[SOLS] 2nd Anniversary ‘The Moon and the Stars’ Episode 4-4: ‘The White Witch’
s1nful
475K subscribers
327,814 views 6th May 20XX
surely everything will turn out fine for Arden :clueless:
PLAY
Episode 4-4: ‘The White Witch’
Summary of previous events
After a deadly confrontation at Yrd’s heart, Setsuna and Estelle were barely able to hold off their mysterious foe from irreparably corrupting the mountain’s waters. Belle arrives with Professor Sibyl in tow to investigate and clean up the aftermath.
But still, despite the battle being won, the faceless man has disappeared, with no evidence or trace of his plans. What sinister designs does he have in store?
Would you like to play this story?
[YES] [NO]
loading…
Did you know?
Relics of the Lightless Century and the fall of Calybcor are the holy grails of all archaeological expeditions. In modern times, after the return of the Seven Legion, a designation was given to Adventurers specialising in the excavation of these timeless artifacts – ‘Seekers’.
In the war effort against the Legions, Seekers are considered to be some of the most prestigious and valuable troops available.
loading…
Luna slowly walked through the silent corridor, a dreary expression on her face.
Uncomfortable murmurings drifted through the walls, echoing into her ears.
“No improvements in her condition?” Belle’s familiar harsh voice, muffled by the doorway, resounded in her mind.
“None, this… this is a level of mana exhaustion I haven’t seen in a long time. The danger point is around fifty percent, that’s usually enough to make people pass out for a day or two. Most people lose consciousness immediately after depleting seventy percent of their reserves. Going further usually isn’t possible unless it’s part of some sacrificial ritual or something.”
There was a heavy sigh.
“Estelle was always terrible at knowing when to stop.”
Luna paused briefly.
Memories flashed of their first days together.
That terrifying endless hunger.
The madness in her eyes as she ignored her withering, bleeding body.
Luna bit her lip, clutching the grimoire in her chest a little tighter as she walked forwards.
“How long do you think it’ll take for her to wake up?”
“I’m not sure… another week, maybe? She still won’t be stable when she wakes up, though. This level of damage will take months to properly heal. Her mana pathways will be crippled for at least the first few days after regaining consciousness. I would heavily recommend against letting her use magic again even when her reserves sufficiently recover, it’ll cause her a great deal of pain and prolong the healing period.”
“I’ll see what I can do… not sure if she’ll listen, though. She has a bad habit of ignoring her own condition if it means she can be of help to someone else. Never managed to get that out of her.”
“I’m rather conflicted myself. As a doctor, it was an admirable, heroic quality to see in your daughter. She even inspired me to pick up the slack and push myself in these recent months, but… it will break my heart if that same selflessness permanently cripples her.”
Belle sighed.
“The treatment go okay?”
‘You’ve already asked that twice today, Lady Symphonia. And that would be the seventh time this week. We’ve already done all we can to patch up her circuits. The rest is up to her.”
“Right, sorry, I-...”
“No, it’s okay. You have the right to be concerned about your daughter.”
Luna came to a stop in front of the door.
“I’ll have to go now. Lab results are coming in for the samples from Yrd. Might actually figure out what the fuck the cultists are up to now.”
“May the sun shine upon you, Lady Symphonia.”
“May Sol be with us all. Hope she doesn’t take offense to the people calling Estelle ‘the Maiden in White’.”
“The Boy in White was stated to be a simple man of humble origins, accepting of all no matter their background or class. I doubt he would look down upon your daughter. He too, would honour her hard work and sacrifice.”
“Would be nice if he spoke for all the Sol zealots all around the place today, but sadly that mythical corpse isn’t just gonna start walking around anytime soon.”
The door opened.
Luna met her mother’s tired eyes.
She always looked a little sleepless, but it seemed even worse recently. It seemed like the strain was starting to take its toll on everyone.
“...”
“...”
The mother and daughter stared at each other silently for a moment.
Belle tried her best to smile.
“Hey, Luna. Hope you’re doing well, eh? I’ll get out of your hair now, take care of your sister for me.”
Luna just nodded.
The two awkwardly passed each other by.
The doctor just sighed, following behind Belle and closing the door behind him.
“You should know all this by now, but again, if anything happens, ring the bell. We’ll be on standby for the entire day, nurses will come in every now and then, don’t mind them, yada yada… Have a good day, Miss Symphonia.”
The door clicked shut behind Luna.
“...”
Luna stared at the cold, unmoving body in the bed in front of her.
Days had passed since it happened.
She hadn’t even realised anything was happening at the time.
As always, she was always just stuck indoors, reading and researching away, trying to find any way to be helpful, leading her to completely miss the flare that had blown up over the distant mountain range.
She ignored the murmuring, ignored the whispering, ignored the tension and unease, thinking it all to be ‘just another incident’.
It was only several hours later, when Belle returned with her sister’s comatose body, that she was finally pushed outside by the commotion.
She didn’t really remember what she thought about in that moment.
Her brain just froze at the sight.
A lifeless, pale body. Brittle, untangled hair. Half of her body scorched beyond recognition.
She had heard her sister went out with her friend to clear her mind, and didn’t think much of it.
She thought everything would still be the same when Estelle returned.
Just like always, she’d be halfway through a good day poring over books when she’d hear that annoying, cheery voice disrupt her blissful silence, poking her cheek and giggling as she dangled food in front of her until she finally got annoyed enough to put the books down and eat with her.
That was how it had always been, and that was how she thought it would always be.
It had never once occurred to her that her sister, that ever-smiling, cheerful, painfully embarrassing figure, could be reduced to something so… pitiful. So quiet. So still.
Even in her earliest memories of their time together, when they were nothing more than nameless street rats trying to just get through the winter, she never looked so weak.
What…
What was she supposed to do?
Luna’s fingers dug into her nameless grimoire as she berated herself.
If it was Estelle, she wouldn’t hesitate for a second. She would know what to do, how to help, how to stop it from happening.
She always had the answer.
Despite being a terrible witch, barely able to read a textbook without a migraine or falling asleep, she always had a strange wisdom and maturity to her.
She always knew the exact thing to do and say to make her feel better. She always knew without needing to hear a single word exactly what she was going through and how she was feeling.
There was a knock on the door.
Luna stared at it silently for a bit, before getting up.
She opened the door.
A kindly, wrinkled old lady greeted her with a smile, bearing an earthen pot in her hands.
“Ah, lassie… sorry, I’m not intruding on you and your sister, am I?”
Luna didn’t recognise her.
She didn’t recognise a lot of people in Arden, to be honest.
Maybe a few of the A-Rank Adventurers, or a few of the senior staff working alongside Mother, but she never committed to memory any of the ordinary folk in the city.
She wasn’t sure if she had ever exchanged a single word with them, to be honest.
“No, it’s fine,” Luna shook her head, stepping aside, “you can come in.”
The old lady smiled, hobbling into the small, peaceful room.
Despite the dreary atmosphere, it smelled rather pleasant.
Luna’s eyes drifted across, before eventually landing on the mountain of gifts, flowers and other plants scattered all across the private room.
This old lady was far from the first person to leave behind well wishes and gifts.
Sometimes, very rarely, when Luna got over her nervousness and anxiety, she would ask them how they knew her.
It was startling, frankly, just how many people her sister knew in this city.
They were hardly the kind of people that could be called ‘important’.
At best, a few of them were magi or adventurers. But the vast majority of them were just… people. Farmers. Cooks. Waiters. Maybe they ran a small artisanal business at best. Maybe they were just a local family whose child once played with Estelle. Maybe they broke a bone during labour once and she happened to be nearby to fix it for them.
They only ever had good things to say about her.
Luna looked down at the pot in the old lady’s hands.
Long, thin, spindly bundles of a white-thread like fungus burst out of the pot.
She recognised it as something Estelle frequently ate.
“Are those… mushrooms?”
The old lady just laughed as she set them down next to the rest of the gifts, shrugging.
“Haha, yup. Your sister’s favourite, if my husband is telling the truth. Wouldn’t stop talking my ear off about how I should leave some for her, good business or whatever. Not the prettiest thing next to all those flowers over ‘ere, but we ain’t gardeners. He’s a farmer.”
She cracked a small smile, chuckling despite the sombre mood.
“You should just be glad it wasn’t me deciding what gift to bring. Only trade I’ve ever known is good ol’ adventuring. If it was up to me, I’d stink the whole place up with a monster carcass.”
Her shoulders shook as she laughed boisterously.
“This is all we could manage for now, given how tight things are being locked up in ol’ Arden. Besides, I think you’ve gotten enough flowers from everyone else. Might as well change it up a bit, give her something she can actually use instead of tossing out the moment she wakes up. Her stomach will be real empty, I bet.”
An awkward silence emerged as the two sat down at the bedside, silently offering their prayers and respects.
Luna bit her lip, before repeatedly opening and closing her mouth.
Her tongue felt dry.
How was it so easy for her sister to just… talk to people?
“H-how… how do you know her? I-is it just because she buys a lot from your husband?”
The old lady just smiled fondly.
“Around a decade and a half back, we got into an expedition, had a nasty encounter with one of ‘em basilisks, had to put myself in harm’s way to get everyone else out alive, but cost me a petrified arm and leg and a life of illness. Got the petrification reversed, but the venom crippled me. It forced my husband into retirement just to take care of me. That was how he started the whole thing with mushroom cultivation. Just a way to pay the bills from our backyard while he nursed me. Then the young miss started to come around a while back.”
She pointed to the pot of mushrooms piled on top of the gifts.
“Ol’ bloke started to chat the lass up. Few weeks and a couple purchases later, they got to know each other enough for ‘im to share his history. Young miss didn’t even blink, and that same day, came around and fixed me up.”
She grinned cheesily, rolling her shoulders and flexing, giving her old bones a gnarly crack.
“And wouldn’t you know it, an hour later, I feel as young as ever! Got so much energy that I’ve got my husband begging me to not unretire!”
She laughed loudly.
“Ah, well… guess I’ve gotten soft, since I haven’t worked a day since. Feels nice being cared for I guess. Just don’t want to cause no one no worry anymore, ‘sall. Burdened the young miss enough, should enjoy the second chance at life she gave me in peace.”
“I-... I see.”
It was the same story as always.
Luna had heard it dozens of times over the past few days.
Estelle was just someone who couldn’t mind her own business. She’d drop everything at the smallest sign of trouble to help someone, and not even think about it.
She never asked for anything, and never mentioned it to anyone. She’d just help whoever she could and then move on with her day.
It was rather enlightening for Luna, hearing the tales of all of the people of Arden about how Estelle had helped them one way or another.
Ever since they moved out of the mountains and into Arden temporarily, and especially since Estelle was taken in as their mother’s sole apprentice, she noticed that her sister seemed rather restless at times, constantly going out for walks, taking any excuse to run small errands.
She thought it was just because she was stressed from Belle’s teachings, and needed time to herself to process everything and calm the migraines down.
There was no reason for Luna to ever assume she was out doing anything but those walks around town. Whenever Estelle made it back home, her face was completely flat, like it well and truly had just been a boring stroll to clear her mind.
But it was evident from the countless tales of the townspeople those trips were anything but.
Her sister truly was a strange person. In her mind, it really just was nothing noteworthy. Those acts of kindness could hardly even be called ‘good deeds’ for her. They were just small, selfish distractions from the stress of Belle’s teachings.
Luna’s eyes softened sadly.
What an idiot.
She had always been like that.
Shortly afterwards, the old lady left, leaving Luna alone with her thoughts.
A few minutes afterwards, there was a knock on the door, and the cycle repeated again.
Another stranger, another gift, another story of a small kind deed.
All throughout the visitation hours.
It almost felt like everyone had been helped in one way or another by her.
It brought up a few annoying memories for her, relating to her male classmates at Nindo.
It felt like all of them had a crush on her at one point or another. Even the stuck-up wizard types sometimes found their eyes and minds drifting whenever she loudly announced her presence to her in the cafeteria or whenever she passed by their classes, no matter how much they didn’t want to admit it.
It really peeved her to admit, but it made sense why Hayate-senpai had fostered a crush for her over the six years they had been on a team together.
Again, there was a knock on the door.
“Luna, art thou present?” A familiar voice belonging to a steely, solemn girl echoed.
Luna bristled.
That was her sister’s friend, the elf who she had gone to Yrd with… who fought alongside her when it happened.
“Y-yes. C-can I help you?”
“Might I be granted permission to enter? I wish to have a word with thee, if I may.”
“S-sure.”
A girl dressed in an ancient, ragged robe opened the door and stepped in.
Sharp emerald eyes glanced around the room.
Setsuna found a spare chair and pulled it out, abruptly and silently sitting herself next to Luna as she crossed her legs.
“The knights of Sangferrus were looking for thee. Alas, they could not find thee. Thou wert not in thy usual habitats, in the libraries and archives. An inkling came to this one, so I took it as my burden to find thee. I had figured thou would come here.”
“T-they were looking for me? W-what do they need me for?”
Luna shrivelled and shrunk.
Setsuna just shrugged.
“I know not. Something about a ‘Professor Sibyl’. I did not care much for the conversation. But I figured it to be my duty as thy sister’s sworn friend to deliver the message. ‘Tis the least I could do in her stead.”
“Eh? Professor Sibyl? He really asked for me?”
Luna’s eyes widened as she straightened up, looking at the taller girl in disbelief.
“W-where do I go? I’ll pack everything up immediately, I’ll report in by the end of the hour.”
She immediately shot up to her feet and began to scramble.
Setsuna just looked at her actions and shook her head.
“Nay, sit down.”
“Huh?” Luna froze.
The sharp emerald eyes of the solemn swordswoman narrowed as she scanned her up and down.
“If thou were to ask of me the solemn truth… to be honest, I would not have cared much what thou did if thou were in thy usual habitats, going through with one’s day and duties without impediment. If the soldiers were to find thee with ease, then so it would be. But they did not. Thou came here, of all places. And if that is the case, then in Estelle’s place, I suppose I shall have thou air thy grievances.”
She scoffed softly.
“‘Tis the least I could do for her.”
“I-... I don’t follow,” Luna blinked.
Setsuna just crossed her arms and shrugged again.
“Neither do I. Talking, connecting with others, opening oneself emotionally… those were annoy-... responsibilities I left to thy sister. But alas, she cannot speak for herself now.”
Luna opened her mouth, wanting to say something.
She stared into Setsuna’s cold, stern eyes.
After a few seconds, she closed it again.
She sat back down.
Silence.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Luna hung her head as Setsuna continued to stare at Estelle’s unconscious body.
“You know…”
Eventually, she somehow found the courage to speak.
“She’s always been like this.”
The swordswoman frowned at those words, but said nothing.
“Ever since the day we first met… she’s been like this. Not once in all of the years since then has she changed.”
‘The day we first met.’
Setsuna considered those words.
“Wert thou not born as sisters?”
Luna blinked at her incredulously.
“Y-you didn’t know?”
Setsuna just shrugged nonchalantly.
“‘Twas never relevant. It mattered not to her, so it mattered not to me. Thou was her sister, and that was all she cared for. Love is love, as she would say. It needs no qualifiers, no conditions.”
She gave a brief glance towards the younger girl, appraising her facial features.
“When did thy mother adopt Estelle? What age was it at when thou was introduced?”
Luna flinched.
Everyone made that same assumption; Luna was Belle’s biological daughter, but Estelle was not.
“N-no, you’ve got it wrong. We’re both adopted. Mother and I… that’s just a coincidence. Before she found us, we were just Litanian street rats.”
It was just another one of the endless whispers that plagued their family. Another excuse to shun Estelle.
Why did she look and act so different compared to her mother and sister? Why was she so untalented at all traditional forms of magecraft?
It must have been because of her origins as a street rat.
She was undeserving of Belle’s legacy.
At least the younger sister studied well.
And yet, just as always, Estelle never cared for the rumours. She just laughed it all off, flicked her in the forehead, and chided her for caring about such useless things.
“She was never good at caring for herself,” Luna whispered, “whenever we found food, she left it all to me, starving herself to the point of madness. Whenever there was any labour to do, she refused to let me get even a speck of dirt on myself, even if it left her bloody with countless splinters, swelling bruises and fractured bones. A-and… I was always too weak to get her to change her mind. I just had to watch as she hurt herself over and over ‘for my sake’. She just kept throwing herself at everything until it broke her.”
Her hands trembled.
“I thought it would change when Mother came along but… I guess it just never did. That part of her just had no reason to show itself.”
Luna’s trembling hands slowly balled into fists.
“I-I never wanted any of this. I just-... I just wish she could leave some of it to us… to me. Every single day, every single year, since the first time we met, it’s always her just taking care of me. She still-... she still thinks I’m that same little helpless child. I just… I just wish she could leave some of that behind and let me do something for her for once. It’s okay for her to not take all of our struggles and burdens for herself.”
Her lips wobbled.
“A-and… she doesn’t even think anything about it. She doesn’t complain about how much it hurts, how tiring it is or what it costs. She doesn’t want to be thanked, or pitied, or anything. It’s just… normal for her. Like she doesn’t deserve anything more than that, or like she can’t live if she doesn’t do that.”
The Citadel and Church shunned her family for their pursuits, sneering at them and saying they weren’t worthy.
Yet still, even as they derided her and kicked her down, Estelle did nothing but laugh. She’d just pick herself up and smile, going about her day as if she heard nothing.
It was never about validation from others, it was never about being helpful or kind, it was just a small, selfish pursuit to appease her flimsy, bleeding heart – that was what Estelle had always said.
Luna never understood what she meant.
“I-I just wish she knew… she doesn’t owe us anything. It’s okay to just live. She doesn’t need to worry so much about me. I’m not a kid anymore. I’m grown up now. I’m my own person. She doesn’t need to shelter me or anyone else in Arden. We can fight for ourselves. For Sol’s sake, I’m a smarter and stronger witch than she will ever be. I’m fine, I’ll be fine. I just…”
She sighed.
“I can protect her too, you know? I care about her just as much as she cares for me. It hurts me too whenever she gets like this, just as much as it hurts her to think about letting any of that burden or responsibility fall on our shoulders.”
Luna looked towards the mountain of gifts piled up across the room.
“I mean, just look. Look at how many people care for her, look at how many people wish she’ll get better, how many people don’t want her to get hurt, but even still, she just… still won’t care. No matter how many of us there are, no matter how capable we are, no matter how old I grow or how strong I am, she’ll still inevitably try to take it all on herself, like we’re all glass statues who would shatter beneath a single thumbprint of pressure.”
She steadied her breath, inhaling and exhaling deeply.
“That’s why I wanted to be a witch. I’m sick of everyone talking down on her. I’m sick of my sister always having to shrug off all the dissenting, spiteful whispers. I’m sick of being protected. She doesn’t need to keep hurting herself like this over and over at the smallest sign of danger. I can do it too. I’ll be fine by myself. She’s hurt herself enough for us, it’s okay for her to rest, to let someone else handle it this time. I-... Once, just once, I wish I could help her to just let it all go, like Mother did when she adopted us.”
Was it any wonder that she admired Belle so much?
Meeting her was the best thing that ever happened to Estelle.
Her sister, the person she cared the most about, seemed to transform and heal almost overnight solely because of her.
Maybe if she grew to be like their new ‘mother’, she could help her sister as well.
Maybe if she became a proper, accepted witch, they’d stop talking about Estelle like that.
For once, she just wanted to be the one her sister could rely upon.
Setsuna just took her mutterings in and looked towards her friend’s unconscious body.
“Is that so?”
She was not like her best friend.
She was not an expert on matters of the heart.
In fact, that very difference was why she found Estelle to be such a remarkable person.
Such qualities of kindness and the willingness to bear burdens were baffling for someone who so boldly presented themselves as a witch.
She was one of very few students in their first year at Nindo to immediately strike her as a truly unique talent and personality, befitting of one of the Realm’s greatest academies.
But Setsuna herself was none of that. She was one thing and one thing only.
She was a swordswoman.
If Estelle herself was awake, maybe this conversation would have taken a different direction, but since it was her, there was only one thing she was looking to find inside Luna.
“Hast thou found thy warrior’s resolve?”
Luna breathed in.
She stared resolutely at Estelle’s resting body.
“Yeah. I’m going to give everything I can to stop this madness before it goes on any longer. I’m going to find the cultists, figure out what they’re after, and I’m going to put an end to it before another chance arises for my sister to hurt herself again.”
“I see,” Setsuna nodded simply, “then go. I shalln’t hold thee back any longer. I was the one who failed Estelle in battle. Let the duty of watching over thy body fall unto this lowly vagrant.”
Luna got up and left, clutching her tome tightly to her chest.
Event Quest
‘The White Witch’
Objectives:
- Find Professor Sibyl
- Uncover the truth behind the cultists’ attacks on Yrd and Arden
Ink-tipped quills softly scribbled on paper.
Pages flicked and books opened and shut.
The flames of candles quietly burned and wavered.
Heated discussions cluttered the room, tense arguments echoing everywhere without a single moment of peace.
There was a knock on the door.
“Excuse me, Professor Sibyl? This is Luna Symphonia… I was told you were looking for me?”
The scribbling stopped.
Sky-blue eyes, gleaming behind a pair of thin, ornately-framed oval-shaped glasses, looked towards the door.
“You may enter,” a tempered yet gentle voice answered.
Luna slowly opened the door.
Long ashen grey hair fell down neatly from the head of the man seated in the room.
He smiled politely as she entered, putting his quill down as he fixed the cuffs of his well-kept coat and rolled his shoulders to readjust the simple dress shirt underneath.
Luna froze for a moment, almost not believing that this was happening.
The man in front of her smiled gently, his slim face looking almost effeminate.
“You may take a seat.”
He smoothly gestured towards the chair across from his table, snapping her out of her trance.
Luna suddenly became aware of the countless eyes of the other magi, adventurers and priests on her, who had all paused briefly in their arguing to look at her momentarily.
She hurriedly walked in and took the offered chair.
She cleared her throat awkwardly.
“What did you want to see me for, Professor Sibyl?”
The elegant man just smiled wryly.
“You don’t need to refer to me in such an uptight manner. I’m not a noble or Citadel wizard or anything, and I think I’ve worked alongside your mother enough to be friends with her.”
Luna bristled.
“I-I’m sorry, I don’t think I can do that. You’re the world’s greatest archaeologist and the leading expert in the Lightless Century. I’m just a lowly witch who hasn’t even graduated yet, let alone been given the right to wear the hat, let alone even been given the Citadel’s recog-”
Avernus just chuckled, shaking his head slowly.
“Well, in that case, could you at least just call me ‘Professor’? That’s how my assistants and students refer to me, ‘Professor Sibyl’ makes me feel like I’m some kind of foreign dignitary or I need to give a speech.”
“Erm,” Luna flustered, “t-then… what did you want to see me for, P-Professor?” she repeated.
Avernus smiled.
His eyes flicked to the side, lifting up a stack of papers to find a certain document.
“I hear you are the one who proposed to the war council that this supposed ‘cult’ is worshipping a figure from the Lightless Century, no? That’s quite a discovery. That alone would put you ahead of most of my colleagues… it’s a level of frightening genius that I should have expected from Belle’s daughter.”
“It’s nothing much,” Luna shook her head rapidly in denial, “I-it was mostly just because I had the privilege of studying at Nindo, which gave me access to Tenmai’s most ancient records. It’s not like I uncovered anything myself. It’s nothing compared to what you or any of your colleagues do.”
The archaeologist just raised an eyebrow.
“You know, there’s a lot I would give in order to gain access to those records myself. Despite all the advancements that have been made in the last few centuries, such as Nindo opening up for students from outside Tenmai, the elves are still rather wary of outsiders. Despite all my accolades and accomplishments, even I’m still not allowed into those libraries. I have to plead and beg for a singular scrap of paper as a reward for taking high-difficulty commissions from there.”
He chuckled mirthfully.
“I think the Black Moon Expedition might be the only group of outsiders to have ever been invited into their halls as guest lecturers. I’ve been tempted to hitch a ride on their ship just to see just for that privilege alone. Ah, but, alas… that kind of reckless, suicidal seafaring is a bit too much for me.”
He shook his head.
“Anyways, even so, your accomplishment isn’t one to be dismissed. Even if it was as simple as piecing two things together, it’s not like Tenmai’s records contain every bit of information about the Lightless Century. The elves are still an extremely reclusive bunch in the end. They barely know anything about what happened beyond the shade of the Hinanhoro. They could hardly be bothered to even record what happened to the three sisters who took up refuge on the Yrd’ll Mountains, as you no doubt have seen.”
Luna nodded along hesitantly.
“S-so… why am I here? Did you just want to thank me?”
Avernus shook his head again, smiling warmly.
“Hardly. I invited you here because I have heard from the people that you’ve been working relentlessly to see if you can find anything else, and I believe your aid will be valuable if you were to work alongside us directly.”
Luna blinked.
“Eh? Y-you mean it? You think I can help?”
The professor nodded.
“Of course. You alone made more progress than the rest of the Church and Citadel combined when it came to uncovering the truth behind these mysterious cultists. Not even the knights, who have captured and interrogated dozens of them directly, have gotten a single scrap of usable information. The only other party who has contributed anything of significant value would be…”
He frowned, a touch of regret and sadness flickering in his eyes as his voice softened.
“Your sister, in her effort to protect the mountain of Yrd. My condolences. I pray she recovers quickly. At the very least, the samples of the corrupted water that have been recovered from the mountain might give us what we need to end this madness.”
Luna’s hands clenched.
“What can I do?”
Avernus just sighed, putting aside the report about Luna’s initial findings aside.
“For now, let’s just have a talk. As two peers interested in the mysteries in the Lightless Century.”
The young girl stiffened.
She wasn’t sure if she had anything that would be that meaningful to contribute, given most of her knowledge was directly gleaned from his work, but…
Well, she at least had to try to keep up.
“O-okay. Where do we start?”
“Well, let’s start with the basics. What do you believe to be the most likely cause of Calybcor’s fall?”
Luna paused, staring warily at the professor.
There was a serene, patient smile on his face.
“T-this isn’t a test, is it? W-will I be punished if I say anything other than the ‘Herald Theory’?”
While much remained unknown about the Lightless Century, most scholars tended to agree on one thing; Calybcor did not fall as most other civilizations did. Its sudden collapse was almost certainly unnatural in nature.
Many, many theories existed across the academic landscape explaining potential causes for what could have undone such a great and powerful kingdom.
‘Herald Theory’ was one such proposition, created by Avernus himself.
In essence, it remarked that at a similar time to when Calybcor itself was known to fall, different unknown disasters struck each of the other three continents that made up Manusyara. Herald Theory suggested that Calybcor’s fall and the Lightless Century was not a singular event as one would think, but was simply a smaller piece of a larger, coordinated attack across Manusyara, led by four eponymous ‘Heralds’.
Avernus shook his head.
“No, of course not. While I do have a certain… fondness for the theory, it is simply a proposition. I take no offense to disagreements. In the end, we only desire one thing, and that is the truth. Herald Theory is just a tool by which leads can be pursued, and nothing more. And not every tool is fit for the task. Perhaps there are others which are underutilised or unexplored which may prove more fruitful.”
Luna gulped.
“W-well, in that case… Herald Theory is an interesting idea, but… I believe it to be simply too expensive to prove at present.”
There were many unanswered questions that came with the idea.
A force individually capable of wiping kingdoms off the map and erasing history would have been ranked at Lunatic, and Herald Theory suggested that the fall of Calybcor was specifically orchestrated by an adversary, necessitating the existence of not only one Lunatic-level threat, but that there were four such discrete monstrosities that existed, one for each continent.
Such an idea would have put the events of the Lightless Century far beyond any previous imagined scale, pushing it all the way into the realm of the simply unreasonable, matching the level of ridiculousness of the mythical multi-Realm destroying threat of the Seven Legions.
While not too inherently ridiculous by itself, what pushed it over the edge of feasibility when it came to investigations for most archaeologists was how impossible it would make the logistics of operations.
Fundamentally, Herald Theory required simultaneous, coordinated expeditions across each of the four continents at the same time. And in a time where finding a singular ruin was miracle-worthy, finding intact ruins across all of the four continents might as well have been impossible.
There were not enough archaeologists in the realm for such a large-scale effort to be coordinated. And even if there were, there would not have been enough interest in the idea for a collective front to push for funding. And even if there was sufficient interest, it was not of enough importance or benefit to the kingdoms and nations of the world to supply the necessary finances. At that level of expenditure, there were simply more important things to be supporting.
“Given the current state of seafaring,” Luna continued mumbling, “especially towards the east with the development of the Infinite Dark in the last few decades, and who knows how long that will take to clear, I doubt any notable progress will be made with Herald Theory globally for at least two decades, unless something drastic were to happen.”
“But,” Luna continued, slowly growing more comfortable in the rhythm of her rambling, “if I were to ignore the logistical difficulties, and evaluate the ideas themselves… I do not believe there to be enough ruins discovered on the continents for anything to be likely, but on this continent specifically… I have to say, Professor, the evidence pointing towards your ‘herald of death’ is compelling.”
Avernus laughed wearily.
“I’m glad to hear it. It was far from the most physically dangerous adventure I went on, but my investigation into the ‘Plague of Thalanadri’ was by far one of the most mentally strenuous periods of my life.”
Some time ago, Avernus led a campaign to drain the mountainous swamps far out to the west, collecting geological and geographical data that suggested the formation of the swamps dated to around the Lightless Century, and as such, there might have been valuable discoveries buried deep beneath the peat and mud.
In that effort, beneath one particularly curious collapsed valley, covered by fallen rock from a destroyed mountain, a town now known to be Thalanadri was discovered.
There were two things that were eerie about the site.
One, the sheer amount of skeletons everywhere, perfectly preserved by the strange environmental conditions. While initially assumed to have been buried by the landslide, a closer inspection revealed a far more terrifying truth; the burial of Thalanadri happened after after the deaths.
What was most unsettling about the skeletons was that they were unable to find any evidence of violence or destruction. There wasn’t even evidence of a disease or famine. It was as if one day, everyone in the town simply died.
The second thing of interest was the dust. There was no evidence of fire or volcanic activity or anything similar, but everywhere they looked, they found a thick layer of dust covering every layer of the town, baked into the mud and peat that submerged it for millenia.
When analysed by his team further, Avernus discovered an even more unsettling truth.
That was human matter. Some people were lucky enough to simply die. The rest decayed into mere particles of dust.
Thalanadri’s fate quickly became one of the most unsettling mysteries in the academic world.
That incident was the origin of Herald Theory.
It was not an immediate response, far from it. Avernus’ team ran through many hypotheses and tests. Maybe it was a botched spell, maybe it was part of some sacrificial ritual, maybe there was some Void-related cosmic accident that split apart the planes and unveiled a doorway into a dimension of pure death, but in the end, all of them proved unlikely.
Avernus came to the conclusion that the cause of the sudden death was an unnatural cataclysm beyond imagination, an avatar that heralded death through its mere existence. And after closely analysing every sample in the town, he concluded that it most certainly happened during the Lightless Century.
He did not believe that fact to be a coincidence. A force capable of causing instant death, and the sudden collapse of civilization. These two things had to be connected.
“I’ve been tracking ‘Death’ almost single-mindedly for the past several years,” Avernus nodded solemnly.
He adjusted his glasses, the countless terrors he had witnessed flashing inside his eyes.
Luna’s eyes slowly drifted downwards, looking at the book in front of the professor.
While smatterings of evidence existed across the continent, there was only ever one place of human residence other than Thalanadri found to be wiped from existence by this so-called ‘Death’.
That book was a complete record of every single finding in the second expedition.
One line from it stuck out to all who read it.
Thalanadri was caught unaware by ‘Death’, but the people of the second site were unlucky enough to witness it directly.
One soul managed to even scratch into their journal four words describing what they saw before they died.
After a laborious effort to translate the ancient language, what came out were four words that defined the mystery for years.
Pale ??????
Black Death
There was no known reference for the final, unknown word.
It was an utterly unique existence, not found in any other ancient writing.
“It’s kept me up at night far more than I’d like to admit,” Avernus chuckled tiredly, “Far too many questions still linger. Why did it suddenly appear one day? Why did it disappear? Is it gone for good? Will it return? Will we see another Lightless Century? Did someone stop it? Who stopped it? Why do we not celebrate them as heroes?”
He narrowed his eyes, frowning slightly.
“It’s almost become more than just a mystery. It’s become something like an obligation. Knowledge isn’t just an answer for a question anymore. It’s a defensive measure. Until the truth of ‘Death’ is uncovered, we cannot be certain we are safe.”
Luna froze, processing everything.
This wasn’t strictly new information to her, given how much of a close eye she kept on his publishings, but…
The grave tone with which he spoke, the context of the where and why they were here…
Her eyes slowly widened.
“P-Professor, a-are you implying… T-that ‘herald’ you’ve been looking for, ‘Death’... i-it’s here? That’s what the cultists are worshipping?”
The frown on Avernus’s face slowly deepened.
“I wish I could come to any other conclusion, but… the evidence brought back from Yrd… I’d like you to take a look at it for yourself.”
He tapped his hand on the stack of documents piled onto his desk.
Luna hurriedly snatched it, flicking through it with wide eyes.
It was a complete analysis of the samples of corrupted water brought back from Yrd, which her sister had pushed herself to the brink of death to stop.
The implications of the readings and data in front of her were disastruous.
There were many hypotheses and theories already floating around Arden relating to the incident in the mountains.
Maybe it was an attempt to just poison its waters to turn the creatures mad to use as weapons against the city itself. Maybe it was the cult’s old grudge against the goddesses, and it was a simple matter of desecrating the home of the accursed elves who once stood against their own god.
What had really happened was something far more complicated in nature.
Luna’s mind began to race, a thousand thoughts flying through it every second as she flipped page after page.
“I-it’s… a complete inversion of the water’s energy signature. Light and life, flipped into the essence of death and darkness. A-and… the carrier of ‘water’, it’s been completely drained. Usually, Yrd’s energy has to be filtered through its streams to be usable, but that’s been completely removed from this substance… t-this…”
One of Avernus’s expeditions once ended with a boon being granted to him from the elven elders of Tenmai. Famously, he had uncharacteristically asked for a material gift; a branch of the Hinanhoro.
It was bafflingly orthodox.
Avernus had developed a reputation for always asking for strange compensations and rewards, unconcerned with anything other than the answer to the next historical mystery. For him to request something of actual material value, importance and power as opposed to something abstract like knowledge was simply unheard of.
What did someone like him want something as grand as a branch of the World Tree for?
The answer was something no one expected.
It was known that the Hinanhoro sat directly atop a leyline, and that made the tree itself a massive concentration of pure natural energy, brimming with the nigh-divine aspect of life itself.
Avernus used that branch, infused with that energy, to perform a nearly-heretical alchemic process that completely inverted its existence, discovering and inventing a new theoretical form of magic in the process by observing its result.
It was magic in the form of pure ‘death’, something that was immediately declared forbidden for study the second it was identified.
Avernus stated if that exact signature and wavelength was to be found anywhere on Manusyara, then it was definitive evidence that his conjecture of the Black Death was true.
And that was exactly what Luna found herself staring at.
The pieces slowly started to connect in Luna’s mind.
“The ‘serpent’ that once attacked the Hinanhoro, seeking the leyline beneath it… it couldn’t penetrate into the source of the energy, so instead, it tried to absorb it from the tree itself, but it couldn’t. It was recorded as having a poisonous effect. And when it was last seen, i-it… it was flying towards Yrd, t-then…”
Avernus nodded grimly.
“I believe we know the final word in that journal. ‘Pale Dragon’.”
He sighed, folding his hands underneath his chin as he anxiously pondered the matter.
“Now we know why the elves were safe from the cataclysm of the Lightless Century. The Hinanhoro’s concentrated life energy shielded all underneath its shelter while the rest of the continent decayed into dust. Sometime after the Pale Dragon first materialised in this realm, as you relayed, the three sisters went beyond the branches of the Hinanhoro and discovered Yrd, a parallel existence to their precious World Tree.”
“The dragon…” Luna bit her lip, “it couldn’t absorb Hinanhoro's energy because the tree served as its polar opposite, a complete inversion of itself as a manifestation of death, and it was too well-defended for it to try and reach the leyline directly. B-but Yrd, there were only the three sisters there to stop it, a-and the mountain itself, it's similar in nature, but it's not as powerful or intelligent as the Hinanhoro, it has no way of resisting other than manifesting through Eikthyrnir.”
“And the rest is history,” Avernus concluded.
“But,” he sighed, “one question still remains.”
Luna nodded.
“We still stand. The Lightless Century ended. The Pale Dragon died and the three sisters won… but… nothing of them remains.”
“And now, we’re in a race against time,” Avernus finished as he pushed his chair back, standing up to his full height.
“The samples recovered from Yrd… going by the report given by your sister’s elven friend, there was a ritual to convert it into such, anchored by an altar of skeletal wings. It can be inferred that was what the Pale Dragon intended to do to the leylines of Hinanhoro and Yrd. This essence… going by the Church’s stance, its most likely use is to resurrect the cultist’s god.”
Luna turned around.
It suddenly became clear what everyone in this room was currently doing.
They were all standing around a large central table, on which a giant map of the continent was drawn, countless notes and marks littered across it as everyone argued back and forth.
“We don’t know how much of a headstart the cultists have. Maybe they’ve known the location of the dragon’s resting place since day one, maybe they’re just as clueless as we are, but whatever the case, we no longer have the time for worry. We must use everything and everyone at our disposal to find it and get there before they do. A Lunatic-level disaster has already been announced. Every available soldier in Sangferrus is standing at attention and mobilising.”
Avernus stared directly into Luna’s eyes.
“Luna Symphonia, as it stands, you are the foremost expert on the mythology and history of the Yrd’ll Mountains. We need your aid to find the tomb of the Pale Dragon.”
Luna held her grimoire tightly to her chest.
Estelle had given everything to protect Yrd, and by extension, everyone in Arden.
And all the while, she had buried her head in the sand, wasting every day in the library while her sister bled for their sake.
She couldn’t let her sister suffer like that again.
She’d end this herself.
If a witch as terrible as Estelle was willing to put in such an effort, then the least she could do was match it.
“Okay. I’ll do everything I can.”
Event Quest
‘The White Witch’
Objectives:
- Find the location of the Pale Dragon’s grave
- Stop the cultists before the Pale Dragon is resurrected
