Lemons
Archmage MC
AlternateMan
Eviledd1984
ctrlsaltdel
op2024
Ariamis
Double
Lord Zee
Goldeagle1221Edelgard von Hresvelg, Edward Portsmith, & Midna
Skyworld -> The Avenger
Word Count: 3494 words (+4) (+2 rapport to each)
The moment Roxas’s friend heart made contact with Edelgard, she was slammed with memories of Fodlan. Her life flashed before her eyes, from the torture she endured under Those Who Slither in the Dark, to the years of war she had plagued her beloved land with for the sake of its future. Memories of her teacher, her friends, of a Fodlan finally united with the totalitarian reign of the Church of Seiros destroyed.
All gone. Torn away for whatever sick, twisted game she was being used as a pawn in. Bile burned in the back of her throat as Edelgard forced herself to her feet, a dark look in her eyes as she witnessed Absalom’s defeat. How much time had she spent fighting somebody else’s war? Being used in a fight not her own? Angels? Demons?! What dark magic had taken her mind that she couldn’t see how preposterous the world around her had become?
Perhaps more unsettling than that were the eyes of the celebrating angels around her. She had almost balked at the violent red glow in the eyes of one of her Black Eagles. And wasn’t that such a sick joke as well? Enough of her had remained to name these faceless hordes of monsters after her class? Her friends?! Palutena’s voice cut through the celebrations, and it took almost all of Edelgard’s resolve not to scream at the disembodied voice that had used her. Did Lady-did Palutena even know? Was she another victim of whatever was happening, or the puppetmaster? And why did these newcomers, these so-called Seekers all lack that same ominous glow in their eyes?
She had to know more. The man who had appeared from the sky offered an array of some sort of backpack to the Seekers, telling them that it was their way back to the ‘Avenger’. She could only assume that was their ship. Was it what had blown away the clouds earlier? The unseen force that had worried her so? Before she approached them, however, she went to where Absalom had fallen, plucking the Source of Corruption’s Spirit from its final resting place. ”Foul demon. Perhaps something could be made of you.”
”Seekers of Light!” She cried out, striding towards the others. ”Thank you for your assistance. Must you leave so soon?”
”The Avenger probably shouldn’t stick around any one place for very long” Midna stepped forward to inform her somewhat unhelpfully.
”and the Avenger is…” Edward, who had somehow both returned from being AWOL and was among the Skeer’s number given his lack of glowing eyes, asked as he followed after her.
”An invisible flying ship, which we get to by strapping these to ourselves” the princess replied, a touch cryptically as she portaled in and then tossed a fulton device at each of the newly recruited humans.
”and these will do that how…?” Edward again began to ask, only for Midna to give an incredibly quick crash course in how to strap one of the devices to herself with a ”like this” before adding that they should pull a specific cord ”like this” and then promptly shooting up skywards.
”Ah. Well.” the dreadnought said as they both watched her, and a few of the other seekers, blasting off into the air, before glancing back at his fellow freshly unstoried compatriot and saying, not without sympathy, ”Welcome to, roughly, the last half hour or so of my life.”
Edelgard’s eyes had grown to the size of saucers in trying to contemplate the sheer density of the information she had been given. As one of the Black Eagle angels approached to offer Edelgard a hand in returning to Skyworld, she shook her head. ”Inform Lady Palutena that, for the time being, I must accompany the Seekers. She will understand, I’m certain.” The Feathershield was surprised, to say the least, but nonetheless saluted and returned to the others.
”I suppose…shall we?” Edelgard asked confusedly, her fulton now ‘equipped.’
”Answers lay skyward it seems” Edward agreed as he too strapped in, before adding that ”And yes, she will. Apparently she is free from… the red light as well.”
Edelgard’s eyes narrowed at Edward’s revelation regarding Palutena, but after a moment she shook her head. He said ‘free’, implying that she had, at some point, been under the same influence they all apparently had. ”I see. Then, let us not tarry any further.”
”Yes I suppose n-” Edward began, as he moved to tug at the cord of the now secured device, only for his last word to be drawn out into a ”oooooooooooooot” as he was rapidly whisked away skywards
The first fultoning unsurprisingly did a number on the pair of fresh recruits, and so Eleison had to wait a fair little bit before delivering his spiel, but deliver it he did nonetheless. It, unfortunately, did not really cover the specifics that Edelgard might have wanted.
Indeed, Eleison’s speech was blatantly not intended for the newcomers among them, but given that the person who would have normally greeted them was apparently otherwise indisposed, she supposed it was understandable. Still, Edelgard was very confused, and voiced that confusion. ”Who are the Lost Numbers? And what is this…place? You said the Avenger was your ship, but this is unlike any ship I could even begin to imagine.” Edelgard half-asked, half-demanded the Seekers around her.
”Indeed. The sheer mass it must in order to have had to be able to cause that disturbance, how in the world does it work?” Edward asked, equally if not more awed by the machine they were now in thanks to his magitech background.
The first round of questions stopped Eleison mid-way through leaving, freezing him in place as he realized and then considered the newcomers’ predicament. While the others exchanged words, the gears in his head turned, and after a moment he turned back to them with his hands clasped. “Forgive me. You must be new. I’m not really an ambassador here; that typically falls to Ms. Lockheart. But as the resident healer, I can definitely recommend that you all keep calm, have a deep breath, and take it slow.” He elongated the last handful of words to make the point, his palms held out in a placating manner. “I know this answer may be…unsatisfying. But there is simply too much information to take in all at once, and to be honest, you don’t need to know everything. If you’ve just been freed, then coping with the revelation is enough to deal with for a while. Stuff like ‘the Lost Numbers’ and ‘ship engines’ can wait. For now, focus on recuperation and acclimatization. Find somewhere to store your things, get some food and water, and relax.”
”Seconded. There’s lots of technical specifics, but those can wait. The lost numbers are friends, the ship works, that’s all that matters right now” Minda agreed before adding ”We'll find you rooms and… well they are shared and split by gender so that might be a complication” and then quickly conversing with Eleison to confirm that, unsurprisingly, the other team had also picked up newbies.
”Well I’m, what’s the word they used, nocturnal anyway so I can sort this out. Well. Me and-” she glanced up at the ceiling for some reason and asked ”Hope?” which surprisingly did get an answer of “yes?” from a little box mounted on one of the walls.
”Can you get the other new arrivals to group up in the Spirit chamber? Might as well make use of what Edward’s collected and answer some questions while I’m at it” she again asked, and the source-less voice replied that she could indeed do that.
”Can we at least have an answer to who that is?” Edward asked.
”Hope… controls the ship? But also is the ship. But also isn’t. Its complicated as most things are” she began, before turning and motion for them to ”walk and talk with me and I’ll give you the basics” which she did indeed do, but only so much as she could fit in the trip to the spirit chamber. The basics of Galeem, the guardians, and the Consuls were outlined, but the more, well, mind shattering stuff was left out for the sake of not having to repeat herself.
Ironically, Edelgard was less confused about an artificial intelligence than she was about the ship itself. ”So, Hope is like a golem? Albeit significantly more intelligent.” She attempted to clarify for herself and Edward.
”What are… oh like Edward’s spear constructs? Hmmm. No. Or. Ok. First, imagine one of those that was a person. We have a few people who are like that. But instead of stopping there, then remove the bit that is a person from the Golem, and make it so that it can instead be attached too less smart Golems in order to control them” she tried, having asked and only somewhat understood how it had worked, before adding the key snarl which was ”also there’s no magic involved in this process at all. Or at least no mana anyway”
”Technology running entirely magic-less fuel source?” Edward asked, and upon receiving a nod looked perhaps the most animated either of them had ever seen him as he described this as ”Fascinating. So anyone could make something like her, no spark of sorcery necessary? Assuming you did all the requisite learning of course. But still it opens up the field to so many more possible innovators and creators who would have previously been held back by their inability to touch the flows of magic. What a world of wonders they’d be able to create”
Edelgard, knowing what she did of Fodlan’s history, was more skeptical, though not entirely so. ”Or a world of horrors.” She sighed. ”Arrows capable of destroying cities, launched from miles away. Or, if one were to be more optimistic, carriages that did not require horses and could move much faster. My world contained the former, ancient weapons created by a people who were driven into hiding by our most revered goddess’s own daughter, a dragon masquerading as a woman.” Venom unlike the other two had heard before, even in battle against the Corrupted, seeped into Edelgard’s voice, before she paused and shook her head.
”My apologies. I am still…reconciling my recollection of my past. I suppose it is…refreshing…to see the good that can be done without the influence of gods and charlatans.”
”I’ve seen both in this mixed up world we’re in.” Minda replied evenly, before laying down her own philosophy ”Like all power, it's entirely about how you use it that decides if it makes dreams or nightmares come true.”
As they spoke, Hope trawled through the ship’s security network, tracking down the other new Seekers, and directed them to the princess’ impromptu late night seminar.
Hope’s disembodied voice found Grimm wandering the Avenger’s halls, and though the phantom entity alarmed him at first, the ship’s AI worked fast to demystify itself in order to deliver its message. In the course of his conversation with Roland, he’d gotten an introduction to spirits, but it never hurt to have more information. Plus, he would have plenty of time to go about his business for the night afterword. Thus Grimm chose to heed Hope’s summons, and before long the Troupe Master made his presence known among the mystic mechanisms of the Spirit Chamber.
Once she was fairly sure everyone had made their way to the spirit chamber, the twilight princess launched into a little spiel, which she presented from a seat atop one of the consoles in the room.
”Alright my little cuccos, this right here is where power drawn from spirits, you know those little motes everyone killed here turns into, is found” she declared, before making a few gestures at the various surrounding machines and artifacts.
”First things first, the two main draws of this room are the stabilizer” she directed a large shadow hand finger at the chamber at the center of the room, before pointing another at the rather horrible looking hat which was sat on a somewhat out of place table and called it ”this horrible looking hat” due to them not knowing its official designation as the ‘symbol of avarice’.
”The hat will make it so that any spirits you crush, which creates items if you aren't aware, will result in better outcomes. You are way more likely to get actual equipment or usable items instead of things that might be able to be made into them” she informed them, before pointing to a mid sized pot sitting next to the hat and adding ”Oh and in tandem with that, this thing here will transfer any passive enchantments from an item melted down in to you permanently. Like that shield Edward has for example”
She pointed out the bulwark strapped to the Dreadnaught’s arm and explained that ”if he put that in the pot, then the passive boosts to… I think it’s reflexes mostly… will go to him without him having to keep wearing it”
”Now, chamber meanwhile, that helps with fusion.” she added, before doing a quick segway to how that worked, saying ”Head for skills, talents, and inactive magics, heart for active abilities. To put it simply, if you have a dragon and want to breathe fire, heart, if you want to know how to fight like one, head.”
Then she got back to the point, which was ”this stabilizer chamber can reduce the way fusing tends to turn you into a mix and match mess. Do it in here and the outcomes will be a lot more consistent and nice to look at” before pointing at a strange gismo that Mis Fortune had combine a cloudy sphere with and explained that ”that works very nicely with this thing, which can pop out all the spirits in you, so you can then use them again in the stabilizer again, or ditch ones that weren't working for you. So don’t worry too much about fusing if you need it for the moment, you can always modify yourself again back here at base”
”Finally there’s apparently some entity called Vulgrim who’ll trade spirits for secrets, but I’ll be honest I haven't made use of his services yet, so you’ll have to ask someone who has if he’s actually worth tossing away potential power for” she added at last, before opening the floor for general questions, namely ”and that’s all that. I think Edward had some spirits on hand if people want to check them out, and if not, I can answer any questions you have”
The Dreadnought did indeed have some spirits on him, specifically one of every feather (damningly in his eyes) and a number of their corrupted equivalents, plus golems and false angels, most notably 3 Enraptured.
”It might be prudent to give, as examples, that I was once entirely human but, after fusing with both of these” Edward pointed to a feather shield and bow, ”have gained the wings you now see me sport. Alongside gaining this shield from a feather sword well. As well as, finally, this ‘striker’ from a feather staff” he added, pointing out the relevant angels and then summoning a copy of the feather staff for a few moments to show off that ability.
”Right. Those. Can’t get them any more due to fusion downsides, but you get those by requesting they serve you, you should only have two max if you value your lifespan, and you can store excess in that device over there” the princess added, pointing out the final fusion relevant artifact as she did so.
”Now then. Questions?”
Edelgard shook her head. She had nothing, for the moment at least. Grimm said nothing, questioning or otherwise.
”While this all is fascinating, truly it is good to know its here, I do believe such body altering decisions might be most wisely left til we are rested of mind?”
”Right right. The other reason I thought to have this little meeting is that you all need rooms. And roommates” Minda replied before explaining that simply with ”Ships low on space, so its two people per room, generally gender segregated.”
Edelgard blinked a few times. ”I would certainly hope so!”
”Well it does narrow down your options a bit doesn't it?” Midna replied with a bit of a bite in her smile, mainly because she was aware of just how interesting some of Edelgard’s roster of possible roommates was.
Moving on from that matter, Edelgard though on the Spirits she’d collected. ”I did collect some fallen Spirits that I would like to make use of.” She informed the others, walking towards the Symbol of Avarice. ”I simply don this…thing?” She tried not to sound too disgusted, but failed to disguise the apprehension she had as she placed the Symbol on her head, immediately feeling the damage and grimacing. Quickly, she took the Spirits of Absalom and beloved, crushing them in turn.
”Well, I suppose it is fitting that I received that demon’s axe, but what is this bell…?” Edelgard regarded the trinket curiously, before shrugging. ”I get the feeling that I shouldn’t toy with it here and now. Another time, then.” She simply stated, placing it in a pouch for her Inventory, with Absolution following after. ”I can use that monster’s weapon later, as well. Better it fall into the hands of one who would use it for good. Thank you, Midna, for the knowledge. I will be sure to make good use of our fallen foes.” Edelgard added, somewhat ominously. She meant well, but…there was no way to say that without sounding a bit ominous.
”Your… ” Midna replied, only pausing for half a moment at the reminder of exactly what using the spirits of the falling really was, before letting it go again and finishing ”-welcome” before adding that ”there’s an armory too if you get things you don’t think you yourself will use but someone else might”
”I’ll have to look into that in the morning then” Edward replied, sticking to his thought about dealing with all this with a clear head, which more or less signaled the end of this little meetup, though naturally it ended with a slight stroll through the halls, one spent sorting out the sleeping arrangements, before it was time to say goodnight.
+ 
