Tales of Zestiria: The World Beyond

Chapter 3

Rose awoke from a long sleep; it was daytime already and she forgot that the others were waiting for her. She had shoulder-length, dark red hair and blue eyes. Wore a red-and-pink, thigh-length tunic with a V-shaped neckline, a brown belts around her waist, and a white and black jacket with gold pins over a pale pink bolero. She packed up her bags and ran to the living room, where Lailah waited for her.

Lailah had long silver hair with hints of green and red that was tied back in a high ponytail behind a red and gold headband. She had green eyes and wore a long-sleeved, red, white, black, and lavender dress. She had red and white heels, ribbons that wrap around her legs, and her shoes and dress were decorated with green gems. She also with Edna, who sat at a chair next to a table.

Edna had fairly short blond hair, which was a brighter yellow toward the tips. A black-headband in her hair and her side ponytail was tied with a green ribbon. She had blue eyes, and on her neck, a black-ribboned necklace with a small, hanging jewel. Wore a short yellow and white dress with a big flowery bow on the back and a single brown glove wrapped in the same ribbon used to tie her hair on her right hand. And had big brown boots with buckles and yellow ribbons wrapped around her legs.

They were seraphim, so no one could see them. Rose approached Lailah first, and with her usual childlike attitude, Lailah greeted Rose with enthusiasm. Zaveid was the only one not there, he probably was out to look for a way to turn Eizen back into a seraph.

On the table by Edna, Rose noticed a book with a leather strap that kept it together. On the cover, was an image of a purple Phoenix. If Sorey was there, he'd surely want to investigate it further. When Rose tried to peek inside, she saw that the pages were blank. All except for the last page, which had the words "song of the sea and lullaby of the wind" written in blue ink.

Rose picked up the book and put it in her bag, she wanted to show Sorey when she saw him again. That and her curiosity made her interested to see what the book was about.

Sorry awoke to hear a large crash right outside his room. When he checked it out, he saw that Arthur and Celica were practicing. Celica used a wind artes to push Arthur back as he held his sword up to defend, he jumped over another one of her attacks then stabbed his sword into the ground to create a barrier made of ice. Once they saw Sorey was up, they stopped and greeted him.

"Sorey, how did you sleep?" Arthur asked.

"Pretty good," Sorey responded with a yawn.

"Sorry about this, we got bored waiting."

"Where's Mikleo?"

"He said he'd head out on his own and for us to catch up when we wanted to."

"Sounds like him, let's go see what he's up to."

The river flowed steadily as Mikleo created waterspouts one by one. On the other side of the river, was a town and behind them was a kingdom. Sorey said that he and his friends visited once and purified a dragon with the help of Alisha, the queen. He gestured to the bridge and said it was destroyed by a hellion before the people rebuilt it. A seraph was sitting on the bridge and watching the water, he was the one who guarded the land and protected it from danger.

Sorey said they were old friends, then told Arthur and Celica to follow him to Lady Lake. Rose was waiting for them by an inn and they didn't want to keep her waiting for too much longer.

Lady Lake was a peaceful kingdom, it had the same feeling as Aero Lumera, a peaceful place with some anxiety in the air. That was normal for any place, more so when the people weren't sure about the future. It had been a year since Sorey and Mikleo last saw it, and since then, the air was cleared of malevolence. While there was some debate about Alisha's rule, most of the people seemed happy about how the kingdom was.

Sorey went over to the fountain and looked out, there was a large mountain nearby and other towns scattered across the country. He pointed to where there were ruins he wanted to explore again and towns he wanted to see since he helped them. Mikleo played with the water in the fountain and Celica watched him, when he held the water in a ball, she shot through it with her wind to create a hole.

He shaped the water into a star and Arthur froze it, making it drop on the ground and shatter on the floor.

"Mikleo," Arthur began. "What else can you do?"

"I have a few other abilities, including-" Mikleo stared at Sorey before Sorey interrupted him.

"The armatus!" Sorey said in excitement.

"What's that?" Celica asked.

"It's when humans and seraphim can combine their powers to become stronger!"

"Arthur and I can do that as well," Celica let out. "Oops."

"Celica..." Arthur said with sadness in his tone, or was it disappointment?

"I didn't think anyone else could do it besides the Shepherd and squires," Mikleo said thinking about it.

"Well, it's complicated..." Arthur had the feeling of dread deep inside, he knew that too much information about their world was bad for him and Celica.

Celica tripped over herself when she walked over to the railing, she pointed to something in the distance, but none of the boys knew what she was trying to say. Arthur slapped her on the back to get her to use her words. She said that she saw something pass by, it was different than the humans or seraphim. Sorey and Mikleo looked around frantically, it had to be a hellion if it freaked out Celica, but they didn't see anything.

Arthur told her to keep an eye out if she saw it again, if there was a hellion in the kingdom, they needed to get rid of it quickly before it spread chaos among the people. The last time there was a hellion attack, the people were consumed by fear and it nearly got the princess killed. Sorey didn't like the idea of people getting hurt and neither did Arthur, as a knight, it was his duty to protect people.

Both Mikleo and Celica sighed, Sorey and Arthur were a dangerous team. Both had a sense of protecting people that was known for getting them in trouble.