Paralogue No.1-The Highest Tower

*Two Years Before the Events of Chimera, at the Dawn Sanctuary

The Cathedral of Eternity stood 1017 feet high and was by far the tallest structure in the Dawn Sanctuary. The bottom half of the cathedral was made of dressed stone polished like burnished bronze typical of gothic cathedrals. The upper half, however, was made entirely of stained glass.

The stained glass was a massive mosaic of a lion and a lamb standing beside each other on a deep burgundy red hill. They gazed off into the distance at the rising of a fractured sun. Given the location of the cathedral near the very edge of our Sanctuary, it almost appeared as if the two were keeping watch over our hometown, eternal sentinels of constantly changing guild.

The cathedral was here long before construction began for any other building, including even the guild headquarters. No one knew what its original purpose was for. Priscilla and I figured it was some kind of religious building, being a cathedral and all. Given the imagery of the lion and the lamb, it likely belonged to some sect of Christianity. But beyond the symbols surrounding that ancient religion, no one really knew what that creed entailed, why so many followed it once upon a time. Existing copies of their sacred text had either been destroyed or made inaccessible through digital means. Even Flo teacher couldn't seem to grab ahold of a copy. But, there was an old rumor that there a copy of the sacred text was hidden beneath the roofing of the tallest spire of the cathedral.

Naturally, Priscilla proposed that we go look for it one warm twilight after finals had ended. It had been on our adventure wishlist for some time, and tonight just happened to be the perfect evening to cross it off the list.

"Guildmaster Richard, Florentine, and Denizen are all going to be gone," she said excitedly.

"Rose is still here," I said. "Rose is going to get us in trouble.

"Rose is supervising the end-of-year concert, and we all know what a handful the trumpet section is going to be this year. I heard they’re pulling off the prank of a lifetime.”

“Then why are we here? Come on, let’s go back!”

“Julia promised to record the whole thing, you won't miss a thing.”

“But it's not the same.”

“Titus, we’ve been waiting for this for not two, but three years to pull off. Are you in or not?”

"We really going to tear the roof off of the cathedral? I can't afford another fine, not yet."

"Have you forgotten who you work for?" she said, flipping her hair. "I'll cover it if we get caught. Sheesh! We'll be gone, two hours tops, and the concert's going to be three at least. You know how Rose likes to drag out events. Besides-"

She produced a square tupperware box from her purse. They were filled with the most mouth-watering chocolate chip cookies I had ever seen in my life.

"-it'll be a picnic!”

After a nerve-wracking climb that took the better part of two hours, Priscilla and I summited the tallest spire on the Cathedral of Eternity, at the very top of the stained glassed complex. The spire stood about twenty feet tall and made not but of green shingled tiles. We searched the entire perimeter of its steep sides, but there was no sacred text to be found, much to her disappointment.

We proceeded to carefully remove the roofing, only to hear a dangerous cracking noise. Priscilla tried again, only to have a dozen shingles slide off the roof like snow from a rooftop. I managed to catch all the shingles before they tumbled off into the abyss with a quick kinetic barrier. We tried in vain to reattach them to the spire. Since leaving them on the spire seemed dangerous, we settled for tossing them discreetly later. Priscilla stuffed them into her purse, and that was the end of our treasure hunt.

Before we made our way back down the skyscraper of a building, we sat down on the ledge of the top spire. It was just wide enough for us to sit side-by-side comfortably. I maintained a small, kinetic barrier around the both of us to keep the freezing winds out. Priscilla had her wing summoned just in case one of us lost our balance.

We could see the rest of the Dawn from here: the headquarters, the dormitories, the Portal Docks, the library, the floating mountain, the Rosen Bridge. To our East, we saw the hundred feet tall entrance to the Labyrinth guard by Flo teacher’s iron robot legion. That was about as far the Dawn Sanctuary extended before running the void that surrounded our small city on all sides. It was a beautiful sight, one few would have ever seen since we really weren’t supposed to be here.

The sun was just starting its climb over the jagged eastern hills. Its glorious light soon chased away what remained of the night. Priscilla basked in its sharp, piercing rays, her brown eyes twinkling in its radiance. She seemed lost in thought, her mind everywhere but here.

“It really is amazing up here,” I said.

Her eyes flickered toward me.

“And you didn’t want to get out of bed this morning," she snickered.

I relaxed a bit.

“Well, I was hospitalized the night before,” I said.

"You still haven't told me how that washer ended up in your kneecap."

"Kinetic magic is dangerous. A coin can kill you if you're not careful."

Priscilla rolled her eyes.

"I won't always be around to patch you up."

"I know."

"Cookie?”

Priscilla handed me a homemade chocolate chip cookie from the square tupperware container she had stashed in her purse, the one with the teal lid.

“Of course!” I replied.

I gratefully took the cookie and bit into its soft, delectable crust. Hints of warm caramel and coarse sea salt mixed wonderfully with the treat's crumbly, chocolatey base.

"Good?" she said hopefully.

"Excellent," I said.

She grabbed two cookies herself and began to stuff her face. Happiness, I believed, was Priscilla with a box full of homemade chocolate chip cookies.

“For someone not scared of heights you sure did scream a lot on the climb up,” she said as she inhaled another cookie.

“Almost fell to my death. Twice.”

“And I caught you both times! I mean, you're the one person that would be okay even if you slipped and fell, and you're acting like it's the end of the world.”

“If my barrier doesn’t activate for some reason, I’m done. You’re the one that has nothing to worry about, Miss ‘I’m-Awesome-Because-I’m-A-Seraph.’”

Priscilla beamed.

“It’s true, I am awesome.”

But even I smiled back, her bravado abruptly faded. Her smile was replaced by a dark expression I had only seen twice before. The first was the night she arrived at the Dawn, the night my mother had died. The second was the morning her first cheon-sa left.

“He promised he would be the first to take me up here,” she said.

I took a deep breath, finally understanding why she had brought me here today.

Yeigar was the name of the man she thought she would spend the rest of her life with. He was also the third and final member of our cohort. He left six months ago in protest to the Dawn Sanctuary officially allying themselves with the Gideonite Empire, breaking nearly two centuries of guild policy not to take sides with any of the kingdoms of Nivandor.

A proud dragon knight of Jair, Yeigar told us months before that he would leave if the Dawn sided with any faction in Gideon’s Succession War. The Dawn supported Sera’s faction in the war anyway, fearing that a fractured Empire would cause even more chaos on Nivandor.

Yeigar left the day Guildmaster announced the decision.

“I could have stopped him,” I said.

“No one expected you to,” she replied curtly. “I mean, maybe there was a chance, but this is Yeigar we're talking about. If he didn’t hold back, he would have killed you for sure."

"Yeah," I said, remembering how Yeigar had shattered my full power barrier with ease with his Remnant, the Pridebreaker. “I’m glad he did.”

"Oh, the nerve Guildmaster had to act surprised when I told him he made the wrong decision! I mean, like what was he expecting? Yeigar had the decency to warn us ahead of time of what he was going to do and they laughed at his face. Not to mention they nearly got you killed in the process, sending you to stop him."

She placed a hand on her forehead.

"If either of you died that day, that would have been the worst day of my life, well, one of the worst.”

“I shouldn't have confronted him. The guild isn’t supposed to stop anyone from leaving.”

“He was my cheon-sa, Titus! That comes before anything else, including any stupid obligation he has to his family! I thought we were his family!”

Priscilla tossed her tupperware chocolate chip cookies as hard as she could, but I managed to catch it with a kinetic barrier before it hurtled over the cathedral like a meteor. I moved the barrier back toward me, pushed the broken cookies back into the container with my magic before placing them down gently on the ledge between us.

Priscilla stared at the cookies as if she had murdered them.

“Would you do something like that?” she said in a softer voice.

"What?"

"Would you leave me for something stupid?"

A dangerous question. I knew I had to give her the right answer. I wasn't sure what that answer was, but after a long pause, I figured it was best to tell her the truth.

“Where would I go?" I said, "The Dawn’s the only home I have now, and everyone I know and care about lives here.”

And there's no one I care more about than you, I wanted to say.

Priscilla looked like she was about to cry, and she made it a point never to cry in front of another human being. In the end, she managed to hold back her tears, though I could tell she was trying very hard not to break down crying.

“Same,” was all she said.

Priscilla reached into the tupperware container and began to eat the broken cookies one by one. When she was finished, she brushed the crumbs away from her mouth as she threw the tupperware into her purse. Then she stood up on the edge of the spire. Her wing wrapped around the back of the spire-like bridge cables and anchored her to the structure. The black strands glistened like silk satin in the rays of the morning sun.

She looked down at me reluctantly.

Her dark expression had softened, somewhat.

“I know I gave you a lot of grief for being chosen as my cheon-sa,” she said, “But frankly, I’m glad it was you over any of the others, especially Clyde."

"Yeah, Clyde would have been bad."

"You’re no Yeigar," she smirked, "but you were in my top three.”

"Top three? Who was-never mind. I'm honored."

“I mean it! I’m glad you’re still here.”

I stood up to meet her face to face. She truly was more beautiful than the stained glass we stood above, a masterpiece I never could quite figure out. I'm sure she knew how much I adored her, though I was certain she didn't feel the same way about me.

“We should go before we give guildmaster a heart attack,” I said.

“He deserves one!" she giggled.

She held her hand out to me as she loosened her wing’s grip on the spire’s roof. As I lowered my kinetic barrier, the loose strands of her wing fanned out behind her like streamers in the wind. A strong gust of wind nearly swept both of us off our feet, but we were able to keep balance with each other’s help.

We both laughed, not from fear of death, but knowing that a fall from here would mean a giant crater in the roof of the cathedral, something the Guildmaster would never let us hear the end of.

“Let’s go, my cheon-sa,” she said eagerly grabbing my hand. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us.”