![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
batsutousaiTitle: Fallen Night
Fandoms: Harry Potter & Radiata Stories
Chapter: 1 of 11
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
batsutousai
Beta:tsuki_no_suzu
Rating: T
Pairings: Harry/Jack
Warnings: OoC, AU, slash, non-human arc
Summary: Harry slipped when he was standing a little too close, and the next thing he knew, he was far away from everything he'd ever known, with something like eternity waiting for him.
Disclaim Her: This story uses characters and settings owned by J.K. Rowling, her publishers, Square Enix and tri-Ace. No money is being made from the creation of this fanfic, and no copywrite infringement is intended.
A/N: There's not a whole lot of back-story for the NPCs – there's more for the humans than for any of the nonhumans, certainly – so I just made it up as I went. Just a warning.
Also, I am kind of amused how many of you are reading this despite having never played the game. All kinds of love to you people. Seriously.
This chapter starts following the actual plot for the game. If you're feeling mad confused, might I suggest checking out the Radiata Stories wiki, Radiatapedia. It's an awesome resource, though by no means complete. (The fan-base for this game is freakin' tiny, so we do what we can.)
-0-
Chapter One - Elves
-0-
Harry groaned as he sat on a nearby log. A couple of pointura carcasses lay a few feet away, where they'd been blasted from his attack. He figured he deserved a rest after walking and fighting for the past four hours without a break. The Forest Metropolis was just around the corner – about another half hour, really, but close enough. Harry intended to harvest the pointuras for some potions supplies, since their hair was good in any number of healing potions, and their poison was one of the key components in the potion Harry had created to slow the effects of algandars. Lord Nogueira had contracted the disease almost three months ago and Harry's most recent trip was to get some components for his potion, since he'd been running low.
Harry sighed and climbed to his feet, then set about harvesting the pointuras. He went after the poison first, not wanting it to dry out while he was shaving the creature for its hair.
He was just starting to shave the hair off the first pointura when he heard a chillingly familiar battle-cry. His hand jerked, sending the spell off and cutting into the abdomen, bug guts flying everywhere. But Harry didn't really care, he was too busy collecting all his things and shoving them into his magically expanded belt pouches.
Once he thought he had everything, Harry hurried down the path, ducking between two trents and dodging a hopeful pointura. The scene he came across made him hiss, for there, north of Radiata, was a blood orc. Blood orcs didn't go north of Radiata; there was no easy way from the Dova Region to the Tria Region, unless one could go through Radiata, fly or felt like scaling a chasm. Blood orcs could do none of those things.
Facing off against the blood orc was a group of humans, with Nogueira standing behind them. Harry might have called them fools – which they probably were – but there was a young light elf laying behind the orc, and the group was likely trying to save them if they could. If Harry had been in their shoes, he'd probably have done the same. Had, in fact, down in the Adien Region once, when he came across a human child being chased by a blood orc.
Before Harry could get in range to properly help them without accidently hitting anyone, the orc turned on the only girl in the party and shoved a fireball in her face.
"Ridley!" the youngest human shouted, making to run towards her.
"Lady Ridley!" the short man shouted, then motioned to the younger human. "Jack! You must stay in formation!"
"But sir!"
"Do you want us all to die?"
"Good point," Harry muttered, pulling out his wand, which he only ever used for the most difficult of spells from his world, then shouted, "Get down!" and, upon seeing the humans and Nogueira ducking out of the way, intoned, "Avada Kedavra."
The blood orc keeled over, dead.
Harry tucked his wand away and jumped down from the log he'd stopped on top of, walking over hurriedly. "Hi, don't mind me," he said to the humans as he walked between them. He ignored the orc in favour of checking over the human girl, casting a series of spells as soon as he got in range to heal her burns and try and stabilise her.
The youngest human looked at his companions and asked, "Who's that?"
"And what was that magic?" the human dressed in mage robes added, eyeing Harry like some sort of experiment.
"Harry," Lord Nogueira supplied, walking over to the light elf. He quickly checked the child over, then sighed. So young.
Harry glanced over from the girl at the sound of his name. "Hm?" He looked at the gathered humans when Nogueira nodded towards them. "Oh, me? I'm Harry. I live around here and drive the dark elves mad." He looked back at the feedback from his spells. "Bugger."
"What's wrong?" the youngest human asked, hurrying to Harry's side. "Can you help her?"
Harry glanced at the boy. "Not with what I have on me right now. I have some things in my home that I could use to help her, but there's no time to get them."
Lord Nogueira stepped up next to Harry and gently set the light elf down next to the human girl. "There is a way, but there's no guarantee it will work."
The boy looked up, hope shining in his eyes. Before he could ask about the possibility, a voice called out, "Ridley!" and a knight came running over the bridge near them.
"Lord Cross?" the short man asked while the younger human demanded, "Who are you?"
"Captain Cross of the Noire Mouton brigade," the short man supplied.
"I was on a mission and I heard orcs, so I came as fast as I could," Cross said, stopping next to the downed girl, Ridley, and staring down at her with a broken expression.
The boy apparently decided Cross wasn't important because he turned back to Lord Nogueira. "Please help Ridley?"
Cross' head jerked up and he narrowed his eyes at Nogueira. "Elves! What are you doing here? Leave us and go back to your lair."
"What gives you the right to order elves around in their own land?" Harry inquired, eyes hard.
"I am Cross Ward, captain of the Noire Mouton brigade," Cross snapped.
"You're a human on elven lands," Harry snapped right back. "When your people own these lands–"
"Harry," Nogueira warned and Harry's mouth snapped shut. The elf lord turned to the boy and, behind him, the short human. "The only hope for these two is the transpiritation ritual," he told them, motioning to Ridley and the light elf child.
"You'll perform a transpiritation? On a human?" the mage whispered, even as the other two humans questioned what that meant.
Cross, on the other hand, snapped, "I'm not going to trust you lot and your depraved rituals. Ridley will be cured by human hands!"
"Yeah, already tried that," Harry muttered. "Try to keep up." He rolled his eyes then glanced up at Nogueira. "I see no reason why it won't work. Humans and elves both have souls, though there might be some problem with her body accepting the elven magic."
Nogueira shook his head. "She's a warrior, and Hap is more inclined towards physical fighting, so far as I know."
Harry rose an eyebrow at that; physical fighters among light elves were rare.
Nogueira turned to the two humans. "Should I perform the transpiritation?"
"I just said–" Cross started, but found himself without a voice when Harry got sick of hearing his complaints.
The boy and short man traded looks and both nodded, then the man said, "Lord Nogueira, we beg you. Please, save Lady Ridley."
Cross silently shook his fist at the other man.
"Move back," Harry ordered Cross and the boy, both of whom were a bit too close. Harry, himself, stepped back, leaving Nogueira plenty of space to perform the ritual.
"Please hold your silence," Nogueira requested, then rose his arms over the two on the forest floor and concentrated. Slowly, two balls of light rose out of the two and joined together. The one ball of light went back into Ridley and Hap's body disappeared.
Harry hurried forward with a potion as soon as Nogueira slumped. "Take it," he ordered.
"Are you all right?" the short human asked as the boy hurried forward to check over Ridley.
"I'm fine," Nogueira replied after he'd taken the potion. "I'm just a little tired."
Harry quickly cast a few spells to check how Nogueira was holding up and sighed. "Be more careful," he insisted.
Nogueira just rose an eyebrow at him, then turned to the humans. "She is not out of danger yet. You must take her back to your castle at once. This young girl needs to rest. I will return to the City of Flow–"
"You'll return to the Forest Metropolis," Harry snapped. When Nogueira shot him an unamused look, Harry added, "Don't make me knock you on your arse and drag you back there, Nogueira. Someone else can be sent to the City of Flowers."
"Uhm, sir?" the short human whispered, eyeing Harry and Nogueira nervously.
Nogueira sighed. "Tell my brother what happened," he said to Harry.
Harry nodded, then turned to the staring humans. He raised his eyebrows at them. "Is it permissible for me to travel with you to Fort Helencia?" he inquired.
"Uh.. Oh! Yes," the short human said as the boy leaned down to pick up Ridley, despite Cross' angry gestures. "We should go. Thank you again, Lord Nogueira!"
"Safe journey," Nogueira told them, then turned to make his way back to the Forest Metropolis.
Harry fell in with the other humans, gleefully ignoring the dirty looks Cross kept shooting his way.
The mage hurried up a bit until he was walking next to Harry. "I'm Genius Weissheit," he informed Harry.
Harry glanced up at him. "You're the mage who lives near the City of Flowers. The one who's always driving Fan insane?"
Genius blinked. "Yes, that would be me. You're acquainted with Fan?"
Harry snorted. "I knew her father," he said by way of explanation. "And, just to save us both a lot of grief, no, I can't help you get into the City of Flowers and, even if I could, I wouldn't."
"Why not? Surely you understand my academic curiosity? You're a mage yourself, are you not?"
Harry nodded. "I am, but I'm also a friend of the elves. I don't see them as something to be studied, and that's why the light elves find me acceptable. You think too much of yourself to ever get inside that city."
Genius puffed up a bit. "If I don't think so highly of myself, humans would never advance, for my brain wouldn't be there to advance them."
Harry shook his head. "Then perhaps you need to focus on humans, rather than the elves. They could care less about humans, and they certainly have no intention of helping them."
Genius eyed him with disapproval for a long moment, then asked, "What was that spell you used to fell the orc?"
Harry stared back at Genius for a long moment, then looked back over the humans travelling ahead of them. "What are your companions' names?"
"You're not going to answer me?"
"I know the girl is Ridley, and Cross, of course."
Genius ground his teeth together a bit, then snapped, "I don't remember."
Harry considered him out of the corner of his eye. "Genius, you say you're doing everything to better humankind, but you could care less who humans are. I think you're just in it for yourself, your own pleasure. How often do you actually help advance humankind? I haven't heard of anything particularly noteworthy coming from Radiata in quite a few years."
Genius just continued to glare at him.
Harry sighed and sped up so he could walk with the other humans. "So! I'm afraid I didn't catch either of your names," he said, looking between them and absently shooting a stunning spell at an approaching wolf.
"Jack Russell," the boy offered. "Will Ridley really be okay?"
"She just needs some bed rest," Harry assured him, then turned to the short man. "And you?"
"Ganz Rothschild, captain of the Rose Cochon brigade," he supplied. "I would like to thank you for your assistance back there–"
Harry waved the thanks away. "Don't worry about it. I only wish I'd gotten there a bit quicker, so Ridley wasn't hurt."
Ganz nodded. "You're headed for the City of Flowers?"
"Not taking anyone with me, before you ask."
Ganz shook his head. "No, no. But, the light elf who was killed should have been carrying a response from Lord Zane to a request we put forth. We never heard the response, of course, and I was wondering if you might ask it of him again and maybe leave a reply message at the castle?"
Harry blinked. "Huh. What was the request?"
"Our country seeks peaceful co-existence and the opening of trade routes for our mutual profit. We ardently hope to reach an agreement that will enrich us all," Ganz recited.
"Zane is going to laugh in my face," Harry replied drily. When Ganz's face fell, he sighed and said, "I'll ask him, but I can pretty much guarantee that his response won't be favourable."
"Lord Nogueira said about the same thing," Ganz agreed. "But we'd still like some sort of response."
"I thought humans weren't allowed in the City of Flowers?" Jack piped up.
Harry shrugged. "They aren't, not usually. You have to have permission from an elder to enter, and since Nogueira is technically the elder of the dark elves..." he shrugged again. "I haven't been in the city for quite a few years, but, every once in a while, a reason comes up and they let me in. I make potions for them, see, and they've been known to let me in if it's an emergency."
"Potions?" Jack asked, carefully shuffling Ridley on his back so he was more comfortable.
Harry nodded. "Mm. There's a disease that creatures who use magic can catch and it affects the light elves pretty badly. There's no cure for it, but I created a potion that slows the effects, so they don't suffer quite so badly. I've tried to teach it to the medic in the City of Flowers, but there's something about the potion that keeps elves from being able to make it, so it's up to me to continue supplying it." He laughed a bit. "It's nice, since they can't completely shut me out and they make some beautiful ornaments with flowers, which I like to collect."
"Do you charge them for the potion?" Jack wondered.
Harry shrugged. "No, never saw a reason for it. I collect all the components myself and since I live out here, with the dark elves, I don't have to pay rent or for food like I would in Radiata, so there's nothing they have that I could charge them for."
"The ornaments?" Jack suggested.
Harry chuckled and shook his head. "They're all the more beautiful because I can get them so rarely. And trade is such a human concept; you all have managed pretty well with the dwarves because they tend to think like humans, but elves just think in such a completely different way... Honestly, you'd be better off trying the goblins."
"The goblins would be open to trade?" Ganz asked.
Harry snorted. "The goblins would be open to anything if you offered them mushrooms. They would trade their souls for a common mushroom."
"Have you ever exploited that?"
Harry shook his head. "The goblins have nothing I want. The black goblins make some pretty swords – not quite dwarven standards, but good all the same – but I have no use for a sword, and their drugs make me sick. The green goblins are just mad."
"And stupid," Jack agreed.
Harry laughed. "Yes, quite. I take it you've met a few?"
Jack nodded. "A trio of them. They played a word game with us over a goat and lost twice. Then we beat them up." He grinned.
"Ah... I think I know the three you're talking about. I saw them, once, trying to rope a couple of ripple bats into helping them cross the chasm from Dova to Tria. It didn't end so well."
"But they survived?" Ganz wanted to know.
"There's something about their brand of stupid that saves them from themselves," Harry replied drily. "I wasn't around to see the conclusion, but I heard they managed to climb their way back up again after they'd been stuck down there for a couple of days."
The party slowed to a halt as they reached Fort Helencia. Harry cheerfully took his spell off Cross, then waved and wished them well before continuing on his way towards the Elf Region.
Fan and Shin were waiting for him when he reached the entrance. "Hullo, kids!" he called, waving.
Shin glowered at him, but Fan offered the smallest of smiles. "What brings you, Harry?" the young woman asked.
Harry sighed and shook his head. "Nothing good, I'm afraid. I've a message for Zane from Nogueira."
"He's not dead is he?" Shin pleaded, putting aside his dislike for Harry for the moment.
Harry shook his head. "Not quite, but he's progressing too rapidly. He's only got... maybe a month left. And I don't want him travelling; it'll only make it worse." He eyed the young elf, who was drooping so heavily that he was practically touching the ground; Nogueira had helped raise Shin after his mother was killed near Tria Village when Shin was seven. The only reason Shin wasn't living in the dark elf home with Nogueira was because of the humans that visited from time to time, as the younger light elf could never adopt his caretaker's liking of those without wings.
"Shin?" Fan whispered. When Shin looked at her, she continued, "Would you like to let Lord Zane know that Harry's on his way up, or should I?"
Shin narrowed his eyes at Harry, then flew up and over the rock-face protecting the city from passing eyes.
"I guess he's going," Harry offered, shaking his head. "Well, I'll see you on my way out?"
"Yes. I promise I won't go far." Fan smiled and Harry grinned back, knowing Fan would never leave her post unless someone came to relieve her. She enjoyed watching the non-elves pass by and making fun of them too much.
Harry ducked past the waterfall and climbed the mossy stairs carved into the cliff-face. A couple of muttered spells cleared his way from possibly slipping on anything and he reached the top safely. There, he took a moment to drink in the sight of the city before continuing the long trip up to Zane's residence.
Zane was waiting for him when Harry finally ducked through the leafy doorway. "Give me your message and go," he ordered.
Harry sighed. "Somehow – don't ask, because I haven't the faintest – a blood orc got into the Nowem Region. Your light elf, Hap, got caught by it. A human girl who was there was almost killed and Nogueira performed transpiritation between her and Hap to keep her alive. It has worsened Nogueira's condition to the point that I don't think it's safe for him to leave the Forest Metropolis. If you want to see your brother before he dies, you'll need to brave us humans," he said without preamble.
Zane glared at him for a long moment, then snapped, "And why did my brother even bother with this stupid human girl?"
Harry shook his head. "Zane, just because you hate humans doesn't mean Nogueira does. He thought she was worth saving."
"My brother is a fool," Zane muttered, but Harry could hear the sorrow buried behind his snide remark and just sighed. Zane motioned for a bag to pack itself, then looked back at his visitor. "Was that it? And don't expect me to travel back with you!"
Harry rolled his eyes. "It never even passed my mind, though you'll probably find yourself accompanied by Shin. At any rate, I was asked by the humans if you could, again, send your response to their plea for trade, since they missed the first one. And, please, I'll take it verbally. If you spit on me again, I'll retaliate with something that actually deserves my getting kicked out," he warned, recalling the last time he delivered news Zane hadn't liked. Harry didn't much care to be spat on again, and then thrown over the edge of the cliff for spitting back; if he'd been a normal human, with normal magic, he would have been killed.
Zane frowned at him, then turned his back. "I would never trade with humans. They'd have better luck with the dark elves."
"They'd have better luck with the goblins," Harry retorted, moving towards the door. "I'll pass on your response, then."
Zane turned at that, surprised. "You're going to Radiata?"
Harry rose an eyebrow at him. "Why so surprised? I do visit there occasionally."
"Only to visit their mage school. Never to pass on a message."
Harry shrugged. "I was asked. And I can always stop by the Vareth Institute while I'm in town. Anyway, I doubt any light elf would be willing to go to Radiata." He waved a hand, briefly, over his shoulder, then started down the path to the exit. On his way, he stopped to examine a few of the ornaments he'd mentioned to the humans, gently fingering one that was made with the closest flower this world had to a lily.
Their creator poked her head out a window and waved at him. "Did you want a few?"
Harry smiled at the woman. "Might I? They're exceptional. You've gotten much better since the last time I saw you."
"It's been three years," Keane reminded him, then pulled her head out of the window and hurried through her door, coming to stand next to Harry. "You'll have to give me something for them, though," she added, eyes bright.
Harry rose an eyebrow at her. "Oh? And Zane was just telling me that the light elves would never partake in any trade."
Keane laughed and shook her head. "I want to open a shop," she admitted, "but I have no one to sell anything to. You're the closest thing I have to a customer."
"Hm..." Harry considered the ornaments, head cocked slightly to the left. "If I was able to get in here more often, I could, possibly, help you with that."
"Oh?"
Harry nodded. "You know I travel a lot," he said, looking at her. "And I spend time with all the races – well, all but the orcs. I could... I don't know. I could be something of a peddler, I suppose? There are a couple of humans who travel with restorative items and sell them to fellow travellers. It wouldn't be quite the same, I suppose, since your creations are really just pretty, but..." He trailed off as Keane zipped back into her house. "Keane?
Keane zipped back out with an armful of pretty things that radiated magic. "I started making things to help fighters," she explained, holding a cat out to Harry. "See, this one makes it easier to collect things from monsters. And this one," she held up a fair approximation of a human knight, "gets rid of afflictions when you're not fighting. And this one... Ah!" She fumbled and dropped everything.
Harry quickly conjured a table for the various items to fall on, keeping them from slipping through the holes in the walkway. He reached out and picked up an earring in the shape of an eyeball. "This is impressive, Keane. How long have you been working on these?"
"Oh, uhm..." She shifted through the stuff on the table nervously. "About three years. You, ah... You dropped a necklace last time you were here and I sort of picked it up and examined it and stuff. It was kind of cool, how it helped heal the wearer?"
"Ah. I'd wondered what had become of that necklace," Harry said with a smile.
Keane looked up at him briefly, then back down at her creations. "Oh, uhm, I sort of... I took it apart, see..."
Harry chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I found it on one of my trips and thought it looked nice. It wasn't such a loss."
Keane looked back up, relief making her smile. "Really? You're not upset?"
Harry shook his head, still smiling. "Not in the least. I never used the magical properties, I just thought it looked nice." He turned the earring over in his hand, blinking when the cornea turned to look up at him. "Ooh... That's interesting." He considered the magic on it, then looked up at Keane, who was practically glowing. "It watches all around you, so you're not thrown off by creatures who run up from behind?" he guessed.
Keane nodded. "Yeah! I'm, uhm... I'm having a bit of a problem with making it work for humans, though, since it warns the wearer through their magic, and since humans don't have innate magic..."
Harry nodded and motioned for the table to walk into Keane's home. "Let's see if I can help, hm?"
"Thank you!"
Harry chuckled and followed her inside.
-0-0-0-
When Harry finally left the City of Flowers, the sun was just rising. He'd stayed with Keane overnight after they worked on her magical items a bit. Harry had a couple of finished works in a small sack, having promised to show them around Radiata to see how interested the humans were in them. He'd enjoyed supper with the light elves who liked him, then curled up in a corner of Keane's home for the night.
He made his way over to the journey pig statue, whistling a cheerful tune and waving behind him to where Fan sat atop the cliff. He didn't use the pigs often, but since it would take two days to get around Fort Helencia and into Radiata, he was inclined to use the obnoxious, vertigo-inducing pigs. (Really, he'd been the main creator behind the pigs, having based them on a mix of magic from portkeys and the floo from Earth. Mixing the magic had only made them worse than the originals, but it cut back on travel by road for this world, which was all the more necessary because of the creatures waiting to attack travellers, so most people didn't complain. Harry would have preferred apparition, himself, but found out early on in his stay in this world that many ingredients for his potions didn't react well to it.)
Just as Harry was reaching out a hand to touch the pig, it warmed, signalling that someone was coming through, so Harry stepped back. The pigs could, technically, handle multiple people using them at once, but it made the journey that much more nauseating, so Harry avoided it.
Genius appeared in a zip of light and took a moment to look around, verifying his arrival in the correct area. When he noticed Harry, he frowned. "You're still here?"
Harry shrugged. "Spent the night," he admitted, then reached out to touch the pig.
"Are you sure–" Genius started.
"Genius, I'm not going to try and get you into the City of Flowers. If you ask me again, I will curse you," Harry snapped.
Genius frowned at him all the more. "Well then, perhaps you can help me in my study of their magic?"
"Why do you–?" Harry shook his head. "You know what? Fine. Genius, studying elven magic will get you absolutely nowhere, because you, as a human, are incapable of utilising magic in the same way they can. For you to try and understand their magic would be like an apple trying to understand how broccoli grows. You can't."
"Apples can't think, so they would have no reason–"
Harry waved his hand, then touched the pig, leaving Genius hanging upside down in midair, elves laughing at him from the top of the cliff.
-0-0-0-0-0-
-0-0-0-0-0-
A/N: Yeah.... So, Genius is kind of obnoxious. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to bash his head in while playing this game. (I took great pleasure in beating him up in the Forest Metropolis, let me tell you.)
Alternately, playing through right now, I kind of want to bash Jack's head in. (But, hey! He's a stupid boy from the country with an over-inflated ego. He's got an excuse, even if I think he's just plain dumb sometimes. I mean, really. He regularly gets his ass handed to him by people stronger than him – Ridley, the orc, Gerald – and he still thinks he's all that. I'm of the opinion that someone dropped him on his head as a baby.)
Yeah, okay. Rant over.
Again, Radiatapedia is an awesome resource for this game. I'll try and make sure that the bits in this story that you might have questions about are updated on there by the time I post each chapter.
However, I'll always welcome questions. ^.~ (Just, you know, if you want an answer, sign in or leave me a way to reach you? I can try answering stuff during the following chapter, but I very much like letting you know ASAP, so you're not going to spend a week wondering what the balls I'm going on about.)
Until next time!
~Bats ^.^x
Chapters:
Prologue - Falling
1 - Elves ||| 2 - Humans ||| 3 - Let It Go
4 - And If It Returns ||| 5 - It Was Meant to Be ||| 6 - Ways of the Dragons
7 - To Build an Army ||| 8 - Power Over Life ||| 9 - Arbitrator
10 - Blood-Filled Days ||| 11 - Hic Sunt Dracones
...
Fandoms: Harry Potter & Radiata Stories
Chapter: 1 of 11
Author:
batsutousaiBeta:
tsuki_no_suzuRating: T
Pairings: Harry/Jack
Warnings: OoC, AU, slash, non-human arc
Summary: Harry slipped when he was standing a little too close, and the next thing he knew, he was far away from everything he'd ever known, with something like eternity waiting for him.
Disclaim Her: This story uses characters and settings owned by J.K. Rowling, her publishers, Square Enix and tri-Ace. No money is being made from the creation of this fanfic, and no copywrite infringement is intended.
A/N: There's not a whole lot of back-story for the NPCs – there's more for the humans than for any of the nonhumans, certainly – so I just made it up as I went. Just a warning.
Also, I am kind of amused how many of you are reading this despite having never played the game. All kinds of love to you people. Seriously.
This chapter starts following the actual plot for the game. If you're feeling mad confused, might I suggest checking out the Radiata Stories wiki, Radiatapedia. It's an awesome resource, though by no means complete. (The fan-base for this game is freakin' tiny, so we do what we can.)
Chapter One - Elves
-0-
Harry groaned as he sat on a nearby log. A couple of pointura carcasses lay a few feet away, where they'd been blasted from his attack. He figured he deserved a rest after walking and fighting for the past four hours without a break. The Forest Metropolis was just around the corner – about another half hour, really, but close enough. Harry intended to harvest the pointuras for some potions supplies, since their hair was good in any number of healing potions, and their poison was one of the key components in the potion Harry had created to slow the effects of algandars. Lord Nogueira had contracted the disease almost three months ago and Harry's most recent trip was to get some components for his potion, since he'd been running low.
Harry sighed and climbed to his feet, then set about harvesting the pointuras. He went after the poison first, not wanting it to dry out while he was shaving the creature for its hair.
He was just starting to shave the hair off the first pointura when he heard a chillingly familiar battle-cry. His hand jerked, sending the spell off and cutting into the abdomen, bug guts flying everywhere. But Harry didn't really care, he was too busy collecting all his things and shoving them into his magically expanded belt pouches.
Once he thought he had everything, Harry hurried down the path, ducking between two trents and dodging a hopeful pointura. The scene he came across made him hiss, for there, north of Radiata, was a blood orc. Blood orcs didn't go north of Radiata; there was no easy way from the Dova Region to the Tria Region, unless one could go through Radiata, fly or felt like scaling a chasm. Blood orcs could do none of those things.
Facing off against the blood orc was a group of humans, with Nogueira standing behind them. Harry might have called them fools – which they probably were – but there was a young light elf laying behind the orc, and the group was likely trying to save them if they could. If Harry had been in their shoes, he'd probably have done the same. Had, in fact, down in the Adien Region once, when he came across a human child being chased by a blood orc.
Before Harry could get in range to properly help them without accidently hitting anyone, the orc turned on the only girl in the party and shoved a fireball in her face.
"Ridley!" the youngest human shouted, making to run towards her.
"Lady Ridley!" the short man shouted, then motioned to the younger human. "Jack! You must stay in formation!"
"But sir!"
"Do you want us all to die?"
"Good point," Harry muttered, pulling out his wand, which he only ever used for the most difficult of spells from his world, then shouted, "Get down!" and, upon seeing the humans and Nogueira ducking out of the way, intoned, "Avada Kedavra."
The blood orc keeled over, dead.
Harry tucked his wand away and jumped down from the log he'd stopped on top of, walking over hurriedly. "Hi, don't mind me," he said to the humans as he walked between them. He ignored the orc in favour of checking over the human girl, casting a series of spells as soon as he got in range to heal her burns and try and stabilise her.
The youngest human looked at his companions and asked, "Who's that?"
"And what was that magic?" the human dressed in mage robes added, eyeing Harry like some sort of experiment.
"Harry," Lord Nogueira supplied, walking over to the light elf. He quickly checked the child over, then sighed. So young.
Harry glanced over from the girl at the sound of his name. "Hm?" He looked at the gathered humans when Nogueira nodded towards them. "Oh, me? I'm Harry. I live around here and drive the dark elves mad." He looked back at the feedback from his spells. "Bugger."
"What's wrong?" the youngest human asked, hurrying to Harry's side. "Can you help her?"
Harry glanced at the boy. "Not with what I have on me right now. I have some things in my home that I could use to help her, but there's no time to get them."
Lord Nogueira stepped up next to Harry and gently set the light elf down next to the human girl. "There is a way, but there's no guarantee it will work."
The boy looked up, hope shining in his eyes. Before he could ask about the possibility, a voice called out, "Ridley!" and a knight came running over the bridge near them.
"Lord Cross?" the short man asked while the younger human demanded, "Who are you?"
"Captain Cross of the Noire Mouton brigade," the short man supplied.
"I was on a mission and I heard orcs, so I came as fast as I could," Cross said, stopping next to the downed girl, Ridley, and staring down at her with a broken expression.
The boy apparently decided Cross wasn't important because he turned back to Lord Nogueira. "Please help Ridley?"
Cross' head jerked up and he narrowed his eyes at Nogueira. "Elves! What are you doing here? Leave us and go back to your lair."
"What gives you the right to order elves around in their own land?" Harry inquired, eyes hard.
"I am Cross Ward, captain of the Noire Mouton brigade," Cross snapped.
"You're a human on elven lands," Harry snapped right back. "When your people own these lands–"
"Harry," Nogueira warned and Harry's mouth snapped shut. The elf lord turned to the boy and, behind him, the short human. "The only hope for these two is the transpiritation ritual," he told them, motioning to Ridley and the light elf child.
"You'll perform a transpiritation? On a human?" the mage whispered, even as the other two humans questioned what that meant.
Cross, on the other hand, snapped, "I'm not going to trust you lot and your depraved rituals. Ridley will be cured by human hands!"
"Yeah, already tried that," Harry muttered. "Try to keep up." He rolled his eyes then glanced up at Nogueira. "I see no reason why it won't work. Humans and elves both have souls, though there might be some problem with her body accepting the elven magic."
Nogueira shook his head. "She's a warrior, and Hap is more inclined towards physical fighting, so far as I know."
Harry rose an eyebrow at that; physical fighters among light elves were rare.
Nogueira turned to the two humans. "Should I perform the transpiritation?"
"I just said–" Cross started, but found himself without a voice when Harry got sick of hearing his complaints.
The boy and short man traded looks and both nodded, then the man said, "Lord Nogueira, we beg you. Please, save Lady Ridley."
Cross silently shook his fist at the other man.
"Move back," Harry ordered Cross and the boy, both of whom were a bit too close. Harry, himself, stepped back, leaving Nogueira plenty of space to perform the ritual.
"Please hold your silence," Nogueira requested, then rose his arms over the two on the forest floor and concentrated. Slowly, two balls of light rose out of the two and joined together. The one ball of light went back into Ridley and Hap's body disappeared.
Harry hurried forward with a potion as soon as Nogueira slumped. "Take it," he ordered.
"Are you all right?" the short human asked as the boy hurried forward to check over Ridley.
"I'm fine," Nogueira replied after he'd taken the potion. "I'm just a little tired."
Harry quickly cast a few spells to check how Nogueira was holding up and sighed. "Be more careful," he insisted.
Nogueira just rose an eyebrow at him, then turned to the humans. "She is not out of danger yet. You must take her back to your castle at once. This young girl needs to rest. I will return to the City of Flow–"
"You'll return to the Forest Metropolis," Harry snapped. When Nogueira shot him an unamused look, Harry added, "Don't make me knock you on your arse and drag you back there, Nogueira. Someone else can be sent to the City of Flowers."
"Uhm, sir?" the short human whispered, eyeing Harry and Nogueira nervously.
Nogueira sighed. "Tell my brother what happened," he said to Harry.
Harry nodded, then turned to the staring humans. He raised his eyebrows at them. "Is it permissible for me to travel with you to Fort Helencia?" he inquired.
"Uh.. Oh! Yes," the short human said as the boy leaned down to pick up Ridley, despite Cross' angry gestures. "We should go. Thank you again, Lord Nogueira!"
"Safe journey," Nogueira told them, then turned to make his way back to the Forest Metropolis.
Harry fell in with the other humans, gleefully ignoring the dirty looks Cross kept shooting his way.
The mage hurried up a bit until he was walking next to Harry. "I'm Genius Weissheit," he informed Harry.
Harry glanced up at him. "You're the mage who lives near the City of Flowers. The one who's always driving Fan insane?"
Genius blinked. "Yes, that would be me. You're acquainted with Fan?"
Harry snorted. "I knew her father," he said by way of explanation. "And, just to save us both a lot of grief, no, I can't help you get into the City of Flowers and, even if I could, I wouldn't."
"Why not? Surely you understand my academic curiosity? You're a mage yourself, are you not?"
Harry nodded. "I am, but I'm also a friend of the elves. I don't see them as something to be studied, and that's why the light elves find me acceptable. You think too much of yourself to ever get inside that city."
Genius puffed up a bit. "If I don't think so highly of myself, humans would never advance, for my brain wouldn't be there to advance them."
Harry shook his head. "Then perhaps you need to focus on humans, rather than the elves. They could care less about humans, and they certainly have no intention of helping them."
Genius eyed him with disapproval for a long moment, then asked, "What was that spell you used to fell the orc?"
Harry stared back at Genius for a long moment, then looked back over the humans travelling ahead of them. "What are your companions' names?"
"You're not going to answer me?"
"I know the girl is Ridley, and Cross, of course."
Genius ground his teeth together a bit, then snapped, "I don't remember."
Harry considered him out of the corner of his eye. "Genius, you say you're doing everything to better humankind, but you could care less who humans are. I think you're just in it for yourself, your own pleasure. How often do you actually help advance humankind? I haven't heard of anything particularly noteworthy coming from Radiata in quite a few years."
Genius just continued to glare at him.
Harry sighed and sped up so he could walk with the other humans. "So! I'm afraid I didn't catch either of your names," he said, looking between them and absently shooting a stunning spell at an approaching wolf.
"Jack Russell," the boy offered. "Will Ridley really be okay?"
"She just needs some bed rest," Harry assured him, then turned to the short man. "And you?"
"Ganz Rothschild, captain of the Rose Cochon brigade," he supplied. "I would like to thank you for your assistance back there–"
Harry waved the thanks away. "Don't worry about it. I only wish I'd gotten there a bit quicker, so Ridley wasn't hurt."
Ganz nodded. "You're headed for the City of Flowers?"
"Not taking anyone with me, before you ask."
Ganz shook his head. "No, no. But, the light elf who was killed should have been carrying a response from Lord Zane to a request we put forth. We never heard the response, of course, and I was wondering if you might ask it of him again and maybe leave a reply message at the castle?"
Harry blinked. "Huh. What was the request?"
"Our country seeks peaceful co-existence and the opening of trade routes for our mutual profit. We ardently hope to reach an agreement that will enrich us all," Ganz recited.
"Zane is going to laugh in my face," Harry replied drily. When Ganz's face fell, he sighed and said, "I'll ask him, but I can pretty much guarantee that his response won't be favourable."
"Lord Nogueira said about the same thing," Ganz agreed. "But we'd still like some sort of response."
"I thought humans weren't allowed in the City of Flowers?" Jack piped up.
Harry shrugged. "They aren't, not usually. You have to have permission from an elder to enter, and since Nogueira is technically the elder of the dark elves..." he shrugged again. "I haven't been in the city for quite a few years, but, every once in a while, a reason comes up and they let me in. I make potions for them, see, and they've been known to let me in if it's an emergency."
"Potions?" Jack asked, carefully shuffling Ridley on his back so he was more comfortable.
Harry nodded. "Mm. There's a disease that creatures who use magic can catch and it affects the light elves pretty badly. There's no cure for it, but I created a potion that slows the effects, so they don't suffer quite so badly. I've tried to teach it to the medic in the City of Flowers, but there's something about the potion that keeps elves from being able to make it, so it's up to me to continue supplying it." He laughed a bit. "It's nice, since they can't completely shut me out and they make some beautiful ornaments with flowers, which I like to collect."
"Do you charge them for the potion?" Jack wondered.
Harry shrugged. "No, never saw a reason for it. I collect all the components myself and since I live out here, with the dark elves, I don't have to pay rent or for food like I would in Radiata, so there's nothing they have that I could charge them for."
"The ornaments?" Jack suggested.
Harry chuckled and shook his head. "They're all the more beautiful because I can get them so rarely. And trade is such a human concept; you all have managed pretty well with the dwarves because they tend to think like humans, but elves just think in such a completely different way... Honestly, you'd be better off trying the goblins."
"The goblins would be open to trade?" Ganz asked.
Harry snorted. "The goblins would be open to anything if you offered them mushrooms. They would trade their souls for a common mushroom."
"Have you ever exploited that?"
Harry shook his head. "The goblins have nothing I want. The black goblins make some pretty swords – not quite dwarven standards, but good all the same – but I have no use for a sword, and their drugs make me sick. The green goblins are just mad."
"And stupid," Jack agreed.
Harry laughed. "Yes, quite. I take it you've met a few?"
Jack nodded. "A trio of them. They played a word game with us over a goat and lost twice. Then we beat them up." He grinned.
"Ah... I think I know the three you're talking about. I saw them, once, trying to rope a couple of ripple bats into helping them cross the chasm from Dova to Tria. It didn't end so well."
"But they survived?" Ganz wanted to know.
"There's something about their brand of stupid that saves them from themselves," Harry replied drily. "I wasn't around to see the conclusion, but I heard they managed to climb their way back up again after they'd been stuck down there for a couple of days."
The party slowed to a halt as they reached Fort Helencia. Harry cheerfully took his spell off Cross, then waved and wished them well before continuing on his way towards the Elf Region.
Fan and Shin were waiting for him when he reached the entrance. "Hullo, kids!" he called, waving.
Shin glowered at him, but Fan offered the smallest of smiles. "What brings you, Harry?" the young woman asked.
Harry sighed and shook his head. "Nothing good, I'm afraid. I've a message for Zane from Nogueira."
"He's not dead is he?" Shin pleaded, putting aside his dislike for Harry for the moment.
Harry shook his head. "Not quite, but he's progressing too rapidly. He's only got... maybe a month left. And I don't want him travelling; it'll only make it worse." He eyed the young elf, who was drooping so heavily that he was practically touching the ground; Nogueira had helped raise Shin after his mother was killed near Tria Village when Shin was seven. The only reason Shin wasn't living in the dark elf home with Nogueira was because of the humans that visited from time to time, as the younger light elf could never adopt his caretaker's liking of those without wings.
"Shin?" Fan whispered. When Shin looked at her, she continued, "Would you like to let Lord Zane know that Harry's on his way up, or should I?"
Shin narrowed his eyes at Harry, then flew up and over the rock-face protecting the city from passing eyes.
"I guess he's going," Harry offered, shaking his head. "Well, I'll see you on my way out?"
"Yes. I promise I won't go far." Fan smiled and Harry grinned back, knowing Fan would never leave her post unless someone came to relieve her. She enjoyed watching the non-elves pass by and making fun of them too much.
Harry ducked past the waterfall and climbed the mossy stairs carved into the cliff-face. A couple of muttered spells cleared his way from possibly slipping on anything and he reached the top safely. There, he took a moment to drink in the sight of the city before continuing the long trip up to Zane's residence.
Zane was waiting for him when Harry finally ducked through the leafy doorway. "Give me your message and go," he ordered.
Harry sighed. "Somehow – don't ask, because I haven't the faintest – a blood orc got into the Nowem Region. Your light elf, Hap, got caught by it. A human girl who was there was almost killed and Nogueira performed transpiritation between her and Hap to keep her alive. It has worsened Nogueira's condition to the point that I don't think it's safe for him to leave the Forest Metropolis. If you want to see your brother before he dies, you'll need to brave us humans," he said without preamble.
Zane glared at him for a long moment, then snapped, "And why did my brother even bother with this stupid human girl?"
Harry shook his head. "Zane, just because you hate humans doesn't mean Nogueira does. He thought she was worth saving."
"My brother is a fool," Zane muttered, but Harry could hear the sorrow buried behind his snide remark and just sighed. Zane motioned for a bag to pack itself, then looked back at his visitor. "Was that it? And don't expect me to travel back with you!"
Harry rolled his eyes. "It never even passed my mind, though you'll probably find yourself accompanied by Shin. At any rate, I was asked by the humans if you could, again, send your response to their plea for trade, since they missed the first one. And, please, I'll take it verbally. If you spit on me again, I'll retaliate with something that actually deserves my getting kicked out," he warned, recalling the last time he delivered news Zane hadn't liked. Harry didn't much care to be spat on again, and then thrown over the edge of the cliff for spitting back; if he'd been a normal human, with normal magic, he would have been killed.
Zane frowned at him, then turned his back. "I would never trade with humans. They'd have better luck with the dark elves."
"They'd have better luck with the goblins," Harry retorted, moving towards the door. "I'll pass on your response, then."
Zane turned at that, surprised. "You're going to Radiata?"
Harry rose an eyebrow at him. "Why so surprised? I do visit there occasionally."
"Only to visit their mage school. Never to pass on a message."
Harry shrugged. "I was asked. And I can always stop by the Vareth Institute while I'm in town. Anyway, I doubt any light elf would be willing to go to Radiata." He waved a hand, briefly, over his shoulder, then started down the path to the exit. On his way, he stopped to examine a few of the ornaments he'd mentioned to the humans, gently fingering one that was made with the closest flower this world had to a lily.
Their creator poked her head out a window and waved at him. "Did you want a few?"
Harry smiled at the woman. "Might I? They're exceptional. You've gotten much better since the last time I saw you."
"It's been three years," Keane reminded him, then pulled her head out of the window and hurried through her door, coming to stand next to Harry. "You'll have to give me something for them, though," she added, eyes bright.
Harry rose an eyebrow at her. "Oh? And Zane was just telling me that the light elves would never partake in any trade."
Keane laughed and shook her head. "I want to open a shop," she admitted, "but I have no one to sell anything to. You're the closest thing I have to a customer."
"Hm..." Harry considered the ornaments, head cocked slightly to the left. "If I was able to get in here more often, I could, possibly, help you with that."
"Oh?"
Harry nodded. "You know I travel a lot," he said, looking at her. "And I spend time with all the races – well, all but the orcs. I could... I don't know. I could be something of a peddler, I suppose? There are a couple of humans who travel with restorative items and sell them to fellow travellers. It wouldn't be quite the same, I suppose, since your creations are really just pretty, but..." He trailed off as Keane zipped back into her house. "Keane?
Keane zipped back out with an armful of pretty things that radiated magic. "I started making things to help fighters," she explained, holding a cat out to Harry. "See, this one makes it easier to collect things from monsters. And this one," she held up a fair approximation of a human knight, "gets rid of afflictions when you're not fighting. And this one... Ah!" She fumbled and dropped everything.
Harry quickly conjured a table for the various items to fall on, keeping them from slipping through the holes in the walkway. He reached out and picked up an earring in the shape of an eyeball. "This is impressive, Keane. How long have you been working on these?"
"Oh, uhm..." She shifted through the stuff on the table nervously. "About three years. You, ah... You dropped a necklace last time you were here and I sort of picked it up and examined it and stuff. It was kind of cool, how it helped heal the wearer?"
"Ah. I'd wondered what had become of that necklace," Harry said with a smile.
Keane looked up at him briefly, then back down at her creations. "Oh, uhm, I sort of... I took it apart, see..."
Harry chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I found it on one of my trips and thought it looked nice. It wasn't such a loss."
Keane looked back up, relief making her smile. "Really? You're not upset?"
Harry shook his head, still smiling. "Not in the least. I never used the magical properties, I just thought it looked nice." He turned the earring over in his hand, blinking when the cornea turned to look up at him. "Ooh... That's interesting." He considered the magic on it, then looked up at Keane, who was practically glowing. "It watches all around you, so you're not thrown off by creatures who run up from behind?" he guessed.
Keane nodded. "Yeah! I'm, uhm... I'm having a bit of a problem with making it work for humans, though, since it warns the wearer through their magic, and since humans don't have innate magic..."
Harry nodded and motioned for the table to walk into Keane's home. "Let's see if I can help, hm?"
"Thank you!"
Harry chuckled and followed her inside.
When Harry finally left the City of Flowers, the sun was just rising. He'd stayed with Keane overnight after they worked on her magical items a bit. Harry had a couple of finished works in a small sack, having promised to show them around Radiata to see how interested the humans were in them. He'd enjoyed supper with the light elves who liked him, then curled up in a corner of Keane's home for the night.
He made his way over to the journey pig statue, whistling a cheerful tune and waving behind him to where Fan sat atop the cliff. He didn't use the pigs often, but since it would take two days to get around Fort Helencia and into Radiata, he was inclined to use the obnoxious, vertigo-inducing pigs. (Really, he'd been the main creator behind the pigs, having based them on a mix of magic from portkeys and the floo from Earth. Mixing the magic had only made them worse than the originals, but it cut back on travel by road for this world, which was all the more necessary because of the creatures waiting to attack travellers, so most people didn't complain. Harry would have preferred apparition, himself, but found out early on in his stay in this world that many ingredients for his potions didn't react well to it.)
Just as Harry was reaching out a hand to touch the pig, it warmed, signalling that someone was coming through, so Harry stepped back. The pigs could, technically, handle multiple people using them at once, but it made the journey that much more nauseating, so Harry avoided it.
Genius appeared in a zip of light and took a moment to look around, verifying his arrival in the correct area. When he noticed Harry, he frowned. "You're still here?"
Harry shrugged. "Spent the night," he admitted, then reached out to touch the pig.
"Are you sure–" Genius started.
"Genius, I'm not going to try and get you into the City of Flowers. If you ask me again, I will curse you," Harry snapped.
Genius frowned at him all the more. "Well then, perhaps you can help me in my study of their magic?"
"Why do you–?" Harry shook his head. "You know what? Fine. Genius, studying elven magic will get you absolutely nowhere, because you, as a human, are incapable of utilising magic in the same way they can. For you to try and understand their magic would be like an apple trying to understand how broccoli grows. You can't."
"Apples can't think, so they would have no reason–"
Harry waved his hand, then touched the pig, leaving Genius hanging upside down in midair, elves laughing at him from the top of the cliff.
-0-0-0-0-0-
A/N: Yeah.... So, Genius is kind of obnoxious. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to bash his head in while playing this game. (I took great pleasure in beating him up in the Forest Metropolis, let me tell you.)
Alternately, playing through right now, I kind of want to bash Jack's head in. (But, hey! He's a stupid boy from the country with an over-inflated ego. He's got an excuse, even if I think he's just plain dumb sometimes. I mean, really. He regularly gets his ass handed to him by people stronger than him – Ridley, the orc, Gerald – and he still thinks he's all that. I'm of the opinion that someone dropped him on his head as a baby.)
Yeah, okay. Rant over.
Again, Radiatapedia is an awesome resource for this game. I'll try and make sure that the bits in this story that you might have questions about are updated on there by the time I post each chapter.
However, I'll always welcome questions. ^.~ (Just, you know, if you want an answer, sign in or leave me a way to reach you? I can try answering stuff during the following chapter, but I very much like letting you know ASAP, so you're not going to spend a week wondering what the balls I'm going on about.)
Until next time!
~Bats ^.^x
Prologue - Falling
4 - And If It Returns ||| 5 - It Was Meant to Be ||| 6 - Ways of the Dragons
7 - To Build an Army ||| 8 - Power Over Life ||| 9 - Arbitrator
10 - Blood-Filled Days ||| 11 - Hic Sunt Dracones
...
