Talus pushed open the doors with the palms of his hands, relaxing as the warm palace air pushed out into the cold. The main hall stretched out before him, lined with plush velvet carpets that extended through every corridor. Lush drapes hung from the expansive windows, framing the beautiful view of the snow-capped northern mountains.
"So, Violet told us to go see Anna, but she also told us to talk to Chartreuse," Dan mused, staring around the palace. Talus nodded, thinking to himself.
"I want to go see Chartreuse first," Talus replied. Maybe he can help me with my memories....
Turning to a woman walking by, Talus coughed into his hand to make his presence known. The woman moved to face him, more than slightly surprised to see such a large group in his tow. If she didn't know better, she thought, they could have been tourists.
"Excuse me," Talus asked with his famous winning smile, "My friends and I are looking for Chartreuse - Do you know where we'd find him?"
The lady put her hands on her hips, her expression highly miffed. "That's Lord Chartreuse! Learn to respect your elders! But," She said, changing her tone, "If you must see him immediately, he's in the north tower in his private business quarters."
Talus was about to thank the woman when he noticed Dan turn up his nose and mouth 'Lord Chartreuse', mimicking the lady's arrogance to the key. Talus put his hand to his mouth to keep from laughing, quickly turning around. After the woman had walked off, Talus hit Dan lightly over the head with his hand.
"Dan, don't do that! We don't want to get kicked out before we see Chartreuse!" Dan pouted slightly as Talus dragged the group up the steps. "I thought it was funny..."
The walk to the North tower was long and arduous, but after several twisting flights of steps, the group reached their destination. They stood in front of a dungeon door, moments from opening it, when voices leaked through from the other side.
"So, Narcy, it's almost Christmas, and you haven't told me what you want!"
A giggle preceded the following comment. "Char, you know what I want!"
"Well why don't you come and sit on Santa's lap, and we can talk about it!"
The group looked at each other with mixed expressions of amusement.
"Maybe we should come back," Skulryk surmised, "I think those two want to be left alone."
"Nonsense! We came with an appointment, and in we shall go!" So saying, Raltise grasped the door handle and ripped the door open with all his might.
Lord Chartreuse of Altus sat in a high backed chair, the Palace Scientist Narcissa Topolla wrapped around him in a highly compromising position. The gun-shot noise of the door started both occupants into looking at the entrance, their eyes wide like deer in the headlights of a car.
Raltise strode forward unabashedly, his teeth spread in an unearthly grin.
"Greetings once more, Lord Chartreuse and mistress! It is I, Yes, - OOMPH!" Raltise's muscles clenched up as his body froze in place. His eyes flickered back and forth like a wild animal as he took into account Chartreuse's extended hand, which he had removed from under Narcy's shirt during Raltise's showy entrance. No one spoke for several minutes, unsure of what to say. Raltise eyed Chartreuse, who was now standing after Narcy had quickly displaced herself.
"What - the hell - are you doing to me?" Raltise gasped, taking huge gulps of air with each breath. Instead of responding, Chartreuse closed his eyes. Raltise felt a cold chill run up and down his spine, sending shockwaves through his entire body. He let out a pathetic shriek, unable to do anything else.
The moment the tingling stopped, Chartreuse opened his eyes and collapsed back into his chair. He stared at the group in silent awe, his eyes wide with sudden understanding. As Raltise struggled to recover, he choked out his question once more.
"What did you do to me?"
Chartreuse stared coolly at Raltise, calm and collected once more.
"I read your mind."
Raltise's jaw dropped, the wind completely let out of his sails. "You...read my mind?" Chartreuse nodded.
"I asked your mind why you were here, and it told me everything I needed to know. I've had the power to do that since I was a teenager; it's my particular strand of the Altus Power. I can read simple thoughts with no effort, but I have to concentrate to ask my own questions. And since I've read your thoughts, Raltise...I know you have some questions too. So sit down." Extending the power of his mind somewhat, Chartreuse practically knocked Raltise down into a chair. The nightmare demon let out a resounding squeak, but he was heard by no one as the group filed into the room.
"Chartreuse!" Dan cried, running toward his hero. Chartreuse and Dan hit their fists together lightly, each laughing at the other.
"Dan, it's good to see you! It's been a while. Come, take a seat. There's enough chairs and couches around."
"Narcy, how are you?" Luna asked, lowering herself onto a nearby divan. Narcy pulled up a chair next to Chartreuse before responding. She put her hand on top of his underneath the desk, a movement that went unseen by the occupants of the room.
"I'm doing just fine," Narcy said with a grin. "The past five years have been the best of my life."
As the rest of the group took their seats, Chartreuse stared around the room and looked at each of them. Once they were all seated, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
"I'm sure you're wondering why you're here," He started, listening to himself talk in the back of his mind. "For the past five years, I've been thinking a lot about my life - There's a lot of interesting questions, and some of them are still unanswered. I know you all have quite a few you want to ask me - about the Altus Power, about violet..." Chartreuse paused here, opening his eyes. "About Scarlet."
"I've had a long time to think about all of these things," He continued, "And I finally think I understand them. Now it’s my turn to explain them to you. Some of this may not seem relevant now, but in time, all the puzzle pieces will fit together, and you'll finally understand, just as I have. But for now, whether or not you realize why, I'm going to tell you my story - Scarlet’s story. Everything."
My father and mother were as different as day and night. My father was a man much like myself; calm, laid-back, and easy-going. He rarely disliked people, and he was a gentle yet just king. His wife, the queen, did not know how to love - she saw political or personal gain and formed alliances, much like the clans of the early world. She was incapable of any complicated emotions, instead choosing to see things in the nature of black and white. She married my father out of a mutual respect - she admired his kindness, and he in turn respected her tenacity and boundless ambition.
After several years of marriage, I, their first son, was born to them. It was not Altian policy for the first born to become leader, but it was the general unwritten rule. Thus, my mother treated me with all the affection she could muster, considering my potential to one day become a powerful force. My father loved me as a son, and also because I bore such an uncanny resemble to him. We had similar mindsets, values, likes and dislikes - we even looked quite a bit alike. Yet despite his genuine feeling for me, my father could do nothing to make my mother feel the same way. Accepting her personality for what it was, they went onto have another child - a girl named Scarlet.
Just as I resembled my father, Scarlet was the image of my mother. They had the same golden hair and the same tall, thin build. The one difference that set Scarlet apart from the queen was her ice-blue eyes. Her eyes embodied the power of Altus itself - chilling, beautiful, and cutting straight to the heart of a person. It was these eyes that, in combination with her abilities, made her well known throughout the kingdom.
In the eyes of my mother, I paled in comparison to Scarlet in every way. When I was 4, she was a mere 2 years old, yet my mother could already tell that Scarlet would possess infinitely more power than I. Thus, her affections toward me slowly began to wane. They would not cut off completely until several years later, but I was at this point beneath her notice.
Saffron was born soon after, 2 years after the birth of Scarlet. He was a cross between my mother and father, taking both of their best features and making them his own. He had his mother’s ambition and his father’s kindness, making him a renowned and just warrior in his later life.
Finally, the youngest, Indigo was born. To my mother, and therefore to the rest of the kingdom, she was all but forgotten. As the youngest, in my mother’s eyes she would be the weakest, and was not worth any notice whatsoever. As it would any child, Indigo became shy and frightened of her mother, wanting nothing more than love but never receiving.
As we grew, it became clear that Scarlet was different from the rest of us. She was, in simple terms, a phenomenon. Her intelligence was limitless; she possessed the mathematical ability of a calculator, able to do equations mentally and with amazing speed. She could memorize any amount of facts, and could understand even the most complicated of concepts, whether scientific, philosophic, or mathematics, at a young age. She became the star of the kingdom, the shining beacon of hope for a new generation of Altians. Surely, she would be the one to lead us into a new era of prosperity and power.
As kids, we would usually play together, just as most siblings do. I would try my best to be nice to all of them, especially Indigo, but a rift eventually formed between Scarlet and the rest of us. Scarlet, as mother’s favorite, symbolized something unattainable; a happiness that we could never have. Indigo developed the same fear of Scarlet that she had of mother, and I worked on my own, having given up on seeking mother’s approval. It was only Saffron who befriended Scarlet; despite her apprehensions at having a friend, being so similar to mother, Saffron became her closest companion, determined to be her friend. In a way, this always humbled me. Saffron realized that he would never be loved the way that Scarlet was, and yet he still cared about her. I always have, and I will always admire him for that.
Life continued on in much the same way for years, until I hit the beginning of adolescence. For at this time, the heirs of the Altian throne would begin to develop the Altus power.
The Altians were an ancient race of people, created when the three elements of fire, water, and ice were formed. Each had their own guardian - Fire Shamans, Water Shamans, and Ice Shamans. The Ice Shamans quickly formed their own country to harbor the power of ice, naming it Altus because of its high location in the clouds. In order to guard the element, the powers of ice were given only to the members of the royal family, passed down from generation to generation through the hierarchy. When an Altian princess or prince reached adolescence, they would begin to develop a unique magic ability, almost always connected with the element of ice. The strength of the individual’s Altus power signified how strong a leader they would be, and thus became an important symbol of Altus over the years.
The Altus power usually begins to develop at the age of 12, just as adolescence begins. Hence, the entire kingdom watched me closely when I came of age, especially my mother. She kept a keen eye on me at all times, taking care to see if any sort of power would develop. My father watched me too, I realize that now, but he kept his watch from a distance.
I didn’t even realize what was happening at first. Sometimes I would be walking by a person, and I could feel their thoughts for an instant, merging with my own. I didn’t understand it, but I could not avoid it. My power continued to grow silently as I aged, and the time came when I needed to tell someone in order to learn how to control it. I told my father of my ability to effortlessly hear people’s thoughts, and he gave me one of the best pieces of advice I’ve had in my life. He told me that although my ability was powerful, it could cause panic among the people if it were to become common knowledge. People are very protective of their thoughts; the human mind is the one place that cannot be reached by others, to be probed by and all intruders. In lieu of telling others, my father offered to train my abilities in secret, honing my skill until it became flawless. I accepted, but at a price. The kingdom would have to think that I never developed the Altus power, something that spelled political and social doom.
The fact that I showed no trace of the Altus power was the last straw for my mother - she severed all ties with me completely, flat out ignoring me when she could help it. I didn’t take it well, despite her lack of affection earlier in life. Between learning to cope with my mental abilities and being starved for love from my own mother, I became bitter and withdrawn.
It was around this time that Scarlet turned 12, the turning point in all of our lives. As close as I had been watched before, Scarlet had been watched with double the attention because of mother’s early intuition. It quickly became clear that predictions were strong - even stronger than she had hoped. Scarlet had developed the most powerful strand of the Altus power, the gelid flame.
The gelid flame was the Altian symbol of true, godlike power. It was the power to control frozen flames, which could solidify anything instantly. The range and sheer power was awesome, and it took a true master to control it. Scarlet, using the power of the Gelid Flame coupled with her raw intelligence was a power beyond all reasonable imagination.
Mother could not have been happier. All of her affections were then transferred from the rest of us to Scarlet, making life possibly even worse than it had been before. Scarlet was shuttled from place to place as mother showed her off, using her as nothing more than a precious trophy to be brought out at parties. Scarlet remained indifferent on the outside, but she revealed her true feelings to Saffron when they were alone. He was always helpful, giving her the one thing she wanted more than anything else; someone to really care about her. Not for her power, not for her intelligence, but for her.
Because of Scarlet’s amazing power, Saffron and Indigo reached the point of gaining the Altus power with little ceremony. Saffron was gifted with the ability to create and fire shards of ice from his hands, and Indigo could create a rock hard ice shield around herself, or a frost aura to defend around others. These powers were both significant in their own right, but they were practically ignored when compared to the Gelid Flame. To compensate, Saffron decided then to excel in physical skills, rather than compete in a fight that he could not win. He trained in sword fighting with every spare moment of his time, eventually becoming the greatest fighter in the country. His physical prowess rewarded him slight respect from mother, but not enough to matter. Despite this, Saffron continued to practice with swords, believing that he was only truly happy when he had his sword in hand.
All of us were growing up; I was in the middle of my struggles with my mental abilities, Saffron was desperately looking for solace in sword fighting, and Indigo had become a bright young woman, reading voraciously as a means of escape from her loveless life. But the greatest change, the greatest struggle, did not occur in the three of us. It was happening in Scarlet, a little more each day.
Even as Saffron became absorbed in swordplay, he still remained close with Scarlet, refusing to let go of the childhood bond. Scarlet at first felt the same way, but somewhere along the line, her feelings shifted. As she matured into a young woman, gradually realizing her own desires, she wanted to be around Saffron more and more. She showed him more affection then she had before, making excuses to be near him whenever he was around. Slowly but surely, Scarlet was falling in love with her own brother.
Had I been paying attention, I would have noticed the shifting of her thoughts, but I was too caught up in controlling my own power to care. I wanted nothing to do with the kingdom that had rejected me, seeing me as unfit to exist. I tried everything to heal the pain, eventually looking for some sort of affection in an endless parade of women, but it never helped. Because of my own foolish wounds, I was unable to see Scarlet falling deep into despair.
Scarlet soon understood what was happening, but by then she was too late. Her love for Saffron was too deeply rooted, too lodged in her brain to be removed. All her life, Saffron had been the only person to really care about her, and she loved him eternally for it. The kindness he had shown her was immeasurable, and it had inadvertently created a passionate bond in her that could not be destroyed.
Scarlet hated herself for what had happened, what was still continuing to happen. To love your own flesh was an unforgivable sin, and it burned her to know that she had committed such a misdeed. Yet none of these things could dissuade her love for him, as it pervaded all of the laws of society. No matter what she did, she couldn’t stop loving him.
When I was about 22, my mother and father both died from a crippling disease that had swept through the kingdom. I don’t remember going to my mother’s funeral, but I remember standing at my father’s bedside, holding his hand. In his dying breaths, with the four of us siblings around, he told me that I should be king. Scarlet’s rage was unimaginable; I didn’t understand what bothered her so much at the time, because I was too focused on what being a king would entail. As ruler, I would have to marry to carry on the family line, and to secure the powers of Ice through the Altus power with a child. At that point in my life, I was perfectly happy without monogamy; I would take the little affection I could get from seducing palace women, and I wasn’t ready to give it up. It was then that the perfect opportunity fell into my lap. A woman by the name of Katharine approached me, determined to marry me because of ‘her undying love’. Of course, her undying love was actually her undying urge to be the queen of Altus, but I decided to make a deal with her. Rather than explain that I could read her thoughts, I told her that I would marry her and make her queen, with all the trimmings, just so long as I could keep as many mistresses around as I wanted. She agreed, and the business deal was made.
Looking back, I shouldn’t have done it. I shouldn’t have married for something other than love, something I know now, but back then I was foolish and I wanted to have my own way. I had certainly gotten a poor deal; Katharine was cynical, cutting, and highly defensive. For whatever reason, she would do whatever it took to make me look like an idiot, no matter the occasion. Thankfully Katharine became pregnant immediately after our marriage, and I thought that the thought of becoming her mother would make her happier.
In retrospect, that was a huge mistake. Katharine hated kids; she never wanted one, and was only having it to keep her blood in the Altus line. I, on the other hand, was looking forward to having a child more than anything else in my life. Finally, I would have someone to care about, who I could love and be loved into return. Suddenly, seducing women didn’t seem that important to me; I realized that having a child would mean much more in the long run.
9 months later, Katharine was rushed to the sick room to deliver the child. She had been fine for the entire pregnancy, but something went horribly wrong during the birthing process. She lost heavy amounts of blood, and was barely able to deliver the baby. The childbirth had killed her, and she resented that more than anything on earth. When the doctor held the child up to her, asking if she wanted to hold her child, the last thing she did was turn her head away, the icy coldness in her eyes chilling me to the bone. She spent her last moments hating her child, the look in her eye remaining even as the hand of death clutched at her heart.
I held the baby in my arms, unable to let it go. It was a girl with shimmering violet eyes that stared up at me expectantly, looking for someone to love. I named her Violet in that instant, immediately entranced by her. In that moment I loved her more than anything on Earth, and my only desire was to keep her by my side.
As I held Violet in my arms, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Scarlet, her hands placed firmly upon her hips. It was then that she delivered her ultimatum; if I were to devote all my time to caring for Violet, she would take the kingdom out from under me, killing me or worse in the process. I never doubted for an instant that she would succeed; her intelligence and power made her a deadly combination. An interesting side note to this is that Scarlet was also highly adept with a noose, her own personal weapon. To this day, I’m not quite sure how many people have been caught on the wrong end of it, but all I know is that she knew how to use it quite well. The only thing I couldn’t figure out that day was why, why she would want to force me to not care for my own child. Looking into Violet’s eyes, I suddenly realized the answer. Scarlet had suffered as a child, and was suffering then; the only way to ease her pain would be to make someone else suffer just as she did. On that day, I made a horrible choice, one that would save my country and condemn my soul - I chose to defend the kingdom. If Scarlet were to ever take control of Altus, it would not be a rule of prosperity, but a rule of utter chaos. She would use her limitless power to control the people around her, to satisfy some inner urge that I did not yet understand. With a pain that has not yet been equaled in my life, I passed Violet off to Indigo to be raised, tutored, and loved - all things I had wanted to do myself. At that moment, I hated Scarlet with an intensity that scared me, but also scarred my soul. From that point on, I was a shell of the human I had once been, ruling over Altus in body, but not in mind.
Undaunted, Scarlet continued to make attempts to grasp the throne from me, pulling Saffron into her scheme at the same time. Although I didn’t know it at the time, the conflict between her ever-increasing love for him and the feeling of unforgivable sin was slowly eating away at her soul, forcing her to take drastic steps. She believed that if only she were to become queen, she would be able to forget about Saffron, and her feelings for him would vanish. Saffron followed in her footsteps unknowingly, believing that the throne would, for once, allow him to feel loved. Both of them were severely mistaken about leadership - the top was a lonely, empty position, with nowhere to go but down. I would have given anything to reject it, but there was no one else who could be trusted to rule the kingdom.
In one of life’s great ironies, it was one of Scarlet’s plans to usurp the throne that brought about her greatest suffering. Saffron and Scarlet planned to have an open sword fighting challenge, where anyone in the country could compete with Saffron in a duel. The idea was to establish Saffron as the stronger brother, thus making it easier for Saffron to take the throne when the time came for them to make their move.
The plan went off without a hitch, and Saffron beat each of his opponents with utmost ease. It was almost sundown when he issued his final challenge, saying that unless someone was to beat him now, he would be the day’s winner. A voice cut through the crowd to accept the challenge, and the person made their way up to the podium. The moment that the mystery person removed their hood would bring five destinies to their final point, hurling five souls headlong into a turmoil that would never have an equal.
I remember hearing Saffron’s thoughts the moment the stranger took off their hood. Before that moment, I had thought true love at first sight was, in simple terms, complete crap, but at that moment I learned otherwise. It was as though two lifelong friends had seen each other after decades, familiar yet still so foreign. Completely tongue-tied, Saffron asked the woman’s name. It was Anna.
Anna, if you can imagine, looked exactly the same 3000 years ago as she did today. She had the same flowing crimson hair, the same ruby eyes, the same gorgeous figure. It was no wonder that Saffron fell for her instantly; indeed, it was no wonder that she fell for him as well. Saffron, by then, was quite well known for his looks. Just as with his personality, he took the best parts of mother and father into his features. His hair was a sandy mix between blond and brown - darker than Scarlet’s, but nowhere near as dark as my own. Like Scarlet, his eyes were not from either mother or father; they were a golden hazel, as friendly and warm as he was. He was well built from all his physical training; his muscles, although not large, were all perfectly toned. Altian women and foreign women were chasing after him, but he hadn’t paid any suitors any real heed. That is, of course, until Anna.
The dual itself was perhaps even more interesting than the moments before. Scarlet, sensing something amiss even then, watched worriedly as both combatants drew their sword. As Saffron soon found out, Anna had been training for quite some time, and was the first competitor in a long time that he would struggle against. It was because of this that he decided to switch tactics and use his ice shards, something he was sure she couldn’t defend against, but he was wrong. Anna countered with fire attacks of her own, exposing her secret; she was a Fire Shaman, one of the nomadic guardians of fire that did not age. Caught off guard, Saffron lost the battle and conceded defeat - yet, on that day, both of them managed to win. The attraction between them, formed from the first look and strengthened through the heated battle, was already unbreakable.
The only problem was the point of the duel had backfired. Thinking fast, Saffron returned to the crowd of people and concocted a quick scheme, one that would benefit him well politically and infinitely personally; he said that the dual had been staged to introduce a new member of the palace staff; Anna, the palace chancellor. Of course, this wasn’t in the least bit true, but it allowed him not only to save face, but also to have an excuse to get to know Anna. Anna, catching on, immediately followed his lead and agreed.
Scarlet, by now, could clearly see that Anna and Saffron were attracted to each other. That alone was hard enough to deal with, but that fact that Anna and Saffron would now be working closely with each other on a regular basis was too much. She nearly exploded at Saffron, doing her best to keep a lid on her raging temper and crushed dreams, but it was for nothing. For the following day, Saffron and Anna were inseparable. During that time, Anna also befriended Indigo, but interestingly enough decided not to explain her budding relationship with Saffron to her.
Those two days were the most painful of Scarlet’s life up to that point. She watched Saffron and Anna, seeing Saffron happier around the fire shaman than he had been around Scarlet his entire life. Her last threads of sanity, something that been slowly crushed by her love for Saffron, snapped the second night, the same night that Anna and Saffron consummated their relationship. The following morning, she ordered me to kill Anna on the grounds that she was trying to undermine my leadership by making a mockery of my rule. Scarlet was clearly desperate, as her argument seemed weak, even to me, but I took the opportunity to plot something against Scarlet, to keep her away from the throne once and for all.
During that particular conversation, Indigo had been graced with the misfortune of being right outside the door. Having heard it all, she fled to Saffron’s side, yelling at him that he was a murderer. Indigo, knowing about Scarlet and Saffron’s various usurping plans, had automatically assumed that Saffron was in on the plan to kill Anna. Anna had been kind to her over the past few days, a rarity for her, and Indigo for once decided to speak out against her sibling’s plans.
Of course, Saffron wasn’t involved at all in Anna’s assassination. Once he heard my plan, thinking that I would actually attempt to kill Anna, he organized a plan of his own with Indigo to stop Scarlet and I once and for all.
Later that day, the five fates collided out in the courtyard of the palace. Scarlet and I approached Anna to kill her, but I had something of my own planned. The plan was to try and throw a bomb at Anna, but Fire Shamans can transform into flames to allow objects to pass through them. I assumed that the bomb would bounce off the wall and through her taking out Scarlet and myself upon detonation. I was fully prepared to die; at that point, I had nothing left to live for. Violet was 13 at that point; because of the arrangement I had made with Scarlet, I had rarely been around for her, and hence, she hated me. It was one of the most painful things in life to experience, to watch your own daughter avoid you because of your own failings. As for the throne, Saffron, as I had learned in the past few days, was well prepared to lead the kingdom, and only wanted happiness from his spot on the throne, not total control as I had first thought
The plan went off without a hitch until I raised my hand to throw the bomb. Saffron and Indigo jumped from the wall above, successfully pinning us down and keeping us from attacking. With my last ounce of energy, I threw the bomb, hitting my target perfectly. Anna transformed, and the bomb bounced through her and back toward us. I tried to get Saffron and Indigo to let us go, but they didn’t realize that I was planning to let the bomb hit. They were prepared to die in order to keep us from hurting Anna. And so we, the four siblings of the Altus throne, died in a hellish inferno.
Instead of being sent to Heaven or Hell, we were transported to the barrier of time known as Null. The guardian there, a woman called Solitude, told us of our fates. All of us, excluding Indigo, would be condemned to hell. Indigo would be allowed to raise the heaven, leaving the four of us behind. Although I felt I deserved my own fate, Indigo interceded; in a courageous move that in my mind is unequaled, she exchanged her position in heaven to get the three of us out of hell, and to instead have us live on earth as ghosts. Solitude agreed, and with that sent us back to earth.
Once we returned, Anna took us all in, allowing her love for Saffron to override her bitter feelings toward Scarlet and myself. For the next 3000 years, we would wander the earth, unchanging in our eternal misery. Each of us suffered through a private hell, but Saffron and Scarlet had it the worst. Scarlet would watch the man she loved with another woman for 3000 years, and Saffron would never be able to have a human form with Anna, never able to hold her in his arms, kiss her, or express any kind of physical emotion.
Somewhat more than 5 years ago, Anna received a letter from a scientist in Fourside known as Narcissa Topolla. The scientist was studying Fire Shamans, and she wanted to talk to Anna and run some tests. Anna accepted, only on the grounds that she could bring us along. As we soon learned, Narcy was a brilliant scientist, who also happened to be a direct descendant of the first Altian kings. It was there that she developed the ability to revive us, giving us ageless versions of our former bodies. It was only when all of us were revived that Scarlet snapped. Her sanity, gone since the night before she died, had no guidance over her next moves - threatening to kill Anna, I had to restrain her with my mind. It was then that I used m mind reading power to its full extent for the first time. I saw everything; Scarlet and Saffron’s childhood friendship, the hatred she bore for herself because of her love, and the pain she felt whenever Anna was in sight. There was nothing I could do for her anymore; I let her go. Fleeing the house, Scarlet disappeared for a period of several months, in which Indigo and I lived with Narcy, while Saffron and Anna lived in a place of their own.
After those months, I was given the news that during Scarlet’s disappearance, she had taken over Altus, keeping Cirra and Strata locked away in the dungeon. Saffron and I returned to Altus to retrieve the throne, but when we were there, it was clear that it was not the throne she wanted. All she wanted was to challenge Saffron to a simple duel, to prove his love to Anna. Saffron accepted instantly. The two dueled, each with their own field of power. Yet despite Saffron’s unbeatable sword skill, Scarlet’s power had somehow grown since she had been revived. Her magic had increased by almost ten times, and she had become completely unstoppable. Yet somehow, when Saffron was held by the grip of death, he managed to stop her. With a sword pointed at her throat, Scarlet lost the duel.
All of the defenses, all of the hatred, all of the pain that she had built up to protect her heart and body fell apart in the instant of her defeat. Her sanity had been returned to her, but it was too late. Her world had collapsed - no matter what she did, there was no way for her to ever be happy with Saffron. She finally realized that he could never love her, and that was what did her in. With no other choice, she ran herself through with Saffron’s sword, unable to live in a world in which she couldn’t be loved. In her dying breaths she told me everything, all of the story that I’ve told you here today.
I can’t help feeling like some way, I could have stopped all this. Had I just been paying attention, when I was younger, I could have seen Scarlet’s thoughts and helped her, instead of letting her walk down the lonely path she carved from her own suffering, but it’s too late now....
Chartreuse finished his story, staring out at the group in silence. The group returned his gaze with a look of awe on their faces. The only one who remained undaunted was Raltise.
"Yes, yes! This is all well and good, but what was the point?" He snapped, standing up so quickly that he knocked over his chair. Chartreuse stared at him with an unnerving coolness in his eyes.
"I want you to bring along Indigo to stop Rasheed and Dio. I would go myself, but I’ve been ordered to remain in the kingdom to help Queen Cirra with her first years of rule."
"Why do you want to bring us with her?" Skulryk asked, leaning forward in his chair. Chartreuse stared at him for a moment, unsure of what to say.
"I want you to bring her with you because, throughout the whole story, she’s the only one who didn’t end up with some sort of resolve. She’s still the same girl she was when the rest of us were still suffering; she changed without love, and I want to be able to change her back."
Yet in the back of Chartreuse’s mind, this was not the full reason. If something should go wrong, and Rasheed and Dio’s plan succeeds, Indigo can talk to Scarlet for me...she can tell her that I’m sorry.