- Welcome to Extalia!:
“This is…..This is…..my home…”Abraxis mouthed in disbelief, the living bicycle wheeling about down the great halls of the castle of Extalia. His eyes (if he had any) would have widened enough to break apart at the familiar sights. He had been just a cat inside an egg then, but perhaps, some part of the Exceed in him recognized that white marbled floor, polished to a slippery sheen, and the snake-ishly long mats slithering across it, like the bands inside a rainbow. The portraits were as ancient as they were towering, each five times his height, while decorative sword and shield sets, each branded with the Edolas emblem of the Bow and Arrow, adorned the gaps between them. As he dashed between the pillars and turned every bend in his nostalgic frenzy, Abraxis found himself easily navigating through the labyrinth of corridors. It didn’t matter that some corridors look virtually identical; he just could simply pick up all the hints.
However, even as he appraised the castle’s decorations, part of him felt that, somehow, something about them just seemed a little less grandiose than he last remembered.
He also noticed how easily he slipped past the guards. So long as he did not utter a sound, the men did not even turn their eyes (the only part of their face visible from behind a full helm that seemed to derive a pattern from your average garden snail, spiral and all) to look at him.
“Looks like the Lieutanant is in a hurry. Maybe something is up.”“Shut up, dick-biscuit. Remember the last time some rebellion spy tried to follow the Lieutanant’s bicycle to a meeting?”“Yeah, I still feel sorry for that guy.”Immediately recognizing a chance to go about where he pleased, Abraxis begun to blaze through the castle as much as he could. He did not know how he managed to get here from Earthland (last thing he recalled from a while ago were a lot of violent shouting, but it was the annual gathering of Magicians so it was kind of expected), but he was here nonetheless. To put it in perspective to our readers, Abraxis has clearly been thrown to somewhere else entirely different from the rest of the pack. Maybe it was his non-biological properties, or perhaps Anima recognized him as an esteemed Exceed.
‘Oh, sweet sweet home. I can't believe it,‘ Abraxis murmured in fascination as he abruptly stopped at a castle window, taking in from outside the islands of Edolas floating in the air as if they were large whales gracefully moving through the sea. His eyes kept flitting about, spotting one thing they recognized and then jumping to another, from the pink blossom trees of the Royal City floating below Extalia, to the barren, lifeless ruins of a civilization long-past on the Ruined Island that was the highest of all. The great planets that peeked in from beyond the skies felt like the eyes of great gods gazing down upon the land.
‘So this is Edolas.’“Ah, there you are. I was wondering what happened to you.”‘Huh?’ Abraxis thought to himself in puzzlement as he turned to the approaching person.
Something about his voice just seemed so…..
‘Uh oh,’ he finally realized.
Within the castle gardens, Aldous the Guildless was already up among all the other mages. Apparently, Anima had a deleterious effect on you that magnified the more powerful you were. As he surveyed over the people with him, many of which are still trying to get up and one whom has completely gone unconscious, Aldous wondered from his observations of them struggling to get up whether the sudden drainage of the physical strength granted to them by their magic power had been too sudden for the bodies that had relied on it for so long.
“This may be the first time I’m actually glad that I’m weaker than most of these people in Earthland,” Aldous cringed at the admittedly selfish sensation.
His lack of any real shock may also have to do with the fact that he had already known about Anima incoming beforehand. Seeing the confusion in the people around him made him ache somewhat inside him that he could have chosen to warn them ahead of time, but that would have gone completely counter to his plan to bring Abraxis (who seems to not be among them. Perhaps he may be somewhere safer?) home and besides, he had only made a (highly) educated guess about its coming and he had no reputation to back him up in the eyes of all those mages, who would be undoubtedly arrogant in their power and would laugh at the warnings of a hazard that they themselves could not detect, let alone a D-rank Guildless mage like him.
As he went through this thought process, recognizing it as the obvious self-rationalization after the act he had committed (of good or evil, he had yet to judge fully), Aldous surprised himself by walking up towards the girl lying unconscious beside the raven-haired woman trying to heal her with magic (to obvious avail), his hands already digging in one of the shelves that pulled out from the giant casket he hung behind his waist. First aid kit, no wanderer walks without this basic holy grail. As the helper, having discovered the impossibility of her attempt, picked herself up and looked around in confusion at their surroundings, muttering questions, Aldous passed by her, ahead of all the others, and explained,
“We are in Edolas. Another world, far from Earthland. Very little time to explain. Just try and help the others up. We need to get out of here as fast as possible.” At the same time he was gingerly raising Chikane’s head, looking over it for any signs of an obvious wound.
‘She seems to be just out cold. No bleeding, externally at least. No signs of internal hemorrhaging it seems. She’s tougher than I thought. A fall like that would have broken a normal human. Perhaps some of our Magic Power was still left enough to cushion the impact,’ Aldous assessed it silently to himself, ignoring the calls of anyone else trying to approach him for an explanation.
‘Nothing I have will work for now. We'll need someone to carry her away though.’ Done with his diagnosis, Aldous noticed from the corner of his eye a familiar mage approaching the raven-haired mage.
“Jay! Do you have any of your Requip weapons with you?” Aldous asked as he begun to eye the ends of the garden, the large area (a 40-metre-sided square, indeed it is gargantuan) surrounded by a ring of columns, alert for any threats.
Swiftly opening the main middle compartment that was the entire length of his casket, Aldous grunted as he found his greatsword Cloud Penance suddenly much heavier than he had previously experienced (the lack of magic had extended to the weight-halving ability), planting it to the ground in between hard panting. Even with a quarter in the ground, it still reached up to his neck; such is the blade’s conspicuous length.
“Anyone who is confident in physical close-combat and lift this can have this for now. This is not a friendly place. An in-door garden of this size will likely mean that we are trespassing on the grounds of someone very rich and important.” He could try his revolvers but they too were likely to be non-functional.
As he begun to pace through his options (get out now, leave the others, have someone scout ahead, split the group up, et cetera et cetera), he snagged onto something usable.
‘Purgatory,’ he wondered whether it would be wise to pull that monster out in front of everyone in the gardens, but he was confident that the Spirit Warrior, which rejected any magic power, in turn did not rely on it. Conceivably, he could use it as a last resort or perhaps as a vanguard to clear the way for the group in case of resistance. But then his idea hit into an obstacle. A very big one, one so large enough that despite him remaining the most composed out of the others for most of the time, his composure was now blown away as he now stood utterly stunned, unresponsive to others, looking quite akin to a statue with his hands over his head.
Where is Purgatory?
“And so I sneaked away, just for a short while. Of course once he goes back to Earthland, I’ll be forced to go with him too, as is dictated by our bond.” Purgatory scowled and spat at the ground of ether flowing around him.
“Hey, don’t waste my tea, you know. It’s quite expensive.”“Oh, I’m soooo sorrrry, your royal highness…Here, as compensation.” Purgatory gave the finger.
“Hahahaha….I see we are going to get along quite nicely….” Edolas Purgatory giggled gently, as she always did, ever so generous, even to the most selfish of people. This is the rule of the two worlds: opposites attract.
“Now about that story about a guild named after a certain human organ?”“Ah yes, you see….”
“Alright, here we are. Come along. We’ll need to go somewhere else real soon,” Raskeia ordered his Fenrir, petting his trusty automatic bicycle on the handles as he got off. Pushing past the small wooden door, Raskeia, dragging Fenrir along, walked up a seemingl endless spiral of stairs built of old dust-drenched cinder, a stark contrast to the shiny white marble that made up the normal castle floor.
After what seemed like a long three minutes of climbing, Raskeia finally arrived to his destination at the very top of this tower. As he walked down the last bit of corridor, guided by shimmering lacrima lamps, Raskeia knew that the people he had been looking for were where he expected them to be, inside his father’s private study. Even now, he could hear them spar.
“….can’t be doing this at the moment. I just barely manage to contact some insiders in the rebellion. At this very moment, we have the opportunity to finally put this conflict to rest. We can set aside our differences and deal with the common issue. But bringing in those people would be akin to giving both the King and those dissenters new weapons to play with!”“And you would dare bar the King’s desires? Insinuate that the King would treat the mages like toy guns? Such open slander is both heretical and unwise. It is being made quite clear to me that my education had been woefully inadequate. Oh, how you shame me, my little Sailor.”Throughout this entire back-and-forth conversation, no one was shouting and Tyrion knew why. Father always found shouting to be highly uncivilized. Logic and reason make an argument, not how big your lungs could go.
- Seira:
“Dad, it’s Seira.” The one shaking her head rather exasperatedly was wearing a fine white qi-pao (very much like the Asian ones on real Earth, but except with tight form-fitting pants instead of a normal gown) and her flowing night-shaded hair was just barely kept off of her face. Raskeia was always jealous how elegant Seira always seemed to be, even in distress. He would even admit he had a crush on his own elder sister once, but that was long ago and now he had replaced it with common sense.
“Please don’t do this to me. To us. I…”“Shh…I know. But you cannot question the King’s decree. In this time of great instability, we are finding ourselves pushed to desperate ends. We cannot wait. Don’t say a thing, yet, Seira,” The old man, hunchbacked and sitting on the grand old chair right next to the must-have fire pit, shushed Seira just as she was about to speak up. Raskeia pitied his sister at his moment. In this family, when the father tells you to quiet up,
“I know how much effort you’ve put into these compromise talks with the rebels, but do imagine it from the poor King’s point of view. These rogue mages are threatening the very fabric of our dimension, the very basis of our kingdom. They continue to foolishly and wastefully use magic even when it is such short supply. We have appealed to them for a decade and yet none of them heed our warnings. The Mad Tyrant is now gone and thus so his suppression of the magic guilds and yet even when we only gave them even the smallest of restrictions, they cry out abstract terms of ‘Freedom!’ and ‘Liberty!’ in irrational defiance. We could have gotten by with Anima just sucking up air from Earthland, if it weren’t for them. And now they have gone and freed of all people, the worst, that Zeon. He alone could turn Edolas into a lifeless rock.”“And so now imagine, just imagine what the King has to decide. Would you have our King beg those fools in the slim hope they listen, after all that they have done?”“I…I…” Raskeia’s eyes, the only things visible from his Cait Knight full helm, gazed upon Seira with both pity and expectation from the side. His father, with an understanding smile, smoothed his wrinkled hand over her cheek, his eyes filled with fatherly pride.
“
Peace is a noble thing, Seira. It is a beautiful ideal to have in such troubled times,” And then his face hardened,
“But before we can have a peaceful kingdom, we must have a kingdom first. The future of Edolas rests upon our shoulders.”“I...I understand.”“There is no need to assure me. I have faith that your decision will be in the right. Now, have you looked through the negotiation terms?”“Yes, I have.”“Good. Then, as one of our finest diplomats, you will be needed by the King’s side. And if things do go the way you feared…perhaps those peace talks of yours may be our last hope. So stay safe.”At the end of his words, Father wrung his hand tightly within Seira’s, giving her a peck in the forehead. When they finally let go for Seira to leave, it was with great reluctance, as if this could be the last time they would see each other.
Raskeia sighed from behind the walls of his helmet. He had always been a little jealous.
“Don’t let what he say get to you too much.” Seira whispered to him as she passed by.
“He seems to be getting weaker every day. Perhaps it may be…”“No, zip it. I will not hear any…” She’s afraid, just as he himself is.
“Protect him, alright?”“Always,” Raskeia assured. As the door creaked shut behind him, Raskeia finally managed to compose himself and will his armoured feet to walk up towards his father. The old man seemed to have aged another ten years and maybe even shrunk when Seira left him, but when the plods of Raskeia’s heavy boots, splattered in dry mud, echoed through the room, Father returned back to his normal, stern state that he used whenever addressing his youngest child.
“Father,” Raskeia greeted obediently, slightly shivering beneath his lupine-like armor under the piercing eye, crimson as blood. His father, despite his age and his slouched back, was still an undeniably tall man, lean of muscle, white of hair and inscrutable of countenance.
“Rascal.” Raskeia stung at the ancient pet name. A burst of sudden rebellion forced him to regrettably complain,
“I’ve grown up, Father.”- Raskeia:
“In body, perhaps,” his father said in that grim manner as if it was a bad thing, while he appraised Raskeia from head to toe like a veteran window-shopper.
“In mind and spirit, you are still very much a child.”“Understood.”“Even now you take insults without a real word.” Raskeia’s face twisted into a grimace at his father’s shaking head.
“You are an officer, not a soldier. Your job is to lead, not to let your men walk all over you. Did that commander of yours not teach you that beforehand?”"Yes,” Raskeia mechanically answered, for he was more readying himself to get his surprise out than to really take in his father’s words.
“I myself have already mobilized my own platoon as a reserve force in advance at the ready. At my word, this castle will be made impenetrable and inescapable.”“What did I say about absolutes?”Raskeia bit his own tongue at his careless mistake.
“They are impossibilities, father.”“Always be prepared for faults in the plan when you apply it to reality. I remember teaching you at least that much.”“Yes, you did…”“Huh. At least you dared to be to me this time. Perhaps you are salvageable after all.” That stabbed, deep.
“So,…” Raskeia hurriedly regained his voice from choking,
“…our soldiers are armed and ready as to the King’s orders. The best weapons the kingdom can offer are in their capable hands.”“You give them too much credit. To leave such precious lacrima to their disposal…the wasteful fools may set us back for months, perhaps years.”“Shall I pass that comment to Commander Nikolai?”“No need. I nearly forget that this is a critical moment; we will need to be at our best. I shall force myself to see it as a hard, but necessary sacrifice. What else is there?”“There has also been in-castle word that we have sightings of intruders in the inner castle garden. The Commander had wished it secret but…”“A foolish move. A commander who doesn’t trust his own troops but trusts them enough to believe they would keep a secret on his own unenforced word? He’s almost as bad as you.”“….” Raskeia remained silent.
“Don’t brood and glare at me like that. You know it to be true. Now tell me the rest, before I am forced to get up and see it for myself.”“…The commander is currently on his way with a small troop to handle the situation himself, while all the main castle doors are blocked at his command."“Good. I see we have some basic preparations. As expected from you,” Raskeia silently dared his father to do better and was horrified that he just did that. Had he said that out loud, it would have been a one-sided slaughter.
“When you have confirmed their arrival, keep them in but do not do them any harm, understood? It is important that we do not antagonize them. Escort them gently to the throne room, where the King shall meet with them.”“Note my emphasis on ‘gently’. His grace hopes to open up civil negotiations between Edolas and Earthland. No matter what they say to him, no matter what they threaten to do to him, ensure that no zealot comes in to jeopardize this golden opportunity. These are strict orders from the wise King himself. Oh wise he is, so wise, I’m ready to burst into song!
OHHHHHHHHHH!
Oh, praiiise to the great Kiiing.
He is truuuly amazing.
None can match his thinking!
Not a soul has an inkling!
About what goes on in that mind of our great, great Kiiinnnng!”
“Umm…father. Back on topic.” Raskeia mourned inside him. It was terribly sad for him to see the solid, nigh immovable man that was his father be struggling so much with his sporadic dementia. Raskeia also cried inside at the death of his own ears, for while his father was an exceptional man, he was not an exceptional singer.
“Oh….now where was I, you little Rascal?”Raskeia let out a resigned sigh, chewing his teeth a little at his father’s use of his pet name.
“You were talking about the King’s orders.” The doctors tried to do their best about him, but apparently it was a natural, unstoppable thing.
“Ah! Right, past experience with Anima during the Mad Tyranny has shown it to be highly unreliable with depositing people where we want it to deposit. I expect many more mages to be out there, perhaps with some unwanted friends as well. Pass this message to the local watch: have them scour the capital and towns for signs of such anomalies. Undoubtedly Zeon could have those mages gobbling those super-balls of his this very instant.”“And every soldier must give a mandatory physical description about every Earthland mage they meet. There is no possible way that we cannot expect their Edolas counterparts to be involved in this. Be it citizen or rebel, I want their Edolas versions found and tracked. They may lead us to their Earthland counterpart.”“What if they are one of the Cait Knights?”“Undoubtedly if troops are accompanying them, there will be public distrust. A public confrontation is all that we need to see their allegiance. Give them reasonable doubt, they all have served long and loyal, but if they hesitate, have them in cuffs for shirking their duty to the King.”“In front of all the troops? Is that wise?”“If we cannot have them through love of the King, then we will have to resort to the fear of him. We absolutely cannot waver. Not at this time.”“…Understood. And the trap?” Raskeia asked, quickly trying to cover up that conspicuous pause he had made just now.
Father spat at the ground in disgust,
“You call it a trap. I call it a peace offering. It will only be a trap if those rebels decide to spring it; it’ll be their own fault. By then, we may already have a disaster at our hands. I will keep the recordings as a last resort. Understood? Good. Now, do you have anything else to report? Your position awaits you.”“They are already here.”“I know that. You already told me so. What are you getting at?” Father growled impatiently.
“No, I mean, I have one of them right here,” Raskeia confessed, trying to keep his own excitement inside (it would not be civilized), as he turned to give a knowing look at his ‘Fenrir’ right behind him, its frame trying to pretend to lean against the wall like the inanimate bicycle it was not.
And that was when Abraxis noticed Raskeia pulling up his uniform’s sleeve.
“It seems to work as Tyrion planned. I’ll proceed to order dissemination of these Identifiers to all the troops.” And as the little bracelet, in the shape of a bow and arrow, revealed from underneath glowed brilliantly, twisting itself such that the glowing-red arrow point was pointing straight at him, Abraxis realized that instead of being able to get away disguised as a normal object, he had been quite had.
“My, my, what do we have here? You have found something quite interesting. In fact, quite incredible.”“It is my original Fenrir, but there is something else inside of it.” And then Abraxis realized why he had been split off from the rest.
“I shall leave him with you now. I must go to the Commander’s side.”“Yes, yes, indeed…..Well…Young…being from the land far away, welcome to Edolas. There’s no need to keep on playing dead. Did you really expect us not to be prepared for you? Come, come, sit down next to me. We have much to discuss.”
“So, how do I look? And please, please give me an honest opinion.”“You look marvelous, your majesty.”“Poo, nope, not what I was looking for. Give me what I should hear, not what you wanted me to hear.”“My Grace, allow me to assist. Perhaps your boots could do with a little more flair.”“Even worse, a genuine boot-licker! Look here and listen well! See this shine? Gazing upon that impeccable structure, custom-made to the bones of my own feet? Do you have any idea how much goes into that? What I wear upon my heels is a masterpiece. Yet you dare insult those very men and women all for the sake of my favour? Hah! Praise to their crafters and none to you!”Cait Sith, King of the Exceeds, King of the People, Most Definitely King of Edolas, Sovereign of the Floating Islands, Protector of all Beings Poor, the Crimson Lion, the Most Holiest of Holies and blah blah blah, was now in a very, very bad mood.
“I am surrounded by a bunch of ass-kissing, butt-sniffing, gluteus-maximus-groping idiots!” Quite so.
The truth was that King Cait was not looking for someone to point out a flaw in his grand, (admittedly heavy) crimson cloak that seem to make him bigger, nor the slightly-off hoof in the shoes that seemed to make him taller, nor the dot-sized emerald that was missing from the intricate jewelry patterns that encrusted the mighty crown that made him a few inches higher.
These are bad times and King Cait knew it. That was why he brought the Earthlanders here in the first place. He can’t blame anyone for having an off-day, not in this entire off-year. The rebels have been increasingly dissident (more criminal break-outs, rumours of activity these recent days; he can’t get his head around why, but it had seriously forced the Cait Knights to stock up on lacrima in the name of his own protection.
‘Fools, I bet half of that stock is being secretly funneled away by the nobles. Hopefully Vortigern will sort them out.’ He himself had attempted to decree that the Cait Knights stop falling into the nobles’ trap, but every time, someone else claiming to be representing him would reverse it. He tried king’s seals, personal signatures, passwords and copyright to protect the integrity of his word, but every time whoever those bastards seem to get around it in days. It had led to much confusion and in the end, he could not keep up.
And as a result, in the face of a depleting supply, lacrima prices for the public are going through the roof and while Anima could normally make more to curb the rampant inflation, part of the amount it gave was being drained away by those rebels and their magical experiments. Given how prevalent lacrima is throughout the society of Edolas (blacksmiths use it to stoke their forges, the seamstresses use it to make a perfect inner-mould to shape their cloth around, the common people rely on it to drive around), the rising prices just made everything else that much more difficult for the people.
“If only I could have a greater presence, something to make them listen….” King Cait shook his furry head. That would be pointless thinking. He may have all the best garments, the loudest voice, the finest tutors in persuasive body language; all those enhancements and he would still not make it. What he was looking for from his attendees who are now bowing down around him in scared silence was not something that implicated the fine people of Edolas. No, he himself was to blame and that’s why the fools muttering frantic apologies were so unwilling to speak the truth, even to a King that demanded it from them.
“I’m just a tiny cat.”“Five words was all you needed to say, you pompous fools. You are all dismissed. Prepare my dramatic entrance while you are at it. Make sure you clean out all of those filthy words with mouth-wash before I call you back in again.” As the hasty shuffling of feet disappeared behind him (once they were assured that they out of his earshot, he knew that they would start complaining among themselves about him. Pff, such is loyalty.), leaving the cat of two-foot-two and red-mane was now left all alone in his dressing room, its pearly white floor reflecting the light (and himself) into his eyes that had a moment ago seemed like black fire but were now merely spent charcoal. The King regretted sending his attendants off (and his own height) as he tried to pull himself back up onto his seat before the vanity table, his head just barely over the surface.
Slowly and patiently, he begun to dust off any make-up on him he thought was excessive. They tried to pale his face to match a fair skin, hid his whiskers among his fur, applied contacts to hide his sharp eyes, but Cait would not have it. His people know that they are ruled over by a feline and making him look more ‘human’ would not change that.
“How did this come to be? There were supposed to be two Kings of the races. One of Exceeds and One of Humans,” He bemoaned to his own reflection.
“Yes, yes, I already know why. Don’t need to remind me. The mistakes in the Mad Tyranny needed someone to represent both Human and Exceed and have them work together in harmony. And so here I am, an Exceed who has since his birth been in the company and education of humans. A product and assurance of a peace between two races at the end of a brutal conflict. Text-book answer. But that can’t be enough. It will never be enough.” Massaging the bridge of his nose, Cait Sith could only let out a sigh and as he was always prone to do in his solace, he leaned against the table and delved deep into thought.
What he was thinking about was a secret, as always.
![Master [1000]](https://i.imgur.com/AQXM4xC.png)
![Senior [500]](https://i.imgur.com/Nmfn8cD.png)
![Novice [250]](https://i.imgur.com/lrYlde6.png)
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