Dawn of Balance
Life is a matter of balance. Order and chaos are both necessary, like the two halves of a whole. Without the chaos and darkness of the night that is finished and the order and light of the day that is to come a dawn cannot exist.
Disclaimer: I am not Intelligent Systems. I do not own Fire Emblem. End of story.
Fence Out the Darkness
Although the matter of Pelleas's apprenticeship was settled and the boy himself was beyond delighted to have someone take an interest in him, Sephiran did not feel completely at ease. He still felt as if something were missing, as if he had left something critical undone.
Cartus was exchanging a few remarks with Mrs. Gamel, two business owners just discussing their work – apparently Mrs. Gamel still ran her late husband's merchant business. Avyn was crouched down, holding Pelleas's Worm tome open and explaining various aspects of it as Pelleas pointed to runes and illustrations and babbled questions. Ellie was clearing away the tea things with quiet efficiency.
And Sephiran was standing off to one side, ignored, one hand on the strap of the bookbag slung over his shoulder, frowning slightly. What was he forgetting? Something was nagging at him, disrupting his train of thought and irritating his magic like a gadfly demon, an infernal pest conjured up by summoners to torment their enemies. What was causing this? Thanks to Ashunera's blessing, he usually recalled any detail of his extraordinarily long life without too much of a fuss.
Suddenly, it struck him. He had not forgotten anything at all.
Dark magic. So that is what is bothering me… Sephiran closed his eyes, trying to pinpoint what exactly lurked on the edges of his range of perception.
Something fueled by dark magic was watching, perhaps even sending little tendrils through the house in search of its prey. It was subtle, oh so subtle and faint. It did not wish to be noticed. It tried to hide its presence, passing itself off as a momentary headache or an unpleasant smell. Most would buy that lie and be none the wiser. Even experienced and strong magic users like Cartus and Avyn would suspect nothing further. In fact, used to dark magic and practicing it daily as they were, a little whiff of dark magic in their presence would not be by itself something to alarm them.
Sephiran, however, was still a newcomer to dark magic. Its raw energies, its erratic impulses, its smell and feel – none had yet become second nature to him. His heron nature still instinctively viewed it as something alien and chaotic. Maybe he no longer could read hearts or sense the presence of evil as he once could, but he still knew hostile magic when it was near.
He straightened, his hand falling from his bookbag strap to hang loosely at his side. He would have liked nothing more than to whip out a light tome and blast the hostile magic into smithereens, as un-heron-like as that might have been. He did not doubt for a moment that the hostile magic had approached this place in search of Pelleas, and he would not let it touch the child.
Still, blasting it with a light tome would alert whoever responsible for the hostile magic to his presence. They would learn that he could sense even such subtle magic and might resort to other, more nefarious methods. They could infer from his actions that there was something here he wanted to protect, perhaps that very something they were searching for.
No, it would be best to fight subtlety with subtlety. No blasting with light magic today.
Sephiran was a little relieved that he could make that decision without feeling too disappointed. When he had he looked forward to blasting evil with high-grade light magic so much? He had changed more in the twenty-odd years since he left Goldoa than in all of the centuries he had spent cooped up in a tower there.
Too much has happened since then. If no one else is left to bring order out of chaos, then I must do so, heron or no heron.
His footsteps almost as soft as a cat's, Sephiran walked over to where Avyn crouched, Pelleas sitting next to him. Avyn glanced up as Pelleas happily flipped to the next page in the tome.
"Something wrong, Master Sephiran?" he asked.
How should he explain? Sephiran had no desire to offend either Cartus or Avyn by implying that they were too weak or unskilled to sense hostile magic when he could.
"I thought I caught a whiff of dark magic just now," he explained in a low voice, going down on one knee on Avyn's other side. "It might have been nothing, but…"
"Not one of us?" asked Avyn.
"I doubt it."
Avyn pressed his lips together, nodding absently as Pelleas traced a rune with his finger and announced, "This one looks like a purple worm!" Satisfied with even this meager response, Pelleas tried sounding out the word. "Ba… baaaa… bash? No, ba…"
"You don't think Izuka could have found him this quick, do you?" whispered Avyn.
Sephiran lifted his shoulders in a little shrug. "You know more of his capabilities than I do, Avyn."
"And I don't know everything about them," the young dark sage muttered grimly. "Do you think there is cause for alarm?"
"I would rather be safe than sorry," said Sephiran. Serenes and Misaiah still formed too fresh of memories in his mind to see another smoking crater of fire and death left behind by otherworldly dark magic. Reaching a bit of his magic into the purely spiritual realm, he poked the space occupied by Pelleas in the material world.
Olus, he called. Olus, wake up.
In some immaterial plane of being, yellow eyes blinked open and stared at him haughtily. A spirit never sleeps.
Sephiran lifted an eyebrow. Is that so? Hostile magic has infiltrated this house, probably searching for your host, and you have not noticed?
The spirit growled, something in its presence shifting like a dragon waking up to defend its hoard from would-be thieves. I have sensed nothing. If you lie to me, dispossessed heron…
I swear to you, I am not lying, Sephiran promised. I barely noticed it myself.
The dark spirit seemed to sniff, studying both the immaterial landscape of the spirit realm around it and the material surroundings of its host. If there is something… I can only say that few mortals have magic this deep. Olus bared sharp teeth at the implications. But what would a demon want with an occupied host? There are much easier prey for the taking. Unless the mind behind this does not follow demon's reasoning…
A mortal using a demon's energy? suggested Sephiran.
Most likely, agreed Olus. The yellow eyes shifted, becoming more calculating, more bestial, like those of a cat watching a mouse. Shall we blast it?
If we can just barely sense this magic's presence and do not know its source, how certain are we that we can overcome it? No. We must not face it head-on. It will then know that something precious is here. Let us make it think instead that there is nothing for it here.
Ah. Hiding and subterfuge? Such mortal concepts. Olus sniffed disdainfully.
It is for the safety of your host, Olus, Sephiran reminded the dark spirit.
Olus paused, considering. Finally, it nodded, dimming its magical presence so that very little spilled over into the material world. Very well. I shall retreat to his core and show myself in any fashion only when he is threatened. Do not fail me, little Apostle.
Sephiran twitched. Why do you call me that, Olus?
No reply came. The dark spirit had ensconced itself deep in Pelleas's magical core and either did not hear him or did not care to answer.
Despite the uncertainty of the situation, with the hostile magic threading through the building and coming closer every moment, Sephiran could not help but pause for a second or two, wondering. Why had the dark spirit suddenly decided to call him 'Apostle'? He had lost those powers and that jurisdiction to his daughter centuries ago. Furthermore, he had rarely dared to arbitrate in the spirit realm even before the loss of his powers, preferring to work instead among the laguz and beorc. There had been no need to arbitrate in the spirit realm in those days; when Ashunera had presided over Tellius, everything had run much more smoothly…
Sephiran shook himself out of his thoughts. He could not afford to wonder about this now. He would deal with it later, when he had time and no hostile magic was creeping about, trying to destroy everything he had worked this day to save.
"So what do you propose to do, Master Sephiran?" Avyn prompted him. Sephiran internally thanked Ashunera once more that time in the spirit world did not correlate evenly to time in the material world.
"My guess," said Sephiran as he scooted to face Pelleas, "is that it is looking for a dark magical signature like that Olus displayed this morning. When it finds that, it will have found the Spirit Charmer. And so, if it doesn't find that here, it should keep looking elsewhere. I'm hoping you have the appropriate charms over your dwelling to keep out unwanted magical probes?"
"Of course, and strong ones, too," said Avyn, a bit surprised. "They should be enough to cause problems for even minor demons."
"Good. Pelleas?"
"Mmm?" Pelleas looked up from his study of the purple and black runes on the page.
"If you don't mind, I am going to put a rune on you, just to keep you safe until the morning. Is that okay with you?" Sephiran could have just traced a protection rune on Pelleas without asking for permission first, but it was always better to do magical things the full, formal route. The magic tended to flow better that way.
"Oh. Okay," said Pelleas. His eyes crossed trying to follow Sephiran's hand as the former heron quickly traced a line and a few curves on the boy's forehead, right over his mark of Spirit Protection. The rune, gata, glimmered silver for a moment before disappearing from view. If it worked as Sephiran intended to, it would hide all traces of Pelleas's bond to Olus from any searching magic.
"That tickled," murmured Pelleas, rubbing his knuckles against his forehead. He blinked, acclimating to the feel of the protection charm over his magic. A new thought occurring to him, he pointed to the page of the Worm tome in front of him and asked, "Was it any of these letters?"
"Well, not exactly. Some runes mean different things, depending on whether they are used by themselves or with other runes. The one I used was of that kind," said Sephiran.
"Gata. It means 'fence, barrier, protection' if used by itself. Otherwise, it's just a 'g'," said Avyn with a rueful smile. He shook his head. "I remember going over all those runes so many times… gah."
Cartus chose that moment to walk over and nudge Avyn with his foot. "I had best be getting back to the Green Cauldron, Avyn. Are you coming along now, too, or will you be staying here a while yet?"
"I don't know. I thought I'd…" Avyn trailed off as Pelleas, clutching the Worm tome, stared up at him with big pleading eyes. "Well, I guess I might stay a bit longer," he decided, "as long as I am not imposing on Mrs. Gamel or anything."
At the other end of the room, the old woman tapped her stick on the floor. "Stay as long as you need to, young master," she said.
"Excuse me a moment," Sephiran murmured to Cartus and Avyn. Before Mrs. Gamel could leave the room, he had caught up with her. "May I have a word, madam?"
Mrs. Gamel somehow managed to stare up at Sephiran with the same calm dignity Dheginsea had stared down at Sephiran. "Yes, master sage?"
"I may be worrying for nothing," began Sephiran diplomatically, "but the thought crossed my mind that someone – or something – may try searching for Pelleas by magic before he leaves in the morning. I was hoping, with your permission, to put a few simple runes on this building to foil any such magical probes."
"Do you think there is a need for such measures?" asked Mrs. Gamel, with none of the panic most non-magic-users would display on learning that such feats were possible with magic and were directed towards them and their stuff.
Sephiran merely nodded.
The old woman tapped her walking stick on the floor again. "Then do as you see fit, master sage. I do not believe you mean ill to this house or those who dwell in it."
"Thank you, madam."
Wishing her a good day and leaving Avyn on the kitchen floor still poring over the Worm tome with Pelleas, Cartus and Sephiran left the building. As they stepped out into the sunlight, Cartus sneezed. Sephiran wondered if it were only a mere biological reaction or if the minute traces of dark magic were finally affecting the less sensitive dark sages.
"Excuse me," said Cartus, blowing his nose with his handkerchief. Putting it away, he said, "I couldn't help but overhear… So you plan to ward the building?"
"No, not ward, exactly. Just a few gata's to keep out any magical probe," corrected Sephiran. "With Mrs. Gamel's permission, they should hide Pelleas well enough and eliminate the need for any full-scale wards."
Cartus shook his head slowly, as if he were unsure whether to be amused or impressed. "And I thought I was paranoid," he muttered.
"I may not look like much," said Sephiran, "but with everything I have been through I think I have earned the right to be properly paranoid."
"I understand the feeling." Cartus sighed. "Well, go on, then. Do your wandering wizard good deeds. I had best be getting back to the shop before people start stuffing their orders underneath the door again. Will we see you again before you leave Osin?"
"Maybe," said Sephiran. "Maybe not. Lately I would not hazard to guess the future."
"Well, in any case then, may Ashera grant a good day to you, Master Sephiran," said Cartus, clasping his hand firmly and bestowing the full farewell on him.
"And to you as well, Master Cartus."
With the shopkeeper walking out of site, Sephiran turned to examine the building. Behind him, half a dozen children were still at play on the lawn, shooting him suspicious or curious glances when they thought he was not looking.
As he traced his first gata rune on the east cornerstone of the building, the children drifted closer, trying to see what he was doing. Most scampered back when they saw the tiny silver flash, not wanting to get mixed up in magical things. Only a few followed him around to the south cornerstone, and then to the west.
Finally, a little girl asked, "Are you a bishop?"
Sephiran glanced down at her. She could not have been more than three, but her big dark eyes had watched him with the utmost fascination as he traced the gata rune on each cornerstone. As she waited for a reply, she stuck her thumb into her mouth.
"No, child," answered Sephiran, "I am not a bishop, although I do use light magic."
"Laura likes watching magic," supplied helpfully one of the other kids, a boy of about six or seven – he was tall for his age. Although they looked nothing alike – he had messy green hair and she had black hair to go with her dark eyes – something about the way the boy kept near her reminded Sephiran of a watchful older brother. "She says she wants to be a bishop when she grows up so she can heal people."
Both children trundled after Sephiran as he walked to the final cornerstone of the building, the north one. He supposed he could have done them in any particular order, but he liked beginning such charms with the eastern corner. That was the direction of dawn, the balance between day and night and the height of Ashunera's power. It was hard to shake habits of thinking engrained in him over millennia of life. From the east, it only made sense to follow the path of the sun to the south and then to the west, symbolizing the sunset. North alone remained to stand for the night.
The last gata rune fading from sight on the north cornerstone, Sephiran turned around and crouched down to be eye level with the little girl. "You want to be a bishop someday, child?" he asked.
She nodded solemnly, thumb still lodged in her mouth.
"I think you'll make a good bishop, child," Sephiran told her. "Your kind heart is the best sort of magic." Lifting a hand, he traced in the air before her a shining white je rune – two vertical parallel lines and a zigzag connecting them. "May you find all that you seek, and may the light of Ashera's dawn ever shine on you."
The light of the je rune reflected in the little girl's eyes. Her small hands immediately reached up to grab it. For a few moments it gleamed in her fingers like a captive butterfly, before slowly dissipating.
Sephiran stood up and glanced at the boy. "Is she your sister?"
The boy shook his head. "No, sir. She's just Laura. I'm Aran."
Sephiran smiled. "Even so, Aran. Take good care of her."
"I will, sir." The boy thought for a moment, and then asked, "Were you blessing the house, sir? I saw that happen, once. Bishops from Palmeni Temple came here to Osin. They said there were a bunch of evil spirits they had to exorcise. They went around blessing everything."
"Something like that, yes, child," said Sephiran. "Something to keep evil spirits away."
Inside, however, Sephiran was thinking: Which is worse: evil spirits or the men who employ them?
Author's Note:
Breather chapter again. I wrote this all in one day, so apologies if it seems a bit rushed. The tale grew in the telling. I only planned to make a few paragraphs out of my, "Let's have Sephiran set up a few anti-evil charms," situation and somehow it became a small chapter. Also, I started inventing runes and devising more words for (my version of) the ancient language. Oh, goodness.
As for the ancient language, I'm sorry. I don't know Japanese. I especially don't know backwards Japanese (although it sounds really beautiful when the herons sing it…). So I'm making up my own words and grammar for it. Little of it will probably show up in this fic, but it makes for nice details to throw in now and then. World-building and all that, you know.
Yes, I had to throw in Aran and Laura. I know I probably shouldn't have, as they're probably younger than ~30 and ~26 in RD (it's hard to tell with anime characters sometimes…), but I really wanted to. So there. Timey-wimey and all that. In this fic, Laura suffered a life-threatening injury when she was small and a bishop healed her, which is why she wants to become a bishop and help all the poor of Daein. Aran's content to look out for her in any way he can.
Minor tangent: Aran is a total boss. To put it this way, I dumped freakin' Nephenee to bring him into the Tower. The RNG loved him. He was so speed-blessed that he was second-tier and slaying mooks left and right while the rest of the Dawn Brigade were complete failures. I ended up giving him Dragonfoe and the Wishblade and cackled hysterically as he ran around criticalling dragons and doing 80+ damage in one hit with no backup. He finished as my #2 unit, just behind Soren. Seriously, if I didn't have to bring Ike to kill Ashera, I could have just waltzed in the Tower with Aran, Soren, and Shinon and killed everything. But, eh, PEMN.
Sorry, I had to brag. XD
I had Aran support with Laura, of course, although she didn't turn out so well in my playthrough and didn't come into the Tower. I was VERY annoyed when they couldn't get married in their A support. I mean, it's not like clerics haven't gotten married in previous games…
In other news, I just joined the dark side. I got a Tumblr. I have no idea what I'm doing (Tumblr is confusing), so you probably DON'T want to check it out. However, if you share the fandoms listed in my profile, something of interest might eventually turn up. Right now, it's mostly The Hobbit and Fullmetal Alchemist. To find it, just go to spinneryesteryear with the appropriate 'dot tumblr dot com' following it.
If anyone really wants to see what I imagine the runes the magic users employ look like, I'll try making little pictures of them and putting them up so you at least know what I'm nattering about. Just let me know. And if you really don't want to know, just flame me or something.
Spinner here, signing out.
