anyways, yes, I live! And I'm hopefully back into writing now that my life has settled down a bit now. I am going on vacation on the 29th though, so I'll hopefully have a lot of free time for the next week or so. But as for my other stories, due to circumstances out of my control, all but the Pergrande Project are essentially on hiatus cause I lost all my documents for them and the Project was something I started writing with my current laptop. But chapters should become longer and more frequent as I get back into the feel of things.

Regarding this story though, this is an SYOC that takes place over 50 years after the end of Fairy Tail in a rather dark setting overall, as the world is in a state of unrest, as is the guild.

Regarding submissions though, you can find the form and additional rules and information in my profile. ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE SENT IN THROUGH PMS! The reason being that I need to be able to contact you if I have any questions, need things fixed or changed and so that your character is not completely on display for everyone to see and know everything about right off the bat. As such, any characters submitted through reviews will be ignored.

Anyways, thanks for checking out the prologue and having interest in the story. I hope you enjoyed it.

Your host,

Dreadburner94