Father,
This Union is a sacred one, one born out of the need to preserve our legacy and heritage. Many have brought their grievances to me about this union and how you have been opposed to the merging of clans. We must join with Clan Illum before our clan dies out. Sandor, the Third Illum, has given me a life vow! He will not let our culture die, he will welcome us into Clan Illum with open arms. His family goals line up with ours. They want to protect this land and the people in it. Sure, they have that serious hatred in them, but it’s for the Night and the evils they bring to this world. Their knowledge and skills would greatly benefit us, and we would be allowed to live in the many settlements they protect. We will still keep our name, we will still keep our teachings. Your history as the Second will be protected, so why do you keep trying to stop this from happening? This decision is the correct choice and, as the current head of this clan, it will be final. Some of our own have left to make their separate sects, but you know how difficult that will be. I was able to stop the dissenters from taking any of our treasures and scrolls, but I will be taking the First Hathaway’s treasured shield. Sova and I will give it to the Illums. They will give us one of their First’s treasured swords, Vik. The physical exchange of these historic weapons will represent our vow. We vow that we will never betray the other, that we will fight side by side until the end of our respective bloodlines. I know that you are upset with me, father. I know Sova is your shield and that of your mothers. But I also know what is right for this clan, for the future of our descendants, for your soon to be born grandchild, and…I just love Sandor. Can’t that just be enough? This decision is final.
With love, forever your daughter
Valentina Hathaway
* Letter to the Second Hathaway from the Third, Valentina Illum-Hathaway. Currently preserved in an ather-protected glass casing in the grand library of Lumencia.
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In the annals of history, it is said that Clan Hathaway were descendants of angels. Each member inherits white or silver hair with silver-colored eyes. Any deviation from this norm is seen as a bad omen. A pure Hathaway is one with silver eyes and hair of white. The wise and cunning owl is the guardian beast that these heavenly beings associate themselves with. Owl feathers were placed on their person as part of their vow and as a sign that they will forever cherish and ally themselves with the owls.
The Hathaways were blessed with unparalleled strength. They exclusively inherited holy ather and used their cultivated techniques, knowledge, and legendary treasures to fight against the Night and protect their own clan and no one else. Some say that selfishness caused them to lose their favor with the gods. Consequently, the once powerful clan began to crumble.
The true reason for their dwindling strength is unknown to this day, and there are many historians currently trying to uncover that mystery. But that in itself isn’t important. During the third generation, the weakened clan sought refuge and married into House Illum. The leaders of both factions vowed to each other that they will preserve the other’s name and legacy. The Illum blue and the Hathaway white became the wolf and the owl.
They are the only clan in history to be assimilated into one of the main houses and have contributed much to elevate the status of House Illum. Their customs, techniques, their love and creation of music, and their legendary treasures have aided the Illum throughout all of their legacy.
Here stood one of the few Hathaways that had both Illum blood and the blood of his clan's lineage. Cecil went and hugged his Uncle Higginbottom and his cousin Bartz. It was a warm embrace that weakened some of the worries they had. The Scion of Clan Hathaway was overjoyed to see his cousin and uncle. There was no greater honor to the young Jaeger than to fight side by side with members of his house.
He then went to the other house representatives and shook their hands. He knew Lady Bulwark, Lord Zill, and his son William already. He didn’t know Lord Ashsong personally, but he knew his mother and the stories she told about her son’s adventures.
Chieftain Oshi had waited his turn long enough. Instead of grabbing his hand, he picked the young man up in a bear hug and swung him around. “CECIL!” he shouted as he swung Cecil much more wildly. Cecil hugged the Chieftain back, smiling as he flew into the air. “It is very good to see you again, my eternal friend.”
“As it’s good to see you too, Chief Roland.” The chieftain placed Cecil back on to the ground and then slapped Cecil on the back. It sounded more like a slam than a slap. “Drop the titles, my friend. You have already earned the right to fight alongside me as an honorary dragoon.” Oshi laughed as he once again slammed his hand against Cecil’s back.
Bartz looked puzzled. His cousin Cecil had history with a chieftain and was considered an honorary dragoon? It’s the highest honor one can attain from the principality of Rune, an honor his father had been given long ago in his youth. He also hadn’t seen Cecil at all this year and wondered just how much stronger he had become…and wondered if the rumors were true that he was holding himself back in battle.
Cecil faced the Hollowfield elder next. He had a small, mischievous grin on his face when he held his hand out. “Jeremiah,” he said curtly.
“Do not think you can address me without any title, boy. You don’t get special treatment just because you are courting one of my granddaughters.” Elder Hollowfield scoffed at Cecil, who still held his hand out to him. “So, they sent us Nimbus’s boy instead of the clan lord himself.”
It seems that all the elder ever did was complain. Cecil gave the elder a cheeky defiant smile and rested his rejected hand on the long hilt of his sword. Cecil looked back towards Bartz. “So, care to fill me in?”
“Fill you in?!” Elder Hollowfield yelled with disgust. “Are you telling me your sorry excuse for a Lord didn’t even tell you anythin–”
Cecil turned his head back towards the elder. He gave him a terrible scowl that caused the elder to stop speaking.
“Jeremiah, I was not looking at you or speaking to you. Stop being rude.” Cecil wasn’t a crude person, he was a nice young man. He also knew that Jeremiah Hollowfield hated him, so he acted a certain way towards him. But it wasn’t just because of the old man. When it came to matters of hunting the Night and other Jaeger duties, his Illum side appears.
House Illum was rebellious even to their own elders and family members. They were rebellious against the kings and leaders of Aiolia, and the other hunting clans and houses. Those people would call House Illum arrogant, cocky, selfish, smug, conceited, and vain.
And maybe it was true. The current generation (ninth) of Jaegers all over Aiolia are considered to be the weakest in the Age of Jaegers. Many of the elders and older generation members have been quite vocal about this, with many studies being conducted to prove these points.
The creatures and demons of the Night were also the strongest they have ever been in history. It was like they had adapted during the hundred or so years that had passed. So, to see the youth of House Illum act out against the old guard and be rude to Jaeger legends of old when they were so much weaker in their eyes caused their bloods to boil.
But the First Illum made a vow, a declaration that his family would be THE family to fight against the evils of the Night. They vowed to give their mind, their bodies, and all of their might until their souls depart this land and head to the next big hunt in the sky.
Even if the ninth generation was considered weaker, the youths of House Illum rejected that notion and paved their own path ahead. It’s just like what Sigurd did when he rebelled against the Night and claimed Lumencia.
House Illum may seem cocky. They may seem arrogant or know-it-alls to the previous generations, but every member of this family doesn’t believe in any of that crap. They believe in the vow, they believe in the teachings passed down from the First Illum and the Third Hathaway. They believe in their blacksmiths and the armor and weapons they craft. They believe in their inherited ather no matter what element it was. They simply believed that they were…
The strongest.
Cecil held his angered gaze towards the elder for a few seconds longer until Elder Hollowfield sucked his teeth and looked away. “Damn hooligan.”
Cecil turned his gaze back towards Bartz, but not before he held it to Lady Bulwark. He knew she felt the same way as most of the other elder Jaegers did. She didn’t coward from his gaze, but Cecil could see that she wanted to call him a hooligan as well. Cecil finally released his heterochromatic eyes off the old hag and stared at the Prof. and Bartz. Instantly, his bright warm smile returned and his demeanor was nothing like what it was just seconds ago.
“Alright, Bartz, what’s the rundown?” He asked his young cousin instead of his wise uncle. This caught Bartz off guard as he came to the camp appearing as the cowardly mess of a boy. He would speak and provide assistance when asked, but most of his time was spent sitting on the trunk and rocking himself back and forth.
He was the perfect image of what a scared boy who is in over his head should be, a little mouse facing against a fierce, mighty lion. And Cecil was ruining that. Bartz clenched his fist and looked at his older cousin with annoyance on his face.
When he first saw Cecil, he was overjoyed. If there was someone who should replace him in this hunt, it should be Cecil. Unfortunately, he forgot that Cecil knew his real personality and motivations.
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Bartz quickly corrected his expression, returning it to his original cowardly look that the other house representatives were accustomed to. No one other than Cecil and the Prof. noticed this. Cecil smiled back slyly. Prof. Higginbottom saw this subtle exchange of expressions between his two nephews and came to the conclusion that they were hiding something from everyone.
Bartz walked to the war table which was located in the middle of the tent and pulled out the appropriate papers and photographs. “The noble elf house Feylana is our employer. Their House Lord Gunard Feylana is here in camp. Months ago, we received reports that a wide range of children had gone missing from all over Aiolia. As Jaegers were investigating the missing children, they spotted multiple Rakshas that had started to migrate away from known and unknown hiding places. Not a few Raksha, dozens upon dozens of them.” Bartz pointed at the map of Aiolia on the war table. There were multiple lines drawn representing the different paths the Raksha took to get to the location of the cavern.
“You do know what the Raksha are right, boy?” Lady Bulwark asked in a condescending tone.
“Of course I do. My clan were the first to document and research those creatures, or did you forget that in your old age?” Cecil replied in his own condescending tone. Lady Bulwark shuffled in place. She wanted to choke the crude boy’s neck like she had with Jeremiah. Chieftain Oshi placed himself in her view and stared at her to not move a single muscle.
Rakshas were once humans that worshiped the Self-made One, a God that created themselves out of a single thought. He just existed one day and joined the other gods in their heavenly plane.
In the pantheon of gods, he wasn’t really evil at first, more or less just jealous and selfish. Religious scholars say the Self-made One was just a child having a temper tantrum as he felt that he wasn’t treated correctly by the other gods and wanted what was rightfully his.
That was when the Self-made One went full blown evil.
Scholars still haven’t exactly figured out what the Self-made One wanted yet. He wasn’t a god that took a title or took leadership over a domain. His religion was shrouded in mystery and his sacred texts became lost with time just as the Raksha was born.
Originally, Raksha was the name of the Self-made One’s biggest cult. They were the definition of fanatics. They wanted to bring their god here into the physical plane so that they could smite their enemies and be kings or whatever they wanted. They spent many years trying to figure out a ritual to bring forth their god, but to no avail.
Instead, the cult turned towards a soul merchant demon. These demons existed hidden here in Aiolia to tempt anyone in need, those who craved power, and those with no one to turn to. In exchange for your soul, a soul merchant will sell you a demonic gift. Power weapons, vows, and other items from hell powered by the evil energy from hell. The Raksha cult members each sold their souls. But instead of asking for individual demonic gifts, they all wanted the same thing.
They wanted to summon their god. So, the soul merchant gave them a wicked smile. And in exchange for all their weak souls, the merchant gave them three demonic gifts: a staff, a tome filled with rituals and other incantations, and a short sword.
When they opened the tome, the most tainted and sickening ather flew out of it, warping the cultists into disfigured humanoid figures. They were no longer humans. They became aberrations of the Night. The staff would be used in tangent with the time and the sword? That is still unknown to Jaegers to this day. But what they do know is that those three items are powerful demonic gifts. They are gifts that need to be destroyed.
All of this is common knowledge any Jaeger would know, just like how the children of Aiolia know the tales of the Raksha that kidnapped children and were never to be heard from again.
Cecil knew that all of Aiolia had been in a state of curfew the last year because of all the reported missing children. No one really knew what the Raksha did with the children, but that didn’t matter to Cecil.
His soul burned as he thought of the children whisked away from the warmth of their homes and families, of the street orphans who had survived hardship after hardship just to meet a Raksha out in the wild and be powerless to escape them.
It made his soul rage in anger.
“So, a majority of the Raksha all planned to meet at this cavern we are stationed near? This must be something those creatures have been planning for quite some time,” Cecil said as he rubbed his chin in thought. Do they even have the capability to plan something out? “How many Raksha are we facing?”
“We estimate about 200,” Prof. Higginbottom replied.
“Is that number up to date? Did we send any Jaegers for recon?” Cecil asked.
“We sent two Jaegers the moment after we set up camp. We gave them one sightstone to share between the two of them to relay their reports. They never called us or answered our sightstones’ requests. As of this morning, we officially labeled them M.I.A.,” Lady Bulwark replied.
“We have guardian beasts that could go in and check, but their king forbade them from going alone.” Elder Hollowfield sucked his teeth. “Bat guardian beasts are all such cowards I swear!”
“Mr. Hollowfield, the summoners and their guardian beasts were promised that they weren’t expected to fight in this hunt. They are strictly here to provide support once the hunt begins,” William Zill said. Elder Hollowfiled just sucked his teeth again in disapproval.
“Either way, that estimation is staggering. How the hell are there so many of those blasted creatures?” Lord Zill asked in disgust.
No one could give an answer. No one knew if the Raksha bore offspring or if they had other methods to reproduce. But it was clear that the Raksha did multiply. There was a mandate to all Jaegers, mercenaries, those who sell swords, and soldiers given out by the three kingdoms.
If you find a Raksha, kill them immediately. There are grand rewards if you could bring in a Raksha body as well. They were like annoying ants swarming all throughout Aiolia, only that these ants not only had the power to kill you but also had the ultimate goal of summoning a god into this plane.
“Bartz, you said that some of our allies saw them migrate. The mandate is still active. Why didn’t anyone kill them?” Cecil asked.
“Because there were too many of them when first spotted, and the ones that did attack were torn apart. They have become stronger and more aggressive as of late,” Lord Ashsong chimed in. He spoke with such pain in his voice. “Those damn creatures took pieces of the bodies with them. We couldn’t even give them a proper burial.”
He must have lost a lot of great Jaegers and friends to the Raksha. It’s concerning that they still have the bodies of those Jaegers, Cecil thought. He gave the man a sympathetic look and nodded to him in assurance.
“The hunting houses and the three kingdoms have been monitoring their hideout since we found it. We were about to strike and siege the cavern when the unthinkable happened.”
The Jaegers in the tent all grew silent and in their eyes, Cecil saw betrayal.
“That blasted Harriet Feylana betrayed her lord Gunard and her fellow Jaegers. She kidnapped Gunard’s youngest daughter and slaughtered over 200 people, civilians and Jaegers alike. She is currently with the Raksha.” Elder Hollowfield had decided to end the silence.
Cecil’s eyes widened in shock. “No, that’s not true! Harriet rose from nothing to become a Jaeger. She’s an inspiration to every single person that knows what a Jaeger is. You have to be lying.”
“No one is lying Cecil.” Chieftain Oshi placed his hand on Cecil’s shoulder. “It looks like a possession, but not one that is breakable.”
“Even if a possession isn’t breakable, it can still be disrupted,” Lady Bulwark interrupted. “Harriet is still in there. That girl would never join the enemy freely and she would never go down without a fight.”
“That’s what we are afraid of. She’s the god damn graviton spear for Gaia’s sake!” Elder Hollowfield exasperated. “She’s already too far gone.”
Harriet Feylana, the graviton spear, was a shining example of Jaeger excellence, one that was an underdog of society who rose through her hardships and made herself into something more. She was born as a reject and lived in the slums of the elven kingdom. She stood defiant against her hardships and lived on. She, like Cecil, was a late ather bloomer, and her ather awakened at a much later stage of her life than usual.
She inherited the legendary ather of gravity, void, and the common ather of flame. Every person that met her or knew of her story looked up to her. Many of the younger Jaegers would even have her as their first crush, although many would be too embarrassed to admit that.
Harriet was a living legend.
Cecil was dejected even though he didn’t personally know her. He still felt the sting of her betrayal. Even if the different houses were at odds with one another, even if they hated each other, they all were still Jaegers and at the end of the day. They are Jaegers that banded together for the common good to hunt the Night.
It was an unspoken vow.
“I’ll be the judge of that. My family has studied possessions for over five generations now. Like I said, even if a possession isn’t breakable, it can still be disrupted. I will do what must be done mandated to me by my ancestors,” Lady Bulwark declared, interrupting the professor who was about to speak next.
“Ahem, Lord Feylana has requested us to save his daughter on top of killing the Raksha. We can all assume what they want her for. They want her to be a conduit or vessel to summon their god,” Prof. Higginbottom said, “If Harriet gets in the way, we must kill her.”
“If we even can! She’s the blasted graviton spear. HELLO?! Are we not factoring this in?! She’s the heroine of Zhona and the slayer of the Juko-beast! This is a cataclysmic hunt, do you understand boy? We are not at their strength.” Elder Hollowfield spat and then glared at Lady Bulwark. “And nothing you could do can break her hold. Don’t lose the last years of your life over some traitor.”
“SHE IS NOT A TRAITOR!” Lady Bulwark jumped once more in a fit of rage, trying to strangle the Elder again. This time, he was ready to defend himself. The two locked their hands against one another in elder combat.
The Chieftain sighed and, with the help of the other representatives, began to pull the two aged Jaegers from each other again. Cecil watched the battle happening in front of him, soaking in all the information they had provided.
The world was going to end if they fail. Cecil closed his eyes. He needed to steel his resolve. Harriet’s betrayal was a strong hit to his psyche, to any Jaeger’s psyche who kept up with the Jaeger community.
Don’t let your negative thoughts cloud you. They will pile up if you do. Find a small shard of positivity and grow it. Cecil remembered her mother’s teachings. Her family were worshippers of the earth god Gaia and in his own way, Cecil worshiped Gaia like he worshiped the First Illum.
“Fine, I always wanted to face the graviton spear in a duel.” Cecil gave a warm smile as the two elders scoffed at his remark. Now that Cecil was caught up, the house representatives all agreed it was time to begin the hunt.
Cecil was about to leave the tent when he caught a glimpse of Bartz who was moving things around in his satchel. He noticed that the boy’s wrist had been bare the entire time. He saw that Bartz’s bracelet was in the satchel. Cecil became upset at the thought that Bartz wasn’t wearing the family bracelet. He then remembered that Bartz never had one because he never had his Illum Rite.
Wait, this is his Illum rite! How could I forget?
Cecil audibly gasped. It must have been the shock of learning of Harriet’s betrayal, but he had forgotten that he was given an important message from Lord Sigurd. It’s a vital message that pertained to Bartz’s Illum Rite, one that could turn the tide of this hunt in their favor.
Cecil walked to Bartz and placed his arm over his cousin’s shoulder, pulling him in close. “I almost forgot. Uncle Sigurd told me about the bastion that is being sent to watch over your rite.” Cecil was grinning ear to ear as he said this. The house representatives each heard the word “bastion” and turned to the two boys.
“It doesn’t matter who they send now,” Elder Hollowfield barked.
“We have to begin the hunt. We wasted too much time already. They would just get here late and see our corpses,” Lady Bulwark also barked out.
“Who is father sending?” Bartz asked. His cowardly facade broke again when Cecil placed his arm over him.
“Marcus.”
At that moment, Cecil ignited the candles of hope brighter than anyone could have imagined. The Zills both smiled. The elders’ mouths were agape at the revelation of the name that left them shocked and speechless. Chieftain Oshi laughed a boisterous laugh while Lord Ashsong sighed in relief.
“There’s still hope left,” Professor Higginbottom whispered out. Bartz thought the same as well, but his candle flame of hope only burned lightly.
Sigurd’s first-born and first son, the man that bested the guardian beast Roa and bonded with him. The creator and master of the dual wielding style Nito Ichi-Illum. Who usually stole the legendary treasured weapon his father used, and who probably had the blade with him now. He’s the man that currently holds the title of Wolf, the strongest bastion.
Marcus Illum the Wolf Bastion was on his way. The situation changed drastically. All they had to do now was survive until the current strongest wolf of Lumencia arrived.
“No big deal, right?” Cecil said with a confident smile.
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