Ascent of Virtue Prologue

By The RPGenius

Evans Castle

Faval gazed at the scene before him.  The remains of a castle stood solemnly bearing the scars of intense battle against a dark sky.  Crumbling ruins in some parts, blackened stone from the flames of attack in others.  Fallen walls here and there, fallen masonry scattered all over.  These were the remains of Evans Castle.

It was not that Faval had not known he would find the once great castle in such a state.  He had known all too well when he entered the country of Verdane that Evans was a dark reminder of times past, of the battle between the Empire and a free country of Verdane.  Now, in a subjugated country ruled by corruption and fear, Evans served as a perfect landmark of the end of the free Verdane, and the beginning of Emperor Alvis's Verdane.

Faval had known of the ruins he would find here.  But when he and Patty had set out from Grandbell with the force of knights that Selis had granted them to free Verdane from the remnants of the Empire that still held it, they had agreed that this ruin must be their first stop, to remind them and their followers of the heavy cost that fighting for freedom often came with, and to pay their respects to the brave warriors that had fought against impossible odds for their country.

After a few moments longer of gazing at the lost majesty of Evans Castle, Faval turned to look at his sister as she stood beside him.  She had not yet torn her gaze off of Evans.

Faval felt, not for the first time, some regret that Patty was here with him.  Even after the many battles that they had both participated in with Selis's Liberation Army, it still did not somehow feel right to Faval to see his younger sister on the battlefield.  Certainly, she was a very skilled warrior with her Hero Sword, which Selis had returned to her after he had acquired the Tailfing.  But still, to him she was still the kind young woman who was a beloved sister to all the children of their orphanage, not a cold, hardened warrior who belonged by his side on the battlefield.

But Patty had been adamant about coming with him to their father's homeland and helping to win its freedom back from whatever imperial forces might still be trying to keep hold of it.  And as princess of Verdane, she had as much a right as he did to fight for the people of their father's country.

Patty finally turned solemnly away from Evans Castle, and the two quietly returned to the knights awaiting them.  They watched him expectantly, and he looked onward to them.  Many he knew personally from Selis's Liberation Army.  All were good fighters and better friends.

"Alright," the rightful king of Verdane said, "Let’s go."


Chapter 1

The RPGenius' Fanfiction