Alitia: Welcome to Millenia

XXVIII: Cryon's Truth

"Like you and Lianna, I attended the Millennium Six when I was your age. Of course, I didn't go to Alitia. Instead, I attending Ridgeview, the school for heroes. I went there in the years leading up the the War of Starlight. That's where I met all of the current head teachers and Dawn Shira, the Keeper of Starlight. We were going to different schools for the most part, but we were able to bond rather quickly," Cryon started. "Despite our differences, we became close friends thanks to the start of the year celebration and various missions involving the mingling of the six schools."

"Missions and mingling?" Luce echoed. "I wish we had something like that. All we get is boring time in the classroom. I would do just about anything for some time to stretch out and train in a controlled battle situation."

"To be fair, your time at Alitia has been much more dangerous than what I had to endure at the time. I never would have imagined that the schools could become so dangerous. Back when I was there, they were known as safe havens. Nobody was harmed in those walls. We were the future, which meant we had to be treated as such," Cryon explained. "It especially sounds like heaven in comparison to what you've endured."

"I guess it's hard to be overly protective like that when everyone keeps getting attacked for what seems like no reason," Luce sighed with a shake of her head. "It's much easier to maintain the peace when it seems like war isn't on your doorstep. That makes things much harder for everyone involved, to say the least."

"I agree. Anyways, I was going to the school when the War of Starlight broke out. Long story short, I fought in the war, and after it was over, once Ragnor Malefician had been defeated, the Keeper of Starlight herself approached me. She said she wanted to leave Millennia behind to live her life in peace. Even as Keeper, she had always assumed she would live as a pacifist, and that didn't change until the later stages of the war. The fighting was too much for her, and she wanted me to come with her to create that paradise... That Dawn was something else, I tell you," Cryon continued.

"Did you two have any other connections aside from your time in the war?" Luce asked. "It seems odd that she'd ask someone she barely knew to accompany her as she rode off into the sunset towards her own little paradise."

"Like I said, we had been friends since first enrolling at Alitia. She and the head teachers had become my close companions ever since we first arrived. I guess she saw something in me she didn't see in the others, because I was the only one she wanted to come with her to the paradise away from war she had dreamed of," Cryon said. "She told me not to tell anybody that we were disappearing, and so I didn't. I didn't want to go against her wishes. We never told a soul, and we vanished off the face of Millennia."

"That was after you two had graduated, I would assume," Luce murmured. "What happened next? Did you two decide to remain together in the years that followed?"

"Well... Not exactly. Dawn left randomly. I don't know where she is. I know she's alive since the next Keeper hasn't been reincarnated, but I have no idea where she could have gone off to. I was thinking of going back to Millennia, but I was ultimately stopped when I met someone else. That... That is the woman in the picture there. Your mother," Cryon told her, looking fondly at the picture as a small smile tugged at his lips.

"My mother... You met her after you left Millennia to run away with Dawn... Was she native to Amity?" Luce questioned.

"Yeah. She had blonde hair, a typical appearance for any Amitite like the two of us. Around here, it's either blonde hair or blue hair, and she had light magic too. She was something of a prodigy in her field with immense power. She had heard of the War of Starlight but never fully got involved. She was a pacifist like Dawn and didn't want to jump into the fighting. Instead, she used her light and healing magic to help others as she traveled Amity. She was a priestess in service to Starlight making her way around to assist anyone in need," Cryon explained.