Arcana: The Parelle Saga

Prologue I

Cynthia Shirona is having a bad day.

Her secretary spilled coffee on the mountain of paperwork she had painstakingly cleared, her laptop decided to break down in the middle of an important league meeting and now, at the ungodly hour of 3 am, her phone has been ringing non-stop.

And it's only Tuesday.

She picks up the phone on the fifth ring with a growl.

"Cynthia Shirona. How may I hel –"

"I think my brother has manifested the mark."

Cynthia halts. Her mind spins. She recalibrates, remembers to breathe and then asks briskly, "where are you? Are you with him currently?"

"Yeah, I'm with him. And we're at La Rousse right now, at the mansion." Aaron's voice, usually smooth, cracks. "He's not waking up. And his hand is emitting a very bright flash."

"Show me a picture of the mark."

"Alright, give me a second."

Cynthia hears the sound of his phone fumbling around. "Okay, done."

She checks the picture that he has sent her, her heart pounding so loudly that she can almost hear it.

Goddamn it, she's a Champion. She spearheads an entire region. She needs to get her shit together or else it will really hit the fan.

After that pep talk, the photo loads and everything she has thought earlier simply evaporates.

Yeah, she's a Champion.

But she's not infallible.

There, on the hand of Aaron's brother... The many curves formed an unsymmetrical circle, glowing radiantly... That sigil.

There's no doubt about it.

It's the mark.

As the Champion, Cynthia is duty-bound to know all about it. And also sworn to secrecy about the details unless it takes place. She has known it will, someday.

She just never expected it to happen in her lifetime.

"Cynthia? Are you still there?" Aaron's voice comes from the other line.

"Yeah." She answers on auto-pilot. "I'll call back."

"Wait! What do I do about Drew?" Aaron asks hastily.

Right. His brother.

Cynthia isn't usually a scatterbrain. But clearly the incident has unnerved her enough to throw her off her balance.

Now she's teetering on the edge, where any move can make her fall.

"Just... Don't do anything yet. He's unconscious but he shouldn't be in any pain. If he wakes up, check on his condition and make sure he's physically healthy. And for Arceus's sake, Aaron, do not let anyone else know of this. "

"Okay. He – he'll be fine, right?"

"I don't know." Cynthia replies honestly. "But I'll do everything I can."

She hangs up, and dials the Hoenn League's emergency line.

Steven Stone, unlike her, picks up on the first ring.

"Cynthia, what's wrong? You could have called me norma –"

"Cynthia Shirona, Champion of Sinnoh, officially requests for an emergency international league conference. All other regional Champions will be called soon." Cynthia intervenes, adopting her professional, I'm-a-Champion-and-not-taking-any-bullshit tone. "The topic at hand..."