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ALSO: I said that this would be part of the series and this chapter is introducing a prequel story Fate Threads of Destiny.
Chapter 7- Queen of the Celestial Heavens
Ariene POV
Ariene followed Cleo out of the living room and into a smaller, separate lounge room after she introduced her true identity to the rest of the group. After she had done that, everyone had properly introduced themselves. She had been shocked that the green-eyed Saber had been Arthur Pendragon. She was so used to King Arthur being female that it was just strange to see an actual male.
"I think we broke them with our news about Chaldea." Cleo said, an easy smile appearing on her face. She rolled her shoulders, trying to get the tension out of them. "I know it's bad, but it was kinda funny to see all their expressions change."
"You certainly seem to be in a better mood." Ariene observed, feeling her own smile appear on her face. Even if Cleo didn't want to admit it, she knew it was because she was taking a break from the planning. Ever since they had gotten to this Tokyo singularity, Cleo had been putting more pressure on herself because Isolde was a new Master, but finally, Ariene seemed to have convinced her that she could share the responsibility, even if Issie was new to the game.
While her Uncle Roman had been Chaldea and its function to Jeanne and the rest of her company, she and Ariene had been having a conversation through their mind link. Her servant scolding her for not giving Isolde enough credit and to give her more to do. So she had decided to let Issie plan their next step with Rin, Jeanne and Ayaka.
"I can't relax until this is over. It's only like day two and I'm stressed." Cleo said, but she did feel better. Why did she feel more pressure without Kakeru anyways? She bet that he wasn't, so she had to be strong like him.
Ariene shook her head at her Master. "Just take a deep breath, Cléophée." She smirked when Cleo glared at her, it was no secret that she didn't like her full name.
"Cléophée?" Both looked towards the deep voice at the door to see both Arthur and Gawain standing there. "Is that your full name?" It was Arthur who had spoke, an amused smirk in his eyes.
"Yes." Cleo grumbled, glaring at the two males. "What do you want? Where are the others?"
Arthur ignored the sour mood their presence seemed to put Cleo in and settled in a seat opposite them, "Well Ayaka, Issie and Rin are still making a game plan for tomorrow. Boudica and Atalanta are keeping watch on the top of the building and... I think Jeanne and Siegfried decided to do rounds around the perimeter, probably to talk privately."
"We actually had a question for you guys." Gawain spoke up, he settled next to Cleo, causing her to shift uncomfortably and him to freeze. "I am sorry Cleo. Do you wish for me to move?"
"N-n o." Cleo quickly shook her head, her green eyes widening as her face became beat read.
Ariene laughed lightly at the scene, "What did you want to ask?" She looked between the two blondes.
"Can you tell us your legend?" Arthur asked.
Ariene paused for a moment, looking at them stunned, "You want to know? Why?"
"It's just curiosity, we've never met anyone who's from a different world." Gawain explained.
Cleo and Ariene exchanged a glance before Ariene shrugged. "I'll give you the bookends version."
The first thing that Ariene remembered when she was a child was staring up at the twelve grand temples of Vasillía and how the sun glittered off the top of all twelve gems and made the water sparkle. She also remembered when night came and the soft waves of the lake reflected the brilliant stars of the night sky perfectly, making the grand city seem like it was floating through the night sky.
As a child she was though all sorts of knowledge from poetry and music to alchemy and magic. But most of all she remembered the rough sessions with weapons that she went through every single day for hours in her childhood; she practiced sword skills, archery, the lance, dual swords, and she learned to ride the wildest of stallions, all this to make her the best Queen. Through her training, she became one of Vasillía's best fighters at the ripe age of eight and was sent out to the field to learn how to lead at the battlefront.
She was also trained from a young age in the usage of magic, because the Queen of Vasillía wielded a sacred magic called the celestial soul. This sacred magic allowed the present Queen to use the abilities and call forth the weapons of past Queens to help guard the realm, though for only certain amounts of time. Ariene herself was special, she was one of the strongest Queens ever produced, so she mastered the celestial soul much faster than past Queens.
All of this tough regiment was because she was supposed to be the Thirty-third Queen of Vasillía. A country that had it's capital, Cíellan and it's twelve sacred temples floating in the middle of a large lake and the rest of the realm stretched out to beautiful forest and mountains. Her role was that of Protector for such a beautiful land instead of Queen.
At the age of nine, Ariene's fate changed forever when she came upon a ruined village, finding almost all the villagers dead; except for one who was withering on the ground in pain, dark purple like shadows slithering underneath his skin. She went over to him, eager to help when he warned her away, telling her that his body had been taken over by a strong dark magic; curse soul. It was a magic that made the wielder immune to all curses, but at the same time, caused the owner to feel unspeakable agony.
Ariene couldn't help but sympathize for the man, so she placed her her hand on his chest and sucked the dark magic into her self. In the process, causing her great agony since the dark magic battled for dominion of her body with her sacred magic. The current Queen at the time telling her that the only reason why she was alive was because her sacred magic won and the Gods had a larger plan for her future.
Time passed and by the time Ariene was only thirteen years old, the Queen who taught her all she knew died protecting Vallisía she ascended to the throne, becoming the Thirty-Third Queen and being not one, but two sacred swords. Excordius, a brilliant and shining sword, the blade itself a glowing white-silver; the other sword, Llhondryíad, was a far larger weapon and a silver so dark it was nearly black with crimson red trimming at the edges. The swords represented Ariene in the fullest capacity, showing that she was both light and darkness.
The first few years of her rule were calm, Ariene ruled with a gentle, yet stern code, unable to bend her morals in the slightest. She also personally hand-picked her personal Knights, all twelve of them, one from each of the temples.
Her happy reign did not last however, because on her eighteenth name day, Ariene was announced to marry a Prince from Chronis, a realm across the silver sea, a young man by the name of Cassian Arconis. He was a man with hair the color of spun gold and eyes the color of polished bronze, well built and one many called the ideal Knight and Prince. The people of their realms celebrated the union. However, there were few who did not celebrate, one being the Queen's own sister, Emerys.
The two never knew that they were sisters until Ariene's betrothal because of the Vasillían practice of their Queens being chosen by the Gods, sometimes this meant children from other realms were taken from their birth families and in exchange, the Vasillían kingdom gave the families several bags of gold and silver and the babies that would become the future Queens would never see or learn about their birth families. This practice was no different for Ariene; who was born in the land of Chronis, to a noble family close to the King.
At first, Ariene and Cassian found that they could not love each other; Ariene because she felt as if she were betraying her newfound sister and Cassian because he loved Emerys. Though the two had no choice and were forced to wed when Ariene was twenty and Cassian was twenty-two, and in the process, they broke something precious in Emerys; her heart. Emerys became bitter and hateful. She started to plot against the young Queen and all those who had wronged her.
Of course, while all this was happening, Ariene had one object of her life that she never gave up through all the years of her childhood to the start of her reign. There was a cliff that overlooked the capital city of Vasillía, Cíellan; on that cliff was a large oak tree that gave great shade and every time Ariene was feeling stress, or overwhelmed over a certain subject, she would retreat to that cliff with the tree and look over Cíellan. Watching the lake water shimmer with either the light of the sun or stars would always calm her and reassure her that her people were thriving.
At the age of twenty-two, Ariene and Cassian had their first child, a girl who they named Elliana and who would start a new Kingdom, far away from Vassilia. They then went on to have three more children, another girl by the name of Amaris and two boys by the name of Alarin and Byron. It was also around this time that Ariene found her successful, a girl who wuold raise Vasillia from the ashes. Everything seemed filled with peace and happiness. Though their happiness was not to last as Emerys had finally been able to start a rebellion, gathering many dark mages to aid in her quest as well as allies from realms who wanted to see Vasillía fall.
The war between sisters went on for six years and it was bloody and bitter. The war would have gone on for years if Emerys did not summon the corrupted God, Ximar, his form was not of man, but that of a large black bird with grotesque wings and crooked talons. Ximar was also known as the Demon-God.
Emerys' army decimated Vasillía's lands and in the course of war, Cassian was killed defending his people and children, though it was all for nothing; Ariene and Cassian's three youngest children had died, leaving only Elliana. During the final battle of Éathain Emerys and Ariene ended up stabbing through each other; the result was Emerys' death while Ariene was left very near death and forced to watch as everything she had built get destroyed by Ximar.
With the last of her strength, Ariene forced herself to the cliff she had held so dear throughout her entire life, she looked out at her Cíellan once more, but instead of beautiful gleaming light, she saw her capital in flames with a Demon destroying more and more.
As she watched the Demon-God destroy her home, Ariene came to a decision, she would use Uranos Ciele, it was one of the oldest and sacred spells and no doubt kill her.
Ariene summoned the last of her magical energy and cast Uranos Ciele, her divine sword, planted firmly at the very tip of the cliff. Silvery-white energy enveloped her battered and bloody body as white white chains wrapped around Ximar, destroying the Demon-God's physical body and sealing him into the stars. Once that was done, Ariene looked one more time at her city, burning and beautiful before her entire body dissolved into light, the only thing left was her sacred, silvery-white sword, buried into the ground of the cliff and overlooking Cíellan.
Many now think the sword is permanently set to stay in the cliff, acting as a silent guardian for Vasillía because Ariene's soul still lived in the sword. Some thought that Excordius was just waiting for a worthy wielder to pull it out of the ground and others even believed that one day Ariene would be reborn to lead them again. That is the legend of Ariene Direcrest.
Arthur blinked stunned, at the end of Ariene's story. "That's how it ended?"
"Yes. It's not a very fun tale. But if I'm honest, I brought it on myself, my court mage warned me that Emerys would eventually turn against me but I never listened. Vasillían Queens were supposed to not look for their family but I couldn't help but look and want a connection. I gave Emerys years to plan against me and she did." Ariene sighed, frustration dancing in her eyes.
"Well," Gawain said, shifting uncomfortably, Cleo was leaning against him, drowsiness in her green eyes. "She was family."
"Yes." Ariene agreed, "And even in the end, I didn't think that Emerys fully hated me and I knew she still loved Cassian. Even if her actions led to all our deaths."
Arthur frowned, he suddenly felt unsettled, a sinking feeling in his stomach, "Did you think-" He was cut off when Cleo suddenly pulled herself off Gawain, yawning.
"It's late." Cleo said, looking out at the dark street through the window. "Extremely late. If we're going out tomorrow, we should all get some rest."
"She's right." Ariene agreed, feeling relief. Telling her story always made her feel odd. Especially since they were strangers.
"For now, I'll say goodnight. Come on Ariene!" Cleo said, she cast a smile at the guys.
"Wait a minute." Arthur said, causing both girls to pause and look at him with wary eyes. "Have you met either of us in your singularities?"
Ariene looked at them both, an unknown emotion flickering in her eyes. "Do we know you? No, we have never met you before."
Cleo smiled suddenly as she met Arthur's eyes. "Well that's true for Gawain, but for Arthur... well lets just say that we're more used to him wearing a skirt and having feminine features." She burst out laughing at the stricken looks on their faces as Ariene led her out of the room, a smile of her own on her lips.
"My King, what's she talking about?" They heard Gawain ask Arthur as they got out of hearing range and heard Arthur's somewhat flustered response.
"Nice save." Ariene smiled as they reached Cleo's room, they had passed Rin, Ayaka and Issie on the way to the room and saw them all passed out near the coffee table and couch. "I would have thought you wanted Gawain to know you've met before." She added through the mind link so no one could hear.
The smile left Cleo's face as her cheeks took a red tint. "Maybe in time. You didn't contradict me either. You didn't want to tell them either."
Ariene smiled, "Our first meeting is sacred to me. Not even Kakeru and Issie really know how we met. I mean, you were such a scared little thing. Kinda cute if you like terrified faces."
"Shut up." Cleo said aloud, but there was no anger in her eyes. "I'm going to sleep."
"I'll go trade places with either Boudica or Atalanta, give them time to rest up before tomorrow." Ariene said, dematerializing so that Cleo could sleep.
Cleo sighed as she closed her door, she was right. This mission was going to be a long one.
So here's the background of Ariene's legend. Just a quick summary version and the legend will be looked to in depth in the later chapter
Next Chapter will focus more on the other characters.
Please review for feedback!
ALSO: I said that this would be part of the series and this chapter is introducing a prequel story Fate Threads of Destiny and will be the story of how Ariene and Cleo met.