Chapter 50: The Storm
“Greetings everyone, glad to see so many of you could make it! Why don’t we get started?!”
Dante called out from on top of the balcony. Krista had left his side and disappeared somewhere. Whereas Damien was left by Amelia some time ago, therefore he was left alone.
“Without further ado, for those who don’t know who I am, my name is Dante Guile. I’m the head of the organization known as Shining Twilight. I come from humble origins, a little orphan boy from a village just outside of Falling Starlight. I wanted more for myself, and eventually Shining Twilight was born.
“ An orphan?” thought Damien. Information he wasn’t privy to until now. His mind raced with ways he might be able to exploit it.
“One thing led to another and now here I am, a decade later, with a question for all of you. First, allow me to thank all the ladies and gentlemen of various tribes, villages, cities, and organizations for attending this meeting. Unfortunately, it seems that the Stellar Commission of Wattiez and the Knightley family have failed to receive my invitation, else I believe I would have noticed them here.”
Mummering, then silence, then laughter.
Once they calmed down, Dante continued, “Nevertheless, who knows what a Grand Tree is?”
“What’s a Grand Tree?”
“What does he take us for?”
“Is that really the question he wanted to ask?”
After he asked his question, Dante was met with an uproar. Such a simple question was asked, but what kind of answer was he looking for was the common thought of the people inside. No one wanted to answer as to not be made a fool of.
“The Grand Trees serve as the basis of life for these people, of course they know what they are!” A young, pale skinned man who was surrounded by woman stood up. “Is that what you really called us here for? I had to cancel my date just to be here!”
“…Upsetting,” Damien sarcastically thought.
Dante put his hands up to calm the rowdy crowd, “Of course, that’s not all I wanted to say, Prince Dragon, it just leads to my next point. I had just hoped at least one of you would play along…”
Viola raised shouted out, “I know! I know! The Grand Trees are the foundation of wattiez, maybe even the foundation of all life. They also act as the connection between all living things and wattiez.”
Using his arms, Dante makes the shape of a X, “That is incorrect!”
Viola started to turn extremely red and looked as if she was about to cry, “No! No! I’m sorry Vio- Your Highness that’s my fault. All things considered, everything you said is the commonly accepted knowledge and generally held to be true, however, what if it wasn’t? What if everything you knew was a lie, and the truth was a closely guarded secret of S.C.O.W, and the royal family of New Dawn, the Knightley’s.”
“ Krista’s family? ” Damien was stunned. “ Where is she even? She was with Dante a while ago, where the hell is she now? ”
“This little secret is something my family found out years, no, centuries ago-”
Nishi seemed to want to antagonize Dante some more, easy to see with that snide smile on his face, “I thought you said you were an orphan? Now you’re talking about how your family knows a closely guarded secret of the Knightley’s. Not only that, but why did your family so long to say anything, if they’ve been holding onto this information for centuries? If there is anything I hate, it would be a liar, and your words, Sir Guile, aren’t speaking the full truth!”
“ This Prince Dragon guy seems like the scum of the earth, but at least he’s confident, ” Damien thought. “ This way I can get a bit more information. ”
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
“Please, I consider you one of my friends dear prince, call me Dante, as should all of you. It pains me to say, but you’re right. I haven’t been 100% clear with all of you. While it is true that I was given to an orphanage as a newborn, my family didn’t exactly abandon me. They were always watching, and I just never realized it, changing and disrupting my life however they pleased.”
“Sure, sure?” Nishi said smugly. “How did you learn about this family then?”
“I came upon this fact by chance as one of my caretakers was a plant sent to measure my growth. In time, I found their base of operations where they told me of a prophecy. One of a chosen one meant to restore the family to its once proud place in life. Those of you with a strong background in history may have heard of my family, the Nihils.”
From inside his shirt, Dante produced a signet. On it was two crows bowing to one another. There was audible gasp in the crowd just before an uproar raged through the crowd.
“Impossible!” Nishi shouted. “The Nihils were all tried as traitors and executed centuries ago.”
“You might think that my family is making a resurgence, that I do what I do to make their power grow…No.” Dante said resolutely. “They were pathetic, desperate creatures. My mother did not speak to me like a mother should. To her I was a mere tool, one that she would use to get what they wanted. I don’t consider those people my family, Shining Twilight my family, but the Nihils did give me one piece of useful information.”
Prince Dragon was going to say something else shut up when certain glares from all around forced him back to his seat.
“The Grand Trees are not the connection between all life and wattiez. The Grand Trees act as huge storage containers of wattiez, sucking it away from all the life around them. They’re mere parasites!”
Silence then explosive chattering. Of course, there’d be, what he’s saying has all sorts of implications.
“Proof!” Nishi exploded. “How could you expect us to believe something like that? Before you make any more outrageous claims, I would like to see some.”
Nishi was emboldened to speak again, standing on a table and yelling out. Damien thought he was possibly trying to win back the crowd. On the balcony Dante was leaning extremely far forward, a bit too far forward.
“I’m glad you asked!” Dante fell forward off the balcony.
He was easily 20 feet in the air, “Did he just kill himself? Damien watched as he fell, but Dante looked calm, even leaning back with his hands behind his head. “Looks like I won’t be so lucky.”
Sure enough, Jikan’s five doppelgangers appeared catching Dante, saving him from his fall, “Thanks buddy!”
Dante brushed himself off and picked up five wooden tablets from under the clones, each one disappearing as he did so, before passing them to Jikan. In return, Jikan tossed him a long thin box and sat back down. Damien took a mental note of this interaction.
“The art of staff craftsmanship is a closely guarded secret of the trade, so many of you might not know that they are made from dead Grand Tree branches,” Dante declared. “Peculiar fact, is that not?”
Within the crowd, Emmy spoke up, “That’s not right! My cousin is a staff craftsman, so I know that the Grand Trees are incredibly durable. So tough, in fact, that the only pieces they can collect from it are those dying branches. Yet, even then, they are so full of power. Your ‘proof’ has no merit.”
Dante twirled the box and opened it on the table in front of the Chief, “This…this is my proof!”
Inside, it was just a staff. Damien couldn’t quite understand the point Dante wanted to make, and Emmy seemed to share his sentiment as he only stared at it blankly. Prince Dragon, annoyed at not being at the center of attention, stood up and walked behind Damien.
“I believe it was I who said they wanted proof!” Dante raised his shoulders and moved out the way, letting Nishi walked beside the staff. “What’s so special about this, it’s just a staff. It looks slightly larger than your average staff, but-”
Nishi grabbed onto the staff and his eyes went black. He fell to the floor, convulsing and gasping for breath.
“Prince!” The prince’s harem…entourage ran over to try and comfort him. One even reached out for the staff.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Dante said as he reached his hand out. “You’ll be needing my help.”
The white in Dante’s eyes had gone black, and a slightly dark but transparent aura began to expand from his body. It was incredibly hard to see, Damien could only see it as he was looking for any suspicious or strange activity from Dante, not to mention that he was fairly close.
Once the aura grew out enough to surround both himself and Dante, Nishi slowly began to breathe again. His hand unclasped the staff, giving Dante the opportunity to take the staff back. Shrinking his aura to only cover himself, Dante moved out of the way to let Nishi’s entourage support him.
“Wha-What was that?!” choked Nishi.
Dante calmly held onto the staff, “The real power of the Grand Tree. Unlike normal staffs, this one was produced from a fresh, living branch, not wilted.”