The Elementalist Tales: Guardian
Hey guys! Sorry that this one took a while - I was away, and then swamped with homework. It's also a bit shorter than usual - once again, sorry. Hope you like it!
And as usual, here's the link to the intro/main page.
And now, on to the tale!
She did it. She actually did it.
That was my first thought as I pushed through the dense crowds as quickly as I could to reach my sister.
My second thought was, I’m not going to get there in time.
Even from where I was, which was approximately on the other side of the large plain that had just been used as a magical battlefield, I could see the young men lining up for a chance to swear the guardian oath. I cursed under my breath as I shoved through a particularly dense patch of onlookers who hadn’t realized I was trying to get to my sister before the mob of warriors forced Lux to pick one of them.
As her older brother, it was my birthright to protect her. Now that she was Ascending Queen, my claim to the role of guardian was far greater than any of the other men present. And, to be honest, at least half of those who wanted the opportunity didn’t have pure intentions at heart. Lux was usually good at determining a person’s motives, due to her affinity to light, but the giant crowd gathered around her was likely overwhelming that sense of hers, so she probably couldn’t use it effectively.
So the obvious solution – to me – was to get to her first.
Even as I shoved my way through the bystanders and other potential guardians, I picked up snippets of conversation here and there. There was one recurring rumor that would have frozen me in my tracks if I were any less determined to get to Lux in time.
“ … the girl’s a True …”
Could Lux really be a True Elementalist? There was only one every few generations, and there hadn’t been one in so long that people had started to dismiss it as a popular, recurring myth. Besides, the power a True – people tended to refer to the True Elementalists of legend as Trues for short, because it is a fact of common knowledge that people are lazy – supposedly wielded seemed impossible, even for someone as powerful as my sister. Then again … Trues supposedly started off with a strong alignment to light, and since that described my sister …
I pushed my thoughts about True Elementalists out of my mind. The mission here was to get to Lux in time.
I was getting closer, but my progress through the crowd was torturously slow. Even as I watched, the guardian hopefuls started pressing in, trying to get my sister to pick one of them.
My heart nearly stopped when I saw one man, who she must have tried to reject politely, pull his arm back as if to slap her.
“Hey!”
The man, hearing my voice, spun and saw me. He must have assumed I was running towards him, and immediately turned to flee. Others also noticed me forging a path through the crowd and backed off. I was in full ceremonial armor – I’d worn it today in honor of my sister being a Finalist – which made me appear a lot more menacing than I actually was.
Lux visibly relaxed when she noticed me. I kept pressing through the crowd, which was easier now that people realized my intentions. Then again, maybe they just assumed that, as her brother, I intended to help her choose a guardian.
“Yeah, right,” I muttered under my breath. It wasn’t my fault that people liked to cite the old stories of Ascending Queens choosing guardians that they would later fall in love with. Lux had zero interest in any young man at the moment, so I wasn’t going to let these love-struck hopefuls force her hand. Fiora might have followed the so-called “tradition,” but that wasn’t Lux.
She hadn’t planned for this part, because she hadn’t expected to win. I’d agreed with her when she quietly mentioned it to me – she hadn’t told our parents, because they would have been horrified that she was thinking about losing. Fiora, after all, had not only a strong affinity to fire, but also serious combat training. I myself didn’t know how Lux had won that fight – I was too far away to see what happened when they’d finally faced off as the last two Finalists standing.
Fiora could be an issue, I thought to myself as I finally approached my sister. Fiora hated losing more than anything else, and losing to my sister of all people had to hurt. The two had always been fierce rivals, and their mutual dislike had only increased when they’d both made it to the third stage of the Trials.
Finally, I cleared the last group of young men and burst into the small circle that the closest guardian hopefuls had cleared around Lux. Her face was a mask of calm, but I knew she was overwhelmed by everything that had happened today. She’d gone from an unlikely contender for the throne to the Ascending Queen in just hours, and now was practically being mobbed by admirers.
I was going to put an end to that.
Before anyone could stop me, I drew my blade, flipped it so that my thumb and index finger were closest to the pommel, and drove it into the ground.
The crowd around me quieted, and Lux gave me a startled glance. Then, before she could say or do anything, I knelt before my surprised sister and spoke the words of the ancient oath:
By my sword and shield, I swear: I pledge my lands, my goods, my life in your service, I pledge to defend and protect, to forever stand by your side, I pledge to be aid in both bad and good times, I swear to guard you until my last breath, This I pledge, if you will accept my oath.
I probably bungled a few words and didn’t say the correct thing a few times, I thought, but it still got the message across.
If the entire clearing hadn’t been dead silent before, it was now. Then Lux gave a barely perceptible nod, reached forwards to pull the sword out of the ground – I was glad I’d brought my lighter, ceremonial one, because she would never have been able to lift my claymore – and announced, “I accept your oath, Garen.”
I stood up and pulled her into one of my usual bone-crushing, older-brother hugs as people started to cheer. Obviously most of the rejected hopefuls didn’t cheer, but the bystanders did, and they were ecstatic. Our parents – who I could see from where I was standing – were the most joyful, and why wouldn’t they be? Both of their children had, in just on day, secured two of the most powerful positions in the land.
Lux, after a few moments, tapped on my back.
“Um … Garen … can’t … breathe…”
I released her quickly and said, “Sorry,” but she could tell I didn’t really mean it.
My sister gave me a glare that said, you’ll be getting payback as soon as I come up with something, and I laughed. I knew she was sorely tempted to use her newfound power – that is, if she actually was a True – to make a point, but that might have scared off her new subjects, so she had to suffer in silence.
But, in the end, we both knew that we’d made the right choice. I had always been her protective older brother, so nothing would change on that end. I’d have to suffer through boring political meetings, but she hated those as much as I did, so at least we’d get through them together. As for citizens requesting audiences … we’d deal with those one by one. Even the most serious issues could be resolved – after all, the two of us were an excellent duo when it came to solving problems.
So I ignored all my worries and just lived in the moment, with Lux standing beside me, and what seemed like the entire world roaring its approval.
If today was day one of Lux acting as Ascending Queen, today wasn’t such a bad start after all.
Thanks for reading! I'll post new tales on the main page once they're done. Here's the link again.
Thanks again, and see you on Summoner's Rift! (Or Twisted Treeline, or Howling Abyss, or Crystal Scar - oh, wait - or wherever.)
