Harena Empire, Library of Vis.
Lab of Saint Auges
- Roughly 2000 years ago.The mocking ticking of the clock was the only sound in Auges' lab in the Library of Vis as the transmuter glared at the dark red stone in front of them. Their head rested in their hand, the other hand balled into a fist and resting on the desk that was used most often as her work station.
There was no other way, was there?
"Geh…damn it." Should she tell Ante? The very thought about telling their twin made them frown even deeper. In the recent years since the second Nashaan war, a noticeable change had happened in their relationship that they couldn't deny. She knew the cause, too. It was this cursed stone, wasn't it? After a few tests she could confirm that the both of them were being intrinsically influenced by it, and not in a good way.
In her case, it made her paranoid and less trusting of others in general. She had never really liked people a whole lot to begin with, but the stone seemed to be making that worse.
In Ante's case…they were pretty sure their dear twin was growing increasingly emotional, or at least…violent.
What should she do here? It'd only work for one of them. And one of them wouldn't be getting out alive.
Oh Ante, should they do?
”I’m here, Auges.” A voice called from behind. It was the other half of the pair, Ante.
”So it’s ready and stuff?” Was added with a great questioning tone to it.
”I mean, it’s been a long time, and I can wait a bit longer. . . But you know. . .”For a few moments, Auges didn't respond. They were seemingly too caught up in their thoughts, as was usual these past few years. How did Ante get in? They hadn't even heard them enter. That wasn't good. Ante could have just…no, no, Ante wouldn't do that. They wouldn't. As much as she thought otherwise, they wouldn't…probably.
"Ante..." The twin spoke quietly, not bothering to look or greet the other. Instead, they reached for the dull ruby colored stone. It was their work, after all. Hers…and Ante - no no, that was bad. No no. Bad thought. Ante helped just as much with this as work she put into it.
"We must talk." Auges spoke coolly, standing up from their seat with the stone still grasped firmly in their hand.
Her left hand brushed against the knife in her belt, just in case. At close range like this, her transmutation might fall short.
"About the stone…it is almost complete…but there's a catch we must talk about my…dear twin." The word 'dear' was said with a hint of forcefulness, almost as if Auges hadn't even meant it. Why had she done that? That wasn't…true. Ante was her dear sibling. They were inseparable, and yet…
”What catch?” Ante said, eyes narrowing. There were a few things off. Ante wasn’t the smartest cookie in the bunch, not like Auges was, but there were a few things this twin could bring to the table. For example, noticing things. The words sounded wrong, hand brushing against the knife. . . The hand which Infinitus Gladius rest in its ring form curled up a little, almost to the point as if holding a blade.
”I don’t think you ever mentioned anything about a catch before, Auges.”Auges looked at Ante from over their shoulder, a dozen thoughts running through their head as she tried to drown out the more treacherous ones plaguing her. Wouldn't it be so much easier, if she just…the transmuter frowned again, clearing her throat as she turned to face their twin.
"Well," Auges began.
"You know how progress has…stagnated these past years? There was some to be sure, but not as much as we previously made. As it turns out, there's a very key…item, needed to complete the stone." Auges hesitated visibly before continuing. She could do this. If Ante tried anything, they were ready. Not that they expected Ante to do anything…they wouldn't.
"…and in the end my research leads me to believe that it will only work for one of us…meaning that I will be unable to keep my promise to make both of us live."Ante’s face went to shock, an almost pale white crossed the twin’s face.
”Work for only one of us?” Auges was joking. Right? This was some cruel elaborate joke wasn’t it? It had to have been.
”No. No. Nononono-nooo! You! YOU SAID! YOU SAID WE COULD BE TOGETHER! FOREVER!” Ante took a step back, face changed a bit. There was an attempt at confidence, but it altogether fell to a mild look of despair.
”Wait, no! Good joke! Hahaha. It’s really good! Heh. Hehehe. HAH!”Auges' face betrayed no emotion whatsoever as Ante's face paled. The transmuter simply looked on with a neutral, almost condescending expression as Ante burst into a fit of anger. Expected, but it still hurt regardless, but she couldn't betray any emotion here.
"Ante, I know I have a habit of teasing you my dear," Auges replied coolly, sounding a bit like they didn't have much patience.
"But this is not one of those times and that was not a joke. For once in your life, would you please try and be serious about something?"”I’m plenty serious. . . No, I just don’t want to believe your words. You just…” Ante’s face went downward, studying the floor then to Infinite Gladius.
”No, this isn’t a joke in poor taste. I knew you were hiding something from me for so long. I just let my love for you cloud my judgement. Right? Or else you couldn’t have kept this secret from me for so long.” The ring transformed into a sort of sword, ready to cut. Ante just smiled. There was no more control over the emotions inside.
”If it will just work for one of us, then I just need to make it work for me. Then, I’ll keep you around and you will be right. Even in death, we’ll be together forever.” Ante really wasn’t making sense at all. For the most part. The corruption from the Stone had done much to the Wardancer’s head.
Auge's simply remained staring, narrowing her eyes slightly as the blond gave their twin a cool glare. Hah…haha, her suspicions had proven to be correct, hadn’t they? Her heart felt like it had been ripped out, but that was fine. It was fine. She had the stone. The corner of Auges' mouth twitched. She wasn't giving up the stone.
So red, so pretty...so hers. It was hers. It was
her lives work - no nonono. This was getting out of hand, and a small voice in the back of her mind was screaming for them to stop, but they couldn't.
"Haha," She tilted her head to the side.
"I'd prefer not fighting, my dearest sibling." She raised her arms, her right hand still gripping the stone as her mouth curled into a cruel smirk.
"I'm terrible at it, after all…but this is my lives work you ignorant, adorable fool of mine. I won't let anyone take it from me. Not even you. The things I could do with the stone…Heh, They wouldn't call me a Saint any longer." Whatever rationale Auges had been trying to keep, had fractured the moment Ante had turned on her.
Ante’s eyes narrowed. Of course!
”Of course! OF COURSE OF COURSE OF COURSE! I knew it, KNEW IT!” Ante cut at the air,
”BOTH OF YOU! MINE!” Whatever logical thought Ante may have had was gone by now, overpowered by the influence of Auges’ Stone. Ante launched at Auges like some sort of wild animal.
What happened next…happened too fast for Auges to properly register. She extended the hand holding the stone towards Ante. There was a flash of red hued energy as it arced along the ground from Auges' feet. A spear of earth shot from the ground, impaling Ante on it in an instant.
”Ahh.” Ante said after a good bout of screaming.
”You win I guess. You were always good at winning.” Before long, Ante’s body slid all the way to the ground, with muttered grunts in between. The Bladedancer coughed up some blood. The end was near. Only a few more words came out of that one’s mouth.
”I love. . . You. . . A…” Ante’s head hit the floor covered with blood from the injury. Dead.
The transmuter stared coldly as Ante died in front of them, barely even registering their twins words. Suddenly, her entire body felt numb. The hand holding the stone lost its grasp on it as it fell to her side, and the stone fell to the ground in a pool of Ante's blood.
"...An...te?"Her body felt so numb. She couldn't move, and her chest heaved trying to breathe but unable to. What had she been doing?
"...Ante?"Her voice echoed in the dimly lit stone chamber that passed for her lab. Suddenly, she was on the ground, on her knees in front of the unmoving body of her Twin. The stone spear crumbled as she hit the ground. She couldn't move. Why couldn't she move? She was in peak physical health. She wasn't sick. That was impossible. Why was she so tired? She felt so...drained. What was this...odd feeling? No, she knew what it was. It had been the same when Julius had died.
But why?
A warm feeling brushed against her right hand. She glanced down at the ground, a red liquid carrying a familiar scent greeted her vision...blood? That wasn't good. Was she bleeding? She should stop that. Where was the stone? An easy enough fix, even as unstable as it was. It was on the table, yes...no, it was in her hand? She was holding it a few moments ago...Her eyes shifted to the unmoving body of Ante again.
"...Ante!" Realization hit the Transmuter as the foggy events of the past minute or so started to become clear, nearly causing them to lose whatever lunch they had before. She struggled to move, falling over onto her hands and knees as she had to fight her entire body. She forced her body to move, almost crawling over the blood-soaked ground to the body of her twin - staining her clothes with their blood in the process. She knelt next to them, holding their head in her lap.
...no pulse. A large hole in their stomach. Severed spine. Panic. Her breathing quickened.
She could fix this. She could fix this. Everything was under control. Where was it? Where was the stone? Frantically, she looked around and noticed it lying in the pool of Ante's blood. She reached for it, clutching it in one of her hands. The once dull colored ruby, sparked with an otherworldly light as the energy in it stabilized, the unstable energy from it ceasing in nearly an instant.
NO NO NO!
This was all wrong!
"...give...them back..." Was something caught in her eye? It was starting to water. Her hand trembled around the stone, as her eyes started trying to wash out whatever was stuck in them.
"I don't care...I don't...just give them BACK!" She shouted at the inanimate object, but it only replied in silence as the pale red light from the stone stared at her scornfully.
"No no nononono." One of her eyes twitched, as her knuckles around the stone started to whiten. She glanced back over to the body of Ante. Then the laughing started. This was a joke, right? yes, this was funny. A joke! A cosmic joke! She had to laugh at it, it was so funny! The stone she created to heal people, through so much trial and error, experimentation, and with magic that would get her expelled from the city...The thing she could use to never loose anyone she cared about again...took the only thing in the world she cared about.
She threw the stone against the far wall. No. It wasn't the stones fault...it was entirely on her. In a brief second, she had let her emotions get the best of her. With her own hand...if only she could distance herself more...perhaps...
The mage's shoulders slumped.
Oh merciful goddess...was this the folly of those who tried to play God? The folly of those who sought research and answers through any means? Even at the cost of sacrificing others and everything else? The desire to know? The desire for knowledge? Was it so wrong? Did the ends not justify the means? She was going to heal, save, and protect so many people with it! Was it so wrong, Goddess?! So wrong to deserve having
everything taken from her? The only thing she cared about after her parents passed!?
What had she even been doing? The thoughts of the previous few days were foggy at best. Like she had been in some sort of haze. How did...this even happen? It took a few seconds for the alchemists laughing to die down as she picked up their twins body, and hugged it close to her.
"I'm so...so sorry." She choked out words through her tears.
"I'm just a fool, like always...I-I love you too, Ante." She vaguely recalled their last words, and returned them.
And now she would have to live with it...for however long she was going to live.
...
no.
She couldn't stay here. She had never been the type to dwell on things. To let something like a little roadblock like this stop her. She...she should move. She'd bury Ante next to Julius. They'd like that. She could do it, easily with the stone. No one would question her going to visit an old mentors grave.
Trembling legs eventually supported her weight as she stood. Fine, then. She'd take this cursed stone, and do exactly as she said she'd do with it. It was the least she could do, even if atonement was something she'd never have.
Harena Empire, Library of Vis.
Lab of Saint Auges
- Roughly 2 years later.Auges slumped in her chair, a deadpan expression studying the stone as her other hand wrote quietly on a piece of parchment. She couldn't take this any more, could she? The living was fine, but all they wanted her to do was to kill people these days. Fight in their wars as some sort of divine protection. Bah...she was a doctor, not a fighter.
....she was so tired.
There was the sound of a door creaking open as someone stuck their head into the door.
"Doctor Magnus?""...what is it, Thomas?""You...aren't changing your mind, are you?" Silence passed for a few seconds as the door closed, and Thomas - her apprentice for the past two years since Ante died, and the only person she ever spent extended periods with these days.
"No, I am not Thomas." She went back to writing, letting the amulet fall from her hands and hang limply from around her neck.
"I am compiling my notes for you. All my years of study, accomplishments, theories on magics and sciences of all kind. It will serve you well.""Master Magnus I doubt-""You have a brilliant young mind, Thomas. Much better than mine and you aren't tired of these endless wars that our fool of a nation wraps itself up in." She stopped writing, resting the pen on the table next to her notes as she got up from her seat and walked over to the taller man. The only real thing she disliked about looking like a child, was being so goddamn short all the time. Ugh. Not to mention anytime she traveled outside of Harena, people always had difficulty believing her about anything.
"I know. You think now that I am running, being a coward." She coolly gazed up at her apprentice. Despite looking like a child and being much shorter than him, she still managed to somehow appear serious, and at times even a little intimidating.
"I am a doctor. I heal people. I save lives. That is what I do. I am not a fighter. I don't like it. It's messy, and in the end someone always gets hurt. Someone always looses a loved one. Fighting should always be a last resort between people when you are defending yourself. At least...that is what I made an Oath to do..." Her voice trailed off as she sighed.
"But in the end I can't protect everyone...not even the people in this world that I care the most about.""Doctor Magnus...Auges, I know what happened but that's no reason to leave! Harena needs you! I'm just an apprentice I'm not-" He suddenly found himself silenced by having her place a firm hand over his mouth.
"You don't need me in any aspect, Thomas...and Harena needs me like it needs those Nashaan fools constantly biting at its heels." She removed her hand, as she walked back over to her desk and gathered her notes from her writing desk.
"You are brilliant, Thomas. One of these days you'll become a great healer, thinker, and philosopher of Harena. The name Thomas Aquinas will go down in history as one of the most influential people of this age. Harena needs to not rely on me anyways..." She shook her head.
"I love this country, I do, but in the end I can't protect such things, can I? You know that." She walked back over, handing her notes to the young scholar.
"...this will probably be the last time we meet, Thomas." His expression clearly wanted to know where she'd be going.
"I will travel...I need to get away from here. This place isn't somewhere I can stand being any longer." She walked past him as she continued.
"I give the lab to you. If anyone has any questions, there's a document in there that has taken care of all the legal precedents. I give you everything here that I still have.""May the sun shine on your travels, and the winds bring you comfort, Auges.""...haha, the sun is the last thing I need right now." She laughed bitterly, tugging on the sun shaped amulet as the door shut behind her.
That was the last time anyone in Harena saw the Immortal Saint.
Ha...sun really was the last thing she needed, wasn't it? The sun cast its warm light in the area around her - it's scornful rays feeling much warmer than usual, ever since that day. Not that she minded, she deserved every bit of it. The doctor looked back down at the path before her. A well worn path she had made herself, simply to be much easier to get to the top of the mountain.
It was about time, wasn't it?
It had taken her a while to arrive at the northern mountains. It was the place where no one would be likely to find her...or whatever remained of her with a bit of luck. No one would find the amulet, either. She'd made sure of that. As she walked, the winds picked up ever so slightly, but she paid them no mind. She had grown accustomed to them in her short time living here. She cast her gaze back up to the sky, meeting the sun with a frown before quickly looking back towards the path. The warm desert sands of Harena were far, and no matter how much she missed them she'd never return. She wouldn't allow herself too.
Eventually the path up the rocky slope narrowed, and the alchemist had to balance carefully in order not to fall. She wasn't ready, not quite yet. She could have used a bit of evocation to make this easier, but she was still working up to courage to do this. Not long after she reached the end of the path, the steep slope of the mountain her only companion now.
...and a bottle of Ante's favorite drink. Magically transmuted, of course...that was the only way she could get it up here, after all. She sighed, opening the plain bottle and taking a seat, throwing her legs over the edge of the rock face, leaning her back against the wall behind her.
"Hah..." She frowned, tossing the cork down the mountain before taking a large swig of the drink. Absolutely disgusting, but it was appropriate.
"How long has it been now, Ante?" She spoke to the air.
"...a few years at most, really...and yet, here I am. Still...alive." Auges shoulders slumped as the mage rest one of her arms on her knees. A few seconds passed before a few tears started forming.
"...Still...stupid and...a huge idiot." Another drink.
"Haha...I could never do anything without you, could I? Sure, I was always the calm one. The smart one. The one who had the plan, but..." She grit her teeth, grinding them together.
"IT MEANS NOTHING IF YOU'RE NOT HERE!" Her voice echoed across the mountain.
"I just can't, Ante. I can't do anything. I can't heal anyone...I'm no doctor. I couldn't even save you or Julius! Or mom and dad or anyone I cared about! What's the point of being a martyr, a Saint, a hero at all if I end up alone?!"Another drink. She felt sick.
"...I'm so tired, Ante. So very tired of living. So tired of everything. I haven't even slept in what feels like a week." She chuckled, setting the bottle on the ledge.
"...haha..." She stood, looking over the slope of the mountain beneath her.
...this should be high enough.
The sun rose once again, over the cold northern mountains, illuminating them with its pale glow. A bird cried in the distance as it looked for its early morning meal, complaining slightly as a cool breeze buffeted it. Upon the tops of one of the mountains, sat a very child like person wearing a slightly tattered cloak, but otherwise clothing that could easily be described as marking them as someone of nobility, or well off merchant. They seemed to be sleeping, leaning back against a rock wall as their legs hung over the edge of the sheer cliff below.
In truth...they looked extraordinarily out of place in these wild lands. Not to mention their rather precarious position. One would think them probably a fool. Thankfully, it didn't take them long to wake from their seemingly drunk slumber, as a bottle laid next to them.
"Hrm..." The seeming child stirred, eyes blinking open with a yawn and a stretch. For a few seconds, they sleepily gazed over the landscape, not entirely too aware of their situation. They rubbed their face, trying to rub the sleep out of their eyes. It took Auges all of five seconds to realize something was very, very, very, wrong.
"...huh?" She suddenly bolted up, nearly falling over the edge of the ledge again as she took a few moments to steady herself.
"By the great goddess!" What in the name of Vis was she doing?! Well, no, she knew what she was doing but how did she get here. She distinctly remembered the...the...'splat' part. It felt like it was very, very, recent, but she also had some very, very, distinct memories of walking for a very long time, under a harsh sun.
...what on earth happened? It took Saint Auges a few moments to process all that had happened, and collect her thoughts. One: she had died. She made sure of that. Secondly: She was now alive, after an indeterminate amount of time. She held her hands in front of her, simply studying them. This wasn't a...dream or anything, was it? Some sort of ill fated hallucination her mind was giving her after going erm...'splat', was it? It felt so real, if it was. She turned her head towards the sky, a heavy weight being felt around her neck as the amulet she wore made its presence known.
Quickly, she pulled it from under her clothing and studied it. It looked so...normal. Just as she remembered it.
...so not only was she somehow spared death from splattering all over the ground, the amulet was as well.
"Heh..." So, not only was she a failure of a doctor and a fool, she couldn't even kill herself properly, could she?! Her hand tightened around the amulet again. It was probably because of this accursed thing, then...just like everything else was its fault, too. A few seconds of silence passed as she glared at the stone, then she sighed. No, she didn't have enough information to blame whatever happened on the stone.
"Well, alright..." She gazed at the unfamiliar landscape below. Enough time had passed for the landscape to shift, if even a little. Some things were recognizable from this height, but at the same time...huhm. She wondered how Harena was faring in her absence.
"Mulcent Aurae!" Her body became light as the gentle wind caressed her body, causing her to hover a few feet off the ground, before zipping down the mountain side and traveling South. If nothing, she was now curious as to what happened.
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