Chapter 1 - A Custodian's Walk

Loss Era of Custodians

Northern Capital of the Arcus Empire

Day 0

For the folk of Aos Los, Custodians were either just actors of goalkeepers or self-honored employed sweepers and caretakers.

Located in the northern hemisphere of the Arobas Empire, there is a group of cities known as the cities of fogs and lights. The Capital City of Aos Los was the pioneer in all security and advancements, growing up as a city colony.

Large stone-made western buildings with various carvings of swords, dragons, and spires. All above the rough smell of steam engines and a snow-covered sky. Antique polished street lamps plotted along the roads just to make thievery a tad bit annoying.

Stone flew like paint; steam erupted as a hot breeze as the first train of the day arrived at the train station four blocks away. The stone tiles rumbled as the cars driven on them started their daily speeding culture.

Aris let out a small sigh of anger as the driver of the car flew right by him during his trip around the crosswalk. His frustration was almost visible against his darker black hair and even blacker eyes.

To the eyes of the citizens of Aos Los, he was just a young man in his prime. Well-suited, with a symmetrical, handsome face still waiting for his first date. Short trimmed black hair that spiked towards the end, ending in a bulge—perhaps the only bad thing about his appearance, that is if you didn't talk about his dressing sense. To people around his age, he looked either like an old boomer or a helpless child pretending to be an adult. He wore a large brown coat with a hanging watch on one side, a well-printed ironed white collar coupled with a grey-blue checkered shirt, an Aruze tie with an added short hat.

"This is daily news, Viroius. With the high capability of the Wdec Pathfinder, the next Wdec Wave is forecasted for twelve past midnight, with a Wdiod Value of 18Mor. People are advised to remain indoors with ether generators forced into anti-Wdiod mode. The wave is projected to last at least two hours in the city main center and about four to eight hours in the countryside…" The radio next door continued spouting some trivial news that affected only a few chosen households that could afford a whole power ether generator.

"What kind of Jishi foolery is this?" I remarked, stepping away to the next alleyway.

After the end of the Custodians Prime Era and before the increase in frequency of Morgo's Disastrous, there was a minor event which gave rise to the so-called Wdec or Wuthering Dios Eons Comminatory Waves—sudden waves of condensed, non-usable Arcana that caused the effect of lunarlation in the Arcane Cycle.

Like human nature, instead of finding the source or the true nature of these waves, humans decided to boycott the search and started researching and developing architecture that would reduce the effect of these waves. A snort on a temporary solution that would one day cease to exists when the real callers show their faces. 

Talking and commenting on baseless accepted facts was not in Aris's style; yet today was different. Today was his first general summoning to the Head RB Branch of the Custodians, something he couldn't wrap his head around for the past few days.

As soon as Aris entered the 6th narrow alleyway in Scrodner's street; his hand immediately fell inside of his pocket where is quite early removed a sliver metallic card with black imprinted details;

Name – Aris Von Frez

Age - 18

Custodian Rank – Upper A

Custodian Id - 4203824

Custodian Order – The Black Lily

Swiftly, he removed his card and flicked it between his fingers, turning around his hands in a loop. The silver card turned black as coal, revealing a blazing symbol: a symmetrical design with two central vertical bars and a mirrored rounded loop on the back. It was as soon as the blazing golden symbol burned into the card Aris's surroundings quite literally turned fantastical awkward.

At that moment, for a person named Aris Von Frez of the Custodian order Black Lily, the entirety of the 6th narrow alleyway in Scrodner's Street twisted away from reality. The alleyway flipped upside down, then sideways, then inward, stretching its contents across the walls. Turning inward, wrapping and coiling around each side. Each leaf looked like a meter scale, each brink like a wall, each gram like a spoonful of dirt. Particles began moving at speeds beyond the laws of nature, twisting outward and then inward repeatedly until the very existence of laws was bypassed.

For an everyday person it would be like falling under through an infinitely long prison cell of castle; while for active Custodians like Aris this was the norm taken to avoid the wintery road of Heiz to reach the Custodian's breach.    

Alleyways made by the young earl Scrodner Heiz Alberg –

'Scroger; the thief' connected his very named street in the northern capital to the various almost all existing Custodians Breaches. Two hundred and forty-six; the number of the original alleyways that the thief had laid in his hay day.

A myth in the Custodian society regarding The Thief was that he was given birth to lay roads and died while laying one. Just four short of what he was supposed to lay. He still sways at nights looking for the missing four. 

At that moment, for a person named Aris Von Frez of the Custodian order Black Lily, the entirety of the 6th narrow alleyway in Scrodner's Street twisted away from reality. The alleyway flipped upside down, then sideways, then inward, stretching its contents across the walls. Each leaf looked like a meter scale, each brink like a wall, each gram like a spoonful of dirt. Particles began moving at speeds beyond the laws of nature, twisting inward repeatedly until the very existence of laws was bypassed.

Suddenly a looped opened beneath his feet. Falling through the very fabric through the tied lines between the planes of two places. In what felt like five or six seconds he had fallen through places ending on a sole rock of mountain; flanked by two western ridges; with the separation joined a long ominous black building.

In a flick of a hand, Aris was transported to the northern ridge of the western slopes; just a few hundred feet away from him was the ominous black building –'Custodians Breach'; flanked by the two dividing parts of the range. It was a thick black building, about three hundred meters to four hundred meters in length; where clouds less hail covered its peak; piling at the higher balconies and floors. Windows with gothic carvings and a front grand entrance with a polished stoned Gargoyle with two swords, one in his hand and one pouched in his mouth.

Aris quietly started moving towards the Custodian's Breach. His soft shoes and light coat weren't suited for the cold thick snow velvet carpet. His shoes made the impression to his path while his coat was covered with a layer of frost. 

Opening the door, Aris was greeted by familiar faces and scenery. The large, white marble reception hall was the first "whorl" of the building that Aris entered. Multiple staircases made of finely cut-glass crystals connected each of the thirty-two floors to the reception area, rising majestically above the hall.

Aris moved to one of the hundred cushioned seats in the hall and sat down, opening a ragged pocket diary.

For those who belonged to less active Orders, there was no special treatment; they were often left to sit helplessly, bored to death until their name was called.

For Aris, this waiting time could extend from a few minutes to several hours. Fortunately, today was one of those days where he found himself absorbed in his diary.