"Aletha wake up!"
The icy grip of the sweltering dream clung to Aletha even as her eyes snapped open.
Aletha's breath hitched in her throat, a thin, frosty plume in the still air of her room. The lingering chill wasn't just physical; it was a deep, bone-chilling unease that settled in her chest, a heavy weight that threatened to suffocate her.
The images from her sleep swam in her mind – fragmented, chaotic, yet undeniably terrifying.
She saw towering obsidian spires piercing a sky the color of a bruised plum, their sharp edges glinting menacingly under a perpetual twilight. A wind, sharp as shattered glass, whispered secrets she couldn't quite grasp, secrets that prickled her skin and sent shivers down her spine.
And then, a fleeting glimpse, a shadow of a figure cloaked in darkness, its face obscured, its presence radiating an oppressive malice that left her heart pounding like a war drum.
Before she could fully unravel the threads of the nightmare, a sharp rap on her door shattered the silence. The door swung open with a crash, revealing Alai, her fiery red hair a stark contrast to the icy and flamboyant landscape lingering in Aletha's mind.
Alai's usually cheerful face was etched with worry, her crimson eyes wide with an urgency that mirrored the chilling wind from Aletha's dream.
"Aletha! It's time for training! Don't tell me you forgot." Alai's voice was breathless, tinged with a frantic energy that instantly overshadowed the lingering unease from Aletha's nightmare. "Training is soon! Hurry up and get dressed!"
Aletha, still shivering from the residual cold and heat of her dream, scrambled out of bed, her white hair a stark contrast to Alai's vibrant locks.
"What… was that." Aletha mumbled under her lip.
Just before she could grasp her senses, Aletha was hastily pulled away from her bedroom toward the hallways and swerving to the left toward a fairly spacious room filled with wooden contraptions.
From her right, a simple wooden bed stood, to her left, a small desk cluttered with training schedules and worn textbooks, a few neatly folded sets of clothes – it was a space designed for efficiency, not comfort.
It was from these sights, the emphasis on 'training' was clear, a stark reminder of the world they inhabited, a world where physical prowess was not just an advantage, but a necessity.
"Now why do you look so blue? Had a bad dream?" Alai asked casually.
"Bad is an understatement," Aletha replied. "Terrifying is a better word."
"Oh. Well if you want to talk about it, we can discuss it later." Alai answered with a charming wink. "Now get your clothes on. I can tell you haven't taken that outfit for years."
Aletha's eyes broadened.
"How did you know?"
"I can smell you from a mile away."
From those words, Aletha blushed in embarrassment. She scratched her head and took a sigh saying, "Hmm, I guess you're right."
As Aletha pulled on her training clothes, the obsidian spires, flaming arrows, and the whispering wind from her dream threatened to resurface. But Alai's urgent words, the palpable sense of impending danger in her voice, pushed the images back, submerging them under a wave of adrenaline.
"Hurry up, you're taking too long!'
The fear was still there, a cold knot in her stomach, but it was overshadowed by a sense of purpose, a drive fueled by Alai's frantic energy and the unspoken understanding between them.
They hurried through the corridors of the house, their footsteps echoing in the cavernous spaces. After finally reaching the training space, Alai asked with a sweat drawn on her face
"Are you sure you can train?"
Shaking her head, Aletha threw all her worries away and smiled with a concealing grin
"I'm sure!"
"Good. Now get up and get dressed. Sweat can easily catch through you"
Aletha sneered at Alai, replying "What are you, my mother?!"
. . .
The room fell still, tension growing by the second.
After the term slipped out from her lips, Aletha's mind flashed with a blurry image of a tall feminine figure. Although blurry, what could be made was her long white hair shimmering like a star.
"Mother." She mumbled. "This is for my mother."
. . .
The air hummed with a low, almost imperceptible energy, a thrum of disciplined exertion that seemed to vibrate through the very stones.
After a brilliant light shone through the crystal glass, Alai's face flashed in amazement as Aletha approached from the right corridor.
"Oh my goodness!"
Following in light footsteps, was a different sight of a girl than ever before.
A rough pony tail tied up behind her head, legs shiny and glossy, black with white dots scattered about. This, plus the new outfit, made Aletha look like a completely new individual.
"Never knew you had such style." Ubel said as he parted Aletha's shoulder.
"That's what I'm saying!" Alai added as her eyes flash with delirium. "Who knew you had a sense of direction."
"Huh?" Aletha wagged her pony tail back and forth and turned red, staring at jealous eyes peering at her. "Oh it's all natural."
"Uh huh." Alai mumbled with an envious sneer.
After a shower of compliments drowned Aletha, Alai, ignoring Aletha's lingering unease, proceeded training.
"Today, we focus on your arms," Alai stated, her tone business-like, stripping away any hint of the urgency she'd shown moments earlier. "Ubel believes your recent progress warrants a more intense focus on strength and precision. In dumb language, it means you have to focus well and not allow your mistakes to stagger you."
Aletha nodded, her attention shifting from the lingering anxieties of her dream to the immediate demands of her training. She approached the heavy training weights, their cold metal a stark contrast to the heat blooming in her muscles.
Each lift was a battle, a grueling test of endurance and will. The weights, almost impossibly heavy, challenged every fiber of her being, pushing her to the very brink of collapse.
(I can do this. I can… I can.)
Sweat poured from her brow, stinging her eyes, blurring the harsh lines of the landscape. The rhythm of her training – the heavy thud of weights, the rasp of her breath, the rhythmic strain in her muscles – became a mantra, a hypnotic beat that helped to drown out the whispers of her dream.
"Is this what physical challenges are like?" Aletha mumbled underneath her breath. "NO!"
Suddenly, visions of a certain white haired boy filled her mind. His smile. The way he talks. It reminded Aletha of who she was.
"I am… Aletha." She said, "A member of the Adtraic family. Ruler of the world of Gincad."
"That's it!" Alai encouraged her. "REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE."
It was almost as if Alai was tricking Aletha to unleash something. Every motion. . Each repetition. Every exercise made was a small victory, a testament to Aletha's resilience, her determination to overcome the physical and mental demands placed upon her.
But as she lifted the heaviest weight, something unexpected happened.
A surge of green energy, unexpected and powerful, coursed through her arm. It wasn't just the exertion of her muscles; it was something more, something akin to magic, a raw power that seemed to emanate from deep within her very being. Aletha lifted the weight with surprising ease, a feat that even Alai, her usually stoic and composed friend, couldn't help but stare at in stunned silence.
Alai approached slowly, her eyes reflecting both surprise and a dawning understanding.
"Aletha," she breathed, her voice barely a whisper. "That was... extraordinary. That's what I wanted you to do. You didn't have to go all out, but you did. " The unspoken understanding passed between them, a silent acknowledgment of something both extraordinary and terrifying. Aletha's strength. "That's the power of the Sealed Beatific." Alai finished with a sure snap on her fingers.
"The Sealed what?" Aletha asked, confused.
"Ever since the King of Linuxinia had passed after the War of the Wish, he exerted all his energy to this one area. Some may call it this or that, but usually we call that power "Happiness."
Before Alai could go any further Ubel charged in and brushed his eyebrow
"Alai, let me handle this." After huffing up a breather, Ubel continued his explanation. "After the War of the Wish, The King of Linuxinia made this nation HIS tomb for his remains. Every power he had and wielded was shared throughout everyone in Linuxinia. It affects everyone, but can be used in different ways. Many call this motivating power Happiness, but few call it its real name, which is The Sealed Beatific."
"The Sealed Beatific?" oh, so that explains why everyone was smiling back then and how this world is being treated. It explains why it's grassy and…"
Ubel rudely interrupted. "Precisely but in this case, it's nationwide. The Sealed Beatific, the tomb of the king, was situated on the peak of Linuxinia Mountain guarded by a gargantuan dragon."
"That dragon caused our train to collapse." Aletha added. "Didn't it."
"It is currently unknown why the dragon attacked you. But I CAN say this…" Ubel gave a small glint.
"They are out for blood."He said, "Just like my parents who were turned to wolves," As Ubel tilted his face over to the sky, he spoke in an ominous tone. "They are seeking vengeance and nothing more."
With the tension of the room hanging high, Alai clapped her hands and cheerfully expressed.
"So that wraps things up! We got the Sealed Beatific to work in Aletha, learned more things about that King, and that concludes the training session one out of three.'
"Three?!" Aletha expressed, exasperated.
"DID YOU really think that training would be simple?"
And just like that, the training session ended with a sense of both exhaustion and exhilaration. But approaching with the incoming dread and realization, Aletha's mind flashed with recollections toward that dream. The dream's lingering chill remained, but it no longer held the same power over her. The memory of the obsidian structure, the fiery arrows, the lightning bolts, the whispering wind, and the shadowy figure remained to be a puzzle yet to be solved.
"War of the Wish?" Aletha mumbled. "Is that… what I saw in that dream?"
Sooner than she had known it, the hazy sun set down on the horizon, leaving with it a beautiful purple veil hanging across the sky. With so many questions and information getting shared across the world, one is set to wonder…
"Just what happened when I was gone?"