G.H.O.S.T.

Prologue
~On a small island, somewhere in the Caribbean~

“Kyoto!




Kyoto!


Can you hear me?

Kyoto!”
Slowly, Kyoto opened her eyes to the sound of her husband and a sharp pain in her chest.
“Oh, why? Can you still talk? Where’s the Crest? Where’s Serim?”
Kyoto slowly tried to sit up, had a sickening coughing fit, and fell back on the bloodstained floor.
“It’s gone”, she said in a weak whisper.
”He saw it coming. He took the Crest and I couldn’t stop him.
You have to call them together, Ecclesiastes, it’s up to you now”.
Kyoto, please don’t leave me! Try to hold on!” pleaded Ecclesiastes as he scooped up her bloody form and cradled her.
She leaned close to him, and with all the energy she could muster declared
“I……
.…love………
……..you................
...…...”
With tears streaming down his face and a long sword embezzled fatally in his Love’s heart,
Ecclesiastes watched as his wife took her last breath.










Chapter One: The Letter
~In the frozen tundra of Antarctica~
The snow had really started to come down, temperature was in the negatives and the wind was howling like a dozen wolves; so naturally, Cassius was in a pretty good mood. He had just caught a decent sized adult seal and was in the process of lugging it back to his house. This boy in particular was a well fed one, neither scrawny nor overweight. He had bright blonde hair which always seemed to get in his cool sky-blue eyes. Abnormally tall for his age-16-he could easily grab things others would find out of reach with his lanky yet durable arms, which at the moment were covered by nothing more than a t-shirt. The snow cleared momentarily for Cassius to see his house, which was only about a half mile away. Though weary from his hunting and traveling, he pushed forward for the notion of a replenishing meal. Before he knew it, he was on the doorstep of his whitish blue house, wiping his shoes off on the welcome mat and bringing his latest catch into the kitchen where he found his mother tidying up the cabinets.

“Cassius Reno Xavier Índigo Lafayette Marciano! Where have you been?!? It’s almost seven now and you said you’d be back by five! Explain yourself!” Cassius’s ego shuddered at the sound of Grace Marciano’s voice before replying”Mom, the herd had moved on, and the tracks had been covered by the snow. And no, I couldn’t have done that, the conditions were too rough” he added after observing the skepticism on her face. “Well, alright,” she said eventually, “but you’ll have to start the fire up again; I let it go out so we could save fuel”. Cassius nodded and went down to the basement, returning to the living room promptly dropping an assortment of wood he had collected and began rebuilding the dwindling crimson warmth. When finished, he prepared the seal and cooked it slowly, savoring the vaguely-known-about spine-tingling aroma of fresh Antarctic meat for a bit, then ravenously ate his meal and stored the leftovers in an icebox. “Your father’s upstairs, he said he wanted to talk to you about something. He said it was important” called Mrs. Marciano from the kitchen. Cassius called back his acknowledgement and headed up the stairs, hung a left and found his father in the study.

“Cassius” his father turned from his work and studied his son’s current condition. “How was your hunt?” “Tough, just the herd had been migrating and I couldn’t find them for a while. But I managed to get a decent-sized one and I stored the leftovers. “His father smiled, lately on the most common action of his. “You remind me so much of myself when I was your age-ambitious, strong, and well-nourished, not to mention uneducated.” Corvallis Marciano’s face suddenly grew serious. “It’s about time we changed that.” Cassius laughed momentarily, and then stopped short when he noted the look of apprehension from his dad. “You know I can’t attend schools, Dad, they don’t have any for me-what would happen if someone found out?” Cassius regarded his father as if something had possessed him. “I know, son,” Corvallis said calmly, “but I came across a school that’s different”. Seeing his son’s lack of belief, he pressed on. “We got an anonymous messenger penguin while you were out-with a letter about this academy. This letter”-he indicated to a form on his desk-“talks about a fair education for kids like you, and courses to help control your abilities, and yes I know you’ve been getting better but these people know what you’re going through!” Mr. Marciano stated after Cassius had given him a scowl. “I really think you need this, son, there’ll be people just like you! You can finally make some friends! Haven’t you always wanted to?” Cassius gazed sheepishly at the floor for a bit in thought, and then returned his gaze to his dad.

“Alright, I’ll go. When does it start?” “It doesn’t exactly say, it just has a parent/child consent form. All we can do is to wait. This next part is strangely unspecific, but as far as luggage goes, it says ‘only what you think you need’. Be sure to take this seriously though, as we don’t have anything else to lead on.” Cassius nodded his acknowledgement, and then headed out of the study and down the hallway to his room, where he packed some clothes into a suitcase, thought for a bit about necessities and added his towel. He then grabbed a picture of his family, and double checked that his silver necklace was still attached to the sapphire pendent inscribed with the Marciano insignia, gave his room one last look of goodbye, and returned to the study with his belongings. His dad had finished scribbling something, and handed Cassius the paper for his signature.

As soon as he had finished the last letter of his name, the form disappeared in a puff of smoke. In a blinding flash of light, a heavenly glowing figure appeared in the form of a little girl, who was beckoning Cassius to take her hand. Dazed and startled, Cassius reluctantly picked up his baggage, gave one last, wordless glance at his equally shocked father, took the radiant form’s hand, and disappeared in a shimmer of luminosity.