The Red Glaive

Without missing a beat, he walked over and embraced her in all consuming hug. The sweet scent of lavender filled her nostrils as she buried her face in his chest. She couldn’t say how much she had missed him until he was there standing before her. All the worries she might’ve had faded away.

“I still have something to show you.” Valor said.

Aeria pulled away and shut her eyes as she began to well her magic. Valor would need a glamour. She didn’t feel tired at all so she was sure she could make a stronger glamour this time. She only stopped when Valor took her hands in his. “That wont be necessary.” he said.

“But what if you’re spotted?” Aeria asked not wanting to risk the wrath of whatever order he belonged to.

“Then we won’t.” he said kissing her fingertips making Aeria blush.

They left through the tunnel after Aeria discretely dropped her pendant into the oasis. There was a city guard standing on the other end of the tunnel but he didn’t say anything when they emerged. He merely nodded briefly towards Valor.

“This way.” he said leading her away from the fortified walls of the oasis. It was dark out, lately however, because of the upcoming Radiant Week, the streets were unusually filled with more people. This night, it was deserted more than it usually was without Radiant Week. Not a single person on the streets they walked on.

The silence was unnerving, eerily reminiscent of those dark devil infested forests but worse in a way. In those forests she knew the only thing there were devils. Here, the people were just gone. Valor confidently walked slightly head of her and she knew nothing bad would happen.

This is where Adelaide would instruct her to accidentally trip, or proclaim her intense fear of the nonexistent devils so that the Valor would hold her close. Could Aeria do those things? She certainly couldn’t accidentally trip without making it obvious, neither could she claim she was afraid of devils without sounding insincere.

Why was she even thinking this?

Aeria picked up her pace and took his hand in hers. He looked at her and smiled, locking his fingers tightly around hers and nothing else mattered.

He led her around the side of the Ivory Bastion near towards the stables where Aeria hesitated. He was leading her into the caverns. “W, where are we going?” Aeria asked nervously.

“It’s a surprise.” he said urging her on. The continued on into the massive stables, the stable boy saw them but quickly ducked away. They passed the wing were all the glaive horses were kept and Aeria could distinctly see a restless Big Red in stall next to Queen and Brute.

Arsene was perched on one of the stable doors. Valor didn’t seem to see him as they passed by. Aeria looked at him perplexed but didn’t say anything. The little raven had been so good lately hardly appearing without her say so and delivering messages for her, even sending letters to Adelaide and Videl. Now this? She didn’t know what to make of it. “Don’t give him your heart,” was all he said but Aeria wasn’t sure if she could promise that anymore.

Once in the caverns led down an unfamiliar path, one she had never taken before. It started to get dark and the dim bulbs that normally lit the caverns were spaced few and far between. The darkness didn’t bother her so long as she had the earth beneath her feet she knew the way. Valor, however, lit a torch to better light their way.

The corridor was narrow, and the jagged walls look much more natural than the paths she normally took. Then they came to a spiral staircase and a thick stone door that Valor opened with a circular key that he retrieved from his pocket. Valor walked in without hesitation and Aeria faltered again but Valor reassured her by squeezing her hand. He pulled back a thick curtain and they emerged in a massive long room. The ceilings were higher than Aeria had ever seen. Ten people could stand on each other’s shoulders and they still couldn’t touch the ceiling.

“Are we in the castle?” Aeria asked. The Glaive Quarters were in the caverns below the castle, she knew that much. The knight squires were roomed somewhere else, within the actual castle it seemed. Aeria tired to think of a knightly order with that much influence. Of all the orders Videl constantly rambled on and on about the only one she could think of was the First Order; those who served the king.

“One of the oldest parts of it.” Valor said. On either side of the long room, massive tapestries that nearly reached the ceiling covered the walls. It was the first time Aeria let go of Valor’s hand as she stepped closer to one the tapestries. Every stitch was carefully laid down with fine silk made to last ages. It could easily be hundreds of years old.

At the lowest part and right at Aeria’s eye level were dark figures, all of them twisted and contorted into terrible shapes with small red beads for eyes. Devils. And above them, hooded figures stood with long bladed spears impaling the devils beneath them. Unfamiliar red symbols had been stitched to their uniforms and a red cloth was tied around the end of their spears. Their tailed jackets looked like glaive uniforms minus the symbols. Atop of them knights with white armor, long two handed great swords clasped in their hands with their tips towards the ground.

Aeria had to tilt her head all the way back, step back and squint in the torchlight too look at the rest. Resting atop clouds on each side and much larger than any of people on the tapestry were five people. On the left there was a man in what looked bright red armor and leathery wings. The armor was scaled and looked like it came out of his very skin. He embraced a woman in a thin white gown, her skin was white and her hair blue and adorned with gold beads. On the right, there was a woman, only her legs were fused into a fish tail and her hair flowed down into the rest. Beside her two men stood, one in silver armor with magnificent grey wings protruding form his back and a large nude man with skin the color of clay and bright yellow beads as eyes. She knew him immediately; the Colossus. They were the gods. They all stared in reverence at the center were a man was being crowned by a woman with silver hair and pale skin.

Looming over them all was what looked like a sun encased in what looked like a lantern cage with wide wings. The Light Bringer.

“The Ascendation of the First King.” Valor said coming to her side.

“The First King?” Aeria had heard of him here and there, though she never really paid it any mind.

“The very first King chosen to by the gods to carry on the last bit of the Light Bringer’s divinity to be passed down his line father to son all the way down to. . .” he paused then turned to look at her. “Wait, you don’t know the Cosmogony?”

“My father wasn’t very devout. My mother was, but she died when I was very young.” she said surprised at how easy it was to talk to him about her past.

“My mother died when I was young as well.” he said staring forlornly at the floor.

“Do you remember her?” Aeria asked. She only remembered small fragments of her, even then those snippets were fleeting. She found that she felt more terrible for not being able to remember her very well rather than losing her.

“I do.” he said. That was worse. To know and love someone so much then have them taken from you in an instant. She didn’t want to ask. Instead she buried her head in his chest and hugged him. She didn’t know how long they stayed that way but it didn’t feel like enough time at all.

Aeria stared at the tapestry beside them. “It must’ve taken them years to finish this.” Aeria said reaching out to touch but then pulling back her hand afraid that she might damage the masterpiece. She wasn’t very good at it, but she knew how long it took to embroider a sparrow into a sleeve. She remembered Adelaide slaving with a needle and thread for weeks trying to add flowers to one of her old dresses when their father refused to buy her a new dress. To do something this massive was baffling.

“We need to get going.” Valor said pulling away and taking a hold of her hand.

Aeria looked at him bewildered. There was more that he wanted to show her? She was already mystified by this single tapestry and both walls were lined with them.

Aeria followed him trying her best to keep up without getting too distracted by the things around her. Valor walked casually past the massive tapestries depicting things Aeria was only somewhat familiar with. As they walked down the length of the room, the ancient tapestries gave way to beautiful mosaics made with glittering gemstones and reliefs. Statues and near the very end of the room the more modern paintings though Aeria had never seen one so magnificent up close. Paintings and drawings were only commissioned by the very wealthy and Adelaide’s paintings were minuscule compared to the ones that lined the hallways of this room.

At the very end of the room, massive double doors intricately carved with some kind of battle. Valor opened them up like it wasn’t even a bother. Aeria had to gaze down the hallway one last time - an entire history in art - before allowing Valor to lead her away.

It was strange walking through the castle at night. Strange how comfortable she felt doing so with Valor. They didn’t run into too many people but the few times they ran into a servant they’d stare wide eyed and flee into the closest door. Perhaps they weren’t expecting someone so late to be using the servant’s corridors.

They went up a series of spiral staircases, higher and higher into the castle. They eventually left the servant’s corridors and started walking in the castle proper and that made Aeria nervous again. Something told her they weren’t supposed to be there.

“This was the room I was given when I was a squire.” Valor said finally opening a door to a room in a hallway lined with similar doors.

Inside was a simple room, a single bed with a chest at the end. A desk and a book case filled with leather bound books. They were modest accommodations, better than what the adepts received down in the caverns.

“This way.” he said walking across the room to the window on the other end. Opening it, he hopped over making Aeria flinch. Instead of falling an impossible distance, Valor landed on something on the other side. He turned and offered Aeria’s his hand.

Aeria glanced down, the ivory bricks plummeted down and the very bottom the tower sat on the edge of a cliff which ended at the raging waters of the ocean. Aeria pulled back into the room where it was safe. She had never been at this altitude. The highest she had ever been was the attic of the shrine, but that building was only five stories at its highest.

“I won’t let you fall, I promise.” he said and Aeria took his hand and hopped out the window.

The wind was the worst part. It billowed ice cold upwards from the sea below. She realized now how much she hated the height. Her legs were shaky and the familiar adrenaline rush to survive she got when she fought a devil returned. Aeria needed the earth beneath her feet and the small ledge they walked on was angled downward just enough to make walking on it unnatural and every other step felt like it would crumble beneath her.

They walked around the corner were, finally, the came upon a landing. On it, there was a blanket and unlit candles among other things, but Aeria only saw the stable, level ground and she rushed past Valor to get to it. She instinctively fell to her hands and knees to stay as stable as possible to prevent the winds from billowing her away. She could hear Valor laughing behind her.

There were walls on three sides of them that blocked the wind. That still didn’t stop the cold that came from the higher altitude. She wished she had come in something warmer, other than her sleeveless brown healer’s robes. She left in such a hurry that she didn’t bother to take a cloak.

Aeria stood by only when she was sure she wouldn’t get blown away. “I didn’t think I’d react that way.” Aeria said sheepishly.

“You nearly knocked me off the edge.” Valor joked but Aeria only stared at him mortified making him laugh again before he hopped off the ledge and onto the landing.

Aeria finally spotted the candles and blanket on laid out on the floor and went and sat down. She felt better at this height the closer she was to the ground. “Is this yours?” she said. There were no walls, or trees or buildings to block the view this high up and the view was stunning. The Ivory Bastion loomed behind them, but ahead a vast night sky littered with shimmering stars met the sea at the horizon.