A/N and by extra special i mean today is the third birthday of phoenix fire (the original story was published on feb 16 2020) bless
Episode 36: Bella
17 years ago…
Valiance, X776
Nineteen year old Bella - who would later be known as Lady Ariana of Honeywell - walks home, escorted by seven year old Lero Sluper, the newest addition to Forsaken Roses.
Quite a young addition - a fact that still unnerves the young woman - but her parents (members of Forsaken Roses themselves) assured her that the Guild Master, Leonardo, said the boy would not be sent out on any dangerous tasks. He would be trusted to do more simple things; like what he was doing right now.
Bella smiles kindly. "Thank you, Lero." she says when they arrive at her door.
Lero rolls his eyes and shrugs. "Had nothin' else to do-lero. And the boss told me to, so…lero."
"Still, thank you." she says and reaches for her keys. "Are you hungry?" Bella asks as she opens the door to her family's home.
Lero shrugs again. "I guess-lero." he says.
Bella smiles. "Good. Come on then, I'm almost done with my chores for the day. I shouldn't be too long." she says as she walks inside.
Lero blinks, staring after her.
Bella turns around when he doesn't follow her inside. "Lero?" she calls.
Lero looks at her weirdly. "Are you inviting me inside your house?" he asks, seeming confused.
Bella tilts her head to the side. "Well you don't expect me to make you wait or eat outside, do you?" she asks.
Lero stares at her with wide, bulging yellow eyes. "Everyone back at the guild said you didn't like Dark Mages or criminals-lero."
Bella's expression softens. "I don't, no." she says. "But you're just a boy. I would be no better than a Dark Mage if I was cruel to a child - ah, no offense to you." Bella adds quickly, flushing lightly in embarrassment.
Lero barks out a laugh. "Lerolerolerolerolero!" he laughs. "None taken-lero!" Lero laughs and follows Bella inside, shutting the door behind him. "You're a funny lady-lero!"
One year later…
Valiance, X777
"Oi, oi, oi, oi! I finally got your birthday present-lero! Lemme in, Bel - why are you cryin'-lero?"
Twenty year old Bella throws open the door to her house with red eyes and tear stained cheeks. "L-Leonardo - Leonardo's son - D-Donatello-" she hiccups.
Eight year old Lero frowns. "Yeah, yeah, the new boss-lero. What about 'im-lero?" he asks.
"My parents - m-my parents said he thought I was - th-that I was beautiful and expressed interest in m-marrying me." Bella cries. "I don't - I can't marry a Dark Mage, especially one who has an entire league of them willing to follow his orders!" she says. "Leonardo was a nice enough man and respected that I don't want to be near Forsaken Roses whenever I can h-help it but I've met his son before. He's scary, Lero!" Bella says desperately, tears spilling from her eyes. "He barely talks and he always has such a mean look on his f-face - I can't marry him!"
Lero doesn't know how to comfort the woman who's become something akin to an older sister to him. "So…what're you gonna do-lero?" he asks, putting his hand on the nape of his neck. "You gotta leave, right-lero?"
Bella wipes the tears from her eyes as she nods resolutely. "Y-Yes." she says. "I've tried to get my parents to listen to me for years, but..." she shakes her head. "It's time for me to go."
"Mmph. I figured-lero." Lero says and holds out the wrapped box he's been holding. "I'll go back and keep your folks distracted for as long as I can-lero." he says, watching as Bella carefully unwraps the present between sniffles.
Bella's eyes widen slightly. "Are these…?"
"Happy Birthday-lero."
About a month later with nothing but a bag of supplies from home and Lero's birthday presents secured on either of her wrists, Bella finds herself at an open, plain field with nothing around but mountains and trees.
That's the day Bella casts aside her old life and takes on a new name: Ariana, and names the open field Honeywell.
With her abnormal (for someone with no magic) amount of physical strength and the experience she received repairing her childhood home, Ariana of Honeywell builds herself a small house.
When she finishes that, Ariana starts picking flowers from the field and visits a nearby village to purchase some fabric. She uses the blue flowers she picked to create dye and color her hair blue and uses the fabric to create a new outfit: permanently erasing 'Bella' from her life.
(Or so she thought, as she finds out in the present day.)
However, this was only a small start for Ariana.
She still felt like a new person but she wanted more: Ariana desired to create a place where everyone is good and everyone is at peace.
She decides to visit a small tavern in another town. Ariana stays there for a while until she notices an infamous thief from said town who seemed to be running away from a bunch of Mages - infamous in the sense that he was terrible at his job and everyone knew it. Ariana heard rumors and gossip that the thief could never complete a steal because everyone knew what he looked like.
And that's when it hits her - what she couldn't do with her parents she can do with Honeywell.
It doesn't take much convincing to persuade the thief to take refuge from the authorities with her. The thief was grateful but very confused, however after explaining herself, Ariana soon gave him an offer he couldn't refuse: a brand new life in a village where no one will be able to find him - a place where he can get food and learn to function as a well meaning member of society.
The man - no longer a thief - follows Ariana back to Honeywell.
There, Ariana repeats the process she did for herself: creating hair dye and sewing the man new clothes. Ariana builds the man a house and together, they build a farm.
Ariana asks the man if he knows more people who could use an escape and wanted to become better. The man refers her to some of his old buddies and after putting the man in charge of the farm while she's away, Ariana begins her mission.
After sixteen long years of hard work, with the help of her townsfolk, Ariana created the Honeywell Valiance knows today. She turned the open field into a beautiful and peaceful town: a place where criminals and Dark Mages who were tired of their lifestyle could come and get new identities and become better, more well-meaning people. Honeywell prospects can head to the Honeycomb Tavern where they must say the secret phrase to the bartender in order to be referred to Lady Ariana.
Honeywell is a peaceful town - famously known as the most peaceful place in Valiance - and is filled with people with colorful hair and wearing bright and pastel clothes. The village is most focused on farming but also has a river where they fish and a few barns with pigs and cows.
Overall, a perfect place to start a brand new life.
Present Day
Honeywell | Honeysuckle Hospital
"I…see." Ariana says when she finishes reading Donatello's explanation. "Your protection was your way of…apologizing." she summarizes carefully.
Donatello nods and motions for her to flip to the next page.
Ariana flips to the next page. "'I do not have experience with wo-'" she stops abruptly, continuing to read silently as an embarrassed blush crawls up her neck.
"Why did she stop reading!?"
"Em, shut-"
"Both of you shut up!"
"...I think she caught us."
"You guys are terrible at this."
"Emile was sleeping, it's your fault for waking him up."
"...I think it's time for me to retire."
"Why? Because you're old?"
"N-Nelio, that is incredibly rude-"
Ariana throws open the door to Donatello's room and their nine Phoenix Fire guests stumble into the room and trip over each other until they're on the ground in a body pile.
Ariana's eye twitches.
Caia, at the bottom of the body pile, raises her hand. "I'd like the record to show that this was not my idea." she says dryly.
"Y-You're the one who brought me over here!" Myling says in a shrill voice.
"...No I didn't."
"Caia!"
Theresa sighs. "I'm too old for this."
Ariana smiles calmly as she pulls a small rectangular device out of her sleeve and holds it up to her mouth. "Lero, please come escort our Phoenix Fire patients back to their rooms." she says into the device. "And make sure they don't leave until they're discharged."
Mana pales. "Lero? Please anybody but him, his tongue is so gross-"
"His what!?" Akane shrieks. "Why do you know what his-?"
"Lerolerolerolero! Don't you know it's rude to make comments like that-lero? Just for that, we're taking the long way-lero." Lero says, appearing behind the body pile of Phoenix Fire Mages and looming over them. "Hoo boy! Let's get this party started-lero!"
Veiss, Emile, and Akane look about as pale as Mana when they see the length of the Dark Mage's tongue sticking out of his mouth.
And then they start screaming and Lero starts laughing.
When Lero drags the hospital patients away, Ariana and Donatello are left with Caia, Nelio, Alistair, and Theresa: an S-Class Mage, two prospective S-Class Mages, and the mother of Phoenix Fire's current Guild Master, as she'd been told.
"Ariana," Theresa walks further into the room so she can look at both Ariana and Donatello. "You understand the position Revenant Beasts and Stygian Gospel have put you in, yes?" she asks.
Ariana clenches her fists. "We can't continue to invite Dark Mages to start a new life here." she answers, frustrated.
Theresa turns to Donatello. "I came in here earlier to ask you a question, too. Do you have an answer for me?" she asks.
"What?" Ariana blinks, looking between the two.
Donatello nods and clears his throat, wincing slightly. "With B - with Lady Ariana's permission…" he starts hoarsely and glances at Ariana. "Forsaken Roses…will disband…and take up residence…in Honeywell…to serve as permanent guards…for her people."
Ariana's eyes widen.
Nelio whistles, "Seems like a good deal to me." he says. "The people loyal to you and Honeywell have adhered to their vow of pacifism. With people to protect them, they can continue to do so." Nelio shrugs. "But that's just me." he says with a yawn.
Alistair gives Nelio a look. "I don't want to hear you talking about pacifism when you're the reason Aberrant Hydra is hostile towards you and me."
Nelio puts his hands behind his head. "I wasn't referring to myself, Alistair."
"You know what I meant, Nelio." Alistair snaps.
Caia pinches the bridge of her nose and shakes her head. "Moving on," she says and looks at Ariana. "After the events of today, I would also recommend creating some sort of council with people you know you can trust - people that won't be swayed back to a life of crime under duress." Caia says.
Nelio nods in agreement. "You should put Donatello on it too." he says, looking down at a piece of paper in his hands. "After all, the guy's like, super in love with you or something."
Ariana's eyes snap down to the table she put Donatello's notes on. Gone.
Her face turns bright red. "Wh-When did you-!?"
Nelio clears his throat and begins to read as he dodges Ariana's futile attempts to snatch the paper back. "'I do not have experience with women so I must apologize again for scaring you those years ago. I was unaware of the steps people usually take between meeting and actually getting married. I will not pursue you any longer in an effort to make myself seem less intimidating. I am aware I do not have the friendliest face. However, as you have asked me for complete honesty, that is what I will give you. Whatever you wish to be called now, I find you beautiful both inside and-' ow!" he cries when Caia kicks the back of his knee, making him drop to the floor.
Caia snatches the letter from Nelio before he hits the ground and hands it back to Ariana without a word.
Theresa sighs and turns back to a flustered Ariana. "The four of us will stay in town until the other five have recovered." she says. "Please take some time to think about it."
Alistair and Caia silently drag a downed Nelio who never picked himself up out of the room.
Mana, Akane, Veiss, Emile, and Myling lie defeated in their beds - now all shoved into one room - covered in Lero's saliva.
Novem looks at them sympathetically for a second. A second later, he curls up at the foot of Emile's bed and shuts his eyes.
Well, at least it wasn't me. Novem thinks to himself before drifting off to sleep.
Several days later…
Mana, Akane, Veiss, Emile, and Myling sprint away from Honeysuckle Hospital when they're cleared to be discharged.
"Be - gentle - with - me!" Novem cries as he's bounced up and down in Emile's arms.
Behind them, a cackling Lero and an unamused Donatello stand by the entrance of the hospital.
"Lerolerolerolerolero! Did I spook them that much-lero?" Lero laughs and turns to Donatello. "So what'd she say-lero?" he asks.
The corners of Donatello's lips curl up ever so slightly. "...We will be staying in Honeywell." he says. "Send word to her parents that she has invited them to join us."
Lero grins. "See-lero? I told you all she needed was some time alone-lero." he says.
"...Sixteen years is more than 'some time alone', Lero."
Lero shrugs. "Eh."
Donatello rolls his eyes.
PF x AH x SS
A/N not proofread don't come for me i have chronic pain