Fire Emblem: Last of the Manakete

Vote closed, update will hopefully be up this weekend.

"A burden shared is a burden halved."

Slowly, you curl your legs back onto the slab before taking a kneeling position, not taking your eyes off the stranger. She still hasn't made any move, just staring at you as if your vision was somehow based on movement and if she stayed still you couldn't see her. A part of you is terrified. Who is this person and why were they going to touch you as you slept?! However… you had always been taught that acting hastily would only make things worse, so you take a few breaths to study her.

Besides, you can feel the weight of your dragonstone in your pocket. You're not helpless. You're not defenseless. You're a big girl.

Aside from the dirtiness you'd already noticed, you see a few other things. The leggings are torn up, especially around the knees. She is slightly unsteady on her feet: some of her unconscious movements obviously her trying to keep herself upright. Her outstretched hand has a strange glove on: one that only covers part of her palm, and the bare flesh is scraped and bloody, at least one small rock wedged under the glove in a way that looks really uncomfortable. She… actually doesn't seem that threatening.

… She still hasn't said anything. Maybe she's waiting for you to speak? Carefully, you tip your chin back to meet her eyes, noticing the faint bags under them.

"Um… hello? My name is Ryza. What's your name?"

She blinks and stumbles back. "Ah!"

You raise your hands in what you hope is a placating manner. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!" you say quickly, too quickly it sounds like babbling but you have to keep going because she's staring at you like she's never seen anyone like you before. "You were just standing there, and I thought you might have gotten frozen or confused something. What are you doing here?" Wait, that sounded like an accusation, but surely it was a fair one, you hadn't come into her room and stared at her!

The girl closes her eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath. "My… my apologies," she says, finally lowering her hand and shifting her string-stick in front of her, gripping it tightly with both hands. Studying it, you try to remember where you've seen it before, you've certainly read something about something that looks like that…

She, meanwhile, takes another breath before straightening up. "My apologies for disturbing you," she continues, her voice more steady as she inclines her head precisely. "Well met, Ryza. I am Lady Artemis Cartese, first daughter of Archduke Letoro Cartese of Agrithe. My most sincere apologies for disturbing you: had I been aware the crystal was your sleeping place I would have left it be."

You cock your head. Crystal? Where did a… crystal…

"This shall be your bed… your sleep shall be so deep that you will not feel it."

Father had said that, just before he cast a spell, and he'd only cast the spell because…

Memories came rushing back. The sound of people coming to your home. Mother striding off to fight them with the finality of someone who knew their battle was hopeless. Father bringing you to this shrine, putting you on the alter to putting you to sleep so you would live where they would not.

If neither of them was here to wake you up…

Your vision started to waver as you felt tears start to fill your eyes. They were gone, weren't they? Father and Mother were gone and you were alone. You don't care that this strange girl is still staring at you, waiting for a response, all you can think is that they're gone and you're alone. You can't hold it back, you let out a gasping sob as you slump in on yourself. "Father…" you moan. "Mother…"

Through the haze of tears and grief, you faintly notice Artemis staring blankly at you again. "I… what did I say wrong…" she whispers, seemingly talking to herself more than to you. "Ryza, what's… what's wrong?" You try to answer, you really do, but you just can't, it hurts too much. Instead, you simply hug yourself as your sobs start to turn into wails. You barely even notice the faint crackling and hissing coming from your pocket, the warmth of your dragonstone turning to heat as it reacts to your emotions…

A moment later, however, you're engulfed in warmth as the girl steps forward and wraps her arms around you. "I'm sorry Ryza," she says, her own voice shaking slightly as she hugs you, pulling your face into her chest to muffle your cries. "I don't know what's going on or why you were in that crystal or why you're sad, but please, please don't cry so loudly! There are… people, on this mountain who want to hurt me, who have hurt my friends, and if they find me… Just please… please don't cry…"

You'd always been something of a cuddle-drake. Your family showed you affection primarily through touching: pats on the head from your father and mother when they were proud of you, hugs whenever you were sad or scared. Even though she's a stranger… the warmth of Artemis's arms wrapped around you give you an anchor to focus on. Wrapping your own, smaller arms around her, you focus on your breathing, just as Father taught you. Breath in, listen to her heartbeat. One, two, three, breath out. One, two three, breath in…

You don't know how long the two of you hold each other, but finally you're able to bring yourself under control, at least for the moment. The pain is still there, of course, you can't see it ever going away, but you're no longer at risk of losing yourself to it.

Slowly, you try to pull away, and after a moment Artemis lets you. "I am sorry, Ryza" she says stiffly as she shuffles to sit on the other side of the alter, blinking rapidly for some reason. "That was… presumptuous of me. I am sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

You shake your head. "No… thank you," you say, rubbing the last of the tears out of your eyes and sniffling. "I... my emotions were going to overwhelm me, and I was going to do something bad. You stopped me." You clumsily bow. "Thank you, Lady Artemis Cartese, first daughter of Archduke Letoro Cartese of Agrithe."

She's staring at you again. "You... just Lady Artemis is sufficient," she says.

"Oh. You introduced yourself that way, so I thought that's what you wanted to be called."

"No, no," she sighed. "I was still surprised by you, and so I followed my training." You frown: why would that be something she was trained to do. Had her father been worried she wouldn't remember his name if she didn't always use it as part of an introduction? Somehow, you get the feeling she'd be insulted if you asked, so you don't.

Instead, you return to an earlier question. "So… Lady Artemis, what are you doing here? Why did you wake me up?"

She frowns. "I will admit, I was not aware you were in here," she said. "I am running from men who wish to do me harm, and I took shelter in these ruins." You flinch slightly at your home being described as ruins, but you let her continue. "While I was here, a wall disappeared when I touched it, and there was a large crystal that was emitting light." She hesitated, clearly worried that mentioning it would start you crying again, but you were in control, you could be brave, just like Father and Mother would want you to be.

When you didn't start sobbing again, she kept going. "I wanted to make sure that they couldn't find me, so I was trying to make the crystal stop glowing, but it broke when I touched it. When everything cleared, you were lying there, and you woke up a moment later." Her cheeks took on a pink tinge. "I was… somewhat unnerved, and so I was watching you to see what you would do. Once again, I apologize if I made you uncomfortable."

So she had been waiting to see what you would do. That's why she'd just been staring at you. "Oh. Sorry," you say.

She shakes her head. "You were just waking up; I should have been responsible enough to recognize that and work to reassure you. The fault is mine."

"No, I should have-" You stop mid-sentence, cocking your head slightly. In the distance, echoing down the corridor, you can hear footsteps.

A moment later, Artemis seems to hear them too, as she lets out a hissing breath. "Fuu…unny spirits" she hisses. "That's them, the men who are after me!" She stands, grabbing her stick from where she'd dropped it and pulling another, shorter stick with a sharp point on it out. You suddenly remember where you'd seen it before. Mother had been sure to teach you about the humans who lived around: that was a bow, a weapon humans used to protect themselves since they couldn't use magic or turn into dragons.

That meant that Artemis was a human. You perk up a bit: you'd never met a human before! You had so many questions!

She, meanwhile, turns to you, fear and anger warring on her face. "The wall. The wall disappeared when I got here, do you know how to make it come back?!" she asks desperately. "There are too many of them to fight, and I don't think we can outrun them! If they catch us, they'll hurt me, and I don't even want to think about what they'll do to you!"

What do you do:

[] Agree with Artemis and try to close the wall. You're good at magic; surely you can figure out whatever trick Father used to make the wall appear and disappear. Then the two of you can be safe.

[] Disagree and suggest that you run. This is your home; you know it well, even in the dark. You are sure you'll be able to evade them and lead Artemis to safety. Besides, you can fly, it'd be easy to keep ahead of them.

[] Disagree and suggest that you stand and confront them. Artemis described them as bad people and seems scared of them, but if Artemis is human, they're probably human to. You are a manakete: you're not afraid of some humans.

[] Write-In (2-3 sentence overview)

Voting will end in about 3 hours: we currently have a tie between making a break for it or trying to seal up the wall.



EDIT: Tie unbroken, so I'll just throw a dice. 1 is flee, 2-3 is close wall.

"Say what you will about the cruelty and arrogance of dragons, but no man can deny that when it comes to magic, we stand entirely upon their shoulders."
-Headmaster Damien Stormspeaker in an address to the Imperial Court

You hesitate, torn between two instincts. The first is to go someplace where you can feel safe, someplace where you can feel more comfortable, without the lingering pain and memory of your father's final moments looming over you. You can even think of a few places: your room is on the level above this, your parents' chamber the one above that. Even the peak-balcony…

However, you also were taught that, when you were lost or confused, it was best to stay put, take a few minutes to think, then act when you had a plan. This place was perfect for that: there has to be a way to put the wall back up, since Father was able to close it after putting you to sleep. He had taught you almost everything you know about magic, surely he would have made it so you could close the wall. It shouldn't take you that long to figure it out.

What really makes your decision, however, is when you look over at Artemis. She's still staring desperately at you, her fingers gripping her bow tight enough that you're worried it might break. You take note of just how unsteady she is despite clearly not wanting to show weakness. You could outrun and outthink the people here. You're not sure she could, not in her current state. This is doubly true because, while you have wings, you don't think you're strong enough to carry her without resorting to your dragon form. That's not something you want to use unless you absolutely have to, not with Mother and Father... gone. Besides, you're not sure how well Artemis would take being picked up by a dragon three times her size.

The thought of just leaving her barely even crossed your mind before you dismiss it. Even ignoring the fact that she'd woken you up and comforted you when you were sad, Mother and Father had raised you to be better than that.

"Okay," you say, hopping off the alter and trotting over to where the wall had been. "Don't worry, I'll get it back!"

"Thank you, Ryza," Artemis says. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Probably not," you say distractedly. Humans can't use magic, after all. Most of your focus, however, is on your father's handiwork. You have some ability to see in the dark; not as much as a Black tribe member would, but enough that you can avoid crashing into walls as you leave the faint light from the few runes still lit around the alter itself. However, for this sort of thing you need a bit more precision. Idly, you raise a hand and create a small ball of lightning to give you some light to work with; you'd grown a lot in the forty years since you'd first struggled with this trick.

You hear a faint gasp from behind you, but you push it out of your mind as you study the runes near the place where the shrine ends and the corridor begins. This is certainly Father's work; you can recognize his hand and style in the runes without even thinking about it. That gives you an advantage: Father is… was, logical. He wouldn't put the controls anywhere else, so you don't have to go wandering around looking.

The problem you quickly run into is just how complicated he made this. You can see dozens of bits of rune structure doing a dozen different things, not all of which you recognize. Thank the Mother they all seem to be intact, or else this would surely be impossible. What you don't see, however, is anything related to creating or erasing large amounts of rock. Surely something like that would have to be obvious, it would certainly take a lot of energy if nothing else!

A small frown crosses your face as you move to study the other wall. There's nothing here either. It couldn't be on the outside: Father wouldn't have made anything obvious out there, or else anyone would have been able to find this place, and he had clearly meant it to be a place where you could be safe. That meant the charging rune had to be inside, but you weren't seeing it.

'Logic, be logical, Ryza!' you think, taking a step back and staring at the gap. 'It has to be here, it has to be. You just need to think how Father would have done it.'

"Ryza…" Artemis says softly, and you glance back at her to see her staring at the ball of lightning in your hand, her mouth gaping. "How… how are you…"

"Father taught me well," you say primly. "Please, give me a little more time." At least, you hope it's only a little more time, as the echoes of footsteps are coming closer. You estimate you only have about ten more minutes before someone reaches you. If that.

Chewing on your lip, you dart back to the first wall: maybe if you can tell what is here, you can use that to reason out what Father might have done. There's light runes of course, a water-repellant that probably is there to keep the rest of the runes intact. A few enhancers tied into… wait a minute.

They're tied into nothing, but that doesn't make sense. Father wouldn't waste time or energy putting in runes that didn't need to be there. Not to mention how abruptly they switch out: the whole structure should have blown itself up the moment energy was put in!

Tossing your lighting ball to your other hand with practiced ease, you run a finger along the gap, the place where a rune should be, but isn't. Your fingers find no grooves, nothing but perfectly smooth rock.

Too smooth. You quickly check another section of rock, and there are tiny imperfections. But this section, it's utterly smooth.

Nothing natural is that perfect. Which meant that there had to be runes hidden there, something that could be of use. This was the handle to the shield Father had made, so where was the key?

The footsteps were coming closer. Unconsciously, your fingers drifted to your pocket, reassuring yourself that your dragonstone was still there, just in case… wait a moment! Father had used his dragonstone to open the wall! Which made sense: dragonstones were the physical manifestation of a manakete's soul, something no other manakete could fake! Pulling out your dragonstone, you press it to the point on the wall where the activator should be.

You feel a faint drain of magic as a spark flashes along your stone, and a moment later the wall begins to reform. Glancing around, you gasp as you realize that simultaneously, the wall behind the shrine is fading away at exactly the same rate as the new one is appearing.

As you watch the two walls, you realize the genius of what your father had done: any spell that created or destroyed that much mass would take too much energy: any sort of illusion would risk being detected, but by shifting a wall between two predetermined points, Father had made a defense that would stand up to scrutiny. There might be some tiny imperfections, but anyone looking for a hiding place would be looking for either a hidden door or an illusion spell, neither of which where here! That must be why he put an illusion over the activator: with the wall in the way, most of the magical energy would be invisible, but even a slight amount leaking through could tip an intruder off!

As you'd been marveling sadly at your father's brilliance, the wall finished shifting positions. A moment later, a second flash of energy was transferred from your stone, and you watched as dust rose up from the ground and tucked itself into the faint groove, smoothing it out until it was completely invisible.

"We're safe now," you say cheerfully, putting your stone away before bouncing your lightning ball from your forehead back to your hand. Rather than let it go to waste, you trace it along some of the light runes, giving the room a flickering white-blue glow. "Good idea with the wall!" As you turn back to Artemis, you see her staring at you, her mouth opening and closing silently. "Lady Artemis, are you okay?"

"I…" The human shook her head. "Yes, yes of course," she said finally. "Thank you, Ryza. That was… that was very well done."

You shrug. "I didn't really do anything, this was all Father's work," You gesture around. "I just turned it back on."

Artemis frowns. "I was referring to the spell you cast," she said, a strange note entering her voice as she points to your hand. "I never had an aptitude for magic, but my brother does, so I know a little of how difficult that must have been." You blink. Artemis's brother could use magic? That was impossible: human bodies were simply not designed to wield arcane energies!

Before you could interrupt, however, Artemis continued. "Your father must have been a great sage, to have designed something like this and taught you so well."

"He… he was," you say, distracted by the sadness creeping back into your mind as you remember that Father's gone now. "Mother was too. She was more powerful than he was, but he… he was better with this sort of thing."

The human's eyes soften slightly. "You miss them, don't you," she said. "That's why you were sad earlier."

Nodding, you settle yourself against the alter. "Yes," you say. "Father… father brought me here, when the mad people came to hurt us. He said that I'd be safe, that I'd wake up to a world without war."

Artemis is quite for a long moment, and when you sneak a peek at her you see her brow furrowed in thought. When she notices you looking, however, she forces a smile onto her face. "I'm so sorry to hear that, Ryza," she said. "I… I just lost someone very precious to me as well. The men who were after me…" She laughs bitterly. "I guess we're alike, you and I. Even if I can't make lightning with a tome, let alone without one."

Gingerly, you reach out and put a hand on her shoulder, ready to pull it back if she didn't like it. "I'm sorry," you whisper.

"Don't be, Ryza," she says, patting your hand gently. "You and your father's work saved me, and I am grateful for that."

The two of you sit together for a minute before Artemis speaks again. "Ryza… if you don't mind me asking, what was your father's name? I have been trying to think of all the great sages from history, and I cannot think of any who match all the criteria you've given."

"I… I don't know what you mean," you say. "He was just… Father. That's what he was, who he was."

"I suppose that makes sense…" Artemis says, but as you look at her you can tell that she's not satisfied for some reason. Her tired gaze has taken on a questioning note as she studies you up and down.

[] Tell her more: "My father was an elder member of the Yellow tribe, trusted and sought for advice by many manakete. I wasn't his only student, though I never met any of the others, they were all gone by the time I was born…"

[] Distract her: "The men who are after you… what do they want? Why would they hurt your friend? Why were you scared for me?"

[] Make a suggestion: "You look tired. And hurt. You should get some sleep; I'll make sure nothing bad happens."

[] Talk about something else: (Write in)