Drum roll please! And the owner of Rave master is…. Not me!

Gather During The Calm End Part


"Nobody makes smoothies like my uncle Genma, but I'd like to think that he taught me some good stuff." Haru explained to two of the castle chiefs as he mashed up some sliced fruit.

"I crushed the ice as best as I could your highness." One of the chiefs said to Haru with a bag filled with crushed up ice.

It was going to be very difficult to make smoothies without a blender, but Haru just had a huge hankering for one at the moment, so he decided to improvise. It wouldn't be nearly as good, but it would definitely be the best one he ever made without any appliances, and the palace cooks were more than willing to lend a hand.

"You said you had some milk and pasteurized yogurt in the ice box?" Haru asked wanting to make certain they had all of the ingredients they needed.

"I shall go fetch some." Replied the first chief.

The second Chief stayed behind. As she was mixing the ice and mashed fruit in a bowl, she turned to the prince and said, "This sure looks like it will make a lot."

Haru only smiled and answered. "Well I want to make sure everybody gets some. I think all the nobles would like a treat and I know my friends are going to love them. You guys should help yourselves too, for helping me out, and the rest should be saved for whoever else wants some. If there's not enough than we'll just make some more later for whoever wants some."

"That is quite generous of you, your highness." Replied the first chief as he came back with the other ingredients necessary to make the smoothies. He added them to the bowl and with much effort they kept stirring and mashing the ingredients together until they decided they could do no more. It was lumpier than any of the smoothies he had made at home made at his uncle's café, but considering they didn't have a blender, he thought they came out pretty good.

"I can't wait to give one to Elie. She and I would always go to Café Tsubomi and order these. Bet this'll help her with whatever stress she's under right now." Haru thought to himself out loud assuringly. "She could really use a break. I don't think she left that room since last night. She wasn't even at the Estates General today."

As he poured one glass for himself and one for her, he gave the two chiefs one last thank you and left. Servants would deliver the other smoothies to everyone else, but he wanted to give Elie her smoothie directly.

Little did he know what awaited him down in her cell.


"Would you just shut up and let me through?" Haru yelled at the two guards posted at Elie's door.

"Your highness for the last time, no one is allowed inside the Grand Duchess's cell!" Replied one of the armored guards in an angry tone of voice. Prince or no prince, the teen was beginning to get on the man's nerves.

"What are you talking about? She is my best friend! I should be able to see her at least one point during the day, and why would you call it a cell? If you guys are treating her like some sort of prisoner, I'm gonna get pissed!" Technically he was already pretty pissed, but he was getting more so by the minute.

"No sire, she allowed out of the room whenever she is ready to come out! The locks and extra steel door is just for her own protection."

"What if she's been banging on the door for hours and you guys didn't hear it because the door is too thick?"

"Prince Haru?"

The three guys turned their attention to the new voice. His majesty stood right there in bewilderment at the scene before him. "What is all the yelling about?" He asked.

As the two guards stood up straighter and saluted their king, Haru's anger ebbed slightly at the sight of his grandfather.

"Wow grandpa. You sure have a way of just sneaking into a conversation." Haru noted. "Tell these bone-heads to step aside. I just came to visit my best friend. She's got to be exhausted.

The two guards glared at the prince at the bonehead comment, but said nothing. His majesty's face fell a little at Haru's request. He let out a sigh. It was time he learned.

"Haru do you see that slot in the steel door?" He asked gesturing to a little metal flap on the door that looked like a mail slot. It was the slot that food was shoved in so that the Grand Duchess would not starve herself. They didn't know if she was eating any of it but they wanted her to have the option.

"Take a peak at what is inside."

Haru was confused at the request but willingly obliged if he could see what it was going on in Elie's room that was so special that no one was allowed to see her.

He put down the two smoothies he was holding and lifted up the flap expecting to see just her doing magic of some sort, but the second he opened it a bright light similar to the sun flashed in his eyes. He had to close them before it burned his rentals. It was like a tanning bed in there.

Squinting a little he tried to focus hard enough to see her. Somewhere in all of that light, he could barely make out a silhouette of what resembled a woman's figure. He tried to hold on a moment longer despite the burning light. Then, unexpectedly he saw a pair of soulless empty eyes flash in his direction. It startled him the point where he let out a yelp and jumped back away from the door, knocking over the smoothies on the ground in the process.

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN THERE?" He yelled.

His grandfather let out a sigh, knowing full well what the silver headed boy had just witnessed. "Come." He said as he walked away, gesturing the teen to follow him. "It is time you learned."


His majesty led Haru all the way up to his privet study where he had spoken to Elie just the other day. The 8-foot tall windows that lined the wall were wide-open letting in the warm rays of sunlight. Haru was still a little confused as to why he was there.

"Please take a seat." His majesty gestured for Haru to sit at a wooden round table on the far side of the room. The desk felt to formal for just speaking with his grandson alone.

As Haru sat down, Malakia went through his desk and pulled out an old dusty box from one of the bottom drawers. He then went to sit down next to Haru and open it, rummaging through all of its old contents. The teen stared at his grandfather with a raised eyebrow, wondering where this was going.

His majesty smiled fondly as he pulled out an old Photograph. It wasn't what he was looking for, but it was still something he was sure Haru would be interested in. "Look." Malakia said as he handed his grandson the photo.

Haru was shocked at first but then his face became a bright smile. In the picture was a tall man with silver hair, a little better kept then his. He was wearing a leather jacket and the happiest smile on his face that reached all the way up to his light purple eyes. His arm was wrapped around a petite woman who was about six inches shorter than him. She looked very much like Haru's sister. The woman wore a stripped red and white shirt. Her hair was strait and cut off only a little longer then her shoulders. Her brown eyes had the same warm feeling to them as her smile did.

"Is that-"

"Yes." The king answered. "Those people are your mother and father, only a few months after getting engaged to one another. This is the last picture I have of him."

Haru stared at his grandfather. He could hear a hint of loss in his voice.

"They were so happy together. I knew I had to let him go."

The teen put a hand on Malakia's shoulder for comfort. "I really miss him too."

They sat in the silence for a moment, relishing in each other's comfort, until something else caught the king's eye. "Oh now I haven't seen this in a while."

His majesty picked up a very old, worn out inking of a woman. It was in black and white, so you would never know of the woman's silver hair or what color dress she was wearing that day, but the king could remember almost immediately.

It wasn't the picture he was looking for but it was one he was happy to see just the same. "Haru." He brought it up for Haru to see. "This is your grandmother."

Haru smiled at the picture of his old grandma in her younger days. She was pretty. It was such a shame he'd never get to meet her.

"She was the Grand Contessa of Raybarrier. After she took up the title as queen when she married me, she passed her title over to her greatest vassal, Clea Maltese, Lady Remi's grandmother." Malakia explained.

"Nobility can marry royalty?" The Outer world raised prince asked. "I thought that only royalty could marry other royalty?" He remembered from old fairy tails.

The king laughed. "Well then our options would be very limited now wouldn't they? The truth is that royalty will marry a noble the majority of the time that they decide to be wedded. Marriages to another royal from another country comes up sometimes, mostly for diplomatic reasons, and the rarest is when a royal marries… Well just about anyone from any other occupation. That's why Gale's marriage to the Outer world woman took me completely by surprise. Royalty and Nobility just have a lot in common so it is the most frequent, in Symphonia anyway."

Haru laughed along with his grandfather. He was actually having a good time with him. They needed to catch up on old times and he really liked it this way. He was learning so much about his family. It was great.

Malakia originally brought him up here to tell him the truth about what was happening with Lady Elie, but it seemed that at the moment that was no longer necessary. They were laughing, having a good time, there was no reason to ruin it with such sad news. Moments like these did not come often. Why not cherish it a little while longer, but when he reached into the old box and dug around for another picture, he froze at the sight of the one he found.

It was the one he was looking for from the start. Suddenly the importance in the situation came flooding back to the king. He knew that this must be done.

This time, with a somber face, he gave Haru a new picture. "Haru, look at this one." He said as he passed it off. He waited for his grandson's reaction, not looking him in the eye until he heard him say something.

As Haru took it he was momentarily surprised at what he saw. It looked like a picture of Elie, but her hair was much longer, almost reaching her knees. She smiled happily as she posed for the painter in this black and white painting.

"Is this Elie? When was this made?" Haru asked not taking his eyes off of it.

"No, it isn't. That is her grandmother, Lady Resha Valentine, the first New Elie Grand Duchess when she was lady Elie's age."

The teen was pretty surprised by that explanation. This woman was the spitting image of his best friend. The family resemblance was uncanny. "Damn." Was the only thing Haru could say in response, forgetting that he probably shouldn't speak that way in front of his grandfather. Fortunately, Malakia just shrugged it off, more amused by the teenager's reply than offended.

"Heh heh. Yes they are both very beautiful." He laughed, but there was a hint of sadness hidden somewhere under that laugh. After a few moments of silence, the king cleared his throat to get the teen's attention. Haru looked up from the picture waiting to hear what his grandfather was going to say.

"Haru… There is a reason I have brought all of this up. It is something important that you need to know. It is about Lady Resha Valentine."

"Okaaaaayyy." He responded with a raised eyebrow, feeling as though this conversation was going to get awkward. "What about her?"

"You see, she is much more like Lady Elie than just appearances. During the war, there was one soldier she was rather fond of in particular. His name was Shiba Roses."

"I've heard of him." Haru said lighting up that for once he actually knew something about history. "He was the soldier who took down most of the Raregroove army, right?"

"Yes. You see, before Resha Valentine became the Grand Duchess she was known for, she was but a traveling gypsy, who made money by dancing in the street for coins. Her family's magic, Etherion, was but a secret that was kept inside the Valentine clan. Every first-born daughter of each generation was born with it. They were a small family. They had many more boys than girls, but they used the power they had as their main support for keeping the family alive. Despite her family history, she herself was very well educated and sophisticated almost to royalty standards.

One day, the band of gypsies came upon the Symphonian capitol. Back then we were just like any other country. Nothing stood out about us. We were not known for being very powerful, but soon we would be known for being very brave. The country of Raregroove was gaining power, trying to take over the world. It had already succeeded in taking over two other countries and was looking to add Symphonia to its list.

While in the city, it was said that Resha had fallen in love with a soldier living there. He was a few years her senior, and he was about to be shipped out to fight, but that never stopped her. She chose to stay in the city to be close to him and his home while her family moved on. No one knows what happened to the gypsies after that. Some say that they were accidently killed by Raregroove soldiers when they tried to cross the boarder, but that can neither be proven nor disproven.

On the day that this soldier she loved was to be shipped out to fight, the young Etherion girl followed the cadets close by, refusing to just let the man she loved go off and possibly die on the field of battle, she wanted to do whatever she could to help him, and to help the country she had grown accustomed to living in over time.

During one battle, witnesses said that this soldier had committed beyond human actions, taking out over 70 enemies single-handed in less than 3 minutes without so much as breaking a sweat. When he was confronted with the question how he did it, he explained that his girlfriend, who was a magic user, powered him up. That was when Resha had called in to be questioned how she did it.

When she revealed the origins of her family's power, she was immediately recruited for the war effort. With her on our side, she was able to power up our troops just by staring at them from far away in the distance. Mostly it was Shiba who she gave power to. She just worried for him the most I suppose.

However, at the time we had no idea what the consequences of her over use of Etherion would be. If I had, I would have been much more cautious, however at the time, I was only a young brazen 17 year old. I had only recently inherited the throne and I still had much to learn."

Haru listened intently to his grandfather's story, but some thing just seemed off. He couldn't understand where this story was going. He knew that Symphonia had been victorious and that in addition to returning the land they stole to their rightful countries, Symphonia acquired a lot of Raregroove's original land. What more was there?

Malakia continued. "Soon after we started using that power to help us, it quickly became too much for her. She was telling us that the strain that the magic put on her was too much and she even seemed to become sick, but I chose to ignore it. I just thought that maybe if she could just hang in there a little longer than we would win. What a selfish fool I was."

He shook his head at the memory in disgust with himself before he continued. "It wasn't before long that her mind was starting to go. She would forget things almost instantly after doing them, it seemed like half the day was a blur to her, and it only got worse. She'd forget things that are common knowledge; people that she knew all became strangers to her. She didn't remember where she was, and soon, the only thing she knew for sure was that there was something wrong with her and that was not enough to keep her together. It scared her to the point where she didn't trust anyone.

She would use her magic to lash out at anyone who got to close. Many soldiers and wizards died trying to detain her. We had to lock her up so that she wouldn't hurt anyone in what she thought was defense. It took an entire platoon and over a 100 wizards to do so. We had to spend so much time trying to stop our own greatest weapon, Raregroove almost took back the upper hand and destroyed us."

"Well then how did Symphonia win?" Haru asked.

"Luckily the sword that Shiba carried absorbed so much power from Resha's Etherion power ups that he was able to use it to finish off Raregroove. It didn't have half the power that it would have if Resha were still empowering him, but it still had ten amazing powers that it was able to use on command."

"Wait!" Haru had to interrupt him to make sure of what he had been hoping for. "I've been meaning to ask this for a while now. Is the reason the sword called 'Ten powers' because it actually has-?"

"Yes." He answered. "When Resha was lending him some of her power, it was said he could command so many powers, he was unable to stop and count them all, but when she could no longer do that, his sword only absorbed enough magic to use ten of its powers, or so it has been said."

Haru looked back at that time he was able to outrun the guards who were chasing him in New Elie, and how he was able to cause Deep snow to partially explode on the boarder. He never knew how this was possible, but now it was as if everything was explained. "Were two of the powers the sword could use super speed and blowing things up?"

"Why as a matter of fact, yes I believe that's correct." His majesty replied, a little surprised that Haru knew that. "Along with the power to freeze, create fire, cut through intangible objects and a few others. Each power came with its own name, but I cannot recall them all at the moment."

"Cool…" Haru muttered to himself. Now he owned that magic sword. Who cares if it wasn't as powerful as when Resha was juicing it up. Ten powers ruled! Suddenly Haru was very excited. He wanted to do some sword training right at that moment to see how it worked. He wanted to become as good at using a sword like that as possible!

"Thanks so much for telling me all this gramps! I-"

"Wait a moment." The king called out to his grandson just as the teen was about to leave. Haru stopped and looked back at the old man, waiting for what else he needed to explain. "You don't understand the point of my story."

Haru made himself comfortable again. What more could there possibly be to that?

"Prince Haru, what happened to lady Resha was terrifyingly dangerous! Her power caused her to grow mentally ill. She had no recollection of who she was or who the people around her were. All she knew was Etherion and she did not hesitate to use it on anybody who so much as came within a few feet of her. She hurt herself and others."

"Yeah, but everything turned out okay right? I mean she obviously lived after the war to get her title and have a kid." The boy asked suddenly feeling a little worried with where this was going once more. His grandfather wouldn't put so much emphasis on that particular detail unless it was important. Suddenly sword training felt like something that could take a back seat at the moment. He had to hear this.

"Haru…" Malakia said sternly, looking his grandson strait in the eye. "When Etherion took over Resha… the woman glowed a bright light and her eyes had a calm but empty soulless look to them… Just like how Lady Elie is right now."

Haru couldn't help but look at his grandfather in a stunned silence with a raised eyebrow. He had to be joking. There was no other way to describe this scenario. He didn't mean it.

The boy let out a laugh to lighten the now damp mood, but there was obvious fear in it. "You can't mean that… The same thing that happened to Resha… Is now happening to Elie… Right…?"

At fist the king could not answer. He did not have the courage to look his poor grandchild in the eye and confirm such an awful idea, but the longer he stayed quiet, the more in set in.

"B-but Resha was okay… Right?" He asked trying to find hope.

After a moment of thinking about how to answer that question the king said, "After a while, Etherion began to calm down within her and after a lot of pain and anguish, she regained her memories, just in time to learn that her beloved was killed on the battlefield, as he won our war for us. We would have given Shiba a title as well if he had lived, but we decided that we would just give all of the extra land we acquired from Raregroove to Lady Resha as a thank you. I dubbed her nobility and a few months later she bore her only child. We believed it was Shiba's. She didn't live to be very old. Only long enough to see her son come of age. She was never the same after she snapped out of her Etherion control.

Madame Resha was an expert at controlling Etherion. Madame Elie… Well… She learned a little bit of magic as a child and I know she has been relearning it now that her power is unsealed… but… If Grand Duchess Resha, who was practically the best couldn't handle it then… I don't know how good Madame Elie's chances are…"

Haru stared at the old king for a moment with wide eyes. It was a lot to take in. Then the silence was broken suddenly when Haru just roughly stood up, knocking over his chair in the process. He had an angry, determined expression all over his features as he marched to the door.

"Prince Haru where are you going?" Demanded the king, he assumed he already knew the answer, but he had to know for sure.

"I need to speak with Elie. I need to ask her if she knows who I am or if I've already lost her." He replied in a determined tone, clearly too upset to glance back at the king.

"I forbid it!" The king demanded.

"You forbid it?" The prince asked furiously, glancing back at his grandfather at last. "That young woman has been my very best friend for the past six years! Through thick and thin, we have been there for each other for whatever, whenever, and now you tell me this? You locked her up like the Oracle at Delphi!"

Ignoring what that last comment meant the king commanded in a hash tone, "She was the one who suggested it! She knew the consequences of her actions! I even gave her a way out, but was the one who decided this to be for the best and I respected her decision, and don't you ever raise your voice to me, young man! You forget who I am!"

Haru did feel bad about yelling at his own grandpa. It really wasn't his fault. It was just a bad situation all togerher. If he were anyone else he probably would have gotten in trouble for speaking that way to the king. Now that he knew the truth, his fury was beginning to ebb away and it was replaced by sadness and fear for his friend.

"I want to see her." He muttered sadly, just loud enough for his majesty to hear. Malakia's anger also dissipated at the sight of his poor grandson's crestfallen face.

"I know…" He said sullenly. "But you must understand that she is not well at the moment. She might hurt you or someone else, or herself. If that were to happen she might never forgive herself. Lady Resha didn't and that may have lead to her early death."

The old king walked over to his grandson and put a hand on his shoulder for support. "All we can do now is leave her alone and hope that she was able to do what it was she set out to do before she lost control to Etherion…"

The two Glory men hugged each other in support; only hoping it wouldn't get worse than this.


Meanwhile somewhere not far from the capitol palace, a dark and sinister man was scheming. It would not be long before his newest plan would be put into action. His Castle in New Elie might be lost to him now, but it would not set him back at all. Soon he would take over a new castle and this time, everyone in worlds would know about it and never forget it. It would be a day that went down in history for everyone.


Sorry this chapter seemed like filler, but I wanted them to do something nice and peaceful for once, so Haru made smoothies and he and his grandfather had a nice boding afternoon. I hate ending this story arc on a filler note, but there is a reason why I wanted to give them a break for a change. Next arc a whole lot stuff that can only be described as total epic holy crapness ensues. Trust me. You won't want to miss it.

However next chapter the calm is over and the storm arrives. Board up your windows people, the hurricane is here, so stay indoors but near your computers to review.

Thank you, bye bye!