Chapter Balance

Ashe, Roisin and Dex were sat in a classroom, listening to the teacher explain the history of the elementals, it was a tale everyone knew in Crystalla, but even so, they were required to learn about it.

“In Ancient times, 13 Gods descended onto this chaotic star, they saw the grave imbalance of the elements that plagued the planet, giving rise to terrifying creatures, who had over the centuries become over aspected to one element, and had transformed into malformed monstrosities. The Gods knew what must be done and entrusted 13 crystals of 13 elements to 13 different civilizations. Though, they soon departed to the Heavens, it is said with their guidance the world was brought into order."

"However, as the centuries passed by, the greed of mankind lead to the crystals being taken by a powerful nation. The Gods were displeased and sent the Celestial Harbinger down to the world, in an effort to wipe the slate clean. However, as the Celestial Harbinger prepared to destroy one of the crystals, she saw a glimpse into the kindness of man. A lone defender stood in her way, she asked who dared block her path and why, the defender, a student of Pitch Darkness told her that this planet was worth dying for, that mankind would fight to the very end, even if it defied the will of the Gods themselves."

The Harbinger took great pity upon the man, and rather than destroying the crystal, she unlocked it’s potential, granting people with willpower equal to that man the ability to use the power of the crystals - an art named Crystalliam. She told the man to set up a school to train Knights to defend the Crystal from those of ill will. For the next few years, the Harbinger visited all thirteen locations and gave those orders to a person who she deemed pure of heart in each civilization.

The Harbinger, seeing that she had brought the chaos back into order, ascended into the Heavens, to face the punishment of failing in her task.” Professor Arke, an elderly looking man explained “Can we learn something we don’t know now?” Ferick Ewen, the ‘class clown’ rebutted.

“Young man, you would do well to learn from history, to study it, as not to repeat it. This story, as you can imagine is pretty relevant in modern day, with Araeni controlling two of those aforementioned crystals, and Una Academy’s crystal being either lost or taken by some unknown force” Professor Arke shouted as his slammed down a ruler, his eyes turning a shade of red, before returning to their natural hazel colouring “Forgive me... it’s been a trying month” None of the students disagreed, and Ferick even apologized, something he was not known to do. A few moment’s later the bell rang and class was dismissed.

Ashe, Roisin and Dex headed out of class, their next lesson was slightly different as it involved a field trip to the local Crystech laboratory.

“I hope we see the new Cryscomm device, the current one is running super slow these days” Dex said excitedly as the three made their way to the Aircarriage landing.

“It’s not slow you’ve just got far too many apps on it, trust me give me half an hour with your Cryscomm and it’ll be running like new!” Roisin smiled.

“Give Ros a few minutes with your Cryscomm device and the whole school will know about it, more like” Ashe teased.

“Hey!” Roisin nudged Ashe.

“You know it’s true!” Ashe laughed with Dex as they boarded the Aircarriage.

The field trip arrived at the Ishtall Crystech HQ, they walked into the atrium, the size of it was immense. Roisin could hardly believe her eyes, it had to be three times the size of the Academy’s Great Hall, large holograms were dotted around all the walls, showing the latest products. Roisin was too busy looking up and tripped up over a small floor cleaning device. Dex helped her back to her feet and chuckled.

“Gotta keep your eyes on the floor Ros” He smiled.

“But look at the size of this place, all this room just for an atrium, the size of this whole place must be... really big!” Roisin grinned, with stars in her eyes.

“I guess you like technology then?” Ashe shrugged.

“Oh yeah! The wonders of Crystech rival those of Crystalliam themselves!” Roisin gushed excitedly.

The class reached the main desk where they were logged in and each handed visitors passes which would let them visit certain areas of the HQ. Roisin grabbed her badge and looked up at a huge hologram of Dr. Rychard Pyre, the CEO and founder of Crystech. He was showing off some new car. Rychard Pyre was the son of Skylar Pyre, the ‘Headmystress’ of Pyre Academy in a city on a distant continent.

“I often wonder what his mother thought when Rychard decided to betray the family legacy and founded Crystech?” A voice spoke behind Roisin, she turned around, it was her cousin, who was newly qualified technician.

“I imagine she was... not happy” Roisin shrugged.

“I heard she even wanted him to drop his family name” Roisin’s cousin added.

“Yeesh, sounds like a bit of crappy family if you ask me” Ashe said as she walked over “Anyway, let’s not fall behind, with how the teachers are at the moment, we’ll probably end up with a month’s worth of detention and extra homework for making them worry”

Roisin nodded, and began walking away “See ya later cuz” she waved as she walked back toward the group with Ashe.

-

The class spent a few hours in the museum area of the building, looking at all the history of Crystech, Dex was taken aback by how advanced the limb replacement technology had become.

“My father had one of those limb replacement things done after an accident down at the docks... but his arm is nothing like the ones you see here, it’s pretty rusty now and squeaks” Dex was talking to the Cystech tour guide.

“Tell him to pay us a visit sometime, I’m sure we could get it replaced at a pretty reasonable price” The tour guide smiled.

“That’s the thing, we don’t really have any money for that sort of thing, neither of my parents ever awoke to any special powers, in fact I’m the first in generations, so my family has had to make do with the more menial stuff” Dex sighed, his large ears drooping.

“I can make something happen, I assure you, just give him this card and I’ll sort it out for him, it won't do having a dockworker unable to lift anything properly” The guide winked as she handed him a card.

Roisin and Ashe were making use of the combat simulator in the combat tech part of the museum, Roisin of course lost, with Ashe having a years extra experience on her, but Roisin put up a good fight. Dex caught back up with the pair, just before the class were led into the labs.

The Laboratory was a completely different experience. This wing of the laboratory had recently been renovated for a new purpose, the writing on the wall read ‘Earth Crystal Project’, the class was taken aback by those words. The guide stepped in front of the class and cleared their throat.

“This is our newest and perhaps greatest work so far. The ‘Earth Crystal Project’ is the next level of Crystechnology. The replacement of an Elemental Crystal is our goal, as you all know, the Elemental Crystal of Terrana was lost to the tragedy which struck just over a month ago.”

Ashe gave Dex and Roisin a worried look, to which they gave a similar look in agreement.

“I can see some of you are apprehensive, and so you should be! As you all should know, the Crystals were a boon given to us by the very Gods of this star themselves, however, with recent events threatening the elemental balance, we felt need to take the action into our own hands instead of waiting for the Gods to save us... if they even want to any more. So, with the cooperation of Wynd and Pyre Academies, we have taken advanced scans of the Elemental Crystals and have begun work on a replacement Crystal to be placed in Una Academy” The Tour Guide explained.

“Isn’t this, like, top secret stuff?” Ferick piped up “Why are you showing it to a bunch of students?”

“Very astute, but as of today this project is no longer classified, and is currently being announced to the wider world, in an effort to gain help of Aranei scientists...”

“WHAT?!” Dex shouted “Are you insane?” He stamped his foot.

“I understand your misgivings, but please, understand these are unprecedented times, that said we are one of the few Companies with permission to operate in Imperial Territory and in the wider world.”

“That’s bullshit, you know what they do to my kind...” Dex stormed out of the lab and slammed the door behind him, Roisin shot the Guide an angry look and ran out after him, Roisin caught up with Dex as he reached the atrium.

“Dex! Wait up!” Roisin shouted as she ran out of breath.

“Roisin...” Dex turned around, he had tears in his eyes, Roisin gave him a hug.

“They... the Araneian’s, they took people from my original home town, they took them, and we never saw them again” Dex stuttered through the tears “and now Crystech… and maybe even our own Academy wants to work with them...”

“I agree, it’s a bad idea, they simply can’t be trusted, especially after annexing an Academy, this is probably some sort of ploy for Ishtall to let their wall down” Roisin said through gritted teeth. Footsteps came up behind the two, it was Ashe.

“Dex, the teacher says it's okay to leave, if you like” Ashe explained “Me and Ros will come back with you, I think we’ve had enough of this place for one day.”

Beyond the city limits of Terrana, a small farming village sat empty. It looked as if there had been some kind of wild animal attack, blood and bodies littered the village, with large scratch marks across all the doors, as if some large wolf and torn through the town. Loud footfalls neared... a wolf walked into the town, but something was… wrong with it, almost as if part of it’s soul had been taken away. The trees around the town were all wilting too, and the cornfield that had been golden just one month previous had turned black as if the soil itself had poisoned the crops. The balance had been broken.