As you guys may or may not have noticed, this story now has an actual cover image! The awesome picture was created by a good friend of mine, Daisy Pragnya! Thanks again Daisy!
TheFallenHer0: I'm glad you like the inclusion of other countries! As you probably know, I'm planning on making the Elemental Spiral, once it's done, into my own original story. To do that, I'm going to have to change all the names that came from the original game. One of those is the country name. Fun Fact: Out of a handful of country names to replace Gedonelune (which I had random people vote on), Eclos came in second, so I decided I might as well use it for a foreign countries. I'll give you what would be the new name for Gedonelune will be: Aprea. And the royal family's name will be D'Aprea. That's the name that won, and it's really grown on me. :)
Chapter 3
Luca's POV
I don't know why what she said made me so mad. I should care, after all.
Maybe it was the idea of giving up on those people. I hated it when people just gave up. There was a reason I didn't have many friends. Who wants to be friends with the slacker who's always getting in trouble? There was Selene, mind, but she was pretty much the exception to every rule. Besides, she split her attention between so many people, mostly the Goldstein brother's and Yukiya, though she'd be seen chatting with half the people in the academy. I rarely saw her outside of classes, because she was always with the Emperor in his office after classes and busy on the weekends.
I didn't blame her, I couldn't blame her. I liked her, yes, and considered her pretty much my only friend, and I felt some sort of draw towards her that I couldn't explain, but I couldn't monopolize her time. I didn't have that right. If anyone did, it was her buddy, but Selene was always giving her attention to several people at once.
And as much as I liked Marelda—and before you butt in Authoress, not in a romantic way—I can't even consider her a friend at this point. It was a couple months before I considered Selene a friend. A month isn't long enough, for me. I'm not that trusting.
Not even if they're as blunt and honest as a certain warrior-trainee I knew.
I decided that I might as well head to class. I heard that the lesson today in History was on the Tower of Sorrow, which was of interest to me. Maybe the headmaster knew something that the books in the library and the archives didn't. It's always worth a try.
The lesson started with the headmaster asking Elias a question about why people can't just go up to the Tower and visit the Dragon.
"Because the East Forest has been enchanted, in numerous layers, by the Three Mages to confuse and misdirect all those who set foot in it." Elias began, "There are some who say that the only way to be able to get to through the forest and to the tower are those who are either of Fae blood or Fae gifted, otherwise known as Fae touched, and can hear the magic that guides them." This is the song Yukiya can hear, and the one I'm pretty sure Katalina can also hear. "This being because the Fae tend to be guardians and keepers of relics and are generally very untrusting of humans, making it a great way to protect things such as the Tower of Sorrow. Furthermore, it is said that only someone with the blood of the royal family of Gedonelune are able to access the room which contains the Dragon of Time. Currently, that would be the king, his father, and his two sons." I had my suspicions about that last bit.
"Good job, Elias, you can be seated. But I think you're neglecting a bit of the royal family." The headmaster replied, "Can anyone complete it?"
"The Vanished Sisters." I said seriously. This is where my suspicions come into play.
"That's right, Luca. There used to be two more members of the royal family—the twin sister of the king, and their younger sister. The older sister, the current king's twin, was named Aurora Twilight completely vanished soon after her engagement to Duke Bertolt, approximately thirty-five years ago. We do know that she died about ten years ago, because the jewel under her portrait of the royal family tree stopped glowing."
But just because she died doesn't mean she didn't do plenty in the time she was gone, like marry and have children, for instance. If she had children, their names wouldn't have been added to the tree because no one knew of them, after all. So much had been dedicated to finding her, but it was concluded that she was not going to be found in this country, or anywhere near it. Most think she ended up on a different continent. I'm part of the minority who think it was something else. I, personally, think she may have found a way to escape to Terra. Until about two decades ago, stable transfer places were few and far between. Nowadays they're more common, but they're not used that much for people from this side. Terra would've been the perfect place for a runaway princess to hide. The magical communities there are few and far between, most preferring to keep to themselves. Selene's family was larger than most, and while pretty much everyone came to Myula for schooling, most lived there, among the regs, or normal, non-magical people. The regular people.
"The younger sister, Princess Aulelia, was said to have kept in contact with her sister, but refused to reveal as to where she had gone, only that she had a family and was happy. But then Princess Aulelia herself retreated from public eye and was not heard from again, about twenty years ago, and within two years of her disappearance, her jewel also lost it's light."
This is what I was more interested in. While there was a manhunt for the older princess, it was almost as if the younger had been swept out of public view for fear of a scandal. I had lots of theories and suspicions about her.
"King Wilkin, then only Prince Wilkin, was said to have nearly gone mad with grief at losing his two beloved sisters. The kingdom will always miss the princesses. That is why there is a special tribute to them each year in the Memory Festival." The headmaster nodded respectfully, then continued on about the Tower of Sorrow. Now that I think about it, we've talked about this topic a couple times before this year. But this is the first time the Vanished Princesses came into play. It sounds like something Selene would be interested in.
At one point, I was asked to share my experiences trying to get through the East Forest. I warned the class away from it. It was scary even for me. That forest preys on your fears. It's literally alive. But there was a reason I had tried. A reason that keeps growing the more I find. Secrets that are mine to know.
At the end of classes, I went over to Katalina, who had been talking to Yukiya. I had noticed that Elias had been doing his best to ignore her existence. Time to stir things up.
"Hey, Kittycat, have you thought about getting a tutor to help you with your magic?" I told her, "Because I'd love to help you."
I put my hand on her shoulder, but she quickly pushed it away. She was smiling, though.
"Thank you so much for the offer, Luca, but I'll be okay!"
I raised my eyebrows. "Huh? Why? But it's pretty rough trying to figure it all out yourself, isn't it?" I asked.
"Well, that's probably true, but…" she began.
"And I mean, it's not like your buddy's going to be helping you anytime soon. C'mon." Elias was taking the bait. I could almost feel his irritation from here. It was wonderfully amusing.
"I want to do it myself," Katalina insisted, "I want to get as far as I can, alone."
But this just made my smile grow, and I laughed a bit, "I knew it, you are an interesting one!"
"Y-yeah?" she sounded confused at my sudden change of attitude.
I winked at her, "Yeah, I'm getting more interested by the minute."
"I-interested…?" she shook her head, "Anyway, I'll make it work somehow."
"All right." I finally said, "But if you want any help, just ask."
She smiled, "Sure thing. Thanks."
I nodded and headed out as Elias fumed without realizing why. Ha. I wonder if she'll really take the advice I gave her yesterday, about trying to get ahold of the Persona Mirror to try and impress Elias. If she told him about the idea, I bet he'd freak, being the rule-obsessed stiff he is. I can see how the two of them are going to end up. Either estranged, which is less likely, or madly in love with the other yet two bashful to do anything. I'm finding the whole thing painfully obvious. Gotta love Prince Elias and his social/emotional constipation, am I right?
…. …. ….
The next class, the last one of the day, finds me in the archives. Normally Mr. G's class was fairly interesting, enough for me to want to show up, but my research is more important. There are secrets about my past, and they're based at this academy. The involvement of a certain professor causes the plot to thicken.
I find a book on the genealogy of the royal family. This particular copy is a rare version. It updates itself using magic. Only a few copies, from what I can tell, exist, and this may be the only one that isn't in the royal archives at the palace. Then again, this is the academy supported by the royal family. And few students actually go into the archives, so who would expect anyone to find it?
This book updates itself magically, even adding pages when it needs to. While it can tell you the amount of people who are born or married into it, it can't tell you more than that. No names, genders, or any other information. Just blank portrait circles. And, like the magical tree tapestry, it can tell you when the person is deceased, as well as when. The births and deaths of the blood-related members are recorded. The married-ins are shown as well.
For instance, Princess Aulelia has one child. Her death is dated the same day as the child's birth. October 15th. My birthday.
I opened the book to the last page that had the most recent members. It's changed, from the last time I looked at it. And that was just last week.
I'm not sure if anyone but myself realized that this book says that both of the Vanished Princesses have children. And that Princess Aurora's children have children. Princess Aurora had a husband, death dated around eighteen years ago, about six months before the birth of their youngest child. They had seven children. And not even a full year after the seventh was born, another one was born. There was no father listed in the book, meaning the princess was not married to this man. Of the seven original children, three are married with six children between them. The empty portrait of the eldest child had faded from white to grey, joining their parents. Pictures were in color when the people were alive. They faded to black and white when they died. That's what happened when the old king died about two years ago, soon after I found this book.
That means the oldest child of Princess Aurora is no longer living.
I'm pretty sure Selene, from my information, went home to Terra because her brother died.
Selene has seven older half-brothers, three sister-in-laws, and six nephews. They all live in Terra, where I believed the Princess Aurora disappeared to. Her mother died when she was
I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner.
Selene might just be the daughter of the oldest Vanished Princess of Gedonelune.
And I might just be her cousin.
About a year after Marelda entered the academy, her mother and stepfather bought her a few different colored sets of Bobby Knives. They're a weaponized version of Bobby Pins. The pin part in and of itself is the sheath, while the "knives" (they're really more like needles) can be pulled from the sheathes and thrown or used to poke things. They can be coated in anything from anesthetics to poison to sedatives. They're very helpful littles things, particularly if a warrior has to go undercover and can't openly carry weapons. They come in a variety of colors (but they're specialized and not so cheap, as only one weapons guild makes them), and Marelda has a set (a full set comes with fifty Bobby Knives) of black, a set of bronze, a set of silver, and a set of copper. She hasn't had much use for them yet, but they'll likely be helpful once she's in the field, as she specializes in speed and stealth more than strength.