Chapter One
"Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable," I muttered to myself as I pushed aside branches and swatted away flies while walking through the forest. "I cannot believe this is happening. Not possible. Seriously, not cool!" I dropped to my knees, satisfied that anyone following would have given up by now, and stared up through the trees at the darkening sky.
"What the hell is wrong with me?" I whispered, thinking back on the day's events. "How could I have done such a thing?"
The sound of sirens and dogs barking forced me to my feet to continue on through the park, wishing they would just leave me alone. Just because I don't want to go to an orphanage and be forced to talk to psychologists all day every day doesn't mean I'm insane or evil, right? Isn't it okay that I'm running away?
I stopped, slightly out of breath, realizing the barking was gone again. Please let them be gone, I thought. I'd better keep going though, just in case.
A moment later, I came through the edge of the woods and almost turned around again. "What in the world is going on? Is the world insane today or something?" I muttered, seeing the expansive flat plain before me and a small city just on the horizon. This is the city. Not Australia. What. The. Hell. I turned around, but couldn't see anything over the trees so turned back around and began to march towards the town in the distance. Joy, we get to be...somewhere else! At least I'm not being chased anymore. How did I get here? What is this place? Ah, just as well I don't know. I'm sure I'll figure it out.
After a mile or so of tedious walking, I decided running would be more productive. As I reached the borders of the city, people were rushing out of the gates and away, led and guided by soldier-looking people. I wonder what's happening. I should probably leave.
"But...of course I'm not going to. I'm going to be a stupid idiot and go against the flow of all these people to see something that's most likely annihilating the whole city and in a second...okay, now, this annihilating will include me as well." No one seemed to notice me pushing my way through the crowd, muttering to myself like a crazy person.
"For the third time, what the hell." I finally reached the end of the people, only to find a giant machine fighting six people with medieval weapons and, apparently, used magic. After all, isn't that what that is? Those bubbles floating out of nowhere? And the way they're healing so quickly. And that shining lance falling out of the sky. Oh, God, I'm gonna die.
Or...maybe not. It's just a machine, right? Despite all this magic, it looks like that thing is being up these people pretty badly. So I ought to help…I sure hope it's a normal machine, because if it is, I can take care of that pretty easily.
With one hand, I opened the sack on my waist, pulled out my favorite screwdriver, and carefully sneaked toward the giant contraption. It's so big! How the hell am I supposed to get up there?
A red haired boy, only a few years older than me, ran up to the machine a few feet away, slashing at it with his sword and yelling behind him at me.
"What are you doing? You don't even have a weapon!" Well, that's not entirely true. "You're going to be trampled."
"No, I'm not. Can I get on your shoulders for a second?"
He paused in his fighting for a moment to glance back at me. "What?" He looks so bewildered. I almost feel bad. Without giving him a chance to move away, I launched myself onto his shoulders and pulled myself on top of the machine from there.
"What are you doing?" He sounded almost panicky, making me glance down to see if it was about to smash me or him.
Not surprisingly, it wasn't, so I shouted over my shoulder, "I'm alright, just let me do this really quick, okay?"
The wind was blowing an abhorrent amount of dust and dirt into my eyes. More annoyed than hindered, I lay down on top of the machine, began unscrewing part of its shell, and with my free hand pulled goggles out of my waist pack. What a pain, to get these on with one hand without knocking my glasses off in the process. There, much better. Goodbye, dirt.
A moment later, I tossed a giant piece of metal onto the ground and lowered myself into the mass of wires on the inside. Which wire? This wire? No, not that one. Not connected to enough stuff...Aha!
"Jackpot!" I murmured, pulling an all-purpose knife out of my pack and hacking away at the thick cord. A moment later, before I was done, I felt the entire contraption shaking. Is this an earthquake or this thing? All the people outside are screaming, and there's some other noise...an explosion? Guess I'd better finish this up. I sliced the last of the cord, jumped out, and gasped.
"Okay, so the world is insane today." I stepped to the edge of the fissure, watching the people on the other side as they milled around anxiously, trying to comprehend everything that had happened.
"Hey, you!" I turned to see a girl with brown pigtails, hands on her hips, standing behind me.
"Oh, hi," I said, resisting the urge to step back away from her, not really wanting to fall into the dark fissure.
"Were you the one who disabled Dist's machine?" Her large brown eyes seemed to be analyzing me as I glanced back at the machine.
"That thing? Yeah." Oh, she was one of the ones who were fighting it. I see the doll on her back now, but...how? That's not possible! It was so big before.
She grinned and said, "Good job! But now, you should go with those people leaving over there."
I glanced at the crowd of people visible through the city gate, then at her other five companions, who had slowly gravitated towards us as we talked.
"Well, I..." I looked over at the people, trapped on a piece of land that was slowly sinking even as I watched. "I want to help those people."
The redhead from before stepped forward. The look on his face as he spoke wasn't something I could quite place, a mixture of determination and worry yet somehow cheerful. "Don't worry, we're going to go to Sheridan and get a flying machine to help them!"
He sounds like a little kid who's just discovered Legos, I thought. "May I please come with you? I really want to help them. I mean, I'm sure you guys will get it done, but I just feel like I really need to see this through. Please?" Well, the two blondes look like they'll let me come. That creepy red-eyed one looks like he's about to start laughing manically at me, that pretty blue-eyed girl and the girl who I was talking to before seem to not approve of my coming, but the redhead looks undecided. Heck, I'm undecided. I saw some freaky creatures on my way here, I'll just probably get myself killed.
The redhead glanced at his companions, but, seeing that they were divided, turned to the red-eyed boy. Or is he actually older? He looks twenty-ish, but his posture leads me to believe that he's older. And the look in his eyes. Not the freaky you-should-be-scared-of-me-because-muahahahaha-I-have-red-ey es look, but the I-know-everything-so-don't-get-in-my-way look. Truly frightening, and definitely not a look that a seventeen year old would have.
"So, Jade, what do you think? Should we take her with us, just to Sheridan?" the redhead asked.
His name's Jade? Okay. Redhead seems to be the leader, and Jade is the resident smartass. Probably badass, too. This ought to be loads of fun.
He opened his mouth to speak, but before he even made a sound, Scary Giant Doll and Pigtails Girl cut him off. "But Colonel, she'll just get in our way! She'll just die and it will be all your fault and her parents will try to sue you and something and then the Emperor will be mad and-"
"Wait!" I reached forward, touching her shoulder, not wanting him to be swayed by any of those arguments. "You're wrong, let me explain. First, I won't slow you down or get in your way. I can fight for myself, and I don't intend on dying. Second, I don't have parents. My mother died, well, today, actually, and my father is nowhere to be found. I could probably find him if I wanted to, but I don't because he's an abusive, negligent jerk." I turned to Colonel Jade and continued, "It's alright if you don't want me to go with you. I just want to go because the world would be better off with one less street urchin for a week or so. Not that I would actually let myself go to such a state of poverty, but people still count anyone who lives on the street a delinquent." I stopped, realizing I had talked way too much. Oh, well. If they say no, I'm not going to die or anything. In fact, it might be better for my mental health to not be trapped with these insane people. I mean, that Jade guy hasn't changed his expression at all and it's going to make me really upset if he doesn't stop smirking, like, now. And there is no way he is old enough to be a colonel.
"It shouldn't be a problem for us to escort her to Sheridan and back. As long as we don't have to spend too much energy healing you," Jade said.
"I said I can fight for myself." Smartass, badass, and jackass. What an ass.
The pretty blue eyed girl protested, "Colonel, is this really a good idea? We have no idea who she is. She could be a spy for Van or Mohs. And she may not be able to fight as well as she says she can."
I swear, his smirk just got wider. What's he going to do, punch me to see if I can fight? I'm right on the edge of the cliff, so I'm sure he won't do anything too insane-or maybe he will. But he doesn't even have a weapon? I don't know.
"Who are Van and Mohs?" I asked.
"If you don't know, it doesn't really matter," a blond boy said, standing unnaturally far away from me and...the other women? Is he afraid of females? That's so weird.
"Okay...well, my name's Dahlia Aschere, but everyone just calls me Frost from when my mom called me cold in front of all my friends because I don't like to stand too close to people."
"Alright...Frost. That's a cool name, I guess. I'm Luke fon Fabre. Nice to meet you."
He introduced the rest of them: the pretty blue eyed one was Mystearica Grants, called Tear; Creepy Red Eyes was Colonel Jade Curtiss, of the Malkuth Imperial Forces; Scary Giant Doll and Pigtails Girl was Anise Tatlin, the Fon Master Guardian, while the boy with green hair who looked and sounded suspiciously like a girl was the Fon Master Ion, whatever the hell that was; the blonde girl who had been whispering to the Fon Master the whole time and said nothing to me yet was Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear, the longest English-sounding name in the world; and finally the blond guy, Guy Cecil, who apparently is afraid of women and may not actually be "Guy Cecil" due to the pause before Luke said his last name.
What a lovely bunch. This is gonna be, to say the least, interesting.
I bowed slightly, and said formally, "It is a pleasure to meet you. I hope we can become friends."
"Well then, we'd better get going. The land might take days to fall, like Hod, or only a few days," Guy(?) said.
"Yeah, we've got to hurry, so nobody slow us down." Anise looked pointedly at me, but I just smiled at her.
"So, ah, Frost, will you tell us more about how got that nickname?" Natalia asked.
Oh, dear. This is going to be a long walk-oh, no, run! We're running. And they're going to be pressing me about my life and...ugh. I'm tired already. "No," I replied.
A shocked look passed over her face, but she quickly swept it off, replacing it with a mildly curious expression as she said, "Oh? Why not?"
I was staring at the ground as I jogged along with them, but I got the feeling that they were staring at me. "I don't know you, and that's embarrassing and besides, kinda personal, so I don't really want to tell you."
"Oh." She seemed disappointed, but didn't ask me anything else.
Sometime around midday-my watch read 8:37 P.M. but the sun was high in the sky-we stopped to rest and eat lunch. I wonder where this is, I mused, chewing the meat of my stew slowly. A region where people use magic openly, but they have modern clothes. Well, not really modern...Huh, they look, if I'm not mistaken, like those people I saw at the park one that were doing...what's it called? Cosplay. Right. Anime stuff. Why do they look like that? I see it now, their faces, their clothes, even their bodies look like they're straight out of some manga thing.
"Is there some reason why you keep glancing around at us?" Anise asked. She peeked at each of her companions theatrically, then said, "Is there something on our faces? I don't see anything."
Stay cool, Frost, stay cool. "No, I was just thinking, some of you look familiar somehow..." I glanced at each of them, hoping someone would say, Oh, yeah, I'm famous!
"Well, most of us are royalty or famous in some sort of way...but the only person there's even a chance you should recognize is the Colonel. After all, this is Malkuth," Natalia said.
This. Is. Malkuth? Malkuth? Where the hell is Malkuth? And I'm traveling with royalty!? And other famous people? Oh, man, I'm so-o-o-o screwed. Wait, I should have thought of this earlier. Colonel Jade Curtiss, of the Malkuth Imperial Forces. And Anise said earlier that the Emperor would be mad if they got me killed. The Emperor! And the Fon Master Ion seems to be important as well...Why the hell haven't I ever heard of Malkuth before? Or a Fon Master?
"Not hungry anymore? Or just shocked that you're traveling with people known all across the world?" Guy asked, kindly enough. He wasn't trying to antagonize me like Anise was, but it was a struggle to keep calm as I realized that I may not be in Kansas anymore.
I managed a smile and replied, "Well, I'm...surprised, to say the least. I had a feeling you were somehow important but I had no idea what for."
I chuckled nervously, and to my surprise, they all did the same, glancing at each other anxiously. What do they have to be nervous about? Wait, think. Did they say-oh! Tear said something about my being a spy for...who? I don't remember. Oh, well. I'll either hear it later or it won't matter. Right now, I'm going to break this awkward silence. "So, uh," I said, standing up, "Now that we're all done eating, we should start heading out." A murmur of assent, and everyone began cleaning up the dishes. I scarfed down the rest of the stew, knowing my stomach would protest later-I was already feeling queasy from the stress-and helped clean up the best I could.
Later, when the sky was dark and billions of stars shone in the glow of the recently set sun, I couldn't resist asking anymore. Standing up from my position near the fire in the middle of the camp, I said, "Excuse me? May I ask one of you a question?" I directed the inquiry at all of them, determined to ask whoever would listen. Natalia, Luke, and Ion were already in bed, the former two seemingly late sleepers and so were sent to bed earlier to get up earlier, and the latter forced into bed by Anise despite his protests that he really wasn't tired yet. As I expected, neither Tear or Anise responded positively to my question: Anise just looked at me for a moment, scowling, and Tear didn't even glance up from her conversation with Guy, which hadn't existed before I began speaking. Guy on the other hand, looked over at me but didn't leave Tear's lecture, clearly feeling bad for me but not wanting to upset Tear(or maybe was just afraid). And that left Jade, who glanced at the others, but seeing they were all occupied, turned toward me with a sigh.
"What do you need to ask?"
"This morning, Tear had said that I might be a spy for some people. Who are those people? I'm not a spy, but I do want to know who they are."
"You want to know who Van and Mohs are?"
"Yes, sir." Sir? Why did I call him sir? Guess he's just that kind of person. And he's looking at me strangely, and it's really awkward. Oh, please say something, don't just stare at me like that. I tried to meet his gaze with the same intensity, but it was nearly impossible.
After a moment, he continued speaking as if the pause had never happened. "You're a civilian, you don't have to call me sir or Colonel." I shrugged, not trusting my voice to remain calm and steady. He blinked and said, "Van is the Commandant of the God-Generals, and Mohs is the commander of the Oracle Knights. Tear is Van's sister, and she is one of the Oracle Knights. Fon Master Ion has some sway over both of them, but-
Behind him, Ion had stood up from where he was "sleeping" and walked over us. He cut Jade off now, saying, "But Van and his God-Generals and Mohs are all acting very strangely as of late. We don't have any idea about what Mohs is trying to do, and Van is trying to make the Outer Lands fall into the Qliphoth."
He started to continue, but this time I cut him off, realizing that whatever the hell the Qliphoth was, it was important. "What's the Qliphoth?"
"The Qliphoth is essentially a sea of poisonous mud surrounding the core of Auldrant," Ion replied.
Auldrant? "The core of" would normally be followed by "the Earth", wouldn't it? On top of everything else...Oh, no, they're looking at me weird. Come up with an intelligent question, come on brain! "How is he making the Outer Lands fall? How are they staying up in the first place?"
Ion looked at Jade, who sighed and turned around to Guy and Tear. "Tear, please stop torturing Guy with your talk of supposedly cute things so Guy can explain the Sephiroth Trees to Frost."
I resisted the urge to ask what the Sephiroth Trees were, instead waiting for somebody to explain to me what was going on in this insane world. Oracle Knights, seas of poison mud, anime-looking people. Good grief.
Tear didn't even look at me as she said to Jade, "Colonel, you are perfectly capable of explaining by yourself."
Guy stared at her, wide-eyed. "Tear, you don't have to be so-" She moved half a foot closer to him, and he cut off, stiffening from fear.
Ion moved closer to me and tried to break the tension. "Why don't we just all go to bed now. I think we all need-Anise, stop!"
"You're right, Ion, you do need the sleep. Come on, let's go to bed. You shouldn't be talking to common people like that anyway."
I flinched involuntarily, not stung so much by being called a commoner but by the fact that she was going out of her way to insult me. "Anise!" Ion admonished. He turned back to me even as he was being dragged across the camp. "I'm sorry, I'm sure she didn't mean that."
Oh, I'm sure she did. Keeping my expression carefully composed, I said, "It's quite alright, Fon Master. What she says is true." I looked at Jade, not sure what to say anymore. At least he's not smirking anymore. "I'm sorry for causing all this commotion in your group. Since not everyone seems to want me to know anything, I'll guess I'll just go to bed now."
I stood up and began walking over to the other side of the camp, but someone called my name. My real name, Dahlia. I turned around slowly to see Tear standing and looking at me. "Anise shouldn't have said that. She was a commoner herself once. I still don't think you should have come with us, but it was immature for me to ignore you. I'm sorry."
"Thank you," I said, "for your apology, but I don't think you should try to apologize for Anise. If she wants to apologize herself, she will, or she's a coward." I paused for a moment, not sure if that had been the right thing to say. "So...can we start over? To try to become friends, I mean."
I held out my left hand for her to shake, and she looked at it strangely, probably about the fact that it was my left hand, but shook it politely. "It's a pleasure to be your acquaintance," she said.
I smiled, my first truly genuine smile of the day. "Same to you. You seem like a good friend, loyal and stuff."
"And...stuff?" She looked genuinely confused, but I just laughed. I wasn't about to explain how much respect she had just earned by apologizing.
"Goodnight, Tear," I said, and walked over to the farthest side of the camp, away from the fire. I needed the cold tonight, to help me think.
So, another world? That's honestly one of the most ridiculous ideas I've ever had, and I've had a lot of stupid and insane ideas for my machines, but it seems to be the only explanation. I uncurled, stretching on my back, and almost gasped once again at the sky.I can't believe there are so many stars! I've never seen so many in my life. I guess that's probably because I've never been anywhere rural. Well, until today. I certainly didn't ask for this. I wish this place was less foreign. I don't know anything about it, and I'll probably just have to pretend I'm some uneducated country hick, even though I'm not stupid and I like learning and I know how to do a lot of stuff that even these people probably don't know how to do. At least Tear doesn't hate me anymore. Now I just have to convince Anise that I'm not some stupid, naive little kid who is going to rot everyone's brains. And tomorrow, I'm going to apologize to Natalia for blowing her off. I need to make friends here, and if I don't make friends with these people, who just randomly let me travel with them, then who will be my ally? Exactly, no one. So, let's go to sleep, and be more friendly tomorrow. Goodnight, self.
Staring up at the stars, I tried to clear my mind of every thought until, after what seemed an eternity later, I fell asleep.