Chapter Dark and Light

It was a cold autumn day at Wynd Academy, the Autumn Festival was now in full swing, Headmaster Wynd had allowed the festival to come to the Academy this year, in an effort to boost morale among the staff and students. He himself however wasn’t seen around campus much these days, he blamed himself for what happened to the final year students, he threw them into an unknown battleground before they were prepared. He felt he sent them to their deaths.

“Deux, you cannot blame yourself” A tall woman wearing a formal robed outfit sighed, as she pushed her raven black hair away from her eye “You couldn’t have known how severe things were over in Terrana. No one expect, Hells, no one has SEEN anything like that before, we all just expected it to be another invasion from Aranei, not... whatever that was.”

“They were my responsibility, Lelana, I threw them into the unknown... I should have gone with them” Deux Wynd sighed.

“No, you are needed here, you know that, it’s important the Academies carry on functioning as normal. The Academies are the pillars of this world, when they fall, the elements will become unbalanced, even now you can see the effects from whatever occurred over there at Una” Professor Lelana explained “The trees, the soil... they’re not as they used to be.”

“Still...” Deux frowned.

“Trust me, you did what was needed, know that” Professor Lelana comforted Deux.

“TOFFEE APPLES” Roisin exclaimed “Huh?” Ashe shrugged “Toffee... apples?” Logan laughed The three were sat in the dorm room playing a board game, it was dusk outside, and the cold autumn breeze blew into the room.

“Yeah! Me and Syl always had them at this time of year when growing up, they’re a-mazing!” Roisin explained excitedly.

“If you say so, Ros” Logan laughed.

“Sounds like a way to lose your teeth if you ask me” Ashe smiled.

“Sounds like you’re a coward then, Ashe” Roisin teased.

There was a knock at the door, the three turned to look at it.

“Come in” Roisin shouted The door opened, a 5ft tall boy with long bunny like ears, and short brown hair walked in.

“Oh hi, Dex’ you missed the start of the game, but you’re welcome to join in” Logan smiled.

“Yeah, grab a seat!” Roisin waved Dex over.

“Thanks guys, I also brought some coffee for you all” Dex smiled.

Dex, also known as Dexter was a first year student like Roisin and Ashe, they had gotten to know each other over the past week or so when Dex helped Ashe and Roisin with their Crysto-physics homework. Dex wasn’t human, neither were over half of the students at Wynd Academy, various different races lived across Crystalla, but they were all welcome to attend most Academies. Dexter was a Hubun, Dex often pondered how much thought went into the naming of his species. The four friends played the board game deep into the hours of the night. It was a weekend after all.

Sebastien woke up out of breath, he looked around, unsure of where he was, the last thing he could recall is losing his arm. He suddenly sat up straight and looked around, he was in a dark tent, if he was still in the city, the light couldn’t reach here. He looked at where his left arm had been. To his surprise, a ‘Crystech Augments’ arm was now in its place.

“Like it?” A familiar voice spoke from the shadows.

“Who is that?” Sebastien backed away from the shadow.

“Andre Spectra, Headmaster of Abysial Academy, and the man who saved your life” The man smiled as he stepped out of the shadows, he had a deep scar that ran across his face, greying hair and a ‘Crystech Augments’ leg. “Sorry about the arm, I’m sure you understand why I needed to do it, without it the Light would have taken over your body, and you’d be one of her puppets.”

Sebastien nodded, and looked at his new cybernetic arm “Abysial Academy, that is the Academy dedicated to the element of darkness, right?”

“Yep, that’s how we’re surviving out here in the ruins of Terrana, only aspect that can counter her consuming light is of course, darkness” Andre explained as he took a chair.

“Who is ‘she’?” Sebastien asked.

“Lumina Lightheart, headmistress of Lumin Academy... or what remains of it” Andre explained.

“Lumin Academy? There’s no such place, light exists in all elements except darkness, so there was never any need for a Light Elemental Academy” Sebastien rebutted.

“I see you listened well in class, but trust me, Wynd doesn’t know everything, he’s... in the dark, I guess you could say” Andre smirked.

“What does Lumina want then?” Sebastien asked, feeling as if he was pulling back the curtain on a great mystery.

“She wants the world to be completely aspected to light, for some reason the light doesn’t affect her the way it does everyone else, and her minions, not her army, but her ‘cabinet’ I guess you could call them, she can prevent them from becoming like the others, I imagine she does that, so they can sneak into other cities undetected” Andre explained Sebastien looked down, before coming to a realization, he shot up and grabbed the Headmaster by the collar of his black cape, Sebastien was taken aback by the strength of his new arm.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU WARN THE REST OF US! If we’d have known, all this could have been prevented!” Sebastien roared. Andre kicked Sebastien over and then stood on his chest with his cybernetic leg.

“Oh yeah? How could you have prevented this? She torched the city in seconds, there wasn’t even time for the city to send out a warning or alarm, within a minute Terrana had fallen, she’s... she’s too powerful” Andre yelled, then backed away “Honestly, I don’t know if she can be beaten...”

The city of Aranei shone in the moonlight, it’s steel structures reflecting the glow of the moon. Commander Amanda Ferras stood on the balcony of the Imperial Academy. Looking down at the city below, she had heard the scouts reports from Terrana, and safe to say she was slightly shaken, this had been an unexpected turn of events, one which had gotten the Imperial Prince very agitated, the messenger, Gods rest his soul paid the price. Terrana was to have been the second city to fall under Imperial Command. A man walked out and put his hands around her waist.

“Not now, Herral, I need time to think” Ferras sighed as she pushed Herral away, Herral was her husband and was also a Commander in the Imperial Forces.

“Don’t worry Amanda, we have plenty of time to think about the wider world when we are at work, your students are the best in Crystalla, and I’m sure they can deal with whatever befell that backwater town” Herral smiled “I wouldn’t be so sure, the reports said... no life survived there, the technologies all failed them, it’s almost as if the city was void of any elements” Ferras explained.

Herral joined Ferras in looking over the city, both of them in their black and yellow imperial uniforms, and both with blonde and black hair, as was regulation.

“The Imperial Prince is a problem, ever since the Emperor went AWOL overseas, he has run amok in the city, I’ve heard some disturbing rumours of his ‘off the record’ visits to the city” Ferras put her head in her hands.

“You know what we must do if we are to carry out the Emperor’s wishes, Amanda” Herral looked Ferras in her steel coloured eyes “We must kill him, and take his place together, then we can enact the Emperor’s plan to spread our borders across the whole of Crystalla, we can gain the power of the Elements, and we can rule!” Herral grinned manically.

“I’m sorry” Ferras sighed, Herral looked confused, then before he could speak, Ferras threw him from the balcony “I will carry out his wish alone”