July 9th, X792, 11:00 A.M, Alliance Hall
Jade looked around Alliance Hall as he waited for the other masters to arrive. Even now he was the first to arrive. When they first started these meetings, Narrisa had tried to appear too busy to be first and Roy had always been too forgetful to show up on time. Jade tried to find the humor in his counterparts' continuation of this unspoken tradition, but to be honest; it was all just a little too much for Jade. He had been left with a task by his old friend that just didn't seem fair.
But before he could remain sullen any longer the Eternal Knights' guild master walked in the room. Vado Boin. The extremely tall and muscular fair skinned man with short brown hair and a matching set of brown eyes maintained his air of arrogance despite his role as guild master. He wore his standard red dress shirt and a black neck tie, but had switched from his pair of casual black shorts to black dress pants. On top of his long white overcoat which normally hid the man's physique was the Eternal Knights' emblem. He also wore a small pendant that had belonged to Seigfreid.
"Nice of you to show up," grumbled Master Jade.
"Mhmm," answered Master Vado as he missed Jade's sarcasm. "I had many important matters to attend before coming here."
A small bit of frustration took over the normally calm and collected Jade. These meetings were important and if Vado couldn't understand that even now, then there was a problem.
"These meetings should be a priority Vado," said Jade. "They helped with a num-"
"I'm aware of what these meetings helped accomplish," Vado interjected. "They helped create false unity between the guilds. They helped you all air nonsensical grievances and they helped the creation of the coliseum which singlehandedly allowed us to be nearly undone."
Vado's words had value. Eli had nearly wiped them all out and the fact that his goal actually gained any form of success was even more evidence of the three guild masters' failures. But that didn't matter currently for Jade. He was left to look after the city and he would do just that. And the first step for him was ensuring that the other guild masters understood the value of these meetings.
However, his retort never came as the portal door to Scarlet Phantom and the guild master walked through.
"Enough Vado," Madeline said quietly. "If that's how you feel about the previous value of these meetings then the best thing you can do is to work towards them being worthwhile now."
She then walked over to the small round table that the other masters stood around and bowed slightly before apologizing for being late.
In truth, Madeline's ascent to guild master had been a rocky one, but all of her guild mates had agreed in the end that no matter what she was the best choice to lead them after Narissa. However, Master Narissa had successfully concealed just how hard a guild master's job was, even from her assistant, so Madeline was still coping with her duties.
Madeline wore a black and red body suit with the sleeves cut short. She had a black cloak which was draped over her shoulders and hung to the floor. Her ginger hair now fell just below her waist and she had what seemed to be a permanent solemn look plastered across her face.
A grimace passed over Vado's face before he yielded and took his seat, prompting the others to take their seats as well. "The Great Vado will always forgive you for being late Madeline," he said.
Jade seconded that notion before they began discussing their guilds. They discussed the new team based system which had been implemented a few months ago to ensure mission completion and safety. They talked about the idea of reopening the coliseum which had been closed since Eli had been stopped last year. While Vado was against the idea, the other two masters seemed open to the coliseum, but agreed that it couldn't return to its original state. The townspeople had been unable to see how much danger the mages were in and when the mages of Brightholt needed them, they sided with Eli since he was providing them with entertainment. Only afterwards did they realize that it wasn't all a show and he was actually attempting to eradicate the very same guild mages.
Just before the meeting was closed, Vado asked about the progress of a search party.
"Have they made any progress in locating Eli's co-conspirators?" asked Vado.
At this even Madeline perked up a bit and her eyes were glued to Jade.
"They haven't made any contact in a while," said Master Jade. "However, that likely means that there is a trail for them to follow and they're busy tracking."
In the fallout of Eli's damage, a group of mages stepped forward to locate Eli's 3 team mates and whoever helped him achieve even a fraction of his destructive goals.
When he realized that Vado and Madeline weren't reassured in anyway by that answer he reminded them, that if those two mages were to run into any trouble, he'd be more worried for whoever was facing them.
July 9th, X792, 11:00 A.M, Eternal Knights' Training Grounds
Eli's Tournament had been a farce the entire time. It's true goal all along had been to tire out the mages of Brightholt and so after the Battle Royals had finished, his plan stepped into its next phase. The 16 mages who had advanced to the tournament where the winner would receive a Blood Pact Artifact was to be done all in a single day. The participant of the tournament had no choice, but to keep fighting one another until only one stood.
This tournament required one to have the utmost stamina, strength and combat ability to come out on top. As well as the ability to keep fighting one's fellow mages. And yet, the winner of this tournament now sat in front of Adrienne and truthfully she didn't resemble that package entirely. Adrienna had seen her fight that day and she certainly had the perseverance to complete her goal, but she seemed to kind and compassionate to be able to ruthlessly fight mage after mage simply for power. So Adrienne could only imagine what drove her to win that day.
She was training alongside Adrienne because, while Eli's tournament had been a trick, he couldn't help, but put on a good show and he actually awarded the winner with a Blood Pact Artifact. However, he gave them no choice in the matter and to make even more of a show out of it, he had the winner publicly complete the ritual intertwining the wielder and the weapon.
And so Chiyori sat before Adrienne trying to learn how to control her magic once more.
However, Adrienne could see the hesitation and fear on Chiyori's face.
"Hey," Adrienne started. "There's no rush here Chiyori. We'll get there eventually."
The hazel eyed girl wore a look of worry. She had been working with her team mates on a mission and lost control of her magic. In an attempt to make matters better, she made them worse by calling on her blood pact artifact. This left her nearly dead and from that moment it was decided that she couldn't take any more missions until she learned to handle her magic once more.
"Chiyori feels like she is missing a part of herself," she whimpered. "She just wants everything to get back to normal Adrienne. Chiyori wants to go on missions and not be a danger to the team."
Surprised at her openness, Adrienne said, "That's normal. When you formed your Blood Pact, a part of yourself was placed in the sword and a part of the artifact was placed in you. So we're never really whole until you unleash it."
She stood up and pulled Chiyori to her feet before continuing, "After you make the pact, it'll feel like you're not quite there. And this feeling will never change until you feel at peace with Selene. So our first job is to make sure you and she can communicate.
Adrienne held out both of her hands and Chiyori laid her own hands on top of her fellow mage. Her hands were covered in jet black gloves and once their hands touched, Ares lit up on Adrienne's hilt and Chiyori's gloves lit up as well.
Adrienne and Chiyori found themselves in an open pasture in the dead of night.
"Okay now Chiyori," began Adrienne. "Try and feel Selene's presence. This is her world and yours, so you simply have to call out for her and she'll come."
"Selene?" Chiyori asked hesitantly. "Can you and Chiyori talk?"
The pasture soon became less and less illuminated.
"Relax Chiyori," Adrienne said as she prepared for the worst. "She won't appreciate being feared by her own wielder."
"It's so dark and scary," whimpered Chiyori. "How can Chiyori use a power like this?"
At her words, the darkness that seemed to permeate every nook and cranny seemed to become thicker as if offended. It slowly felt like the darkness was grabbing hold of them and wrapping around them prompting Adrienne to act instinctively.
"Ares!" she shouted and the blade glowed brightly before dragging them back to reality.
"Whew," laughed Adrienne. "That was a close one."
She looked down at Chiyori who had already sunken to her knees in depression.
"Chiyori doesn't know how she's supposed to do this Adrienne. She just wants to go on adventures with the team. Chiyori wants to get stronger. Chiyori doesn't want to be a burden on them," she said now as tears slowly formed.
"Listen to me," said Adrienne as she lifted Chiyori's face up to see here eye to eye. "We'll figure this out and you'll be one of the strongest mages that ever was and you'll go on tons of adventures and we'll spar and do tons of fun stuff."
Chiyori couldn't help, but smile at Adrienne. "Thank you," she managed between sniffles.
"What happened here?" asked a scruffy voice.
Adrienne and Chiyori turned to find Ralph and Chel.
"Everything okay?" Chel asked hesitantly as she watched Chiyori wiping away tears.
In that first round of 16, Chel's opponent had been Chiyori and when the nature of the tournament was revealed, she couldn't bear to hurt her and so they quickly worked out a means for Chiyori to take the win. Ever since, Chel had felt a little guilty since the end result was Chiyori becoming connected to a Blood Pact Artifact.
Adrienne nodded affirmatively in response before welcoming Chiyori's team mates.
"Chiyori is glad you guys came here," the hazel eyed mage said. "Chiyori will work hard to make her team proud."
Ralph was the first to answer. "No worries squirt. Let's go and get something to eat to celebrate the first step towards being the strongest mages," he said knowing that would change the mood.
"Yeah!" shouted Chiyori. "We'll be the best!"
Chiyori walked off alongside Ralph, dragging Chel behind her; the platinum haired mage whispering a thank you for her help in the situation.
Now alone, Adrienne sighed to herself. "I wonder where the hell my team is," she said aloud.
July 10th, X792, 4:00 A.M, Eastern Border of Fiore
The most peculiar pair walked in the dead of night to avoid detection by whoever might have made the mistake of following them. Both figures were cloaked, but oddly enough they still stuck out like sore thumbs.
On the left a tall man wearing a black and red cloak was twirling a blade and on the right a short man wore a blue cloak and the ground seemed to crack beneath him.
"If you kill them before we get answers I won't overlook it Rosca," said the shorter man.
"I wouldn't dream of upsetting you Master Seigfreid," Rosca. "Besides, how else will we find Master Narissa's killer."
Author's Note:
Well a short chapter to get back into things. Hopefully you enjoyed that as a lot of stuff got revealed. I know it isn't conventional to just forego the conclusion of an arc, but after a lot of preparation I'm confident that this is the best route for the story. It'll give us all a chance to get acclimated with the characters again and to explore new story lines while still explaining everything that happened in the chapters… That we'll be passing by.
So, if you've got a suggestion for your character that you want to share with me feel free to do so, however I'd greatly appreciate it if you message your original form with the new info.
I'm excited to work on this arc, but be aware that things will be a little slow at first until we get back into a regular flow. Between Rosca and Seigfreid working together, the new artifact and who helped Eli even attempt his plan of attack on Brightholt; I can't wait to write it.
I appreciate all of the support you all have given. The words of encouragement and even the checking in to see if I still have a pulse. It was very nice and I won't forget it. For the people who continued to work on ideas for their OCs and sent them over, thank you for having faith in me.
Thanks again. Hope you enjoyed it.