•~Chapter 1~•
Memories Fade|But Scars Never Do

          Time was nothing but a factor that Violet completely ignored as she continued to flee from Baste Prison, where she had been held for the past ten years. Her journey in itself was nothing but a blur and a repetitive cycle of her forcing herself to go as far as she could before collapsing.

          It was truly pitiful to see how far the Swan Sin had fallen from her days of glory among the other Seven Sins. She stood no chance when she stumbled into a clearing in a forest near a small town called Orden.

           She had no way of knowing that there was a beast contained within a large suit of purple armor that would lash out upon her arrival. It was all she could do to move her arms into an x before her small form and brace for impact.

          A crack resonated around the clearing when her body collided with a tree on the edge of the clearing, and that vanquished what remaining shards of consciousness the Sin held. Her body lay strewn out with her left cheek pressed against the soft grass and her back facing upward.

          It seemed like the follow up attack made by this armored creature would spell out the end of Violet, the Sin of Temperance. However a young spectacled man dressed in a yellow shirt with a high collar came to her rescue. He appeared before her and merely stopped the armored fist that plummeted towards her with relative ease. "Gowther, afraid." The creature stated fearfully. Even it's armor rattled as if it were trembling.

          The young man spared the preteen sized girl a glance before turning his attention to the armored giant, "There is no need to be afraid. It is just a young girl." He explained.

          The armored giant slowly retracted it's arm, and so the young man lowered his right arm back to his side as he no longer needed to prevent his companion from hurting the girl. The giant rattled out a reply, "Hurt."

          "Hurt? Did she hurt you?" He inquired curiously, as he did not see any new breaks in the purple armor that his companion wore. After a moment he tilted his head curiously, which caused some of his green and somewhat curly hair to shift. "You do not appear to be injured." He noted aloud. Which meant...

            With a second look he did notice that there did appear to be bloodstains on the back of the young girls dress, "I see. You meant that she was hurt. I wonder if it was due to the impact...It seems improbable." He mused.

          It wasn't long before he had transported her to a cave a short distance from the clearing. He treated the injuries on her back with a few supplies that he carried in a satchel and got a fire going to ward off the cold as a light rain set in.

          The purple armored giant had of course followed after the peculiar man and now sat against a cave wall on the opposing side the young man leaned against. The young girl was merely laid out in the stone ground near the fire. For the time being she appeared to be sleeping soundly and getting some much needed rest.

For a time the man read to his companion from a book called 'Dark Pulse', and that was what Violet woke to.

She blearily opened her eyes only to slam them closed once more as the light from the fire invaded them. Violet noted that the male voice she had heard fell silent, and after a moment she ventured to open her eyes once more, although she was more cautious and shaded them with her right hand.

Violet slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position with her left arm before taking note of her surroundings, and the two beings that sat on either side of the campfire. "You're awake now! That's good, I was beginning to think that it might take days for you to wake up." The man commented. "My name is Alan."

"Hello...Did you save me?" Violet asked hesitantly. She shifted her gaze to the armored being that she was quite certain was the thing that had slammed her into that tree earlier.

"Save you? I suppose I did prevent you from dying, so yes, I did save you." He answered thoughtfully. "Will you tell me your name? It's polite to introduce yourself when you meet new people." Alan then asked.

          There was something about the way he spoke that made her feel as if she had met this 'Alan' before, however nothing was coming to mind. "You...you may call me Astral." Violet offered with a faint smile.

          It was rather clear to her that Alan knew that Astral was not her true name, however he said nothing further on the subject. Alan glanced over his shoulder to peer outside for a moment and let out a soft sound of confirmation. He closed the book and placed it within his satchel with care, "The rain has let up, and I need to procure some armor glue from town." Alan explained as he rose to his feet. He shouldered his satchel and turned to look back towards Astral and his companion.

          He had already confirmed Astral's identity. It was quite obvious judging by her body structure, appearance, tone, and the partially visible marking on her collarbone. Her dress mostly hid the mark that he was quite certain was a swan, but with all the other factors it was a dead giveaway. However he would allow her to remain under the alias of 'Astral' for a while longer. "He will not harm you now that he knows that you will do him no harm. I should not be gone for terribly long. Is there anything that you might need Astral? I shall see if I can procure it if so." Alan inquired.

          "N-No...A-Actualy maybe there is...Could you see if you could find a sewing needle and some silk thread p-please." Violet stammered. She felt odd requesting such things, however her dress was in dire need of repair. She could make the fabric that it was made out of herself-it was a fabric that only Spectrekind could create after all-however she would still need some thread and a needle to stitch it together.

          To her surprise Alan didn't question why she needed such things and merely turned towards the cave entrance. His footsteps echoed softly as he made his exit, and he paused briefly to give a small wave, although he did not turn to face Violet or his companion. "Ta-ta." Alan hummed, before he was gone.

           The silence that followed Alan's departure slowly began to eat away at Violet, and she found comfort in hugging her knees to her chest while idly staring into the depths of the fire. Truth be told getting some proper sleep had greatly helped her condition, however she was still quite weak compared to how she was ten years ago. Violet idly began to fiddle with the necklace that she wore.

          It was a simple thing in all honestly, as it was made up of a small little crystal. It wasn't shaped and seemed as if she had just picked it up off the ground and attached it to some old cord. The edges of the stone were somewhat jagged, although they were to dull to cut anyone, and it had a small little bit of what seemed to be obsidian circling it halfway. Almost like a crescent moon. The shifting of the armored giants armor startled her back into the present, "Book...", it rattled out.

          "Book? L-Like when Alan was reading to you earlier?" Violet inquired shakily. She did not feel terribly comfortable being left with this creature despite Alan's assurances that it would not harm her.

          Fear. She had an awful lot of it lately. Being thing weak had drawn up some old insecurities of hers it seemed, and her subconscious was having an absolute blast telling her how many ways she could possibly die. "Gowther reads book." The armor giant stated.

          That certainly shut her mind up and sent it for a loop all at once, "W-Wait a minute-did you just say Gowther?!" Violet exclaimed. 'Gowther as in the Goats Sin of Lust? Wait...That armor looks really familiar..That's...It's Gowther armor!' She thought with growing surprise, and a bit of elation.

          "Gowther." The Giant repeated, before tacking on a, "Book".

          She smiled faintly, "Gowther read to you once is what your trying to tell me right? The way you talk doesn't seem like him at all, but that armor is his all right. I wonder how it got so damaged." Violet mused thoughtfully, although she shook her head and laughed quietly a moment later. "You want Alan to read to you, right? Since he's gone why don't I tell you a story instead? I doubt I'll be very good, but I'm willing to give it a shot." She offered.

          For a moment Violet thought that she had said something wrong, as the giant gave her no response. After a minute or two dragged by however a faint rattling, "Yes", answered her.

          Violet shifted into a more comfortable position and shifted through her mind for some good story. "Let's see...It all began in a forest much like the Fairy King Forest...."

This forest had trees with leaves of many different hues of purple and blue, and sometimes even pink. There were many bushes full of delicious purple fruit and odd blue fruit that grew from the trees that were super delicious. The water there was a lime green almost, and tasted somewhat like lemonade. This forest and some of the surrounding land was known as Naphoria.

In Naphoria things were very pleasant and happy, even though the Kingdom didn't socialize much with outsiders. One little girl in particular was very happy and bright. She was the daughter of the Exa...Of the King, and she was very loved by those in their Spectral T..I mean in their Castle. Her name was...Lucinda.

When she was still very young she was faced with the task of ruling Naphoria, because her father...The King didn't come home one day. The happy little girl was very confused, and then very sad and angry. But then an old man came along and gave her a..He gave her a little bear that made her very happy! Whenever she felt sad she would hug the bear, and she would feel a lot better-however the bear's seams kept breaking and ripping and so the girl sought out the man. "Help me fix my bear please!" She begged.

"Only if you give me some special rocks, my dear." The old man said, and the little girl happily agreed. Being so young she had no idea how special or important these rocks were to her people, and eventually her Kingdom ran out of rocks, so the man wouldn't fix her bear anymore. So the little girl began to search for rocks outside of her kingdom-and took them by force as needed.

One day the little girl noticed how unhappy her people were-while she was still smiling and being happy because her bear kept getting fixed. She wondered what was making everyone unhappy, so she asked around. "You keep searching for these special rocks Queen Lucinda, and you're neglecting your people!" They cried out.

The little girl decided to change, but she couldn't abandon her bear who had been with her so long. She tried to balance both, and for a time it worked. However she had made many enemies while searching for these special rocks. They came and burned her kingdom to the ground, and all that was left of them was a tiny little stone.

She was the only one left after all was said and done, and so the little girl wept for her kingdom that she had destroyed. For many years she wandered as a stranger to herself. She served others without any real will of her own until she was set free by a kind man. Then another man with a kind heart invited her into a team where she could start anew, but she always carried her Sin with her. They washed all the pain away however, and she set about making things right. The little girl was happy at last, and she felt as if her father would be proud.

           Violet didn't notice she had begun to cry until the armored giant said something. She smiled wistfully as she wiped her tears away, "It's nothing. I just got a bit to emotional about the story. Kinda funny since I was the one telling it.." She assured the giant, before she lightly stretched. "I'm going to sleep now, alright?" Violet said.

           When she received no response she simply rolled over into her side and curled up into the fetal position. "Only if..." Violet sleepily mumbled as sleep claimed her.