Prologue: Darkest Before Dawn

Articuno Shiva stretched her wings out as she walked a straight line across the field. Her talons grazed cool, green, neatly-trimmed grass. She stared blankly at a gray, ornate stone wall and accompanying marble pillars. Parts of the manor surrounding the courtyard she was patrolling. Soft moonlight from the sky above her bathed two circular beds of roses in a pale white glow. She turned her head to the side and sighed, producing a cloud of frost.

“How much longer do we need to be here, Quetzal?” Shiva looked left at a zapdos standing squarely in the middle of a dirt path leading to the stairs that would take them back inside the manor. He had his wings tucked into his sides and seemed to be nodding off. However, at Shiva’s question, Quetzal jerked stiff. He adjusted the silver uniform draped over his torso. The pink ribbons adorning his breast jingled softly.

“The standing orders from Her Eminence said we’re to keep guard of the Needle until dawn.” Quetzal gestured in front of him. There, planted in the middle of the garden, was a purple needle standing a head taller than Shiva and Quetzal. A red gem, carved to look like an eye, sat atop it. No matter what angle Shiva stared at it, it always looked like the gem was glaring at her. It made her feathers puff up slightly underneath her uniform. She pivoted to preen her neck.

“Yeah, but was it really necessary to send all three of us for this assignment? Any one of us could do this job with no trouble,” a moltres huffed, stomping around from the other side of the needle and casting an orange glow onto the southern part of the courtyard. He stopped to straighten out the wrinkles in his uniform, looking exasperated. “Not that we don’t appreciate the hospitality, Lord Douglas. It’s just… this is such a strange assignment for Her Eminence to spring on us with so little warning.”

“Do not fret, Captain Ifrit, I understand your hesitation.”

Shiva winced and resisted the urge to throw a wing up over her face. Even though she’d spent plenty of time around him, seeing Lord Weezing Douglas speaking through two mouths always unsettled her. As did the fact that his gaseous beards fizzled like soda pop as he spoke. It had forced her to abandon her once-favorite drink. Shiva wished that they could’ve been assigned somewhere else, but knew she had to carry out this job with the grace and professionalism nobles like Lord Douglas had come to expect from the Radiant Guard.

“But I’m not one to question Queen Isola’s decisions. She has the best interests of all Crowne Ministers at heart,” Douglas continued. His two, hat-like appendages spurted bits of pink gas.

“It’s not Her Eminence’s judgement I’m concerned with.” Ifrit shook his head. “It’s the fact that she came to this decision after consulting with that advisor of hers.” He folded his wings and stared squarely at the needle. “She sent us out here specifically at his request… because of some premonition? I don’t like it.”

“That’s… a fair point.” Shiva had thought much the same, but didn’t want to say anything for fear of upsetting Lord Douglas. She didn’t want to give off the impression that she thought the good Minister was beneath her and her fellow officers.

“Except we’re not the only ranking guards being stationed at these Needles,” Quetzal pointed out. “Something in Demerzel’s premonition must’ve spooked Queen Isola.”

“I still don’t like it,” Ifrit huffed. “The guy comes out of nowhere and climbs into Her Eminence’s good graces within the span of half a year. Now he’s sitting pretty in the royal court and influencing policy.”

“Careful, Captain, lest you sound like some of those haggard beggars proclaiming the end of days are upon us.” Douglas chuckled, releasing more vapors from his head. Shiva thought back to the previous week, when she had threatened some wretched, rag-covered, helmet-wearing mishmash of a homeless mutt with arrest for parading around the town square of Horizon Gardens with a poorly-drawn sign around his neck.

“Here, here!” Quetzal’s eyes lit up. “Besides, once the treaty with the Aeon Kingdom is signed, I bet Her Eminence will order him to retire. And with Aeon as our allies, we’ll finally have a solution to this blasted mystery dungeon problem.”

“Bah! As if we need to stoop so low as to associate with dragons.” Ifrit spat a tiny ember out, then snuffed it out with his talons before it could burn any grass. “I can’t believe they’re letting the Aeon princess attend Horizon. They’re sullying our beautiful academy!” He draped a wing over his face and shook his head.

“Maybe you ought to see what the princess is like before rushing to conclusions?” Shiva suggested. The look Ifrit gave her quickly made her regret opening her beak. “Sorry.”

“It’s easy for you to feel at ease. Your ice attacks can make quick work of any duplicitous dragons,” Ifrit said. “But what about me? They live amongst the flames! My best strikes struggle to pierce their scales.” He paced furiously in front of the needle. “I’ll just have to intensify my training. That way, if the princess slips up, I’ll—”

A sudden blast from the south wall of the manor silenced the remainder of Ifrit’s threat. Shiva didn’t even have the time to turn around and register the blast’s source before she was splayed out in the grass. Heat spread from her breast out to her wings, spiking her heart rate. She looked up at Ifrit, who stood over with his wings spread wide and a pained winced sprawled on his face. Purple and black flames buffeted his backside, scorching his uniform.

“Ifrit!” Shiva squawked, trying unsuccessfully to squirm out from under him.

“We’re under attack! It’s a Phantom!” Quetzal squawked from Shiva’s right. She caught a glance of electricity arcing out from his wings. Ifrit turned around and hopped into the air. Shiva’s belly spasmed when she sat up, but she mustered the strength to send a gust of wind in the direction of Quetzal’s attack.

What she found, however, was a cloud of black shadows surrounding a black, crystalline plague mask. Its red, gemstone eyes were a perfect match to the top of the needle. Shiva’s attack got caught in her throat. She’d faced down Phantoms plenty of times on rescue missions, but this one was huge. And the mask… that was very different.

“Take cover, Minister!” Ifrit ordered, rolling away from a spectral arm and spitting a fireball at the Phantom. Its shadows contorted. The fireball sailed harmlessly through the Phantom and singed the grass.

“I don’t understand.” Douglas’ gaseous beards shriveled. “Polaris assured me that the distortion was well-controlled on the outskirts of the city! How can a Phantom be here?” He glanced toward the stairs, but saw the Phantom had blocked them. He quickly floated behind the needle, heads venting a pink smokescreen.

“Fall,” a distorted voice said. The flat tone sent a chill down Shiva’s spine in spite of her ice-typing. Four wraithy arms popped out of the Phantom, each surrounded by rock-shaped glyphs.

“N… no, this can’t be!” Quetzal charged up more lightning in his wings. “Phantoms can’t use Dynaforce. It’s impossible!” He clapped his wings together, discharging an electric dome. Ifrit and Shiva added streams of fire and ice.

But all three attacks struck up against a wall of solid rock that burst forth from the ground, flinging sand in all directions. Shiva’s eyes widened. She ceased her attack and took to the air, shouting, “Fly!” to Quetzal. However, the Phantom shoved the giant rock and it toppled over. Shiva realized all too light she hadn’t gotten the necessary altitude to dodge.

The rock wall crushed her into the ground. Her wings shattered on impact, as did at least two ribs. Stars and tears filled her vision. She tried to get up. To flee. To do anything. But her body wouldn’t respond. Garbled squawks told her that her colleagues had suffered the same fate. The pain in her chest muffled her sobs. She couldn’t die. Not like this. Not from some cheap trick.

It had to be the dragons. They used that treaty to get the kingdom to lower its guard. And now they were making their move. But Shiva would never get to deliver that message. All she could do was lie there, wondering whether she’d succumb to the pain before the Phantom could deliver the killing blow.

Bursts of pink steam shot over her. “S… stay back, you demon!” Lord Douglas cried, hovering by the needle. But the steam met purple globs from two of the Phantom’s arms. Shiva tried to beg Douglas to leave, but she couldn’t even get her beak open.

“Pathetic noble,” the Phantom snarled. Spectral arms shot out and grabbed Douglas by his mouths and head appendages. His muffled screams rang out in Shiva’s ear frills. “True power does not course through your veins,” the Phantom continued. “And yet you dare to strike me?”

Her vision was too blurry to see what the Phantom did, but the moment an ear-splitting screech rang out across the manor and abruptly cut out, she knew exactly what had happened. The green and purple fluids that splattered on the sand-covered ground in front of her painted an even clearer picture. “N… no…”

Shadows swirled in front of Shiva and the Phantom’s mask lowered to eye level. “Ah, good. You survived.”

Shiva squealed. The Phantom… was happy she was alive? Did it plan to torture her? Fresh tears welled in Shiva’s eyes. Her legs twitched unresponsively.

“I have plans for the three of you,” the Phantom declared. Shadows crawled up Shiva’s legs. She was in too much pain to scream, however. “You will exist to enforce my will.”

As the shadows climbed up her body, they ripped off her uniform. Her feathers darkened. Her bones shifted and realigned. Shiva finally found her voice… and screeched in agony. Her fellow officers echoed her cries.

“Consider it an honor… to serve such a wonderful cause.”

The shadows finally reached her face and… nothing. The pain had completely ceased. Shiva looked up, but recoiled in horror upon seeing that her once-pristine, blue-and-white feathers were now tainted with black and shades of dark gray. She managed to catch her reflection in a shard of broken glass and noticed a black, curved mask sitting over her eyes. Shiva threw her wings up, trying to pull it off, but a sharp pain tore through her shoulders. Clearly, she couldn’t raise her wings as high as she used to.

“W… what did you do to us?!” Quetzal squawked. Shiva got to her feet and found an orange bird with lightning-bolt markings on his shrunken wings kicking at the ground with his newly-elongated legs. Like Shiva, Quetzal had a black mask over his eyes.

“I have given you real power.” The Phantom’s mask pivoted in Quetzal’s direction. “Do you not appreciate my gift?”

“Not in the slightest!” Ifrit huffed, his now-curved beak muffling some of his speech. The violet-magenta flames on his wings flared up.

A deep laugh rumbled and the Phantom’s shadowy body rippled. Shiva glared at it. “Do not worry.” A wraith shot out, grabbed hold of the needle, and yanked it. The needle promptly shattered and a bright purple beam shot into the air. Shiva’s beak fell open. How could it destroy a Needle so effortlessly? All her life she’d heard horror stories of what had happened to pokémon who tried to pull out a Needle.

“I don’t intend to let you three voice any more objections.”

The Phantom’s gemstone eyes glowed bright purple. Before Shiva could react, darkness swallowed her whole.

XxX

“Gah!”

Dreepy Yuna shot up in her bed, arms tightly gripping her silk blanket. She doubled over in pain, squealing until her throat burned. Several tense minutes passed before Yuna finally settled down. She stared at her blanket, barely making out the red heart woven into the fabric using what little moonlight trickled in through the slits of her bedroom shades.

“M… maybe it was just a nightmare?” she squeaked, rolling the held part of the blanket between her arms. Yuna looked right and squinted. An outline of a bookshelf slowly formed. Pristine, unopened schoolbooks sat next to worn pieces of fiction Yuna had brought from home.

She flopped onto her back. The foam pillow fwoomped when her head struck it. Yuna sighed and rubbed her eyes. She gathered as much of her blanket as she could and tried to wrap it around her body… as if she could replicate the time she rode around in her mother’s horn. Yuna closed her eyes and imagined her mother shooting her out of a horn, across the castle courtyard and into a pile of cushions dutifully put together by one of her attendants.

But the happy memory wasn’t enough to lull her back to sleep. Yuna rolled onto her stomach. She considered floating down the hall and talking to that rhydon security guard, but she didn’t seem like much for conversation. And it wasn’t like she could go knocking on any of the other girls’ rooms. It was well past curfew and she didn’t need to get in trouble before her time at this foreign school even started.

Besides, who wants to saddle up to a dragon in a school run by fairies, anyway? Yuna thought, body deflating. Odds are… I’m only gonna get Baraz and Noctum to talk to me. And that’ll just be more embarrassing. She imagined faceless silhouettes surrounding her, ridiculing her for needing servants because she has no friends.

Why did she agree to this? Yuna had left her friends— no, her life behind. And for what?

“For a chance to emblazon your name in the history books for all eternity! Remember the family creed, Yunavresca: seize the day by the horns!”

Her father’s deep voice rumbled in the back of her head. She pictured the duraludon throwing his metal head back in a hearty laugh, his gold-trimmed robes clinking in the process.

Yuna groaned. She was never going to get back to sleep with this many thoughts weighing her head down. Yuna lifted her head up and crawled across her bed until a small wooden nightstand was within reach. She slid the drawer open and felt around until her arm brushed against paper. Yuna lifted the paper from the drawer, unfolded it, and set it down next to her.

The good part about being a ghost was having night-vision. All she had to do was concentrate enough. Head throbbing, Yuna traced the nubby tip of her arm around the picture of her younger self nestled in one of her mother’s horns. She held a brooch with a star-shaped insignia carved into the gem. Yuna let her arm wander toward the stained-glass window in the background of the photo. She pressed down, covering up the golden, four-winged dragon depicted in the window.

“Bahamut, give me strength,” she whispered. “Help me find some friends… or at least survive until I can return home.” Yuna wrapped the paper up in a hug, only to stop when it crinkled. She gingerly folded it back up and returned it to the drawer. She then pulled out a small seed.

A sleep seed. One of a handful that she’d gotten from Baraz. Yuna hesitated. Was she that desperate for a good night’s sleep?

Yes. Yes, she was. Besides, the school handbook said it was contraband in student rooms, anyway. It was better to use it now, else she risked getting caught with it and punished.

Down the hatch it goes. Yuna swallowed the seed with a wince. The effects were almost instantaneous. Her vision grew hazy. Her breathing slowed. Yuna’s arms stiffened. A yawn escaped her mouth.

She had just enough strength to lie back on her pillow before drifting away into a dreamless slumber.

XxX

Cover art commissioned from Volmise. Gift art of Yuna made by Adamarts and gifted by Zion of Arcadia. If you’d like to join the GL and PoV Discord for fun character-themed emotes and stickers, use invite sZdppaP.