Legacy of Hope

By: Chibi-chan

Chapter 1c: “You May Say I’m Dreamer…”

*

Mira had just toasted the nth amphibian slime when in the back of her head, she thought, Another attack… Why do these attacks seem to be following me?!

*

Over a week ago, in the Curan Abbey…

*

“Sister… Mira… Lend me your power… Lend me your power so I may crush these weak, useless people…”

“Claudia? Claudia, where are you? What power do you mean? Why do you want to hurt innocent nuns and children? Siiiiiiiiiiis!”

*

“Siiiiiiiiiiiiiis!”

“Young lady, this is a library. We do not yell in here, as we do not wish to disturb the others who wish to read peacefully,” a wizened old nun, the librarian, chided Mira as well as whapping her over the head with a ruler.

Mira came to her senses all at once. “Huh? What? Claudia? Where is she?!” she said frantically, getting to her feet and looking around.

“There is no Claudia here, young lady, and we do not appreciate sudden outbursts around here.” The old nun told her sternly. “If you refuse to be quiet…”

“Oh, no, I’ll be quiet, sorry about that, I thought I heard… but I guess it was a dream, huh?” Mira rambled. The nun shot her a disapproving look, but left to talk to a student shortly thereafter.

Mira sat back down and stared down at the book she had been reading from before things had suddenly went dark and she heard her sister’s voice. The attacks… they all started when Claudia ran away from home… Was it just coincidence, or is there something more to it? she thought. She quickly shook her head and dismissed it as crazy thinking. After all, she just could not believe her twin sister, the one she had played with and terrorized the neighborhood cat with could be capable of hurting so many people, at least not without a really good reason, and she couldn’t think of one reason that could make her sister do such things.

But still… Those weird dreams… It’s funny, I don’t ever remember going to sleep before having them, she thought. She took a deep breath and closed the book in front of her. “I’m just overtired, that has to be it. I think I’ll take a break…” she whispered to herself.

Mira did have a bit of a point there. She had been searching in the abbey for months, always looking for anything that even mentioned in passing the fabled Yggdrasil machine of the Elw. Yggdrasil, named after the legendary Tree of Life, was said to have been created by the Elw to revitalize the land, but was stolen by the demon queen Mother to give birth to more of her subjects. Mira looked for anything, whether it be clues on how it was built or leads on where it was taken. Her search was largely in vain; not much was said about the subject in the regular libraries, and the rumored Sealed Library was, well, sealed, so she couldn’t look there.

An idea suddenly hit her. “That’s IT! I’ll just break the seal and enter the library! If the queen of Adlehyde can do it, surely I can too!” she suddenly shouted. “But how… but how…?”

Mira soon felt the sting of a ruler cracking down on her head. “OUT! Out, you noisy girl! Out!” barked the librarian.

“Ow… OK, OK, I’ll go! You don’t have to hit me, Attila the Nun- EEP!” Mira said, just barely dodging the ruler swipe the offended sister swung at her.

*

“Show light to two mages at once? The hell?” Mira thought aloud. She looked at one mage statue in the courtyard, then at the other. They were facing each other, but Mira hadn’t a clue what this “light” she had to show them could be. “Lightning, perhaps? That I can do…” She pulled out a Crest Graph and with a cry of “Spark!”, purple lightning struck right between the two mages.

Something was released, but not the seal on the library. A trap door underneath Mira opened up and she was dropped into… well, she couldn’t tell what it was, it was so dark there. “Uh… Spark?” she said, casting the only spell she could tell apart from the others in the inky void. In the brief but bright light the lightning gave off, she could see she was in a hallway and that there was a door on the other side.

Risking the possibility that there might be traps, she dashed to the other end of the hallway as fast as she could. She could hear the swish of hidden spears rushing out right behind her, the whoosh of a pendulum-like axe barely missing her, and the loud clang of a guillotine blade crash down just as she reached (read: ran into) the door. She cast Spark again so she could see how to open the door, but before she could move to do so, the door swung open of its own accord.

The light that came out when the door was blinding to one whose eyes had just adjusted to the dark hallway. After Mira’s eyes had readjusted, she saw it was a large, fairly simple, brightly lit room with some kind of crude altar in the back. Behind the altar were three statues of beings she had never seen before or even read descriptions of in books.

The statue on the left was of a stern-looking, fox-like man in long, flowing robes. He had the ears and tail of a fox, and even a bit of a snout with a little round nose at the end of it. Bitterness and loathing seemed to emanate from it. Mira shuddered and looked to the next statue to see it if would be any less disturbing to look at.

The statue next to it was a sour-looking feline with front legs that seemed too short ending with nasty-looking claws and hind legs that seemed too long and seemingly having no claws there. A crown of horns originated from the top of its head and continued from there to about halfway down its head, each horn being smaller than the one before it, going just behind its ears. It had a whip-like tail that seemed to have a harpoon-like tip at the end. The place the ruler hit Mira felt like it was hurting worse all of a sudden and bad memories of the past began flooding back, so she quickly turned to the next statue in hopes that it would be less painful to look at.

The third statue seemed to be deviate from the others. It seemed to be almost smiling, Mira noted, insomuch that insects could smile. Its head was very much like a praying mantis but had strangely wide and long antennae that were bound with a pink ribbon (it was only thing not made of stone in the room, aside from Mira, of course). It shrouded everything except its dragonfly-like wings from view with a long cloak. There was something infinitely sad about it, but Mira just couldn’t pinpoint what that thing was.

Any further assessing Mira was about to do was cut short when she felt the room beginning to spin. Ghostly, faraway voice began to call to her…

*

Child of the Seal, help us!

Die, and we’ll be free to stop her!

Yes, your death will help us most in the end!

“WHAT?! Me? Die?!” Mira cried. She had yet to see just who or what was talking to her. All was a spinning void where only sounds existed.

Either that, or kill her; she who uses us!

Yes, yes, that would work too!

Daeus, Pirio, are you both mad? If the one using us is dead, then we can’t kill her! The sour-looking feline appeared before her in full Technicolor glory, bringing with it some light. It had a drab gray coat with black markings under its eyes and at its ankles. The crown of horns and the harpoon-like end of its tail glinted like steel in the light.

Humans like options, dear brother. Telling her she must die is a good way to keep her from stopping the Seal Sorceress! Really, just because you’re the Guardian of Pain, Fontira… The smiling insect appeared next, bringing in more light. Its head was a light purple in contrast with the coarse brown cloak the hid the rest of its body. Its wings shone iridescently and fluttered slightly in irritation.

So says the Guardian of Lost Hopes, Fontira growled.

That’s Guardian of Loss, you mangy furball! The insect hissed.

Enough! roared the voice of the one who first asked for help. The stern fox man then appeared to the left of Fontira. It was now clear that the man was covered in yellow fur with white fur at the tips of his ears and tail, and at the bottom part of his face. His black robes billowed dramatically despite there being no wind. Pirio Tria, Fontira, really, such behavior! We need this human to stop the Seal Sorceress one way or another and she will not do it if she doesn’t take us seriously! And in case you did not realize, the only reason we were able to contact her is because she is close enough to her to weaken the seal enough for use to get partway through! Do you not realize how risky doing this is in the first place?!

Sorry, Daeus Los, Pirio and Fontira apologized.

Feh, such foolishness. I didn’t think you had the guts try to contact her, my dear Guardian of Hate, but since you’re all out already… a female voice crooned condescendingly. Here, sister, let me take you way from all this…

*

“CLAUDIA!” Mira shrieked as she shot up to a sitting position. She had been lying in the middle of the library floor when she suddenly woke up. All she remembered was something about Guardians of Hate, Pain, and Loss and a “Seal Sorceress”, whatever that was. The sounds of fighting were heard outside the door. She adjusted her glasses and ran to the door, but when she tried to open it, she found it had been locked from the outside somehow. “What… what is all this…? What’s going on? Claudia…”

*

Mira didn’t talk to anyone the rest of the week. She was too busy trying to figure out just what was going on and everyone else was too busy repairing the damage from the latest attack on a human settlement to date. Attacks, Guardians of negative emotions, the “Seal Sorceress”, what does it all mean…? the normally cheerful girl thought repeatedly for those days.

By the sixth night, she redoubled her resolve to get into the Sealed Library. “It’s bound to have something more about Yggdrasil in it, as well as these other Guardians and this ‘Seal Sorceress’! I’ll just have to convince the queen of Adlehyde to get me in! YEAH! Soon to be famed researcher Mira Montoya will not fail!”

*WHAP!* “Why can’t you just stay out, you noisy girl?!”

*

Outside, a figure stood atop the abbey roof, cloaked so fully that all that was visible was its violet eyes. “Yes… Adlehyde… The other Guardians protect that place so well that I’ll need help to break through the defenses… Go there, Mira, go there and help me destroy…”

*

End Chapter 1c

Go to 1b or 1d if you haven’t already.

(“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one,”

-“Imagine”, John Lennon)