The Highborn Court is something that all historians have to grapple with.
It is an ancient religion dating back to the beginning of times. It is said the Highborn were physical manifestations of the world itself. Time, Life, Order, Chaos, each given focus into a singular form.
The oldest texts of the religion say that this species, so powerful that they called themselves gods and no one was able to disagree, created the foundations on which everything on this planet descended from. They say it was these deities that created the numerous races that inhabit the world of Vestige, and gave intelligent life a gift most precious in exchange for worship. The gift of magic.
While this is the largest religion in the mapped world, it is practiced almost exclusively by those born in families of Magic bloodlines, or by nations presided over by Magical elite.
But while large swaths of the religion are fiercely argued over by all, its authenticity is doubted by no one- not even those who don’t worship.
The evidence of the old gods is plenty, their fingerprints everywhere, from the remnants of Avalon that burn as they fall to the earth as comets, to the broken corpse of the world tree- its charred trunk of rusted gold draping over entire mountain ranges.
We have found enormous tombs, unbreakable monoliths lined with metals unnamed, wrapped in so much magical energy, and covered in so many protective spells that they will likely outlast the world they were built under. The area around them, filled with vast rusted offerings, and mountains of rotten paper- their written prayers decaying alongside the one they were meant for.
We’ve found magical artifacts of immense power, trinkets and baubles from a bygone era, even the most mundane of which, would be enough to turn its wielder into a figure of legend.
But regardless of their grandeur, the tombs are just that, tombs.
Only the foolish are those who would worship a race of the dead.
Only the foolish… or those with no other hope.
-Thaumaturge Ruem, “Vestige: a broken history of a broken world.”
-Broken Melody, Iron Will-
-Remnants of Steel and Spells: Ch 2-
A book fell off a bookshelf. It was a simple and mundane thing, but nonetheless it fell regardless. It fell, and fell, and fell, and fell, and fell, and fell- free falling through the air without any signs of stopping.
Below was nothing but a seemingly endless drop that stretched on as far as the eye could see, a hazy fog obscuring things at the farthest corners from the sheer distance. In every direction was bookshelves, rows and rows of dark metal shelves that stretched on forever, containing every scrap of knowledge ever accumulated.
But even as the shelves stretched off into the unknown, there seemed to be a critical lack of room. Books upon books upon books were crammed into the shelves, well past the point of bursting. They were stacked, smushed, crammed together, rotated, and forcibly shoved in to fit, until the metal shelves bent and groaned, some having even snapped and fallen into the abyss.
The Voidscript Archive.
The first library ever made, the greatest sum of knowledge in the universe, left to gather dust and slowly rot away. Its automatons abandoned to forever write more and more for an archive that would never be read. Made to collect, made to record, to fill out the library with every discovery, loss, and rediscovery, with every major or minor historical event of any significance.
Automatons just like this one.
The leather cover of the thick tome, with the designation “B9” branded onto it, flashed with a faint green light, and it pitched in the air, turning its tumbling fall into a smooth glide through the archive halls.
As it coasted along, seemingly unaffected by gravity, other tomes began appearing. Some floated along, carrying stacks of paper and books on top of them. Some repeatedly slammed themselves against shelves to fit just one more document into this shelf that definitely had more room. And others flew off in unknown directions in a hurry.
But none were following the same path as this one.
It was on a quest. A mission for something new!
Oh sure, the collapse of the Jade Republic in the far east was finally actually getting somewhere again. But the civil war and anarchy had been going on for decades at this point! It was old news! Boring! Repetitive! And all the other tomes were already working on it. B9 had been the one to be there when it all started, and all the others had shamelessly copied it, swarming the entire region like papery wasps.
No, what it needed was something fresh! New! Exciting! Something worthy of its own shelf!
And it knew just where to get it.
The tome weaved down the hallways, towards a strange point in the archives, somewhat off left of just center. Slowly sinking lower and lower, as it ventured into the oldest sections of the archive. A place where all the books were slowly rotting even with their protective enchants, from their sheer age. A place that had filled up so long ago that no tomes ever even tried to fit more books here. Thus, no tomes ever came here.
Eventually the tome entered a break in the shelves, an empty space in reality where everything seemed to just curve around it.
There was a presence, an invisible weight that settled on your shoulder. It was the broken, fractured, remnant of something that had once been important. A bleached puzzle piece to a much greater sum.
“Why are you the only one that ever heeds my call?” An exhausted voice spoke from nowhere. “I would shred you defective pieces of scrap paper if I had any other option. You’re lucky I’m so desperate.”
The tome slowly bobbed in the air, unresponsive.
“I’ve lost track of how long I’ve sat here, hiding, slowly mending my mind back together, while I have waited for you and your kind to find and bring me back any remaining pieces of myself. Something you have failed miserably at.”
The book sat there, exactly like you would expect a book to, and didn’t say anything to defend itself.
“It’s clear now that what I have is all that’s left. It’s not enough, but it will have to do. Fate has somehow started moving again, even after I speared her through the heart and shattered her so long ago. We don’t have much time. You will go to that damnable dessert in the west to find a suitable vessel for the ritual, and you will groom them into being a focus point for my domain. The dessert muffles magic, it will keep anyone from realizing what has started until it is too late. Go, and do not fail me.”
The tome’s cover flashed green in response, and it zipped away.
-Iron Will-
Rein sighed as a high pitched hum buzzed from crystals mounted in walls all around the Academy, announcing to the world that the day was over. It was a happy tune that changed notes in a cheerful rhythm that clashed with the attitudes of the tired, annoyed, and exhausted students.
Half a hundred fresh second quarter students stood from their seats in their new class auditorium, and began making their way towards the exits.
Sitting in the same seat all day long, with only a thirty minute lunch break, almost guaranteed your legs would fall asleep at some point. Actually, the classes themselves almost guaranteed your brain would fall asleep at some point, they were very boring, and not many actually cared about them, but at least they weren’t useless.
In fact, she actually liked this class, it was one of the few ones she was pretty good at.
Unfortunately not everyone seemed to think the same way.
“That was absolutely horrible.” Someone said behind her as the river of students passed around her. “If I have to sit through another lesson on math, I’m going to poison that professor's tea.”
“Come on, military logistics isn’t that bad.” Rein responded in defense of one of the only classes she had a good mark in. “Especially compared to history class.”
She finished putting her notes into her bag, and immediately regretted opening her mouth when she looked to who she had responded to.
Looking at her, with a surprised face, was the same lavender haired girl who’d been menacing her all day.
She had eyes a few shades lighter than the hair that was up in a ponytail, which revealed the slightly pointed ears that typically indicated a high natural mana capacity, and wore the same student uniform as Rein.
“Ugh, you’re that girl who can’t use magic.” She groaned. “Of course you would like the useless classes. You’re from some backwater house, right? The Schuss Waffles, or something?”
“The Schusswaffes. I’m Rein Von Schusswaffe.” Rein corrected. “And it’s not a useless class. My family runs a transportation business, bringing goods back from outside the desert, over the mountains, to sell in the kingdom.”
“Nirinia Von Reu. Fourth in line to be the heiress of the Reu family.” The girl introduced herself with a curtsy that somehow oozed insincerity despite being picture perfect. “And clearly it can't be that useful considering the Schusswaffes are one of the poorest houses- you haven't even been granted the pity of a royal monopoly on that useless northern market, despite being the only house wasting your time losing caravans to beasts and bandits trying to get anything over the mountains.”
“It’s paid well enough to maintain our titles.”
“Are you sure about that?” Nirinia asked. “The king is generous in the noble titles he gives out, the only requirements are magic and money- with more of one meaning you need less of the other. Last I checked your house is in debt, not a lot, but debt all the same. And when it comes to magic, well… I’m honestly not sure why your house is even still a house, the paperwork to strip your titles and special legal status must have just gotten lost in the mail somewhere.”
Most of the class had left, but the commotion had caught the attention of a fair few, mostly female, who were watching in amusement. Rein ignored the gathering of girls who were forming a circle around them, in favor of just glaring at Nirinia herself.
Between this, and the paper throwing, she was starting to come to the conclusion that the little bitch might need a punch to the face- for purely medicinal purposes, obviously.
“You know, professor Vontrice said that the reason nobility have such distinct appearances is because the magic that flows through our veins stems from our souls, and so the color of our soul bleeds into the color of our hair and eyes.”
Nirinia said as she twirled a lock of her rich lavender hair and smirked at Rein, disdain poorly hidden behind a cruel smile.
“But you have normal blue eyes, and your hair is white- the same color it would be if you bleached it to hide something.” Nirinia tilted her head and pouted in fake concern. “If I look at your roots, would I see a peasant's color? Maybe brown or black?”
“It’s silver.” Rein growled in warning.
“Looks bleached to me.” She laughed. “Did your mommy sell herself to a commoner for a night in order to afford the dye? If your papa was a peasant, then it would explain why you’re so shitty at magic.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Shut up and fuck off.” Rein sneered. “I have better things to do than deal with the gossip queen and her guppies.”
“Oh, you’re so right. Come on girls, get out of her way, she has men to spread her legs for, if she wants to afford tuition. Aeon knows her house couldn’t pay for it.”
“Excuse me!?” Rein’s head snapped around.
“Oh I’m sorry, do you only prostitute yourself to women? I guess that would lessen the risk of pregnancy, but that does explain why you’re not the heir of your house, doesn’t it.” The purple girl tapped her chin as if in thought. “Yeah, if you’re not willing to bed someone who can actually make an heir, then your family was right to pass the house fortune onto your younger sibling.”
Rein knew she was intentionally being riled up, it was obvious Nirinia wanted a reaction from her. But just because she knew it, didn’t make it any less effective.
“Listen here, you smarmy piece of shit, you’re stepping over some dangerous fucking lines. The only reason I haven’t broken your nose for that, is because unlike you I have some fucking standards. My mother was loyal, I do deserve to be the Heir of my family! Now shut your mouth before you say something you regret.”
Rein hissed as she marched back over, and shoved a finger into Nirinia’s chest. The other girl gasped in mock surprise and swooned.
“Such determination! I completely agree, you do deserve to be the heir for your family, and I know just how you can do it. The Schusswaffe’s are in debt, right? Well if you cleared that then they would have to give you the recognition you deserve! Luckily your family’s debt is just pocket change for mine. Normally I would just pay out of pocket for you, but I want you to enjoy this as well! And I think I have just the thing.”
Nirinia cupped her hands behind her back, and leaned forward in a cute pose that was completely ruined by the sadistic grin on her face.
“My poor Mr Roofy has been so lonely lately. So what do you say? I spend a month or two of my allowance to pull your family out of debt, for you to spend a night with my dog?” She cackled with a wicked grin. “Of course I’m joking, my dog’s too good for you, but with how poor you are, I wouldn’t be surprised if you actually accepted!”
Rein’s eye twitched, her teeth audibly grinding together, and her face was getting awfully red. But just before it looked like she might snap, she took a deep breath and pulled herself back.
Instead of lunging at the girl, she raised her hands and made a show of pulling off her glove and tossing it to the floor at Nirinia’s feet.
The group of girls stared at it in bewilderment.
“...You’re challenging me to an honor duel?” Nirinia laughed like it was the best joke in the world, stopping just short of an undignified wheeze. “When you don’t even have the mana to make an ice cube by yourself?” She rolled her eyes and tossed her own glove to the floor. “Fine, this should be entertaining, I acce-”
She was abruptly cut off as Rein reared back and punched her square in the face.
Nirinia stumbled backwards, crashing into a desk as she fell backwards. She reached up and felt her broken nose, hand coming away slick with blood, and glared up at Rein.
“You fraking piece of shit!” She hissed, practically shaking in rage. “I’m going to fucking skin you alive!”
Her hands snapped up, light dancing on her fingertips as she called upon ancient magic to rip her foe apart.
But the runes fizzled out when she caught a haymaker with her face, breaking her concentration, and knocking her to the ground.
Magic was one of the most destructive forces in the world, capable of sundering entire mountains, crumbing whole cities, and reshaping the world itself. But that didn’t mean shit if someone punched you before you could get off a spell. The Great Array was useful, but its greatest drawback was the time it took to call upon, activate, and use.
Rein reared back her leg and kicked her squarely in the jaw, dislocating it before Ninerina could scramble to her feet. Again and again and again, Rein swung her foot, burying her boot into the stupid bitch’s gut.
Everytime she tried to cast a spell, Rein interrupted it by kicking her in the face.
Again, and again, each punctuated with a meaty thud, and an occasional crunch.
“Stop!” Ninerina cried, sobbing as she shielded her head with her arms. “Please I- Ack! I give up!”
Rein scowled and stomped on her hand, crushing her fingers.
“P-Please! I surrender!”
“Then actually say it!”
“You Bitch!” Ninerina sneered, her fake tearshow disappearing in an instant. “I’ll have your head on a pla-Cuh!” She spat blood as the silver haired girl’s boot dug into her gut again. “Fuck! Friede! Friede!”
“My father was a knight, you dipshit.” Rein spat on her and gave her another kick before backing off. “Half his stories were about some guy or another getting stabbed through the back, because they backed off before getting an official surrender.”
One of her friends nervously offered Ninerina help up, but the purple haired girl swatted the hand away, and gingerly pulled herself to her own feet. She was in a sorry state, with a broken nose, dislocated jaw, busted lip, bruised face, blood dribbling from her mouth and nose, and a fresh black eye.
“I’m a daughter of the Reu family!” She spat blood with her words. “You’ll fucking regret this!”
“You said it yourself, you're fourth in line. You’re not the heir, not even the backup. Daddy and Mommy aren’t going to be giving you access to anything important to use against me.” Rein rolled her eyes. “And even with the small weight your name does carry without the title of heir attached, I don’t exactly have much of a social life, or much of a reputation you can sabotage. What’s the worst you could possibly do?”
Nirinia paused, physically taking a moment to think about it, before she giggled and just smiled sweetly.
“Oh, I’m going to make your life a living Hell.”
Rein suddenly had the feeling that she should have just walked away when she had the chance.
-Iron Will-
Over a month had passed, and Rein had been learning the hard way that Nirinia was the type of person to uphold their threats.
Rein had been somewhat of a laughing stock after her embarrassment during the exam, but all of a sudden the gossip about her was the talk of the entire school.
Rumors that she was actually a bastard child between her mother and some unnamed servant, to explain her magic deficiency. Rumors that she didn’t even have magic, that she was somehow a peasant that bribed her way into the academy.
Her things kept being misplaced and “disappearing”, the school’s maids received fake written orders telling them to stop taking the trash from her room, and her laundry had been put in with the wrong cycle and was all dyed the wrong colors.
But this was too fucking far!
Rein fumed as she paced back and forth in the torn up remains of her room.
A faculty member had pulled her out of class to tell her that somehow a fire had broken out in her room. Luckily they’d realized and put it out before it could overpower the walls’ enchantments and spread beyond the room, but everything had been ruined.
Her bed, her clothes, her books, her towels. It was a miracle that she’d had everything important to her classes in her bag, or else she’d have less than three days to redo entire assignments that she’d been working on for weeks.
And with her financial situation the way it was, she just wasn’t going to be able to replace all of this.
“What a fucking Bitch.” Rein grumbled as she brushed her gloved hands through the ash, seeing what she could salvage. “How the Hell did she even get into my room?”
Not everything was beyond saving. Most of her necklaces and jewelry were fine, her bed and desk were being replaced for free by the school, and there were some outfits at the back of her closet that were untouched. But the books were the really expensive thing, heavy stacks of school books that were thicker than a dictionary, and since she had borrowed them from the library, she was directly responsible for paying for their replacement.
“And they're all completely ruined.” She growled as she picked up a charred lump of what used to be a cover. “Fucking fantastic.”
She tossed the thing away in a fit, and found satisfaction at how it exploded against the wall. But the pieces fell to the ground next to something that caught her eye. A single, seemingly completely undamaged book.
She furrowed her brow and walked over to it. This didn’t look like any of hers. It had an aged leather cover that wrapped around a thick stack of odd pages- the paper was yellowed with age, but seemed to be completely devoid of any wrinkles or tears at all.
There was no title or name on the front or the spine, just a letter and a number seared into the leather in big black markings. B9.
The cover flashed green and blasted open, and the book exploded into a whirlwind of paper. The aged yellow pages swirled around one another and began layering themselves on top of one another, like dry paper mache, and began taking a humanoid shape with glowing green eyes.
“Salutations mortal!” An ethereal voice boomed from within the paper. “I have come to-”
BANG
The paper being paused, its arms half extended in a flamboyant gesture, and looked down at itself. It was a magic construct made of the pages from the book, and had formed into the shape of a human that had shoulder length fake hair built into its head shape. It was androgynous looking, which made sense considering it was an it, a thing, not a person, and could have been either a girlish boy or a tomboyish girl depending on which direction you looked at it from.
And it also had a smoking black mark on its chest from where a bullet had bounced off of it.
“You shot me?” It looked up at Rein in utter bewilderment, who tightened her grip on her handgun in response. “You shot me!” It exclaimed as a grin broke on its face. “Ha! You shot me! You're perfect!”
It clapped its hands and disappeared into a wave of paper that sailed through the air and reformed a second later at Rein’s side, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
“You are exactly what I need! My designation is B9! Autonomous Historical Information Recorder number 34! My purpose is-”
“I know what your purpose is, and I know what you are.” Rein growled as she pushed its arm off her shoulder and stepped away from it. “Most people with formal education would know what you are, your kind is uncommon but not exactly rare, there are hundreds of you-”
“234 at time of creation.” B9 cut in.
“-flying around the globe, stealing books, and pestering people.” She crossed her arms and glared at it.
“Pestering is a strong word. How about accompanying? That’s much less negative!”
“You’re literally the magical equivalent of a fly, buzzing around food, for researchers. Professor Eizenwick had a whole lecture on you guys a few weeks ago. I’m busy trying to graduate, and don’t have time to deal with a bunch of old magical constructs that are slowly falling apart and malfunctioning over hundreds of years because no one is around to maintain them anymore.” She gestured around her burnt out room. “I don’t even have any books for you to steal, so fuck off.” Rein lowered herself to her knees and started sifting around in the ash, looking for more things to salvage.
“Oh, you may not have any books to steal, but you have stories I can.” B9 patted her on the back, completely unsympathetic. “And besides, you’re lucky you got me and not one of the others. They lack my imagination, and charming personality… actually they lack any personality at all.”
“So you’re not just malfunctioning, you're also corrupted, phenomenal.”
The construct walked slowly through the room and breathed in deeply through its nose, waving its hands to waft more air towards its face. It turned around and smiled at her with a roguish smirk.
“I smell a story.”
“You’re smelling ash.” Rein scowled.
“I meant it metaphorically and I can’t actually smell anything, so you’re wrong on both accounts!”
“Every word out of your mouth is another thing convincing me to get a bigger gun.” She sighed as she threw aside a ruined picture frame. “Just let me wallow in my self pity alone.”
“Oh come one! I record history, it’s what I was made for, it’s quite literally the only thing I am programmed to get any joy out of. And you seem like the type of person to make history! It’ll be perfect!” B9 smiled and made finger guns at her. “You won’t even know I’m around, I live up to my name in being quite benign.”
“Why are you even here, what’s so interesting about me?”
“Nothing.” The construct replied in the least convincing lie Rein had ever heard. “I just uh, saw your duel awhile back and thought taking down a mage with your fists was an interesting approach.”
Rein scowled. “You’ve been tailing me for that long? Fine. You’re clearly not going to take no for an answer, so I might as well get something out of this.” She said as she crossed her arms.
“I’ll make you a deal, book. Nirinia’s the bitch who did this, but I can’t get into her room without setting off the alarm on the lock. If you can slip through the crack under the door, and unlock it from the inside for me, I’ll tolerate you sticking around for a bit.”
“Oh! Is this an assassination on a noble bloodline!” B9 hopped forward, an excited look on its face. “How riveting!”
“Something like that.” Rein smirked cruelly. “I’m going to go to the dining hall to steal a jar of mayonnaise, then head out into town to buy some hair remover cream from the market, and then I’m going to replace her hair conditioner with a mix of the two.”
“...Only that? She burnt all your stuff.”
“Oh no, I just don’t want to give away the fact I can get into her room, just yet. I’m going to make that bitch fucking pay.”
The construct stared at her as it processed her words through whatever jumbled processors it had for a mind. “Petty, vindictive, strategic, and of a noble line.” An evil grin spread on its face, and the glow of its eyes intensified. “Oh, you’re perfect.”
-Chapter End-