“So how far down do you think that aqueduct took us?” Peter asked as the four of them walked through the ruins.
Based on what he could see around him, it looked like they were currently walking through some kind of merchant or financial district. Carts, signs and buildings with large ground-floor windows surrounded the street they walked down, and twin –dried– aqueducts ran parallel to the street on either side. Small bridges and arches stretched from the street to the front doors of all the buildings.
Whether they be well made stone arches and mini-bridges or just simply planks of wood that looked ravaged by more than just the unhalting march of time.
“I’d guess a couple hundred meters? The city seems to be on a downwards tilt starting from the water tower with the Aqualis crystal at the highest point.”
“Which makes sense.” Haley tacked on, holding her pointer finger in the air as she spoke. “Given that the majority of the aqueducts seem to use only gravity to transport the water, where possible, it would make sense to put the tower at the highest point.”
“Precisely! It makes me wonder what they did before they managed to set up the Aqualis crystal. Perhaps just wells or ancient rivers?”
“Or just smaller crystals.” Felicia deadpanned, hopping over some debris from a crumbled building.
“That’s also an option.” Haley giggled, before scrunching her face up in thought and scribbling something down in her small notepad.
“Jeez, we really did go pretty deep then. Not where Tristana would be though.” Peter commented morosely, clearly disappointed in the fact that he wouldn’t get to show the legendary adventurer his skills personally.
“Peter. Your fanboy is showing.” Felicia grinned minutely, only seeming to take more joy in the way that his face lit up a bright red in response to her words.
“Sh-Shut up.” He mumbled, getting giggles from his sister and Haley –twice the embarrassment for completely separate reasons– as he crossed his arms and hunched his back a little.
The laughter, and generally more vibrant atmosphere, around the three of them died out a second later, however, when Felicia clapped her hands together quietly.
From behind the gaps in her fingers, small beads of light began to filter out in the world and lazily float around them. The lights spread out more and more the further that they got from Felicia herself. Their brightness, enough for them to fully comprehend everything around them but not so bright as to hurt their darkness-adjusted eyes or distract them.
It was a simple action, a near silent one as well, but one that brought the other three back to reality. Reminded them of where they were and the stakes for getting complacent, of which they had already suffered and were lucky to have escaped relatively injury-less from.
“Anything?” Peter’s question was joined with a cautious turn of his head, his eyes constantly moving to look for any kind of beast that could possibly be around them in hiding.
“Nothing so far. Just ruins…and bodies.” Felicia mumbled, pressing her lips together firmly at the sight of so many corpses, long since decayed to nothing but bones and the occasional scrap of clothing.
It was something that all four of them had noticed as they walked, the increase in the number of bodies they could find strewn about the city streets and buildings. Back up at where they were meant to be stationed, they had come across two bodies in total over the two hours they had been there, and now they’d be lucky to look in any direction that wasn’t straight up and not see at least five.
“Do you think that one of the other teams has already been through here?” Haley pondered aloud as she looked around.
“You mean like Red Panther?” Felicia asked, tilting her head to the side ever so slightly.
“It’s definitely possible. There’s so much ambient mana in the air that I don’t think I could tell any residuals apart, but they’d be faster than us and got to enter the ruins before we did.” Angelica mused, rubbing her jaw with her thumb and forefinger as she thought it over.
“Though we can’t rule out that we just haven’t come across any yet.” Felicia reminded the other three, the incident on the bridge still fresh in her mind.
“That’s true. At the end of the day, we need to just keep moving while keeping an eye out.” Peter sighed, clearly not happy with their circumstances but unable to think of any other option that they might have.
“Well, lead the way, oh great leader.” Felicia deadpanned, pointing a finger down the right fork of a street that was coming up ahead.
“Hm? Why that direction?” Haley questioned, leaning forward curiously to try and see if she could see or sense something that she may have missed beforehand.
“I can sense a cathedral.” Felicia gave the brunette a thumbs up before very lightly nudging Peter forward, getting a good-natured sigh from the teen.
“May I ask…why?” The young woman asked hesitantly as they all continued walking.
“Felicia is a [Saintess], so she’s always trying to visit churches and cathedrals.” Angelica began explaining, trying not to laugh as Haley began to scribble into her notepad in a blur of motion and paper flipping.
“Because they’re interesting and getting in the good graces of the gods never hurts.” Felicia filled in the next part, looking away just in time to miss Haley beginning to scribble away on her notepad fast enough that Angelica was almost afraid it was going to light on fire.
“I see. Yeah, that totally makes sense, you seem to focus primarily on Solyre though, aren’t you a follower of their teachings?”
“Mhm. But I’m not bound to him like [Sun Saint]’s are, he was just the only god we had a church for in our village. So, I learnt a lot about him growing up.” The white-haired girl answered as she ducked under a crumbled pillar that Peter helped lever up a little more for their convenience.
“Oh! I see.” Haley nodded quickly, ducking under the pillar just a moment after the [Saintess]. “I’m surprised though, usually someone can barely manage to handle the wishes of their primary god, let alone being able to appease and please multiple.”
“I think it has something to do with her qualification.” Angelica said tacked on, making the reporter whip her head toward her with gleaming eyes. “Unlike other saint-based qualifications, such as [Sun Saint], [Magic Saint], or [Sword Saint] hers is broad and pretty all encompassing, like Peter’s [Warrior]. There’s a good chance that there’s something about Felicia’s mana, or maybe her body or psyche, that makes her especially malleable and useful to the gods.”
“Oh, that definitely sounds like it's on the right track.” Haley nodded, “One of my colleagues actually did a report a few years ago on a [War Saint] that had managed to establish a permanent connection with two separate gods, and their qualification is far from broad in category.”
Meanwhile, as this conversation was being had, Peter sidled up to Felicia’s side and gently tapped her with his finger.
“So….Are you really ok with them just talking about you like that?”
“It’s not like they’re insulting me. There’s no reason to care.” She shrugged, getting a small hum and shrug from the red-haired teen as well.
If Felicia had no issue with it and they weren’t saying anything rude then who was he to stick his head into the situation?
A few minutes later, the party of four found themselves essentially breaking into a half-ruined cathedral with debris blocking the front door. The four of them hopping through an already broken and shattered window and entering the premises with only the echoing crunch of glass beneath their feet.
“I feel like I’ve just committed some kind of heresy by entering a cathedral like that…” Haley muttered, hugging herself and shivering slightly.
“Ah I’m sure it’s not that ba-“ Peter began, starting to wave off Haley’s worries with an easy smile.
“We probably did.” Felicia confirmed bluntly, getting a loud choking sound from Haley as she inhaled sharply and swallowed some spit involuntarily.
“Wha- r-really?” Peter paled himself, looking far less casual about the situation after the confirmation from his childhood friend.
“Though I don’t know how much this particular god would care. Their influence is almost entirely depleted from this place.” The [Saintess] tacked on dryly, running her hands over a ruined pew silently as Peter and Haley both fell to their knees and sighed loudly in relief.
Felicia continued to walk around the dark, empty cathedral silently. Small balls of light floating around her with another quiet clap of her hands and finally filling the space with much needed light, allowing everyone to see exactly what sat inside the cathedral itself.
!!!!!
A small gasp left Angelica’s mouth and Peter leapt to his feet in an instant, his eyes just as wide as his sisters and his skin just a few shades paler than was natural for the exuberant leader.
“This…This shouldn’t be like this. Not with the building still standing.” Haley muttered, slowly twisting herself onto her knees and placing a hand on the floor to steady herself as she rose to her feet.
All around them sat swords. Artwork, the real deal, murals and statues. Simple blades, elegant blades, ceremonial blades, and used blades. Murals of great battles, statues of elaborate and awe-striking blades, artwork of powerful men and women wielding their blade of choice and artwork of just the blades themselves.
All of these surrounded them from the floor to the ceiling and everything in between, a cathedral built and well-purposed for the sole love of nothing but the blade.
Yet, in this entire cathedral –from the entrance to the very back wall– not a single blade, art piece, statue or mural lay unruined. Every single blade was cracked and shattered; their hilts withered, and their sheath’s frayed at the seams. Every single art piece torn, shattered or ruined with ugly blotches of colour so old that it would be impossible to separate it from the paints that made up the art itself. Every statue lay as rubble and dust at their base and every mural lay cracked, covered in craters and ruined with those exact same ugly blotches of colour.
This place, which had clearly been a place made to lovingly worship blades and all they represented, had been ruined and made a mockery of in every single way it possibly could have been, short of bringing the entire structure down. Not even the statue of the god the cathedral was built for –Felicia guessed Aegian– had been spared, with only it's incredibly large marble base even letting the four adventurers know that something had once existed there.
“W-What the hell is this…?” Peter spun around, his head on such a constant swivel that he could feel himself growing dizzy.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Yet even then he didn’t dare stop, as if worried that if he stopped looking for even a moment, he would miss something that would make all this make sense.
“This…isn’t just from the city's fall.” Felicia clenched her fist and bit her lip slightly as she looked around slowly, her eyes settling on where the statue of this cathedrals god should have been.
“Some kind of falling out? Maybe the people of this city were betrayed, or perceived a betrayal, from the god?” Haley tried to suggest, but even that suggestion felt weak.
Because, in brutal honesty, she didn’t want it to be true. Because if that was true, if the people of the city vandalized a cathedral to this extent, then the simple fact of the matter is that the reason this city might have fallen could have been that god themselves.
The god’s punishing people was far from an unheard-of occurrence, but there was limits as to what the punishment could be for a given slight. There should be limits as to what the punishment could be for a given slight. If this was all that was necessary for a god to be allowed to end an entire metropolis of this size…?
Then it was only a matter of time before two [Platinum-rank] Saint’s battled each other and did something that neither would walk away from. Something that was sure to make this all look like a cheap joke.
And that thought scared Haley, more than anything else she had ever come across in her entire life.
“No. It can’t be…The presence of the God would be far more permeated through-“
Peter’s hand slapped over Felicia’s mouth as silently as he could manage, getting confused looks from the others. His finger coming up to his lips silently in a shushing motion before he pointed in the direction of the broken window that they themselves had used to enter. The balls of light floating around them dimming out of existence as Felicia caught onto his meaning.
“-ill funny that he ever had a cathedral this extravagant.”
“Well times were different, perhaps he just stopped caring about the pomp and eye-catching nature of things like this.” The male said, clearly not caring much about his answer even as he said it.
“He’s a God. There’s no chance they’d ever want to lose out on more attention and faith. Especially since we’ve been-“
A hand grabbed the edge of the window and two feet landed agilely on the wooden portion of the broken architecture, their body tipping forward to continue their entrance into the cathedral before she caught sight of the four adventurers already inside. Her fiery bronze-coloured eyes widening in alarm as she noticed them, her features slackening just a little in surprise.
At her waist, a bag covered in hundreds of magical runes pulsed dimly with light at her sudden stop before darkening once more.
Before any of the teens could do anything, the girl in the window spoke, her eyes seeming to glow eerily in the darkness of the ruins.
“Well….This is unfortunate.”
XXXxxxXXX
Meanwhile, Dragon-Scale Academy
Alec panted quietly as the sounds of wood on wood, cries of pain and grunts of exertion washed over him, his hand curling and uncurling as he shook it at his side.
Yet again, he found himself in the courtyard opposite Callum, sparring the freckled young man at said young man’s behest. His own impatience having allowed his opponent to score a hit on his hand, which led to his current predicament of trying to get the tingling feeling out of it from the force of the strike.
“Wow Alec! You’re seriously getting better.” Callum congratulated the teen, smiling brightly as if he still wasn’t the victor of pretty much every one of their fights.
“I still…can’t get past….your defenses.” The teen argued, finally letting his hand rest at his side as his other hand supported his weight on his training blade.
“Ah. Well…Defense is sort of my thing.” Callum sheepishly admitted, scratching his cheek with a small laugh.
“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” Alec snarked, starting to straighten back out as he got his breath back.
“Though…” Callum opened his mouth to continue, only to freeze.
Quickly, his gaze fell to the floor and both of his fists tightened. A worried expression made its way across Alec’s face as he prepared to ask Callum what, or more accurately who was bothering him –and if they’d done so again recently– but before he could,
“Ah, here you are. I thought I might find you out here.” A jovial voice called out, making both males jolt and turn to look toward it.
“Headmaster Xyn!” Callum greeted, undeniably shocked to see the man out and about as he struggled to figure out how he should stand while addressing him.
It was honestly a little amusing to watch, seeing him go from a more casual stance to something far more military-esque to an at-ease stance and then some combination of casual and at-ease. His limbs flopping this way and that as his mental turbulence seemed to go straight to his motor-controls with no filter in sight.
“Headmaster Xyn.” On the other hand, Alec was far calmer in his address, merely giving the man a small nod as he approached.
Not because he had any less respect for the man and his position than Callum, definitely not, but because he had already spoken to the man once before and gotten a preliminary taste of his personality. Not to mention that it was just the slightest, tiniest, bit difficult to treat him with the same level of courtesy after he cut Alec’s stomach open faster than the teen even had a chance to react to.
“Ah, don’t be so stiff, neither of you are in trouble or anything. At least not from me or any of the staff.” He hummed, waving his hand dismissively.
“Phew!” Callum relaxed so quickly he nearly fell to the ground, wobbling unsteadily as he used his practice blade as a support to keep himself upright.
“That’s good to know.” Alec merely sighed in relief, getting the smallest of chuckles from the headmaster as he raised an eyebrow.
“Were you expecting to be in trouble, Alec?” The man crossed his arms and rested his weight on one leg, a garbled sound leaving Callum’s lips at the man’s jesting question.
“No. I just couldn’t help but get a bit nervous.”
“Yes, I can see how that would be.” Xyn nodded, cupping his chin between his thumb and index finger as his gaze wandered over the fairly silent and still training grounds.
‘Ah, it had been so energetic and full of action beforehand. What a shame. I suppose this is what I get for accepting this position.’
“Well, not that it matters.” Xyn suddenly announced, throwing his arms up in a shrug and turning his attention solely on Alec. “Alec, mind following me?”
“Ah, uh, of course?” The teen nodded a little unsteadily, having not expected anything like this.
Callum was the more experienced, and more refined, student of the two. Unless he truly was in trouble for some reason and the headmaster had decided to lie to him, what reason would he have to go for the blue-haired teen instead of his freckled counterpart?
Giving a very unsure and confused wave to the spiky, green-haired young man he had been sparring with, the late teen began to follow after Xyn. His blade ‘sheathed’ through the leather loop at his waist as he followed the man, silent yet undeniably curious; trying his best not to let it show and maintain his composure even as the man seemed to take a nice, meandering path through the academy.
‘I have to give Alec his props, I thought he would have cracked and made some kind of comment or asked a question by now. Perhaps our next pickup will offer me something more fun.’ Xyn thought to himself, making an abrupt turn and grinning subtly as he caught Alec do a half-stumbled turn in the effort of following after him.
After a few minutes, Alec’s expression began to furrow more and more in confusion as they not only headed into the dormitories but began to head directly for where his own room was located. Steadily they approached Alec’s dorm, his door growing closer and closer before Xyn turned and knocked on a door.
Olivia Kio’s door, to be exact.
“Hello. Can I help- H-headmaster!?” Olivia’s hands suddenly grabbed the edge of the door and the frame at once as her eyes blew wide, her voice rising more than a few decibels in surprise.
“Ah, hello there Olivia. I appreciate the greeting, but I can hear you at your normal volume, no need to shout.” Xyn teased the girl, creating an embarrassed blush across her cheeks in return.
“I apologize Headmast- Dius?” Olivia blinked owlishly at her fellow trainee as he just gave a small, shaky, smile and wave at her from behind the headmaster's back.
“Ah yes, I brought him along too because I have a proposition for the both of you. You aren’t busy now, I’m guessing?”
“No! Of course not, please lead the way, Headmaster.” She said quickly, grabbing her training blade from somewhere behind the door and stepping out into the hallway, closing the door smoothly behind her.
“Why gladly, Olivia.” Xyn laughed, turning on the heel of his foot and resuming his stroll down the hallway, now followed by the two newest trainees of the Dragon-Scale style.
An uncomfortable, for the teens, silence resumed as the stroll did. The two of them trying to keep their gazes locked straight ahead but failing as the lack of noise or anything stimulating began to get to them.
Slowly, Alec found his attention sliding to his left, his eyes naturally following suit, towards Olivia. About a second later, Olivia seemed to mirror him, her wandering eyes bringing her attention to Alec.
Quickly, the two of them looked away from each other, neither one of them wanting to admit to staring at the other, and more than a little knocked off-center by the headmaster’s odd request and subsequent meandering.
However, try as they might, neither teen could stop their attention from drifting back to each other. Since, while neither teen wanted to admit it, the other was pretty much the only thing of stability they had within the academy walls, thanks to how often they had been forced to pair together.
With a raised eyebrow, Olivia cocked her head briefly in the direction of the headmaster’s back ahead of them. Her expression falling flat when Alec just silently shrugged and shook his head.
Within a moment of contemplative silence, Olivia perked up and gestured to the sword at her hilt and then the sword at his, getting a pensive expression of Alec’s own before he wobbled his hand from side to side and winced minutely.
Olivia silently sighed and massaged her forehead with the tips of her fingers, trying to see if she could figure out exactly why the headmaster had called for the two of them specifically. Raising her head once more, she brought both of her hands up to continue her silent communication with Alec.
“If you were both so curious, you could have just asked. But thanks for staying silent, we’re finally here.” Xyn suddenly announced, making both teens freeze up, slight tints of red crossing their cheeks as they realized that they had been caught red-handed.
‘This is the Headmaster’s office, right? When did he start leading us here?’ Olivia tried to go over the past few minutes in her mind, only to realize that she’d been so focused on trying to figure out his intentions that she’d stopped paying attention to her surroundings in their entirety.
At least a quick look over at Alec and his expression let her know that he was in the exact same boat as her.
“Both of you take a seat.” He offered cordially, walking around his desk to sit in his cushioned seat as both Alec and Olivia sat down in theirs.
The seats that they were offered were nice, undeniably so, but also far simpler in design and materials than that of the headmasters. Though neither teen was exactly expecting to be seated in the same kind of opulence as Xyn in his own office of all places.
“Now, I’m sure you’re both wondering why I brought you both here, right?”
“Yeah.” Alec nodded.
“Among other things, certainly.” Olivia nodded as well, her eye twitching slightly at the plain answer of her fellow trainee.
“Well, it’s quite simple. I have an offer for the both of you. You’re free to refuse if you wish, but hear me out first.” He raised his hands to placate the both of them just in case they decided to start bombarding him with questions.
Both teens, however, chose to stay silent as they waited for his proposal. A rather refreshing change of pace if Xyn had to say so.
Letting out a low, slow, breath he leant forward over his desk. His elbows came up to rest on the edge of the wooden top and his fingers interlaced loosely just below the level of his lips.
“I wish to offer the two of you private lessons with myself. You’d still be free to take all the other lessons the Academy provides, but you’d have the option of joining these special ones too.”
‘We’re seriously being offered-‘
‘-Lessons from the Headmaster himself?’
Both teens tensed in their seats, their expressions going taught and beads of cold sweat forming on their temples as they realized exactly what was being offered to the two of them. An invisible aura, a weight unlike anything they’d ever felt before, seemed to push itself down on their entire bodies and not a single speck of mana left the man himself.
“So….What do the two of you say?”