Chapter 1

The Rescue

That meeting, like all others before it, had been an exercise in tedium, Albel thought with a sighed as he stalked up the halls of Airyglyph castle. As normal Woltar and Vox had verbally kicked each other's shins but had made no useful progress towards deciding what to do with the prisoners. The two old men spent so much of their time trying to lessen each other in the eyes of the king that they never actually accomplished everything. Was it any surprise that the king would turn to Albel when he want something done with efficacy. However, in this case the king could not turn to Albel to force some words out of the prisoners because he had to make it seem like he played favorites to his Uncle Vox so that his family would keep its power behind the throne. Albel hated politics. They only allowed the weak to gain power and the strong to be subjugated. It showed in the fact that he, the pathetic Albel Nox was in a position of great power.

To be more then honest he hated being captain. Responsibility was not a concept that he backed. If his subordinates couldn't make decisions for themselves then why should they be allowed to live? He was tired of constantly cleaning up the messes of the weak. He had continued living so that he could create a world where only the strong survived not coddle some maggots every time they made a mess in their pants! He was a sell out to this stupid system of protecting the weak.

He walked out onto the ramparts of the castle. At least a battle was coming, that would lessen the number of heads he would have to worry about in the Black Brigade. But he was forced to sign a letter to the family of the dead soldier so that they could live under the illusion that he gave a damn about their sons or husbands or fathers. Seemed only fitting that the fools leave him more work before they went.

Looking out over the city proper of Airyglyph, Albel could see the large scar the supposed "new Aquarian weapon" had rent through the town during its collision. At first they had thought it just a "normal" meteorite. You couldn't exactly call meteorites a normal occurrence but they happened once every few years. However, once the object at the center had reveled itself it became obvious this was more the a meteorite. The fact that people came out of it only further proved that.

The last meteorite that had come down in Airyglyph had also led to the discovery of a person but it was in a different fashion. It had collided in the towards the peak of Mount Dunkelheit in the Traum range. Albel's father had been part of a party that had investigated the crash area. Sometimes meteorites were made of iron and other metals that could be useful in the making of weapons and armor and his father had been necessary to fight back the monsters that lived in the area. All they had found in the center of the crater was a boy curled up in a ball. He was completely naked, covered only by scars that were everywhere on his body. It was later determined that the boy had been a run away Aquarian that had been wandering the area and had been drown to the sound of the collision and had collapsed of exposure in the crater that still radiated heat from the impact. That was mostly supposition though. The boy didn't talk about his past and claimed not to remember anything. The way they had been able to tell he was Aquarian was that he had runes etched into his chest and back.

Glou had tried to make the case the boy was not Aquarian because, he had said, the runs had been branded into his flesh and then etched using a knife. A tattooing process using ink applied Aquarian runes. This was much less painful, though still agonizing. Glou would have known, he functioned as a representative to Aquaria during times of peace and had actually received a rune as a sign of good will.

Glou had adopted the boy. The boy had adopted two weapons. It was several months before the taciturn boy gave them a name, until then he had sarcastically said he was unworthy of being name. His called himself Kasch.

Growing up with that boy as an older brother was obnoxious. He always pretended to be weak but was secretly the most arrogant bastard ever to have been born. The exact opposite of Albel himself. Kasch was the better of the two at fighting but only because he was older. Kasch even gave Albel a few snippets of genuine praise. Albel could count the number of times he had complemented anyone else without needing a hand. Kasch never complemented anybody.

After the…incident. Kasch had gone alone to Crosell's area in the Urssa Lava cave as part of his Ascension of the Flame ceremony. But he had never returned. A party had entered to look for him but they returned empty handed. They only found the Marquis sleeping calmly in his cave with a pile of ashes in from of him.

It was at this moment that a wagon burst forth from the city hurtling across the snow that lay across the snowy ground. The driver must have been either incredibly reckless or incredibly late in order to be moving at that speed across the slippery ice and cliff edges that even at slow speeds claimed their share of wagon teams. It was when pursuit was launched by mounted guards, that Albel began to get a bad feeling about what might be happening.

A messenger ran up to Albel on the rampart. He saluted Albel and bowed. Oh boy, bad news, the messengers always bowed when it was bad news, they felt they needed to suck up a little more in order to stay in their captain's good graces. It was well know that Vox and Albel both had a tendency to take out their annoyance on anything within arms reach. "Sir, the prisoners have escaped with the help of an Aquarian spy. They are currently escaping across the mountains toward Kirlsa. The king wants you to lead the pursuit."

Albel grunted in affirmation that he heard the messenger then shooed him with a wave of his living hand. Never send a maggot to do a man's work.


Nel guided the two engineers through the aqueducts of the castle. They had managed to get past the inquisitor and his two henchmen easily enough but had been forced along a more dangerous route then she would have liked. The larger of the two, Cliff he called himself, seemed capable enough but she wasn't completely certain about the younger, the one with the obvious brains and manners of the two. Hmmph… "hot chick" indeed!

The aqueducts of Airyglyph were almost completely frozen as they always were, even in a little in summer. The clear ice reflected the light through their prisms in way that made the entire place seem to glow, under different circumstances she would have stayed a while to admire the view. Such now was not such a time and she was constantly pressing her two companions to move faster.

The monsters had been little trouble but she didn't want to count them out. To be frank she had been surprised by how little they had actually encountered, and suspicious as to why all those had been dead. The first had been the corpse of a small crablike beast with a thin exoskeleton that had been stabbed through by a large curved blade. She didn't trust what ever was killing these things to be on a strict regimen of only killing monsters.

Though what ever had killed the monster hadn't done it for food. None of the bodies had pieces missing or bite marks. Even the monsters that had body parts that were sellable were completely untouched. Consumption wasn't the reason for the slaughter. Nel hadn't informed the two engineers of the majority of the corpses she had seen out of the corner of her eye, half hidden by ice crystals that they had been dragged behind.

They were nearing the end of the aqueducts when they saw their first living monster. It was a large crab that was like the previous women only many times larger. It lurched to its feet and the ground shook slightly underneath its girth. It brandished its claws menacingly, huge cleavers which were easily capable of slicing through a horse. It had more of a discernable head then the more typical species of crabs and its mouth snapped forward hungrily. It didn't seem he was admitting travels.

"Let me handle this, ma'am" someone next to Nel said with a forced humility that she knew was not within the realm of either engineer's emotions. She and the two engineers leaped and all in midair twisted to face the stranger standing next to them.

A thick black cloak, with a hood that hid his face completely, covered him. He was leaning gingerly against a large scythe and was in his entirety black, like one imagined old Grim to be. What came from the cloak was covered in dark blue cloth, even his hands were gloved. No inch of skin was exposed. The only way that Nel could even tell that the stranger was male was from his voice, which was menacingly masculine.

The scythe was black as well and had a viciously barbed and curved blade. Nel could tell from the shape and size of it that it was what had made the puncture marks in the monster corpses she had found.

The monster had grown tired of waiting for them to came and began to shuffle towards them. Nel, and the engineers backed up but the blue and black reaper continued to lean against his scythe lackadaisically. The beast brought up its claw to smash the man but he suddenly rolled to the side. The falling claw impacted the ground and nothing more. The man, wait his voice sounded young…maybe an adolescent, brought his scythe up and into the underbelly of the beast. The barbs of his scythe did their work, tearing at the flesh and nerves of the beast and causing it the most enrapturing agony. The blade, also, sliced through several vital organs causing to bleed extensively and collapse. Death was not long in following.

The boy, yes, judging from his height and voice, she was fairly confident the person was an adolescent boy, twirled this scythe above his head then whip it in front of him to clean of the blood and slipped it over his back. He then walked out of the aqueducts and left them alone. Nel dashed after him and Cliff and Fayt followed. But they weren't nearly as fast and fell a ways behind. She exited the aqueducts through a short cave and came out at the top of a path the followed the cliff down to the city. Dashing down it she caught up near the base of the ramp and stepped in front of him, bringing a dagger up threateningly. "Who are you? Why did you help us?"

The boy turned his head away so that she couldn't get a look at his face even had there been enough light inside that cowl to see more than the vaguest outline of his face. "In your tongue, my name is Black Bird. I am one who wishes the war to continue and thus, for now, my goals coincide with yours."

The engineers were only just now arriving at the opening to the cave and still had to travel the way down the slippery ramp. They had slowed after seeing that Nel had not started fighting with the stranger, and took their time traversing the slippery path, with feet less sure then Nel's own. Nel still had questioned and not want the engineers to hear, still had a little bit of time before they came within ear shot. "Why do you want the war to continue? And how will helping us make it go on?"

He glanced back at the engineers, also seeming not to want them to overhear, "I want to the war to continue because battle is the only thing in life that I enjoy. If Aquaria doesn't receive the help of these engineers they will loose Arias in a months time and then it will be mere days before they capture the economic center of Peterny and after that Aquaria is defeated in all but name. With these engineers you will be able to complete your Thunder Arrows or whatever you call them. That will give you the fighting chance you need and allow the war to continue for a few more precious years."

"How do you know about-!"

"I just do!" he cut her off, "now be quiet". Just as he said this Cliff and Fayt arrived and asked whom the stranger was. Nel introduced him as Black Bird, which she said was a code name since he was an Aquarian spy that had been working behind Glyphian lines. She knew she couldn't trust him but she had a plan. She would use him up until they got to Arias, then she could use the Aquarian forces there to capture him and prevent him from working against them. If she let him go now he could become a danger.

After, they had been introduced, she led the group to the wagon outside of Airyglyph, which they would take to Arias if all went well.

As they were walking out of the city, Black Bird looked up to the ramparts of Airyglyph castle and seeing someone he recognized let a malevolent smile dance across his hidden lips.


Not much to say about this one. The really good stuff is still in the future. The early parts of the game I'm just going to skip through, stopping at places that are different or where I feel I need to capture the thoughts of one of the characters involved.