Empire Moths Act 1: A Summary
A little something to jog our memories before I drop Act 2, or if you're a new reader and want to skip ahead to Act 2 with a basic premise of the events leading up to it.
More below!
The story begins with Saturn, a blind Sky child who was maimed by a Great Dark Dragon two years ago and had since been haunted by visions of the ancient King Resh-- With whom shared a task to bring the Elders back to Orbit. She completed the constellations of each realm in order to ascend the Elders and cease the disturbing visions, but the Elders were still missing from Orbit and left her stumped.
Saturn then sought the help of Kurio, a Sky child monk and apprentice to the Samekh twins who was known to have lived during the time of the Kingdom, in order to find out what kept the Elders from ascending. Instead, the two uncovered within the abode of the Samekh twins memory cube recordings of the Dark Storm, a mysterious event that destroyed the Kingdom of Horizon and devastated its people.
Due to Kurio's in-depth knowledge of the twins, Saturn deduced that they kept the cubes as a result of their guilt; So she and Kurio sought out a survivor of the Dark Storm-- Yumegai, the Guide of Dreams-- and asked for her help to free the Samekh twins from their guilt. Yumegai gave them memory cubes from the aftermath of the Storm and asked them to take them to the twins.
While visiting the Samekh twins and telling them of Saturn's mission, she and Kurio discovered that they perished in the defense of their realm and indeed harbored guilt over their supposed failure as Elders. With the memory cubes from Yumegai, Saturn and Kurio managed to dispel the twins' guilt-- But the two remained unable to ascend, for reasons they didn't yet know.
The Samekh twins then directed Saturn and Kurio to visit Ayin for answers, promising to persuade their fellow Elders to help them. Upon arriving at Ayin's temple, their trauma caused them to accidentally trap the two kids in the ancient Aviary where they were entombed-- Culminating in them revealing how their fellow Elders perished and confirming Saturn's suspicions that Resh himself was preventing the Elders from ascending.
To comprehend the massive powers Resh possessed in order to do such things, Ayin tasked Saturn and Kurio to meet with Teth, who had in-depth knowledge of the King's powers. Due to their fear of her, they asked the two to first meet with her former right-hand-- Lonceng, the Guide of Sanctuary-- and retrieve a Whale calf named Lele to persuade her to help. During their visit to Sanctuary Isles, Saturn began to exhibit signs of Darkblight, an illness long thought to be extinct.
After retrieving Lele and receiving Ayin's blessings Saturn and Kurio took off to the Forest, which was mostly inaccessible due to an unusually rough downpour. They then sought the help of Saturn's Ancestor Spirit friend-- Soup, the Assembly Scoutmaster-- in order to safely reach Teth's temple. While resting at the Treehouse, Saturn received a vision of Resh cursing her, causing her Darkblight to rapidly fester and deteriorate her condition.
Soup and their scouts then moved to bring Saturn, Kurio, and Lele to Teth's temple as fast as they could. Due to them bringing a Whale calf to her, Teth received them in their temple, but refused to help due to her wanting to atone for providing the means for the Dark Storm to happen. She only began to willingly help once she saw Saturn lose a wing light to Darkblight and told the two kids about Resh's Throne, the source of his great power.
After discovering that Resh is a Sky child prior to corruption and that he had been using his own kith-- Including his adoptive son, Alef II-- as fuel for the Throne, Teth asked Saturn and Kurio to confront and kill him in order to end his captivity of the Elders. Kurio refused thanks to his belief of pacifism, but Saturn was willing to agree due to her self-sacrifical nature-- Causing the two to strain their friendship.
Saturn and Kurio were then requested by Daleth to meet with him. Teth tasked Kurio to bring a scroll to Tsadi when the time came to meet him and sent the two kids on their way. The rift between Saturn and Kurio only worsened as Daleth explained who Resh was prior to becoming King and requested them to end his son's misery, causing Kurio to leave Saturn behind in order to bring the scroll to Tsadi.
In the Wasteland, a rampage of frenzied Dark creatures throughout the realm had taken place and Saturn discovers that Kurio was spotted in the area when it happened. She then sought him out despite the danger and scolded him, when the scroll was swept by a breeze and eventually caused the two to be killed by the rampaging Dark Dragons.
Their spirits were then sent down into the Void, where Saturn fended off Resh from hurting Kurio and met with the spirit of Alef II, who escaped being trapped with the rest of his people within the Throne and had been hiding in the Void since. Alef explained that Resh's nature as the Child of Light meant that he cannot be killed and thus must be freed from the Lightless World, which required three lights in order to pass through the Eden Diamond-- Including his own, which he gave to Saturn to revive her.
Saturn and Kurio then woke up, rescued from certain death by the aid of Chayil, a Krill child who was formerly the Great Dark Dragon that maimed Saturn long ago and the bearer of the dark light needed to pass through the Diamond. While initially distrustful of one another, the three quickly reconcile and become friends on the way to meet with Tsadi.
Chayil and Tsadi initially clashed, but their fight was halted by Saturn and Kurio's mediation. Kurio handed the scroll to Tsadi, which turned out to be a picture of him and Lamed at their wedding, and earned his trust. Saturn then tells Tsadi of their deaths and subsequent rescue by Alef II, which shocked him. He then tells the three to head into the Vault immediately to explain more.
Saturn, Kurio, and Chayil then went into the Vault, and headed to the Hallowed Chambers. On the way there, Chayil admits to have come from the Lightless World. The three then held a meeting with the Elders to discuss Alef II's request to Saturn and how to execute it, which resulted in the decision to crown Saturn as Prince Incarnate.
The Elders and the three children then spent a few weeks preparing for their infiltration of the realm beyond the Diamond. On the day of the trip, Lamed recapped the plans before sending Saturn, Kurio, and Chayil off to Eden. Meanwhile, Resh threatens Saturn through the Darkblight remnants in her body as the children trek towards the Stormlock.
After arriving at Stormlock, the three children immediately made way to open the Diamond-- Resulting in them, and the spirits of the Elders, to be pulled into it. Saturn, Kurio, and Chayil then awakened in Dawn-- The Dark facsimile of the Isle-- and greeted by Daleth, thus officially starting their grim mission.
[END OF ACT 1]
To read the actual fic, click here
To continue to Act 2, click here
