And so we begin Sideshow Saturday once again!

This chapter is set quite some time after Phoenix-fire and will contain major spoilers in case you have not read it. It was mostly intended as an explanation chapter for some of the stuff that you might not have picked up on in Phoenix-fire, but I used the opportunity to do showcase more than simply that with it.
Enjoy!

Legacy

Ilumëo POV(354 AA)
It had been nearly six decades since that eventful day. After that day, Ilumëo had had her family moved to Ilirea Castle and seen her son again with her own eyes for the first time in years. He had grown so much since she had sent him away to be fostered with her mother. It was something that just could not be conveyed properly through a mirror.

The son in question, Blöthrren, had grown into a fine young man in far too short a time. Upon his 21st birthday, he had joined the Alliance navy, probably due to her brother's influence, and had officially moved out of her protection.

At 25 years of age, he had been given commission over his very own warship. Ilumëo had been there the day that he had named and launched the ship, which was so new that the paint was hardly done drying before it hit the water.

There was nothing new about the ship itself in regards to earlier models of the same class, but it was special nonetheless. The ship, which her son would be commanding for the next eight years, would also be the very last ever built of its class.

Because of Mercury's death and the absence of any real threats to the Alliance both at land and on the sea, the entire military had been in the process of being downsized, and with no new overall lord commander chosen, there was no one to unite the military and give it a sense of purpose. It was now only a shell of its former self.

Mercury's death had affected other things as well, things that neither of the two had ever considered back then. In hindsight, it was now easy for Ilumëo to see the errors in their reasoning, but at the time, neither of them had given it much thought.

When Mercury had died, the Alliance had practically moved to a complete halt within a few years. Though there were still some submissions in new technology at the Isenberg Fares, there had not been any breaking innovation for decades, and nor had there been any scientific discoveries made since Mercury's last puzzles for the Fare had been worked.

After centuries of having been guided by Mercury on what topics to investigate and where to go from there, the Isenberg Fares had no idea of how to advance on its own. The only other major player when it came to innovative solutions, the military, had been downsized and bereft of an enemy to get an edge over, so nothing new would come from that front as well.

Even the process of moving from a feudal province system to one elected by the people, which Mercury had started more than a century ago, had been stalled by this complacency that had taken root in the Alliance.

Because though the trial period of Damocles had proved that the increase in provincial stability more than outweighed the negative effects, it did not mean that the Tribunal had been willing to push it through quickly.

Most of the Tribunal members were either closely related to or close friends with the archdukes and archduchesses that would stand to lose power once the province system was switched, so though they could not stop the process entirely, they could drag it on for as long as possible.

The mere planning process of how to begin the conversion had only just finished a few decades ago, and the conversion itself was projected to take more than a century and a half to complete. Reasons that mostly consisted of fear of change from the populace and so on, were given to explain the long time, but everyone knew what the real reasons were.

Ilumëo knew that if Mercury could have seen them now, he would be shaking his head in disappointment with a frown clearly evident. She herself would not be entirely free from the blame, because though she did have the excuse of having to try and rebuild and continue the stabilization of Albion, she should still have been able to do more.

"My lady, your son has arrived", a page told her, "he reports that the negotiations were mostly successful".

"Good, send him to my office immediately", Ilumëo replied from behind her desk.

The page left to find her eldest son and heir, leaving Ilumëo behind to once again wonder whether she was doing the right thing. Her doubts had been many, and though she had always found arguments to postpone the decision, she knew that she could do so no more.

She was getting old, and after finally convincing her son to come back to help her govern Albion after more than three decades at sea, she had continued to groom him for the responsibility of leading a nation, rather than a navy flotilla.

It would all culminate today, when she officially resigned from her post and gave it to him. And, if she did not falter yet again, she would give him a second legacy today as well. One that had belonged to her family since before it became powerful in and of its own right.

Beginning of flashbacks
Naina POV(95 BA)
Naina wandered the palace halls of The Capital in a futile attempt to calm her nerves. Her father, King Mercury Iridium, had been locked up in his quarters for nearly two weeks now, and he did not permit anyone in, not even her.

Food and drinks were placed in front of his chambers, but he had hardly touched it. Naina had tried everything that she knew; reasoning, pleading, raging and even crying, but none of it had worked to get him to come out.

Though she knew that she should not wish it, Naina still could not help but wish for the rebellions, which followed immediately after the dökkálfar people went home, to not be over just yet. After uncle Kilgharrah had been burned and her father had banished Loivissa in a fit of madness, he had been a mess, but a mess that still held a purpose.

There had still been pockets of resistance that had clung to the old Ra'zac Empire, like the isle of Atkins for example, so he had had matters to occupy his mind with. Then, when the dökkálfar people, except for those that had formed the First Sword of Damocles and their families, went home nearly a year after their victory at the Battle of Rushno, even more rebellions had sprung up to take her father's mind off of what he had lost.

By that time, it was already well-known that the colonies of the old Ra'zac Empire had been thrust into a turbulent era of constant infighting amongst everyone and their grandmother. Even now, five years after the start of the conflict, it still burned as brightly as ever, with kingdoms, duchies and whatnot rising and falling nearly on a weekly basis.

Her father had been far too busy constantly fighting rebellions in his own kingdom over the last four years to even consider trying to get the colonies back into the fold. Plus, there was also the problem with the dökkálfar leaders not exactly looking kindly upon him snatching away a significant portion of their people, which meant that any hostile actions to expand his current holdings would likely result in severe repercussions from Alalëa.

Now however, the fighting was finally over, and Mercury had not even been back in The Capital a week before he had succumbed to the major depression that he had only been able to hold at bay these last five years thanks to a sense of unfinished business.

Naina had been able to hide it from most of his advisors, which were all people that would jump at her father's throat at the slightest signs of weakness from him, by taking over the de facto governing until her father got better. If he gets better.

A human page that was out of breath flagged her down and ran to her, before he shakily said, "his highness wishes to see you in his chambers".

The boy had barely finished the sentence before Naina was moving towards her father's chambers. When she got there, it was to see two Varangian guards with grim expressions. She pushed through them and entered the chamber alone, before she shut and locked the door in case anyone thought to follow her inside.

The air in the room was stale, the room itself received no light other than what slipped past the closed curtains on the windows and if she was to guess by the look of the bed, no one had slept in it for quite some time.

Mercury was sitting in a chair close to the bed, where he was absentmindedly fiddling with the crown in his hands. It was not his and had never been supposed to be. He was in the same dirty clothes that he had been in when he had entered nearly two weeks ago.

His eyes were sorrowful and showed a tiredness that Naina had never seen in them before. When she looked at him, he looked far older and far more exhausted than she had ever known him to be. It made her fearful.

"I have finally decided on what I want to do", Mercury said in a plagued voice, as he kept turning the crown in his hands.

"And what is that?", Naina asked fearful for what he might say.

"I want to die", he answered bluntly, "I have already lived for far longer than I was originally supposed to, seen things that no one should see, been forced to do things that no one should and endured more than my fair share of burdens along the way".

"But you cannot!", Naina screeched, "this country, your people, still needs you. I need you! I do not know how I should go on without you!"

"I said that I wanted to do die, not that I was going to let it happen", Mercury said grimly, as he looked at her with those tired eyes, "you are right in that this country still needs me, lest it will fall into the same fate as the colonies, but I plan to go beyond that. If I asked it of you, would you follow me even if I declared war on the entire world?"

"I would", Naina said unflinchingly.

"Good, because once I leave this room, that is exactly what I intend to do", Mercury answered with determination for the first time appearing in his eyes, "I will unite this world and change it for the better. I owe him that much".

Naina did not need to ask who he was, as she already knew that Mercury was referring to Kilgharrah.

"I will stop at no cost to reach my goal of a world without wars being fought over such petty reasons as pride and land. I will trample over a pile of bodies so large that it will reach the sky, destroy families and if need be, commit any and all sins imaginable to achieve this goal", her father declared, "the rest of the world may hate me or they may love me for all eternity. It will not matter if I accomplish this one goal. And once I have, I will die by Loivissa's hand. I harbour no dreams of ever being forgiven by her, so this is the least that I can do as recompense for what I have done to her".

42 BA
Project Faust was nearing its apex, where it would either bear fruit or fail completely. There was no middle ground. Naina's father had begun aging again, and if his goal was to be reached, they had to stop it.

That was why Naina now found herself in a giant cellar located deep beneath the earth in a castle that was not even supposed to exist. It was why she had dozens of the most talented mages running around her and preparing themselves for the main event. It was why Mercury was now chained to an iron chair in the middle of the room, which had a ring consisting of twelve two metre high and one and a half metre thick granite blocks surrounding it.

"Your highness, I must once again advise against this course of action", the chief of the project once again tried to dissuade her father, "we have only had successful animal trials so far, and there is no way of knowing how a person of your…origin…will be affected by it. It would be safer to conduct a few human trials first".

"No human trials", Mercury said steely from his seat, "you will begin the process, and if necessary, my aide will know what to do".

Naina did know what to do, and as much as she disliked the idea, she knew that if the spirit took full control of Mercury's body, she would be able to order the fifty members of the Varangian Guard that stood spread out near the walls of the chamber, to kill him. It would not be him by then.

She herself was standing behind a granite wall with a window that had been heavily magically reinforced to allow her to watch the process, and it was from here that she saw the twelve selected casters take their places in the safety behind each of the twelve granite blocks.

"If I cannot dissuade you…", the chief of the project trailed off.

"You cannot. Begin", Mercury said in a steely tone, as he visibly steeled himself for what was to come.

Slowly but surely, the twelve selected casters began chanting in the Ancient language. Immediately after they had begun, white lines began to form between the casters and their two closest neighbours, as well as in a perfect circle that had each of the casters on its periphery and Mercury at its very centre.

Their words hung in the air long after they had been uttered and a torrent of wind began to form around the procession. In his chair, Mercury gritted his teeth with the pain obvious on his face, as his eyes turned back into his head.

It was not long before his arms and legs started shaking, and only the fact that they were chained to the chair, which in turn was bolted to the ground, prevented them from thrashing uncontrollable. Naina wanted to look away, but knew that she could not afford to, so she kept watching.

Not long after, a silvery substance started floating out from Mercury's nose, where it hovered in the air in front of his body, as if it was indecisive on whether it should escape or go back into the now still body. It was then that the spirit finally flowed straight through the ceiling and down in front of Mercury's body.

There would only be spirit, a small currently white one, as it was deemed that it would be hard enough to assert control over just a single one, let alone more. The spirit seemed just as unwilling to enter Mercury's body as the silvery floating substance had been to leave it, but eventually it was forced inside.

The moment that the spirit entered through the chest, the chanters forced the silvery substance back into the body and the twitching intensified threefold. Naina had to watch as Mercury, the man that had been her father for so long, screamed in agony and threw his head from side to side.

For unbearably long, the screaming and thrashing continued, before the first signs of crimson red began to form in Mercury's hair. It was not a good sign, and neither was it a good sign when the silver of his eyes started to turn darker and look more like blood with every passing moment.

"My lady", the commander of the Varangian Guard said nervously, but determined.

"No, not yet", Naina denied the request, "he can still pull through".

"As you wish", the commander obliged grimly.

It was not long after the exchange that fine lines that glowed red, began to spread through the skin of his body. They formed a pattern that could only be compared to the lines formed when ice cracked, and soon enough, cracking sounds did indeed begin to emerge from them.

It took only another moment before the entire body exploded outwards and was mostly hurled against the granite blocks, where the remnants shattered like pieces of glass, rather than flesh and blood. What little circumvented the protection of the granite blocks was stopped and disintegrated by a white energy wall materialising where the circle had been drawn, which was gone the moment after the pieces had impacted.

In the centre of the circle, where the chair had once been, the silvery substance was battling a red substance that was much larger than the spirit had been before it entered the now destroyed body. Matter flowed from one entity to another, turned to that entity's colour, and then flowed back again.

For a long time, none of the two seemed to be either winning or losing the battle, until finally, the silvery entity managed to envelope the red one within itself. It then shrank into a ball no larger than the spirit had been when it had first entered the room, before suddenly expanding rapidly once again.

This time however, it took the shape of a humanoid being that sat cross-legged in the centre of the circle. Slowly but surely, Naina began to see the matter turn into raw bones, before flesh began to form as well. Skin came next, and then the hair, which was its usual grey.

Soon, the body looked complete, and as if to reassure her that it was indeed so, it breathed for the first time, before it opened its eyes and stared at her. They were the colour of blood.

"We still have some work to do", Naina declared with a sigh.

Arucane POV (36 BA)
It had only been a few years since her mother had let her take over as Lord Mercury's aide de camp, and though she had shared with Arucane everything that she found to be of importance, Arucane had still felt unprepared when the red cracks had begun appearing on Lord Mercury's body.

Lord Mercury had bluntly and unconcernedly told her what was most likely happening to him. His new body, which he had since been able to regenerate the right eyes in, was beginning to be taken over by the spirit within him, and he therefore had to shed it and create a new.

That had been a week ago, and Arucane and a contingent of Varangian guards had been camped outside his locked chambers ever since then. They were waiting for him either to emerge as himself or emerge as a shade and be killed on sight.

The door creaked and Arucane sucked in a breath as a form exited the room. It was the same as the one that had entered it, minus the red cracks, but the look in his eyes was one of utter exhaustion.

"I am good for now. All but Arucane are dismissed", Lord Mercury announced, and watched as the soldiers slowly left, before he turned to Arucane and said, "walk with me".

The two began a leisurely walk down the halls of the palace, and for a while, no one spoke. Arucane wanted to say something, but did not know what, so she kept silent.

"Using Its power apparently speeds up the process of the body being corrupted", Lord Mercury finally broke the silence, "I will have to be more careful in the future as to when it is absolutely necessary to rely on It. This also means that I will have to begin consuming food again, as maintaining this youthful body solely with Its energy puts too much strain on the body. I will also have to make sure not to be injured in the future, as Its healing of my body will likely put it at even greater risk of corruption, not to mention the other unfortunate implications. If I do all of this, I might be able to extend the usage of each body to around 70 or 80 years".

"I see", Arucane mumbled. It would certainly help if he started consuming food again, as there was already rumours going around the palace about the matter, "but why so many precautions? Even a 20 year expendability of your current body would still be a good deal if all it takes is a week's solitude to build a new?"

Lord Mercury stopped dead and looked at her tiredly, "each time I have to build a new body, I have to wrestle with It for control yet again. The first time, I was only barely able to win, and this time, I had to sacrifice part of my soul to It in order to win. Next time will be worse".

"Oh…", Arucane did not know what else to say.

Lord Mercury looked at her sadly, "I need you to make me a promise. I need you to promise me that if I ever get too corrupted and start to show signs of leaving the path that I have chosen, you will be there to kill me before I get out of control".

"I do not think that that will be necessary", Arucane commented highly uncomfortable.

"You MUST promise me, or else I shall find a new aide that will", Mercury demanded.

It took a while before Arucane was finally able to say the words, but when she did, it came with the same steely yet sad resolve that she saw in his eyes, "I promise to kill you if you ever weave off your chosen path".

"Good", Lord Mercury said with a slow nod, before he began to walk again, quickly followed by Arucane, "by my will was this thing summoned, and in my despair shall I bind It".
End of flashbacks

It had been a long time since her mother had shared with her the most important memories of the aides before Ilumëo, and with her passing, Ilumëo was now the only one left in the world that knew. Even Loivissa did not know all the circumstances that had led to their inevitable last encounter.

The question then was whether she should let this knowledge die out with her, or if she should pass it on? A knock at the door broke her out of her musings before she could make a decision on the matter.

"Hello mother, you sent for me?", her eldest son said.

"I did, Blöthrren. Take a seat", Ilumëo nodded towards the chair in front of her desk, which was soon occupied by the man that would be archduke come the morning. She looked at him with folded hands, studied him, before she finally asked, "tell me, do you know the creed of our House?"

"The old or the new?", he asked confused at the simple question.

"Both", she answered.

"In service to the realm", he first recited the old one, "and We do not forget", he completed with the new one that Ilumëo had introduced after she had taken office.

"Good, now tell me, which of the two would you consider most important?", Ilumëo asked carefully.

Her eldest son took a moment to think about his answer, before he said, "one symbolizes our devotion to the realm, an imaginary size that could mean anything, while the other implies that we will not forget what brought our family here. If one was to serve the realm, one would also have to remember what the realm is supposed to be. Is that the right answer, mother?"

"There is no right answer", Ilumëo recited a lesson that Mercury had drilled into her when she was still young, "if I asked you to carry a heavy burden for the rest of your life, a burden that you had to promise me only to ever share with your heir when the time comes, would you do so? Would you accept the Uluth family's legacy?"

"I am already about to inherit your legacy?", Blöthrren said confused.

"You are about to inherit my legacy, not this family's", Ilumëo corrected him, "you grew up in this castle and take for granted that this was not always our purpose. We used to have a very different one and a very different legacy".

"Yes yes, I know that this family used to be the aides of Mercury Iridium, the most powerful, wise and cunning person to ever walk the planet", he said sarcastically, "but he died of an illness over half a century ago, so why bring it up now?"

"Will you make the promise?", Ilumëo demanded to know.

Her son finally seemed to get that she was deadly serious about this, and after a short while of considering what she was demanding of him, he accepted the terms and made the vow in the Ancient language.

"Will you now tell me what is going on?", he asked annoyed.

"Mercury Iridium did not die of an illness. He died at the hands of his lover, as per his plan", Ilumëo said and could not hide the grin that formed on her face as all colour nearly vanished from Blöthrren's face, "I told you that we used to have a very different purpose, and to best show you that, I will now show you the legacy that I, my mother, her father and all the aides before them accumulated over the years".

It took years for Blöthrren to come to terms with all that she had shown him, but on her deathbed, he leaned down and whispered into her ear, "We do not forget". Only then did she know that she had made the right choice.

Hope this clears up some of the mysteries of Phoenix-fire(which I have to admit, might have gotten a little out of hand), and if you want to know more or there are other question regarding the series that you want answers to, feel free to write me. Though do not ask for the fate of Loivissa, as that will be revealed on the next Sideshow Saturday.