5514th year, Muspelheim Continent...The Modern Day...

Within a forest far from civilisation sat a mighty lake, its waters glittering clear and transparent to the very bottom. Afloat upon the surface of the lake stood a wooden home with a foundation of solid stone. One youth, clad in black, sat legs crossed upon the wooden decking of that home.

With a rod in hand and a line in the water that youth waited patiently for a fish to become snagged in his snare. The line was tugged, the rod bent, the boy opened his eyes and gave a mighty pull that rent the surface of the water. Thus a scaled beast slammed down into the bucket by his side. The boy took a single long look at it, scoffed and then prepared his line anew.

Within the wholesome little house at his back sat a woman. With a smiling glance she watched the boy through the open window. This was her home, a quiet and peaceful place safe from the turbulence that plagued the world beyond. Her years were indiscernible, she had long given birth to the boy outside and yet if one judged from her face and figure alone they would think her his sister. She turned her gaze away from the boy and raised a mug to her lips. Her fingers twitched, indeed her whole body ached, she was stopped her in her tracks by pain in her bones and forced to lower the mug back down onto the desk. She leaned back and muttered to herself a few words of resignation. She sensed a gaze and turned her head to look back outside. She found her boy staring at her, his expression unreadable.

"Rapture," She said, "Don't let yourself get distracted."

"Yes," The boy answered, and then turned his gaze back towards the lake. He then raised a brow as he found that his bait was no longer bound to the line. The boy's shoulders dropped, he pulled in the line and resigned himself to his next attempt. This casual, calm and quiet world was all that he knew, all he had ever known, he had never set one foot outside of this forest domain. That truth, however, was about to crumble under the unfeeling whims of fate.

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Meanwhile, far to the south...

The gaze of the youth settled upon a city of marble stone and crimson banners. He took pause in awe for a moment, a complex sense of envy and frustration built up within him. The city, whose name was Jupiter, exuded a fitting sense of majesty for the capital of their country. The boy looked forward and settled his vision upon the wide landscape in the city's surroundings.

He saw before him observation towers and guard posts with armed and armoured soldiers standing behind the borders of an enormous moat. Farmland stood in the vast patch of land behind those structures in considerable volume while houses and other buildings clung to the city's outer wall, forming a sizeable village. They called this area that was home mostly to farmers, freemen and hunters, the Bronze District. The youth approached, he lowered his hood and then the man by his side announced his name to the guards.

"Lord Mourn Mercury seeks an audience with the Sovereign."

"I believe I sent a letter, therefore I am expected, correct?" Said Mourn himself. The guards scrambled and a decorated individual, a ranking official clad in uniform but no semblance of armour, came forth to represent them. With one nod from this man the drawbridge was lowered and the gates were opened wide.

"Indeed," He said, "Welcome to Jupiter, Lord of Mercury, you are permitted to stay for up to ten days, I trust that will be enough time to conduct your business?"

"Plenty," The youth replied as he and his entourage waltzed forward into the Bronze District of the capital.

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There was an instrument housed in Jupiter's palace garden that was similar to a sundial in both form and function. This was the preferred hangout of a certain man, who now busied his mind to read the time of day. The four night hours were depicted in black while twenty eight hours of the day were depicted in white. The night fell not when the planet turned but instead when the moon blocked out the sun, which was itself forever unmoving. The man's long grey shroud and black hair wildly blew westward as he stood in silence. Eventually he raised his head to face the heavens as the resounding echo of a young man's footsteps battered the once quiet pavement behind him.

"Mourn?" The man called out his child's name.

"Father." Mourn stepped forward, but what greeted his father was a cold expression, one he rarely saw from his son.

"What's wrong? Is the city alright?" The man, Avance of Mercury, asked his son.

"Mercury has its own troubles, as always, but I'm not here about that today," Mourn replied, "What brings me here today has to do with the relationship between you and a woman named Beatrix some fifteen years ago." Avance took pause. He had never had cause to speak with his son on this matter so the first thing to ask was clear inside his mind.

"Where did you hear of this?"

"That doesn't matter," Said Mourn.

"I guess not." Avance said with a pause in silence, and then he turned to face the skies once more. The eclipse would be starting soon. He often came here to witness that awe inspiring moment. It reminded him of those days, together with that woman. "A year after I lost your mother I met Beatrix in Venus. She was a woman who just appeared out of nowhere, no one knew who she was or where she came from. I found myself spending more and more time with her and using any excuse I could to see her. Before I knew it we had become close. However in time I parted ways with her, fate saw us drift apart."

"Is that so?" Mourn said coldly. For a moment a complicated emotion built up within his chest but before long all he did was shrug his shoulders and cast it aside. His mother died seventeen years ago when he was born, he'd never known her. His father's love life was none of his concern, at least not until now, but he felt that this confession was betraying her. "Isn't there another secret about this woman that you're hiding?" He asked, choosing to cut right to the heart of the matter, "One that endangers the safety of everyone on this continent, even?" to that, at last, Avance turned his gaze away from the heavens above. His expression was hidden in the shadows for a moment. Only after that moment passed did he turn to face his son bearing an expression colder than ice.

"Learning of my relationship with her is one thing but I never left any evidence of that matter behind. From whom did you learn of this?" The atmosphere radiated with a potent pressure. Avance's might filled the garden such that even his son stumbled back a step. The youth felt a cold sweat dripping down his brow, he had not forgotten this feeling from long ago, the feeling of fearing his father's anger. Avance was by no means a cruel man, on the contrary his anger was feared precisely because he was normally so kind. Yet it was for that very reason this reaction of his was no better than a confession.

"So it's true, you knew she had it."

"Mourn...what have you done?"

"What you should have done fifteen years ago," Mourn said coldly as he turned to walk away. Avance felt an ill omen, but he chose not to press the matter. He only pondered in silence why his son, the current Lord of Mercury, had come here to this city today? Nothing about this matter sat right with him. Though he dared not think of it he had no choice but to consider that Mourn had just reported Beatrix' existence and, more importantly, the existence of the Beacon in her possession, to Jupiter's Sovereign.