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Chapter Text

In the kingdom of Mana, the royal castle looks at the ocean as the sun rises above the lapping waves. As the rays slowly dawn on the sleeping newly born infant triton, gentle eyes staring down in curiosity at the small boy. The previous night had been full of torrential rains, the thunder and lighting singing a chorus together as they welcome the child into the world, moonlight beaming down on a precious gem where he was waiting to greet the world. His sole protector hugging at his shell, a tiny body full of so much love waiting to meet her baby brother. Now, as his eyes blinked open in the sunlight, the first thing he could see were her eyes, equally filled with wonder. He focused on her soft breathing and the wind gently tossing her sea green hair. She tentatively reaches a hand forward, offering him her finger which he grasped with a much smaller hand. A small giggle escapes her, “I love you a million, Gillion,” she whispers as soft footsteps join them from outside.

Music could be heard cascading around the castle as the kingdom rejoiced the new Prince’s safe arrival into the world, blessed by Lunadais herself. For it had been foretold centuries past that a “Hero born of moonlight” in a “Crystal storm and sea” would heal those foreseen. Mana had been awaiting their saviour for as long as time could tell, and finally their prayers had been answered. With the powers lent from Lunadais, he would heal the land and people, to mend what was broken.

Though there was mention of how they shall stay wary within the prophecy, the kingdom failed to perceive just how important that specific verse was. And as it seems, a lurking shadow soon engulfed the kingdom’s light as the young Prince could not be found. Immediately the King sent out searches of guards and over half of the kingdom itself joined to find their beloved lost boy. Lanterns lit the forests ablaze in the nights as thousands of people looked around every tree, under every boulder. Nearby kingdoms even travelled across the sea as the King issued large rewards in the hopes of his son returned. As months passed, and soon years, the search parties grew smaller, people who moved to Mana in the hopes of gaining the reward returned home, and the royals grew quiet and removed from their people.

Ten years passed before the Prince was ultimately announced dead. The Princess, now 16 and learning of her duties as the next in line, suggested a festival to be held in his honour. Every year on his birthday now, Mana mourns what could have been, and celebrates what was. Much similar to the day of his actual birth, music fills the air and glowing arcane circlets dance in the waves in remembrance.

Unbeknownst to anyone though, a small island off the mainland of Mana sits in a protected cove, a tall tower disguised by towering trees and cliffs. In the sole window of the tower a small boy, triton in nature, with abnormally long hair, rests his head on his knees as he stares down at the destructive waves. His attention slowly is enamoured by small glowing dots pooling at the foot of the cliff. Their clinking is just about drowned out by the crashing of the giant waves in the distance, but he can almost make out their song. As he stares out, a figure towers over him from behind, placing a hand on his shoulder.

He gasps in surprise and looks up at the silhouette, guilt filling his eyes. “Gillion, you should be in bed, it’s not safe out there.” He nods, of course. “Sorry father,” he bows his head in shame and hurriedly climbs the steps towards his room, his hair flowing behind him as it drags over his ankles. The tall tiefling, expression now shown in the dawning moonlight, frowns as he rigidly follows the boy to ensure his safety.

Chapter Text

Gillion awakens slowly, beams of light piercing his eyes from the window across from his bed. Grunting he stretches his limbs and yawns looking around, still half asleep. Looking to his side, a small pink frogtopus still snoozes in her glass globe. Smiling, he dips his finger in the water to gently pet her and she nuzzles closer. He sighs as he stands up, mentally trying to configure the plans for today. First things first though, he needs to deal with the mess that was his hair. It was a dark green and double the height of himself. There was no real purpose behind the length of his hair, he had always kept it long when he was younger because sharp objects were rare (father didn’t want him to accidentally hurt himself when he wasn’t supervised), and as he grew older it gave him something to do while brushing and styling his hair. Right now it was all tangled together, once again making him think of cutting it just out of annoyance. He sluggishly grabbed a hairbrush and the frogtupus’ globe, making his way into the main room of his tower.

The room was split in half, a counter sitting in the middle serving as both a table for eating and a place for preparing food. A small stove sat across from it, ambers slowly dying from lack of wood, and a small basin was in the corner filled with water. Stacks of shelves lined the walls full of dry ingredients for Gillion to experiment with. Some days are filled with baking and cooking in the hopes that his father might compliment a dish that Gillion had recently mastered, but those times are few.

Today though, Gillion decided to just scramble some eggs in a pan for himself, not feeling particularly inspired to reinvent cooking today after spending so long taking a comb to his bedhead. Glancing at the small sheet of paper tacked to the wall that he used as a calendar, he realizes that his birthday is a mere week away. That information certainly perked him up as he stirred the eggs, thinking about the glowing dots that had surfaced on the water every night on his birthday since he was ten. He greatly wished to know where they originated from, seeing nothing like them before. He can see quite a lot from his vantage point up in the tower’s window, not needing to leave at all to experience most of the world’s wonders thanks to his father protecting him. But those little dots, those have not evaded his thoughts for years.

It will be his 18th birthday this year, and from what he has read in the books gifted to him, that is considered a special occasion. With that fact, maybe, just possibly, his father will accompany him to visit the origin of the mysterious floating blue orbs.

He set down his plate of eggs on the table next to where his frogtopus companion had been swirling around and grabbed his journal from a nearby bookcase. The bookcase was overflowing with books, most of them Gillion’s own journals filled with his thoughts and stories from years prior; but others were filled with sword fighting strategies, history of kingdoms near and far, and the general fiction filled fantasies. As he ate his breakfast, he scribbled down ideas into his journal about how to breach the topic with his father, debating on titling the adventure a birthday gift or trying to persuade him with additional chores he could complete.

Eventually, the eggs on his plate are no more and his hand tires from clutching the simple piece of graphite tightly. Deciding to return to his regular routine of life, he grabs a chess board and the frogtopus trills with excitement. He chuckles, a deep rumbling escaping his throat, as the first words he had spoken this day finally croak from within him, “that’s right Pretzel, today is rematch day and it is the day that I will finally defeat you from your winning streak.” The pink blob smirks, grabbing at the glass that contains her.

…

Gillion continued to follow his daily routine while Pretzel accompanied him. As the sun grew more and more higher in the sky, a familiar voice rang out from outside the tower.

“Gillion! I’m home, let me in!” as his voice drifted in through the window Gillion quickly dashed to the window excited, his plan reforming in his mind from the morning. “Just a moment, father!” he responded as he closed his eyes to concentrate, muttering a string of words and clasping his palms together. When he finished, he opened his eyes to find his grinning tiefling father. They weren’t biologically related, Gillion knew that. His “real” parents had begged Niklous, his adoptive father, to take him away from the wretched world that wanted him dead, or worse.

“Welcome home father,” Gillion approached him smiling, his father matching the grin. “Welcome indeed, Gillion. Oh how I hate leaving you alone for long periods. I'm so happy you’re safe and sound.”

Niklous listened to Gillion chatter as he refilled ingredients of food on the shelf and nodded along. Gillion paused as he was explaining how he had learned a new footwork pattern from a recent book that he had been gifted with, looking out the window at the distant sea. His father noticed his silence and eyes trailed to where he was staring idly.

“Is there something on your mind, Gillion?” He looks back at his father, nervously picking at his fingernails. “Well there is nothing wrong, per say,” he spoke, deciding it was time. “But, well I was wondering…” The words beginning to get jumbled in his head, the different plans and points he had thought of evaporated as he saw the pointed stare from Niklous. “Yes? Go on,” Niklous sighed, leaning against the table.

“Okay well you know the strange glowing things that appear in the ocean once a year?” Gillion tried a different approach now, deciding to ease into the discussion. Niklous smirks, “Oh you must mean the jellyfish, yes they are quite elegant aren’t they?”

“No, well, err, yes they are elegant I agree, but they are not the glowing figures that appear every night on my birthday,” as Gillion mentions his birthday, Niklous’ eyes start to twitch and he shifts his weight from one leg to the other. “And I know that they are not the Royal Jellyfish because I’ve charted their migration paths for years now, the fact that they would end up here on my birthday each year does not make sense,” Gillion had started to slowly pace now, excitedly tossing his hands around for emphasis.

“Okay, so you believe that they aren’t jellyfish,” Niklous interrupts, “what other thing could it possibly be then?” Gillion stops pacing, and frowns. “That is where my…request…of sorts comes in,” Niklous simply crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t say anything so Gillion continues. “In order to find out just what those things are, I was wondering if you could maybe, possibly, take me to the source of them.”

He finally decides to look up at his father, and sees nothing but disappointment. “You would be with me!” He hurriedly adds, “so I would be safe and I promise I would not wander off. I just want to see the lights and come back home.”

Niklous is silent for a time while he thinks. After some time, he opens his mouth. “No.” “But father-” “Let me finish, Gillion,” he harshly cuts him off. “No you may not go to see the jellyfish, because that is what they are, you may not leave this tower. If it was as simple as staying with me to remain safe do you think that you would be here in the first place?” Gillion solemnly nods, he should have never asked. But Niklous was not done, “I understand that you are curious of the world around you, Gillion, but I need you to understand that it is not as simple as avoiding the bad. You need to protect yourself, something that you are not capable of doing yet. Here in the tower you are safe because no one knows that you are here, do you understand?” He nods again, staring at the floor.

They’re both silent as Niklous slowly wraps him in a warm embrace, “I just want what is best for you, my son,” he softly caresses his hair and pulls him away to look him in the eyes, “okay?”

“Yes,” Gillion croaks, tears threatening to sneak past his defenses. “Perfect!” Niklous smiles and pats him on the shoulder as he goes back to organizing the shelf, “now what were you saying about the new technique you were learning?”

Gillion tries to return to the enthusiasm that he had begun with, but ultimately, his spirits were lost and he did not quite care as much anymore.

…

After the sun had long since set, Niklous was sitting on the foot of Gillion’s bed reading to him from one of his books. As he finished, he stood up to blow out the candle lighting his room, “good night, Gillion. I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon, don’t you worry.” As he gently shut the door, Gillion buried his head in his blanket and tried to sleep, ignoring the constant stream of thoughts flooding his brain concerning his mysterious lights.

Chapter Text

Chip took a deep breath, the frigid morning air stinging his throat as he gripped the clay tile he sat on. Glancing around he mentally counted three, no, four guards at the entrance of the door he was meant to be keeping an eye on. Chip is a simple guy, he needs money so he goes after valuable items, it just turns out that the “valuable item” of the day was the previous Prince of Mana’s crown, nothing too big y’know. He is currently sitting on the roof of the building, and somehow the group of thieves he’s with managed to get up here unnoticed. The leader of the group, Ruben Price, signaled Chip to come with him to a higher part of the steep roof.

“Alright James,” oh yeah, also no one here knows that his name is Chip, no one except for his dad, Arlin James, who was missing. He decided he needed an alias in order to live out a normal life later, so he took the name of his father. The whole point of stealing shit was to sell it all to get himself a ship so he could find him. “Are you listening?” He’s snapped back into reality, Price staring daggers at him. “Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, “lower the kid, grab the crown, then get the fuck out of here. Shouldn’t be too hard.” Price just rolls his eyes and points towards a sheltered area on the roof,

“My guys have been here chipping away at that piece of the roof, if they’ve done it correctly you should be right on top of the crown.”

“Where will you guys be?” Chip asked as he patted the rope on his hip, ensuring that he had in fact packed it this morning.

Price sighed, “Oh, why am I trusting you with this again?” he muttered under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose, “if you had been listening, you would know that the others and I will be causing a distraction to lure away most of the guards.” Chip nods. “Of course, not all of them will leave their post, they’re smarter than that, so stay on guard.”

Chip carefully climbed to where Price had pointed and found the young boy, Oliver (or just Ollie, he had told them to call him) nervously standing beside an abnormal group of tiles. He perked up at the sight of Chip, scrambling towards him.

“How’re you feeling Ollie?” Chip grins as he crouches down towards the tiles, gingerly poking at them, “ready for your first official heist?” Olli nervously laughs, “I guess so? Just, please don’t drop me.”

Chip passed the rope to Ollie, who tied it around his waist like a harness then joined him in crouching on the roof. As they were waiting, shouts could be heard from down in the courtyard below them as a woman screamed about her oranges or something. During the chaos, Chip quickly lifted up the tiles to reveal a small hole just large enough for Ollie to squeeze through. Looking down, Chip could see that Price had been right that some guards had stayed behind even with the distraction; there were three guards standing post in front of the crown that was standing right out in the open. It was practically begging to be stolen at this point.

Chip stifled a laugh as he noticed that all of the guards were posted looking forwards in front of the crown. Not a single person was looking back at the prize. He giddily lowered Ollie slowly behind the trio of idiots when one of them started to look up. Chip held tight to the rope and Ollie winced at the sudden stop. They both watched as the guard sneezed, then resumed their position. Ollie was soon lowered the rest of the way where he hurriedly grasped the crown and signaled to Chip to bring him back up.

As Chip pulled at the rope, hand over hand, a thought popped into his head. Just a little prank, nothing big. He hoisted the boy the rest of the way up onto the roof, legs practically shaking. Before they both left though, Chip pulled out a box of matches and lit a small piece of paper on fire, letting it fall through the hole. Ollie looked at him questionably, and started to run along the roof. Chip laughed as he followed, shouts could be heard below them, alarming the rest of the castle as they ran away.

Price surprised the pair as he stepped out from behind a pillar and opened his hand for the crown. Ollie quickly obliged, and handed him the golden jewel, which was then placed into a bag. He motioned for them both to follow him as he started to sneak across the tiles.

Panting, they neared the castle entrance where they could get easily lost in the crowd. Chip looked back at Ollie whose face was full of concentration when a shot rang out, temporarily deafening them all.

“Fuckin’ bastard!” Price shouted out as he clutched his hand, now bleeding, dropping the satchel in the process. Chip quickly grabbed the bag and made the executive decision to get the fuck out of there before something else happened.

Skidding down the roof he pushed his way through the bewildered group of people at the entrance and sprinted through the city towards the forest boundary. He jumped over barrels, ducked through alleys, and somehow ended up on the roofs of people’s homes. Taking a breath, he could hear the sounds of horses galloping through the cobbled streets. Looking around, he could see the ocean to his right and the start of the forest was dead ahead.

He just had to make it to the forest, that’s all.

“You got this Chip,” he mumbled before pushing himself back to his feet, hearing a woman shout near him.

Reaching the forest’s edge, he could hear the guards a lot more clearly and OH SHIT they had definitely gained some ground. He dashed into the forest, trying to dodge around the trees while simultaneously trying not to trip over the massive roots that littered the ground. He could hear a lone horse maneuvering around as well, and hid behind a tree as the horse and its rider walked past.

He started his run again when he thought it was safe, which was made clear very soon after that it was in fact not safe as the soldier yelled at him to stop while pointing a gun at him.

“When will I catch a fucking break,” he gasped as he spotted the ocean through the dark of the trees. No real plan in mind, he decided to go towards the water and ended up luckily spotting a fisherman’s row boat gently rocking in the shallows.

He cheered as he clumsily ran into the ocean, pushing the boat into the water and then laying down as the current took him away from the shore. He could hear the soldier and her horse enter the water as she screamed at him out of frustration. He was tempted to sit up and taunt her, but was reminded of Price's hand and stayed down.

He stays laying down resting from his hour long flight for a while. Eventually, coughing up the courage he sat up and realized that he had absolutely no idea where he was. Digging into his pocket, he opened a compass. It was quite the extravagant travelling device, embezzled with gold and jewels. He had got it off of a previous heist, and what can he say, he has style.

The compass was pointing north behind him, entailing that he was still heading south with the current of the sea. Looking around, he could see multiple small islands around him, somewhat giving him an idea of where he was. Picking the largest of the islands, he used the oars that were still inside the boat to make his way towards the land.

Docking his little vessel, he climbed up onto the rocky beach. The island wasn’t large by any means, but it was big enough that he couldn’t see the other end of it. That also may be because there were quite a few trees providing coverage, making a little forest of their own. Deciding he should probably hide his boat a bit, he dragged it up the beach near a cliffside. Panting, he looked towards the horizon. It had quickly gotten darker since he had first flown from the castle, and the sun had started to set.

Groaning, he set off to look for a place to sleep for the night. The next morning he would have to somehow make his way back to Price and the crew, if he took the crown and ran, well, he didn’t think he would last long.

Shuffling through the trees, he looked for dry sticks to make a fire. Turning a corner, though, he spotted the strangest thing, a tower. Like a full on tower in the middle of nowhere near to the cliff’s edge. Eyes wide, he curiously approached the tower. It was extremely dark now, as Aster fell asleep and Lunadais took her turn guiding the night with her moonlight, making sure that Chip could somewhat see where he was stepping.

The tower….seemed abandoned. There were no lights emitting from any windows and, hell, there wasn’t even a door at the bottom. If he squinted, he could just about make out an outline where one had been sealed up, no longer in use. Well this must be empty then, who seals a tower and still uses it?

Grabbing the two twinblades on his hips, he stabs into the stone wall and starts to climb his way into the tower towards a large open window. Collapsing inside, he breathed deeply as he looked up and saw a dark silhouette against the moonlight in front of him. Before he can even react, his vision goes black.

Chapter Text

Slowly blinking, the darkness faded from her vision. Jay rubbed her eyes as she sat up in bed, glancing towards the window across the room. She could hear the birds starting to wake up as the sun slowly rose above the buildings surrounding the castle. Loudly exhaling, she started to get ready for the day. Her legs were shaking as she stepped, anticipation eating at her.

As she washed her face in the water basin, she thought about how much her father was depending on her today. She was put in charge of guarding the Lost Prince’s crown, along with the other soldiers she had been training with her whole life, and the pressure was starting to get to her. She knew how much the trinket meant to the kingdom, to the royal family, and how important the job was to her family.

She pulled on a tunic with the royal crest embroidered on the front, then layered leather armour on top. Her father was the top admiral of her section and had overseen all of her training, all of her mistakes. Today wasn’t going to be a mistake. It was a privilege to be in the position that her family had given her, and she wasn’t going to mess up their plans.

Grabbing the doorknob to her room, a flash of light caught her attention and she looked back at the mirror hanging above her vanity. Staring back at her was a young woman with fiery red hair pointing every which way wearing the uniform of the royal guard, her expression blank. Hurriedly, she pulled the strands of hair into a neat ponytail and smoothed the wrinkles on her clothing. She got this.

…

She met with her father in the corridor outside of the room she was to stand guard, her peers Kira and Taylor were quietly talking behind her as she led the group to the door. The corridor fell quiet as the admiral stood in front of the guards, eyes glued to Jay.

“Good morning,” he gruffed, “you know the drill, stand guard, keep the crown safe, and do not fail.” His eyes pierced daggers into her.

They nodded, and walked inside.

Despite being told to guard the crown, this was actually her first time seeing the beloved object. It was an elaborate thing, made of spiraling silvers and gems of sapphire delicately and purposefully dotted throughout. She herself was not an expert on jewelry, but she knew an expensive thing when she saw one.

As she found her place in front of the pedestal where the crown sat, facing back towards the door, her father nodded at her and closed the door. Breathing out, she shook out her wrists to help ease her anxiety. Just five hours, that’s it. Easy peasy.

…

Gods this was boring. Shuffling her feet, she stretched out her legs that had gone stiff. Staring across the room she had already counted the amount of 90 degree angles that existed in the room (74) and now she was wracking her brain to think of a different thing to keep her occupied as she stood at her post.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Kira squinting, then in a burst she sneezed. “Bless you,” Jay mumbled, silently chuckling. “Thanks,” Kira sniffed, wiping her nose on the back of her hand.

If she focused hard enough, she could hear birds scittering about on the roof. Oh to be free like that, flying in the wind without a worry or responsibility…

As she was thinking about that though, the strangest thing happened. A small piece of paper, it couldn’t have been much bigger than a playing card, gently floated down in front of her. Bending down, she watched as a small flame flickered from it, then consumed the rest. She glanced up hurriedly, and fear filled her eyes as she watched a boy dash away from a hole in the ceiling.

Jay whipped around, looking at where the crown should have been.

“Fuck,” she whispered, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, no, no, no, this can’t be happening, not today, not to me.” She grabbed her gun that was in it’s holster and ran to the door, finally getting the attention of the others in the room.

“The crown has been stolen!”

Jay led the soldiers outside and spotted the group of thieves still on the roof, running away. One of the men held a small satchel in his hand, gripping it as if his life depended on it. She smirked, then barked at the servant she had stopped next to, “alert the admiral of the crown’s danger, get this entire castle on lockdown, NOW!”

They nodded quickly then ran away as she held her arm out to aim her pistol. Closing one eye, she breathed deeply in… don’t hesitate, aim true… and then out… BAM! Immediately the man dropped the bag and clutched his hand into a fist where she had shot him. A flurry of swears were targeted her way, but another man quickly scooped up the satchel and ran the rest of the length of the roof before she could aim again.

Jogging, she watched as he slid down into the crowd and slipped under the gate right as it started closing. Looking at the stables, Jay saw her horse looking at her, and she could feel the presence of her father nearby. She knew what she was supposed to do.

…

He hadn’t gotten very far through the market square by the time the gate had once again been opened, and Jay as well as some other soldiers galloped after him on their horses. Maneuvering around townsfolk was not an easy feat, especially with the panic that started the brew around. No one knew that the crown had been stolen, and it was going to stay that way, but something was obviously going down.

She watched as the thief jumped a gap between two roofs and followed beneath him. “Give it up and I can promise you that your punishment will not be as bad if I am forced to catch you,” she shouted, kicking her horse to go faster. He looked down at her and grinned as he continued to dash away. The darkness of the forest’s edge was drawing closer as they continued their chase.

A light lit up in Jay’s eyes as an idea formed in her head, looking back, she spotted Kira not too far behind her.

“Keep following him,” she yelled, “I have a plan!” Kira nodded and sped past her as Jay turned in a different direction. Because the thief wasn’t limited to the streets like they were, he was able to jump across in a diagonal must faster, but if Jay could correctly guess where he was planning to hide, she could hopefully catch him off guard.

Weaving through the alleyways that she knew could fit a 1,000 pound horse, she mapped out in her mind the fastest route to the forest entrance. She had grown up running around in this city, these alleyways were as much her home as her actual house, even more so. Countless times she snuck out to explore the world to escape the reality that was waiting for her when she would be forced to return.

As she flew past the last building, she watched as the thief just dashed behind a tree. Kira, or any soldier for that matter, was nowhere to be seen. Clicking her tongue, she urged her horse forwards after him into the bush.

Spotting him through the foliage was a difficult task, and she yelped as a low hanging branch threatened to knock her down, but she continued going, breathing hard with exhilaration. Another twig slapped her cheek as the horse flew over a particularly large rock standing in their way, and the boy looked back at her, stopping for just a second to catch his breath. She pulled out her gun again and tried to aim it while steering the large mammal towards him still. At the sight of the weapon, he dashed off again, disappearing over a hill in the shady woods.

The sound of the horse’s hooves thundered, only slightly muffled by the dry leaves on the ground. Scanning around, she saw him already down the slope, flinging his arms about wildly as he threw the bag around his body and started towards the edge of the ocean that had suddenly become much closer.

Had they really run this far? How on earth was this guy still running?? As she looked closer though, flying down the forested hill, he was heading towards an abandoned row boat sitting in the water, bobbing about in the waves gently.

“Oh shit,” she grinded her teeth together as she got closer, “C’mon, just a bit faster.” Just as she made it to the water's edge, he had thrown his body into the boat after pushing it. She tried to get the horse to run deeper, but it stubbornly refused. Jay grabbed her gun, pointing it at the vessel, but it was useless as the current took a hold of it and he had disappeared beneath the wooden walls.

Groaning, she debated her options. She couldn’t go back to her father empty handed, that much was obvious. Looking around she gathered that she wasn’t too far away from a nearby inn, there she might be able to get a boat herself and continue chasing after him. Or, she could continue on the ocean’s shore and hope that he decides to come back to the mainland. She doubted that the thief would be stupid enough to come back, so she turned the horse to the direction of the inn, and trudged ahead.