welcome to my original writing blog where I'm gonna try and get in the habit of writing even a paragraph of something everyday and posting it no matter how good or finished it is. I'm going to try and keep track of "worlds" in my master post, feel free to send asks with questions if context is missing!
Attempt at a prologue for my Ailend Saga, a novel idea swimming around in my head since at least 2017 that I've attempted over and over. Once again, this prologue doesn't feel right, but it was still fun to write anyways. Finally solidifying Mikolan's role in the world was very satisfying to do. It's funny that he's such a side character, a mentor figure for the main character, but he's probably the most solidified character I have. You can really tell near the end that I lost my steam for this scene, but luckily I've come up with a different way to introduce the world, Mikolan, and the magic and I'm excited to attempt it next.
Warnings for slight description of death/corpses.
Unedited - Unfinished - 2k+ words
---
Mikolan should have known that the night would not continue to be so carefree. It had been too long since something had gone horribly awry, the sweet taste of peace too aquired on the pallet.
He didn't even want to be in the castle in the first place; especially not with the prince and princes around. Yet, Queen Ariana wanted him and Agosha there for the feast and he had previously turned her down far too many times.
Agosha blended in with the crowd like he had always belonged here. Old friends clapped him on the back, retired soldiers and their young apprentices who looked wide eyed at the decorated hero. Mikolan envied his partner, just a bit, at his ease of settling in with the royal crowd, but refused to let it get to him too much.
The night was going relatively well for himself, all things considering. His half siblings glared at him every chance they saw him, yes, but the Queen's presence stopped them from doing anything more. He hadn't approached the royal table yet, despite Ariana having saved him and Agosha a seat to her right where should be filled with others if she had children and a spouse. She had neither. Mikolan hoped her joking of him taking the throne if anything happened to her was all, well, jokes. His half siblings seethed at her seating arrangement, he was sure.
Fates, he was happy. Despite the jealousy of Agosha living in the crowd, despite the tiptoing around the princes and princesses, despite Ariana being all too joyful to see him in the castle, he was happy.
It all changed the matter of seconds.
Ariana met his eyes, then gracefully stood up, her dress flowing around her thin frame in a way that diverted the gaze from her constantly failing health. She was about to give a speech; perhaps something about the wealthy alliance with Ailend, or maybe something about the abundance of harvest, but the second she raised her glass of blood red wine, her face twiched in pain, a hand coming to her chest and her voice catching in her throat.
With one heartbeat, the presence of his other half siblings no longer mattered, not when his baby sister choked with a face twisting in grief as her hand flattened out on the table before her to stop herself from crumpling.
The only person quicker than himself to reach her was Agosha. Guards came soon after, shoving through concerned and scared guests, ignoring the shouts of the rest of the royal family, tailed closely by Aliend's representative.
Mikolan shoved through them all, grabbing Ariana by the shoulder and pulling her into his chest to keep her steady.
This could only be one thing... but his eyes trailed to the falcon sitting in it's cage across the room, perfectly healthy and breathing.
No matter.
"The Goblet," he whispered as shouty as he could to Agosha, careful to not let the representative overhear. Deep concern and a steely resolve as a retired soldier flashed in his eyes, and he almost ran from the room, before Ariana lifted a hand and grabbed Agosha's sleeve before he could retreat to the hidden vault.
"It's not that," she breathed, her voice wobbling like she was about to weep. Mikolan couldn't remember the last time he'd heard her like this. She had always been graceful and calm, even in the face of an incurable poison raging through her blood. She held up a hand, stopped the guards from fussing over her. "Ian has died."
That got the Ailend representative, Fyn, to grow pale.
"What?" Mikolan asked, stunned. Ian? Who...?
"I have a duty to fulfill," she clutched at his shirt, taking a steadying breath, "Mikolan, come with me."
---
Mikolan had no idea what was going on. He thought he'd seen close to it all in his short thirty years of life, but he had never expected to ever see himself riding in a cart with no one but his half sister the Queen, Fyn, and Agosha into Aliend's borders.
Ariana had assured Mikolan that she had no need of the Goblet, but leaving into Ailend was of upmost importance, and she trusted no one else to accompany her.
Fyn had sent a messenger hawk towards Aliend's own queen, Ira, of the events of tonight. Somehow, no one questioned whether or not Queen Ira and her guard would be able to find them wherever they were going. How Ariana expected to meet up with their neighboring royalty in the middle of rural farmland Aliend was beyond Mikolan.
"Just a little further," Ariana breathed to Agosha who drove the carriage, steering the horses like he'd never retired. She sounded so frail, so sad. Agosha shot Mikolan a very well disguised panicked look that only Mikolan couldn't see through. "Oh Sister, oh Mother, oh Traitor," she began praying.
Corvus didn't follow Ailend's religion, why was his sister praying to it's gods?
Fire.
A farmhouse appeared ahead, engulfed in flame and terror. Something sunk to the pit of Mikolan's stomach as he rose to his feet, leaving the cart the second Agosha brought it to a halt a safe distance away from the inky smoke. He drew his sword and ran toward the farmhouse, ignoring his husband's calls, his sisters praying, the representative's shouts as another cart had appeared a short distance away.
The closer he got, the faster he ran. He could hear a baby's cry from inside.
The door had already been blown open. He covered his mouth with his sleeve and maneuvered inside. It wasn't a large home, and the source of the crying wasn't hard to find.
What he found with the source, however, had him stupidly stopping in his tracks for just a moment.
The babe was new. Probably not even an half hour. She laid in her mother's arms, the cord still not cut, her face red and weeping. The mother was dead, skin like ash, eyes sunken and frozen in terror. Across the room, a nursemaid laid still, pale and dead. As did the father, not far off.
Dead. Everyone was dead. Except the terrified, naked newborn.
The charm hanging from a leather cord around his neck suddenly felt heavy from the erie understanding that washed over him.
Mikolan forced himself to move, ripping off his cape and swaddling the child, cutting the cord and abandoning the dead family to save the baby.
His brain whirred with the sound of flames, the screams of the child, as he stumbled out of the barn. His eyes stung with smoke, and for a minute, he thought the arms that reached out to meet him, to take the babe, belonged to Agosha.
It wasn't. It was a soldier he didn't recognize.
He noticed too late, the child was already out of his arms, wailing, and the only thing that stopped him from drawing his sword was the sight of his sister leaning heavily on Agosha behind the soldier and the group the soldier belonged to.
Five more soldiers, an old woman, and a middle aged woman who unrecognizably was Queen Ira of Ailend. The old woman must have been Keo, the Tei prophet.
Mikolan forced himself to stay where he was as the soldier brought the child to the neighboring queen. Queen Ira regarded the child with disgust for just a moment, before her eyes softened and she took the babe into her own arms. Somehow, shockingly enough, the baby calmed in her arms.
"You did well to call me, Queen Ari."
Mikolan forced himself to not bristle at the way Queen Ira named his sister. Damn Ailish and their weird obsession with three letter names.
"This is her," Ariana said as calmly as she could through her visible exhaustion. "Vei's mortal form. I- I mourn Ian's death."
"He lived a good life at the end," Queen Ira said, voice completely void of mourning.
Vei's mortal form. The Queen of Ailend. Ian's death.
By the stars, Ian was Vei's last form, and they... they thought this child was her newest reincarnation.
"What of the family?" Queen Ira asked, forcing Mikolan to not spiral in religious bullshit quite yet.
"Dead," he responded, then hesitated. "You're, uh, majesty."
A soldier bristled. "It's My Highness you-"
Queen Ira raised a hand, silencing him. "Ah, you must be Mio, Queen Ari has spoken about you. Your lack of respect reveals you."
Before Mikolan could bristle himdelf, Ariana spoke up. "Then you remember my request? When I agreed to lead you to Vei's new form once the time arose?"
"Yes, yes, I remember."
Mikolan had a bad feeling, and he wondered if it had anything to do with that time, nearly ten years ago, when Ariana had approached him after a long, private conversation with Queen Ira. Mikolan, I might have to ask you to do something you don't want to do in the future, promise me you'll do as I tell you, just this once.
"My help and the Goblet," Ariana continued, "in exchange for my continued use of it until I have an heir, and my brother to be the reincarnation's caretaker."
... What?
"Mei has a caretaker," Queen Ira says sharply, naming the small baby and assigning herself as caretaker with the four words.
"Captain of her guard, then. You agreed."
"I did."
"Wait a minute-" Mikolan started, but shut up quickly when Ariana gave him a sharp, rare, authoritative glare.
Just this once, her glare said, do as I tell you to, as your Queen.
He shut up, glancing at his husband for an uneasy moment.
The Queen of Ailend considered for a heartbeat, and every person on the field knew—as sure as the smoke billowing from the destroyed house—that she could go back on every agreement she had made with Ariana and there's nothing anyone could do about it.
"What makes this man worthy of my shelter and employment?"
"He knows the signs of Veifa better than anyone," Ariana said immediately, voice firm and level. "He doesn't worship the Teileiv gods, he will respect your ward as a person and protect her as such."
Queen Ira's expression darkened, which was expected.
"You brought a heathen into my lands?"
Mikolan wasn't exactly praised for his refusal to worship the silly stories assigned to the land's magic and science, he wouldn't dream of expecting warmness from the most vocal prophet of the world religion.
"And not only that, you request I welcome a heathen into my city? My castle? The care of my daughter?"
"You want to change how the Vessels are treated? You chose to move Ian from the dungeons into a locked tower after your mother passed, and you wish to raise this one as an honored member of your family. Do you want her main source of protection to be from those who fear her? Or from one who knows her only as a human, and treats her with the same dignity and respect a guard would give any member of your family?"
The Queen of Ailend looked enraged, but the weathered hand of Teo softly wrapped around her wrist. The old woman looked more ancient than the stars themselves, worn skin wrinkled and eyes squinted, stubble along her chin and hair growing from moles along her forehead. She looks crafted from clay, a perfect form for her place in the religion. She may not be a queen, rumor had it she'd originated from a river village nearly a century ago, but she held more command and respect than any queen or king ever will in her lifetime. Even heathens, such as Mikolan himself, must treat her like she spoke for the world itself. The true, soul Mother. Her presence was the only reason no one had panicked about the fire still raging, if she deemed the fire dangerous, she would rid it from the world's surface.
"Your sister's words hold value and weight," Teo said, words whispered yet powerful, as wrinkled as her skin but as ancient the mountains. "You would do well to hear them."
Queen Ira seethed for a moment, then locked eyes with Ariana. "We will welcome him as captain of the Vessels guard." There was no happiness in her voice.
"As Tei wishes," Teo nodded, her cheeks rising in a smile before the sound of collapsing, burning wood drew her attention. "Now, this will no longer do," she said, hobbling closer to the fire. No one assisted her, no one tried to hold her back from the danger.
Everyone watched as she walked into the smoke, into the doorway, and rested her hand on the glowing embered wood.
The fire flickered around her fingertips, and a brush of wind flowed past every blade of grass around her. In the matter of seconds, the fire died, not a single board of wood glowed or smoked. The walls had burned away and crumpled, revealing the room Mikolan had just stumbled out of and the charred remains there. He looked away, momentarily angry that not a single soul there will be laid to rest properly in the ground.
One didn't have to be as familiar with wild Vei magic to know not a single corpse in there died with it's soul intact. The Ailend people will view the corpses as already having returned to the Mother, and their corpses would not be disturbed.
Stupid, idiotic. Disrespectful.
Mikolan tore his eyes from the sacred display of Teifa, meeting his husband's eyes once again. He ignored how his change of gaze alerted him of Queen Ira's stare.
Agosha looked solemn and sad, also upset at the scene despite how he believed in the religion more than Mikolan; not everything, but the parts involving death, a belief his little sister breathed in the wind, her blood flowed in the water, her hair waved in the trees, her heart beat with the quakes... Mikolan has only tried to debate him on such once. He nearly got stabbed in his other eye.
Mikolan turned to finally meet Queen Ira's glare.
"And my husband?" Mikolan broke the silence, because he doubted anyone else would.
She glanced at Agosha, no doubt having already deduced him as the legendary hero many claimed him to be. Where Mikolan went, his loyal knight followed.
"As Captain of the Vessel's guard, you will be granted a family home. As an... honored foreign guest... any you hold dear have the right to come and go as they please."
How did she so gracefully spit the word?
It seemed he was leaving one castle full of half siblings who hate him for their father's unfaithful afair and heading into another where the entire people will hate him for his lack of belief.
Fantastic.
The things he did for his baby sister.
"Then," Ariana spoke up, standing more and more on her own power, no longer leaning so much on Agosha, "we are in agreement."
"Not quite," Queen Ira replied coldly. "I do not trust your bastard, the Vessel, and the Goblet all within the same place. You will show my representative, and you will agree to hand over the goblet at any time I command. I suggest you resume the search for your heir, I have no timeframe of when you will no longer have it's vile abilities to keep your life. The only reason we have allowed it's use is because a god, no matter how low and disowned, needs a prophet. Find your replacement, you can no longer hold your connection to Vei over us."
A prophet?
The two parties separate shortly after, and Mikolan found himself replacing Agosha's hand with his own to help Ariana onto her cart. His mind whirred, which left him uncharacteristically moody and silent while helping his weakened sister. It left the perfect opening for her to speak first the second she sat down, keeping a grip on his hand to prevent him walking away.
"My dearest brother," she said softly, loud enough for only the two of them to hear. Thankfully, the Ailend representative was talking with his queen while Agosha fed the horses. "Leave with them, I will send Agosha with your things overmorrow."
"Ariana," Mikolan whispered, under his breath, "if I declined, refused to go, stayed in Corvus... would you brand me a traitor to your authority? Your beloved brother?"
Silence, then a very, very defeated "... Yes."
He smiled at her, she didn't return it. "Then I will go."
"I'm sorry."
He closed his eyes for a moment, squeezing her hand. "Send a servant with my things. Keep Agosha close to you. I don't trust that insane queen to not hold the Goblet over your head."
"He will not like that."
He flashed her a wider smile. "He will listen to you, won't even need threat of branding."
Once again, she didn't return it. She let go of his hand.
"... keep an eye on that girl, Mikolan. When you arrive to the capital, request their religious texts. I know you do not believe in Teileiv but understanding it will keep that girl alive. There's prophesies... things in the world that matter for you to know. I'm sorry I never told you they considered me a prophet. I will explain in letters."
I realize I forgot to post this yesterday ahh. Yesterday was real busy, didn't write much besides some experimental Eti POV
Unfinished - unedited
----
Location > Jerico - Post-Modem - Day
Date > XX-XX-ERROR > Override > XX-XX-34107 AA (After Armageddon)
Time > 17:34
Permission to Travel > Admin Password required Override
Permission to Speech > Admin Password required Override
Memory File > ERROR > New File > 426567696E6T696I6720
ADMIN STONE ERROR > MAINTENANCE REQUIRED > Override
-oOo-
Eti has been travelling alone for some time, and it's not often she's visited the same city more than once. She tends to keep moving, never making roots, staying far away from connections and anything than can threaten what she has going on. She can't call attention to herself, not when her face is still plastered on wanted holograms.
Sure, she doesn't look the same as she did nearly a decade ago, but it still makes her anxious.
Just a little idea that's been eating away at my brain for a few weeks now. Main inspirations: Trigun, Cave Story, National Treasure, Detroit Become Human, Stormlight Archive. I just want more stories about fucked up little robot stories. This would be the epilogue of the story, as Yona isn't the main pov, but I feel like her pov is the best way to introduce the world.
Warnings: minor descriptions of body mutilation/horror.
317 words - unfinished - unedited
----
It's almost angelic, the way they have her suspended in the air, her back sliced open and her flesh wrenched outwards like some sort of twisted mockery of wings. Cables and tubes decend from the dark corners of the room, latching to her insides and keeping her aloft with the restraints on her shoulders and arms.
Yona can't stand to see it, but sitting below and shackled to the floor, she doesn't have much choice.
Scientists bustle around the room, checking vitals and preparing for whatever they plan to do next. In the center of the organized chaos is one man—sleaked black hair, daggers for brown eyes, a permanent smug look.
Yona hates him.
There's nothing she can do about it. Even if she could get out of the shackle on her ankle and try to claw the asshole's eyes out, two soulless droids guard the only way in and out, and if they fight anything like how her friend hovering above them does... she'd quickly find her bone-count tripled. So she sat still, not liking anything about what's going on, but forcing herself to watch anyways.
"The memory cable is ready," one scientist says to the man, Yona's royal-thorn-in-her-behind, Li.
Li grinned, turning to the droids guarding the room and nodding to one of them, his hand going to the Admin Stone in his pocket. He didn't need to be touching it for every little order he gave the droids, though rumors say that holding it does tend to have things run quicker.
The droid turns and leaves the room. Yona can barely wonder where it's going before Li catches her eye.
"You want me to beg?" She snapped, clenching her fists.
"This all would have gone by so much quicker if you talked," Li said, waving the scientist off. "And now we have to risk damaging equipment to get the answers I want."
Making up terms on the fly is hard. If I ever were to more seriously write this there's so many names and terms I'd think of replacements for ;-; alas, if I spent all day trying to come up with perfect terms, I'd never write this. So, y'all get "droids" for now.
----
Yona gets the bristling feeling that he's not talking about the cables.
"Eti isn't equipment. She's a //person\\."
Li scoffs. "All droids are equipment. They were in the Modem times, and they will be now. Each and every one of them were soldiers and laborers, meant to be used and thrown aside. Just because one goes rogue it doesn't mean it's alive."
Yona feels a growl come on, and she nearly stands from her chair and throws it at him, but thankfully the dismissed droid returns. Unthankfully, it returns with someone familiar.
She hasn't seen Danni is over ten years—not since the week before Danni's entire company got slaughtered by a rogue droid that left her the only survivor. Yona can still feel the horror at receiving her last transmission that fateful day.
"Alive—intruders—protect my work" followed by a file that told Yona everything.
Li doesn't know she she knows everything. He doesn't have to string Eti up, or drag Danni in here for torture and interrogation, he could beat it out of Yona—but this is part of the plan.
"Yona," Danni breaths. She looks so much older, much older than a decades time. Her once bright eyes are sunkin, her cheeks hollow, her hair faded and skin pale. They've kept her alive this whole time... but barely.
Yona shouldn't feel offended that Danni's eyes quickly found Eti and completely disregarded her. Sure they dated for a few years, and yeah they broke up, but c'mon, Yona's spent the better part of her 30's trying to find her because she was under the impression that Danni still trusted her and only her.
"Ren- what-" Danni stutters, which tears at Yona's soul. Ten years of captivity... her spark is gone. "What did you do to him?!"
Ren. Him. Yona almost forgot Eti was made to be completely gender ambiguous, all droids were, which meant she could pass as whatever gender she wanted with the right cosmetics. Ten years ago, she was he, and he was named Ren.
Danni looks nearly ready to collapse, and Yona can understand why. She's been held captive for a decade, doing everything she can to protect Ren from these people, and here they are anyways.
If this goes wrong, it can all be for nothing. Everything. For Danni, Yona, and Eti.
Maybe even the world.
Which is so self centered of her to think, but knowing Li, he has much more than traveling to the Night planned. The icey dark half of the planet is completely unhabitable for humanity, no one knows what's buried under all that snow—who knows how many more droids lay dormant there, how much more remains untouched from the Armageddon War. Humans can't go there, but a man who has found working droids on this side of the planet can send them there and become unstoppable.
"Nothing, yet," Li responds, snapping Yona out of her spiraling thoughts with his stupid voice. The droid marches Danni to the chair next to Yona and shackles one ankle there. Danni doesn't sit, and she doesn't tear her eyes away from Eti. "Because I'm going to give you one last chance before I force myself into it's memory files."
The threat isn't a light one. During early discovery of the soldier droids, trying to access memory files always resulted in a self destruct. People that know more than Yona believe it to be a preventative measure in case those on the opposite side of the war captured any droids. Only those with certain credentials can access the memories of their own droids, but those people are thousands years gone. Even droids tend to not have access to their own files, only retaining information on ongoing tasks assigned to whoever currently possessed their Admin Stone. The second the assignment is dismissed or reassigned, they're like newborns built only to serve.
Danni looks torn, face pale and horrified.
"Don't do it," Yona snaps finally earning a wide eyed direct look from the other woman. "Eti- Ren wouldn't want you to."
She hopes their old souls can still read each other's eyes as well as they used to.
It will be okay. We have a plan.
Danni takes a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment, opening them a heartbeat later with a decade's worth of defiance rearing it's head like an old friend.
"Go to hell."
Wow, Li looks like he's been spat on for a second, Yona almost falls back in love. He recovers quickly, however, like he always does, the bastard. "We'll find what made it rogue. One way or another."
He nods at the previous scientist, and she nods back. Her eyes are blank and cold; she has no sympathy for the machinery hanging above them.
With a sequence of buttons, a turn of the dial, a gaping tube extends from the darkness, snaking down behind Eti and, with a final jolt— it locks in place at the back of her neck.
Eti shudders, eyes shooting open and hands tugging on the restraints. Yona forces herself to watch, even as the panic is evident.
It'll work. It has to.
Eti opens her mouth—perhaps to shout, or cuss, but nothing comes out. On a screen to the left, the Speech Permissions flashes, a string of code combating the narrative overides Danni has worked so hard to hack into so many years ago.
The lack of being able to speak visibly horrifies Eti. Yona begs Eti to turn her gaze down onto them, see Danni and Yona there supporting her, but her uncanny eyes lock with Li's. Anger twists her face, and Yona distantly wonders if that expression is what Danni's company saw before Eti slaughtered them.
"We have acess to the files," The lead scientists breaths, shocked and awed. "We- we can watch it's memories!"
Li turns away from Eti, glancing at the screen and watching as file after file begins to download and extract. Strings of binary name each moment. There's no way to date a single one of them, let alone know if they were in any kind of order—there's so many. It's just a mess of file after file, stringing in. Yona cannot imagine how violated Eti must be feeling right now.
The plan. It'll work.
"This- this is incredible! Who knows how far it's memories go- it could go all the way to the Armageddon War! This is- this is the most important historic breakthrough in all of Post-Modem!"
Li remains silent, watching file after file after file. The Speech Permissions flash again, the override is combatted.
"Where do we start?" The woman asks, turning towards Li with a hungry look in her eyes.
Li stays silent for a moment, then rubs his chin. "Restrict it's ability to form new memories, wait for all the files to download, and we'll start at the bottom, see if we can make out any order to this."
Another scientist answers to the call, rushing to another screen and working to block a string of ever flowing code. Eti gives one last denied attempt to speak, then her body jolts, going limp and unconscious once again. Yona tries not to think about how her eyes faded so distantly right before they shut.
It takes nearly an hour for the files to stop flowing in, time spent with Li pacing and watching every single one fly by. Scientists continue to bustle about, keeping track of Eti's vitals, combatting every string of code they don't want to happen. Danni collapses early on into her chair, hand reaching out to clutch Yona's wrist. Yona grinds her jaw the entire time.
Once the string stills, Li gives a smug nod, eyeing each of his captives in victory.
The woman scientist locates the bottom file and presses play.
Just a little idea that's been eating away at my brain for a few weeks now. Main inspirations: Trigun, Cave Story, National Treasure, Detroit Become Human, Stormlight Archive. I just want more stories about fucked up little robot stories. This would be the prologue of the story, as Yona isn't the main pov, but I feel like her pov is the best way to introduce the world.
Warnings: minor descriptions of body mutilation/horror.
317 words - unfinished - unedited
----
It's almost angelic, the way they have her suspended in the air, her back sliced open and her flesh wrenched outwards like some sort of twisted mockery of wings. Cables and tubes decend from the dark corners of the room, latching to her insides and keeping her aloft with the restraints on her shoulders and arms.
Yona can't stand to see it, but sitting below and shackled to the floor, she doesn't have much choice.
Scientists bustle around the room, checking vitals and preparing for whatever they plan to do next. In the center of the organized chaos is one man—sleaked black hair, daggers for brown eyes, a permanent smug look.
Yona hates him.
There's nothing she can do about it. Even if she could get out of the shackle on her ankle and try to claw the asshole's eyes out, two soulless droids guard the only way in and out, and if they fight anything like how her friend hovering above them does... she'd quickly find her bone-count tripled. So she sat still, not liking anything about what's going on, but forcing herself to watch anyways.
"The memory cable is ready," one scientist says to the man, Yona's royal-thorn-in-her-behind, Li.
Li grinned, turning to the droids guarding the room and nodding to one of them, his hand going to the Admin Stone in his pocket. He didn't need to be touching it for every little order he gave the droids, though rumors say that holding it does tend to have things run quicker.
The droid turns and leaves the room. Yona can barely wonder where it's going before Li catches her eye.
"You want me to beg?" She snapped, clenching her fists.
"This all would have gone by so much quicker if you talked," Li said, waving the scientist off. "And now we have to risk damaging equipment to get the answers I want."