fanfiction Elden Rejuvenation (Elden Ring/Pokemon Rejuvenation Fusion Fic)

[Iceblocks]

Elden Rejuvenation (Elden Ring+Pokemon Rejuvenation Crossover/But minus the Pokemon/Also it is a Shonen/And a ‘written by a twelve year old’-style multicross fic).

 

The draft of an idea I can't get out of my head.

 

 

 

Prologue

 

 

From behind, the other passengers of the cruise liner Oceana would be forgiven for assuming that Aevis Willow was just a normal teenager. The boy made for a mundane sight, huddling against the ocean breeze in a dark green jacket over a white shirt and khaki pants. The lower parts of his face were hidden by a scarf dyed a lighter shade of green than his jacket, wrapped tight around his face and neck while the ends hung down his front. But that illusion would shatter in a moment should he turn around.

 

Blue eyes would peek out from between brown locks, before he would brush them aside to better see the person in front of him, and reveal the golden flecks dotting the irises, instantly marking him as Tarnished.

 

The Tarnished, the name borne by a vast army of superpowered warriors that terrorized the world eight hundred years ago when they appeared out of nowhere and landed in Aevium. Led by the dread Hoarah Loux, the Golden Army would conquer in all directions for a hundred years, but upon his death his generals would fight among themselves. The ensuing civil wars devastated the Tarnished, and the survivors would be subsumed and integrated by the resurgent peoples of the world. Less than a decade after his death, Hoarah Loux’s empire was dust.

 

But it was soon discovered that the descendants of the Tarnished could inherit the power of any dead Tarnished, being born with gold-flecked eyes and a copy or a variant of their Vestige. A Vestige of the power they claimed to have wielded before their exile and long march into the Lands Around.

 

A hundred thousand Tarnished emerged one foggy day onto the shores of Aevium, the modern-day Isle of Terrial, and with the passing of centuries all the world were their descendants and candidates for the hundred thousand Vestiges.

 

For Aevis, this ancient history mattered little. Little beyond an extra passport, scrapes that healed in seconds, and a Vestige giving him the ability to have cold drinks on demand. The thought brought a smile to his face, the mundanity in the face of that ancient legend.

 

White-blue sparks danced across his fingers until a voice broke through the wind and seagull cries to wake him from his idle musings.

 

“There you are! Did the immigration officer give you any trouble?”

 

He shook his head and reached up to pull his scarf away from his mouth, turning to face the speaker as he did. “No. There was another Tarnished with him and she took over almost immediately.” Right after the immigration guy had asked him to confirm some of the details on his application. “She even asked about my weapon, said that they had spare parts and cartridges piling up in Gearen and-and that sending some to us wouldn’t be a problem.”

 

Aevis fished his shiny new Tarnished Card out of his pants, holding it up for emphasis. A dark blue piece of plastic, featuring his name, face, date of birth, Vestige, and the emblem of the Aevium League.

 

Nancy Willow was a tall woman in a magenta shirt and white pencil skirt worn under a long, white coat that shielded her body from the wind that ran through her short, pink hair. She sighed fondly and reached out to gently stroke a hand through her son’s brown hair as she answered. “You are going to love Akuwa, Aevis. There is an Ingression-era shrine, a great theater scene, and a place that serves amazing Samrat food.”

 

She made no effort to restrain her laughter at her son’s quiet exuberance and hugged him close.

 

“We’ll be in Gearen City later tonight, and tomorrow we will take the train to Akuwa. It is a lot smaller and colder than Jarwen, but…”

 

Aevis simply nodded. “I understand.”

 

His mother squeezed him tight and released him. “I have to be somewhere. Why don’t you take a look around? I am sure Augustus will give you a tour now that he is free.”

 

They parted ways after going back inside the ship together. Nancy headed into the lower cabin decks while Aevis strolled along the route towards the captain’s office, looking for distractions and interesting people. The lady playing the piano over there, for instance, had gold-flecked eyes.

 

*********

 

 

“Me? I can shape dirt and rock by touching it.” The piano lady said without taking her hands off the keys. “But why would I want to fight people when pianos exist?”

 

Aevis could only smile and nod. “I know what you mean. I’m a decent gunbreaker myself, but I think I prefer theater. As for my power, I can channel Ghostflame.” He demonstrated by willing the blue-white flame to appear around his hand, giving the piano lady a good look before extinguishing it.

 

The older woman quirked an eyebrow. “Ghostflame? Never heard about a Vestige like that.”

 

“I get that a lot.”

 

“I actually saw another Tarnished walking around earlier.” She took a sip from her glass. “Long, black hair. White top. Skirt with suspenders. Looked kinda pissed.”

 

Aevis glanced around before spotting a girl his age striding through the corridors. “Did she have a flower in her hair?”

 

The piano lady perked up and swallowed her drink. “Yes she did! Do you see her?” She followed his gaze to where the severe girl weaved through the other passengers. “That’s her alright. HEY YOU!”

 

Everyone in the piano parlor, from the elderly couple enjoying the sunlight without the touch of wind to the angry lady with a now crying baby, looked their way. Including the Tarnished girl, who came to a stop. First with a glare, then with wide eyes.

 

The other Tarnished quickened her pace, almost tripping over the Crystalian sailor fixing a vending machine in her retreat. They shot a look at her retreating back, but beyond that the Starborn did nothing.

 

An elbow poked him in the side

 

“I guess she wasn’t interested?”

 

He could only shrug. “I guess? But I have to go meet someone, have a nice day.”

 

“Sure thing, little buddy. See you around.”

 

Aevis proceeded to his destination: The office of his honorary uncle Captain Augustus Brooks.

 

The rotund man in the fancy white uniform wasted no time upon seeing him walk into his office, jumping out of his chair throwing his meaty arms around him.  “Aevis, me boy! How have you been?”

 

Captain Brooks might have been too busy to talk with Aevis and his mother since the Oceana set off from Jarwen, but he certainly was eager to make up for it.

 

“I’m doing fine, uncle. This ship is amazing.”

 

“HA! That’s what I like to hear! I’ve been doing my best to keep this ship in tip top shape!” The captain let Aevis to his desk where they sat down. “Now, your mother asked me to fill you in. I understand you left Estrana in a bit of a hurry.”

 

Aevis clasped his hands upon the desk. “She didn’t tell me much, but she seemed like she was in a hurry to get out of the country. Do you…?”

 

Augustus shook his head at the implied question. “Nope. I think she mentioned having family in Aevium, but that was fifteen years ago.” When his ship was the set of the television dramedy Waveline Hotel, featuring one Nancy Willow as a put-upon hotel manager constantly butting heads with the captain.

 

Not Augustus, gods forbid -the man could not act to save his life-, but one Benjamin Drift. Augustus just coached the man and kept the ship in order.

 

Aevis shook off the memories and looked up from his hands. “So…What can you tell me about Aevium?”

 

The captain grinned at him. “Now that I can answer! Aevium is a vast archipelago, with four large islands and a few smaller ones. The large islands are Floria in the east, Terajuma in the south, Terrial in the west, and Artrica in the north. Crazy thing is that Aevium was a single landmass just fifty years ago, back when I was just a wee lad.”

 

Aevis nodded attentively. “I read about it in school. A freak series of earthquakes and hurricanes called the Shattering broke Aevium apart during the World War.”

 

Augustus crossed his arms over his chest. “The Second Shattering according to Third Aquamarine Quartz, but better men than I have tried to pry answers out of that one.”

 

Aevis tilted his head. “The Crystalian by the vending machine?”

 

His uncle barked out a laugh. “The same! Now then, Aevium League. It started as a way for the empires to solve disputes between their colonies in Aevium, glintstone mines and the like, but between the Shattering and the war they all got booted out. Still a forum for disputes, but now it serves the Aevian Confederation. It also handles Tarnished affairs, which is probably what you are most interested in.”

 

The uniformed man smiled as Aevis reflexively touched his pocket. “You-”

 

A shrill note from Augustus’ phone interrupted him, ending only when the man fished it out with a practiced motion and silenced it.

 

“I have to go, Aevis. Need to help prepare for the Farewell Banquet.” He grinned at the younger man as they got out of their seats. “Our last day of traveling together should end with a feast! I for one am starving.”

 

*********

 

 

“Crescent? It is me.”

 

Crescent made no effort to move from the cabin window, but her hands released their white-knuckled grip upon her suspenders. “Come in.”

 

The words were forced out, almost a growl, but Nancy entered the cabin undeterred and closed the heavy door behind her.

 

“Crescent, Aevis is acting normally. There is nothing new to report.”

 

The Dark-haired girl took a deep breath.

 

Held it.

 

And let it out.

 

“Good.”

 

She turned around to sneer at Nancy. “Anyway, I called you here to make sure you understand your position. ”

 

“I do.” Nancy no-quite-snapped back. “It is just, as we move closer to Aevium I feel…strange.”

 

Crescent scoffed at her. “Stop talking nonsense. Never forget that you exist for Aevis’ happiness. I will not let your feelings get in the way of that.” The Tarnished turned away from the older woman and adjusted the flower in her hair. “You will take him to Akuwa, and live a normal life with him. All I want, is to know that he enjoys life, got it?”

 

She held the glare until Nancy bowed her head. “Yes, Crescent.”

 

Nancy kept her head down even when Crescent turned away from her to continue giving orders over her shoulder. “Listen, the captain will one of those banquets he loves so much any minute now, Just stay focused. I will handle anyone who comes after him; you will take care of Aevis.”

Nancy bowed even lower. “I understand, ma’am. I will be on my way.”

 

Crescent remained silent, her eyes fixed on the waves outside her cabin window.

 

*********

 

 

With the guests gathered in the Oceana’s dining hall and the piano lady providing musical accompaniment, Augustus began his speech.

 

“A good evening to you all, I am Augustus Brooks. I have been your captain…”

 

Aevis and Nancy had settled down at a table close to the captain’s, with the boy only halfway listening in favor of scanning the provided menu.

 

“It is my pleasure to welcome you to this Farewell Banquet, where we celebrate the end of our journey, and the beginning of something new…”

 

A look around the hall revealed that the dark-haired Tarnished from before was sitting close to them, staring at him. Staring at him until she noticed that he was staring back, upon which she turned away with a huff and buried her nose in her menu.

 

“I hope that your memories of this journey will-”

 

A gunshot cut him off, shattering a piece of the chandelier above them and raining shards of glass down on the middle of the dining hall. Slowly, the stunned crown turned their eyes on the gunman, a guest who had thrown off their jacket to reveal a black shirt with red markings. In his hand was a pistol.

“Sorry to interrupt ya, captain, but there is something that needs to be taken care of first.”

 

Two other guests, a man and a woman with similar shirts carrying submachineguns, rose to join him in the middle of the room.

 

“See, this ship is under Xenpurgis control now.” Grinned the man with the pistol. He gestured to the bow windows with his thumb. “If I may direct your attention to the outside?”

 

As if on que a quartet of figures with jetpacks landed outside. All four of them wore combat gear from head to toe in the same colors as the hijackers. One of them raised a hand and the metal in the door buckled to twist it open, allowing them an unobstructed entry.

 

“More on the other side…”

 

Aevis startled at the sound of his mother’s voice, watching dumbstruck as she rose from her seat. He made to follow her, but she held out a hand to stop him.

 

“Nancy, get ready.” Snarled the dark-haired Tarnished before she fixed her glare on Aevis. “As for you-”

 

The girl held out a hand towards him, and Aevis immediately an invisible force pulling him towards a hole in the air behind him.

 

There was a blinding flash-

 

“AEVIS!” How did she know his name?

 

 -and the world lurched around him, giving him no time to wonder. He fell through the portal behind him, landing painfully in a smoky corridor. Coughing painfully, he shot to his feet.

 

Only to come face to face with a trio of gunmen in black and red uniforms, manhandling a handcuffed man towards the stairs to the deck. Another guest.

 

He froze at the sight, thoughts racing as one of the men walked up and grabbed his arm.

 

Aevis’ hand shot up to the man’s face, and before the man could react he was calling on his Vestige. Blue-white Ghostflame streamed from his hand and the man fell away screaming, his face a mess of frostbite.

 

“TARNISHED!”

 

A sweep of the freezing fire sent the men scrambling away, buying Aevis time to sprint down the hall.

 

Time fell away in a haze of terror, screams, the sound of gunfire and the bestial trembling of the wounded cruiseliner as its frame strained from damaged structure and rushing seawater. But even amidst the chaos, a familiar sound broke through the noise and the panic:

The explosive sound of a glintstone cartridge being detonated.

 

Without hesitation he ran further into the ship, down smoke-choked corridors and dripping staircases towards the sound of a gunblade in use. Behind him the footsteps intensified as Xenpurgis members joined in pursuit.

He barreled into the partially flooded cargo hold in time to see his mother clash with a woman wearing pointy sunglasses and a purple Xenpurgis uniform. A woman, curiously enough, wielding a Maine-style ‘open’ gunblade where the gun is an actual gun rather than a mechanism for detonating glintstone cartridges. Also a longer, slimmer blade intended for use with one hand.

 

The sound of his pursuers behind him brought him back to the present and he turned around to slam the door behind him. A quick application of Ghostflame froze the door to its frame, but the sound and the flash drew both women’s attention towards him.

 

“A-Aevis?! Why are you here?”

 

“Who? Right, the son.” Tsked the Xenpurgis woman before he waved her unoccupied hand. Her fingers glowed and five silhouettes shaped and armed like her appeared behind her. Another Tarnished. “Irrelevant beyond scientific curiosity. We are here for you.”

 

Nancy turned back to her opponent, reloading her gunblade almost too fast to follow while she answered. “Me? You are here for me?”

 

The purple-clad Tarnished pointed at her, sending the phantasms forward. “You thought we were here for him?” The phantasms surged towards Nancy-

 

Who spun in place and squeezed the trigger of her gunblade trice.

 

“Fated Circle!”

 

Three trembling spheres of glinstone energy leapt from the blade and into the air in front of her, right in the middle of the phantasms, before they detonated with thundering force.

 

Out of the light and sparks flew the Xenpurgis Tarnished, who ducked under Nancy’s attempt to strike her down with another detonation and levelled the revolver built into the handle at her head.

 

Nancy reacted before the Tarnished could fire, levering her gunblade against her opponent’s to force the barrel to the side before breaking contact. Two shots rang out, but the bullets sailed harmlessly past the pinkette’s face. Her gunblade swung forward to meet the Tarnished’ followup thrust, detonating one more time to throw the woman back.

 

The Tarnished splayed the fingers on her free hand, creating another five phantasms to catch her with a painful grunt. Her confidence appeared to waver at the sight of Nancy charging towards her, gunblade at the ready to blast her apart, but she readily got to her feet to receive it.

Nancy’s charge was aborted before the two could clash again by the doors to the cargo bay falling apart behind her, loudly crashing onto the floor.

 

Aevis spun around, Ghostflame covering his entire left arm. Where the door once stood before it was cut into perfectly even pieces stood a tall, dark man with gold-flecked eyes and a katana, flanked by two of the jetpack Tarnished. One of the jetpackers waved their hand to make what was left of the door move out of the way as the trio entered.

 

“Nastasia, what’s taking so long?”

 

Nancy’s hands blurred again as she reloaded, her eyes desperately speeding to and fro while replacing the five spent cartridges. Nastasia started to try to take advantage, but the opening was gone before she could do more than take a step forward.

 

“Complications, Neved. Back me up so we can get this done quickly. Grab the kid first. He’ll be useful leverage.”

 

“Heart of Corundum!”

 

A ball of blue energy struck Neved’s katana as he tried to block it, but instead of dissipating a spherical barrier formed around him and his subordinates. They immediately began to hammer the barrier with the sword and a pair of batons, but the exit was now open.

 

Aevis turned, seeing his mother whirling to face Nastasia after locking down Neved and the other two.

 

“AEVIS! I LOVE YOU! RUN!”

 

*********

 

 

By the time the jetpack Tarnished had broken free Aevis was already on the floor above them. The fighting had taken its toll on the Oceana, and a persistent groan of protesting metal had joined the smoke and water in the corridors.

 

Unhindered by the smoke thanks to their gas masks, the two Tarnished caught up to him in the parlor where he talked to the piano lady earlier. The metalbender slapped his hand onto a ruined wall, which exploded as broken supports formed thrashing tentacles that lashed out in Aevis’ direction.

 

And then he was promptly crushed by a falling piano.

 

The eyes of Aevis and the waterbending Tarnished shot up, locking onto the hole torn in the ceiling above them. Steak knife in hand, the piano lady stared back down at them.

 

“KID! GET OUT OF HERE! RUN!”

 

“GET BACK HERE YOU BITCH!”

 

The other Tarnished leapt onto a wave of controlled seawater and soared up through the hole after her, completely forgetting his quarry.

 

And Aevis ran through the listing ship towards any clear way to the deck.

 

*********

 

 

A slash from Neved’s katana almost cost Aevis a leg by the door to the aft deck. He tumbled away from the blow, rolling through the open door and shooting to his feet with both hands shrouded in Ghostflame.

 

“No more running. You have nowhere else to go.” The man paused at the Ghostflame in Aevis’ hand. “Oh? Got some Deathbird blood in you, boy?”

 

The prow of the ship burst before Aevis could answer his question, metal screaming in protest as glintstone energies from inside carved an X-shaped opening into the deck. Aevis’ heart sank into his stomach as Nastasia leapt out of the hole, looking battered, but not enough for him to get past her.

 

“Your mother made a heartfelt effort, but this is reality. Now come-”

 

The Xenpurgis officers stiffened as a figure crashed onto the deck beside Aevis. He barely caught glimpse of an olive-skinned woman in a red dress and same-colored hair before he lost sight of her in a storm of crimson lightning.

 

A hand grabbed him by the shoulder and irresistibly forced him to his knees, the rest of the Dragonblooded woman sweeping a massive sword of red lightning across the deck. The two Tarnished dove underneath the blow, abandoning all dignity to avoid bisection.

 

Aevis was promptly dragged up into a princess carry and, before the Xenpurgis officers could do anything to stop her, the woman had transformed her legs into a crackling, red-tinged thundercloud and flown off.

 

*********

 

 

Neved swept a trembling hand at the sea. “What just happened?”

 

Nastasia shook her head good-naturedly and adjusted her sunglasses. “Nothing in particular. Reality happened, despite our efforts. We are all subject to the whims of Causality, and being aware of this offers us no protection.” She calmly activated the safety on her gunblade and sheathed it, motioning for her companion to follow. “We have what we came for, Neved, now gather the men. I want us gone before she comes back.”

 

Neved and her other Tarnished subordinates, having made their way to the deck, put their weapons away and shuffled after her. With the occasional wary glance towards the sky, they herded the prisoners onto Xenpurgis patrol boats and drove them into a sudden fog.

 

Within ten minutes, they were gone.

 

*********

 

 

It had started to rain by the time the Dragonblooded redhead had deposited Aevis on Oceana Pier, Gearen City’s port district.

 

“I managed to save one person, but I don’t think that is much comfort for you, darling.”

 

She bit her lip in the face of the numb nod that answered her. She did not stop as Aevis explained the situation.

 

“I was on my way here for a business trip when I picked up a distress call, I flew there as fast as I could…and you know the rest.” The woman sighed before she suddenly flushed. “I am sorry, I have not introduced myself yet.”

 

Olive hands smoothed out her red dress. “I am Tesla Von Brandt, from Terajuma Island. I wish we could meet under better circumstances. What is your name?”

 

Aevis didn’t meet her eyes. “…Aevis Willow.”

 

Tesla made a sympathetic cooing noise. “That’s a wonderful name! But please listen to me: The people who attacked your ship were the Xenpurgis, they are a paramilitary group affiliated with Xenark, a non-League country on Terrial Island. They are dangerous, but this is unusual for them. Please don’t do anything rash.”

 

She pointed to the skyline to the north, specifically the squat, domed building straight ahead from the pier. “You should go to Gearen Laboratory. It is a center for Tarnished, among other things, and your immigration officer probably called from there. I’m sure they can help. Drop my name if they turn you away.” Tesla put her hands on his shoulders and leaned down to his level. “You don’t have anyone in Aevium, right? If you need anything I will be staying at the Chrisola Hotel for the next week or so. It is north of Cherrywood Station near the eastern edge of the city.”

 

Her hands reluctantly left him. “I have to go now. I might find someone else if I leave now, and also my boat is anchored somewhere between Terajuma and Floria.” She took a few steps back to stand at the edge of the pier. “Remember Hoarah Loux’s final command: Seek strength, ye Tarnished, the rest will follow.”

 

And then she flew away, disappearing into the grey veil pouring from the sky as Aevis stared after her and her trail of red lightning.

 

He stood there in the rain, uncomprehending and alone, for quite a while before he shambled past the crowd and into the great city of Gearen.

 

Prologue End

 

***********************************************************************

 

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Aevis Willow: Tarnished, Mama’s Boy, Theater Kid.

Nancy Willow: Mother, Champion Gunbreaker, Theater Adult.

Crescent: Tarnished, Nancy’s Boss, Portal-Maker.

Augustus Brooks: Cruise Ship Captain, Nancy’s Friend, Missing.

Piano Lady: Tarnished, Loves the piano, Missing.

Nastasia: Tarnished, Xenpurgis Officer, Uses the Wrong Kind of Gunblade.

Neved: Tarnished, Xenpurgis Officer, Wannabe Reedlander (Reeb if you will).

Tesla Von Brandt: Dragonblooded, Aevium League VIP, Chronic Mother Hen.

 

Aight. I am going to fuse two things I like before ramming it into a genre neither of them belong to, stuffing as many cool things that I can be made to fit into the new setting as I can. I declare my intent to be as allergic to Bathos as I can be, and to write as sincerely as possible.

Main inspiration for this project is Return of the Dark Sorcerer, an amazing romhack for Final Fantasy 6 that mixes if Professor Oak, lots of characters from other Final Fantasies, and a bunch of OCs in a rewritten+recoded story.

But I won’t lie to you, Rejuvenation is not finished and on top of it all it is going to have to be carved up and reworked to make the fusion and genre shift work.

Edited May 21, 2023 by Iceblocks
Typo

[Iceblocks]

Arc 1: Shipwrecked – Chapter 1.

 

 

The next hour found Aevis standing in front of the Gearen Lab building. He was still soaked from the rain, his clothes damp and his hair matted with moisture. He scanned the street leading towards the building for familiar faces, like his Tarnished case worker, but couldn't find her anywhere.

 

He didn't give up though, and eventually reached the building. The front entrance was wide open, even with the bad weather. There was a sign standing in front of the door that read "Gearen Laboratory" in green letters, and a large, welcoming smile painted on it.

 

Aevis stepped inside, trying to ignore the stares of the people, some of them fellow Tarnished, waiting around. His eyes landed on a receptionist seated at a desk in the lobby. She was middle-aged with long hair, but her cheeks were rounder than most women her age, and she wore glasses that made her eyes appear to bulge out of their sockets. She peered suspiciously at him until he presented his card, which made her call on someone named 'Amanda'.

 

Amanda turned out to be his Tarnished case worker. She wore a a black and red cap with the emblem of the Aevium League on it, and a white long-sleeved shirt with a black jacket over it. Below the waist she had a black skirt with red at the bottom, black thigh-high socks with a red stripe at the top, and mostly red knee-high boots with white soles. He was starting to see a pattern.

 

 Another thing he saw was how tall she was, much taller than he had imagined from what he saw during the video call on the Oceana, almost a head taller than him. Was she a Numen? Her height and her skin said yes, but he shouldn't make assumptions. She could just be a tall woman from any of the other hundreds of nations down in Muspellheim, the old empires were hardly shy about forcibly relocating Muspellheimers after all.

 

"I actually am a Numen, thanks for asking."

 

The friendly remark broke Aevis' concentration and brought him back to the present. He stared into the eyes of the smirking woman, his face reddening. "D-did I say that out loud?" The giggling receptionist was not helping.

 

Amanda's smirk softened and she brushed him off. "Nah. I just get that a lot." The smile narrowed into a line as she looked him up and down. "But...weren't you supposed to be here around midnight? How'd you get here so fast?"

 

Aevis explained the situation as best he could, starting from the moment the Xenpurgis soldiers interrupted the banquet to Tesla depositing him on the pier after rescuing him.

 

Amanda listened intently, only interrupting him twice to ask pertinent questions. By the end of it she was visibly worried. "Well, I'm glad you're safe, but I don't know what I can do for you. This place is for studying Tarnished and helping newcomers like you settle in, so I'll have to contact League higher-ups and ask around. Maybe I can get back to you tomorrow." She sighed. "It's been a long day already, and I've got work tomorrow morning."

 

"I understand," Aevis replied.

 

"Hey." She said after a short pause. "Let's take you to see the Prof, get you sorted out before we tuck in, yeah?"

***

 

The ‘Prof’ was a pale, lanky blond man in a lab coat. Like Amanda’s hat, the emblem of the Aevium League was featured on the lab coat. “You must be the Tarnished Amanda was expecting. I am Professor Jenner, head of this facility.”

 

Aevis took the proffered hand and shook it.

 

"So...you have a Ghostflame Vestige, huh? I read Amanda’s report." The professor asked, smiling at him. "I've heard rumors, but they always turn out to ‘only’ be people with Deathbird ancestry.”

 

“I can think of one, remember?” Giggled Amanda from her position behind Aevis.

 

Professor Jenner’s eyes widened before he was overcome by a coughing fit. “Y-yes, of course. Anyway, I wish you welcome to Gearen City, Aevis. I hope you enjoy your stay despite everything that has happened."

 

He and Amanda led Aevis through a corridor, apparently eager to escape the ensuing awkward silence, passing various offices and rooms. Most people were busy with their own studies or research projects, which seemed to consist mostly of reading papers and answering video calls. One room, their apparent destination, was an armory. Weapons, some of them mechashift, filled the shelves, and Aevis had to suppress his instincts as a Tarnished to take a closer look at them.

 

“Oh yeah, your weapon!” Behind him Amanda struck her palm with her fist. “You must have lost your gunblade when the ship sank.”

 

Aevis barely had time to nod before Amanda jogged into an aisle, humming a jaunty tune. His heart sank into his feet when she emerged with a Maine gunblade, the same model as the one held by the Tarnished who fought his mother.

 

“Voila! A new Corea Mors Mk.2, factory-fresh from Garland Technologies! I use this type too!” Out of the corner of his eyes Aevis could see that Amanda’s hair was acting like a cluster of red and black tentacles as they carried half-dozen boxes of ammunition, various mundane munitions and even a box of glintstone bullets. It had to be her Tarnished power. Also her neck muscles had to be out of this world.

 

The odd thought brought him out of the trance that seeing the hateful thing in her hands had brought him into. Amanda threw him a worried look when their eyes met. “Is something wrong, Aevis?”

 

A small voice answered her. “…I use Estrana gunblades. Closed ones…”

 

Amanda’s smile grew brittle. “…There are other kinds?”

 

From the doorway he could hear Professor Jenner slap a hand onto his forehead.

 

Amanda let out a sigh, looking as if she wanted to be anywhere else. “I’m sorry, Aevis. I should have listened better.”

 

“I regret to inform you that Estranic gunblades are rare in Aevium. They are very much a niche weapon.” Explained the professor, lecture-mode engaged as he stepped into the room. He turned back to Aevis. “We should have some High Steel Model-1s, but…”

 

Amanda cringed when Aevis winced at the news. “Is that bad?”

 

“Not really.” Aevis sighed as he massaged his aching temples. “HS1s are solid gunblades, but they only hold two glintstone cartridges. They’re intended for novices.”

 

He took the slim (for an Estranic gunblade) weapon and broke open the action with a practiced motion. The openings of two empty cylinders greeted him, waiting hungrily for glintstone munitions.

 

Just two.

 

His Lionheart, same model as used by his mother, sported six in an actual revolver mechanism.

 

He would have to get used to it.

 

Professor Jenner lectured on as Aevis inspected his new weapon. “Fortunately, the Army uses this caliber of glintstone bullet for some rifle or other, buys them in bulk.” He took a satchel and a box of said glintstone rounds and handed them to young Tarnished. “I can give you these for free, but if you want any more it’ll be expensive.”

Aevis nodded. He’d have to use his cartridges sparingly. “I’ll manage, sir. A gunblade is still a sword.” Half again as heavy as a normal sword its size, but still a sword. “I can also do this:”

 

He slid his fingers against the flat of the blade, coating it in Ghostflame. He held it up for inspection, giving them a few seconds to look at it. Amanda appeared indifferent, but the Professor stroked his chin and let out an intrigued noise. After the seconds passed he dismissed the cold flames with a flourish right out of Kleunwrade’s Kava & Kura.

Specifically Kura’s famous flourish at the end, one of Aevis’ favorite roles to play.

 

Amanda offered a knowing smirk and a round of sardonic clapping, having recovered some of her earlier mirth. Professor Jenner simply smiled at them, breaking out into laughter once Aevis dramatically bowed in her direction.

 

“The room across the hall is available if you want to get some practice in, but surely that can wait until tomorrow? My daughter and I live on the premises, alongside some of our other staff, so I can arrange a room here for you.”

 

Aevis tried to protest, but the professor would have none of it.

 

“I insist, young man. It is the least we can do for you after this gunblade fiasco, and this is hardly the right time of night to trawl for a hotel.”

***

 

Aevis hadn’t gotten much sleep in the end, even though exhaustion from the long day had eventually overcome the worry and the terror. He had fallen asleep late and woke up early, and started the day by opening the window and shivered in the cool breeze making its way through the city.

 

Eager to get his mind off things, he dragged himself into the shower to freshen up before he went to get breakfast. That is to say: He bought a plastic-wrapped sub from a vending machine in the entry hall.

 

The receptionist thankfully didn’t challenge him when he went back into the laboratory proper, and after an event-free walk he grabbed his new weapon and went to the promised exercise room to re-familiarize himself with it. Once he was finished he returned to his room to find a note from Professor Jenner slipped in under his door.

 

A request to meet in Jenner’s office at his earliest convenience.

 

With nothing else to do but wallow in misery, what with his mother being a captive of a hostile paramilitary group, Aevis made his way to where he first met the professor. Jenner’s facilities within Gearen Laboratory were large enough that the man didn’t hear Aevis enter over the tinny voice of the woman he was speaking with. A video call.

 

“And above all else, make sure she’s there for the pickup tomorrow. Half a century of work is about to come to fruition, Jenner.”

 

He knocked sharply on the side of the wall, drawing Professor Jenner’s attention. It wouldn’t do to listen in on his video call.

 

“Aevis! You were awake?” Jenner’s finger slammed into the ‘end call’ button with a force that made the man wince.

 

The Tarnished made to assist, but Jenner held out a hand to stop him.

 

“G-good. Y-you’re here. I might have found a job for you.” The Professor waved him over to his side of the desk.

 

“See here, there is a posting promising a reward for anyone who can secure a Deathbird or a descendant for a funeral. I also wanted to talk to you about tomorrow; I need someone to deliver a package to the Florian Museum of Natural History in West Gearen-”

 

“Hey Prof, you in here? Citrine said you were up!”

 

Aevis and the Professor looked up from the screen to look at the newcomer. He was clearly Tarnished, for under his spike, black hair was a pair of gold-flecked grey eyes. Looking below the neck, one would see that he wore a light, grey vest with dark red accents over a beige shirt, with the same red being used for his thick-looking scarf. He also wore black fingerless gloves. His legs were clad in grey jeans and black shoes.

 

“Ren? Back already?”

 

The newcomer shot a grin at the tall blond. “C’mon, Professor! Amethyst Cave ain’t that far!”

 

Jenner scratched his chin, his gaze lingering on the younger man for a moment. He cleared his throat.

 

“I know, I know. It’s just…I didn’t expect you to be done so soon.”

 

“Actually, about that:” Said Ren as his mirth withdrew from his face. “The cave led to a nest of Apostle Spiders, so the foreman called off the dig and blocked it off. We’re gonna have to call in more people to clear them out if we wanna explore down there.”

 

He turned to look at Aevis, deliberately meeting his eyes. “But who’s this? A new assistant?”

 

Aevius didn’t wait for the professor to introduce him. “Aevis Willow, I just arrived in Aevium. Professor Jenner is helping me settle in.”

 

Ren blinked. “Willow? As in Nancy Willow?”

***

 

After confirming that, yes, Aevis was the son of the actress reported among those missing on the Oceana, the two Tarnished went to find Professor Jenner’s daughter, Melia.

 

Ren shrugged. “She’s probably with Venam right now, so that means the temple, her house, or the old underground.”

 

Their first stop was the temple squeezed between a chemical factory and a walled off hill that served as a raised platform for a fancy hotel, an ancient stone building appropriated from the Garufa by the Golden Army. A large tree had broken through the roof, its branches resting above the temple as if it was a massive flowerpot.

 

A tall Rootwoman, her body covered in horns, told them that nobody had seen ‘Miss Vasile’ today. She appeared to some sort of doorman, part of the temple staff along with the Uprooted gardener tending the vines that covered the place.

 

There were some worshippers around, but nobody who paid Ren and Aevis any notice.

 

Next stop was her house, where a short brown-haired woman told them that ‘Veronica’ had dragged Melia off to the old underground.

 

Aevis simply followed Ren as the dark-haired Tarnished led him to the eastern part of Gearen City’s coastline, towards a worn-looking building by the train station. Whatever the original color the old subway station building had was impossible to discern under the thick layers of graffiti.

 

A girl, younger than Aevis but about Ren’s age, crossed their paths as they approached. A head of vivid, purple hair that reached down her back was partially obscured by the sizable paper bag in her arms. As she got closed Aevis could see that she wore a black tank top and a white skirt, both with red shapes on them: A ‘V’ across her chest and a zigzag around the skirt. Black shoes with red accents completed her ensemble.

 

“Hey, Venam!” Ren called to the girl. “Over here!”

 

The girl looked in their direction and turned on her heel, adjusting course to meet them. She made no sound to greet them, and as she came close Aevis understood why.

 

A large berry muffin, smelling like it was fresh out of the oven, was stuffed into her mouth. Her bulging cheeks almost distracted him from noticing the golden specks in her eyes.

 

Her chewing sped up when she reached them, prompting Ren to snicker before offering her a high five. She took it with an agreeable noise before she swallowed.

 

“Hey yourself. Weren’t you supposed to be spelunking in the Cherrygrove or something?” Venam adjusted her grip on her muffin bag, freeing up a hand to messily sweep her bangs out of her eyes. “And aren’t you going to introduce your friend?”

 

“Sure. This is Aevis. Recent arrival. Helping us out.” Answered Ren, still snickering. “As for Amethyst, there was an issue. Nothing done until we clear out some Apostles.”

 

“Oof. Anyway, pleasure to meet you, Aevis. Call me Venam.” Venam held out a hand. “I’d love to chat, but…”

 

She hefted the muffin bag. “Melia is down there and I need to get going.”

 

“You gonna share those or…?” Ren leant in. behind him Aevis tried to disguise similar interest as indifference.

 

Venam hems and haws smugly

 

Ren smirks right back. “Veroni-”

 

He is promptly silenced by a muffin getting forcefully shoved into his mouth.

 

“Ass.” Giggled Venam, laughing with her head tipped back as Ren choked on the muffin. “Now come along. I don’t want to miss this.”

***

 

The old underground, they explained, was an old sewer system that was partially refurbished into a subway before the project was abandoned. Now the walkways above the seawater-filled tunnels served as a hangout for Gearen’s young adults. The city was nice enough not to cut the power, meaning that for an abandoned project the tunnels were well lit.

And some older ones too. Aevis noted a woman, just a little older than him by his reckoning, leading a group of similar characters somewhere down another tunnel.

 

“Come unto mine hall, young boy, and I shall share with thee all upon my table…” He mumbled to himself.

 

“Sorry, what? Did you say something?”

 

Aevis looked away from the groups of loitering teenagers to meet Venam’s eyes. “Oh, I was just quoting a play I like. This place reminded me of it.”

 

Rockboy and the Pot, an Estrani fairy tale with a long history of stage adaptions.

 

He began to quietly eat his berry muffin as he followed Venam and Ren towards their destination. The two of them greeted and were greeted in turn by various kids hanging around, Venam more than Ren, but getting to what Venam referred to as *Melia’s lab* took no time at all.

 

According to the faded sign outside the door the room used to be part of the old sewer. The reason why became clear when they went in to see the running water flowing through the room.

 

Melia turned out to be a short girl, and like her father she was a pale blonde. Any other details were hidden by the goggles, facemask, and bright yellow raincoat that she wore as she stacked black plastic bags on top of each other.

 

Many of the back were torn in some fashion, spilling some of the mixed garbage in them on the dusty floor.

 

The short girl panted heavily after throwing the last bag on top of the pile. She weakly waved in their direction when she spotted them and began to remove her gloves.

 

With the protective gear out of the way Aevis could tell that Melia was at least a few years younger than Ren and Venam, and unlike her father her blue eyes were flecked with gold.

 

“Ren! You’re already back?”

 

Melia ran up and hugged both Ren and Venam, accepting a muffin from the latter after releasing her. she quickly shuffled the pastry to her left hand upon spotting Aevis.

 

“H-hello. I’m Melia Jenner.”

 

”Aevis Willow. Nice to meet you.”

 

Pleasantries exchanged, Aevis’ eyes went to the pile of trash. “Ren dragged me here to meet you, but didn’t tell me what this is all about.” He spread his hands for emphasis.

 

Melia nodded eagerly and indicated the black bags. “We’re gonna test one of my Vestige’s abilities!”

 

Aevis blinked. And then his eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, ‘one of’? Vestiges only do one thing. It is like the first rule.”

 

“Well I’m the exception! My Vestige does a lot of things!” Pouted the younger girl.

 

“It has been a huge pain keeping it secret all these years. You’re getting a preview of next week’s announcement.” Remarked Venam, Ren nodding beside her.

 

Melia ignored them, keeping her focus on Aevis. “I can shoot exploding bolts, I can create barriers, and I can create life!”

 

Aevis’ remained skeptical, though something did bubble up in the back of his mind: A piece of half-remembered trivia. Minion-creation Vestiges were rare, only five confirmed cases in the whole world even if you included those with expiration dates.

 

Melia huffed and turned away when it became clear Aevis was not convinced, towards the mound of garbage.

 

“You still don’t believe me. Well let me show you something!”

 

She walked over to the garbage in the middle of the room and knelt down beside it. A golden glow materialized around her hands, as if he was cradling a flashlight. The bags began to twitch, and behind her Ren very deliberately put his hand on the concrete wall.

 

Venam walked past Aevis, her muffin bag still in the crook of her arm. She took up a flanking position to the side of the squirming mass. Her fingers gently stroked her lips in anticipation.

 

Aevis followed their lead and drew his new gunblade. A quick breech check confirmed that it wasn’t loaded. Good.

 

Melia stepped back as a bag split off from the others and rolled onto the floor. A fish head and an eyeball of indeterminable origin poked out of separate tears in the plastic, spinning around wildly as the bag forced itself upright.

 

“Do…Do you understand me?” Melia knelt down to speak to the rubbish creature.

 

Her weird little garbage golem froze at her words. Its three eyes locked onto her and it reared up to expose another hole. The hole was immediately revealed to be a mouth, bristling with teeth of rusted cutlery as the creature leapt at its creator.

 

And was immediately smashed flat by a hand of blocky concrete.

 

Aevis, stunned with his sword half-raised, risked a look away from the creatures to follow the hand. From hand to wrist, from wrist to forearm and elbow, and from elbow to the barest hint of a shoulder before the grey limp tapered off into nothing. About a foot below the oversized, cartoonishly proportioned limb was Ren. A second concrete limb was likewise hovering over Ren’s other arm, following the Tarnished’s movements.

 

He refocused on the garbage creatures, three more of which had split off from the mass.

 

Melia, to the younger girl’s credit, was already backing off. One of the bag creatures chose to pursue her rather than try its luck with Ren or Venam, the latter of which was still walking to the side of the fight with her brow furrowed.

 

The pursuing trash homunculus bounded after her, lashing out with a tentacle of organically corded plastic animated by compost-muscle. The whip smacked ineffectually against a golden barrier emanating from Melia’s palm. Not to be deterred, it tried again, only to be interrupted when Melia dropped the shield and retaliated:

 

A fan of golden, jagged ovals, crackling with golden sparks, shot out of Melia’s hand to riddle the beast with holes. A heartbeat passed and the holes exploded, splattering stinking garbage in all directions.

 

The remaining two were divided between snapping at Ren’s Vestige or hissing at the approaching Aevis and the flanking Venam. With the situation contained, Melia felt confident to talk.

 

“S-so. So! I think we can safely assume…that they do not feel any inherent loyalty to me. What if they are just animals instead of normal minions?”

 

“I would have to agree.” Said Aevis, feeling a growing sense of unease as he approached the hissing homunculus. Its nerve broke as the distance closed but Aevis was faster, pinning it to the floor with his sword. A sustained stream of Ghostflame finished it off.

 

The final garbage beast ended up being slapped aside by Ren. It went flying past Aevis-

 

Venam tossed her head, letting the metal flowers in her hair gently tinkle.

 

-and landed with most of its body gouged off in the blink of an eye.

 

The muffin-bearer winked at Aevis before a great shuddering drew all eyes to the central mass. The remainder of the garbage had not split apart, but coalesced into a swelling mass that drunkenly swayed and oozed towards the far wall. It breathed heavily, sizing them up.

 

“Hey, Melia? Still want to try talking to this thing?” Asked Venam, who held her position on the flank while eyeing the beast warily.

 

“I don’t think I can control them at all.” Answered Melia before she swallowed and stepped forward. “But I can try.”

 

Her nascent confidence wavered in the face of a maw large enough to swallow her whole, filled with row upon row of rotten spare ribs and broken bottles in the place of teeth. Clusters of decomposed eyes looked in all directions, the majority focused on Melia.

 

“Hello? Do you understand me?” She extended a hopeful hand towards her creation.

 

Ren and Aevis formed up beside her, making the monster hesitate. A neck extended from the main body, its head swiveled to and fro. Intent flared up in its eyes.

 

Its throat suddenly bulged. Pungent stench was expelled from its mouth as it reared up-

 

Venam’s free hand shot up to her lips. She whistled through her fingers, a sharp burst of noise, and the garbage monster was brutally carved in two as an invisible edge instantly cut through it with momentous force.

 

Whatever it was about to do, Melia’s creation was terminally occupied with its sudden bisection. The part with the head let out an eerie rattle, foul liquid spurting out of its jaws as the halves fell apart.

 

“Mr. Tibblesworth! No!”

 

Aevis clamped down on the urge to snap at her. She named it already?

 

The cut was diagonal, and when the twitching top half fell it fell into the water. In stunned silence, perhaps steadying themselves for an attack by the bottom half that never came, the Tarnished watched it float off into the tunnels.

 

Aevis straightened as he looked after it. Was it still alive? Would it reach the bay, or maybe the river? Perhaps it would float into some dead end, or get lost in the tunnels to menace those who came down there? Maybe it would crawl up sewage pipes like a movie monster.

 

Or maybe it was just dead.

 

The thoughts stayed with him as the other Tarnished put their Vestiges away and began to clean up.

***

 

Cleanup mostly consisted of using Melia’s gear, some spare sets she brought with her, and a roll of fresh plastic bags to carry all the recently-alive garbage to the container outside. With all the solid waste out of the way it was time to get rid of the liquids.

 

“The priestess back home called it Protean.” Explained Ren easily as he used two arms of saltwater to sweep the filth into the sea. “I have these ‘ghost arms’ that become whatever solid or liquid material I touch.” He pointed one of them at the wall he had touched before the fight. “Gotta be careful when I take material from buildings though, so I try to put it back when I’m done.”

 

Aevis let out a hum of consideration as he cleaned off his gunblade. Ren’s Vestige sounded a lot more useful for everyday life than the power to emit Ghostflame.

 

Venam chose this moment to interject. “Nobody asked, but I am telling you anyway.” She had taken another berry muffing from her bag, and was happily munching on it as she spoke. “My Vestige lets me turn any quick motion I make into an invisible flying edge. I just need to disturb the air in some way, but whistling lets me put some real power behind them.”

 

Melia ignored them all, looking around the room. At the filthy puddle of water forming where they had lain, the substances that Ren’s halfhearted washing couldn’t get rid of.

 

The line that Venam’s Vestige had carved into the floor.

 

Aevis joined her in watching the filth, and he still smelled a faint whiff of decay. The entire area was eerily quiet.

 

When she finally spoke she did so haltingly. "So, um…I'm sorry."

 

Aevis looked up from his blade, but did not stop wiping it down.

 

"For what?"

 

“Well… for doing all this without asking. For animating them all at once. I wanted to show you up, but I never thought it would come to this. I'm sorry!”

 

Aevis didn’t answer immediately. He quietly put the borrowed rag down and let out an awkward groan. “It’s alright. It happens.” He cut her off before she could say more. “We really should call this in. Have the authorities look for the other half of…”

 

Mr. Tibblesworth.

 

Melia, crestfallen, merely nodded and walked out.

 

Venam was hot on her heels. “I’ll go check on her, make sure she calls and all. Can you guys gather up the gear?”

 

Ren had already grabbed Melia’s bag and held it open expectantly. By the time he and Aevis couldn’t hear Venam’s footsteps he finally spoke.

 

“Please don’t be angry with her, she just wanted to show off for the new guy.”

 

Aevis shook his head. A small smile broke through his composure. “No, I get it. I was a lot like that-”

 

Last year, when another teenager joined the local community troupe.

 

“-when I was twelve.” He lied shamelessly.

 

They finished up and made to join the others outside.

 

Suddenly Ren’s phone began to beep, stopping them in their tracks. Whatever Ren read on it, it did not make him happy.

 

“It is the professor.” He said with a groan. “He wants me to run a delivery over in West Gearen tomorrow.”

 

Aevis tilted his head. West Gearen? The other half of Gearen City, across the river? Didn’t the professor mention it earlier? “What’s the problem?”

 

Ren let out an annoyed huff. “He wants to discuss the job right now. Sorry guys, I gotta go.”

 

They bid him farewell and moved on.

 

The first stop? East Gearen’s Ingression Shrine.

***

 

A bizarre sight greeted Aevis, Venam, and Melia when they returned to the famed Ingression Shrine of East Gearen: Poison Heart Temple.

 

“The heck is that?”

 

‘That’, was a quartet of bizarre creatures playing loud, golden pipes from atop the roof of the historic temple. Their true shapes were difficult to discern under their turbans and the thick layers of cloth wrapped around them, but from the ground Aevis would say that they were balls of pure white flesh with a thin, elongated torso sticking out of each one.

 

If they had any opinion on Aevis pointing at them, they did not share it with the gawking Tarnished.

 

“Ugh, no idea. Way back they just started to show up and disappear again all over Aevium!” Half-shouted Venam over the noise. She took two steps up the stairs to the temple to directly address the creatures.

 

“KNOCK IT OFF!”

 

As if to spite her, the creatures started to play even louder.

 

“If I thought it would help I’d climb up there and cut them to pieces.” Venam muttered.

 

“I have never heard about these things before.” Said Aevis, who had not for a moment stopped gawking. “Why wouldn’t it help?”

 

“Because they fire back with explosions and we are in the middle of a city.” She answered as they climbed the stairs towards the entrance. “And even if I killed those four, more will just show up. It’s been fifty years, the League has tried everything.”

 

Venam grunted in annoyance as she stomped into the temple. Fortunately, the thick stone blocked out most of the ear-torture.

 

The Rootwoman from before was there to lead Venam away to a back room, leaving Aevis and Melia standing in the entryway.

 

Beside him Melia began to fidget. “Um…I’m gonna go pray. Why don’t you take a look around?”

 

Before he could answer she walked over to a robed, orange-furred Knotman behind a desk. The desk was covered in roughly chiseled stones, and after Melia gave the leonine man a coin he gave her one of them.

 

As Aevis watched, Melia happily bounced over to the main altar before the great tree. She knelt down and placed the stone upon it, and with that done she clapped her hands together and bowed her head in silence.

 

Aevis left her to it and began exploring. He took care not to get in the way of the worshippers, an even mix of those Crucible-Touched and those not, and stuck to the walls of the temple. Eventually he ended up in front of an intricate series of carvings, chiseled into a set of slabs trhat looked subtly different than most of the temple.

 

“Do you like them?”

 

A pale hand knocked on the side of the slab. He looked away from the carvings to see a grinning Venam. She had put an intricately embroidered robe over her outfit. Green, with imagery of trees, roots, and various animal features portrayed in golden thread. Crucible iconography.

 

“These were carved right after ol’ Hoarah Loux kicked the Garufa out of Kugear lands. There used to be more, but these were all that survived Gearen getting a coastline fifty years ago.”

 

“Really? That old?” Mumbled Aevis as he let his eyes roam the old relief.

 

The carvings portrayed the scenes of a story heard a thousand times by every child in every place touched by Hoarah Loux’s Golden Army:

 

There was the Goddess, Marika, bestowing magical brands upon the chosen.

 

In the next image the branded warriors defeated all kinds of foes, both monstrous and human.

 

After that the angry Goddess took the brands away and exiled the now-tarnished warriors, hounding them away with nothing but the, well, Vestiges of their former power.

 

He admired it until an elbow to the side unceremoniously jolted him out of it. “What?”

 

“Soooo…” Drawled Venam with an impish grin. “Anselma said you and Ren showed up earlier.”

 

Aevis nodded carefully. “First place we looked? She mentioned you.”

 

Her grin widened and she placed her hands on her hips. “And? Bet you never thought I was a priestess!”

 

“You’re right. How did you become a priestess?”

 

Venam somehow grinned even wider and threw her head back. “I was chosen for my wisdom, virtue, and might!”

 

“Because no other Tarnished with a permanent address in East Gearen wanted to be its guardian.” Corrected Melia with a smile, the girl having finished praying and rejoined them. “Well, Karrina did, but she has gang ties so the temple staff and the League put their feet down.”

 

Aevis could only smile as the friends bickered.

***

 

Melia stayed behind with Venam, intent on helping her prepare for some kind of ceremony the day after. This left Aevis to return to Gearen Laboratory on his own.

 

After bidding them goodbye Aevis paid the local police department a visit to give his belated account of the attack on the Oceana. That done, he hurried to the job the Jenner had so generously arranged for him.

 

Getting the funeral job was a surprisingly simple affair, with the bereaved simply cancelling their appointment with a more mundane crematorium. It paid well too, what with the difficulty of getting Florian Deathbirds to leave the Wispmark, a small, insular League country to the north of Gearen City.

 

He found the hurry of the woman’s family to get the funeral done with understandable; the Roots would only intensify their attempts to snatch away an unmoving corpse the longer time went on. The Deathbird costume, consisting of a black jumpsuit, a voluminous cloak of black feathers, and a bone white bird mask, less so.

 

As minstrelsy as it felt, his role in the funeral was near identical to a scene in The Prince and the Blackbird that Aevis could perform it with much in the way of rehearsal. For obvious reasons, the local community theater back in Jarwen would always cast Aevis as the titular Blackbird.

 

All was quiet in the garden prepared for the ceremony as Aevis approached the corpse. Cupping his hands, he let Ghostflame pool in them before he gently blew on it. The blue flames were carried along his breath and onto the deceased, where they eagerly began to consume the corpse.

 

Aevis did not understand the mechanics of how a flame that otherwise froze things burned dead bodies to ash, but he had never questioned it.

 

It felt like the most natural thing in the world.

 

He played his role until the ceremony ended, silently raking the ash until it was naught but fine dust thinly spread atop the ground around him.

 

It paid well, that was all he would say about it. His hand throbbed.

***

 

Professor Jenner called for him later that evening. “You’ve met Melia, yes?” Aevis nodded, so the man kept going. “Tomorrow she will be doing some work for me in Goldenwood Park. A group of cave explorers found some Garufa carvings in a tunnel there, and I asked her to go take some pictures.”

 

The professor trailed off, letting his words hang in the air before restarting. “I considered having Ren do this, but you have an exotic weapon, your Vestige is extremely difficult to defend against, and you have reason to…”

 

Aevis shifted in his chair as the uncomfortable silence stretched on, noting to his unease that there was an open bottle of liquor on the professor’s desk. “Professor?”

 

“I was hoping you would accompany Melia and help her with her field work!”

 

The young Tarnished sank back in his chair in the face of the rush of words coming out of the professor’s mouth. Jenner, for his sake, looked like he had overcome an obstacle.

 

“I would pay you, of course, and I am sure I could get you more glintstone cartridges should you do this for me, Aevis.”

 

Despite his concerns, Aevis found himself accepting the job.

 

Of course the professor’s demeanor disturbed him, but he didn’t let himself worry too much.

 

After all, what could go wrong?

 

***************************************************************************

 

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Aevis Willow: Tarnished, Novice Garbage Man, Deathbird Impersonator.

Amanda: Tarnished, Aevium League Gopher, Gunblade Ignoramus.

Professor Jenner: Not Tarnished, Chronically Helpful, First Name Unknown.

Ren: Tarnished, Amateur Igor, Last Name Unknown.

Venam (Veronica Vasile): Tarnished, Lay Priestess, Berry Muffin Enthusiast.

Melia Jenner: Tarnished, Weird Vestige, Frankenstein Imitator.

Garbage Creature: Actual Garbage, Eats Feces, Melia Wants To Name It Mr. Tibblesworth (First Name Henry).

Pipers: Obnoxious Musicians, Appear Randomly(?), Not From the Lands Around.

 

 

 

Rootfolk = Omen

Uprooted = Wormface

Knotfolk = Misbegotten

Zoan = Demi-Humans

Crucible-Touched = Omen, Misbegotten, and Demi-Humans

[Iceblocks]

Arc 1: Shipwrecked – Chapter 2

 

 

Aevis met Melia in front of the train station the next morning. She arrived, five minutes after the time Professor Jenner had given him, with a heavy backpack over her shoulders and a big, pristine camera hanging from around her neck. Aevis doubted there would be any real need for an escort, but then again he had never even seen Goldenwood Park.

 

“Good morning, Aevis! I hope you slept well!” She smiled brightly as she hopped up the steps to the station.

 

“As well as can be expected, thank you for asking.” Aevis returned the greeting with a nod. Yesterday’s failure didn’t seem to weigh on her, so he didn’t mention them.

 

“Did dad give you money for your ticket?” She asked as they entered the building itself, the camera swinging every which was as she wobbled under the weight on her back.

 

“About that…” Aevis let out an awkward hum and withdrew a shiny train pass from his pocket. “Do you remember how I was saved from the Oceana by Tesla Von Brandt? I ran into her here when I got here. She asked me what I was doing here, and when I told her she bought me a lifetime pass.”

 

Melia nodded eagerly, smiling from ear to ear. “Isn’t she just the best? She was super nice when I had my audition.”

 

She frowned and pointed at the handle of his gunblade poking over his shoulder. “But what about that? You have to be League affiliated to carry weapons on the train.” Or any public transport for that matter. “Did Tesla pull strings for you?”

 

He shifted the gunblade before he nodded back, stepping to the side to let a man past him into the station as he did. “Yeah. The Stationmaster got really polite when she told him I could bring my sword. He even put a sticker on my card.”

 

The sticker portrayed a black sword crossed with a pistol on a white background, framed by a jolly blue rim.

 

Melia whistled and gave Aevis his train pass back. They waked into the station together, her backpack precariously wobbling with her every step. The morning rush had come and gone, and North Station, also known as Goldenwood Station, had grown roomy. They easily found seats next to a napping Numen woman.

 

“So…dad told you what we’re doing right?”

 

He nodded, spotting the blue train approaching the station as he leant back. “Garufa carvings in a cave. You take the pictures. I’ll help you out.”

 

“Yeah! We are going to go inside the cave and photograph the carvings!” The girl was positively vibrating.

 

“Well, at least you’re excited?.” Aevis said haltingly. “Haven’t you been to Goldenwood before?”

 

“Yeah, but only the park. Dad never let me go into the caves before.” She nodded her head, her hair swaying. She brushed it aside with a practiced hand. Her grin never left her face.

 

They kept discussing the previous day until the train was ready to make the trip back towards Goldenwood. Having found some free seats, Melia suddenly jabbed him in the side with a bony elbow.

 

“I forgot to ask while we were having breakfast, but didn’t you make plans to rent a room at Chrisola Hotel? What happened?”

 

Aevis almost sneered at the question, specifically the memories it brought forth. “What happened was…”

***

 

The manager behind the desk in the hotel reception was an older gentleman. One not impressed by Aevis’ attire.

 

“If you are looking for a reservation, then let me make this simple for you: there is no way a child like you could afford our services.”

 

The man spread his arms wide. “So please, do me a favor and-”

 

A whoop of joy, accompanied by the rapidly approaching sound of rattling wheels and the groaning of overburdened metal, cut him off. Aevis and the manager both turned in time to see a girl his age ride a gilded luggage trolley out of the hotel’s corridors.

 

Aevis, lost as he was in the memories of the Jarwen Wardrobe Incident, was promptly run over. With its new speed bump the unbalanced trolley and its passenger achieved flight for a fraction off a second before they crashed into the reception desk.

 

The elderly manager found his voice again once the noise died down and slammed his hands on his cracked desk. “MISS BLAKEORY! WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING!?”

 

As Aevis and the girl picked themselves up the man’s voice dropped to a more reasonable volume. “How many times must I tell you not to behave in this barbaric manner!?”

 

Aevis nodded along as he dusted himself off, his thoughts drifting to the gunblade on his back.

 

“And not you’ve gone and hit this hooligan with it.”

 

On second thought, that desk could use some more hits. Hotel managers were never this rude when his mother was there.

 

“C’mon! There isn’t even a scratch on them!”

 

The girl’s voice shook Aevis out of his musings on his decade-old complex on not looking as much like his mother as he would like, pulling him back to the present.

 

“I-”

 

“But for real: Sorry for slamming my trolley into you like that! Name’s Saki. Saki Blakeory.”

 

Golden flecks in her dark grey eyes, only one of which was visible as half her face was covered by her shoulder-length black hair. A Tarnished.

 

She wore a grey sweater and a grey skirt, knee length. For some ungodly reason, she had a white neck scarf around her neck and a longer red scarf wrapped around that. On her feet she wore long white socks and red shoes.

 

Red shoes seemed to be a popular choice among Tarnished in Gearen City, but Aevis couldn’t imagine why.

 

Eyes honed by long hours in the costume room narrowed. Her sweater bulged in odd places, as if it was ridden with stuffed, hidden pockets, and with that quality the truth was evident: The sweater did not come off the shelf in any store.

 

Aevis’ eyes widened. Blakeory? The urban construction giant? Built the GDC Dome? It would explain why she was so flippant with the hotel’s property…

 

A finger poked him in the chest.

 

“Uhhhhhh, hello? You in there?”

 

“I-”

 

He did not get to answer her, for she suddenly sprinted off, screaming all the while about a helicopter and ‘Val’.

 

The hotel manager slumped forward. “T-that was…was…” Partway through dabbing sweat off his forehead he jerked as if noticing Aevis for the first time, immediately straightening up. “Good afternoon, young man. Are you here to reserve a room?”

 

Aevis stared at him, blank faced, for a long minute.

 

“No.”

***

 

“I got to talk with Tesla, but I really didn’t want to stay there after that.” Fortunately, by the time he finished his story the train was slowing down to stop at the train station at Goldenwood Park.

 

Goldenwood National Park, Melia explained as they stepped off the train, sat on the border between Gearen and the Wispmark. A concession by the people of Wispmark to the City of Gearen during the formation of the Aevium League, it consisted of the southwestern and south-southwestern regions of Goldenwood Forest.

 

Aevis’ heart almost stopped when he realized that the leaves were not yellow, but golden. Almost luminously golden. “Are all of these Rootshoots?”

 

Melia giggled beside him. “Yep! Biggest Rootshoot zone of the planet, and it only got bigger after the Shattering forced all the Roots in the region closer to the surface!”

 

He had seen a Rootshoot before, a tree with golden leaves standing tall and lonely among the rest of the forest. But a whole forest, especially on of this size? His thoughts were drawn, involuntarily, inexorably, to the Roots far below their feet, stuffed to bursting with a thousand years of corpses.

 

Cut off from their destination, but still toiling endlessly.

 

The park trail took them north along a lake and then its tributaries, filled with the distinctive Goldenwood carp and Florian Giant Crayfish according to the large sign they passed on the way to the mountain.

 

At the base of the mountain the find had been made in were a small handful of people, perhaps normal this early on a weekday.

 

One or two were elderly, but a group of the others wore very different garb than the others. Wispmarkers maybe?  It wasn’t like Aevis had pressed Ren for his hometown’s fashion scene.

 

The caves of Goldenwood Park, the ones open to the general public, were thoroughly mapped. Their path took them down a side tunnel lined with signs pointing them back to the main passage. Professor Jenner’s map led them further in until they came to a makeshift camp, battery-powered lights in a semicircle around the carvings.

 

Only a few of them were turned on, with the rest helpfully marked by sticky notes as intended for the pictures. As Aevis turned them on to spotlight the carvings he could hear Melia hum delightedly behind him.

 

He looked over his shoulder. “You really like that camera, don’t you?”

 

Melia hefted the camera, as if holding it up for inspection by him. “I love photography. Dad took me on vacation to the Land of Reeds once, and we got to see a demonstration by a professional photographer. I’ve been obsessed ever since! What about you? Do you like photography?”

 

Did he? If it was anything like televised plays, then sure. “I appreciate the art, but I prefer acting. I wanted to be like my mom.”

 

The dam broke, words spilling from his mouth.

 

“I started gunbreaking for the same reason. My mom originally started gunbreaking as part of a music video during her idol days, but she liked it so much that she didn’t stop practicing. She had me a couple years later, and when I was six she won gold in the Estrana Championship.” He reached over his shoulder to finger the handle of his gunblade. “As it turned out, I was a natural, not that being Tarnished didn’t help. I liked it well enough, but not as much as theater, so I haven’t been practicing as often as I should…”

 

“Yeah, I heard about your mother. Dad was really into the show with the cruise ship. How are you holding up?”

 

Aevis felt his face flush as she said it. His eyes stung. Had it really been just two days?

 

“It still feels like a dream sometimes. Like it isn’t real. I don’t know what I feel.”

 

He drew a shuddering breath and eagerly changed the subject.

 

“Do you do this kind of thing often? Go into caves and look at Garufa stuff?”

 

Melia shook her head as she took picture after picture of the inscriptions lining the wall. “Not really: Usually I just study more substantial things with dad.” She must be eager to talk about something else as well. “It is a bit jarring, to be honest. Almost none of this is even legible as Garufa script, and not the interesting kind of illegible either.”

 

Aevis watched her descend into muttered grumbling. He waited until he was sure she wasn’t going to continue before he asked another question.

 

“You mentioned some kind of audition?”

 

“Oh yeah!” Melia answered, vibrating excitedly. “Last year, back when Venam’s hair was still blue, I successfully auditioned for the position of Priestess of the Normality Temple in Grand Dream City! Grand Dream City is huge and all the temples that had to be rebuilt after the Shattering were rebuilt there.”

 

Grand Dream City, capital of Aevium. But if she becomes a priestess there…

 

“You’ll be leaving Gearen, then.”

 

She returned his solemn expression. “…Gotta live in GDC to get the job. Of course, I won’t be the only Tarnished there, big temple and all, or actually assume the position until the current priest retires. And it isn’t like Gearen is that far away, but… this is still my last day on Floria Island for a while...”

 

“You’re gonna miss everyone.” He noted for the sake of saying something.

 

Melia laughed. A genuine laugh, not the giggles he knew her for.

 

“Of course! I mean, how could I not? Now c’mon, let’s take those pictures.”

 

Aevis watched her as she walked ahead of him, his mind whirling. Still, he allowed himself to smile. Anything to take his mind off things.

***

 

The two of them returned to the tourist trail once the work was done, whittling the hours away as they explored the well-lit tunnels and natural galleries of the mountain.

 

“Aevis, what do you say to coming to with me?”

 

Aevis stopped in his tracks. “Huh?”

 

The younger girl didn’t look at him. “You’ve got nothing lined up, right? If you can’t think of anything, would you like to come with me to Grand Dream City? Ren is working for my father, Venam has her duties to her temple, and I really don’t want to move to a new-”

 

Melia stopped herself mid ramble. “Forget about it. Don’t know what I was thinking, we only met yesterday.”

 

Neither of them said a word as they stood there underneath the fluorescent lights of the cavern. Finally, Aevis put a hand on her shoulder.

 

“Hey, s’cool. I’ll think about it.”

 

Whatever Melia was about to answer with was interrupted by two noises.

 

The first was the far off sound of flutes.

 

The second was the sound of a distant gunshot.

 

Aevis and Melia exchanged glances before they rushed back towards the entrance of the cave. They turned a corner and came face to face with three men in Xenpurgis uniforms. Three guns were pointed in their direction.

 

“Alright, get down on your knees and-”

 

Aevis saw the uniform and sprung forward. For the first time in his life, he swung a gunblade in anger at another person.

 

A pull of the trigger, the sound of thunder and a flash of blue, and all the world was red.

 

No, not all the world. Just the rock around them, painted with the result of a live glintstone cartridge on two human bodies.

 

Aevis couldn’t tear his eyes away. How old had they been, those two? In their twenties maybe? Fifty years of thoughts and feelings, half a century of experiences and memories, erased in an instant. They were on longer part of the world, unmade by a series of motions learned by love and applied by hate. The Roots would take even the red staining the rocks.

 

The words of an ancient play came to mind:

 

To all things an End, for in Ending, they Become.

 

His hand throbbed, and he noticed the third Xenpurgis soldier, white as a sheet, with a pistol in his trembling hands. It seemed to grow as time slowed, the barrel expanding to take up more and more of his field of vision.

 

He brought his sword up, to interpose the blade between them and deflect the bullet, but he knew it was too late. He wanted his mother.

 

The gun went off. First once, then trice, then nine times. The bullets slammed into the golden bubble that suddenly surrounded him. Before his eyes the bubble flickered and buckled, but did not break.

 

When it clicked empty Aevis retaliated. He kept his eyes on the red X on the man’s chest, letting it fill his vision as he drove his sword into it.

 

Air exploded from the lungs as the hilt slammed into and came to a stop. The gunblade grew heavy as weight was no longer supported, forcing the blade down so that could slide off.

 

Denial failed him when the body hit the ground, bringing the blood-coated blade into focus.

 

With a wordless scream he doused the dying man in Ghostflame. For a nauseating moment the twitching body was covered in frostbite, making him drop his gunblade to unleash a second stream of cold fire.

 

The corpse crumbled to ash under the twin jets. Gone. Finished. Not there.

 

Aevis stared at the ash piling on the rime-covered stone, inwardly cursing the way that the Tarnished propensity for violence would leave him the instant he was out of immediate danger.

 

“Thanks for the shield.” He ground out once he got his breathing under control. He picked up his gunblade.

 

Aevis stepped gingerly across the sticky, rimed cave floor, keeping his sword ready as he kept his eyes fixed on the entrance.

 

Melia stepped up beside him. “Are you alright? You didn’t get hit?” Her voice trembled.

 

“Not hit. Let’s just go.” Denied Aevis.

 

They emerged from the tunnel to see scattered groups of Xenpurgis soldiers around the park, split between herding the other parkgoers into a rest stop and blocking off park trails. There seemed to be fewer of them along the lake, as if their goal was to keep people in the park.

 

And up there, on top of the mountain behind them, were those white, spherical musicians again, blasting their horrendous hornblowing for all to hear.

 

“Aevis?”

 

“It’s nothing. Let’s go. We need to check the station.”

 

It would be a long flight if the train was out of commission. Better get moving.

***

 

Zetta, officer of the Xenpurgis, idly stroked his chin as he watched the two figures descend from the mountain.

 

A coincidence?

 

He closed his eyes and expanded his senses. Birds above them, rodents in the bushes, a deer peeking out from the trees, carp in the water, and even a giant crayfish munching on underwater plants at the bottom of the lake. And so, so many bugs.

Any of them would do.

 

A golden halo, the outline of something else, formed in his outstretched hand. Red and black energies formed within, twisting and crackling.

 

He looked over his shoulder to the lieutenants behind him. “Tell the men not to engage. I’ll make sure the target comes this way.”

 

The sphere in his hand compressed to the size of a tennis ball, the churning energies within contained and regulated by the golden outline. Apparently satisfied, he aimed the ball at the forest behind the target. It shot out like a bullet, striking the ground and exploding with earth-shaking force.

 

All around the impact, the area was showered in the churning energies. And the wildlife started to change.

 

Bugs, birds, and rodents grew to the size of large dogs, their bodies twisting and snapping as they violently reconfigured themselves. Goldenwood carps, enlarged to the size of motorcycles, leapt from the lake to skitter after the target on bony spines jutting from their fins. A tree tore itself from the earth and split open to reveal a fleshy maw as it pursued the target like a demented, wooden octopus-spider.

 

And Zetta stood there on the hill overlooking the lake. And as he beheld his work the fractured, golden rings in his eyes glittered.

 

 

*******************************************************************************

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Aevis Willow: Tarnished, Armed Babysitter, Covers Up Trauma By Quoting Artistic Pretension.

Melia Jenner: Tarnished, Unarmed and Babysat, Xenpurgis Target.

Saki Blakeory: Tarnished, Rich Kid, Casual Hotel Vandal.

Pipers: Toots Horns, Bloodless Hikers, In Hot Pursuit.

Zetta: Tarnished, Xenpurgis Officer, Life-Shaping Vestige.

[Iceblocks]

Arc 1: Shipwrecked – Chapter 3





The horde of monsters had chased them halfway to the south side of the lake. Some of the smaller ones had died in the pursuit, getting caught in Vestige attacks fired blindly behind them. The good news, Aevis mused as he let a stream of Ghostflame wash over what was once a deer, was that the monsters were animals. While filled with hate and bloodlust, inflicting enough pain was enough to make the things reconsider.

In the distance Xenpurgis grunts were clustered around their trucks, happily watching Aevis and Melia scurry away from the swarm.

A plan hatched in an inexperienced mind. "Are they stretched out?!"

"W-what? Stretched out? What-"

"Behind us! Are they bunched up or stretched out?! "Aevis grabbed her hand to make sure he didn't leave her in the dust.

Melia stumbled after him for a second. "They're stretched out!"

"Good." Said Aevis. He let go of her hand.

He spun around and drew his gunblade, planting his feet as he lifted the weapon over his head.

Aevis communed with the cartridges inside the gunblade and pulled the trigger twice. No explosion came, instead the two releases of glintstone energy fused harmoniously into a brilliant blade of light that extended a full story from the hilt.

Some old manuals called the technique 'Grandeur', but Aevis much preferred the modern name.

Blasting Zone.

He brought it down on the malformed beasts and the explosion obliterated the front of the conga line of horrors. The survivors, already hesitating from the explosion, backed up further as golden bolts began to fell any that stood their ground.

Melia jabbed him in the side. "Could you have done that at any time?" She huffed.

"No." He grunted, slamming a fresh pair of cartridges into the breech. "Only used it in training. Had to wait for a chance."

Some masters could swing it horizontally or even thrust with the move. His mother could do it while moving.

True, he had wanted to show off the technique since the moment he started to be integrated into the local Tarnished scene, but that was for another day.

A trio of fish-things, having not gotten the memo, burst out of the water. The first one was caught off guard when Aevis countercharged with a yell and drove his sword into the top of its palate.

Aevis ripped his weapon out and brought another of the beasts down with a horizontal slash, then threw himself at the third. He struck the creature in its neck, sending it toppling to the ground where it twitched helplessly.

Melia didn't resist when he took her hand again and ran towards the south.

Behind them the monsters slowly followed.

***



Two hulking Azulans emerged from the trees to block the path to the train station, both of them in Xenpurgis uniforms.

The female one, her wolflike muzzle expressionless, was the first to speak. "Oh look…they're here."

"Melia is bad girl, yes Sharon? Sell her to high ups?" The male on the right was far more open with his emotions.

"No. Not that, Eli. We'll hand her over to the Scion." His partner was less than amused.

"That what Eli mean. Also kill girl, yes?" He gestured at Melia with his spear for emphasis.

A bestial snarl overtook the taller Azulan. "NO! What am I supposed to do with you, you-"

"Shut it."

All eyes were drawn towards the source of the proclamation, the small hill overlooking the lake.

Atop the hill was a tall man in a light gray coat over a dark grey turtleneck and white pants. Mangenta gloves and boots completed his ensemble. The man himself was blond, his spiky hair swept slightly to the left. He regarded them severely, his blue eyes marked with a fractured, golden ring in each iris.

A Tarnished? Or perhaps not?

Aevis didn't voice his thoughts, but he let his hands tighten on his weapon as he glanced around.

The diminished horde made no move to get closer, apparently on the man's command, and behind them small groups of Xenpurgis soldiers were cautiously making their way towards them. In front were the Azulans, gods knew what their deal was.

And to the side was the blond man, taking their measure.

"A bodyguard? Looks like we need to have words with Jenner. Congrats on making it this far."

The blond casually strolled down the hill.

"Name's Zetta. I know Melia, but not you. Got a name, Tarnished?"

"…Aevis."

"Huh. Weird." Zetta looked towards Melia. "I've seen pictures, but with you right here…things are starting to make sense."

The man's hand shot up a moment later to intercept the golden bolt flying towards his face, deflecting it out across the lake. His smirk widened.

"Nice try."

Melia nervously took a step back as Zetta began to descend.

"Eli. Sandy." The Azulans perked up like the wolves they so resembled. "Deal with the Tarnished. I'll grab the target."

"My name is Sha-"

Aevis moved first, spraying the Azulans with Ghostflame as he charged.

The wolf-folk leapt to avoid it and clapped their hands. Red lightning began to crackle around their bodies as their readied their spears.

"Mistress L give us power!" Yelled Eli as he rushed in, closing the distance.

"Don't just charge in you idiot!" Groused Sharon as she aborted her throw, the red lightning bolt she caught crackling impatiently in her paw.

Aevis kept his eyes on the Azulans, but Eli's charge made him slow his approach.

He waved his left hand, calling upon the power of his Vestige. He summoned a wave of Ghostflame that threatened to engulf Eli, forcing the wolfman to break off.

Aevis' head turned rapidly from side to side, trying to keep both Azulans in sight. Sharon remained where she was, lightning bolt at the ready, but her idiot partner resorted to some instinct that made him try to flank the young Tarnished.

His knuckles whitened around the hilt of his gunblade.

They didn't seem interested in going after Melia, but the longer he delayed the more chances they had to take him out.

The choice was clear.

"Over here, idiot!" He yelled as he raised his sword and sprinted towards Sharon.

The Azulan woman narrowed her eyes and threw the red lightning spear. He weaved, letting it sail past him. A moment later they clashed, spear against gunblade.

The golden grass around him turned red, the only warning he needed to roll out of the way as Eli smashed a sword of red lightning into the ground.

Aevis scurried to his feet, mind racing on how to separate them.

This close? Only one option would do.

He spun around his axis and pulled the trigger twice. Two azure comets formed around him, chasing each other in a perfect circle.

Fated Circle, a technique that ensured an omnidirectional distribution of one or more glintstone cartridges' energies.

The blasts threw the Azulans around like leaves, sending them tumbling in different directions as Aevis reloaded.

Making a decision, he went for the man. The Azulan tried to block his swing, but he detonated another cartridge at the moment of impact, blue light consumed the wolfman.

Half of the splintered spear hit the ground, distracting Aevis for a split second. Long enough that a furry fist caught him upside the head. The force of the blow spun him around, stars bouncing across his vision.

"You strong Tarnished!" Eli howled, covered in blood and glintstone burns.

"Tch." Responded Aevis. He made to reload.

"No you don't!" Sharon's electrified spear thrust unerringly through the space that contained his torso not a second before. She held her spear behind the head, shortening its reach. Too close for him to detonate another cartridge.

They exchanged blows, neither of them gaining the upper hand until Aevis sloppily imitated the trick his mother had used to defeat her opponent in the semifinals:

He shoved the strong of his sword against the spearpoint and suddenly gave way, letting Sharon fall forward into the blow as he slammed the hilt into her snout.

Blood sprayed across his hands as something broke under the metal. The wolfwoman stumbled backwards. He lifted a hand to hose her down with his Vestige, his gunblade moving into position to guard against-

Eli smashed his broken spear into his wrist. Pain shot up his arm as the Ghostflame sputtered and died. A desperate swing warded the Azulan off, but the scene repeated itself:

Aevis would press one back, only for the other to get a hit in before he could capitalize on any opening he created.

Had it just been one at a time he would already be helping Melia, but with two they were slowly but surely wearing him down.

He hesitated, and hesitation cost him. Sharon's spear locked down his sword and Eli moved in for the kill.

"Buh-Bye Tarnished!"

A tentacle of rotten flesh and plastic shot out of the treeline and wrapped itself around Eli's leg.

"Huh?" The Azulan was promptly lifted off his feet and slammed into a rock.

A gurgling roar sounded across the lake as a shapeless creature shambled out of the trees.

Melia's garbage homunculus?!

"That hurts! You stink!" Eli cried as the garbage monster began tenderizing him with the back half of a rusted motorcycle.

Sharon was slower to react, looking desperately between Aevis and her partner.

"I…" She growled and clapped her hands. "Just go! I don't have time for you!"

They sprinted away from each other. His last glimpse of her was of the lightning bolts she sent hurtling towards the creature blasting chunks out of it. It answered by scuttling away with its prize, rewarding her efforts with a clawed tentacle whipping out and almost catching her in the throat.

When he got to the hill he found Melia sailing through the air towards him. Zetta had caught one of her bolts with his hand and infused it with his own power, turning it into a golden javelin that buried itself in the ground by her feet before it exploded.

He caught her one handed, almost falling over between the impact and the effort of not impaling her by accident. The shield around her popped like a soap bubble, but beyond dirt she was completely unhurt.

"Melia?"

"I'm alright! B-but I can't use my Vestige! He did something to me!"

"Got it. I'll buy you some time!"

Aevis reloaded his gunblade and charged, levelling it at Zetta's chest. In response the man did nothing, watching the Tarnished speed towards him with a total lack of concern.

They were but feet apart when Aevis suddenly stopped cold.

Golden outlines were hugging his torso, knees, and elbows, locking him in place in front of the Xenpurgis officer. He strained against them, slowly budging them, only for Zetta to languidly quirk a finger.

Energy struck Aevis from below, tossing him upward off the ground. For a second he hung there motionless, giving him an excellent view of Zetta's glowing hand before the man nonchalantly blasted him out of the air.

"Now what happened to the doggos?" He asked over the thud of Aevis hitting the ground. The man clicked his tongue a second afterwards. "Right. That happened to the doggos."

Aevis rushed forward again, and Zetta's barrier wobbled as it tanked a glintstone detonation.

"That's right-"

A second detonation cut him off, the blast obscuring him with light and smoke.

"Give it a rest you-!"

Ghostflame washed over his barrier, flash-freezing the ground around them.

Aevis reloaded under the cover of the flames. He was about to go for a third swing when Zetta locked him down again.

The Xenpurgis officer clicked his tongue at the struggling Tarnished. "Okay, seriously: Let me finish my sentences."

"Fuck you." Spat Aevis. His voice did not tremble how dare you.

Zetta smirked and rolled his eyes.

"Adorable."

Black and red, silhouetted by gold, began to gather in his hand. A stream of desperate golden bolts, courtesy of a recovered Melia, curved off their course to land in his other hand. Grandiosely he joined them together, forming a shimmering sword the size of a surf board.

As if imitating the Blasting Zone used against his beasts.

Staring death in the face, Aevis almost missed the golden glow intensifying behind him. It stretched out, entering his field of vision as it streamed towards Zetta's surviving monsters

Out of the corner of his eye Aevis could see the monsters fill out, Melia's light transforming them from malformed beasts to functioning creatures of their own.

Much to Zetta's displeasure. "Hey, hey! Those are mine!"

"I noticed you only messed with my Vestige! We have the same powers!" Melia shouted back. Her words were the que for the converted monsters to move in, leaving the baffled Xenpurgis mooks in the dust.

"And?! You think you just did something?!"

Zetta swung his hand, and from his palm a trio of rings, discuses almost, flew out. They cut through anything they touched, killing or maiming most of the beasts rushing to Aevis and Melia's aid. The untouched or merely crippled met their end when the rings, having shot through the mob, stopped and reversed course to strike them from behind.

"See that?! That's how much you did!"

Speaking of behind, that would be the direction of a thin jet of water that struck the blond Tarnished(?) in the back. Right as he was about to catch his returning rings too.

He whirled around, his barrier wobbling from the force of the attack. A magnificent specimen of the Florian Giant Crayfish, glowing with Melia's golden light, stood perched on top of the hill. Zetta prepared to blast it when he heard Aevis' renewed charge. Snorting, he prepared to blast both directions.

But no blasts came, and then his barrier flickered.

Melia, down on one knee and red-faced with exertion, was pouring her light into the man. "How do you like it when it happens to you, asshole?!"

Before his eyes, the gunblade descended.

The wavering barrier failed in the face of the detonation, and Zetta screamed as glintstone energies washed over him.

Aevis followed up with a second detonation, scattering Zetta's body into…golden sparks?

The sparks floated about for a moment before they snapped back together, reforming Zetta's body and creating a shockwave that cratered the foot of the hill. Aevis barely had time to raise his guard before the surge of energy blasted him off his feet. His vestiges flailed limply through the air as he sailed towards Melia.

When Zetta spoke again every word emerged as growls. "Right. Losing control of things. Time to get back on track."

He unleashed another wave of force before he raised his hands up to the sky, gathering an even greater amount of gold-silhouetted black and red between them. Aevis and the crayfish were almost upon him when he let out a mighty shout and drove the churning sphere into the bottom of the crater.

For a moment nothing happened, but then the earth began to shake. The ground beneath the crayfish erupted as a gummy set of jaws closed down on it, their owner emerging from the earth in all its glory.

It looked like the demented cross between a tree root, a dragon, and some monstrous worm. Weeping ulcers and oozing patches of black roots covered its length. The weight of its spirit was almost tangible to the two Tarnished standing opposed to it.

The empowered crayfish struggled weakly in its maw before it stilled with a final crunch. Its remains were spat out across the lake shore.

"I'd rather not use this unless I gotta. Takes a lot out of me, you know?" Zetta laughed with the enslaved tree spirit leaning protectively over him. "So here's what's gonna happen: Either you come quietly and let me squish your bodyguard, or I squish your bodyguard and drag you off. Deal? Deal."

Aevis' hands acted by themselves, mechanically reloading as his mind was busy with comprehending the tree spirit. He was dimply aware of the battle between the Azulans and the garbage monster having died down with this new development, leaving Melia as the only one with the presence of mind to answer.

"What sort of choice is that? You just repeated yourself!"

"Yep! Too bad my deals are final and acted upon immediately. Sayonara bye-bye, Tarnished and Trash!"

He immediately dissolved into golden sparks to avoid a pungent jet of rotten sludge.

Aevis turned to where the attack came from. It was the garbage monster, the crayfish's head sticking out of its mass. The creature was skittering away from the shocked Azulans, merrily adding the crayfish's remains to itself as it fired jet after jet at the tree spirit and Zetta.

Zetta, having reformed several meters away, swept bloody locks out of his eyes. "Oh I am done with that fucking thing!"

The tree spirit rushed to obey, lunging at the garbage monster.

Aevis' eyes scanned the area, desperately thinking. They were outnumbered, and even if Zetta was tired out by binding the tree spirit he could hold his own against both Melia and himself at once. Add the Azulans and the tree spirit…

A hand clamped down on his wrist.

"Melia?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know what else to do!"

Melia exploded into golden particles, dragging him along. The ground fell out from under his feet as all the world disappeared in golden sparks.

***



They hit the floor of the Gearen Laboratory living quarters face first.

"We made it?" Whispered Melia as she sat on shaky knees. "We made it!"

Aevis sighed in relief beside her feet, resolving not to get up until his heart stopped going a mile a minute. Melia giggled on the floor next him.

Eventually they had to get up again, shambling towards the professor's office to report the situation, call the police, or something. Maybe Melia had something in mind, judging from the way she froze at the door.

"Wait…I think he is talking to someone…"

Aevis held his breath as Melia gently opened the door to the office.

"It is beside the point, but I really do not appreciate getting hung up on like that."

A red-haired woman, dressed in an early fall getup like any person on the street, stood before the professor's desk.

"Someone walked in, Madelis. What did you want me to do? "Professor Jenner said, looking positively haggard even as he brushed her off.

Madelis scoffed. "Lock the door, maybe? Not that it matters: Zetta will have picked up Melia by now."

"Yes…" Whispered the professor.

Madelis slammed her hand on the desk. A touch of vitriol entered her voice as she presented her flip phone for the professor to see. "Rather, that's what I would have said if not for this message I got when I came in. A bodyguard, Jenner? What the fuck were you thinking? You knew this was going to happen!"

Aevis stiffened and carefully drew his gunblade. Beside him Melia barely managed to stifle a gasp.

Over at the desk the Xenpurgis agent continued. "We made it clear from the get go how this was going to end. It was the first thing Nastasia told you when she gave you Melia, or did you forget? The sacrifice was only going to be with you temporarily."

"I told them that it was a bad idea, that you were getting attached. But did they listen? No!"

A golden flash blinded them for a moment, and when it faded Zetta stood next to the professor's desk.

"Jenner, Madelis. Shit went wrong, Melia learned how to teleport, she is-" Zetta's eyes drifted to the doorway they were hiding behind. "Right there!"

The redhead, Madelis, spun around. "Melia?!"

Professor Jenner wilted even more. "Melia…"

And Melia stepped into the room, her eyes fixed on the professor as golden light formed around her. "You…you…"

She threw back her head and screamed inhumanly. For a moment Aevis could swear that he saw a golden Y-shape inside her, bright enough to somehow shine through her clothes and flesh.

Melia disintegrated into golden light.

A moment passed as all in attendance processed what just happened, and then Aevis charged in.

"Not while I'm working!" Madelis flung a gob of black sludge at the floor between them. It bubbled and expanded, covering the width of the office entryway and stopping his charge.

An arm, black as tar and studded with white bone, emerged from the pool and dragged the rest of the creature out. It was a shadowy wolf-ape beast, as thick around the arms as Aevis' torso. It came to nothing as the Tarnished rammed his sword into a malign red eye, but two more were crawling out by the time the beast had dissolved into smoke.

This was nothing like Zetta or Melia's power. The blondes required there to be something for them to alter. This woman could create minions from nothing.

Aevis brushed the thought aside and threw caution to the wind. He struck before the beast could react and the ensuing glintstone detonation shook the room, annihilating one of them and mangling the other.

The last shadow beast let out a pained groan and reached for him with the last of its strength, and as it did he drove his gunblade through its heart. As it dissolved he made to take the fight to the Xenpurgis agents, only to find himself stymied by Zetta's golden barrier.

Zetta, hand massaging his forehead, suddenly lifted his eyes. "Found her. She's going east, jumping towards the Cherrygrove."

His colleague shook her head. "You've got to be kidding me…"

The man grabbed the red-haired woman by the shoulder and began to disintegrate into golden sparks.

Aevis sprayed Ghostflame into the golden particles the moment the barrier fell, but no screams of pain answered him. When the blue flames died down there was just him, the professor, and the rime-covered walls of the professor's office.

"Melia!"

He made to run after her, to demand answers from the Xenpurgis woman, anything, but something yanked him back. He looked over his shoulder to see that Professor Jenner had thrown himself over his desk to grab the back of his sweater.

"Let go! I don't have time to waste on you!"

"Aevis, listen! The story about the Tarnished, the one with the goddess Marika? It is true! All of it! Other Tarnished don't have their Runes anymore, but Melia does! She has a piece of the Supreme Rune of Causality! The Xenpurgis-"

"That's enough."

A hole appeared in the air behind him, opening up to a dark void on the other side. It surged forward violently, swallowing Professor Jenner so that he fell backwards into the darkness.

It closed in an instant, too fast for Aevis to do more than hold out a hand.

"Wha-"

"It is the least he deserves after involving you, Aevis."

Aevis whirled around, gunblade at the ready. The girl from the Oceana, the one who threw him through a portal during the banquet, stood in the doorway. If she was concerned about the sword pointed at her, she gave no sign.

"You were on the Oceana. Who are you?" He raised the tip to point at her face for emphasis.

A touch of complicated emotion broke through her composure at his question, but it was swiftly dealt with. "My name is Crescent. A Tarnished. "

As if that wasn't obvious from the golden spots in her eyes. "I realized. Now if you don't mind, I have somewhere to be. So if you could get to your point?"

Crescent huffed haughtily. "Forget what happened here. Live a normal life. Leave the Elden Ring and all its nonsense to me."

Aevis scoffed. "I don't know what that is, but you gotta be crazy if you think I'm letting this go."

Once again the flicker wormed its way onto her face. "…do as you wish. I will not stop you, but don't come to me for help when things don't go your way."

No answer came, and Crescent sighed, exhausted. "Well, I will see you during the pursuit then."

Another dark hole opened and the girl stepped through, leaving Aevis alone in the office.

Once he was certain he was alone he sprinted towards the drawer he remembered Professor Jenner storing glintstone cartridges. A quick application of his sword broke open the lock, letting him stuff his ammunition pouch to the breaking point before he set out.

If he failed to rescue Melia, it would not be because he ran out of ammo. Tarnished instincts sang in his veins, bringing an involuntary smile to his face as he bulled his way towards the exit.

Where he promptly clonked his head against Ren's.

His fellow Tarnished groaned in pain as he picked himself off the floor. "Aevis? What's going on?"





End of Arc 1.



**********************************************************************

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Aevis Willow: Tarnished, Desperate Friend, On the Brink of a Breakdown.

Melia Jenner: Shardbearer, Feels Rather Fatherless at the Moment, Running Blind.

Zetta: Gilded, Xenpurgis Officer, In Blind Pursuit.

Eli & Sharon: Dragonsworn Azulans, Idiot & Caretaker, Kept Around for Comedic Relief.

Garbage Homunculus: Amphibious Cavalry, Dog Abuser, About to be Intimately Acquainted with Zetta's powers.

Professor Jenner: Not Actually Melia's Dad, Reluctant Xenpurgis Agent, Banished to the Shadow Realm.

Madelis: Tarnished, Xenpurgis Officer, Bit of a Loudmouth.

Crescent: Tarnished, Fixated on Aevis, Knows About The Elden Ring.

Ren: Tarnished, Literally Just Got Here, Knows Fuck All.




Well, this has been a fun exercise, but I think I will stop here for now. Might bring it back as a quest if I ever figure what system to use.

This whole thing grew from a moment where I noticed that the FFXIV variant of the Blasting Zone ability looked a lot like the Carian Grandeur Weapon Art.