Ascension - (Alarian Warriors)

Vincent woke late the next night, completely sleeping through the day. He’d been far more exhausted than he had first thought. His work was mostly carried out at night and with the moon so high, he was already running late. He ran through the old stone corridors and headed for the outer dwellings.

He bounded down the staircase to the outside meeting area. It was an area surrounded by glass, similar to a greenhouse. They had chosen it for Aveyon’s sake, hoping that the clear transparent walls would be enough for her to agree to come.

He descended the stairs three at a time only to stop, looking down in surprise. A figure stood in the centre of the plant-lined path at the foot of the stairs. She looked to be enjoying the look of the greenery in the enclosure.

“Princess?” He questioned.

She turned when she heard someone address her. Blinking up at him, her hair no longer a tangled mess, hung over her missing eye, blocking it from view.

Vincent couldn’t help but smile at her, and she looked wonderful. With her skin glowing, she radiated health, or rather essence in this sense. She had certainly regained her strength from the feeding and well-needed rest.

“You look amazing!” He blurted out.

She wore a floor-length plain white gown with long sleeves that draped from the elbows. It had a small v at the neckline but seemed to cover many of her scars.

She forced a smile at him, trying to be polite. But in truth, she felt out of place.

Erosvent, coming out of nowhere, aggressively planted his hand in the centre of Vincent’s back. Startling him, almost causing him to stagger forward and fall down the rest of the steps.

“Stop drooling boy! We have important matters to attend to.” Erosvent addressed Vincent before offering Aveyon his hand.

She looked at it for a moment then turned away abruptly, walking herself to the table.

Vincent noticed she wasn’t stumbling anymore. In fact, she was holding herself well.

His eyes narrowed on the soft glow that she seemed to have. His mouth opened slightly as he realized what it was he was seeing.

Essence appeared to be seeping out of her. It was as though her body wasn’t holding on to the energy it had absorbed, but why? A single thought same to mind, the vessel is too damaged to house power. It was overflowing and dissipating too quickly.

Erosvent took the chair across from her, as Vincent sat beside her. He was having trouble not focusing his gaze on her. The seeping energy was bothering him far more than he would like to admit. There must be a way to fix it, he’d have to research it later. But for now, it was time to bring the Princess up to speed.

“Princess, you have questions I imagine.” Erosvent began.

She nodded taking a moment to inhale and began with; “I need to go back.”

His facial expression turned into a frown; he knew of where she spoke. Alarious, their once home. “Princess, I don’t know what you have planned, but please remember that your people need you. Now more than ever. The city has all but been abandoned.”

The comment didn’t faze her. “They do not need me.” She said blankly, no emotion at all.

Erosvent shook his head. “Our world is out of balance; you’ve assumed so, surely?”

She nodded. It was hard not to see it. All types of essence-wielding creatures were being taken advantage of. Yourself being living proof.

“We need someone to-”

“No.” she cut in calmly. “They have no need of me, and the goddess will guide them until someone is found, I assume everyone has turned against the king.” She paused only to catch her breath. “I do not think people would easily trust the same royal family that led them to this...disaster.”

Erosvent responded in turn. “I understand your reasoning Princess, I really do, but we do need you. It’s true that many races have lost faith in the Royals, but not you, you are their last hope of a better future. You survived; you are their hope.”

She stiffened, clearly uncomfortable with the topic. “I do not desire to rule, I never have. My only goal is to bring my father the justice he deserves. That, in itself, will help the people.” She lied, already knowing that it wouldn’t help in the slightest. The people needed a ruler, someone to give them direction, but she wasn’t it.

Erosvent continued with a sigh. “And how do you expect to take down one of the most powerful men in our kingdom when you have little to no essence training?” His words were soft but stern. Almost like a challenge.

She already thought about this. “Once I am in the realm, I can acquire an aura and-”

“You can’t.” Erosvent cut in.

“What do you mean I cannot? I have access to the vaults.”

“There are no auras left. Your father destroyed them, all of them.”

“What!” Her entire demeanour changed. Her eyes widened; her hands bawled into fists as her anger flared. “That cannot be true!” She exclaimed.

Watching as he closed his eyes and hung his head. What was the point of her living through hell only to find out she had no chance?

Pushing herself back in her chair, placing her hands in her lap, she tried desperately to calm her breathing. She began to tremble as uncertainty overcame her senses.

The last hope, her last chance, shattered in her mind’s eye. Her breathing grew laboured, and she felt like she was about to have a panic attack. “So… there is no way to open a fissure then, none survived the downfall?”

Erosvent wasn’t sure how to turn the conversation around. Then something struck him. “There might be another way, Princess. There are creatures popping up with powers that mimic the aura’s abilities.” He paused. “However, the realm they access is not Alarious. We don’t know if it’s plausible, or even possible to harness it for ourselves. But I feel it’s something to at least investigate, don’t you think?”

She looked up at him. “Here, on Earth?” She pondered the thought. “How, what or who is making such a thing?”

“We don’t know.” He confessed. “We haven’t found anything substantial to test or experiment with.”

As he spoke her trembling calmed down as she regained her composure, she waited for him to continue.

“The creatures that have risen lately, they feel as though they have the aura's power, though it appears darker in origin.”

Taking the information in while remembering his concerns about imbalance. She wondered if they may somehow be connected. “I think I would like to look into it as well. I have some knowledge of auras from my mother that might prove useful. Perhaps we could find out where the creatures are getting this power and utilize that, as you said.” She had to do something.

Vincent was growing uneasy. “I understand your frustration and haste, but caution is required. We need time to prepare, to gather the information.” He added finally joining in the conversation. “In the meantime, I can offer an alternative means to pass the time. I doubt you want to sit around waiting for patrols to come back.”

Aveyon eyed him slightly confused waiting for him to continue.

“I’ve been sending many of our people to be trained by the elves. With their guidance, we have greatly increased our natural strengths even without the need for auras. It does take time to learn to harness and wield essence, but it is possible. If you want to join our efforts, I can’t let you with your current skill levels. You would need training.” The elves could have an answer to her issues with her body not holding essence as well.

Erosvent continued to explain. “Vincent is our top fighter. We have created a small group that we send out to help patrol areas in this realm, however even with these skilled warriors it’s still not enough. We’re not even close to being able to fight back, all we can do is clean up and hope to protect any citizens we find.”

Patrolling? Aveyon didn’t get it, patrolling for what?

Erosvent continued seeing her confused look. “The number of demonic creatures is increasing dramatically; they are getting overly confident with this new power. We had to do something. It’s never been this bad. With no leader for the Alarians, most will not interfere. Or at least I haven’t seen many for an awfully long time.” He made a pained expression. “With the loss of all the auras I doubt many of them remain that actually have their souls. So, we needed to come up with a solution hence the team up with the elves.”

“With the cycle of rebirth broken, we are losing this battle rather quickly, I might add,” Vincent commented. “Our numbers are not increasing, but theirs are.”

Aveyon kept her mouth shut. Taking her place as ruler would be the only way to truly fix the realms. She would in theory also be able to start creating more auras and likely fix the cycle of rebirth. She had the abilities but was still lacking the knowledge due to her banishment. Everyone just expected that she knew how to do all this... but she didn’t. The worlds were doomed.

“Vincent is the head of ambassadors for the elves, together we are trying our best to maintain the balance between good and evil.” Erosvent continued.

Though impressive and noble, Aveyon really didn’t care about it. However, she would be able to use the information they could provide her with. And if she could learn to wield essence, surely that would be of benefit to her. She decided to play along.

“So how do I go about this, I know almost nothing of this realm, the elves or of demons.” She hated to admit it.

They worked on creating a map on which to follow and started planning a route that may lead to answers. Stories of aura-like appearances, heavenly beings and Angels were the best chance for clues on finding any Alarians that still had their souls intact, but it was highly unlikely.

Anything to do with demons they also marked, but as areas of danger. Anything about vampires or creatures of the night would mean Alarians that had lost their auras and fallen to the curse. These were areas to avoid.

And finally, the elf’s outpost, of which one was a simple three-day ride from here. The points to avoid meant they had to take a longer route, but that was okay. She’d waited this long, what was three more days?

Erosvent agreed to keep her informed about any news that came up about the creatures that have aura-like powers. Vincent agreed to put the request in with the elves for training, after all, they had their own customs and rituals, and it wasn’t an easy feat to share those secrets with just anyone, the elders chose the warriors they trained not the other way round.

Though Vincent knew a priestess named Kirra, he was going to send the request directly to her to try to fast-track her approval. She had been the one to train him.

As their conversation ended, Erosvent looked at Aveyon sternly. “This is going to be hard on you. You haven’t been in the outside world for decades.” He didn’t have to say it, they all knew it. But she respected the fact that she was treated as an equal at this table and not pushed aside.

“I only have one goal in mind. I will reach it.” She concurred. Her weakness was her memories. Keeping her mind on her goal, she should be fine. Or at least that’s what she told herself.

Aveyon had colluded their little meeting by setting herself a minor task to complete. In order for her to successfully leave this place and begin her journey she would need to strengthen her body and mind. There were things she needed to accomplish in order to move forward. The journey to the elves was only the beginning, once the approval for her training came through, she wanted to head out.

She didn’t intend to return with her life after this journey. But she still needed to be strong enough to survive the long road it may take. No matter how many times Emerald begged her to reconsider. Returning was not something she desired, she wanted it all to end. Eternal rest.

The two men had left first, leaving her to ponder the conversions and digest it all. Vincent had mentioned he needed to send a letter to the elves then head back out to the house to clean up the bodies. She had wanted to join him but knew her current condition wouldn’t allow it.

Erosvent simply told her he had duties around the Sanctuary he had to see to and let her stay in the greenhouse for as long as she wanted.

It seemed like a few hours passed as she wandered the greenhouse before making up her mind to finally move forward. She wanted to return to Emerald, to stay by the elf’s side.

Being alone left her mind racing to much it was hard to focus on one thing. The elf grounded her, she needed her... But she was going to part ways with her soon.

It was time to start working on herself, if she wanted to accomplish anything she needed to get out of her comfort zone. Today was the day she’d push herself.