Crown

Vestriarzira hen Muña-Tales of Mother

Gray thought for a moment, contemplating what he wanted to say.

"Well...as far as I know, she had arrived in these lands and was already exploring for quite some time before I actually met her. Apparently, she had been getting help from the Kishan elder Daphne. I believe her little sister left Aruma An and established her own technician lab elsewhere."

Tekina was the first to recognize who it might have been seeing as there was only one person outside of Aruma An with an ancient lab.

"Phoebe right? I worked for her."

Gray snapped. "Yes! Phoebe! That's it!

"Daphne only helped her in the beginning though. She had sent her to Phoebe to get her bearings. Phoebe provided her with the technology for maps and other tools and from there she took off. I think the Onkve Domain was one of her first stops. You see almost every inch of these lands had been corrupted or otherwise plagued by the evil demon king known as Dyni. Dyni and the Queen had an ongoing grudge against one another. He sought power and wanted to destroy everyone. This went on for many generations. Each time the Queen defeated him, he returned in a new form.

This one was by far the worst though. His form was a literal representation of his hatred and malice. I don't even think it was capable of intelligent thought, it just knew to destroy. It corrupted the once vibrant guardians that served the Queen and he laid waste to the castle. There's a field, as you leave the West Omphalos known as the unmoving fields where the frozen bodies of all of the Queen's soldiers lay in eternal slumber. That field is also where she was struck down by the usurper Li.

The way the story goes is that shortly after Ri, or Ruyi as she's more commonly known here, became Queen of Aruma An, one of her friends, Li started a revolt against her. At the same time King Dyni launched his attack on the land. After the queen escaped through the dimensional rift with Enu, Dyni and Li began a war with each other. The intense burst of magical power tore the rift even further until it became a giant fissure that swallowed up the land and we began to fall through the dimensions.

This lasted 100 years and ended with Dyni ultimately coming out victorious, driving Li out of the land once we hit this dimension. With everyone out of the way, Dyni let his monsters run free and terrorize people. Misago village was one of the few places that managed to escape the brunt of it, but almost everywhere else was reduced to nothing more than ghosts of their former selves. As you travel you'll see all the ruins.

When the princess arrived in Aruma An, she began to purge the land of Dyni's monsters and eventually took on the challenge of slaying Dyni himself. However, even after she slew the evil beast, there were many places that have been forever tainted by him and thus monsters roam there. It's been many years so people have adapted to such living environments. It is thanks to the Princess that people can travel in peace and live quiet lives now. All the maps you see were even made by her! She carted the entirety of the ruins during her travels.

Aruma An is a place with many secrets and a very long history, most of which is not at all pleasant. In every nook and cranny, I can guarantee you'll find a piece of history. She was absolutely enthralled by it. She poured her heart into uncovering every single thing about this place and we had mourned for so long after her mother, our beloved Queen, died that many of us were relieved when our lost princess returned to her homeland. She liberated us. Almost everywhere you go, you will see statues of her mother, that's where people go to offer prayers and gifts for the fallen goddess. No matter how religious a person is, everyone knows to pay their respects."

"You keep calling Illya Princess, but why? She's an Empress." Tekina asked curiously.

"As harsh as it sounds, She may be an Empress outside of Aruma An, but here she is far from it. Not to mention she has never taken an oath to ascend to the throne. Her brother, ah, Sheila and Salem's firstborn that they kept hidden, was the one who took the oath to become the next Emperor."

"Ah...I see..." Hummed Tekina.

Avarice had finished his meal and placed his bowl down. He sat silently listening to Gray go on to talk about the time Illya had tamed the beasts her mother left behind, the time she trekked through pitch-black forests and wandered in labyrinths. Or even the times when she scaled mountains and battled in the many ruined coliseums scattered across the land. By the time Gray began to get into her adventures in discovering many smaller, more primitive communities, the moon had already risen high in the sky.

"Its gotten quite late..." He rasped through a dry throat. "I could go on forever. I think its best we all retire for the night."

Everyone agreed and nestled into their beds after Gray had collected their bowls and left. The next morning, Avarice was the first out of his bed. He got himself ready and decided to go outside. Stretching, he walked down the stairs. He looked off the edge of the island to see the land around them. It was much more beautiful during the day. The way the rays of sun filtered through the colorful leaves created a warm ambiance.

"Pretty isn't it."

Avarice spun around, slightly startled by whoever had snuck up on him. Sin stood behind him, he didn't look at Avarice, he just stared out at the trees.

"Listen. I'm sorry about yesterday. I could have handled that better, but I'm not going to take all the blame. You know you were being stupid too."

Avarice averted his eyes. "I know...sorry...I was just angry..."

Sin rubbed the back of his head and sighed. "Its alright. I'm sure I didn't help the situation either...now that that's rectified...we should maybe work on...being nicer to each other? Or at least make some kind of progress before we get back to mom. Knowing her, she's probably wracking her brain over whether or not we've killed each other yet."

Avarice chuckled a bit. "Alright."

Nikiro, who had unintentionally been eavesdropping this entire time, popped his head out of the door.

"You guys seem to be getting along more now. Did last nights story time ignite some brotherly bonding between you two?" He joked.

Both Avarice and Sin felt their cheeks heat up. They huffed and turned even further away from each other with mumbles of "yeah right" and "not in this lifetime" fluttering under their breaths.

Nikiro laughed at their sudden bash fullness. Tekina and Sora came out shortly after with Gray following closely behind.

"The woman you're looking for should be heading down this direction." He pointed to a path on the map. "She usually goes to the villages to sell and buy supplies. South from here is the Onkve domain. With a three days walk, she should be past here now. Her next stop would be the Kishan village in the mountains. I suggest you head over to a stable and get yourselves some horses. You'll catch up to her much faster that way."

They thanked the man and left the village. Their next stop, the nearest stable.