I thank you for your compliment, chozen. It makes me feel special! ^_^ I'm glad people like my writing. I have two passions: music and writing. Unless if you can count obsessing with Kurama and my Shinigami a passion. I do that a lot too . . .
One thing I want to correct in all of your minds, though. What is an Artifice? If you read the first chapter again, (yes, yes, I know you can't be bothered . . .) an Artifice is one of the Valandian Mages aer was raving about at the beginning of the story. They all seemed to die out about the time of the Dragon Campaign. But now one's back as kick-ass as they come. ^_^
Newayz, I've been updating quicker cuz I have no homework! YAY! No school! WHO-HOO! Yes, and my mother gets mad at me for being on the computer all day. But I mean, I have nothing else to do, apart from playing my friend's version of FF Anthologies (which he let me borrow *bows to the almighty god of destruction* thanx so much! ^_^) yes, I think I still have a ways to go in both FFV and FFVI . . .
Oh! Guess what? I learned how to make things underlined, and bolded, and all that sorta stuff! Thanx a bunch, yuna! YAY!
Okie, I think that's enough of my rambling . . . On with the fic!
Acceptance and Troubled Visions
Sil-alia hadn't moved since Grandfather had gone inside. She had been so shocked and confused at the outset that she couldn't move and could hardly think at all. But the more she thought about it, the possible it seemed. After all, she had hardly ever seen her parents, either of them, and they had both died before she was even six months old. No matter how good her memory, she couldn't remember anything about her parents.
She hugged her knees tighter to her body, but now she didn't have to struggle not to cry. She had cried so much over the last few hours that she felt that she couldn't cry anymore. It was still night, and only a few hours after the Dragon had passed overhead. Despite its aura of evil, it hadn't attacked. Yet, anyway.
Now, Sil-alia gauged it to be only an hour or two before dawn, and she had a million questions swimming around in her head. And there was only one way to get answers. She had to know. She couldn't go on knowing nothing about her parents. There could be so many things that were important that she never knew.
So she stood up and walked off the roof, through the window into her room, and down into the kitchen. Grandpa was still there; she could feel his presence. It seemed he hadn't gotten any sleep either.
"Grandpa . . . ?"
The Wingly looked up from his cup of coffee to see his granddaughter. He motioned for her to sit down next to him. When she had, he addressed her unasked question. "What do you want to know, hon?"
"Everything. Tell me everything you know about either of them. Anything you can remember. Please . . . This is important to me."
Grandfather gave her a sympathetic smile. "Okay. I'll start with your mother. You get your beauty from her. She had the same silky blonde hair, the same high cheekbones, fragile features, long-fingered, delicate hands, the same soft, pale skin. You look just like her, apart from your eyes. Hers were a pale, icy blue.
"Your father, he was tall, with fiery red hair and emerald eyes. Yes, you get your eyes from him. He was very strong, with a well proportioned, toned body. He was very handsome. Your parents fell in love almost the moment they set eyes on each other.
"You see, Cinella, your mother, that is, she was a very powerful Tahoan. She was very strong physically, and very talented at earth magic. She was also a master of the Forbidden Art. She mastered the Art when she was little more than a child, only fifteen years of age. Because of this, and her subsequent rapid rise through the ranks of the Tahoan, she grew cocky and arrogant, a trait unsuitable for a Holy Warrior of the Archangel. But by the time the Age of Turmoil came, and the Demons attacked, Cinella was at the head of the ranks, and was immediately elected Commander for the Tahoan sector of the forces.
"Your father, on the other hand, he was a Lord of some sort from the Human kingdom of Serdio. I think he was some relation to the King there. But either way, he was very intelligent, and a stunning tactician, in addition to being a very strong fighter physically. He had been at the head of the King's Army for a year or two before the Age of Turmoil began. They were both leaders of their sector in the war. And I know that they were very much in love.
"I don't know exactly what or how it happened, but your mother came back here, almost ten months into the war. I, and the two other Tahoan who had passed their prime and still survived, were leading a small group of warriors to protect Lahrin. When your mother came, she seemed just about ready to give birth. I have no idea how she managed to fight while pregnant, but whatever she did worked, because you were born here, of a Tahoan and a Serdian Lord, near the end of the Age of Turmoil.
"When the demons attacked the Shrine at the Final Battle, your parents stood side by side to defend out holy site and fight off the demons. The demon's leader was a thing of pure evil called the Morgol. The thing seemed to be invincible, but the combined might of your parents managed to defeat it. But the slaying of the evil thing destroyed them both."
As Grandfather's voice faded away into silence, Sil-alia rested her head in her hands, trying to take in all that he had said. Her parents were the unnamed heroes of the Age of Turmoil, the ones who had given everything to defeat the evil Morgol. Could she live up to a legacy like that?
"You should go and get some sleep, honey." Sil-alia nodded and trudged off to her room, her feet heavy and her mind in a chaotic whirl.
As soon as her head hit the pillow on her bed, she was asleep, sent to a world of troubled dreams . . .
/*-*/*-*/*-*/*-*/*-*/*-*/*-*/*-*/
Sil-alia found herself floating in a void that was blacker than the darkest night. Except, she wasn't really floating. It felt like her feet were holding her up on . . . something . . . she didn't know what.
It was then that she noticed the silence. The thick, oppressive silence. It was like someone had taken every single possible sound and closed it away, so that it would never sound again. Just like how the darkness permitted no light.
Sil-alia stood there, trying to figure out where she was until she couldn't stand the silence any longer.
"Hello?" she asked cautiously. "Is anybody here?"
There was no answer. The silence came again, weighing heavier on Sil-alia's shoulders, as if it was a tangible thing piled upon her shoulders and back.
"Hello?" she asked, louder this time. "There has to be someone here! Where am I?"
Her question was answer by a bright flash of light behind her back. She could see the light through the corners of her eyes, blinding in the endless black depths of . . . wherever she was.
A mysterious voice, a light tenor, infused with great power and charisma, spoke from behind her back.
"Sil-alia, I need your help. I cannot sit and let this evil go on any longer. Endiness needs you."
"What evil? Who are you?" she asked, her voice slightly shaking.
"If you truly wish to know my identity, turn around, and you shall see."
Sil-alia turned around slowly to face the light. When she had turned fully, she had to shield her eyes from the brightness of the light around the human-figure silhouette. After a few seconds, her eyes adjusted, and she could make out the features of the man standing behind her.
He was tall with long blonde hair handing loose around his body. His clothes were whiter than the purest snow. But the things that caught Sil-alia's eyes the most were his eyes. They were a deep violet color flecked with silver, the kind of eyes that she thought was impossible for any mortal creature to have.
She took all that in in a second, and with widened eyes knelt in the presence of Archangel, the holiest god of her people. The god of purity and light. The god who fought against evil forces. The god who protected the people of Endiness from the evils of the higher kingdom.
"Stand, holy warrior, for you have no need to kneel in my presence. You have proven yourself worthy, my daughter."
She felt the god's touch on her upper arm, and he pulled her gently up into a standing position, despite her shaking and unstable knees. She managed to make herself stare into the god's eyes, still unsure about what to do, having a holy deity so close.
"Can you tell me why I'm here?"
"Listen closely, young one. Can you hear the cries around you? Can you sense the pain and agony in this dismal place?"
Sil-alia listened again, and this time she heard. She heard sounds that she never wanted to hear. Sounds that would haunt her dreams in days to come. Sounds of greatest pain, as if being tortured slowly, and not having the energy left to scream. Moans of defeat, of endless servitude. Then came the screams. The ones that shattered her eardrums and splintered her soul into a thousand tiny fragments, each feeling the loss that was encompassed in the single noise.
She turned back to Archangel with haunted eyes. "Where am I? What is this place?"
Archangel sighed, regretting the fact that things had turned out this way. "Once, long ago, this place was abounding with life, even more so than Endiness. But now, as I am sure you have been able to guess, it is dying. And with it dies the hope of all the world. For this, my child, is the very core of the planet you live on. It gives and sustains life in both Endiness and other places, far away across seas and oceans. The planet is dying, and there is nothing I can do to save it.
"The evil that has started this is now inhabiting a mortal body. It has thwarted my attempts to stop it once again. I cannot go to Endiness and intervene on the behalf of all living things. This is why I called you here. You must stop it, Sil-alia. You and your companions, the Dragoons of old, must take this responsibility upon yourselves and rid the world of this evil."
Archangel had grown uninhibited in his passionate plea to the young warrior, and she found his hand tightly gripping her upper arms as he pled with her to save the planet. What else could she do? But instead of thinking of the impossible odds of success, she turned her mind to one of the many questions that flooded her brain.
"How did I get here?"
Archangel seemed to shrug off the question. "It was no hard feat for me to bring your consciousness here when you were in an unconscious state. Your body is still in your bed, and no harm will come to it while you are here."
While she tried to grasp that concept, she asked her god another question. "You said something about Dragoons? There hasn't been a single Dragon Knight for more than 5,000 years. Why are they showing themselves now, and how are they my companions? I don't know a single person who can transform into a Dragoon."
Archangel chuckled softly and smiled with sad eyes. "The Dragon Spirits arise when there is a need for them. Then they will choose the one ideal warrior who is most suited to that Dragon's traits. The Spirits rest as stones of unlikely size and beauty when they are dormant, and many of your acquaintances have precious stones of rare beauty, do they not? Like the one you wear around your neck?"
Sil-alia's hand flew instinctively to the gem on her choker. There was nothing extraordinary about the heirloom her mother had given her, was there? Surely, there couldn't be. But when Archangel gently moved her hand away and touched the stone himself, it shone with a brilliant silver light that almost outdid the aura of the god himself.
As he stepped away, a single shaft of light shot down from the heavens. Sil-alia relaxed as she felt the beam was gentle, soothing and revitalizing. There was a small explosion of light. When it faded, Sil-alia found herself floating several inches off the ground, staying there by the rhythmic flapping of wings, larger than the ones that she had grown up with as a Wingly. She found her body covered in a light, supple, yet very strong silver armor of some sort, and her Shurikama, which had seemed to appear from nowhere, was wreathed in a silver glow.
When Sil-alia found her voice again, it was soft with awe. "What just happened?"
Archangel seemed amused by the young woman's wonder. "You have been chosen to be the wielder of the White Silver Dragon's Spirit. It seems that your affinity for healing magic and your compassion for others has made a considerable impressions on that Dragon. Hopefully, this power, and your companions with similar powers, will be enough to help you defeat the great evil that is overcoming the world.
"However, you must be warned . . . This evil has been defeated once before, and it will not return in its demon form again. It now knows that it is too vulnerable like that. It will come as something else, something much more potent. Even though the Dragon Spirits did not awaken the last time this evil came, I fear that this power will just give you the strength to survive.
"But whatever happens, you must destroy this evil! If you do not, then the whole world will perish. You must defeat it . . . At all costs . . .
"Time is running short. You must go! And if you need answers, you know where to find them. Now go!"
/*-*/*-*/*-*/*-*/*-*/*-*/*-*/*-*/
Sil-alia sat bolt upright in bed. She was breathing hard, and her body was covered in a cold sweat. She raised her hand to touch the stone on her choker. She didn't want to believe what had just happened. It was just a dream, after all. But when she felt the power of the Dragon's Spirit coursing through her body, starting from the stone under her fingers, she knew that it was more that just a dream.
She was a Seer, and Archangel had granted her a vision.
Author's Note: Aren't ya'll proud of me? I'm finally getting to the plot! Hm . . . let's see . . . Can I think up any good questions for this chapter? I know I haven't done that for a while . . . Most of these are going to be pretty bad, now that I'm just taking them off the top of my head, but here's a try . . .
1) Fav character?
2) Least fav character?
3) Most probable pairing? (or just pairing you want the most, if you feel like it?)
4) Character most likely to die first? (yes, some characters will die . . . Whether that is a good or a bad thing is up to you . . .)
5) What Dragon Spirit is everyone gonna get?
6) What is waiting for Sonari back at Lahrin?
Well, that's about all I can think of right now. Please put your random reviewer insanity in as well. And tell me what you think about my basic sort of plot.
You know what I just realized? It sounds kinda like FFVII, ya know, going off to save the planet and all. It wasn't meant to be that way! Honest! It just sorta came out like that. I knew that whole thing sounded familiar. Oh well.
If ya'll wanna talk to me about my fic, or if you're just bored and you find yourself wanting to talk to a psycho teenage fanfic author, drop me a line at drk_angl_yuna@hotmail.com