Inside the Grand Castle, a group of metal clad, white robed soldiers is crossing a large field. About forty, in a circle formation surrounding the center, were another another group of soldiers in a half-moon formation are guarding the carriage. Inside the carriage, Alexander, Lady Aquamarine, Daisy, Gwynevere and two more soldiers are present.

The carriage is currently moving with the curtains pulled up, so the surroundings can be seen. Alexander watches as Lady Aquamarine keeps looking around her, unable to hide her amusement with such law-defying place.

“What’s the matter, Tomoyo? You should be already familiar with this place, aren’t you? It is in your state after all.”

“It is nothing… I was just wondering how did you managed to enter before us.”

“Well, you aren’t the only one that knows of this place. This castle have existed even before the Great Wolf appeared in Aeris. I still remember some… things about it myself, long ago when I was a young elf. I just used some tunnels long ago abandoned. It was easy to infiltrate and laid in waiting. Seeing how the castle wasn’t open when I arrived, I just decided to use them. But I have to wonder, after all this time, how come you don’t know about the many tunnels that the castle has?”

Daisy answers with a glare. Lady Aquamarine holds her by the neck, and replies “Been imprisoned in the Aquamarine mansion all the time since those days. Couldn’t take a step out of it until-”

“We attacked.” A voice comes out of the separate space that is inside the carriage.

“How are you feeling, My Sun?”

“Still can move, but the curse is gaining terrain, My Moon.”

Lady Aquamarine kneels besides the separate space, a small carriage-like covered in a large, white and blue cloth. Seeing Alexander, she says “Can I?”

“Mind her, and your situation.”

“Surprised that you would allow someone get that close to that person for which you are doing all of this?” Daisy says.

“If there is something that I know about Tomoyo, is that she is unable to be ruthless to the people that she knows.”

“I could’ve changed, you know?” Lady Aquamarine replies.

“Once the nature of a person is settled, there is no way back.”

Lady Aquamarine snorts.

“I’m sorry, Tomo.” Gwynevere says from inside this space “I know that a simple apology will never cut it though. I was the one that told Alexander about you, that happening a long time ago.”

Lady Aquamarine raises her left arm, and pulls the curtains, only to reveal Gwynevere to her sigh. The elven race was known, even since the times before the Great Wolf ate half of the world, as the most beautiful race that ever existed. Of porcelain skin, clear eyes and straight, long hair, they were the talk of the town everywhere they went. The object of adoration and envy for many, considered by many the very embodiment of the ruthless, the maternal and the sensual. Records of the world before the Great Wolf ate half of it are lost to time, or so the people believe, but it is the popular belief that some sort of God created the elven race and gave them some sort of magical properties, and it is what made them so desirable and adored by many, in how their passing along a street would fill men and women alike with euphoria and desire.

Yes, elves were like this. Lady Aquamarine remembers those times well enough, one of the few things she wouldn’t be able to forget. Between elven people, she remembered very well Gwynevere, the first day her eyes met with hers. Between elves, she was a remarkable one, unique inheriting rare traits that don’t appear on elves for many generations, with large pointed ears being the rarest trait. But whatever she was before, it is nothing but the shadow of her former self: Her porcelain skin turned gray, her hair lost all luster and is falling away, patches of purple appear at some points in her visible body, and she has lost almost all muscle. For a race that just starts to get the appearance of being ‘old’ at a thousand years old, it is like the rest of her six hundred years all came at the same time.

“So, that is the curse.” Lady Aquamarine whispers.

“It brings me shame to no end.” Gwynevere whispers too.

“If it got to you, that means…”

“It does, Tomo. Almost all elven women have died at this point… She being set a long time ago as the final female to die to it.”

Lady Aquamarine looks down, biting her lower lips.

“Gwynevere, I…”

“I’m sorry, Tomo.”

“Uh?”

“If we had found a way to stop the curse, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.” Her voice starts breaking apart. A tear rolls from her eyes.

Lady Aquamarine keeps silence.

“Can’t be sure of that” Alexander interjects “but, at the very least, I wouldn’t led an invasion.”

“What do you mean? Knowing you, one day or another we would have your troops that the steps of our doors.” Daisy says.

“Maybe, but certainly it wouldn’t be in this way. What set us in this way of conquest wasn’t the painfully obvious truth that all of the other races are below us, but Gwynevere contracting the curse.”

Turning to Gwynevere, Lady Aquamarine asks “Is that true?”

Gwynevere only nods.

“You say that there is a cure? With all the pain that this causes me, a cure shouldn’t exist, and you know that.” Lady Aquamarine says, turning to Alexander.

“You say that, but, you see, there was this fair lady that came to us, she called herself an Empyrean, and revealed to us that there indeed exists a cure to the curse of Lionheart.”

“And that is located under the Grand Castle, through a passage located in the Throne room, right?” Daisy says.

“That is correct, Daisy. Good to see that those fox ears actually work as such.” Alexander says.

“If this were true, which I find really hard to believe, why wouldn’t you just asks us to assist you, instead of conducting an invasion? We could’ve avoided all the useless bloodshed.”

“Because even if the cure, what dispels the curse, exists, I have personally be putting off for far too long the mercy of saving all of your useless sacks of meats from your own shortcomings.”

“Once the nature of a person settles, it never changes uh? What a cold heart you have” Daisy says.

At these words, the memories of old days come to him. His days at House Lapis principal mansion, being looked down upon by what he feels were all the members of his family. The memory of his father roaming the hallways as he moved from one place to another by work. All of his brothers and sisters and her own mother, a concubine, and his father official wife following him, trying to constantly win his father’s favor.

All the punches, kicks, shoves, all the time he spent in that mansion full of people, totally alone. All of them, even the servants, pinning him as a weakling and a failure for after having achieved one hundred years old, he was still unable to manifest his Aura, when the common occurrence is that all elves manifest their Aura when they turn twenty five years old at the latest.

This cold dark age continued until one day, while he was at one of the hanging gardens of the mansion after being beaten up by his brothers and sisters and their friends of many races, she appeared for the first time in his life. That day he learned what it meant to be under the sun, its ray gently melting the coldness of his heart, letting him taste warmth for the first time in his life.

He didn’t know about her, that she was there accompanying her uncle, her only parental figure, in order to arrange a marriage between her and the oldest son of Lord Lapis. No, that didn’t truly mattered, because her light penetrated inside him to his very core, no shadow being left. Her gentle warmth and the precision of her words disabled the logic and raw emotion he had built inside him all these years.

She stayed for three months within House Lapis’ mansion, and by the end of it when she was going back to her home, for the first time Alexander stood for someone else, challenging the older brother in ritual combat for Gwynevere’s hand in marriage.

This is a fight that no one in house Lapis will ever forget, for when Alexander was about to lose, his Aura manifested, turning the tables in an instant.

Now Alexander, many centuries later, remembers those days of old more frequently.

“If I lose my Sun, I would indeed end frozen” he whispers.

“So!” Lady Aquamarine says “Its been a while since we have been in these plains. When are we going to get to the Throne room?”

“It shouldn’t take longer, we are just right there.”

Suddenly, countless miniature strings of light appear on the walls. Moving in square like motions, these strings run upwards, all the way to the ceiling, lighting up some figures in pure light. A loud sound can be heard, echoing the main hall, and moments later, these figures start moving. They stretch their wings, take hold of their weapon with both hands, and let themselves fall towards the floor, using the wings only to break the fall right on time.

Seeing them up close, Alexander understands what is happening “I see that someone activated the self-defense system. Didn’t know that it was still functioning.” Turning to Lady Aquamarine, he adds “I hope they understand the danger they have put you on, right now.”

“What do you mean?” Daisy asks.

“The original settlers of this castle are gone. Those settlers are the ones that this system defended in the case that they are exposed to danger.”

“And neither him nor us are considered settlers by the system standards.” Lady Aquamarine adds.

“Buckle up.” Alexander says to The three women in front of her. Turning to the forty soldiers present, Alexander yells “Keep the circle formation! Don’t let anyone come near the carriage! The hope of our race is at risk, and we will defend it to the end!”

“Yes, My Lord!” an unanimous chant the soldiers let hear.

Turning to the two soldiers and the driver of the carriage, Alexander says “You three, you will stay here. Protect My Sun with your life. And protect Lady Aquamarine, we need her to open the Throne room and save My Sun. As for me, I’m going in.”

“Yes, My Lord!”