Sholto Wynn
Lunar year 22001
The selection of this year’s royal court was interesting. It was a pair of twins. This was the first time this had happened in our history. It was decided that both children would be taken in and the King or Queen would be decided when the pair was older.
Lunar year 22006
Shona of the Wynn clan was properly selected as the next Lunar Queen. Her brother Sholto was to remain in the castle with her at her request. With this, the chaotic selection of the 2079th Lunar Court was finally completed.
This is not the telling of Queen Shona’s reign but of her brother Sholto.
Sholto Wynn was a mean child by all counts. He frequently argued with his instructors and attempted to leave the castle on an uncountable number of occasions. Each time he was retrieved it was through great effort by the royal guard.
Queen Shona wrote about this in one of her memoirs, see below.
"For a time, I regretted my selfish decision to keep Sholto in the castle with me. I was simply scared of being pulled into a strange world where I knew no one or nothing. Every day for a long time Sholto would tell me he didn't want to be in the castle and he wanted to travel. He was rather cruel to the castle maidens who tried to teach him the proper etiquette of the court."
This mean streak would come to an end when Sholto finally escaped the castle. Upon his capture, he was found with a Lunar Fox by the name of Aeris Lucius. He refused to leave her side, and as a result, she was taken to the castle with him. Princess Shona would allow the fox to stay in the castle with Sholto, much to the shock of many of the nobles.
With Aeris by his side, he'd calm down significantly, taking the lessons and training presented to him in stride. Likewise, at his side, Aeris would dedicate herself to the training she was now going under to be the most useful to him. That being said, even though they were both compliant, it didn't mean they were beacons of proper manners. There are several well-recorded instances of pranks and general mischief pulled off by Sholto and Aeris.
Many in the castle noticed their bond immediately and wondered how long it'd be before they'd go through a proper bonding ritual. When the time came for the vassals to be selected to go to Terra Sholto and Aeris shocked the court by requesting they be selected to go.
Princess Shona was hesitant at the time, but later was recorded as stating: "There was no one more qualified to handle this task, and I'm proud to bear the same blood as the great Lunar Hero."
Aeris Lucius
As with the Lunar Hero, not much is known about the Lunar Hero's Resonator on Terra. However, our documentation here on Luna was much more robust at the time of the Seven Heroes. We know quite a bit about the life of the Lunar Hero's Resonator thanks to first-hand accounts from the Lunar Queen herself at the time.
“Aeris Lucius was my brother's childhood friend. Mine as well. We'd spend our days in the royal garden playing together and when she wasn't with my brother, she was with me, though these times were few and far between. It was strange, the two of them were nearly inseparable, even though I was twin to my brother. In a way, I'm thankful for her. Aeris filled my place since I was always being taken to some kind of lesson or training.”
“Eventually the day came for us to send our vassals down to Terra to oversee the extermination of the prophesized evil that would threaten our way of life on Luna. Without wavering in their step, Aeris and Sholto approached me and requested they be sent down to Terra. Of course, at this time they had not been bonded to each other as Maestro and Resonator. There was a great risk to the Maestro and Resonator going through the bonding surgery. However, I could see the determination in both their souls and I allowed it.”
“To the future historians reading this memoir, our bonding rituals are quite dangerous, I cannot hazard a guess at how many have died by our surgeon's blades, but it is heartbreaking to think about. The surgeons overseeing my brother and Aeris' surgery were the best on Luna. It was a success, but afterward, I recall being approached by one of the head doctors overseeing the operation. He told me in his many days as a doctor, he had never had an easier operation. He theorized they may have true compatibility, something unseen in any other bonding before. Thinking on it now, I always had this strange feeling about them; like Aeris and Sholto pulled towards each other in a sense.”
We also have second-hand sources from historians on Terra also mentioned how close Aeris and Sholto were:
“They seemed more than partners, perhaps a… couple?” – The Fire Hero
“Just being around them helped us grow together ourselves. I'm grateful that we met.” – The Water Hero
“They were like starlight on water, reflecting each other in a way that moves those around them, like ripples in the sky." – The Lightning Hero
“They were perfectly balanced, dancing in tandem like the sun and the moon,” – The Earth Hero
“They were a heart and soul as one, each shining bright where the other fell short.” – The Solar Hero
The Nature Hero could not be reached for commentary.
Outside of these quotes, many other reports touted the closeness of the Lunar Hero and Aeris Lucius.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Other sources here on Luna report more about Aeris' life before the Seven Heroes legend. They speak of a humble, yet bright castle maiden who attended to the princess and her twin brother with a passionate, but casual touch. It is said she did her job not as an employee, but as a member of their family and spoke to them with such familiarity that would shock any noble who witnessed it.
Naturally, there was quite an uproar at the time as Aeris was born a Lunar Fox. Before she was appointed a castle maiden, non-Rabbit Resonators were strictly forbidden from the castle grounds, however a decree from the then Lunar Princess quickly changed that strict rule.
Hidden behind her kind demeanor was the spirit of a warrior. First-hand accounts said that the Lightning hero did not take kindly to our vassals arriving to aid them, however, Aeris put the Lightning hero in their place without ever taking a single blow. Anyone who dared to question her loyalty to her Maestro would be swiftly dealt with.
The Disappearance
Lunar Year 22017
The records show the prophesied calamity was dealt with, thanks in part to the efforts of the six Riterran Heroes and our very own Lunar Hero.
However, it came at great cost.
While the six heroes of Riterra walked away from the battle, Sholto and Aeris never returned from the conflict. We’re unsure of the exact nature of what transpired during the conflict. Moving bodies to and from the planet’s surface is extraordinarily difficult without mass drivers installed on the surface.
The technology on Riterra is frankly put, archaic. It is at a level where their citizenry would have thought of us as gods if we showed them our level of technological superiority during that era.
They can hardly be blamed for their inferiority – they were only covering themselves with rags while we traversed the cosmos. Resonators are only a new breed in their world, while we have walked hand in hand for a millennium. It is easy to see a race as pitiable as theirs as lesser when they have not been allowed to develop as we have.
Regardless of the hurdles, several search parties were sent to the Riterran surface. At the time it was justified as being research parties, attempting to learn more about our cosmic neighbor. This placated the nobles of the era, but we know with the power of hindsight this was the desperate search of a broken-hearted queen wishing upon the stars to find her lost brother.
While the Research team did send back much data regarding the state of Riterra after the conflict, there were no signs of the Hero we sent. What did not assist matters was the conflicting reports our ground teams received.
There seemed to be a split within the faction of Riterran Heroes. We’ve managed to piece together the disparate reports to arrive at the true events of what occurred on that final day.
It appears that the bearer of the black rhythm – the great calamity was not working alone, having a powerful general at their side who would overwhelm the heroes all on their own.
Sholto and Aeris were resolute and stepped forward to handle the general while the rest of the Heroes proceeded on.
By the time the Heroes returned to bring aid to Sholto and Aeris, they were gone, along with the general.
Our Researchers had located the sight of the battle, and while they could not find any sights of Sholto or Aeris’ presence, they did return reports of a battle far greater than the site of the final battle.
It is believed that Sholto and Aeris fought the true calamity on their own, while the six heroes only fought the calamity’s general in disguise. There is no veracity to these claims.
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Rebecca took a breath. “Anything else?” she asked, rubbing her raw throat from all the reading she had just done. They had skipped around the book, looking for the juicy details; however, it was still a lot to read for someone who wasn’t used to reading aloud.
Shouri and Taika both frowned, furrowing their brows. It was a charming story, and it was easy to see why the Lunar Heroes were celebrated on Luna. A tale of a devoted Maestro and Resonator, a pair of equals who faced down a great evil together at the highest possible cost.
But there was hope at the time that they could be alive somewhere. From what Rebecca had read out for them, in that era traveling to Riterra from the Lunar surface was a one-way trip. Possibly even a risky one.
Yet, the two heroes never hesitated. Even at the end.
“Woah…” Rebecca gasped.
Shouri and Taika perked up from their thoughts.
“What is it?” Shouri looked over Rebecca’s shoulder, but she didn’t need to say anything further.
There were pictures of what Sholto and Aeris looked like in that era.
A brown-haired Maestro with fair skin, clad in green and white robes with black pants. A raven-haired Resonator dressed in black with whites and blues accenting her attire.
“They look kinda like you two,” Rebecca’s eyes darted between the pages and her friends, comparing them. “There's like slight differences, his face is a bit sharper than yours, and her ears are shaped differently,” noted the fire fox. “But damn, you two are pretty similar to them.”
The pair weren’t sure how to take this, they simply stared at the paintings of their supposed counterparts.