Crystal Legacy - Generation 5 (Part 19)

 

Abandoned by her mother at an early age, Citrine has always been loved by her family and she loves them all the more in return. But even that love can't fill the hole inside of her, and chasing after her past only leads to more heartbreak.

Leaf?: No matter. Stay there.

Citrine: GAH!

Amber: OBSCURO! Let him go!

Citrine: oof–

Fern: Daddy–*gasp*–daddy please—

Obscuro-Leaf: Your father is dead, child. You will join him soon.

Fern: Dad–fight him!

Amber: Citrine! Citrine wake up–no no no…

Obscuro-Leaf: *snort* You have no idea who you are dealing with, child. None can resist the Darkness.

Amber: Citrine! Dammit–

Amber: Hang on, baby. Cal!

Amber: CALCITE!

-

Calcite; Gah!

Calcite: The fudge was….

Nova: Cal?

Nova: Babe, what is it?

Calcite: I don’t…I don’t know. I heard Amber. She was calling me. Something’s…*sigh* I don’t…

Nova: Easy, easy. What did she say?

Calcite: Nothing. She called my name–screamed it. I never heard her like that before. Something’s…

*Frantic, angry barking*

Nova: Something’s wrong. Come on.

*frantic, furious barking*

Saffron: Ori? What’s gotten into you?

Moonstone: I’ve never heard him like this before!

Moonstone: Let him out.

Calcite: Mama?

Moonstone: He knows something. Let him lead.

Moonstone: You stay close to him.

Calcite: Right. Okay, Ori, back. Let me get the door.

Nova: Where’s he going?

Calcite: I don’t know–wait. He’s crossing the street!

Nova: As in to Fern’s?!

Calcite: As in to Ferns!

Fern: Daddy–Daddy, please–

Obscuro-Leaf: You fool Hunters, toying with things you cannot hope to understand.

Citrine: …mm…Fern?

*thud*

Obscuro-Leaf: Now. Where were we?

Fern: *coughing*

Fern: *coughing gasp* Cit–stop!

Citrine: …who…are you?

Citrine: …no…what are you?

Obscuro-Leaf: *laugh* Oh, you fool child. I am beyond your comprehension. Now, come with me.

Obscuro-Leaf: We have a door to unlock.

Fern: No…stop…

Fern: STOP!

Fern: I said stop!

Obscuro-Leaf: Wha–you would–

Fern: Back in your hole, shadow!

Obscuro: This will not–

Fern: I, Fern Strike of the House of Thorns, banish you back to the Void where you came!

Obscuro: You–fool–

*thudding fall*

Fern: Give me back my father!

Leaf: ….F…ern?

Leaf: …F…ern…

Fern: ..Daddy… I’m sorry.

*thud*

Nova: Ori–oh, Watcher! Spring!

Nova: Cal, get in here!

Calcite: What…what happened?!

Nova: Spring’s dead. Leaf isn’t breathing–the girls!

Calcite: We need to get them out of here.

That morning…

Mantis: Get out of my way!

Calcite: Not until you calm down! They’ve been through enough.

Mantis: They–

Nova: Mantis, settle. We can talk through this.

Mantis: The only talking I’m going to do is with my traitor of a niece!

Calcite: Not until you calm the fudge down you’re not!

*arguing continues….*

Fern: ….this is gonna suck.

Citrine: …mm…where…

Citrine: …Fern?

Fern: …yeah. We’re in the clinic, sunshine. Don’t move too much.

Citrine: …are you…okay?

Fern: ….no. I’m not.

Fern: …and I’m gonna be worse when Uncle Mantis comes through that door.

Citrine: …not alone…you’re not.

Citrine: oh, ow….

Fern: Cit–*gasp* Oh no…

Mantis; You–do you have any idea how much of an idiot you’ve been?! How many Hunters you got killed?!

Fern: Uncle, I–

Mantis: No! You are no family of mine!

Fern: …what?

Mantis: I cast you out of this family!

Calcite: Mantis!

Mantis: Stay out of this! You–

Fern: Uncle, please–

Mantis: Your actions got your parents killed. An entire squad of Hunters met their end defending the Well you led our enemy to! The Well is lost!

Mantis: And for what? A pretty face? *scoff* You disgust me.

Fern: ….I…

Mantis: And you can’t even defend yourself.

Mantis: You are a Huntress no longer. I cast you out from the Hunters, and disown you from the family Strike!

Nova: Mantis! 

Fern: ….I…I understand.

Mantis: Never set foot in the Realm ever again. You are forgotten by all, forsaken by the Ancestors and the Watcher herself! None will remember you when you inevitably get yourself killed!

Fern: ….I understand.

Mantis: Your parents will be buried with honors for their duty. You will die unloved and unremembered.

Mantis: You are shunned.

Fern: ….

Mantis: She’s your problem now. Get out of my way.

Calcite: Gladly. *snort* Good riddance to bad trash.

Nova: Unbelievable. 

Citrine: …what was that?!

Fern: …I’ve been disowned. I’m…I have nothing left. I don’t…I don’t know what to do now…

Nova: You come home with us.

Fern: ….I’ll get you all killed. Like my parents.

Nova: You didn’t kill them. Mantis explained enough…you defended yourself, and Citrine. That’s self-defense, not murder.

Fern: …I got them killed. I put you all in danger. 

Nova: We can protect ourselves. Better with you with us.

Fern: ….I…you really want me there?

Nova: Of course.

Nova: You can room with Citrine.

Calcite: You wouldn’t mind, would you?

Citrine: Not at all! 

Fern: I…

Fern: I…*sob*

Nova: Oh, kiddo…come here.

Calcite: You’re okay.

Calcite: You’re safe. It’s over now.

The Realm of Magic…

Mantis: And so I disowned her from the line of Strike, and from the Hunters.

Mantis: It was the only punishment that fit the crime.

Ignis: ….so it would appear.

Fulgur: Well. One can certainly call it fitting. Fitting for Fern herself, though….

Glacies: What alternative would there have been, brother? Death for her dishonor?

Terra: ….perhaps not.

Chronos: While we cannot approve of your actions without Council approval, we understand the situation is changing. We will not censure you for this decision, Mantis of the House of Thorns.

Mantis: I thank the Council for its wisdom.

Fulgur: Now, onto the other matter…all our scouts are reporting the same thing. The Well has been drained of its water. We must assume whomever turned Leaf stole away with it.

Glacies: Which is a whole other problem! Watcher, but we cannot afford distractions now!

Chronos: True. Very well–Mantis, join with the squads in the search. This we command.

Mantis: By your leave, Masters. 

Fulgur: Well. That went well.

Ignis: For a given value of well. *sigh* Chronos, was that wise? If the seal is cracking, we cannot afford to be losing Hunters to such….emotional decisions.

Chronos: Mantis is head of his family. How he decides to deal with them is his business.

Fulgur: Fern is a child! A trainee! She made a mistake, yes, but it was hardly her fault an entire squad of Hunters could not hold the well!

Chronos: Had she not revealed its location, Fulgur…

Ignis: So this is her punishment, then. To be held guilty for something she played so little a part in, without even facing a trail of her peers as humans do?

Glacies: That hardly strikes me as fair! She has the right to defend herself before us, and we shall pass whatever judgment is necessary! Or why else even bother with this farce of a council?

Ignis: Yes…why even bother.

Chronos: It is done, brothers. We have other business to attend to now.

-

Ignis: Vita, with me.

Vita: Yes, sir.

Vita….father?

Ignis: Blasted time mages. So caught in his ways he can’t see the world has changed without us…*sigh* Growing old is both blessing and curse, Vita. Take care not to forget that.

Vita: I’ll try not to. …how bad is it?

Ignis: We have time. Not much, but…some.

Ignis: Do you recall when we first arrived here? How the Sages were so up in arms about learning the world was different than they recalled?

Vita: I remember a lot of yelling. They weren’t happy to see us come back after a thousand years away, either. Is that what’s going on with Master Chronos?

Ignis: More or less. Our time in the Void has…well, we were removed from this world for so long it spun on without us. Change can be difficult to manage at the best of times. 

Vita: And these aren’t the best of times. …can he really escape?

Ignis: His spirit is bound to the Void, but…if there was ever a spirit powerful enough…it would be him. And if the seal were to crack enough that someone of enough power could reach in and offer a hand…

Vita: ….he’d get pulled free.

Ignis: And lay waste to the world he once tried to conquer, yes.

Vita: I’ve read the stories, Father. There aren’t enough Hunters left in this world or the next to stop someone like him, and the Guardians are…we…

Ignis: Yes….Lady Lucera swore to never raise another team of Guardians. After what happened to Lluvia I cannot fault her for that, but…*sigh* I fear the worst has yet to come, my son. I will need you to prepare the others. 

Vita: Prepare them for what? A fight we can’t win? That’ll get Ardere out of his bunk, sure.

Ignis: …we must try, Vita. So long as we are still breathing, there is still hope. And so long as even a single flicker of hope remains…

Vita: It’s worth fighting for. *sigh* Okay. And…Fern? The others?

Ignis: I will see to what few trainees we have left. …as for Fern…*sigh* I am afraid she is beyond our help now. May the Ancestors look after her.

Vita: …may they look after us all.

Three years later….

Citrine: Fern?

Fern: Study!

Citrine: There you are. I was thinking of going to get lunch. Wanna come?

Fern: Huh? Oh, sure. Just let me…finish this…

Citrine: What’re you up to?

Fern: …I was looking over the photos we took of Mom and Dad’s journals before…well, Uncle left.

Citrine: Anything new?

Fern: No, just…I dunno. I keep going back to Dad’s last entry. How they’d gotten a tip about vampire influence in the area and…this name keeps popping up.

Ctrine: Whose?

Fern: Sanguine Shadow.

Citrine: Sanguine Shadow…wait, as in the art dealer Sanguine Shadow?

Fern: …the who the what now?

Citrine: The art dealer–here, look!

Citrine: The Newscast has been running a cultural piece of Al Simharan artworks, and she’s been a major broker in getting pieces legally on this side of the ʻAkelanika. There!

Fern: Sanguine Shadow, art dealer based in San Marshmallow….she matches the description in Dad’s journal alright.

Fern: But…she’s an art dealer, a vampire in full public eye. Why would she want the Well?

Citrine: Remember what Ori said? Obscuro can whisper to certain people, and those people are after power. If Sanguine’s one of those people…

Fern: …she’d go straight for it.

Citrine: And then that…voice that spoke through your Dad, after he and your Uncle were supposed to be protecting the Well, and your Dad went missing…

Fern: ….the Shade got my Dad, because Sanguine Shadow got him. You’re saying–

Citrine: I’m saying the Well vanishing wasn’t your fault. I’m saying it’s got everything to do with Sanguine, and I have a way to get to her.

Fern: …what?

Citrine: I said we were doing a cultural piece, yeah? Well, part of that is interviewing Sanguine herself. We’re supposed to fly out tomorrow.

Fern: What?! No, no way, you can’t–

Citrine: I can, and I will. It’s just an interview, but once we’re in town? We can do a lot more looking around.

Citrine: If she or her people have the well, we can find out where. And maybe even be sure of the why.

Fern: No, Cit, you don’t understand. She or her people turned a fully trained Hunter, got him possessed by an ancient evil spirit! We’re not–we’re not cut out to deal with that!

Citrine: I know! But if we can find out anything, maybe your Uncle will…let you back in.

Fern: …Cit, I…

Citrine: I know you miss it. And you only went looking for the well because I asked you to. If you hadn’t, your Uncle wouldn’t have been able to blame you, and he wouldn’t have kicked you out…let me help you fix this, Fern.

Fern: …okay. Okay.

Fern: …I don’t like it, but…at the very least, we should tell the other Hunters whatever we can find. San Marsh, you said?

Citrine: San Marsh. Dress warm–it’s cold up in those towers this time of year.

Spangle: So how did you get involved in the art trade, Miss Shadow?

Sanguine: Please, call me Sanguine. Now, as to how…

Sanguine: Well, it was quite simple. I have always been interested in cultures that you Berries would call “ancient”. I have lived long enough to see many in their prime, and wish simply to preserve what I can.

Spangle: A noble goal, that’s for sure. So, were you around when Al Simhara was a fully functioning dynasty? I hope you don’t mind my saying this, but you look quite good for your age!

Sanguine *chuckle* Flatterer! No, no, I was not there. The Vampire who turned me was, however, and they spoke quite fondly of Al Simhara.

Sanguine: Not so much of its radiant sunlight, of course, but the culture! So rich and storied…it is a shame to have lost so much of their past to unscrupulous dealers.

Spangle: Which is where you decided to step in?

Sanguine: Quite. What else is all this money for if not to be used?

Sanguine: I must say, I will never quite understand the point of some of you Berries with such funds…why sit on them and do nothing at all? Money is to be spent, influence to be used!

Spangle: Well, the psychologists would have plenty to say, I’d think…

Sanguine: Of course. but ah, we are getting off topic! You came for culture, not to understand monsters. There is to be a gala of like minded individuals here, tonight. You must attend!

Spangle: Ah–

Spangle: We didn’t pack a single thing worthy of a gala, ma’am.

Sanguine: That is a problem easily solved! I own several clothing stories within the city, and would be happy to lend you whatever you need for the night!

Spangle: That’s very generous of you, Miss Sanguine, but we–

Sanguine: Oh, darling, it is not a bribe! Your ethics are to be admired, but please! I will surely be taking those clothes back to sell when you are done with them! Think nothing of it other than my wishing to show you more culture!

Spangle: Well, in that case…Citrine?

Citrine: We’d be on the clock, so…why not?

Sanguine: Then it is settled! Aconite will take you to a boutique that suits the theme tonight, and that will do.

Sanguine: Aconite! …hm, I suppose she must have stepped out. Ah, no matter. I will give you the address instead. Here–

Citrine: That’s—

Sanguine: Only the best, of course!

Sangiuine: Now, please, find something you truly enjoy! One does not attend galas every night!

Spangle: We will. Thank you, Miss Sanguine.