“Congratulations everyone.”

Lyria spoke to all of us with a smile on her face and popped open a bottle of champagne. 

“We are officially a guild. I look forward to working with everyone.”

She first handed me one of three boxes before prancing over to Cedric. 

Lyria took the time to set up our dorm for what she described as a “Guild formation party” to celebrate us becoming an official guild. The smell of sweet, freshly baked pastries lay on the table, accompanied by trays of many other treats and finger foods. A large cake, coated in white, pink, and red frosting, served as the centerpiece with everything placed around it. 

On the cake, a single phrase written in bright red frosting read, ‘You are amazing!’

I felt my senses overwhelmed by the assortment of choices and before long I was at the foot of the table, hand hovering over the nearest tray. Paralyzed at first, I didn’t quite know what to dig into, most of the stuff displayed, I had never even encountered. 

Best to start with what I know.

I then grabbed the nearby knife and went in for the cake. 

Senna stood next to me, frowning as her eyes darted from item to item. She shook her head and sighed. 

“When I said treat ourselves, I didn’t mean a kiddie party.”

She then looked at me as if looking for confirmation, but cringed when we locked eyes. I was holding back three spoons worth of cake and could not respond.

“Atsumi looks like she’s enjoying it.” Lyria then said, peeking over my shoulder.

Senna sighed again and then looked at the bottle of champagne. 

“Don’t you have something, with a little… you know, alcohol?”

Lyria shot her an angry look before glancing at me. Seeing this Senna rolled her eyes and waltzed over to the other side of the table. 

Lyria held Senna in her gaze as she turned her head towards me, only taking her eyes off her as she faced me directly. She then leaned in closer, taking a passing glance at the layered cake on the table. 

“How’s the cake?” 

I took down a big gulp.

“It's… nice, thank you.”

She then laughed.

“Honestly, it’s beyond me how you are able to keep that figure.” She then walked over to the couch and gestured for me to sit next to her. 

“Why don’t you come sit, and open your gift? I saw it at a nearby thrift store. It reminded me of you and I thought I just had to buy it.”

She gestured to the box, neatly encased with yellow and blue wrapping paper and tied together with a golden ribbon. 

I frowned, I had completely forgotten about the gift. 

“oh, ok.”

I took it and sat on a nearby chair. 

Making sure I didn’t rip the paper, I unwrapped the gift and revealed a black box. At the center was a silver text that read Perilune, from Equinox designs. Despite my knowledge of the common language, this was the first time I've encountered those words, but by the look Lyria’s beaming eyes, I didn’t want to kill the mood by asking.

Inside was a singular earring, a crescent moon shaped crystal and then a tiny crystal shaped star.

Both hang from a single gold chain, with the larger crescent moon shaped piece being closer to the earpiece and the star hanging just below it. It was a simple piece of jewelry that reflected the very sunlight that filtered through the windows.

 “So, what do you think?” She asked.

“I…”

Her question only made my mind go blank. I stared at the thing while I struggled to get out my words.

“You love it, don’t you? Go on, tell me you love it.” She said while she confidently fanned her face with her hands.

I nodded.

“Yes… it's… beautiful.”

She then held out her hands. 

“Here, let me put it on for you.” 

She then pinned it on and shifted backwards to get a better look at me. “As expected, it suits you perfectly.”

I didn’t know if she really meant it or just trying to flatter me, but it still had an effect. No one apart from my mother has done anything like this for me, and because of that, I felt a bit out of place.

“Thank you.” I replied.

I didn’t know what to do with myself and stared at my laps, face burning slightly while Lyria continued to shower me with compliments.

Cedric, who had been watching us the entire time, then walked up to the table and took his own share of cake. He took a seat on the bench just across from us and ate one spoonful without a word. He let out a sigh and though his face remained stoic, I knew he enjoyed the taste as well.

I just barely kept him in my periphery but, when he suddenly approached, I instinctively looked up at him.

“Apologies for the intrusion, but Lyria, I prefer to get this over with now, so I may leave. You know I’m not one for parties, especially when it’s in the girl’s dormitory.” 

He sat down on the couch much closer to us and focused all of his attention on Lyria.

“You told me you would answer my questions, right? I’m waiting”

Lyria turned around to look at him and clicked her tongue.

“And here I was, hoping you would sneak a peek at me in my nightgown.”

She then crossed her legs and folded her arms. Her expression changed, becoming more tense, alert, eyes glazing over the boy as if searching for a sign of danger. The three-leafed clover pattern on her eyes seemed to glow with warning.

A heavy silence loomed over us, surprising even Senna as she returned from the kitchen.

“What’s going on?”

Lyria broke her gaze and glanced at Senna. She sighed and leaned back in her seat. 

“Very well then. On to business.”

With careful movements, she walked over to the center of the room and sat on her knees. 

“I guess it was my fault for not discussing this earlier. You can never be too careful. Guess I was right to host this party.”

Her eyes became distant for a second before she glanced around at the group

“By now, you guys may have noticed a few strange things going on during our last expedition. Not only the entities or the people we encountered, but ourselves and the power we displayed that day. I wanted the relationships in this group to build naturally, but it seems things have gotten too crazy too early. In the end, I just want a place where everyone understands each other and accepts them as they are, but that would require truth. So if you guys have questions, I am here.”

She paused and then turned to me. She took a while to speak, but when she did, she held her hands out, and her lips parted in preparation for a chant.

“But before that, I need you guys to do something for me.” 

“To offer thy truths is to offer thy life, to offer thy life, is to strengthen thy bonds. I invoke thy divinity, and offer my oath. Our lips and deeds will never betray thee nor forsake this oath.”

Her chant drifted through the air, like a whisper in the night. Its intentions and meaning rang true to the mana she invoked, and in her palms, four bundles of red string manifested. 

“This will bind us together. We will be bound by this oath, and we will not speak of all that has been said, all that has happened, or all that we will go through to anyone who has not taken part in it.”

She held out her hands and offered for each of us to take one. 

Another moment of silence ensued as we all stared at the magical threads with wary eyes. 

“I’m not sure about this,” Senna said, breaking the silence. 

Lyria then looked at me, as to gauge my acceptance of this oath. She didn’t have to look deep, as my feelings perfectly matched the look on my face. 

“I see,” was all Lyria could say before the threads vanished and she closed her fist. “I don’t look all that trustworthy after all.” 

Her shoulders sagged, and her head dropped.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you.” I said, “It’s just that this is a bit too sudden for me.” 

To enter a binding vow is not something to be taken lightly. That was something my mother made very clear to me. She had seen the damage it had done to those who accepted vows without caution. The vow itself is just a promise, an insurance that benefits all parties involved. It, in itself, is often harmless and could even enhance the lives of the individual. It is the consequences of breaking the vow that causes problems. Not understanding the meaning of the vow or fully understanding the true scope of what is at stake has landed many people in hot water. People have ended up crippled, unable to use magic, financially ruined and in some cases dead. 

 There are also those who use these vows to trick unsuspecting victims into entering a vow with an impossible condition. 

Bye my mother’s words

You must listen carefully and understand fully if verbal, must read the fine print if written, and if any magical apparatus is involved, you must ensure the person who is proposing the vow is someone you would trust with your life. 

“I am not completely against the idea,” Cedric said. “Since what you propose is a vow of silence we just need to keep our mouths shut and not betray each other. Seems simple enough, but you I am not sure about though, especially since you are the former member of that cult.”

I jumped up from the edge of my seat after hearing what Cedric said. It came so suddenly that I could only blurt out the first thing that came to me. 

“You were what?” 

Lyria shot a pleading and almost disbelieving look at Cedric before turning to me. She held her hands out as if to calm down a growling beast and approached me slowly. 

Not understanding why she never told me this, I backed away from her. After all, I had shared a lot about myself with her. 

“When were you going to tell me this?”

“Today, I wanted to tell you today.” 

A whirlwind of emotions churned inside my chest and I balled my fist. Once again I felt out of place and didn’t know what to do with myself. I had trusted her enough to share life changing secrets with her and still she kept something so important from me.

“Every time I think I can trust you, you spring something up on me.”

Every part of me no longer wanted to be in that room, so I turned around to leave. 

“Wait Atsum i…”

She held my hand and held the door in place and pleaded for me not to leave. 

I pulled my hand away from her and we stood there for a while. 

“You keep telling me half-truths, while I… like an idiot, continue to…

The memory of those slaves filtered into my head, and I could not help but imagine Lyria taking part in such disgusting acts. 

My ears hurt as the sound of my beating heart banged against my eardrums. The crawling feeling in my chest reawakened and never had I felt it this intensely. 

“And now you have the gall to ask me to enter a binding vow, a vow of trust…”

“I was going to tell you, eventually. I just didn’t think we would encounter them so soon.” 

As she spoke, I saw her expression, and it only made me feel worse. She had the expression of a terrified child. 

 “I’m sorry, ok? It’s hard, delving into these memories. I… I’m still arranging my thoughts but if that’s what you want, I’ll tell you everything, here and now.” 

She then guided me back to the center of the room. There she sat down on the carpet and turned her back to face us. 

“I would normally never do this, but… here goes.” 

She undid the front top of her dress and bra, exposing the runes on her back. 

Cedric sat up from his slouched position, and his eyes widened. 

“Such intricate runes.” 

She kept the cloth up so as to not expose her chest and activated the water rune. Its glow served as a beacon for the tiny droplets of water that floated around her. 

She did this for all four pillar elements, all without uttering a chant. 

“What you see here is a rune known as the Tree of Chaotic Genesis. It is the pinnacle of elemental magic condensed in runelore and, as you may not expect, fae of this era cannot manifest this rune. Only The ancestors of all fae the Aes Sidhe, ever have the chance of getting this and even among them, it was exceedingly rare.

“Are you saying that you are a primordial?” Cedric asked.

“Well, yes … and no.” She paused and scratched her head. “How do I explain this?”

She then perked up and held up her index finger. 

“Do you guys know of the current aspect of Gaia? Ludmilla Arlen? Yeah, she’s not, she’s just the keeper of the world tree, nothing more than a tributary, a servant to the true aspect. Her name was Finna Rylee, and she has been the last and only ever aspect of Gaia outside of the lost ages. Despite what you may think, Gaia is a ruthless and demanding goddess. This hasn’t always been the case, as per Finna’s words, but she despises all races that are not primordial. Not only that, she is an elder god, meaning only someone with a primordials supreme body can handle her power. As the Sole survivor of the Aes Sidhe Finna held the title for almost two thousand years.”

Senna tilted her head, invested in Lyria’s story. “But what does that have to do with you?”

“I’m getting to that,” Lyria replied, waving her hand. 

“Even in all their latent power, primordials are still mortal beings, and so they age and die. Finna had brought over a millennium of prosperity to the Fae, but her time drew near. She became increasingly I’ll and her power faded by the day. With Finna’s death looming over our heads, turmoil unfolded within the Fae High Court. To lose the pillar of Fae society would have been a terrible blow to their political standing and military might, especially with escalating tensions with the Eltanin Draco to the south of the Norma continent. So they proposed to her a plan, project proliferation, they called it. If Gaia only accepted primordial Fae, then we would create one for her. They plan involved using her DNA to create embryos and implant them into the wombs of volunteering high elf women. They would then present the brightest and most outstanding child to Gaia as her next chosen. That’s when Finna made a grave mistake, she took her deity's silence for acceptance and so together with seven hundred other clones, I was born from the womb of a woman of the Arlen family, the current ruling family of Minsel. 

She clutched her hands, squeezed it tightly. Tears ringed her eyes, and she remained focused on the carpet below her, not daring to look any of us in the eye. 

“If only she had accepted. Why did she reject me? I worked all my life and yet... I manifested the tree of genesis and even received the eyes of truth from Finna.”

She took a deep breath and paused for a while, collecting her thoughts.” 

“I was everything that was Finna, looks, abilities, potential. I was essentially her copy. Yet on that day, when the rite of possession took place and Gaia took over her body…I could not be any more shocked. Gaia looked at me through Finna’s eyes and regarded me with disgust. In her words. “You created abominations in my name, and you will all face the consequences.” She cursed all of us to short lives and then left Finna’s body, leaving her in tears. She became a recluse after that, only allowing me and a few others to even see her. Since that day, I have despised Gaia with every fiber of my being, and seeing my brothers and sisters die day after day only amplified that feeling.” 

Her knuckles were becoming white, and her pale face showed a tinge of red. 

I placed her hand on hers and pried her clenched fist open

“Is that why you joined the cult?” Cedric asked. 

Lyria nodded. 

“Yes. That bitch Morigan, my former teacher and now an elder of the cult, reached out to me. She filled my head with lies, comforted me with promises, told me that I could save my brothers and sisters if I helped with severing Finna’s connection with Gaia. My younger, more naïve self, believed in her every word. I, in all my stupidity, used our trust to become one of her close attendants, and day after day I slipped a potion into her food thinking it would free her of Gaia. But all I did was offer her a poison, not even her supreme body could denature. By the time I realized what I had done. They had already infiltrated her home and indiscriminately killed everyone they could, even the very people they promised to help me save. Finna protected me, but I had already done the damage. Morigan, together with her two disciples, took her life and her mana core. Finna’s senior attendant managed to save a few of us and dragged us back to the royal castle.” 

Her eyes were watery and her swollen eyes held back years of pent up emotion. She then took a deep breath and said with a shaky voice,

“I don’t and never once followed the ideals of those in that cult and I want nothing more than to see them and their machinations go up in flames” 

A tear rolled down her cheek, and she spoke with a ragged voice, laced with years of suppressed rage. 

We all sat in silence for several moments. I could not muster a word, but wanted to comfort her anyway I could. 

I pulled her in close and held her to my chest. 

She broke down and cried, buried in my chest for several minutes after.