I Hear Jerusalem Bells A-Ringing

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. But then again, what else should you expect when the entire world was hooked up to a tyrant’s brain?

The Maiden of Orchids never used to exist either. An image of a pitiful girl hands clasped in prayer and surrounded by orchids, she appeared as statues outside of every single civilized doorway. Every home had a framed portrait of her; even holy homes. More than a saint, but not quite a goddess.

As she walked through the streets of the medieval-style capital city, trying to avoid stepping on a smiling vigrant lying in the gutter, Lillian tried not thinking about such things. She looked at a woman and her children digging through a rubbish bin, blissful as they foraged for dinner. Then she looked at the long line outside the healer’s clinic, happy little sick people humming songs together as they awaited possible amputations.

Lillian wondered– why can’t I be so lucky?

On her even worse days, she wondered why the forces of good- if not at least decencey- could’ve won all those years ago.

The grand temple’s bell echoed all the way from the central square. People began migrating towards it. The tyrant’s speech would be upon them soon.

Not that Lillian still cared about the penelty for her absence, and not that she wouldn’t be in earshot anyway. Thanks to magical horns posted around the city, pumping the air with royal decrees, nobody could escape the masters of civilization. Or what passed as civilization these days, anyway.

A gust of wind nearly shoved Lillian and her books to the ground. Fruit stands and elderly did not share her grace. An old woman, fallen on the ground and cane out of her reach, smiled as she looked upwards.

Sure enough, it flapped across the sky. Its red and gold scales shimmering in the evening sun like liquid fire. Its irredecent spikes, claws, and teeth as sharp as its emerald eyes. With every flap of its wings, more tremendous gusts shook the city, the people below esctatic to be in its shadow.

Of course the holy dragon would come to the castle that evening.

As the terminally-joyous populace cheered this champion of tyranny, Lillian could help but let memories shove themselves into her mind.

Memories of the day that the forces of evil won.

~*~*~

As far as final struggles for a land’s collective soul went, the weather actually wasn’t half bad. Pretty sunny. Air warm, but not scorching.

But Lillian- then a teenager- still sweated up a storm in her diamond armor. Her backpack, loaded with mystical tomes and a collapsable staff, felt like a pile of bolders. For that matter, so did her twin braids and glasses.

She could barely keep up with Ellie.

Ellie, clad in shining gold armor. Crystal bow at the ready. Long chestnut hair flowing in the breeze. Skin pale from too many days inside libraries and used book stores. Quite pretty, but only if you got close enough to notice.

She absolutely devoured the moment.

Elouisa Theresa Smith-Ferraro.

Leader of Kalphasia’s rebellion.

Enemy of Emperor Gideon.

Native of the faraway land of Bell Dunes, Michigan.

~*~*~

Once upon a time- though, Lillian had come to absolutely despise that phrase- Brogan’s Books would’ve been the stuff of her wildest dreams. Practically built into the old curved stonework of the city, an old tree planted in the walkway above had since wrapped its roots around the little building. The craftmanship of the old tiffany windows alone spoke of unending affection, the scent of tea and feeling of the hearth alone making Lillian feel at home.

Another reason to hate that horrible, terrible day, she figured.

As usual, old Mrs. Brogan- as she stroked her pet lizard and sat on her padded stool- told Lillian that she still found no leads on the magical book.

That is, the magical book that somehow ended up in some dank corner of Griffin’s Used Books and Games back home on Earth. With the Dungeons and Dragons paraphernalia on the first floor hardly catching Ellie’s attention, she (and Lillian) went downstairs to the musty bookshelves, hoping to catch something other than countless old thriller paperbacks. Ultimately, she opened an old book that unleashed an interdimensional portal right to the magical land of Kalphasia.

The book didn’t come with them, of course. Because- Lillian thought- why would it have?

Unable to stomach another disappointment for the day, Lillian decided to skip the other bookstores on her weekly visit and head home. On this particular route she wandered down, she ended up walking past the massive mosaic mural that detailed the history of the otherwise-majestic world she got yanked into.

Originally, the first spark of Kalphasia came from an immense, incomprehensible being made of the very forces of the planet. Fearing corruption by having too much power, it split itself up into elemental beings to properly formed the land. The act of creation weakening them, they used the last of their energy to create a species known as “the voldani,” who maintained a connection to their patron element. Though growing more mortal with every passing generation, they governed all of Kalphasia’s other species in some unspoken caste system.

Lillian found herself rolling her eyes at that part more and more as time passed. Elemental powers used to look so cool back in manga. Now the idea just split her brain in half.

She looked back at the mural and found the part with the solar and lunar voldani, who jointly governed their brethren.

That is, until all solar voldani vanished, leaving the lunar empire to rule alone. The reigning emperor annointed his sole rulership by seeking to reestablish the borders of his domain.

Which, as any fantasy fan would tell you, translated to “conquering other voldani territories that enjoyed a degree autonomy up until that point.”

Two of the emperor’s sons- Lazarus (the eldest) and Gideon (the youngest)- took up arms in their father’s cause. The middle son- Abraham- had abandoned any regal ambition some time prior, vanishing into the civilian world.

Now in the town square, Lillian looked at the great fountain before her. The emperor’s figure once stood atop it, now replaced by a marble dragon. It almost amazed her how fast regimes could erase one another.

The emperor- already ill- died just before Kalphasia fell under his rule. Everyone assumed that Lazarus would immediately take the throne, ready to lead this newborn empire.

But instead, Lazarus himself actually put the royal talisman around Gideon’s neck before vanishing from the public.

~*~*~

Gideon sat at the vanity in his tower, trying to keep track of which liquids he was supposed to rub on his face and which to drink. He had actually spent much of his life in front of a mirror, making sure he looked as voldani as possible.

The truth was- that is, the one that nobody dared to say in royal company- Gideon only became a royal heir by a handful of opportunities.

In the weeks leading up to the final battle for Kalphasia, Gideon took up a habit of sitting in empty rooms. Not ranting, so much as leaking words.

“I ever tell you about my mother?” he asked- as far as his spying advisors could tell- the empty room. It didn’t object, so he continued. He talked about his older brothers were actually half-brothers, Gideon’s mother a mistress of the emperor.

Gideon smeared make-up onto his face. “She wasn’t even voldani. She was velken.” Velkens, of course, being Kalphasia’s answer to humans. Gideon’s scoff dripped sarcasm as black as midnight. “So, as you can imagine, I was already popular with…”

His voice trailed off, the mind behind it bogged down by the secret he tried keeping for the past three seasons.

Not his empire threatened by teenage Earth girls. Not even his advisors could hide that. In fact, the advisors that still remained by his side actually spoke of the visitors with enough hidden fondness to count as treason.

As he uncorked a bottle and held it at the ready, Gideon took a hard look in the mirror.

Sunken eyes. Shallow face. A pallor he struggled to hide more and more everyday. He pulled a cheek down, inspecting the failing elasticity of his flesh and the bloodshot underside of his eyes.

Supposing his advisors didn’t sneak poision in one of the vanity’s bottles. Supposing he humored destiny and actually fought the approaching threat. Supposing, most insane of all, he won…

“Would it honestly be worth it?”

The words just slipped out of him, making him blink hard. He turned to the room, the only other furnature a dressing blind, a closet, and a chest. He braced himself for an answer…

Until he heard the roar of warfare outside. Between his mechanical soldiers and the rest of Kalphasia.

He leaned forward, perhaps in a subconscious need for prayer. Or comfort. Anything, he figured. Even for the likes of him.

He slipped something out of a belt pouch and held it in his palm.

A teal and purple stone, set in a bronze startburst shape. Not even his advisors knew of this. He held it to his chest, the chaos outside getting louder after he closed his eyes.

His chaos.

He smiled grimly, his nod slow. “As destiny wills….As I deserve.”

The advisor listening outside only had a few seconds to avoid the opening door. Gideon strode out of the room and down the hall, his fur-collared cape sweeping the marble floor and determination in his step. The advisor could swear that he heard Gideon laughing to himself.

He shook his head at the sight of his young leader.

The last lunar voldani.

Miserable tyrant.

Snickering lunatic.

The advisor turned to the empty room…and rubbed his widened eyes.

There, behind the dressing screen…

The advisor creeped over, but heard no other sounds outside of his own. He approached the screen, counting his heartbeats before daring to look behind it. He braced himself for a confrontation with a spy.

But nothing awaited him behind the screen.

He sighed quietly.

Perhaps the prince’s- no, the emperor’s- madness was contageous. He could’ve sworn that he saw a shadow behind the dressing screen.

~*~*~

Magor the baker already started Lillian’s order before she even uttered a single word. Three raspberry cheese danishes. Just like how her mother made them, right down to the touch of cinnamon in the powered sugar dusted on top.

Magor didn’t accept a tip for his troubles, writing it off as an act of kindess. That was one of the things that Lillian absolutely loved about Magor.

That and the touch of sadness he had in his eyes whenever he smiled at her. Perhaps true sympathy, and not the artificial stuff the Great Aura injected into people’s souls.

As she left the cozy little bakery, Lillian considered stopping by Kana and Naka’s studio.

When she left Earth, she did so in the middle of an ongoing manga series called VaporMind. Though she accepted her fate- if not only for the time being- she couldn’t stand to imagine life without knowing what happened next in the series. So she sought an artist that could replicate the style and a writer that could predict what might’ve happened next.

She found Kana and Naka, who worked out of an old lunar empire guardhouse and- to date- provided ten volumes of escape to Lillian. They, unfortunately, also smiled too wide for her liking. Lillian since gave up trying convince herself that they split their faces in half only for the sake of their retainer.

Lillian shuddered at the thought of those beartrap grins. No. Forget that. They probably didn’t even have the next volume done anyway. Best to get to her safehouse for the evening.

She ended up walking past a glass figurine stand, specifically at the moment when the woman tending to it slipped and fell into it. The stand topplrf over, countless delicate little figurines obliterating upon the pavenebt. The woman herself landed hard on the stand, her face smashing into the stone.

By the time people started walking over to help, she had already lifted herself onto her backside, nose gushing blood and laughing at “these clumsy, clumsy days.”

She didn’t even seem to care about the stand splinter sticking through her hand.

Lillian rushed away, unable to stand the sight. The blood and hand injury didn’t help either.

She tried not looking around, knowing that she only see a blur of stupidly-happy faces and the eyes of those souless Maiden of the Orchids. Because nobody ever had a bad day in the capital, thanks to the Great Aura.

A post-war discovery and the ultimate citizen placation tool, the Great Aura was an unseen force that followed Kalphasia’s rulers around. It turned a person’s vision rosey. Made their hearts thud with enough affection to crack a rib. Put a smile on even the most freshly-made orphans.

Unless you were someone like Lillian. Not that Lillian knew what made it her so lucky.

She scoffed at the idea of luck.

Then she felt tears trying to push their way out of her eyes. She tried stuffing them back into her skull before anyone tried drowing her in fake kindness.

Ellie.

God help her, she needed Ellie.

~*~*~

The first time Lillian cried- a few nights after she arrived in Kalphasia- she felt like a total idiot.

How couldn’t she? This was a fantasy manga come true, right down to camping in a crystal forest. But no. No. Leaky Lillian had to go and miss her mommy.

“Does this color make me look fat?”

Ellie, using an over-the-top valley girl accent. Standing in the pink light of a nearby crystal, sticking her butt out in an exagerrated modeling pose. Lillian’s tears were forgotten amongst laughter.

When training with ifalden war masters- many of which tended to scream at Lillian- Ellie quietly sung “Be A Man” from the original Mulan.

She hid a note containing as many lyrics from “Montage” from Team America that she could remember in a tome Lillian had to study.

They made a game of confusing Kalphasians with pop culture references and asking where Earth-borne mystical creatures were at (such as unicorns, which Kalphasia lacked). They laughed at all the joke names they gave attacks. Cheered their lungs out over every victory.

They also gushed over Brackett, AKA “the Sun Prince.”

Yeah, big surprise, Gideon’s father did have something to do with the solar voldani disappearing. But he ending up missing the king’s son, who spent the ensuing years training to overthrow the empire.

And, Ellie suspected, also training in the art of looking hot.

As the last solar voldani, Brackett’s union with the stirring rebellion was inevitable.

And there they gathered in the capital. All the few remaining voldani and their governed species. United for a cause. Doing battle with the lunar empire’s legion of mechanical soldiers and war machines. Trying to beat the sunset, the lunar emperor’s power growing as the moon slowly conquered the sky. Lead by a couple plucky Earth girls.

They fought in front of the mosaic mural. Clashed in the capital square. Raided guard houses. And, finally, the two girls slipped into Gideon’s castle.

Which is where Lillian saw her friend- the one who regularily saved her from despair- vanish forever.

~*~*~

The great dragon perched above the royal balcony, awaiting its master and eyeing the adoring public past its up-turned snout.

To Lillian’s worry, it noticed her. Worse yet, it swooped down and offered a place on its back, nearby citizens swooning. Forgoing the secret passageway, Lillian hopped aboard and practically ripped into the castle.

The dragon slithered through the shining mable halls, disregarding the bowing, smiling servants it almost knocked over. Paintings- each tributes to either tyranny or the Maiden of Orchids- blurred at super speed, Lillian clutching one of its spikes. It powered all the way to the throne room doors, each of its knocks as hollow as a coffin’s inside.

Lillian braced herself, sure as the steel of an executioner’s axe.

When in Hell, seeing the devil in inevitable, I suppose.

~*~*~

Ellie and Lillian slipped through the castle halls, humming the Zelda theme to keep their spirits up. They approached the throne room doors.

On three, they busted through.

One four, an energy field- purple with a blue starfield on it- separated them. Ellie on the inside, Lillian on the outside. Night was approaching, Gideon’s elemental strength a testament to that.

It suprised Lillian, how terrified Ellie seemed by herself. Lillian tried counterspells, only to realize just how little solar magic she could muster.

Seeing Gideon on his throne on the other side of the massive room, Ellie showed her displeasure by firing an arrow into the dead center his chest. The emperor slumped forward, unmoving.

Even as Ellie walked up to confirm the kill, Lillian felt panic in the pit of her gut. But the barrier allowed no sound. The moment Ellie discovered that the limp figure was actually a mechanical double in Gideon’s cape, darkness eclipsed the entire room.

Lillian’s heart shoved itself into her throat. Ellie, bow drawn and training forgotten, spun around. It took a fer spins before crimson bloomed on her upper arm.

She screamed, stumbling forward and spinning around to find nothing.

Gideon’s voice swirled around Ellie. “In order to even be considered for the throne, one must serve in the military for at least three cycles.”

Ellie spiraled, increasingly fearful as Gideon remained unfound.

Then his voice cut the air like a stiletto.

“I was an assassin.”

More red agony, this time on the back of her right thigh. She fell to a knee, tears flowing down her cheeks.

Lillian screamed. She ran to a nearby window. The sun had begun to sink. She needed to get help. She tapped her staff on the ground, putting her forehead against the stick. The multicolored crystal sphere on top sent a pulse of energy that carried her thoughts.

Brackett! We need your help!

Stumbling to her feet, Ellie spied a person’s shape against a wall and began firing arrows at it. Only when she got closer did she notice that the figure didn’t react, her arrows actually bouncing off.

Gideon’s voice echoed once more. “Lazarus might have lead the army to the Eternal Coast, but I was the one who actually slew the Blue Queen.”

The Blue Queen being the previous ruling water voldani, and the figure a statue in her image.

“Whose memory I pay tribute to every day.”

Ellie turned, picking up more statues in the darkness. Gideon’s little assassination gallery.

“Perhaps I shall make a statue of you, when this is over.”

Ellie’s heart began pumping ice water. Not from the idea of having her death immortalized, but at the realization that Gideon’s voice was actually coming from inside her mind.

Outside the barrier, Brackett- untilizing what remained of the enhanced strength granted to him by daylight- leapt through a nearby window and ran for the barrier. Though tearful panic, Lillian explained that she needed his help to counter the lunar energy of the barrier.

Sunset had drained much of his power, he could only make a small hole with his sunlight-enriched sword. He sent a blast of solar energy through.

Forming a miniture sun in the air, it illuminated the room just enough to reveal Gideon, now dressed in slender black assassin’s robes and the secret charm hanging next to his royal talisman.

Actually, five of him.

Ellie took a chance and shot at one’s face, grazing his cheek in a streak of purple blood. He didn’t react, pain streaking down her arm.

As Brackett kept hacking at the lunar barrier in desperate abandon, Lillian could only stand and watch Ellie shooting at empty air, Gideon starting to cut her up. After a moment, Lillian realized what was happening.

“He’s using lunar magic on you, Ellie!” Lillian cried through the hole in the barrier. As the sun element dealt with the heart, moon magic picked at the mind.

In retaliation, he threw a dagger through the hole in the barrier, Lillian dodging only just fast enough to get it in her

This seemed to enrage Ellie more, who fired more rapidly. Unfortunately, the shots only hit delusion doppelgängers, light purple lunar energy slowly radiating more and more from Gideon. Brackett’s energy blasts lacked the power to actually reach Gideon as he continued taking Ellie apart. Lillian couldn’t focus enough past the pain to summon any real magic.

In the end, Ellie’s face went limp, her eyes turning to glass as she fell to her knees. The bow clattered to the ground.

Lording over her, a crooked smile slid onto Gideon’s face. “It’s…actually very twisted, now that I think about it.”

Night was almost upon them, Gideon now summoning a glowing celestial mandala beneath a weakened Ellie. Ready to vaporize her.

“The only reason I kept fighting…”

The game was over.

“…was to hurt you as much as I could.”

Then Lillian got an idea.

Or rather, the idea.

Her nerves on fire, she climbed up her own staff and onto her feet. She sent another telepathic wave.

Voldani! All of you! Give her your power!

Even Gideon shook from this mental message. He looked at Lillian, his coy grin a little sad. After all, it wasn’t like the voldani below probably could hear her.

But they did.

Believe me.

I was there.

Ah, I actually never introduced myself.

I’m Selena.

The other Earth girl who came to Kalphasia alongside these two.

Ellie jerked her head up to Gideon, Lillian thinking it one last act of madness until the moment that she started floating. Energies of all colors radiated from her, ridding Gideon of any confidence. Brackett kneeled by his sword in prayer, his yellow-orange solar energy joining the rainbow halo of the world around Ellie.

Gideon unleashed the energy of the mandala below Ellie, but it had no effect. She was one with the world, if not only enough to outmatch the emperor.

Her eyes pure white, she raised her arms and began forming a swirling crucible of multicolor energy and creation over her head.

Before you think anything, I don’t blame Lillian for this stupid move of hers. Not nearly as much as she herself ended up doing.

I understood. Really. She wanted to go home. She wanted to get back to her mom. After all, she had lost her father years before and was an only child; her mother must’ve been so alone.

She was worried about Ellie.

She was worried about me.

You know the Maiden of the Orchid? That’s actually supposed to be me. I was attacked by one of Gideon’s henchemen, a curse putting me in a death-sleep state early into our adventure. (Right before the camping trip in the crystal forest, actually.) To bring me back- and to get home- we needed all the energy in Kalphasia.

Which is one of the reasons we first set out after Gideon. To steal the last bit of lunar energy from him.

And, with a smile, Ellie parted the swirling rainbow energy and unleashed the means to defeat Gideon and all his madness–

A big, red and yello—scaled, green-eyed dragon.

It immediately smothered Gideon in a wave of hellfire breath, the emperor shrieking as he fell to the floor and his flesh charred. The barrier dispelled, Brackett running forward and up to Ellie’s side as she landed, watching Gideon twitch.

Lillian, able to weave some small healing spells, stumbled to the doorway, expecting Ellie to draw the weakened Gideon’s lunar energy from him. I- then a disembodied spirit- stood by her side, excitied to get my own body back.

To this day, I’m not sure if it was initial stupidity or hidden genius.

That is, the force behind Ellie immediately sending Gideon to the World’s Shadow.

You know how in some video games and stuff that an evil force or whatever would be sealed away in some dark realm? This was the World’s Shadow. A dumping ground for all of Kalphasia’s trash.

And, unfortunately, you couldn’t unsend people from it.

Or, more precicely, the elemental power that they still had when they were banished into it.

Lillian realized what Ellie had done and began crying, never stopping since.

~*~*~

That was eight years ago. Previously known as eight cycles, until Queen Ellie enacted a change in terminology. To prevent confusion, of course.

In fact, if we’re being specific, it was four kids ago for Ellie, baby number four born a few days prior.

Ellie stood up from her throne, her new son in her arms as she walked over to Lillian with a smile. As usual, the Great Aura Ellie emitted had no effect on Lillian. Though King Brackett- his throne next to Ellie’s and knight’s physique since history- did smile a little less the farther he got away from his wife…

“Ooops I did it again,” Ellie half-sang as she help up her son near Lillian. Lillian had stopped trying to smile since baby number two.

Not that Lillian could actually hear Ellie.

Despite her best efforts, none of her good memories of Ellie dared to replay. Instead, all Lillian could hear was Ellie’s coronation speech.

Specifically, the part about how she wouldn’t be giving the voldani their powers back.

After all, the voldani had ruled Kalphasia in the first place, and look how that turned out. So, logically (at least, what passed as logic for Ellie), the voldani shouldn’t hold power.

And besides, she did just save the land.

And also besides, she was going to immediately marry Brackett, thus making her a queen by marriage anyway.

And also also besides- Ellie had all these wonderful new “enhancements” in minf for Kalphasia.

Lillian excused herself, mindlessly agreeing to visit the baby’s blessing ceremony in a few days. She considered going up to the chamber where Ellie had my sleeping body kept in an etherial indoor flower garden, but I suppose the shame was too much.

Again, I didn’t blame her.

After all, I forgot that the first maker of Kalphasia originally split itself up into several entities in order to prevent it own corruption.

But now, history repeated itself. The being- if only most of its elements- were now back in one form.

And again, Ellie had ideas for the land.

For starters, all tech became forbidden, the lunar empire’s reliance on it (according to Ellie) necessitating it. She even ordered a massive bonfire to burn all the tech they tore out of the now-primitave city.

Same with all medical studies; magic through and through, despite one village we once encountered regarding a bottle of ibuprofen as a miracle.

Back to the medieval ages.

Ah, specifically one with an Earth aesthetic.

One could only call it “anthropological annihilation.” Ellie ripped Kalphasia’s culture out by its roots, making it into a form she fantasized about back home.

Velkens? Ilfadens? Gazadors? Too unusual!

Where were the unicorns? Elves? And who’s to say the world couldn’t have more dragons? Kalphasia was going to look less Kalphasian and more Tolkien and Rowling.

A fantasy world, sure. But her idea of fantasy.

And if you didn’t like it, the Great Aura she projected would change your mind.

Which is how Lillian spent her time those days. Hiding in a massive annex of the castle that nobody but her could enter. Collecting any bits and pieces of Kalphasia that she could scrape from the aftermath of Ellie’s still-continuing make-over.

Plants.

Relics.

Religious tomes.

Animals.

Dragons weren’t the only addition that Ellie decided to copy from Earth and paste onto Kalphasia. For example, during her goodwill tour of the Eternal Coast, Ellie decided that mermaids would do the scenery nicely. To her credit, their beautiful songs actually added to the area.

Then again, so did all the dead senephons.

So, senephons. Picture a cuddly snail/dog-looking creature, happily trotting around and easing the aches and pains of injured pilgrims via tender affection. Total herbivores. Completely loving. One of the best things ever.

Now picture them crying out in agony as the mermaid’s song induced skull-shattering migraines, deadly fevers, and (if the poor creature somehow survived that long) cranial hemorrhaging. Many curled up in balls. More huddled together in a desperate attempt for comfort. The edge of their cries sounded tear-stained.

One of them- somehow- mustered enough strength to approach Lillian and stagger back to its nest to save the one pup the song didn’t kill. It collapsed by the weakened little thing, heaving its last breaths as the pup cried louder by its mother. Begging her to come back.

The pup- now grown and named “Kunji”- happily greeted Lillian as always. And, to his credit, he eased her mind better than any Great Aura ever could. So much so, that she locked the door and went to her hidden bookcase.

Even if the portal book was a bust, Lillian piled up other options.

One of those potential options- the secret charm Gideon had around his neck.

I actually helped her out a little with this one; a surprise, given that I couldn’t actually influence the physical world too mych. But through dreams, I helped her discover that the charm, wasn’t actually a charm.

It was an earring.

An experiment of Lazarus’s to potentially act as a way of communicating between whoever had an earring in their possession.

So, I- and Lillian- figured that maybe- just maybe- whoever was on the other end of Gideon’s earring could help us in some way. Maybe find another lunar voldani. Or a way to tap into the elemental energy all the same.

But the question remained- who was on the other end?

And unfortunately, we found out a few days later at the blessing ceremony.