A/N: Here we begin the next arc of the story, which centers around Arthur. I hope you enjoy!
Oh Friege, poor Friege. A formerly good dukedom taken over by horrible people for years. From Reptor and then to Blume and his wife Hilda.
The Friege army had to go out of their way to take away Tailtiu and her children to Alster. All because she was 'traitorous' and without anyone to protect her, she was kidnapped, locked in the dungeons underneath Alster.
Even though Tailtiu's son, Arthur, managed to run away, he ended up getting caught along with them, he was only a small child then. So they took Arthur and Tinni away too.
Such a horrible family they had. Each day Tailtiu would get beaten down in hopes of protecting her kids. It went on for years, and Arthur had to witness all of it, hugging Tinni tightly, covering her face with his body so she wouldn't see. Why did this have to happen? Why did they have to witness this? They were still very young, it was gruesome to see.
Arthur in particular was furious seeing it.
In Tailtiu's final moments, she was absolutely furious, but couldn't do anything about it. She was physically and mentally beaten down. She hadn't eaten in days, at any moment she would lose her life. The worst part of this was that she had learned that her husband, Lewyn had come back to Silesse and assumed the throne as King of Silesse. He didn't even bother to try to save her.
When she died, all Arthur could think of was that horrible, neglectful father of his. He never even met his father in person. He wanted to take him down, it started as a simple sense of revenge. But eventually he got crazier over all of this.
Years had passed after Tailtiu's death, Arthur was eighteen years old and Tinni sixteen, almost seventeen.
In a miraculous spark of hope, their cousins, Ishtore and Ishtar, managed to let them stay with them. At least they wouldn't be on the verge of death anymore. From that day onward, Arthur began to teach himself magic; he already knew the basics of thunder magic just from his holy blood alone, but he needed to learn more of it.
Before his mother died, he was given her Thoron tome. He remembered the exact words she said when she gave him the tome. 'Arthur...please use this, use it to protect Tinni at all costs…' Those words were enough to make him tear up. Ever since then, he tried his best to learn how to use it. It wasn't long until he eventually mastered it, he was able to even use it without the tome itself.
With the help of Ishtore, he managed to learn all kinds of thunder magic. He managed to learn most of them, save a few. He wasn't as capable as Ishtar, but even with his minor Thrud blood, he definitely learned a lot about how thunder magic worked.
Despite all his knowledge on thunder magic, he felt like it wasn't enough. He needed more ways to cast magic if he wanted to kill Lewyn! But what else was there?
Oh wait, wind magic.
He had been avoiding it for years, he didn't want suspicions about his Major Forseti blood. Not only that, but he didn't want to be reminded of Father, only the thought of him made his blood boil.
He had thought that all hope was lost and that he had to use wind magic. But while he was walking through the library, he found a tome he had never seen before, it was a fire tome.
He sat down and opened the book. After a bit of studying, he tried many times to light a fire, but failed each time.
"Oh, come on stupid tome, light up!" He grumbled.
"Arthur, you should stop, you're wearing yourself out," Tinni, who was studying at the table next to his, told him. "You might also end up starting a fire!"
"So what if that happens? Certainly better than using the power of wind. If anything, having this wretched place burn down would give us an escape route, wouldn't you like that?" Arthur said, refusing to make eye contact with his sister as he attempted to light the tome again.
"B-But, what about Ishtar and Ishtore? How would they feel about that?"
"I-I don't know! Whatever, it doesn't matter! I need to get stronger! I need them all to suffer! Not only father, but those stupid Frigis have been a thorn in my side also."
Tinni looked over to him. "Arthur, you need to stop, I don't want you to get in trouble! You saw what they did to Mother...if you continue this...they might do the same to you…"
"Well if they try to even lay a finger on me, I'll take them down!" Arthur exclaimed, and with a final attempt to cast a spell, it finally lit up. It was a small flame, but it was enough to make Arthur celebrate. "Hah! It worked! I finally did it! Did you see that, Tinni?"
"Y-Yeah, it was cool! But please...don't try anything rash."
Arthur laughed sarcastically. "Oh, don't worry, I'll be allllright." Then, he slammed the book closed as the flame died down.
"I-If you say so...I think we should go back now, it's starting to get late, Ishtar will get worried," She advised, looking over at the window nearby.
"Yeah I think we should. Just a bit longer, then I can esca-" Arthur got cut off by Tinni patting his back.
"Don't even think about it, not without bringing me along with you first!"
"O-Oh, yeah, of course!"
With a smile, Tinni got up and left the library, and Arthur tagged along with her. They walked down the halls to where they normally slept at, quietly though, so nobody would wake up and see them. When Arthur opened the door to their room, he sighed, it was one single bed with a firm mattress, and only a small desk to compensate for that small room. At least it was warm, he thought.
The night was the safest time for Arthur, it was quiet, and he wouldn't be bothered by his aunt and uncle. For moments on end he thought he was finally safe, but he knew he wasn't. All those thoughts in his head came back to him each day, everything was hell. Studying magic was the only time where he could forget about everything. At least Tinni was still around, if it wasn't for her he probably would've gone crazy.
Soon enough, he got ready to go to sleep. When he went under the covers, he sighed again. Both from exhaustion and sadness. Each day he would try and plan a way to escape from this hellhole, but each time he attempted he would either be convinced otherwise. Even when he wasn't deep in the dungeons anymore, this entire castle felt like a prison, he just wanted to leave.
He must've fallen asleep quickly, as the next thing he knew he was being woken up by Blume, as always. He couldn't even understand what he was saying anymore, everything was just garbled in his head, perhaps being used to it caused that. Once Blume left the room, he got up and got ready for the day. Then he left the room and looked around the halls. Tinni must've woken up already, damnit he was late again wasn't he? Why did this always have to happen?
He went near the exit, looking over at the table with his food there, nothing but a piece of bread and some water. Well, this was better than nothing, he thought and took the food and water and went to the courtyard of the castle. There, he was able to practice his magic without a tome, as using magic without tomes required a lot of practice to fully get used to it. He may have mastered the ability of thunder magic, but practice would make him even more powerful. Only Ishtar would be able to surpass him.
Once he ate his food for the day, he went to the center of the courtyard, the usual place where he would use his magic. When he went there however, he saw his cousin, Ishtore, also training his thunder magic as well. He decided to walk over to him and say, "Oh, Ishtore, you're practicing some magic as well? Normally I don't see you over here."
Launching a random attack with a Thoron spell, and taking a minute to breathe, Ishtore turned to Arthur. "Oh, yeah, I'm preparing for a very important job I was assigned by my father."
That got him...way more curious than he should have been. "Oh? What did he ask you to do?"
"Well, it's hard to say but, you heard the news of the Liberation Army heading toward here from the Yied Desert?"
"Uhhh, I think so, very vaguely though. They're heading over here, you say? Fascinating," Arthur said, a bit deep in thought.
"Well, Liza and I were assigned to defend Melgen, so I'm trying to prepare myself by using some spells I haven't used in some time, such as Bolting, so I can ambush the army from a distance." Ishtore then used a Bolting spell to destroy something from afar.
"Hmmm I see, I wish you luck, Ishtore. Same with Liza too, where is she?"
"She's in Melgen, I'll be on my way to Melgen once I'm done with all this," Ishtore said.
Arthur nodded, then he huffed. "Yeah, well, I'll leave you to it, Ishtore. Don't want to interrupt you more than I already have."
Once he turned back to find another place to practice his magic, he stopped for a moment to think. The Liberation Army's goal might be to take down Blume, is it not? Perhaps he could use that to his advantage. But no, he couldn't allow them to take all the credit, he should be the one to kill him. He and Tinni could join the army so that he could take down Blume himself. The only thing that was concerning him at that point was Ishtore...he expected the worst. What if they ended up killing him? As much as he relied on Tinni, Ishtore was also an important part of his life, so him ending up getting killed would be...hard, to say the least. Was it really worth it trading his life for a chance to kill Blume?
But, at the same time, he trusted his cousin, he was very skilled, as well as Liza. So maybe it would all be alright...for the most part at least.
With that thought in mind, he tried to focus on his magic, the long-awaited day might be close, he needed to train hard in order to accomplish his goal.
The cold skies of Silesse, something she had soared through her entire life. She had never been this far into the mountains, but the same breeze flowed against her. But as she moved forward on her pegasus, the air became hotter and drier, it was hard to breathe but it was nice to finally feel something else than cold air and snow.
It felt like a dream come true, she finally left all those snowfields and was met with a big desert, all she could see was sand, but she finally made it out of Silesse, though she wished it was in better circumstances.
After father somehow found out about Julia's escape, she sent her to find her. Sadly Cedsy hadn't told her where she was exactly, that added to the fact that it was her first time outside! She had no idea where she was going! She only went in the same direction as the day she found Julia near the border.
Hopefully Julia was in a good place with nice people, she really missed her. It had been months since she last saw her, hopefully she could find her quickly. She obviously wasn't going to take her back to the castle, maybe she could finally fulfill her dream of traveling the world with her. It was a perfect opportunity!
She kept flying and flying, with no particular destination. She didn't even know where to look! Maybe she would find a village or a town after she crossed the desert, she could ask around there. Julia shouldn't be too hard to spot, right? 'Who else in the world would have a beautiful silver hair like hers?!' Fee thought.
Once the desert showed some signs of grass and a city could be seen from the distance, she told her pegasus to start going slower and to fly closer to the ground. Slowly approaching the city, she could tell that a battle was raging around it. Why here of all places? Well she had no other option now.
"Are we really gonna land here?!" The wind mage behind her suddenly said.
She let out a squeal, she honestly was so immersed in her thoughts and the landscape that she had totally forgotten about him, "Y-Yeah! We should be fine if we go unnoticed! Just trust me, uh, A-Adam?!" She said.
"It's Amid!" He sighed, "Anyway, hopefully what you say it's true."
"Y-Yeah, of course! Just get whatever weapon you have ready, just in case. Heh!" She laughed nervously.
"That doesn't sound reassuring at all! Why couldn't a better pegasus knight find me!"
"H-Hey! Mahnya and I are working really hard! Be thankful you didn't have to walk through the snow! You would've died there!" Fee yelled. "Well, anyway, we are about to land so you better get ready," She continued, changing her tone drastically, to a lower one.
Amid rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright, just give a minute." Then he took out his wind tome. "There, I found it, happy now?"
"Oh hush you," Fee quipped, before finally landing her pegasus near the trees. Then she took out her Wind Sword and turned to Amid again. "Now hop off and fight some bad guys!"