Sholto took a breath, holding it for a moment before he released it. His heart thumped in his chest with unease. Even if everything had been set up perfectly, with a certain sage sitting just behind them, nothing was ever guaranteed.

Aeris worked the console in front of them, behind the controls of their descent craft. The infrastructure that was to guide them off Luna had been maintained over an unknowable length of time. The last moon-fall was buried in the depths of history. Only one fact remained: whether they lived or died--there was no return. The only way they'd see Luna would be at night, at a distance too far for them to ever hope to cross.

A knock on the side of the vessel dismissed the sage in the back, leaving Sholto and Aeris to address the one who disturbed their launch prep.

Princess Shona stepped back as the door to the craft opened.

"Take me with you," she demanded.

Sholto shook his head solemnly. "No."

"Please!" she begged. "I'm your sister! Your TWIN sister! Please Sholto…"

Even with tears shed, his will could not be broken. He placed his hands on his sibling's shoulders for possibly the final time. "They need you here. You're the only one that can change things." His thoughts were of Aeris--a fox who served in the castle. Something unheard of a decade ago.

She hugged him. "You better not die."

The man smiled, returning his sister's embrace in kind. "Have more faith in us."

"Relax Shona! I'll keep him out of trouble! Promise!" shouted Aeris from the pilot's seat.

"I'm holding you to that!" Shona replied. She allowed her lips to curl up as she wiped her face dry. "I love you, Sholto."

"I love you too, Shona. We'll make a story worth remembering."

With their final goodbye completed, Sholto boarded the craft and buckled up. Aeris went through the launch preparations with mission control, adjusting various settings and knobs on the console as she diligently listened to the commands of the experts.

Sholto breathed in and out through his nose, eyes closed as he listened to his partner work next to him.

A hand from the back gripped his shoulder. "Relax, I wouldn't let myself get exploded," sang Sahji.

"Hush," Sholto sneered.

The launch was abrupt and violent. The power needed to leave the safety of their rocky home wasn't that great in the grand scheme of things, but it still did require a level of propulsion none in the cockpit had ever experienced in their lives. The vehicle rattled, the noise was monstrous, they were crushed against their seats, but even so, it was temporary. As soon as they cleared the lunar atmosphere (or lack thereof), a feeling of weightlessness hit them.

"Take off your safety belt!" Sahji exclaimed.

"What? No!" Sholto snapped at the sage.

"Suit yourself." With a click, the blond man was free to float around the cabin. "Want a snack?" he asked as he floated deeper into the rear of the shuttle.

"No, shut up for a minute," Sholto hissed.

Aeris, meanwhile, still listened to mission control on her headset. Short nods coupled with flipped knobs and switches came swiftly as she set course for their destination. "Roger that," she finally spoke.

With that confirmation, the vixen knocked her headset down to allow it to hang around her neck. "Get comfy I guess, we'll be there in three days," she informed the passengers.

Sahji floated back to the front, crunching annoyingly as he did so. "Whaaaaaaat? All this super technology and you can't manage to get down to Riterra any faster?" teased the sage.

She glared at him. "No, we're taking a free fall trajectory. If something happens, we'll naturally be pulled down to Terra," Aeris explained. "It's the safest way for us to enter the terran atmosphere."

Sholto nodded in agreement. "We'd hardly make good heroes stranded in space," he pointed out.

The sage of desire hummed and nodded. He drew another potato chip from the bag and crunched it loudly. "I suppose," he spoke with zero consideration.

"Why are those even here? You shouldn't have them," scolded Aeris.

"I don't just grant humanities wishes, I can grant my own, y'know?" Like true magic, a second bag of chips appeared in his grasp. "Want some? They're hickory barbecue."

The two Lunarians stared at the sage with contempt.

"He's gonna get us killed," said Sholto to his partner.

She nodded. "Definitely."

With the prep work taken care of, there wasn't much to do except wait. Thankfully, both Sholto and Aeris had planned for this and downloaded as much reading material about Riterra as they could.

The two partners read in silence, much to the chagrin of the third party in the cabin. "Three days," grumbled Sahji.

"Three days," Aeris repeated, as she read her book on the flora of Riterra.

Sahji huffed and folded his arms across his chest as he floated behind the secured pair. "I'll be back." Suddenly the shuttle was one occupant lighter.

Sholto shook his head--by now they were used to the sage vanishing like a ghost. What did shake them was their craft suddenly rocking.

"What the terra?!" Aeris yelped, pulling her headset up and checking the instrument panel. "Mission control! We're rapidly accelerating! Mission control!"

Sholto gulped as his partner desperately tried to take control of their ship and failed. What even happened? There's no way engineering had failed this badly. He recalled Shona excitedly telling them about all the testing they had done on all of these systems. There were back-ups for the back-ups.

Then it hit him.

"SAHJI!!" he roared.

The sage appeared behind them. "M'yeeesssss?"

"Fix it--I know you're behind this," growled the brunet.

"Why Sholto whatever do you mean? I'm just a humble sage of balance, I most certainly didn't have Seres tell me exactly what I needed to do to speed up this whole outing," Sahji tittered.

"SAHJI!!" Aeris shouted. "FIX THIS!!"

The smarmy sage continued to disregard the pleas of his chosen. "You'll thank me later!" He vanished with those parting words.

"I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna take that God damn sword and I'm gonna kill him," Sholto growled as he prepared for whatever horrible fate awaited them.

Aeris tossed her headset off, seeing how the communications were jammed, it was useless headgear. "Looks like we'll be there in like an hour now thanks to Sahji's 'gift'," the fox informed her partner.

"Goody. How likely is it that we survive this?" he asked.

"Dunno, I don't think the engineers accounted for sagely intervention," Aeris huffed, leaning back in her seat. She eyed the navigation computer and found the route was set completely differently than their initial calculations. "He really did set it and left." She pushed herself back up and tried messing with any of the instruments, but it wouldn't budge. "Bastard," she cursed, throwing herself back.

"Nothing to do but wait." Sholto went back to his phone.

The vixen shot an incredulous look at her partner. "You're something else, reading at a time like this."

"If there was really a problem, you would have seen it already--I trust you."

Aeris whipped her head away, her face warm with fluster. "Yeah, you better," she grumbled, still miffed about the situation.

Eventually, she too calmed down and went back to reading as they rapidly approached the atmosphere of their new home. Their attention was finally drawn by the entry procedures executing automatically.

The two foreigners looked around in awe as they watched the inky black of space slowly turn blue around them as the blanket surrounding Riterra welcomed them in. The shuttle shook violently, but no alarms went off--all was going within expectations. Or at least the expectations the engineers accounted for.

Finally, after the pair were shaken like mixed drinks, they broke through the clouds and took in the landscape below them. They sailed above the land and sea, their eyes unable to catch every sight within their view. Mountains towered over vast forests. Deserts stretched out like a sandy blanket. Islands dotted the endless seas. There was so much and it made the two travelers feel so very small in their tiny ship.

They continued to track north, drawing closer to the desert that covered the north of one of the continents. Before they landed in that hellscape, they sailed over a small sea. Eventually they closed in on a strip of land that stretched out into the water--as if a runway built specifically for them.

Landing was rough, to say the least. They were jolted and yanked in every direction as their shuttle hit the ground with great violence. Alarms blared around them, announcing the obvious: things weren't going as planned. For a moment they thought the entire thing would fall apart around them. The airbags deployed, surrounding the pair in a bubble of air that stopped their bodies from whipping around.

After what felt like an eternity of chaos, everything came to a stop. The annoying alarms continued to whine from all sides as the air bags began to discharge their air, freeing the pair from their cocoons.

"Uhhgh… my head…" groaned Sholto as he pushed the safety mechanisms away from his face.

"Glad you're okay." Aeris' voice brought him as much relief, as his did for her.

The two weary travelers allowed themselves a brief respite as they calmed their racing hearts. They made it. Somehow, despite all of Sahji's meddling, they made it. As the two reclined in their seats, they reached out and joined hands, locking digits and rhythm to help hasten their efforts to calm.

"We did it," Sholto spoke. He felt Aeris squeeze his hand, he returned the gesture in kind.

"We did it," she repeated.

crunch crunch crunch

The tender moment was broken up by a bag of chips. The two teens sighed wearily.

"You're welcome," said Sahji, mouth full of potato chips once again.

"Fuck you," the two heroes said in tandem.

Sholto and Aeris looked around in awe. The wind tousled their hair. The grass tickled their legs. The sun warmed their skin. It was unlike anything they had ever experienced in their lives. They had felt wind, grass, warmth on Luna--but that was all artificial, crafted--this was real.

The moment was broken up by the sound of a straw desperately attempting to slurp up the remaining liquid that did not exist in a can of soda.

Two glares turned to the sage that stood behind them. He stared back, then his eyes slowly fell on his empty drink. "I ran out," said Sahji.

Before Sholto could snap at the smarmy sage, Aeris tapped her partner's shoulder. "Sho, I think trouble is approaching," said the vixen, her eyes glowing bright.

A couple of men, bearing fur and snouts, crowned with great horns approached the travelers and their strange craft. They spoke in a tongue Sholto could not speak himself--though, he drew familiarity with its origins. "They speak the tongue of magic as their everyday language? That's interesting," he mused.

"We're not getting out of this without a fight," Aeris warned.

"Damn, that sucks," Sholto shrugged. "Some welcoming party." He drew his phone from his robes. "And here I was going to try and prove they weren't savages. Guess we're not starting with these fellows."

Even with the glares and weapons leveled at them, neither Sholto nor Aeris faltered.

"Luce Lunare, Piano."

"I didn't expect them to be so weak," Aeris mumbled as they traversed the countryside.

"Agreed. I thought that them natively speaking in mage-tongue would make them quite powerful. I'm almost disappointed," Sholto shook his head.

Aeris patted the bag at her side. "At least our supplies survived the landing."

"I mean the ship didn't explode," Sholto pointed out.

The vixen tittered. "True, I was just worried some of the stuff would get damaged."

"You know if you really need something, it's only one wish away," Sahji offered.

The two glared at their persistent tag-along. "Fuck off," they spoke in tandem.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Sahji held up his hands. "It was merely an offer!" The sage lowered his arms and gestured with his head. "Round two?" he asked.

A new pair came up the fork in the road, quiet, walking with a hurried pace.

Both wore hoods over their heads masking their features.

Sahji appeared in the path of the cloaked figures. "Howdy!"

The two were taken aback at first. One of the figures held an arm in front of their companion, reaching behind them to grab something.

"What?" they asked--a woman's voice, though she carried an edge that spoke to a rough life. Sholto raised a brow. The second figure must have been a blessed one, of what magic he couldn't be sure. Unlike Luna where only shadow blessed lived, the terran surface carried much more variety.

"My liege and I were just traveling the countryside, and I was wondering: have you paid your respects today?" Sahji spoke with a cheshire grin.

"What kind of fucking question?" the woman growled, refusing to drop her defensive posture. "I don't know who you are, but that question has a pretty static answer." Her gaze met Sholto's. "Even for your, no doubt very important, liege," she scoffed.

Sahji chuckled. "Now now dear Lillith, that's so unbecoming of you."

Aeris noticed the second figure tense, a distinct static hanging in the air. "Sho, we should probably get ready," sighed the fox, shifting her stance.

"God damn it Sahji." Sholto shook his head, drawing his phone from his robes.

"Alright, jackass. Fine, you are hereby promoted from irritating to dangerous. Who are you?" The woman snarled.

"Sho, Scudo Prosiugante," the vixen advised.

"Are you sure? Crescendo isn't strong enough to block high level attacks," Sholto voiced his concern.

"Not to worry. Their bond isn't as strong. They can't break it at their level," the vixen smirked.

"And they came here all the way from the moon to see what a beautiful place this is only to run into such savages," Sahji shook his head with disappointment.

"I'm sure they did, and I'm sure I'm a thorough disappointment. But I'm used to disappointing rich men. It's a hobby of mine," the woman continued to rebuke the sage.

Sahji remained nonplussed, his grin only serving to further annoy the travelers.

"Is this what we're doing now?!" Sholto shouted to the sage.

"I don't know, liege, is it?" the woman cut in.

Sholto didn't quite hear what she shouted, but didn't doubt whatever annoyance she held was justified.

"I think he was trying to say you're weak," Sahji continued to goad the woman.

She clicked her tongue, shaking her head. "If he has any thoughts at all, he's miles ahead of you. But neither of you are worth weighing the dirt beneath my boots down, as far as I'm concerned. So fuck off and leave us alone. Come on, Sara."

Sahji appeared in her path yet again. "Running away? How like you, Lillith." His face was uncomfortably close, and she took a swing. Unfortunately, her knife only sliced through a whole lot of air.

The sage appeared behind Sholto and Aeris. Lillith glowered at the two. "Oh. Great. This shit again. If you're going to get so damn close to me, the least all you pricks can do is stay still." she barked across the field.

"Sahji, what the terra are you doing?" Sholto questioned.

"Enjoying myself. Oh I wish I had gotten her instead of you--she would have been a boatload of fun!" the sage chuckled.

"Hey Lillith! He made me do this, prince's orders y'know! No hard feelings!" And then Sahji was gone, leaving Sholto with a pissed off Lillith and Sara stomping over. Business as usual--the sage made a mess and expected the mortals to clean up after him.

The prince in question sighed. "Is there any chance we can settle this peacefully?" A thrown knife was the answer he got. Thankfully, his bond with Aeris let him foresee this and step out of the way of the thrown implement. Turned out that wasn't the only knife on her person, as Lillith drew a second blade.

"Better idea, Aeris. I think this is a learning opportunity--Fissare la Ombra, Lento," he spoke.

Before either Sara or Lillith could figure out what was going on, Aeris produced a small wave of shadow arrows and launched them.

"Lily!" Sara shouted.

Lillith was no easy mark, she had seen plenty of magic thrown her way before. Granted, she had never seen any Naturals control the shadows--but magic was magic, and it was fallible.

"Guess your tutors didn't make you practice your aim much, huh?" Lillith smirked.

Aeris and Sholto remained calm. The fox met the gaze of her adversary and spoke with a cold smirk. "Oh my aim was true, terran."

That's when Lillith realized her folly--she couldn't move! "Ah. Shit. Let me the fuck go." She struggled with great ferocity, but her body wouldn't obey, it felt like she was completely buried, crushed from every direction by a weightless force.

Sara rushed to her partner's side, unsure of what to do. Neither had seen such magic in their lives, so how to escape it was also a mystery.

Aeris stepped forward. "Sara," she spoke knowingly. "Fulfill your duty--defend your bonded."

Sparks arced from Sara's back, she balled up her fists, scanning what was to be the battle line. She noted the way her fox-tailed adversary stood. Defensive posturing in front of the boy. The way she spoke too… defend your bonded. Did these people have a similar relationship to her and Lily? She shook her head. This was a direct threat. One way or another they had to be dealt with.

Against her better judgment, Sara stepped forward.

"I'm going to kill that sage the next time he shows himself," Sholto grumbled, readying his phone.

"Lillith!" Aeris shouted. She earned a hateful glower for her effort. The fox cared not. "Do your duty as her bonded. You should know what is expected of you."

If they chose to listen to her or not, that was on them.

Sholto didn't want to believe these people were savages as his fellow Lunarians always spoke. They were provoked. By a sage. He couldn't blame them, and he wouldn't make this lethal. There was something he felt he needed to show them, however.

Aeris took a breath. "I hope you're ready." She curtsied to her opponent before she charged.

Sara paid no such respect to her opponent--Lily was bound captive by them--she'd ensure they regretted that. As soon as Aeris was in range, limbs of electricity burst from Sara's back. Violent electricity surrounded the charging vixen, the sparking appendages aimed to pierce her from both sides.

"Passo Silenzioso, Lento."

The pincer attack sailed right through a glob of shadows. Aeris appeared behind the spider woman and Sholto spoke again.

"Onda Mentale, Presto."

"Sara!" Lillith shouted.

The lightning element spun around, swinging her elemental limbs at the fox, but a sudden force blew the woman back, knocking the hood and a hat off her head.

Aeris turned her head to Lillith, who mustered up the most hateful glare she could.

"Do your duty. Are you just going to stand there and let her do all the work?" asked the fox.

"Oh I plan to protect her. And you will regret every second it takes me to get there" threatened Lillith.

The fox rolled her eyes. "I'm petrified," she mumbled sarcastically. "Perhaps try calling a spell," Aeris offered.

"A spell…" Lillith's expression clouded. There was that one thing, but the last time they used it… Overuse was the enemy. She would pace herself this time, not the Forte one. Not yet, at least. "Corrente Elettrica, Pianissimo!"

Sara let loose an arrow of lightning. Aeris stepped out of the way, as if she saw it coming from over the horizon.

"Corrente Elettrica, Pianissimo!" came the second shout.

Once more, despite the spell consisting of a bolt of lightning, Aeris easily pivoted around it. "Again. Try it in Piano this time."

Lillith clicked her tongue in frustration. "Corrente Elettrica, Piano!" This one had a stronger draw, not nearly as strong as the Forte they had cast that one time, but definitely a level below it. It felt good, and Sara agreed, a satisfied smirk crossing her lips as she loosed another bolt at the wily fox.

"Scudo Prosciugante, Crescendo," Sholto spoke.

Rather than retaliation, as the lightning bonded duo expected, Aeris stood still. The electrical attack reached its target, but was absorbed into a barrier which flashed to life around the fox. "Much appreciated. I needed that."

Sara rarely shared in her partner's temper, but even she had a breaking point. The spider charged the fox.

"Luce Lunare, Fortissimo," Sholto's voice momentarily distracted Sara, she turned her head back, but quickly refocused herself. Her momentum entirely died as she paled at the sight before her. Aeris held an arm up, a massive ball of shadows spinning above her head.

"O-oh merda…" the spider blinked, her lighting limbs vanishing in an instant. The boy behind her! He was perfectly fine after calling forth such power when Lillith--

She fell to her knees. Was this it?

"SARA!" Lillith tried and failed to break free from her shadowy entrapments, though not for a lack of effort.

Aeris glanced at the spell hovering within her grasp, then the arrows sparking hard at Lillith's feet. "That's enough Sho, I think we proved our point," called the fox.

"Sotto."

In an instant, both the massive death ball and the bindings that kept Lillith in place vanished. Instantly Lillith met the ground as all of her pent up force of trying to escape was freed at once.

Aeris offered a hand to Sara who could only stare back with bewilderment. "Apologies about Sahji, he's kind of a--" the fox hummed trying to think of a refined word to refer to the sage.

"Massive asshole," Sholto said, walking up. "I'm assuming you also were called here by a sage?"

It all clicked for Lillith. "Goddamnit," she sighed. "I am getting so fucking sick of these 'sage' assholes. This one is even more annoying." Her ire was now turned back to its original incendiary recipient.

Sara accepted the fox's hand and was pulled to her feet.

"Why did you fight us then?" wondered the lightning element.

"I wanted to see what the bonded of Riterra were like," Aeris giggled, taking her rightful place by her partner's side.

"I'm Aeris Lucius, the shadow-blessed" Once more she curtsied, before eyeing her partner for his introduction."

"Sholto Wynn, her bonded," he greeted.

"Lillith."

"Um, Sarafyna."

Before they could say anything else, more began to gather.

Aeris spun around. Fire, water, earth, nature, solar--all bore sensations and features she had never seen in the flesh. Great dragon wings on the earth element, a snake's tail on the nature, a fluffy cat's tail for solar, fuzzy ears on the fire element, and feathery wings graced the water.

Their group went from four sparring to fourteen in an instant.

"So uhh, I guess you all are here for the same reason we are then?" asked the woman with the dragon.

"The other heroes, right?" questioned the girl by the fire element.

A sudden clap drew the attention of fourteen. Sahji stood atop the nearby hill, behind him were six figures familiar to the pairs gathered--the seven sages, all in the flesh, with their chosen before them.

"Righto heroes! It's up to you all to right the wrongs of this world. Specifically, the curse of Chath Chellwair," Sage Sahji declared.

"I assume he's behind this corruption thing?" asked the bird.

"Indeed he is," Sage Marovo spoke up.

"None of you are quite ready yet," Sage Luca spoke with a giggle and a wink.

"Which is why the Lunar Heroes were brought down here in the first place," Sage Seres stated, his book open in front of him.

"I'm glad Sahji picked a good one!" Sage Lanvi beamed.

"The war ahead will be harsh, but not impossible, with the right training," said Sage Kitori.

"Most certainly, you all together will be able to weather the storm ahead," Sage Cielto nodded in agreement.

Sahji's eyes swept across the crowd. "Dear Maestros, you alone possess the ability to unshackle your Resonator's magic--you grow with them, your fates are determined. Now, let's take down this harbinger of chaos, shall we?"

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