1st of Great Tree Moon, Imperial Year 1185

Wolfkrone

It starts as soon as the morning mist fades… Pillars of light appear on each continent, save for the newest one.

Green for Magvel, orange for Fodlan, blue for Ylisse, red for Valm, white for Elibe, purple for Tellius. All over the world, a shift could be felt, as the black clouds began gathering over Ostrheinsburg castle…

It is a display unlike any in history. The lights coming from points on continents long forgotten, each seeming to pierce the cloud barrier generated over the cursed capital. No one could say for certain what was happening, but the glows could be seen easily on the horizon from anywhere in the world.

Hilde looks out from the balcony, unsure of what to do or say. Next to her was a young girl in an outfit fitting an islander more than a knight. Her tanned skin led into green and white silks, and her hair was black and tied in pigtails under a silk hat of green. She wore gold and silver jewelry with emblems of the wind. This was Talim, the strongest wind priestess of her generation… And she was looking out the balcony, the same as Hilde.

"The wind… It is crying in horror…" She says quietly.

Hilde turns to the young priestess, "What has happened?"

Talim shakes her head, "I am unsure… I fear Soul Edge has wrought something horrible, something this world sees as an affront to nature itself."

Hilde's mind goes to a dark thought, "Could it be necromancy?"

Talim looks at the dark clouds, "Possibly. Whatever it is, the world itself is responding in kind. Even now, those glows are likely spots of power, calling this world's heroes to them, to better prepare for the coming darkness."

Hilde looks back to the gathering clouds. All she could do at this point was pray her messengers met their targets before Strife's servants got to them.

Elsewhere in the kingdom, on the newly formed shores of this new world, a ship weighs anchor in the newly formed marshes. From the ship steps royals from Magvel, unable to comprehend what they were seeing. An entire continent, just manifested where Fomortiis's light fell.

Gerik pushes his greenish-blonde hair out of his face, "Well, this just got far more complicated. Queen L'Arachel, any ideas about what this place is?"

L'Arachel, helping her white horse through the horrid, marshy shores, pauses, "There's no record of anything like this in Saint Latona's records. The only comparison is the great flood of ancient Tellius, and that was more a removal of land than a generation of it."

Gerik sighs, "Great, I guess if it showed up with trees despite being a month old, there may be a chance people are on this land as well. Stay sharp, crew."

Innes grumbles as he fetches his bow, "Who gave the mercenary authority over Kings and nobles?"

His wife, L'Arachel, shoots him a glare, "You forgot queens."

Innes goes pale and keeps his mouth shut from that point on. Ross, Cormag and Joshua help get the ship tied down before joining the group.

Ross speaks up first, "So we're basically just hoping this land isn't filled with demons, right? What's our plan if it is?"

Cormag passes Ross and pats his shoulder, "Run as fast as possible in the opposite direction."

Joshua chuckles, while also placing a hand closer to his royal blade Audhulma, just in case.

Meanwhile, Eirika hears something in one of the crates on the ship and lifts its lid to see a purple-haired mage curled up and looking at her, "Lute? Is that you?!" She asks in shock.

Lute stands up, stretching, "I'm offended, Princess Eirika. A chance to directly study the aftereffects of the most powerful magic witness in millenia and you don't invite the best magic scholar in the world?"

Eirika blinks at this, "I thought you and Artur had a son now though?"

Lute rolls her eyes, "Irrelevant. Artur can take care of him just fine while I'm away."

Eirika can only watch as Lute strolls off the ship as if she hadn't just been caught stowing away. The group links up in a less marshy clearing and sets up camp.

Joshua chuckles as he rests his feet on a log, "Heh, I forgot how fun it was to just travel."

Cormag, stoking the campfire flames, passes Joshua some rations, "Kingly life not as glamorous as you'd hoped?"

Joshua scoffs, but accepts the rations, "Natasha keeps me on a tight leash. All this fabulous kingly wealth and I'm not allowed to do anything fun with it."

Ross comes in, holding more logs, "Can't say I blame her. I remember back in the war, you were forbidden from the convoy because you kept trying to bet our weapons in the arena."

Joshua raises his hands defensively, "Only the ones that looked like they'd break!"

Innes looks up at him, "Didn't you sell the Excalibur tome to Fodlan for research?"

Joshua points at Innes, "That's a separate issue, and therefore irrelevant."

L'Arachel sits with Lute, "What about you, Lute? What have you been up to since the war ended?"

Lute shrugs, "Had a kid."

L'Arachel pauses, "That… Seems like it would be more noteworthy."

Lute nods, "Oh it is, I study his strange mannerisms every day."

Eirika and L'Arachel look at one another with concern. Eventually, it falls to Gerik to break the awkward silence, "So… What do you all think those lights were about..?"

L'Arachel ponders this for a bit, "International magic experiment?"

Innes shakes his head, "I approved no such things. Joshua, Eirika, anything like that in your countries?"

Both lords shake their heads.

Ross looks up, "Could be Carcino's doing."

Lute rolls her eyes again, "Those old merchants wouldn't know a spell like that if it hit them in the face."

L'Arachel smiles, "Perhaps it's a message from the gods!"

Joshua turns his head, "You mean the manaketes?"

L'Arachel tilts her head in confusion, "Are they not the same thing?"

Joshua sees the confused looks of his comrades and sits up, "Wait, did you all not hear? Fodlan dismantled its church."

L'Arachel stands in shock, "What?!"

Joshua nods, "Yeah, the new empress of Adrestia overthrew the Church and annexed Faerghus with the help of Leicester. Turns out the Church of Seiros was run by a secret order of manaketes known as the Nabateans."

Eirika is shocked, "It was run by dragons?"

Joshua nods, "Apparently. Almyra got gobbled up as well. So did the isles of Brigid and Duscur."

Innes blinks, processing what he just heard, "Brigid is practically in our backyard, how have I not heard of this?"

Joshua shrugs, "My contacts told me Brigid joined peacefully as a protectorate. Maybe the message is sitting on your desk back home."

Innes groans at the thought of more paperwork, "Well, one thing's for certain, divine or not, we can't afford to just ignore the state of Fodlan anymore."

Gerik looks at the sky as it begins to darken, "Evening already?"

The others look up as well, and it's Lute who realizes what it is, "Those are clouds… But there's no wind, how are they moving so quickly?"

There's a crunch of leaves from the nearby woods, and the group goes quiet. All of them keep hands near their weapons as they wait for another sign of what might be happening. Cormag steps back, getting within the range of his storm wyvern, a thin and gray-scaled draconic beast that snarls at the trees.

After a few minutes of silence, footsteps are heard as a bandit rushes for Lute with a blade. While Lute is surprised by this and reaches for her tome, the bandit moves with blinding speed to strike, but the blade never hits its mark. The clash of steel rings out across the clearing, as Joshua had quickly pulled the ice-blade, Audhulma from its sheath and countered the opposing warrior's blade.

Joshua smirks and wiggles his finger, "Uh-uh. Not happening."

The fire has the assailant obscured in flickering flames, but Ross thinks quickly and kicks a flaming log at the bandit, forcing them to dodge and revealing their face.

The bandit is a woman, no older than Lute, with long, dark green hair obscuring her eyes briefly before the movement reveals a face of Eastern descent. Her blade seems made of copper, having a similar hue, but was curved like a katana, and she wore a loose, green kimono with white bandages. On her back was a copper dagger with two blades on the hilt, creating a boomerang-like design for throwing, combined with vicious teeth to tear into foes the object is thrown at. Most interestingly, her eyes are revealed to be white, showing that the bandit woman, despite her speed and awareness, was in fact, blind.

The woman scoffs, quickly moving her hair back over her face, and goes to flee, her initial attack having failed. Cormag, quickly mounting his wyvern, manages to cut her off from an escape, causing her to turn to the others, quickly surrounding her.

Her face, now obscured once more by her hair, still shows no signs of concern as she scoffs, "Damn, not my day… Greed'll never let me hear the end of this one," and before anyone could ask more questions, she produces a black eggshell from a pocket in her kimono and hits the ground with it, causing a massive pillar of smoke that sends the group scattering.

Gerik especially is coughing in the smoke, "Gah! How did she..? What sort of..?"

Cormag's wyvern rears back as the bandit manages to spook it from in the smoke cloud and make her escape.

Once the smoke clears, the group looks around, only to find their assailant completely missing.

Lute sighs, "Well, we know the place is populated now."

Gerik looks up, "But who was that? And who's this 'Greed'?"

To Be Continued…