37. Secrets: Sparkle
Her name was Crystalle. She was a snow fairie, one of those who inhabited the frozen Fieg Snowfields, and the forest she traversed now was rather warmer than she was accustomed to. Nevertheless, she floated serenely over the path, paying the weather little mind.
It mattered not for what she had come here to do.
It was always tricky to find one's way through the White Forest; once it had been possible only at night, now the rumor was one only could do so with the blessing of the dragon that guarded it. Crystalle did not need it; fairies did not travel on the same paths as others.
The tree positively radiated up ahead, drawing her like a beacon. Not the tree, that was lost along with the fairie heritage of the past. But it was another tree she was looking for today.
This tree was quite ancient in its own right, and had enough Mana to it to be worthy of respect. It was what lay beyond, in the small glade, that made it that way, and Crystalle drew an ethereal breath at the feeling of the new Mana Stone, not quite ripe but growing, being nurtured. The small trees broke into a clearing, and finally, she saw the tree with the primitive sense of vision.
Lilipeas scattered around, pwa-ing in that soft, melodious tone. They were there as company, perhaps, for the enormous white dragon who reclined on the tree's roots, accompanied by her ever-present dragoon.
The dragoon tensed visibly, but did not move. Crystalle could sense the ancestry of the Beast Kingdom and of Forcena in her; like all true creatures of Mana, she was able to perceive those connections of history, of descent, that subtly made one what one was today.
But the dragoon posed no threat, and instead, Crystalle focused her attention on the dragon. Vadise had her one eye closed as she languorously breathed in the air of the forest, but it snapped open as the fairy grew close. The other socket was puckered and dry… part of the legacy of Deathbringer.
In a roundabout sense, Deathbringer was the reason she was here today; one of many reasons, but overall, all those reasons came from one and the same. The world needed a better future, she knew; and it was that hope that had brought her here, hope for something more. If it could become so.
"Snow faerie." The one eye of Vadise, a dragon far more ancient than her tree, traveled towards her, even as the rest of the dragon's body did not move. "What brings you here, so far from your domain?" Her voice was low, lyrical, with the vaguest remnants of an accent in Mana tongue that had softened over the centuries.
"Vadise. Dragon Princess." Crystalle curtsied and bowed her head to honor the ancient guardian of the Stone. Some fairies were rather jealous of the dragons, feeling almost as if their legacy had been stolen from them, the same sort that hated the humans for many of the same reasons. Crystalle was not one of those. "I come here today to ask for a bit of your stone."
A brief, but potent statement, and Vadise understood immediately, snapping her neck upwards as she was brought suddenly, sharply to attention. "Who do you wish to be Jumi?" she demanded, voice like a whip.
The fairy recoiled slightly at the abruptness of the response. She spoke hesitantly. "There is… a one..."
"Spill it," the dragoon growled for her dragon, knives suddenly unsheathed. "We have no time for frivolities here."
"Sierra." Vadise cast a look upon her impulsive dragoon, layering meaning into the simple use of her name. Sierra looked a bit abashed, but the weapons were only lowered slightly.
After centuries of conflict, and Deathbringer's recent machinations… the defensive response was unsurprising. Had she been human, Crystalle might have been perturbed. Instead, she met the dragon's gaze, locking with that one enormous blue eye as she opened herself to the small amount of Mana she could access, a little portal to the fairy dimension, and showed Vadise.
Understanding was near instantaneous, and the dragon flinched as if struck. A large, watery tear welled up at the corner of her one away, but was blinked away so quickly that Crystalle could not be sure she had not imagined it.
"Really?" Vadise said softly, and Crystalle only nodded.
"Wait here," the dragon princess ordered, turning her enormous body with surprising grace, and somehow disappearing into the forest itself.
----------------------------------------
The trees closed behind her, protecting her from both sight and sense, but they could not protect her from the thought that suddenly filled her head, thoughts she thought she had long since buried. She had mourned the loss of the fairies in the wars centuries before, and she had felt pain as Deathbringer had destroyed the Jumi in his attack on their city, only a handful of years ago. An attack that should not have been possible. An attack that she had hoped, for Lady Blackpearl's sake, would never happen.
Jajara had long been preaching that death would take hold before life could once again. But it should never have happened to the Jumi.
Now, suddenly, the fairy had appeared, seeking something no one had ever dared to ask her for, and all those feelings were dredged up again. Idly, she wondered if it was the Goddess herself, forcing her to feel, forcing her to care.
The green cane pulsed softly in time with the new Mana Stone behind it, adding the memories of Anuella to all the sharp memories now cutting the soul of the white dragon. She picked it up in one talon as if it was a torch, gliding past the Stone, the crystal humming almost quizzically as she passed.
It was not the new stone Crystalle wanted. It was the old Tree Stone, whose shattered bits had nearly merged with the forest under the green cane's influence, it pulling Mana in a way only a few other places, like Mekiv, did. There was little enough of the Stone left, the sparsest remnants only, which Vadise irrationally guarded as mementoes of an era gone.
She had never let any of those pieces go; none had ever been used for a Jumi. Nor had she expected any more Jumi to be formed. After hunting, persecution, isolation, destruction… who would even want to?
Then again, perhaps a simple finicky possessiveness meant that she had never allowed any Jumi to have a fragment of her stone. It was the only untouched of the original stones, and it was so because she had protected it.
She had reason to make an exception now.
What would Blackpearl think? she wondered. Vadise had no reason not to assume the woman was not as dead as the rest of them; the occasional rumors of a Jumi surviving, found far away from his or her home, were scant and unsubstantiated. Those who had escaped the city had largely fallen to the hunting that had arisen once again, that same morbid desire of others that had driven them into their city in the first place. With a silent prayer to the Goddess of the future, and a wish for the Jumi woman she had once known, she cast her gaze over the gems before her… and knew it as soon as she found it.
There were no sharp edges to it; Mana had neatly softened the angles into a perfectly symmetrical oval, and as she picked it up, the green cane pulsed in a sort of recognition. It was a rich, bright blue, flecked with gold, like stars in the night sky… "Or dust scattered on the wind," she whispered to the stone. "Mana itself, scattered into pieces, coming together once again. Fragments, like the Jumi themselves are now." She could feel the slender trails and whorls of all the elements inside, mixing, separating, joining once again.
She looked carefully at the swirls of gold through the stone, the elements maintained in a tenuous balance that one wondered why it did not all fall to ashes. As the Goddess once had. Sometimes it seemed almost easier to keep things separate, and opposite, but in that the magic of life was missing, its sparkle was destroyed.
There was power in this stone, the Tree element being the truest expression of the Goddess - the element of life, love, and the future. The stone made her want to cry with its memories, and she wondered what legacy she was granting to the human it transformed. Naturally, that Jumi would not be able to cry… but would he appreciate it, understand it? Or was it even a he? Come to think of it, she wasn't even sure if it was meant for a boy or a girl.
Vadise might have wished the walk back had been longer, but she found herself back by her tree quickly enough, the snow fairie waiting patiently yet expectantly. She slowly approached Crystalle, finally drawing close and leaning forward to meet her eye-to-eye, regarding her with heavy solemnity.
"A child, you showed me, and that was all, a child that must become Jumi, or else." Vadise felt her own voice quavering, wondering at the sacrifice that was about to be made, the how, the why, the what that had led to this necessity today. "Not just any Jumi, but a Jumi with a bit of nearly the Goddess herself, a bit of the Tree element in which She housed her soul. Can a child even survive such a transformation?"
Crystalle clutched the gift, her aura exuding thanks. "We can only hope."
----------------------------------------
Author's Extended and Reflective Note: Yes, a quick update this time! Because they are relatively short… though not without potency. It should be pretty obvious whose core is being traded around in this chapter…
And as for the duo… I think I've made it evident that Vadise is taking a slightly different approach to the saving of Mana and the Goddess, compared to some of the other dragons.
I'm a bit relieved to be finishing out the Dragon Arc. The past several chapters were pretty intense to arrange and write. For those of you who liked chapter 36… chapter 40 promises to be equally SLAMMIN'.
So, what next? I will probably complete most of the Jumi Arc as well before the next update. Right now, I have almost thirty pages of notes (handwritten, not typed!) on those chapters, including a quick 'n dirty game transcript. So... it will probably take a couple weeks to get through. In the meantime, I hope to have another chapter or two up for my side project, "The Last Amazon".
And then what? If the Jumi Arc ends soon… but I've promised you twenty-two more chapters… ? Stay tuned!
I usually prefer to respond directly and personally to reviewers, but I have a review without a reply link, so I'm going to do it here.
To Dee: Thanks! I'm glad you like the "Secrets" chapters. I've noticed approximately a quarter of readers read only the "Legends" chapters, perhaps for lack of knowledge of SD3? That's fine with me if they are enjoying the story, but those "Secrets" chapters contain a lot of information that becomes more and more relevant near the end.
I was sorry to see Anuella go myself, but it's canon, and I do take a dark edge to my stories where not everyone has a happy ending.
Obviously you know the LoM "World History", but I'm going to have to disappoint you on the flying ship part. I used almost all of that history, either literally or metaphorically, except for two parts: The Moon-Gods-and-Flammies, which were substituted by SD3 (the story's a crossover, after all) and the Janna-fairy-stuff.
The reason is: whereas most of the world history had an effect on the modern LoM world (wisdoms, founding of Geo, disappearance of Jumi, etc. etc…) that particular aspect… doesn't really have anything to do with anything else ingame. I suppose I could have crafted something out of it, but I didn't feel like I was given enough complexity slash possibilities to work with. Though one idea I did take from it… the "angel that became Jumi"… Jumi are more fairy-ish than fairies nowadays, so they are "angels" in a way, especially with their healing powers, don't you think?
What you CAN look forward to… Several of the next Secrets chapter will have character backstories, i.e. "modern history", but linking them into the more ancient history. There will also be more about the Empire, and the events preceding and following the climactic scene of chapter 33; and the SD3 story and characters will resurge as we get closer to the end.
OK, enough blabbing! Go read, everyone!