Chapter Text
Chill, autumn wind curled through the crumbling ruins, caressing the gray and orange lichen and plush moss clinging to the tumbled stones that had been there for generations longer than the ancient people who had originally laid the foundations of the castle.
Most of the structure was intact, and from one angle even looked whole. But, a few minutes of observation would correct that idea: the fit of the stones a little too loose, the quality of light a little too bright where it was visible through the great, arching windows.
Once upon a time, this castle played host to countless gatherings, and hunts, and meetings, and celebrations of life.
Now it hosted only death, save for the small families of creatures that scurried through the rubble, indifferent as to whether the surfaces under their paws and claws were stone or gold.
Only death, until now.
Beneath the pale blue sky and scudding clouds, a small, glittering shape drifted through the ruins against the wind.
In this craggy place of ancient memories, the shape stood out like a sore thumb: too geometric, too clean, too alive.
She was a Ghost, and her name was Sunny, and she'd checked these ruins before.
Well, "checked" might be a generous term. She had drifted through them before, peering under broken stone slabs half-buried in the rich earth, saying things like, "Hello? Anyone particularly heroic under here?" and "Maybe that bit of moss knows where my Guardian is!"
The moss did not know.
She'd been born centuries before. She wasn't really sure how long it had been, actually. She and all her siblings had been born at the same time, the last gasp of a silent god to save humanity.
A nice lady Hunter by the name of Micah-10 had brought her to this place along with a motley crew of other Ghosts, and for a time they lingered, until several of her brethren had found their Guardians and left to travel across the sea to the Last Safe City.
(Micah-10 said it like that, with all the words capitalized.)
When Micah-10 declared it was time to move on, Sunny stayed.
She liked it here.
There was something about the way the wind moved through the ruins, as if the air remembered voices. Sometimes she thought she could hear whispers on the breeze.
Sometimes she whispered back.
Today, she drifted through the stones wondering what the people who'd lived here were like. Were they kind? Were they fierce? Were they sweet? Were they joyful?
Her fins twirled as she began to bob rhythmically in the air in long arcs from side to side, "dancing" as she scanned here and there.
"Huh?"
She stopped and reversed course. There was a large mound of dirt beneath an old, gnarled oak near the outer wall of the castle. She'd passed by here before, but this time she noticed that part of the mound had collapsed since the last rain, showing a dark hollow between the roots of the tree.
"Huh."
She floated over to the tree and circled it, then peered down into the hole. It was dark, but something tugged at her, nagging her to go further - a kind of magnetic pull that made her fins tingle.
"Huh!"
She dropped down and drifted through the opening, dimming her light somewhat as she entered, perhaps out of some instinctual form of respect.
Roots threaded through the space beneath, but they didn't block her view of the body.
Perhaps "body" might also be generous, as the figure had barely enough bones to be considered a skeleton. Once it must have been dressed in rich armor and fine jewelry, but now the jewelry was tarnished and the armor worn down to a mere suggestion.
Time had taken everything it could.
"Oh…" she whispered. "There you are."
She scanned the figure, twirling her fins with delight. "I finally found you!" she cooed. "Sorry it took so long, but you were kind of hidden by the tree."
She reached out - not with hands, of course, but with the Light.
"Let's see who you become," she said reverently, as her Light flared, lighting up every nook and cranny beneath the roots. "Eyes up, Guardian!"