Co-author credit goes to Shire Folk on this chapter. This chapter is for his O.C. which I borrowed, Cossex. The main points of the story were assembled by him, while I put his ideas to… well not 'paper' but you get the idea.
Cossex: "And to be clear, these origins are different from mine in The Annals of Darkness. Still done by Shire, though."
Anyway, this chapter is to the king of KH fan-fiction!
Cossex: "DarthKingdom doesn't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, Xyran, or of course, me."
!
Chapter 111: Shining Star of Cynthis
It had been five days since Klaxam returned to Pax Pacis after his first ever failure while in the Brotherhood, with Zexion in tow. Though apparently, Serndask had been lenient towards him in regards to punishment, stemming from the fact that he had had unreliable subordinates. And he had come closer to catching a Keybearer than any of them, despite the fact that he had also been dealing with an all-powerful Genie.
Cossex realized that they had all tried their own hand at catching them. All except for her, Xyran, Sephiroth, and Serndask himself, had failed. He'd probably send one or all of them next.
It was night once again, but who could tell with the constant storm clouds? Just like the night she had chatted with Xyran, she was walking along one of the numerous hallways, though this time, it was on a lower floor.
She was on the way to the gym, hoping to let off a bit of steam. Her nightmarish memories were haunting her again, keeping sleep at bay once again. She fully intended to tear apart the gym for an hour or so, and allow exhaustion to take over and do its job.
She rounded a corner and entered the large, octagonal training area. It wasn't much to look at, but it suited the Brotherhood's purposes just fine. It was lit by rounded by the large, shaped, glowing crystals in the ceiling like most of the other rooms in the castle, giving the room a greenish hue. A set of weights (Andmox's favorites) sat in a corner, and a range of targets aligned three of the eight walls. Practice dummies and various other bits of training equipment were arrayed along the walls.
Cossex wasn't planning on using any of these things. She walked to the center of the room, which was completely clear of clutter. A small panel opened up on the smooth floor. Inside, there was a large rectangular green button. She brought her foot gently down on it.
The crystals lighting the room shifted from green to red, and the panel slid back into place as a six Invisibles and four Large Bodies appeared in the room all around her. She calmly summoned her axes, and stared the virtual Heartless down before the first Large Body slid toward her on its stomach.
She waited until it was nearly upon her, and leapt straight into the air, slicing her axes across its face as she did so.
The Heartless careened into the wall behind her, and disappeared. She landed lightly back on the ground in a crouch, and two Invisibles rushed toward her with their swords ready. She parried both of their swords with one of her blades, and used the free one to behead them both in one clean strike.
She ran toward the second Large Body. It swung at her as she approached. She leapt over the clumsy attack easily, flying straight toward its head. She cut its head off as she reached it, landing, and breaking into a run toward the next Invisible as the headless Heartless collapsed.
The Invisible rushed toward her, intending to run her through the chest with its blade. She slipped to the side at the last possible instant, and spun gracefully on the spot, cutting it in two as it passed her by. Another of the Heartless had flown at her at the same instant, and received a cut across the chest as her other axe clipped it.
She embedded the head of one of her blades into its head, and then ripped it out forcefully to throw it –along with her other blade- at the final Large Bodies lumbering toward her from across the room. The weapons spun quickly as they soared through the air, making a whistling noise. They cut the heads off both of them, and stuck in the wall behind them.
Cossex ran to retrieve them, disregarding the fact that she could easily summon them back to her. The remaining two Invisibles flew after her, cruising over the ground behind her.
The first one nearly cut her in half, but she suddenly stopped, and turned around to face it. She grabbed the wrist below that hand gripping its sword, and twisted. The sword fell from its grasp, and clattered to the ground. Before it could move any further, her hands shot up, grabbed both sides of its head, and twisted hard.
As it disappeared, its partner appeared in the space where it had been, blade raised to cut her down with a powerful overhead blow.
She summoned her axes back to her with a thought, and swept them both through the heartless, cutting through its neck and waist at the same time.
With remarkable suddenness, the fight was over, and she was alone again. The red crystals returned to their natural shade of pale green. Cossex decided that she'd have to up the difficulty a bit. That last fight had been almost too easy.
Then, the sound of slow clapping echoed through the room. She turned around, and saw Xyran standing in the doorway she had entered through. He had a big grin on his face, and wide eyes.
"And here I was thinking I was good." He commented, walking inside. "That was incredible!"
Cossex smiled at the compliment. "Thank you."
"Where did you get moves like those?"
Her thoughts drifted back to the memories that had kept her from sleep for several nights. She was reluctant to answer, but finally, "I learned them at the Cynthis Academy."
"The what where?"
"Follow me, let's discuss this somewhere else." She led him out of the room. Maybe it was possible that confiding in somebody about her troubled story would help her get over it at last.
They stopped at a balcony on the fifth floor (out of sixteen). Rain was pouring down in a steady stream, as always, and the balcony ceiling kept it from splashing back toward them. A stone bench was situated there, and she sat down, motioning for Xyran to join her. The younger Nobody plopped down beside her.
"The Cynthis Academy was a place where people studied and trained to become heroes to defend our kingdom."
"Think you could rewind a little ways and give me the back story?"
!
Cynthis was a small world, but a beautiful one. It was almost entirely dominated by pure rugged, wild nature; Mile upon mile of splendid boreal forests, mountains, lakes, and rivers.
These forests and mountains were occasionally dotted with sprawling medieval cities, small villages, or wide plains and fields of farmland. On one such farm, there was a small homestead built out of rough wood. A bit of smoke emanated from a rough brick chimney in the roof.
It wasn't the most extravagant home, but it was a happy one.
"I was born as Cesso on the world of Cynthis to my mother Selia, and my father Quekar. I was the middle child out of five. My older brothers were Queran and Eliar; twins. My younger sister was Selina, and my youngest brother was Quel. We were a farming family, and we were fairly comfortable."
Inside the dining/living room which took up most of the house, the family of seven was enjoying their entirely home-made dinner (also home-grown). Present at the table was a tall, well-built man with blue eyes, and red-brown hair, which was starting to grey around the temples. The woman sitting by him had light blonde hair, and green eyes.
The two identical twins of thirteen sitting at the table were the spitting image of their father in his younger days: Tall, with dark red hair, blue eyes, and smiles seemingly permanently attached to their faces. The youngest child (eight years old) had messy, short blonde hair which was currently very dirty, as was expected from any boy under ten. The only other girl stuck out with her long, shiny black hair and brown eyes (inherited from her grandfather).
The final girl was eleven. She was very thin, with short blonde (not blue) hair, and green eyes. She sat between her twin brothers, who took it upon themselves to poke fun at her good-naturedly every few minutes. She would laugh, rather than rise to their barbs like any other child her age.
"We lived a simple life, but we were quite happy as we were. My parents raised five good children, and we rarely squabbled. My parents taught me how to farm when I was about eleven, but more often, my brothers would blow off their work and take me on their improvised 'adventures' in the forests near our home."
"Guys, it's not funny!" Cesso shouted into the trees somewhere ahead of her.
Her brothers had somehow persuaded her into accompanying them on another 'brave quest' as usual. It wasn't that she didn't mind going with them, she just wished that they would... Actually do something.
Queran and Eliar were a few meters ahead of her. Queran had his father's 'borrowed' long sword in his hand, and frequently slashed in front of him with it. He claimed that he was cutting apart savage invisible Charr: The large, humanoid, wolf-like beings who ravaged human villages across the Kingdom of Cynthis with reckless abandon in the name of their Titan Gods.
He laughed and called back to her, "Aw, come on, Cesso. Where's your sense of adventure?"
She jogged to catch up with them, crunching pebbles and occasional leaves underfoot. "I have one, but I wish that something would actually happen!"
"Well, you live up to your namesake, I'll give you that." Eliar commented, ruffling her hair.
"I was fiercely proud of my name. It first belonged to a beautiful, respected, powerful warrior queen. Two hundred years before my birth, she led a small army against a massive horde of vicious creatures that had threatened the kingdom. She personally defeated their leader; A horrible dragon that had been determined to see the whole world burn. It was an honor to carry her name... I'd like to think I lived up to it."
The threesome walked deeper into the forest, occasionally stopping to fight a Charr ambush or Orc raid with Queran's borrowed sword and the small dagger that Eliar had found the previous week.
Cesso found it a poor substitute for a real fight. And she actually could speak of such things. Since she had been old enough to read, her parents had presented her with stories of epic struggles of heroes past to defend the world against dark forces. And the previous year, she had been witness to a bandit raid that had turned into a small-scale battle. The result: The bandits had been utterly defeated by villagers that she had known since childhood.
While it was slightly out of place for a girl her age, she often found herself daydreaming about spectacular battle rather than which boys were cute.
As she watched Eliar stab into an imaginary Charr with his dagger, her heart stopped. She had glimpsed something past him that neither of her brothers appeared to have noticed. In the bushes at the opposite end of the forest path they had been following, was a pair of small dark eyes, which glinted slightly in the afternoon sunlight filtering through the tree canopy.
Before she could utter a single word of warning, a very large wolf that must have been five feet long from snout to tail lunged out of the bushes, and barreled directly toward Queran. The boy's back had been to it, as he was beheading a Charr who had been facing the opposite direction.
The wolf struck him in the small of the back, sending him flying through the air a few feet, and causing him to lose his sword. The massive animal pinned him to the ground on his back, and opened its gaping, toothy mouth wide.
Any normal teenager would have screamed his head off at the site, but Queran kept a remarkably cool head, and reached up with both hands to grasp the wolf around its neck before it could make a bloody mess out of his face.
The wolf snapped its jaws closed a few times, attempting to reach him. But Queran kept it far enough away from his face to avoid serious damage, though it was a struggle.
He was only alone for a moment before Eliar leapt into action, coming up behind the wolf to bring his dagger down into the base of its neck and put a quick end to the fight. He missed his mark by a few crucial inches, however, and brought the small blade down into its shoulder blade.
The wolf let out a sharp, pained bark, and got off of Queran, changing track and turning its sights upon his twin brother. Eliar brought his blade up into a credible fighting position, gripped tight in his hand, and pointed forward toward his attacker.
The wolf growled, and rushed toward him, disregarding the boy that was just getting to his feet. It had more power, but its prey had ingenuity. The boy stepped to the side at the last instant, and slashed across the side of its face as it passed by him.
It yelped, and came to a halt, turning around with a growl to gaze at the three children. It was having a harder time grabbing a meal than it had bargained for. It began to prowl in a circle around them, its gleaming white teeth bared in a snarl.
Queran reached for his fathers sword, thinking it was in the same place he had dropped it when he was attacked, but found to his horror that it wasn't there.
That was when Cesso –a very thin, very small, very edible girl- ran toward the wolf with her father's sword raised high over her head, and without a trace of fear on her face. The wolf ran up to meet this unexpected challenge, small trickles of blood leaking from its wounds.
It was just inches away from tearing the girl's head off, when she dodged to the side like her brother had. With a shout, she brought the sword down with all her strength.
The blow removed the wolf's head.
The headless creature staggered forward a foot or so before it realized it was dead, and fell to the ground.
Cesso's brothers gazed at the headless animal for a moment, and then stared at their sister in complete shock. She gaped at what she had done.
"We decided then that as soon as we turned sixteen, we would join the Cynthis Academy. As I told you, it was a place for young recruits to hone their skills in combat, to defend the world against whatever challenges it would face. Anyone who passed was subject to great prestige, and to defend Cynthis was an honor in itself. So, my brothers joined the day after their sixteenth birthday, and I followed them two years later."
"I actually wasn't what you would call the top student at first... But with time..."
The slightly older Cesso parried another blow from her opponent: A tall, bulky, dark-skinned man of about her age, holding a long wooden staff, similar to the two smaller ones in her hands.
They stood near the center of the training arena, which was in an open air section of the Academy (based in Cynthis' capital) specially reserved for sparring. It was a simple area of circular sand-covered stone floor, surrounded by a small brown fence separating it from the rest of the room. From the other side of the fence, about a dozen other Academy trainees (including her older brothers) were watching the confrontation along with Weapons Instructor Stahl: A tall, hard-faced man of about fifty who had his long graying hair tied into a topknot.
"Faster, Kar." The man reprimanded, addressing Cesso's opponent. "You'll have to do better than those clumsy blows you keep throwing at her if you expect to have any success."
Kar adjusted his fighting posture a bit, and aimed a fast strike toward her legs. Cesso managed to leap backwards away from the attack, but by then he was following up with a thrust toward her face. She quickly slapped the blow aside with one of her 'weapons', and took a swipe toward his arm.
He briefly recoiled from the stinging attack she had landed on his wrist, but was back on the offensive quickly.
"Cesso, you need to take advantage of the openings you create!" Stahl urged. "When you see an opportunity, strike!"
She listened, and waited for Kar to attack again. She caught the end of his weapon between both of hers, and pressed it down to the ground. For a moment, they were locked in stalemate, then she leapt over their interlocked weapons, bringing her knee up to catch him in the chin.
Kar stumbled backwards, but Cesso seized her opportunity this time, stepping forward, and bringing up one of her weapons to the point of his chin where her knee had just connected.
The large man toppled over backwards, and she crouched over him immediately, holding both of her staves to his throat. This fight was over.
The proud cheering from the small crowd was music to Cesso's ears. She smiled to her beaten opponent, and backed away from him to give him room to move. She extended her hand to help him up, and he took it.
"I'll get you eventually, Cesso." He warned, but he was smiling.
"Alright, Sis!" Eliar called. "Living up to your name!"
"I rose to the height of my age group quickly. They called me 'The Shining Star of Cynthis' back then. The younger girls looked up to me... It was nice. Eventually, when I turned nineteen, I left the Academy with honors, and as the top of my class, and joined my brothers, this time on real adventures."
"You're going to want to stop that." Cesso said calmly.
It had been two years since she had graduated from Cynthis Academy. She was now twenty-one, and her twin brothers were twenty-three. Each of them were outfitted with form-fitting armor, which could take a punch while still being comfortable. Cesso's was a pale blue in color, while her brothers wore red-brown armor.
Cesso had a pair of gleaming axes hanging from her belt, and her brothers were both equipped with broad swords, though she knew that Eliar still had his lucky dagger stuffed into his left boot, within easy reach.
The three of them had earned quite a reputation in the years since they had graduated from the Academy. They had successfully brought peace to a huge area of the countryside, which not one year earlier had been ravaged by unfriendly Minotaurs. They had repelled several Orc attacks, and bandit raids in numerous villiages, and were praised as heroes wherever they went.
Now, they stood on the outskirts of a small village, facing outward. A small group of a dozen Charr was standing there, armed with large swords and battle axes. One of them was holding a local village man up by the throat, a large, twisted dagger as large as Cesso's arm in its hand.
The Charr (who was apparently the leader of this band) turned to face her, eyes glinting. In response, she took her axes from her belt, and twirled them in an offensive pattern before her.
"Oh, she's really angry now." Queran observed with a grin. "I'd listen to her if I were you, friend."
The Charr growled low in his throat, and released the villager, who scrambled to his feet, and rushed away from the creatures. As he passed by the warriors into the relative safety of the village itself (where a small crowd was gathering) he said, "Bless you!"
Cesso sent a nod over her shoulder to show that she had heard, then turned her attention back to the Charr. Their leader had sheathed his dagger, and drawn a vicious-looking hooked sword that was about as long as she was tall.
"You have no right to be here." She warned. "I'll only ask you once. Leave here now, or you won't leave at all."
The head Charr growled, and said something in his native tongue. Cesso only caught the last word, but it was quite obviously malevolent, "Thlatch ka na ov'ida ladu, Meat!"
For Charr, 'Meat' was a typical derogatory term meaning 'Human.' This wasn't far from accurate, as some Charr were known to eat certain body parts of their human victims.
With a loud roar that practically shook the earth, the Charr rushed forward, crouched over slightly, and the rest of his team/pack followed. Cesso, Queran, and Eliar rushed to meet them, flourishing their weapons.
Cesso leapt directly toward one of the Charr in the lead. Before the creature could even blink –let alone swing his weapon- she had passed him in midair, leaving two long gashes in his right side. He fell forward into the outstretched sword in Queran's hands.
As his sister dispatched a second Charr, Queran blocked a heavy-handed blow from another one. While he couldn't match the Charr in brute strength, he was superior in speed and technique. He altered the angle of his sword just slightly, and the Charr's blade slid down it.
He disengaged from his blade, and drove it quickly into the creature's chest. He yanked it out in a spray of blood, only to get tackled from behind by one of his friends. This new Charr raised his axe blade to deliver a killing blow, only to lose his head at the hands of his would-be-victim's twin.
As Eliar helped his brother squirm out from underneath the corpse, another creature charged toward them from across the new battleground. He hurriedly drew his dagger from his boot, and waited.
He was directly over him, ready to bring his blade crashing down on him, when Eliar moved into action. He leapt to his feet, and drove the dagger into his head through the bottom of his jaw.
The Charr collapsed, and Eliar finally got Queran out from under the furry body restraining him. Two Charr ran toward them, and past them, they could see their sister fighting off the five remaining creatures single-handedly –and winning by a large margin.
She was in the center of the ring of furry bodies that the Charr had formed around her. While most people would see this as her being trapped, and having nowhere to retreat to, this was not the case. Cesso was leaping back and forth so quickly, axes flashing, that she was practically fighting each one of them at once.
And she was keeping each one of them on their toes. In the time it took for any one of the Charr to launch an attack at her, she had already struck toward all five of them at least once. It was a miracle that they were all still standing.
That soon became inaccurate, when Cesso leapt high over a Charr's low strike. In midair, she drove her axe blades into each of his shoulder blades. He pitched forward, and she ripped her blades free, along with a great flow of blood.
The Charr rushed in to fill the gap in their circle left by their fallen partner. But Cesso leapt toward another one, and ended his life with two long, diagonal slashes across his chest.
Her three remaining opponents adopted a new strategy then. They grouped themselves close together, and approached her carefully as a group. They all struck at once, thrusting their swords forward to try and stab her through thrice in one instant. But with one simple movement, she pinned their three blades to the ground with only one of hers.
With her free hand, she threw an axe into the forehead of the leftmost one. Before he had even hit the ground, Cesso ripped her other blade away from her enemies' and leapt at the rightmost one.
She collided with him, with her axe stretched out before her to strike him in the chest. He fell over backwards –dead already- and she followed him down, crouching on top of his chest and pressing down harder to be safe.
She got to her feet a moment later, and faced the sole surviving Charr. Coincidentally, it was the leader, who was beginning to look like he'd regretted coming here at all. Nevertheless, he didn't give voice to his fear, and leveled his huge blade before him in a fighting position.
Cesso rushed forward, crouched just over the ground. He held his ground, waiting for her to come to him so he could strike. When she was less than a meter away, he brought it down hard.
But she was too fast. She tucked herself into a ball, and rolled past the blade as it descended. She rolled completely under his legs, and to his other side. Within two seconds, she had ripped her second axe from the skull of his partner, and driven both of them into his exposed back.
The blade of the Charr boss dropped from his slackening fingers, and he fell to his knees. He pitched forward face-first without even a moan.
"They were good times, and the best few years of my life. But a few months after my twenty-second birthday, we heard disturbing rumors from far-flung villages; of a terrifying evil force that destroyed everything it touched and left devastation in its wake. We were deployed at a distant village when word came from the King that all of the Academy's graduate heroes were to return to the capital city to defend it."
"My brothers and I decided we would return by route of our family's farm... We weren't exactly prepared for what we would find there."
The three siblings were less than one mile from their home. They'd made surprisingly good time considering where they had started, and were less than one day from the capital city. They were moving along the very same forest path on which they had slain a wolf over a decade before.
"Wonder how the old place looks now? Queran wondered aloud. "Probably not much different. Dad never really was one for change."
"I don't care what it looks like as long as it feels the same." Eliar replied. "What about you, Sis?"
Cesso was walking slightly ahead of them, deep in thought. "What do you make of this 'new threat' the King went on and on about in that letter?"
"Cesso, sometimes I think that all you think about is battle." Queran said. "Aren't you looking forward to seeing Mom and Dad again?"
"Of course I am!" She said quickly, and meaning it, "Selina and Quel, too. I'm just worried. The King isn't exactly one to worry."
"Well it can't be worse than those Minataurs that one time, right?" Eliar said, optimistic. "That one guy nearly ran me through with his horn. Still have the scar."
"Well, we'll find out eventually." Queran replied, and after a moment he said, "I think we're about there."
He was correct. There was a hill up ahead that was bare of forest, and transformed into the open plain on which their family's farmhouse was built. When they reached the crest of this hill, they expected to look down upon their childhood home, possibly with their family awaiting them outside.
This wasn't the case.
What the three actually saw was the smoldering wreckage of their childhood home. It had apparently been set ablaze, and the fires were only now beginning to die out. The land around it had been caught in the flames, and left bare of grass and any other plant life, leaving only the scorched earth beneath it.
Prowling in the immediate area was a handful of unfamiliar creatures that were as dark as a cloudy night.
"Heartless."
There was no sign of the family that had lived in the now destroyed home.
Cesso, Queran, and Eliar stood there for a few moments, frozen at the pure, unexpected monstrosity that had occurred to their beloved home. Completely unprovoked, the creatures meandering about casually below them had destroyed it all.
Without even realizing it, Cesso had drawn her axes. She was already halfway down the hill, before she fully understood that there were tears in her eyes and that she was screaming with a mixture of rage and grief.
The first Shadow turned at her approach. Before it could do anything else, she had beheaded it, and before its partners could react, she had cut down another five like it. A slightly larger Heartless stomped toward her. It vaguely resembled a bulky, black-scaled lizard that stood at about three feet tall, and four feet long. It had red, orange, and yellow scales along its spine, and gleaming golden teeth. Its yellow eyes caught sight of her.
The instant it did, the Drake opened its mouth, and belched fire at her. She leapt directly over the jet of flames, and snarled, realizing that this was one of the creatures that had burnt the house down.
She fell toward it, and drove her blades into the base of its neck, hacking and slashing them free of its armored black flesh as it collapsed to the ground. She was in motion again within a second.
Before Queran and Eliar had made it down the hill, Cesso had taken out three Drakes and eight Shadows in her fury-induced adrenalin. In a similar rage, they cut into the Heartless ranks with their swords flashing all over. One destroyed a Soldier, and the other beheaded a Shadow on their way over to their sister.
Cesso seemed to be seeing everything through a red haze as she channeled all of her pain into the battle. She paid no attention to the minor bumps and bruises that the Shadows, Soldiers, and Armored Knights were landing against her. She ran toward the wreckage of the house, where a Drake kept launching fireballs toward her and her brothers.
She leapt over a fallen timber, and what might have been the remains of their old dining table, and sliced its two front legs off. It fell to the ground as if kneeling to her, and she quickly removed its head. She parried a blow from an Armored Knight that had been nearby and cut it into three pieces.
Queran and Eliar ran into the wreckage after her, disposing of the final three Soldiers on the way there. Only one Drake remained after this, and Cesso destroyed it the second it climbed over the remains of the wall, hacking ferociously into its back until it finally faded away into Darkness.
After that, there was nothing left to do, nothing but grieve. Cesso fell into the ashes, trying to restrain herself from sobbing. Even so, tears fell from her eyes and dripped from her face onto the ground. The Shining Star of Cynthis had been reduced to tears, at last.
Eliar bent down next to her and placed a hand on her back, stifling tears of his own. She wrapped her arms around him in a desperate hug –a sign of vulnerability that she had rarely ever displayed. But in brotherly fashion, Eliar said nothing, and merely held her close in a consoling manner.
"They aren't here, so they might have escaped." Queran reminded, playing a good big brother role. "They-"
He was cut off in mid sentence. He let out a loud cry of pain when a fireball struck him in the back.
Cesso and Eliar jumped up, only to see their brother falling to the ground, his sword falling from his grip. A severely wounded Drake was standing several feet behind him, its mouth steaming.
Cesso snarled. Nobody expected to get hit from behind when the fight was supposed to be over! It was a cheap, dirty, cowardly tactic, and it was enough to get her blood boiling hot again.
With a shout, she threw one of her axes spinning through the air. It flew with such force that it cut the Heartless vertically in half, and stuck several inches into the ground behind it.
She and Eliar bent over their brother, and began peeling away the layers of damaged armor covering his torso, to see what they could do about the severe burn beneath.
"Queran wasn't dead, not yet anyway. We treated his wounds the best we could, but there was no way he could recover fully with what we had on hand. We needed to continue on to the capital to get him help there."
It had taken a little more than a full day of travelling, but Cesso and Eliar were able to get to the capital without further incident. They had alternated on who would support or carry Queran the whole way there, to conserve their energy.
They had rushed through the city gates (not needing to announce who they were, as they were already well-known) and into the huge fortress-like Academy. With the aid of a few trainees who had been meandering about the entryway, they had gotten their semiconscious brother to the infirmary.
As they set him carefully down on the infirmary bed, a medic rushed into the room, having been told of their arrival. He ushered them out of the way hurriedly, and began to work his magic on the downed warrior.
It had happened so quickly that Cesso barely registered that she and Eliar were now standing outside of the room in the hallway, staring at a closed door.
She folded her arms over her chest, unconsciously hugging herself. Eliar put a consoling hand to her shoulder, despite the fact that his face was looking very pale himself. Together, the two sat down on a bench near the infirmary meant for the friends of patients. They sat in silence for a few minutes, before they head footsteps walking down the hallway toward them.
"The Shining Star of Cynthis." The speaker was a man that neither sibling had seen for nearly three years. Instructor Stahl had remained largely unchanged since the time they had trained under him. He was wearing the same brown and dark violet armor as always, and had his katana on his belt. Kar (who had graduated second in his class, after Cesso) was walking behind him.
"Just the 'Shining Star?'" Eliar replied. "Aw, come on I'm here too, you know!"
"Yes, but I didn't like you as much when you were training here." Stahl replied, deadpan. This got weak laughter from Kar and Cesso. "Regardless, it is good to see you both again. Though I wish it could have been under happier circumstances."
"You won't have to worry about Queran." Kar tossed in. "He's a fighter. And if he's half as strong as either of you, he'll be fine... But I have to ask; what happened to him?"
"We ran into that 'new threat' the King was going on about." Eliar said. "These creatures..."
"They attacked our home." Cesso finished bitterly. "They burnt it to the ground and attacked Queran while his guard was down."
She was starting to tremble, but not out of sadness this time. She could feel her anger and indignation building up again, and she wasn't sure she wanted to keep it below the surface this time.
Stahl apparently noticed this, and put a firm hand to her shoulder. "Never harbor hatred for your enemies, young one. Such emotions cloud your better judgment, and you'll soon find that you are no better than them."
These strange words had an oddly calming effect on her.
"We waited for a few days. Queran made a bit of progress. He was able to hold a conversation with us, but he was still too weak to leave his bed."
Cesso and Eliar were standing at their brother's bedside yet again. It had been four days since they had arrived at the capital. The two of them had rarely left the room since that time. Occasionally, Stahl, Kar, or other warriors that had known the siblings during their days in the Academy had joined them.
It was late afternoon, and a storm was rolling in. The sky outside was mostly grey, and every few seconds, an occasional droplet of rain pattered the window panes of the small room Queran slept in.
He was asleep now, and Cesso gently placed a damp rag to his forehead, if for no other reason but to be doing something. Eliar stood at the window, looking out across the cityscape at the people who were going on with their normal daily lives. He doubted that many of them had to worry about losing a sibling at a moment's notice. He envied them for that.
The door opened up, and Kar stepped in, panting slightly and looking as if he had just run from somewhere.
"We're needed."
The two reluctantly left their brother's bedside, and followed Kar. He led them out of the Academy, and nearly a mile away across the city. Several other people she recognized as Academy trainees and graduates were rushing in the same direction. Each of them was carrying weapons, and Cesso now noticed that Kar had his massive spear slung across his back.
She wasn't entirely sure where they were going until they were practically there already: The royal palace. Its five massive towers stretched up toward the stormy sky, a symbol of inspiration that anyone in the city would recognize.
There was a large crowd gathered into a large courtyard at the palace gates, composed entirely of warriors. Several people parted at the sight of Kar (who stood at over six feet tall and was an intimidating person to friend and foe alike) and he led Cesso and Eliar to a space near the front of the crowd.
They stopped before a tall podium. There were two people standing on it, facing the assembled crowd of heroes. Stahl stood slightly behind a tall man with dark brown hair and a beard. This man was garbed in regal robes of dark blue, and wearing a silver crown inset with a single red gem.
The King of Cynthis stepped to the front of the podium. "Warriors of Cynthis," He said, in a voice loud enough to carry across the courtyard, "You have defended our Kingdom wisely and well in all your time of service. But now, I am afraid that I must ask you to do it again."
"There are scores of creatures approaching the capital." Stahl took over, stepping to the front. "We've heard whispers that they are called 'The Heartless.' These creatures... They rob beings of their hearts."
There were whispers and murmurs among the crowd, some skeptical, some horrified, some curious.
"You can see why they must be stopped." Strahl continued. "They are approaching the gates as we speak."
"The fate of all of Cynthis rests on your shoulders, my friends." The King finished. "You must defend the city at all costs. May God watch over you all."
"I still don't know if He was watching us that day. The battle wasn't pretty."
The warriors (numbering just over six hundred at the time of the attack) had been able to hold the Heartless out of the capital for nearly thirty minutes with minimal casualties. Gradually, however, they had been pushed back to the front wall into which the gate was built.
Cesso had been separated from Eliar and Kar during the fray, but she caught glimpses of them from time to time. Both were putting up a good fight, it seemed. She was currently fighting the Heartless closest to the gates, alongside Stahl, three trainees of about eighteen, and a female Instructor she had known from the Academy. Between the six of them, every Heartless that had attempted to reach the gate had met with disaster.
Though the creatures had unbelievable numbers on their side, it seemed that they simply lacked the power to breach the city. Cesso was starting to think that they could yet salvage things today.
But then, far past the fighting, near the edge of the forest that ringed the capital, there appeared a massive Heartless. It was nearly as tall as the city walls themselves, with tiny wings on its back, long arms, and a face obscured by black tentacles, save for its yellow eyes.
The Darkside clenched its right hand into a fist, and punched the ground before it. A sort of portal opened up in the ground, and dozens of Shadows poured out of it to join the combat. Cesso snarled as the Darkside pulled its fist back up, covered with Darkness.
It reeled its arm back, and then threw the ball of Darkness flying toward the massive closed gates.
"Move!" Stahl shouted, and the six of them dove away from the gates as the attack knocked them completely off their hinges, and sent them flying into the city as twisted scraps of metal.
Cesso got back to her feet just in time to strike down the Neoshadow that had leapt at her. Already, Heartless were storming through the open entryway in search of prey that would put up less of a fight.
"Into the city!" Somebody shouted, and the warriors abandoned the Heartless they had been fighting for those pouring into the city.
"Go with them, Cesso." Stahl said, whilst running into the throng of Heartless still outside the city. The female Instructor followed him. She wondered what they were doing until she realized that the massive Darkside was advancing toward them.
Reluctantly, she left them, and ran into the city.
"Words couldn't describe what the capital had been reduced to after the Heartless breached the wall. Amongst the warriors were panicking civilians running for their lives. Some didn't make it."
It had been two hours and the fighting in the Cynthis capital showed no sign of slowing down whatsoever. Buildings were burning, half-dead bodies lay scattered about the streets until the Heartless got to them, and the air was filled with screams and the sounds of battle.
The city's defenders were tiring, and Cesso was no exception. She was standing on the roof of a half-destroyed house, fighting against airborne Heartless that had just now begun to appear. These Bookmasters were causing most of the heroes a lot of trouble.
She leapt straight up, cutting the tome of one of them in half before stabbing it through the chest. Its two partners swooped toward her, firing Blizzard spells at her. She ducked out of the way, and slashed them to pieces as they neared her for a melee attack.
Cesso took just a moment to catch her breath, and used the brief break to look around her. She could see the palace less than a mile away; one of its great towers had been broken in half by a Darkside before some brave soul had been able to bring it down. There was fighting in the street below her. One half of the buildings on the opposite side were on fire.
She leapt down, landing on the back of a Drake. She beheaded it before it could react to her presence. She threw one of her axes into an Armored Knight that had been looming over one of her fellow warriors. It cut its head off before it could bring its blade crashing down on him.
"Thanks!" The man said as Cesso leapt over him to retrieve her blade.
She advanced down the street, her axe blades flashing all over, destroying a Heartless with every movement. A small group of warriors formed behind her, moving down the street in an unstoppable offensive line.
Things fell apart however. Cesso caught sight of a group of Neoshadows. But they weren't looking at the warriors rushing toward them.
They were advancing toward two small children who were trapped against the wall of a burning building. They were a boy and a girl, and couldn't have been older than six.
As the first Neoshadow raised its claw to strike the girl down, Cesso reacted. She leapt-
And the next thing she felt was an icy feeling in her chest as everything went black...
Black that is, until she was reborn at the gates of Castle Oblivion a few hours later.
!
"Then there was Serndask, and you know the rest." Cossex finished.
Xyran was silent for a moment, and merely sat staring at her with his mouth agape. She waited for him to respond, and gazed out at the rainy Salusis for a few moments, feeling as though a great weight had finally been lifted from her shoulders.
"Wow." Xyran finally said. "I mean, wow. I thought my story was messed up... I'm sorry about your family."
"Well..." She sighed. "I'm sorry about your girl. But thank you."
"You never found out what happened to them?"
"I haven't left this world since Castle Oblivion, and if the Brotherhood knows anything about them, they're keeping it to themselves."
"You don't even know if Cynthis is still there?"
"You ask a lot of questions." She observed.
"Sorry..."
"Don't worry." She said. "And I don't know. But if it is still alive, then I can only hope my brothers survived the battle."
She sighed. "I don't want them to suffer through the fate of a Nobody, or for them to see what I have become."
"You didn't actually have much of a choice." He noted. "I mean, if you had said no to Serndask, I doubt he would have just let you walk away, not somebody with your kind of power."
"True." She admitted, though she didn't sound very convinced. "But thank you for listening to me. I feel a bit better now, somehow..." She didn't have a heart.
"Ah, no worries." He shrugged. "You sat through my monologue, didn't you?"
She chuckled slightly, and got to her feet, stretching her back to get the blood flowing through her muscles again. She bid goodnight to her young partner (who was technically older in the Nobody sense) and began the walk back to her room.
Perhaps she'd be able to get some sleep tonight, after all.
!
I hope you enjoyed it! And if you haven't checked out Annals of Darkness, what are you waiting for! Get over to Shire Folk's page now! Tell him DK sent you!
And re-reading this now, I realize that I've inadvertently written Queran and Eliar a bit like Fred and George. How about that?
But anyway, leave a review!