"After our Sovereign died, the war raged on another six months, we suffered defeat after defeat until we chose to leave the land altogether. That, Rapture, is when I met your esteemed mother." The boy turned his gaze upon her anew. He did not know or truly care about the war itself, all he cared about lay in his mother's past, a past he never knew. "A woman, with no aura of Ash to be found on her, was led into our fort arms high in surrender. She was not of the Nidhogg Empire, you see, but a land yet further north. She came to us in search of asylum, a runaway. Normally we would not accept such...but this was an unusual case."

"Unusual how?" The boy asked. On the one hand he realised his mother was lucky that they had not simply killed her on the spot, yet on the other hand he could not help but wonder why it was so.

"When the war against Nidhogg began Venus city did not lack for Platinum Class like me...but by its end only myself, my brother, Rudolph, and my sister in law, Melany, remained. We were youths, you see, and so at the crucial time we were protected while our seniors all died. Sadly our Lady, who was the only senior Platinum Class who did survive was now in no state to finish our yet incomplete training." Rapture could faintly grasp the implication behind her words. They needed someone to teach them how to wield their powers properly, his mother, it seemed, must've been someone qualified to do so.

"Thus my mother became your mentor?" He asked her. He had long known that Amelia was his mother's disciple and he had long known there were others still, it was not a hard conclusion to reach.

"Yes," Said Amelia, "Your mother was astray in the world, a woman without a place to call home. Though she had lost her powers somehow that did not mean she had forgotten how to use them. Thus we accepted her as our mentor."

"But why did you believe her?" The boy asked. That was most certainly a question held firmly within his mind, why did they believe his mother's story back then? Why believe she was a Platinum Class who lost her powers and not some simple vagabond? Amelia, however, seemed more perplexed by his own confusion than anything else.

"Why wouldn't we believe her?" She asked, "While its true she had no aura of Ash one cannot mistake that her body was clearly that of a Platinum Class like myself, the truth of her words was never in doubt." Her words, in her own mind, were common sense incarnate, yet the boy, Rapture, was another case entirely. He had seen but three humans in his life, two of which were Platinum Class, the last of which was only his own immature self, how was he to know the differences between these so called Platinum Class and a normal person's body?

"What do you mean her body was that of a Platinum Class?" The boy thus inquired and for the longest time all Amelia could do was stare his way in incomprehensible bafflement. She was lost in thought for a while, but before long realised the truth of it and her face betrayed a sense of comprehension. Indeed she realised that it was only natural that the boy did not understand. Thus if he was to be made to understand then naturally she would have to explain it to him, probably from the very beginning no less.

"Your mother told you, right? That one's Ash dictates their strength in this world? And that strength dictates their status?" The boy nodded his head. The memory of his mother choosing to offer her life over to a god just to give him power, the power to stand proud in this world, would stay with him to the end of his days. "Well to put it simply, the Class System I've been talking about until now is that practice put on paper. Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum, there are four classes in this world that people fit into and each of these classes are divided by a certain criteria." Amelia said it short and simple, the three dividing lines between the haves and have nots of this unforgiving world could be summed up in just a single line. Rapture's heart was endlessly bitter. His mother's sacrifice once again came to mind.

"What are these criteria?" He asked. What was it what defined a man's worth in this world? What was it that had caused him to go through all this. Amelia caught the sad look in his eye, yet she answered all the same.

"To put it simply Ash bestows four methods of use, four "powers" if you will, upon its hosts. Each higher class has more Ash than the last, just enough to gain access to another one of these four powers. The Bronze Class have access to but one power while only the Platinum Class have access to them all. Further to that, because the user has more Ash, even the powers a Platinum Class shares with those below them would be stronger in their hands." The boy's frown deepened further.

When he had been born he had possessed no Ash at all and thus none of these so called "powers", before his mother's sacrifice, he realised, he was truly lesser than human to the people of this world. Their ilk wouldn't have even viewed him as having any value to speak of, he felt more than a little bitter over this unflattering truth.

Amelia stayed silent for a time, for she knew what the boy currently had on his mind. From her point of view, this Class System was inevitable, a natural consequence of being human. Every era would be defined by the haves being the haves and the have nots being the have nots, it was unfair, true, but life was always that way.

"As for the reason why we knew your mother was a Platinum Class, former or not, it's because of the first of Ash's four powers, Ash Mutation, which directly affects the body of the host." The boy raised his head towards her curiously as she spoke. Her explanation was short and simple. Ash Mutation, this power, the most basic of the four, was but the natural process of Ash altering its host over time.

From birth until adulthood Ash improved upon the body of its host, changing them in several ways. The more Ash they possessed, the more drastic the changes. She did not specify what the changes were, only the unhelpfully vague word "improved" came to mind. "You'll understand when we get to the city, then you'll be able to just see it for yourself," She ended on that short and simple sentence.

True enough, she figured it would be easier to just let him see it for himself. As for the other three powers, she figured she'd save talking about them for later. Everything she had already told the boy was already more than a bit much for him to take in for now, the rest he would absorb during the many days their journey was set to take.

She turned on her heels and looked up to face the heavens, the moon was closing in to bar the light of the dim red sun, the hour was growing late. This area was not the safest to rest in, and so she chose to keep going. Just like that she started walking once again.

The boy behind her raised his head from his stupor, shocked to suddenly find her several meters out ahead. He gave chase and caught up, even now she slowed her pace to accommodate his weak body. Thus, just like that, the duo marched eastword in the company of the whistling wind and arid landscape.

They marched until the eclipse devoured the sun, they marched until total darkness consumed the land. All the while Rapture struggled to accept the dog eat dog reality of the world he'd come to know of, every so often those thoughts would cause a pause in his steps. His mind pondered again and again Amelia's every word up until the moment that he had learned how his mother came to be in Venus City. Then, at that moment, a thought occurred to him, and so once more he raised his head to face Amelia's back.

What shocked him the most on the inside was how easy it was for him to ask her this question. Until now he had tried often to speak with her, yet his words always ended up freezing at the tip of his tongue, this time however the question came smoothly free of his lips.

Perhaps after her taking the initiative to talk to him earlier, however briefly the conversation lasted, the boy had come to feel comfortable enough that he could talk to the woman before him now without issue.

"What can you tell me about my father?" He asked. Amelia once more stopped her steps. The boy was naturally very curious, who was his father? Where was his father? Why had he never met his father? The recent incidents had given him some idea but naturally he wanted a proper answer.

The woman did not turn to face him, instead she looked again towards the heavens as if imploring them for guidance. She thought of that man, Avance of Mercury. Back when she was but a budding woman she had seen that mighty man as a guest in their city's walls. He was already a hero known far and wide, the envy of many men and desire of many women, yet in the end he fell like a rock to the earth before the seductions of Beatrix' charms. She smiled a soft smile, those days were the very best in her memory.

"A great many things," She said. Indeed, there were many things she could tell him about his father, many things indeed. Amelia glanced towards him, she peered his way by glancing over her shoulder. There was no reason not to tell him the things she knew.

She sat down in the shadow of a towering cliff, an area often considered far safer than the barren wasteland itself, and urged him to do the same. Thus they sat, and under the cover of night, at that time, in that place, the boy learned all he could be told about his heroic father, Avance of Mercury.