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📢 📢Who is ready for some exposition-y backstorrryyy ??? 📢 📢

Monsters

Demons.

Beasts.

We didn’t know what they are or where they came from but they’d interrupted the centuries of peace in the Metropolis of Caelus.

Here it comes...

Caelus was terra formed 400 years ago but the monsters only appeared in the last 150 years. First falling from the sky, then rising from the sea and then out of soil. They gained their strength from destruction and once they were powerful enough they left nothing but darkness behind.  These monsters are basically plot devices I didn't put much thought into. I think I'm plagiarizing Pacific Rim...

Princess Pia, the Queen’s beloved great-great aunt had thought to let a beast into the Wingate Citadel and see if it was sentient. There were no Sentinels yet (have I even explained sentinels yet ?) and even with the entire Royal Legion  at her back the beast had crushed Princess Pia in half.

Her naive sacrifice wasn’t in vain. The Greatest Minds (SFF CAPITALIZATION) were able to use evidence from  her body and the bits of  leftover gore from the beast to create weapons that could hurt the beasts; (This would have been a great place to give the weapons a Proper Sci Fi name) a set of elegant gem encrusted scythes. Princess Pia’s surviving mother and sisters took up arms and vowed to seek revenge on the beasts. They were at the front lines the next time a beast appeared.

And so it went for the better part of the century.

The beasts came. Generations of the Queen and her daughters fought back to protect their people.

But then Queen Mairose was injured, lost a leg. She’d been close to a beast and so caught up in the fight no one had been looking out for her. The  Royal Legion was too fearful to get close without jewel encrusted scythes of their own. The reason the Royal Legion doesn't have scythes is because they are made of rare gems the deflect the beasts.

That is when the Sentinels were created.

Those of us who  put our bodies  in front of our royals and protected them at all costs. Our bodies were enhanced, Coherence connected us to our royal and we were modified to pull at Caelus’ natural energy and the elements to help slay the beasts. There was a price for this ability--a shortened life span.

I'm realizing my magic system is SEVERELY underdeveloped. I don't explain how they are able to pull on the natural energy of the planet or how all that works. Like, can everyone do it ? Do you have to be trained ? I don't even know. I have so much respect for SFF writers.

Now, we're out of the exposition. I'm not sure why I ended on the shortened life span piece, it wasn't central to the story.  I think I vaguely knew magic systems are, theoretically supposed to have limits so I made one up ?

As we walk toward  the Royal convoy, Xael and the Queen get inside and initiate their Coherence.

Sattarius and I  suddenly know  the same intelligence our Royals already know--the monster is in the Gilded Alley, that this one is on four legs and is made of fire and burning coals. We don’t hear specific words or get instructions, we just know the information.

Sattarius and I ride atop the convoy vehicle, leading the way out of the gates with the Royal Legion jogging behind. The legionnaires will protect the citizens and put out any damage while we tame the beast. Sattarius and I do not have Coherence with each other  but we can exchange enough looks to put together a game plan. Sattatrius is the Sentinel Alpha and I will follow she and the queen's lead.

I smell the burning streets the moment the convoy stops. Acrid dark smoke spills from  the white brick apartment building and  shops underneath. The screams of the citizens running from the damage pull at me. I think I clarified the screams were from people running away from damage because the description of the scene is a little 9/11-y

Sattatius tilts her head eastward and I see the beast moving towards us. It must have smelled royal blood. 

Demon.

This beast I would classify as demon.

It is more humanoid than some others, the torso of a man and the lower half of a steed. It was twice the size of even the largest man and instead of flesh it was made of molten fire and ash.

The Princess and Queen exit the convoy and break into a fearless  brisk jog towards the beast, Sattarius and I following behind. The citizens call to us as we charge towards it, some are words of encouragement, others are words of sorrow.

As we get closer to the beast  I  gather the atmosphere and  create an arc  shield around the princess to protect her from the flying embers and debris.

“It may look smaller than most  but this one is dangerous,” the Queen calls back to us,  spinning her mace as she approaches the beast. “Stay back until I say, Xael!”

“You didn’t bring me to watch, Mother!,” my princess shouts over to her.

“You can have the victory,” the Queen assures her.

The Queen spins the mace once more, building up the force and then throws it; it’s the perfect pitch (not sure I'm using that phrase right), it sails across the alley  and hits the demon in the side. The demon turns to her and roars in a way something called a demon only could. Then it bounds towards us bringing forth a spray of smoke and hot ash.

Sattarius and the Queen charge towards it, Sattarius creating a shield to protect the Queen from the smoke as she raises her scythe. When they are feet (oooh, anachronism...they wouldn't use feet as a measurement they are from a Victorian era space mission so they'd use the metric system )from it they bring out their weapons in perfect unison and slice through the legs. The horse legs disintegrate into black dust but the creature doesn’t fall, it rears back viciously, sprouts wings and hovers in the air, fire shooting from its mouth.

The Queen shouts to me. “Sentinel Omega!”

And I know it is alright for me to act. I'm not sure AT ALL  why he isn't Beta if the other is Alpha...oh great, now I'm thinking about the omegaverse 😬

I take the bow from my back and infuse the arrows with a sharp energy before arching back and aiming at the beast. The arrows fly faster than the beast can detect, it pierces the demon’s wing and the demon falters in the air. With my Queen’s permission I ready another arrow and another and another. It takes 6 to bring the beast back down to the ground.

But it is not safe yet.

The beasts can manipulate energy in the same way Sentinels can and when we hit them with it they send it back to us. Only we can sense when the beast is about to do this. Sattarius and I take our places in front of the sovereigns. I use the katana blade and she uses her shield to block and absorb  the sudden rays of volatile energy the demon throws out.

You know...I don't think energy fights work as well in written form as they do in anime/manga. I really wish I'd taken more time to study fight scenes in popular fantasy books to figure out how they mix dialogue, action and information.

In the midst of this, the Queen quietly steps to the creature's side and slices it through with her gem infused  scythe, it roars and turns on her. The  wounded beast is still large and powerful but the Queen and her death scythe is no match. Her fighting style is elegant and precise, she swings the scythe, carefully removing the demon's limbs while dodging it’s attacks. With each slice, black dust falls from the creature’s wounds. The black dust was going to be important...watch out for it.

But the Queen is human. She is tiring; sweat drips from her face and I notice her miss a step as the beast flails to destroy her scythe.

“Mother ?,” Xael calls. She tosses her scythe to the ground and detaches the double barrel revolver from her side. In this SFF world they have guns!

The Queen leaps back from the fight as the diamond bullet from Xael’s revolver pierces the demons' skull. The demon makes one last agonizing sound, rearing back, fighting the inevitable and then  disappears into a pile of black dust. I'm just going to leave a note here because the recurring black dust/ashes was going to be A THING 🖋️

The beasts had an aversion to natural gemstones. Diamonds were fatal. Once a beast was weak enough, a pure diamond bullet of 20 carats or more was the only thing that could truly destroy it.  Diamonds are the most valuable artifacts in the Metropolis for this reason but they cannot be mined here and most of the diamonds in Xael’s revolver had been scavenged from the royal treasury over the decades.

There is a moment of silence after the beast’s demise. Ash rains over the alley and the Queen walks steadily toward her daughter.
“You were to stay back unless called.”

This is a weird breaking point for a song but I think I deleted something here.

-2-

“ You were clearly tiring, I couldn’t do anything all the way back there--,” Xael protests.

“I would have called you when it was time. You could have wasted your bullet, beasts of this size are more cunning and  unpredictable than you are used to--”

“I know, Mother. I may not have the flair of Josephine but I do know how to do this.”

Josephine was the sister closest in age to Xael. Josephine was on bedrest because she with child but when she fought a beast she always made a show of it.  Taunting the beasts, finding new uses for her weapons and exchanging quick witted jokes with her Sentinel, Tyrell, in the midst of battle.

Xael walks to inspect the pile of black ash 🖋️ that was once the demon.

“Let’s survey the damage of the neighborhood,” the Queen sighs. “Leave those remains alone. The alchemists will come for it.”

“Yes, I know Mother.”

“Perhaps Mr. Oscar Wallace will be with them,” the Queen smiles teasingly. I guess his name sounds like Oscar Wilde doesn't it ?

Xael's face screws up at the last remark.

Apprentice Oscar Wallace was once Xael’s schoolmate and had just begun training as an alchemist. He was a star athlete in the citywide triathlons and a favorite of the King. Apprentice Wallace had been trying to  broker a marriage for himself despite the King having no say in the matter and  Xael telling him no multiple times. It's a bit of a matriarchal society.

The Queen and Sattarius start towards where the citizens are gathered . Xael stays by the pile of ash. As I knew she would, she scoops a bit of it in to her pocket 🖋️. I must make a face because she smiles.

We are finally getting into my sunshine one / grumpy one sweet spot. Literally the only thing I know how to do.

“Don’t look at me like that. I delivered the killing blow, I think I should atleast get a little trophy,” she wipes her sooty hand on a handkerchief. “It’s a bit macabre, I guess.” 

“More than a bit, your majesty,” I say because I can’t lie to her.

She smiles at me. My lips quirk involuntarily.

“Finneas Bramley! Did you just smile ?,” she says with mock shock. I think this is the first time his name comes up. Also mock shock is...a weird phrase. Sounds like a flavor of Bang energy.

 I have only ever smiled in private with her. I’d never another reason to smile.

“Well, that was an  exciting one though, wasn’t it ?,” she grins. “It grew it’s own wings !”

I nod.

We walk back to the damaged neighborhood and I follow behind. There are no casualties this time and I am thankful because I know how senseless death weighs on her.  The Queen and Princess stay at the scene and Sattarius and I stay with them, helping when we can, going back into the smoldering buildings for pets and valuables left inside the destroyed buildings

Everything goes like clockwork. Royal advisors arrange for misplaced citizens  to move into the Citadel. Apprentice alchemists to The Greatest Minds show up, Xael’s suitor included, to  swipe at every surface of the destruction for something to take back to their libraries and labs.

I watch my  princess politely defer Apprentice Wallace’s repeated attempts to pull her away from her citizens for a private moment. When she is out in the city, she always give her adoration and time to her  people. She falls easily in conversation with all of them, assuring them that she and I will always protect them.

 

***

 -3-

When I am back in the basement of the armory I  relive the memories of the battle. While I have trained my entire life for this purpose, Xael and I have only been fighting the beasts for three years. Mostly it was the small ones that terrorized campers in the woods.

I am ready for another fight. Perhaps a harder one. A fight  with more than one beast that we battle together or one where we can stop it’s destruction  before damage to the city happens.

I wait eagerly to be summoned.

And I wait

And I wait.

Time means nothing to me. For reasons never explained to me  I’ve always received  meals irregularly. Sometimes I’d get a week’s worth of food other times I’d get it meal by meal. There were no windows and I never knew what time it was unless I was summoned.

I train. Sometimes when there was a time between the beasts it meant there would be a glut of them.

I wait.

And I wait.

And I wait.

I begin to wonder if my princess has died.

But they would tell me. I would feel it, the final pull of our Coherence. Or at least I think I would. Oh, okay so Coherence is just a psychic connection? Maybe ?

I wait

And I want

And I wait

More time passes until the day the  door to my room begins to open.

I think in my head maybe 5 months has passed ?

I am running through a simulated  training exercise with staff in hand  when it happens. My blood runs cold at the sound of the door  and I take a defensive position.

If I am writing a bodyguard I am also writing a shirtless shadow boxing scene because of reasons.

In all of my years in the Citadel my door has  never opened without the 1-2-1-2 tone playing first. And when I see the figure at the door I freeze, mid-pull on the staff.

The princess.

She’s wearing a fine full tulle skirt, a few shades lighter than her rosy hair and  a taught black jacket with shiny gold buttons. It is not the battle wear  I usually see her dressed in, but what she wears when she attends lectures.

This is the inspo:

Her pet cat, Orion, is at her feet. The puffy round faced feline saunters into the room and makes a deliberate circle, as if making sure my quarters  up to snuff for the princess to enter. I had never seen the curious white cat in person. Only in the animations from my youth. She’d had it since she was a child but it could very well still be a kitten for how small it was.

The cat was added at the last minute, it's important later. It's genetically altered to stay small and cute.

I'd never seen a royal go farther down into the Citadel than the Royal Armory, I didn’t think she was even allowed in the sub-basement. I was not appropriately dressed as I’d discarded my shirt for the training exercise. I looked altogether too human and my princess had never seen me be anything but her loyal weapon.

“Your majesty.”

 I drop the staff and kneel to her immediately. Orion seems to take this as some sort of cue and leaps in a way only a cat could on to my back and then on to my bed where he stretches out approvingly on the blankets. 

Xael holds a tray in her hand. On it sits an extravagant purple floral tea set, the edges of the cups lined in gold, the top of the teapot adorned with a shimmering amethyst.

This was so very odd. I have many questions and I wonder if I am allowed to ask her.

“Princess--” 

“Please stand. Where can  I put this ?,” Her eyes are troubled but her voice is more chipper than usual.

I get up from my kneel and survey the room. I had never had a guest.

I lead her to the small table where I take my meals and pulls up the stool the Commander used to sit in when drilling  me.

With shaky hands the princess pours two cups of tea. This wasn’t right; she shouldn’t be serving me.

“Princess--”

“This tea is vanilla mint. It’s very good. How many sugars do you take, Finneas?” Mmm, I'm sure AYC!Paris would like it!

“I—um, just the one, but I can do it.” I hold out my hands for the plate of stacked sugar cubes.

“Nonsense.” She places a sugar cube into my tea and stirs. “We monarchs lead the people, we are not above them. You’d be surprised how many people are shocked I can  even make my own tea.”

I take the cup and thank her. She fills a third teacup with cream and sets it on the floor, Orion quickly pounces on it, pushing his absurdly round face into the delicate cup.

 The tea is sweet and minty coolness dances on my tongue. When I take a long sip she smiles approvingly. Her smile drops almost as quickly. She sets her cup down and I do the same.

“Josephine is in labor,” she tells me.

“That is…good news ?”

“Yes, of course! Everyone is so excited they don’t know what to do with themselves. It’s absolute madness upstairs. First grandchild and all. It’s why I was able to finally slip away.”

“Why did you need to slip away ?”

Okay, so maybe it's been 2 months ? The sister likely wouldn't have been on bedrest for 5 months

She takes another long drink of her tea and gives me a weak smile.

“The Greatest Minds have figured it out.” she makes  a marvelous sweeping gesture with her hand.

The Greatest Minds were officially known as The Royal Academy of  Doctors, Alchemists and Scientists. Xael teasingly called them The Greatest Minds in  private and I’d picked up on it.

They were elite scholars from the University who lived and studied at Wingate Citadel. They were paid a great sum to do whatever work they deemed necessary to advance society with no supervision. They were always being lauded as ’the greatest minds of the city’ when they did something right---which was rare. 

To their credit, The Greatest Minds had created great the Sentinels. But everyone within the Citadel knew only about 20% of them  were doing actual work while the rest were enjoying the spoils of living within the Citadel. People like Apprentice Oscar Wallace.

“The Greatest Minds figured what out ?”

“The beasts. They were being created by Sir Harold Quianas--”

“Quianas...The fourth stepcousin to Queen Victoria’s line  ?”

She nods

I'd studied the Wingate royal tree as part of my training. The royal throne of Caelus  was once ruled by descendants of Queen Victoria but when a  plague wiped the front of the line out, the succession landed on a bastard daughter born of a misdeed with an indentured servant.

It's kind of funny to read this now since I've now learned their is rumor Queen Victoria may have been mixed race. I also kind of took the Bridgerton path...

The bastard queen (title of my YA novel ?)  became a beloved Queen, reformed the monarchy, freed the indentured  and married  a commoner to give the throne a new line. Sir Harold Quainas was a footnote in the history books because if the bastard servant hadn’t been made known, Quainas would have inherited the throne.

But this had all occurred more than 250 years ago.

“But Harold Quianas...he would be dead now, wouldn't he  ?,”

“One would think,” Xael sigh. “An apprentice followed some sort of trail and found him  in the woods practicing some sort of dark alchemy that kept him essentially alive in a rather...unagreeable form.  He  wanted to take down the throne and restore it to his line so he created the beasts to kill the royal family. The experiment got away from him. It was all quite mad. He’s quite mad.  In fact he still thought it was a day from 99 years ago. They’ve detained him and  destroyed his lab…since then there hasn’t been a beast in months. It’s all over…it seems.”

I’d never experienced true happiness before and it coursed through me.

CP!Shawna: If he's never felt it how does he know it's coursing through him ?

SHV: You wrote this !

The people of the Metropolis were safe again. There would never again  be the fear and destruction that had taken out my family.

“That is great news. What tasks will we be assigned to now ?”

“There it is,” she says softly, eyes wandering to her cup. “The Greatest Minds say you are not suited for a regular duty in the Citadel.  They say…they think that you are just a weapon made for a threat we no long have.”

“That is correct. We Sentinels are weapons created for the beasts.”

“No,” she says sharply. “Not the other Sentinels. They have all been given pensions for their noble sacrifices. It’s just you they are worried about. To them you are an experiment.  A boy raised—brainwashed really—from youth to be a weapon to kill monsters.

They are afraid of what they’ve made in you.The Greatest Minds said you should be  destroyed. Mother and Father agree…Do you understand what I mean when I say this ?”

“I do.” 

It meant death.

I was not ready for death but I was trained to submit to my sovereign. *bites fist*

While I do not know what my purpose could be without the beasts to fight I am sure I could have found a position among the Royal Legion give the opprotunity. During special ceremonies I was allowed to join the Legion processionals to protect the royal family of any sudden beast attacks.

“I do not choose death but if it’s what the Queen wants I will go peacefully,” I inform Xael.

“Mother is so easily swayed by The Greatest Minds,” Xael says dismissively. “Father never shuts up about Oscar—who by the way  I’m sure he had something to do with this. Finneas, I didn't ask them to create you. I wish they hadn't. But I know there  is more in you than a weapon made to kill. I’ve seen it in small moments that others don’t see...So, I have devised a plan to let you escape.”

“Escape the Citadel ?,” I ask. “And go where ?”

The Metropolis and all of it’s townships were under the Queen’s rule. If I were to escape I wouldn’t have very far to go before I was found.

“Off planet” she clarifies. “My brother-in-law’s sister is terra forming a new farm outpost on Sinopa. I’ll send you  to her with a message and she’ll let you hide out there. You can help with the terraforming. No one will think to look for you there and we will figure out what to do from there.”

“Princess--”

“Please be familiar, Mr. Bramley.” she sighs.

“Xael, that is madness. I cannot disobey the Queen’s wishes. If she wishes me terminated I must obey-,”

“What about my wishes ? I only want to buy us some time. If in a year or so  mother  still wants you destroyed we will do it but let’s give you a fighting chance.”

“I...I do not think I can survive,” I tell her in a moment of weakness.  “This purpose is all I’ve known.”

“You are the best man I  know,” she tells me. “The world is bigger than me, then us. You could be of use in it.”

So, this is where I stopped posting. Next time I'm going to share a chapter I haven't shared. I'll likely do less annotating of it. Or if you perfer no annotations. I'll also share the last half chapter I wrote and explain where I was planning to go. In my head this entire section was prologue to a larger story about what happens when a weapons primary purpose ends.

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A/N

Have I mentioned I see this story as a little Victorian steampunk-y ? I decided to make it a little Victorian last year and that kind of helped me develop the characters...by which I mean they all got real names.