Hikaru: I originally wanted thirty-five chapters, but I need one more before the epilogue, so we'll have thirty-six.
--
Senel blinked, staring at this strange sight: Hoseia Tempestas, one of the most brilliant minds of Old World Arcadia, a Yelite, and elemental possessing a Yellow Moon Crystal and its ultimate power, bowing before Grune, the airheaded and well-endowed woman found napping in the Man-Eating Ruins.
Hoseia kept his head bowed, eyes downcast.
Senel's throat was tight, his mouth dry. Hoseia, indomitable Hoseia, had just humbled himself, calling Grune a queen.
Queen of the lands beneath the Green Moon.
It hit Senel hard all at once. Grune's name, which meant "the green one," the color of the dress she chose to wear, and the leaf green glow of her eres ... and now that he looked on her in this new light, his Silvite's intuition burned, that this woman Grune indeed had the aura of an Old World Arcadian.
Now, Grune did not seem airheaded any longer. She looked, calm, composed. She even now had a regal bearing about her, something indeed royal within her.
"Q-queen? Of the ancient Arcadian Green Civilization? Is this true, Hoseia ... ?" Senel half-murmured, still quite in disbelief.
Hoseia still knelt, and Grune remained silent as she looked down on him.
"Her Majesty Queen Grune herself is the embodiment of the Green Moon, that which is brimming with life and fertility."
And where they stood now was the Earth Monument, the monument Grune had Hoseia use to restore her memory.
Shirley's eyes were wide, her mouth slack, still standing by the tank from which Grune had emerged.
"G-Grune? Have you gotten your memory back ... ?"
Grune turned, ignoring Hoseia, as if she noticed Shirley for the first time. The corners of her mouth twitched, as if she meant to smile but decided against it.
"Indeed I have, Merines. I now recall my purpose here on this planet."
Walking past the still bowing Hoseia, Grune approached Senel, her once warm blue eyes now cold, as if they were chips of winter tundra.
"You wonder about the black mist, correct? I know who it is that conjures it. As does Hoseia Tempestas."
At this Hoseia finally stood, his face grim behind those glasses. Shirley cautiously walked to Senel, never taking her eyes off Grune and Hoseia. Grune stood still as stone, looking at the Merines and Alliance Marine.
"My sworn enemy, the other side of the coin, the opposing face of life and vitality ... Schwartz, the Darkite Queen of the Dark Civilization of Old World Arcadia."
"Schwartz?" Senel repeated, the name sounding sharp and foreboding on his tongue. The name meant, "the dark one," and that, along with the black mist and undead monsters, was proof enough in itself.
"Yes," Hoseia said, his back still to Grune. "I suspected that since the Jadite Queen was here, and given the sheer similarity of the mist to dark Lunar magicks ... Schwartz must be here as well." Here his voice seemed to choke. "One of the reasons I was chosen to accompany Reno and Nievia into Soltis to stop the Silvites ... I learned who Her Majesties Grune and Schwartz actually--"
"Hoseia!" Grune said sharply, with the tone of a queen who simply must be obeyed. Hoseia ducked his head, but Senel noticed that his fists were shaking. Something of epic proportions was at hand.
Shirley quirked an eyebrow. "Who they actually ... ?"
Grune shook her head, walking down the steps toward the antechamber of the Earth Monument. She gestured for Senel and the others to follow.
"We must move, if we are to meet and do battle with Schwartz. Your allies' help is most welcome as well. Come."
But Senel and Shirley had not moved, staring fixedly at Hoseia, who had just now collapsed to his knees, pounding at his forehead with a closed fist.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" He cursed, tears beading at his eyes.
Shirley approached Hoseia carefully, placing her hands on his shoulders.
"A-are you all right?"
Hoseia banged his fist on the ground, the metal echoing the sound heartily.
"My name means 'savior' and yet ... I can't do anything! I couldn't save anyone then ... and I can't save anyone now! It's all up to her, and she's one of the reasons for the Old World's absolute destruction!"
He continued pounding away at the floor, eyes streaming with tears, frame wracked with sobs, yelling and cursing to his heart's content. Shirley gave Senel a questioning glance, what could be done to calm Hoseia?
Senel was quite unnerved at this sudden revealtion of who was traveling with them the entire time. An Old World Arcadian, and Queen of the Green Empire, at that! He always knew there was a nostalgic feeling about Grune and her aura ... but he never expected her to be a queen from his homeland!
Senel awkwardly clapped a hand on Hoseia's shoulder, and Hoseia froze, stopped his thrashing.
"C'mon, Hoseia. We've got to stop the black mist. Come or stay, it's your decision."
With that Senel gestured to Shirley, and she nodded, following him. As they walked down the staircase, following Grune out of the Earth Monument, Hoseia shouted.
"You can't trust her! It's because of her ... because of her ..."
--
Summoning the others wasn't hard. All Grune had to do was project a thought to them all to come to the Oresoren camp in the Quiet Lands, just as the Quiet Nerifes--Aqua Helnes--had called them to the lighthouse that brought them here.
In time they all had come from their Monuments, gathering about on the beach.
"The black mist ... My enemy Schwartz is the root cause of it all, and she must be eliminated to stop it completely."
Of course they would have no objections. Getting rid of the fell mist and the one who conjured it would benefit all, so there was little point in them refusing, so long as they didn't know one minor detail about Grune and Schwartz.
That elemental, Hoseia, would have ruined much--perhaps not everything, but much--had he spilled the beans on what he had learned about the two Arcadian queens.
Grune remembered well the life she spent in Old World Arcadia, reigning queen of the lands beneath the Green Moon. The capital of the Green Empire, the city of Rixis, was a grand one, built entirely of Green moonstone ore and marble found in the rich mountains of their continents.
Grune had lived in a grand palace, surveying over all from her lofty perch. Decked out in rich garb of the ruling Jadite--such as the gown she wore now, along with her jewelry and veil--Grune was admired by her subjects, for she indeed embodied the very element of the Green Moon, as Hoseia had said.
As such, she was a master of Green Lunar Magicks, a master healer. She remembered well how she had written books on healing and the green moonstone, how other healers came to her for advice on healing, and how she would heal supposedly incurable subjects.
Living the life of a mortal wasn't so bad, Grune supposed.
It had been Schwartz's idea--why not be a part of the blanket of mortal life, from the very fabric Grune herself wove into shape, and Schwartz cut the threads of when their time had come.
Why not, indeed.
Arcadia was a planet full of rich cultures and diversities that made up its unique identity. Being a part of that was the ultimate experience for Grune, even for she, the Weaver of Time, and Schwartz, the one who cut the threads.
The King of Spirits even granted Grune a boon--the ability to summon the Spirits subject to his rule even planets away, anywhere in the celestial sphere, a great gift indeed.
But even given her true identity, Grune had no experience in living as a mortal, let alone how to rule an entire civilization. She had fashioned herself as a young Jadite woman of royal blood, and thus from the Jadites themselves learned how to govern and rule. As Queen Grune frequented the Empire, visiting with her subjects and seeing with her own eyes how her hand affected their lives.
She began to forget her other life, her true identity, falling in love with life on Arcadia and seeing her subjects happy with her rule.
For once she had a concrete purpose in life ... she began to feel the emotions of mortals, began to live, to think like a mortal. To enjoy the life she had. Given, the mortals' lives passed her by so very quickly, and nobody ever thought to question why the Green Empire had the same Queen (or at least with the same name) for centuries, and why she had never married or produced heirs.
It was Schwartz who tired of the game and began to cut at the threads that wove Old Arcadia's tapestry.
Arcadian history would tell that it was the Dark Empire who began the series of world wars and instellar ones that would herald Old World Arcadia's downfall.
The Inter-Stellar War had disastrous consequences.
The sea, the beautiful sea not unlike the sea belonging to this planet, had drunk in the blood of so many Arcadians, Auldrantians, and Aselians as they battled in the skies, hovercrafts and airships carrying the Auldrantians and Aselians while Silvites flew in their ships and Azurites flew with their wings, their teriques.
During the course of the Mid-Sky Battle, the Silver Gigas Zelos and the Blue Gigas Bluheim came into forcible contact. The powers of the Blue Moon Crystal and Silver clashed, and Zelos's power over nothingness and therefore everything went berserk--
And the sea, the beautiful sea of Arcadia disappeared, and it was only by Zelos's power that the land still existed as it does today in Arcadia.
All the Empires had retreated for a long while, but world war stirred again when the Dark Empire deployed its Gigas, Niddhog, to attack the Violites of the Purple Empire. War sparked again as the Dark Gigas, the black dragon Niddhog fought against the titanic arcwhale Purple Gigas Plergoth in the skies of Arcadia.
Schwartz seemed to be taunting Grune into taking action, for the Green Empire had remained largely neutral in the past wars, with the main combatants of the wars being Silvites, Azurites, and Darkites.
Grune journeyed the whole of Arcadia in a series of diplomatic meetings promoting peace between the Seven Civilizations of Arcadia. Grune was known worldwide for her stand on peace and neutrality throughout the wars.
When it came time to meet Schwartz in the Darkite capital, Schwartz openly criticized her.
Why get so caught up in the life of a mortal, she would ask. Their time has come. It is time for me to cut the thread of this world and go survey the next.
But Grune had a firm stand. She learned what it is mortals go through, how fleeting, difficult, and fulfilling their lives were. Not all had happy endings, of course, but still--they fought with every drop of blood and sweat they had to live.
Grune before never thought much of it, but life was precious. As fragile as a single thread fresh from the spindle.
And to cut that thread of life so mercilessly without remorse or a single thought made Grune physically sick.
When the diplomatic journey ended--in failure--the Dark Empire initiated the final step of instigating the final Gigas War that would have the Silvites bring about the Rains of Destruction.
Queen Schwartz issued the order to give information to the Purple, Red, Yellow, and Green Empires about the Silvites' plan of destroying the Empires and escape the destruction. The elementals were chosen to infiltrate Soltis and eliminate their threat to the planet.
Grune had chosen not to respond to the summons.
However, the Yelites, Crimsites, and Violites had responded--sending their elementals to Soltis, unbeknownst to the trap Schwartz and the Silvites had set.
Schwartz herself had seen that a particular Yelite would be chosen, for he had somehow learned of the true origins of the queens of old.
Hoseia, Reno, and Nievia.
Their whole lives had already been drastically changed when they took within themselves the crystals of their Moons, but now their lives would be so utterly changed that revertion was impossible. Grune saw this in a vision courtesy of Schwartz as the Silvites captured the elementals and confined them in Monuments on the ship that was later to become the Legacy, in special chambers designed to make use of the power of their crystals.
Thunder for Hoseia, Fire for Reno, Ice for Nievia.
And of course--
Earth for Grune.
Schwartz had meant for Grune to be lured into this trap, or perhaps to show her what she viewed fragile mortal life as--game pieces merley for their amusment, the immortals who surveyed over all.
The Silvites had done their will--they had caused the Rains of Destruction using Zelos and sealed the rest of the Gigas, along with their crystals. Half of their number made for a new planet, the planet where the descendants of Azurites had already made their home, and the rest of the Silvites floating in space under the Silver Moon in the Great Silver Shrine, watching over Arcadia.
The Rains of Destruction were the worst thing Grune ever had seen.
Every Moon, beyond her power to control--for she only wove the fabric, held no absolute power over its pattern and how it unraveled--dropped titantic moonstones that rained on the lands beneath each of the Moons.
Rixis and the rest of the world crumbled around her even as she stood in the Rixis Palace, and she lost consciousness.
Grune awoke in the ruins of her Empire.
Even though she had been terribly battered, her limbs were still whole, and she herself was still alive.
For none could kill one without vanquishing the other.
That day, sitting in the ruins of her once grand civilization, Grune swore vengeance on Schwartz for her indifferent, cruel treatment of mortal life.
"Schwartz?" Will said, and Grune snapped out of her trance.
Grune nodded, the confusion still evident in her allies' faces.
"She is the Darkite Queen from Old World Arcadia, and I the Jadite Queen."
They need not know more than that.
"Darkite ..." Jay said quietly, and Grune understood, seeing how Jay, a Derines, was descended from Darkites. But Grune was glad for Jay; he showed none of that Darkite cruel killer nature that Schwartz had borne.
Grune continued as if Jay said nothing.
"Schwartz is the embodiment of Destruction, that is the ultimate power of the Dark Moon." For the Green and Dark Moons had been fashioned after their rulers. "Since this planet is the remains of Old World Arcadia, she seeks to destory it."
"But wait," Csaba said, the grip he held on his bow tightening, "what about New World Arcadia? It is the remains of its own Old World; why does she only do it here?"
The others nodded in agreement, and Grune mentally cursed.
"Do not ask me to fathom the mind of a killer, Csaba." Grune said coldly, and Csaba ducked his head, ashamed.
"G-Girl!" Norma exclaimed, and Grune stared at her. The memories of the time she spent with this group were very fresh, and it stung to have Norma--her fastest friend--look at her with such a pained expression.
"There is no time." Grune replied icily, rather reminiscient of Nievia, the ice elemental. "We must find Schwartz and vanquish her so that nothing of her nature can ever harm anything ever again."
Of course, things would begin and end even without the weaver of time and the cutter of the threads, but she wanted to let life be able to fight until its last breath, not swept under the rug without so much a second thought.
"How do we find such a person?" Senel asked, fists clenched with impatience.
"Wherever chaos, discord, unrest, disease, and hatred reign, you will find her."
Chloe nodded, arms folded across her chest. "Yes, and there is the black mist as well. We could try asking around where and when the last bout of black mist occurred."
Will looked to Jay.
"And we do have a Derines with us."
Grune nodded in confirmation, starting to walk toward the towering elevator.
"Then let us be on our way."
--
"No! No!"
Walter struggled to get to his feet, a thick stream of blood gushing down the side of his face. His fellow Ferines, members of the FelCyes, dropped like flies before the monsters, shrouded in black mist, stinking with festering wounds and decay.
Whisper Crystal in hand, Walter tried desperately to band his scattered force of automata, but the mist seeped into their shells and rendered them immobile, shutting down their systems within seconds.
The coral automata, one by one, fell into pieces, useless scraps of eres stone.
Bodies of FelCyes soldiers littered the ground like so much refuse. Walter staggered over a body, hoping the city's eres shields would hold. The FelCyes already were on patrol around the capital when a shroud of black mist descended around the city. Shields were raised, and Walter mustered the FelCyes to mount a defense.
It was failing.
Cold.
The black mist was heavy around him, and he called his teriques to him.
"Fel ... Ques ... Des!"
He made a weak throwing motion with his arm, but the teriques merely fluttered weakly before disappearing.
"N-no ..."
Walter coughed; the mist was suffocating him. Why wouldn't his teriques work? Was what Jay said true, that Walter would be Ferines and Derines all in one?
Perhaps that's why he tended to become so ... unstable.
"MelQues!"
The mist got thinner in an instant; Walter blinked. From the barrier protecting the capital emerged a woman emitting a golden light with sweeping long hair of the same hue.
Walter's breath hitched.
"Stella! You idiot; go back inside! If you die, the Merines ..."
Stella paid no heed, instead engaging a monster in battle. Walter, weak and fading fast, exhausted, could only watch as Stella fought.
But Walter slowly came to realize there was no reason for worry. Like he did, Stella channeled eres energy into her limbs, thus strengthening her hand-to-hand blows as she danced with the humanoid fiend.
Walter failed to supress a small smile.
He had taught her well.
Stella tripped the fiend with a low sweeping kick and she quickly chanted a crysal eres while it was down.
"O violent torrent--Splash!"
Gushes of seawater crashed down on the fell fiend. It thrashed in terrible death throes, but soon it stilled, dead. Walter fell to the ground, breathing heavily.
"Walter!?"
Stella rushed toward him, preparing perhaps to heal him. Coughing, Walter pushed her hand away.
"Get back ... inside. If you die, the Merines would be ... grieved." Never mind that Shirley already lost her beloved sister once.
Stella knelt beside him anyway, gathering eres energy to heal.
"Don't be silly," she said in a firm no-nonsense tone, "In fact, if I didn't help, Shirley would be ashamed of me. Now hold still."
His wounds ran red, but they slowly closed, the healing eres soothing as its caster worked.
But the coldness would not leave his body, and he knew what was coming.
The black mist crushed him.
"Walter? Walter!" Stella screamed.
--
A soothing voice.
Soft, quiet, gentle ... like a mother's voice.
"Ugh ... M-mother?" Walter whispered.
Then he felt infinitely silly. He had no mother ... she either left or died shortly after Walter's birth, and his father never came forth to claim him.
That's why he had been raised a warrior from birth. It was the destiny of an illegitimate child--a bastard--to lead the FelCyes, to give his life for the greater cause of protecting the Merines as well as the whole Ferines tribe.
Surrounded by nothing but frigid, swirling dark mist ... Was this what it was like to be dead?
The voice again.
"Cease your struggle, child of man. Fall into the everlasting slumber of death."
Walter tried to move his limbs; it wasn't working.
"Wh-who are you ...? Why should I ... lie down and die?"
He opened his eyes, not without difficulty. Dark, swirling mist, cold to the touch. And a woman clad in an ebony gown, a black mask over her eyes, and a gold torque set with a blood red jewel glimmered at her throat. Her long ice-blue hair was bound into a pony tail, the trailing locks of hair braided.
The woman approached. She had a regal bearing, a sort of royal elegance about her. Her speech and tone were of one accustomed to being absolutely obeyed without question.
"All life suffers when it is born. The threads of life, woven into a cloth, unravel quickly."
Walter struggled to sit upright, staring at the woman, eyes smoldering.
"Really? Then mayhap the blanket of my life can yet serve to keep the Ferines warm for a little longer. For I do not intend to unravel just yet!"
The woman stood unflinching.
"... Schwartz."
Walter blinked. "Wh-what?"
"My name."
Walter flushed but said nothing more.
"How can you defend the Ferines," Schwartz said, approaching him, "if you cannot defend yourself? All your life you have been ostracized by the Ferines, for being a bastard, for bearing those black wings that represent an enemy of Nerifes."
Walter scowled, but did not deny it. It was true after all, that the Ferines treated him differently. They were scared of those demon wings he wore, and was even named for that singular quality.
"Why not simply surrender? Suffer you would no longer."
Walter struggled to get to his feet. Breathing heavily, he glared defiantly at Schwartz.
"Never will I surrender!" He roared. "If I should have no choice in life but to abide by the fate others have chosen for me, then let my choice to live rather than die be my only freedom!"
The mist seemed to thin a little, and Walter through he saw Stella running about the battlefield, calling his name, fighting off fiends and trying to help the injured and dying FelCyes. But she was only one. She could not save the army on her own.
Schwartz struck Walter down, and as he fell the vision of the world beyond disappeared. Walter lost sight of Stella's guiding light.
"Silence!" Schwartz thundered. "A mother would expect obedience from her son, and I expect no less from you, Walter Delques!"
Walter's mind went blank. He could not move, and dared not breathe for fear he might have misinterpreted Schwartz's words.
"Wh-what ..."
A blow came from the side, and Walter rolled across the floor from its force, groaning with the pain. Schwartz approached him, an ebony staff in hand, dark stones adorning its neck.
"No matter," she said, gathering energy about her undoubtedly for a spell, "After all, bad blood is bad blood. A bastard you were born, and a bastard you will die."
Walter could not move, try as he might. Gasping shallow breath, Walter did the only thing he could--closed his eyes and prayed.
--
The shroud of black mist was nigh impenetrable, no matter how many sea crystal eres or golden teriques Stella threw at it. What was this dark curtain?
Panting, Stella tossed a teriques at the shroud. The gold light dissolved upon contact.
"No ..."
If she were still connected to the Legacy, she might have been able to penetrate the shroud with her teriques, just as she had stopped the second round of the Nerifes Cannon.
But such a display of power nearly killed her.
She swallowed a pineapple gel, hoping for the medicine to work quickly.
Drawing a deep breath, she concentrated.
"FelQuesMes!"
Hallowed Wings of Light.
The gold and black fought ferociously with one another--a rift opened in the shroud, a glimpse beyond the veil. There was Walter in the darkness, lying on the ground. He saw Stella, gasped, and lunged toward the opening in the veil of black mist.
"Stella!" Walter screeched, and she grabbed his outstretched arm. The opening in the mist was closing quickly, black tendrils of mist grabbed at Walter's body like spider-thin arms.
Stella cringed as she tried to pull Walter from his prison. By Nerifes! He was so cold. Walter's teriques bloomed at his shoulders and with their remaining power combined with Stella's pull as an anchor Walter escaped the claws of the mist.
Heaving for breath as he collapsed on the ground, Walter pointed at a coral duct--one of many in Ferines territory that had been sealed off as a measure of security.
"Stella," Walter murmured, "Open the duct. It opens with an eres verse," he coughed out the Relares in a nevertheless understandable jumble, "and find the Merines. Find help."
Walter fell limp on the ground, motionless.
But not lifeless.
"Okay," Stella whispered.
--
The girl called Stella had retained at least some of the outstanding power her synchronization with the Legacy had given her. Grune admired the girl for her gallantry. A gold teriques aura glowed around Walter, holding him, protecting him from the black mist that threatened to engulf him and so much else.
Grune stepped forward, addressing the mist.
"Schwartz."
The mist evaporated, revealing the woman wreaking such havoc on MelFes.
"Grune," she replied icily.
Stella and Shirley set to work at once by means of healing the defeated captain of the FelCyes.
Grune hated to keep the others in the dark about this matter, but it had to be done. Her leaf green aura came to her call, and the battle began.
--
Senel didn't know what was going on. All he knew was that Schwartz was the one responsible for the black mist, Schwartz was attacking, and he had to fight back.
It was confusing, utterly nothing but unadulterated chaos.
Will and Norma supported with their crystal eres (Stella and Shirley were still healing Walter), Senel attacked Schwartz with the melee support of Jay, Moses, and Chloe, the beasts backed them up, and Csaba was a great help with his vollies of arrows.
Schwartz, ever elusive as a snake, dodged every single attempt the party had made to harm her--all but Grune. As Grune wore Schwartz down, Senel found it easier to land more and more eres on the ancient Darkite queen, the others' attacks landing more hits as well.
Senel and the others froze when as a result of an eres strike (whose it was hard to tell), Schwartz's maske was torn from her face.
Or rather, Grune's face.
The whole battlefield stilled into hellish silence.
Senel was having trouble comprehending what the hell had just happened.
Schwartz and Grune had the same face.
Her face--Grune's face--was battered, bruised and bloody. A soft smile came to her lips.
"Well done."
And she began to disintegrate, leaving nothing but black feathers in her wake.
--
It'd been a week since Grune's death.
The entire party was too stunned to move anywhere, so a very shaken Shirley offered to allow them to stay in the Ferines capital until they could cope well enough with this unexpected turn of events to return to their own homes.
Not that any Ferines could complain, especially Walter--to rid the world of Schwartz and her fell black mist made Senel's group heroes overnight.
Not that Senel felt anything like a hero of the sorts.
More like a murderer.
He had nightmares still, worse than the nightmares that used to plague him--of Shirley's transformation, of Stella's apparent death before, of the attack on the Ferines village three years ago.
Senel had trouble banishing from his mind the image of Schwartz's face, dark red blood streaming down her ivory skin, her eyes empty as she congratulated them on their victory. She had disappeared into nothingness, leaving only black feathers.
Shortly after Schwartz had died, Grune began to look transparent. At first everyone attributed it to eres exhaustion and the strain battling Schwartz had put on them--but when they ran up to Grune, they could see that she truly was disappearing.
Now Senel could make heads and tails of what she said at the time of her disappearance--at the time he was too distraught to do anything but gape.
Grune called herself the Weaver of Time, counterpart to Schwartz, the cutter of the threads when their time had come. Life and Death would go on as they would even without them, but they were immortals still with immense power. Goddesses, if you will.
Grune had said that the Great Nerifes, during the wars between Ferines and Orerines, was distraught at is own powerlessness, and desired release from its sad existence. That was when Schwartz had first begun to heed its call after the destruction of Old World Arcadia.
Shirley had been surprised. When she had spoken with Nerifes when they were searching for Grune, it had told her nothing about Schwartz's appearance. Grune had answered that with the peace treaties and cease in the Ferines-Orerines conflict, Nerifes had begun to hope.
And Grune had already made it her life's mission to rid the world of Schwartz once and for all.
But, being of the same coin, she could not banish one without vanquishing the other.
Mirroring Schwartz's death, Grune had disappeared, leaving nothing but white feathers in her wake.
"I'm sorry."