"All students of the Ashford Academy Annual Fieldtrip, please follow your respective instructors and stay close. We don't want to lose any of you, now would we?"
The cheer was evident, even masked by the buzz of the loudspeaker. Brynne Clavet smiled softly. Encased in the sheer excitement exuded by the entirety of the student body, her spirits had been thoroughly lifted. Dad would have wanted you to be happy, right? she asked herself. Even so, it was getting to be a heavy burden. Besides this, she was determined to enjoy herself. It was a fieldtrip, anyway. How often did she get off school campus? Not all that often.
Every year, Principal Milly Ashford was determined to give the students three days of absolute nothing once spring began to appear. This nothing manifested itself as a set of activities, going from a festival, to a fieldtrip, to a school dance. It was the second day of festivities. This year, Ashford Academy was to visit the Royal Mausoleum, having been converted to somewhat of a museum when Empress Nunnally vi Britannia assumed rule seven years prior.
The Mausoleum itself was a spectacle to behold. Gleaming white marble as far as the eye could see; the careful handling of the presentation made it difficult to believe that it's conversion into a monument often visited by tourists wasn't the least bit morbid.
"Bry, snap out of it!"
"What…?"
Katie cocked her head to the side and giggled. "We have to get going, silly goose. Don't want the teacher on our case, do you?"
Pursing her lips, Brynne nodded. "I guess you're right." Even so…
Brynne was naturally anti-social, never one to engage in conversation willingly, or go out on a limb for another person. Her negativity towards her peers was a heavy, easily detectable aura that translated onto the other students as pretentiousness and arrogance, when in truth it was merely the unwillingness to confront. Despite this, a young and rather cheery first year student named Katie Hapsburg had insisted on tailing her throughout the school, campus, and even to her own home. Unable to turn the girl away, a friendship began to form, even if one-sided.
The class seemed to progress in a dull unison, every student more preoccupied with each past emperor's respective 'bling' than the actual relevance that they had to history. How dreary, it all was. Every single one of them was renowned for military prowess, or cunning on the battlefield. Was no one admirable for diplomacy?
Katie tugged at her arm, bringing her away from her thoughts. "Are you alright, Bry?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowed with worry.
"Yeah, it's alright," Brynne responded. "We're almost to the end of this exhibit, right?" The Procession of the Emperors. Katie nodded.
Then, the young girl got a mischievous look in her eyes. "I heard that Her Royal Majesty Nunnally vi Britannia closes the Mausoleum every anniversary of her brother's death." Katie's face was pulled up in the grin of a gossiper, proud and secretive, as if the information that she shared was bad in the hands of the wrong person. This much wasn't true. Her nugget of knowledge was well known.
Brynne frowned. "What of it?" she asked, only to receive a passive shrug. Just a ploy to pull me out of this funk, was it? So caring, a gentle soul in truth. After receiving no response, she smiled softly. "Can you blame her? If anyone in my family died, even if opposing me…" she trailed off. Katie winced.
"You're dad's only just died, right?" Katie asked, her expression that of concern. The question was received with a nod. One of the first attacks, staged by opposition of the current Empress, was to cause large leftover supplies of sakuradite to explode, catching countless civilians in the blast. Brynne's mother hadn't spoken a word since the day she and her daughter received the news. It was one of those things that couldn't be assessed within the first weeks. It sank into the subconscious and tore a person apart.
The students were talking to each other a little louder by now. As the tour slowly came to a close, the strictness of the teachers would wane as the impatience of everyone else grew. It was a long walk, covering so many dozens of emperors.
At least, it had been a chance for the students to get out of not only their school, but Japan as well. All the way back to the staple of the Britannian Empire, right near the remains of the Holy Capital Pendragon. All around the crater, a city was growing. However, no one dared to even set food within the Britannian Ground Zero. It was dreadfully superstitious, but never the less, it was how people sought comfort in things: avoidance.
And, finally, they reached the end of the Mausoleum. "There it is," Brynne muttered. "The tomb of the 99th Emperor."
"Eerie, isn't it? He died only seven years ago."
"His tomb is the only one without decoration." Besides this, it was still grand. The tomb was a large wall of marble, engraved with elegant, intricate patterns. On both sides of the mural were the dual entrances, and behind that lay the actual resting place. Brynne took a good, long look. What a reckless man, his elaborate scheme ending so badly. He had the world on a string and lost it within months.
Katie looked over the mural. "It's exquisite, though. To be buried in a place like this? Oh, only a luxury belongs to those of royal blood!" She swooned dramatically and leaned against her companion, who frowned.
Brynne pushed her friend away. "It's not all it's cut out for, I'm sure." One last look at the tomb, and they would be back on a jet to school. The tour guide continued droning on about history that everyone already knew. Many of the students were even within the vicinity of the famed events. Never the less, it could be so quickly turned into one elaborate tale, and was.
Within the dark of one of the dual entrances, something glittered. Biting her lip, Brynne began to move through the crowd. Startled, Katie grabbed onto her arm.
"Where are you going?" Katie whispered urgently.
"There was something, back there."
"…Decoration?" Her friend's tone became a little more frantic. The tour guide finished his speech. The crowd of students began to move.
Brynne huffed. "There is no decoration on this tomb."
"So? I-I mean, Bry, we're not allowed to go back into the tomb!" Katie gave her friend one last desperate tug, but Brynne wrenched her arm free and ran off. "Wait!"
The first thing that Brynne noticed about the tomb was that it was dark. Impossibly dark. Unnaturally dark. An eerie chill sank into her bones, her uniform doing little to help. It took several moments for her to make out the faint line of the marble sarcophagus. Within it lie the remains of Lelouch vi Britannia. The entire thing was surreal.
Something on top of the very sarcophagus reflected light, nonexistent light, and disappeared. Squinting against the darkness, Brynne moved forward slowly, her arms outstretched. She would just run her fingers across the marble lid, and if she found nothing, she would leave. It seemed logical enough.
Her fingers touched the heavy stone lid.
"Awakened me so soon?"
Blue. Orange. Green. White. Dark. The faint sound of an explosion in the— light glinting off of a mask. Flooding feelings of elation, of pain. Blue. Orange. Green. White. Dark. Faces smeared with blood against— cheering of names, victorious. A strange, foreign symbol in the distance. Falling through an unimaginable void.
Brynne fell back onto the ground, her head reeling. She scrambled to her feet.
"Bry, are you alright?" Katie asked, concerned.
"What?" Soft sheets rustled between her fingers. There was a plain ceiling, walls elegantly painted, and light cast about the room. "I'm at the hotel…"
"Well, duh," Katie snorted.
Strange. Brynne slid off of the bed and walked slowly over to the window. It was dark out, small glittering lights of windows contrasting against the night sky. Thunderclouds loomed ominously over the city, streaking the window with water. Brynne's gaze narrowed.
"We didn't go home, I'm guessing they postponed our return due to the storm?"
Katie blinked, rather confused. "Yeah, they said so on the bus."
"I guess they did. Well, anyway, I better get to bed." She pushed the day's experiences to the back of her mind. Whatever that was, she would look into it tomorrow.