Intro:
This story is some what of a prequel to Colray's Aquilion company: new beginnings, and yes, I have his permission. This tale will serve as a chance to enrich the lore for Valkyries and the Fallen, it will be centered around Midnight and his overseer, mistress Xinde, none of the apps in the main story will be involved in this, unless you want your character to be brutally lynched by Trojans and an entire legion of fiend corrupted spiral knights.
I may consider turn this into a make your path story in the future if you guys are interested in reading this.
Here goes nothing, oh, and yeah, in spirit of a MDJ story, the main baddie will always show up on the first chapter just to let you know what lies ahead.
AQUILON COMPANY: SECOND WIND
Prologue: the one who craves light
Location: Blue star fortress monastery, [CLASSIFIED] somewhere on cradle.
In an area unknown to the knights of Haven, Valkyries of the Blue Star conclave erected a magnificent monastery on a cluster of sky islands, isolated from the rest of the clockwork. The construction of this sacred fortress was among some of the most highly guarded secrets of the conclave, inside its white granite exteriors was a massive networks of corridors connected to multiple dusty libraries filled with ancient books of secret knowledge, while other corridors led to resting quarters, armories and training rooms.
Among the piles of old leather books was Midnight, one of the new initiates of the conclave. His eyes furiously scrolled through ancient texts as the young Valkyrie tried to absorb as much knowledge from the book as possible, occasionally he looked back at his surroundings, but unknown to Midnight, an old woman had long been standing in front of him with her arms crossed.
"Mistress Xinde!" Midnight hurried to stood up as he closed the book in hand, "My deepest apologies!"
"This is second time you breached a level 3 library," Xinde sighed with her head down in disappointment, "An initiate only has clearance to level 2 and down... there is a reason why you are not allowed to be here..."
"I understand," Midnight bowed in shame, "I will return to my quarter now."
"WAIT," Xinde pulled back Midnight with a single hand gripped to the back of his dress, "What book did you read?"
Xinde looked back at the dusty wooden shelf and bulled out the book that Midnight was reading, "Codex Paradisia", said Xinde as she frowned, "This book is a level 5 tome, how in the name of paradise did this book ended up in here? Is there something you are not telling me Midnight? The Blue Star conclave does not tolerate the theft of such an important book."
"Mistress!" Midnight begged for Xinde's mercy, "This book was here the first time I trespassed this place. I never knew this book was that important!"
"The conclave can execute you for this..." said Xinde as she repossessed the book, "I will be keeping this and when the council ask, I will say I wanted to read it in my private quarters."
"Thank you very much, overseer Xinde..."
Midnight's words was interrupted by a colossal tremor as a large artillery shell found its way into the ancient library, book shelves and tomes were torn into pieces as alarms sounded. The monastery was under attack, large dark portals opened up as a group of black knights rushed into the interior of the fortress, completely ignoring the outer defenses. Numerous unarmed Valkyrie scholars were killed as the black knights rushed into the libraries, Xinde, been the only Valkyrie who had the privilege to bear arm in the library, flashed out her cold iron destroyer as the black knights approached.
"YOUR WEAPONS ARE LAUGHABLE!!!" one of the black knight cackled, on a closer look, these knights looked oddly like a Spiral Order Azure guardian.
"What are Spiral Knights doing here?" said Xine as she slowly concealed the ancient codex into her backpack.
"WE ARE HERE TO FLATTEN THIS MISERABLE PLACE!!!" the first black knight charged for the overseer, Xinde spared no mercy as the knight was chopped in half by a horizontal swing from the massive cold iron blade. The other black knights fled back before unleashing a volley of blaster fire at Xinde, the overseer leaped into the air, bypassing the incoming fire, Xinde swiped her wings mid air and let loose of a wave of feathers, the sharp quills penetrated the knights' helms and punctured their skulls. As the black knights fell over, their bodies disappeared back into nothingness when small black portals appeared and reclaim their corpses, something was amiss.
"You truly are a legend," Midnight complimented his superior, "What do we do now?"
"I will scour these vandals from this sacred place!" Xinde concluded, "Midnight, I will escort you back to your quarter, once there, you will barricade in your own room and avoid combat."
"Mistress," Midnight protested, "Why do you keep me away from the fight?"
"The black knights I fought back there resonate with ruinous fiendish magic..." Xinde denied Midnight's request, "I do not want you to be in proximity with those foul things, even the briefest contact could lead to corruption... I will go tend to the Valkyrie council and fend off the assault, stay in your room until the alert is over."
Without further questionings that would most likely led to severe punishments, Midnight quickly ran back into his sleeping quarter and barricaded the room, his three roommates were gone and the area was ravaged. The only thing that was still in Midnight's possession was his initiate ceremonial blade. Taking up the blade and blocked off the door with his own bed, Midnight retreated to the corner of his room, left to pray for the overseer's safety.
"May his light shine upon you, Mistress Xinde..." Midnight prayed.
"Always, Midnight," Xinde replied, "always."
seeing that the young Valkyrie under her care was secured, Xinde flied to the upper parts of the monastery, where skirmishes broke out between insurgent black knights and the Valkyries of the blue star conclave. Staying in the air was not safe as the black knights brought out many volcanic pepper boxes to take down Valkyries while in flight, Xinde landed her self on the large bridge leading to the most secretive of the hidden knowledge guarded by the blue star conclave. The archive gate was already torn open by powerful breach charges and many Valkyrie guards laid dead near the entrance, Xinde hastily rushed into the archive only to saw a new, and familiar enemy among the numerous black knights pillaging the archive.
"Too little too late, overseer Xinde Greyknight," the man turned around, his face was pale and riddled with scars, judging by the decorations on his charred azure guardian armor, this man seemed to be of great importance, "Allow me to introduce myself, the name of Lord Ravadon. There is something I need from you pitiful Valkyries... I will be taking the book, Codex Paradisia... where is it?"
Xinde had the book in possession but she would rather die than having to surrender it to lord Ravadon. With what seemed to be sixth sense, Ravadon detected the book's presence and unleashed a bolt of deadly fiendish magic, incapacitating Xinde and from her unconscious body, the dark lord retrieved the old book, despite its poor condition, Codex paradisia allured energies sealed within its tarted pages.
"YES," Ravadon grinned at the sight of the codex before casting a dark portal to escape, "All the hidden knowledge will be mine! I will finally know the secrets of the gods, or even better, become one of them... HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEAHEHAHAEHAHEAHEHAHEAHEHAHEEHAHEAH!!!!!"
Ravadon's mad raving echoed in the monastery as the entirety of the invasion force vanished into the dark portals as soon as they came, when Xinde woke up from the terrible assault she was bare to witness the damage caused by the savage attack. Many Overseer Superiors arrived at the scene f crime and was unimpressed by Xinde's failure in allowing the attackers to escape with one of their most secretive books.
"This is a devastating blow that the conclave may never recover from..." Overseer Superior Repentia sighed, "...Xinde, for your incompetence, you will be tasked in tracking down the origin of these black knights as penance for your incapability, the blue star conclave will not tolerate any more failures, especially from an overseer such as your self..."
"With all due respect, Miss Repentia," Xinde replied, "Those black knights could not have possibly known the interior details of the monastery, no outsider has entered this fortress in a 1000 years and the contents of our archives are strictly forbidden to the outside world-"
"-Then there must be a TRAITOR among us..." Repentia concluded, "We will begin the purge of our rank immediately, you can take one of your initiates and begin the investigation on Haven. These knights are clearly affiliated with the Spiral Order, we have been watching them from afar for many years, but as it seems, it wasn't enough. Many them still fell to the temptation of chaos... guardian Arkus and many others have already fallen since skylark fall, and this Lord Ravadon only worsen the situation. Find out what you can in Haven and report in as soon as you can..."
"It will be done..."
Writer's note: Blue star Concave's hierarchy
Blue star conclave is some what of a secret organization, although most Spiral Knights who participated in action with these Valkyries know of their existence, few know their culture, ranking and practices. Here is just a brief run through.
Ordinary Valkyries are picked up from the main population (ie. average knights) and went under an initiation test to see if they have what it takes to join them. The success rate is fairly high at around 30%, however, ascending in rank is another thing entirely. Midnight is an initiate, but don't let the title fool you, he has already underwent training that will win him a fight against most Spiral knight recruit in one on one. In addition to that, Midnight gains clearance to the most basic of the blue star library, level 1 and level 2, where level 1 books tells the most basic thing like Valkyrie courtesies and how to wash your raiment properly, level 2 books deal with rudimentary sword arts, basic battlefield strategies and other weapon skills.
Being an initiate means you are the most basic foot soldier of the blue star conclave and are at the lowest tier of information. Books in level 3 and up will begin to contain dark secrets such as ways to become a fallen and the steps to initiate a dark ritual, while others archive the names of an entire Fallen warband (You can see why Xinde was angry when Midnight was caught reading a level 5 book, just a few sentences from the book could damn him.)
The ranking system of the blue star conclave goes roughly like this, there are two parts to the hierarchies, the chamber militant and the overseer administration. The two parts act autonomously unless one group suspects the other for corruption. As an initiate, Midnight is free to choose one of the two paths, but if he choose to become a soldier, he cannot order around an overseer of the same ranking while the overseer can still accuse him of corruption. The administration has more power overall but that also mean their selection is harsher than the militant. So Xinde, even at the age of 40 could still only have the rank of overseer (better than junior overseer but worse than overseer superior and lord overseer), that should tell you how strict the selection process is. Mostly in an effort to filter out the weak minded.