THE CRAVE GAMING CHANNEL
V'lanna
 

Darkest Before Dawn
By Janus Calloway
callo123@aol.com


Here it is, I'm trying to get this sequel to Ramsus and the Elements put up on RPGamer.com, hopefully you'll like this as much as I did writing it. Thanks for reading it.

JC











Citan Mizuki sat alone in his small workspace at his home, waiting for his guest. His guest was expected anytime now, so Citan took this free time to continue writing more of his memoirs of everything that had happened within the past two years. He'd been writing his account of everything for the past few months, in between helping to rebuild his home, and the destroyed village of Lahan that he lived near. He was writing memoirs so they could someday be read by everyone, and hopefully even be passed down long after he died so future generations could know what mistakes his had, and not have history repeat itself. It was around seven months after the whole ordeal had ended, and although the world still needed more healing than anyone in Citan's lifetime could do, there was for once, peace.

Just as Citan was writing his account of the first meeting with Id, there was a knock at his office door. When it opened, Mui, Citan's wife, was standing there with a tall, blonde haired young man.

"Citan, Billy's here." Mui said, holding a cup of tea in her hands. She walked in, and gave the cup of tea to Citan, and he thanked her.

"Thank you, dear." Citan said, taking the tea. She nodded, and walked out as Billy Lee Black, 17 year old former priest, walked in and sat down on the couch near Citan's desk.

Billy looked much different than he had when he was a fighter. Instead of the blue priest's robe he used to wear, now he wore a brown trench coat much like his father's, a light blue dress shirt, brown slacks and brown hiking boots. Billy reminded Citan so much of Jessie when he was Jessie's age.

"Thanks for coming, Billy." Citan said.

"It's kind of important."

Billy shrugged. "There was really nothing to do at the Snowfields anyway. There's enough food for whole year, and we've been able to get power running so there's light all the time."

"How's your father?"

"He's fine, so, Prim. The old man's trying to be New Kislev's sheriff because Rico's trying to get the place back in order, and offered him the job. Age never seems to catch up with that man."

Citan chuckled, then the look on his face turned serious.

"There's something I'd like you to do, Billy."

"What is it?"

"Remember a little while before we fought in Merkava, Fei, Emeralda, and I went to a large lighthouse."

Billy started to think back, and remembered hearing about it, but never visited the underground city he'd heard so much about.

"I remember, but I never went down there." Billy said.

"That's what I called you here for." Citan cleared his throat, and stood up in front of Billy.

"Being you're not so busy, I wanted to send you on what I'd call an investigation of this underground city from the Zeboim era. We never had too much time to spend on it when we first explored it, we had other concerns. So although I'd like to go back down there and see more of what I can explore, I'd rather you and some others go down and report what you've explored for me and everyone else curious."

It didn't sound like such a bad idea to Billy. He was curious about the Zeboim era himself.

"Why choose me though? There are quite a few other people who'd like to explore below the lighthouse, and I'm not exactly a scientist." Billy said skeptically.

"Don't doubt yourself so much, and like I said, there are two reasons I'm sending you and some people to accompany you. The first of which, is because of your youth."

"My...youth? What has that got to do with anything?"

"Simple. As it will always be, the future belongs to the young. Although you're definitely wise beyond your years, you still have much, much to learn. In fact, when I was your age, I thought I knew everything, only to find out I barely knew anything myself. All youth make that mistake. I'd like to make sure you avoid that as much as you can, and get a little knowledge of history."

Billy smirked, and leaned back in the seat.

"Why learn history? I was apart of it." Billy said sharply.

"Still, I'd like to go. What was the other reason you were sending me?"

"When we were last down there, there were a few nasty monsters there. They may be gone now, they are hopefully gone now. If they aren't, however, I need you and your team to handle whatever dangers you might encounter. I've already written down the suggested people you should take with you, who are...young, like yourself. Also strong like yourself."

Billy rolled his eyes. "Is this one big class field trip, Citan?"

Citan straightened his glasses and chuckled. "You could see it that way. Even you must admit, however, that there are too little things for you, the younger people to see or do."

"You especially, Billy, missed the many things youth has for you. Did you ever just...explore somewhere? This will be very fascinating, learning things about the old civilization before anyone else does. If you don't want to do this, however, I'm sure someone else would like to. Why, Elly would love more than anyone..."

Billy waved his and, cutting Citan off. "She's too busy and you know that. I'll do this, and tell everything you missed, everything I'll know back to you."

Citan nodded. "It's important we know the mistakes history makes, Billy. Or else we'll always, always be doomed to repeat it. That's the main purpose of this. Enlightenment would be a close second."

"Who exactly do you want to come along with me? Do I know them?"

Citan grinned. "Ah yes. Very well indeed."

Citan reached across his desk, took a sheet of paper, and handed it to Billy. The sheet of paper included the aspects of the mission he was being sent on, and the people he was suggested to take with him. Billy slowly lowered the paper from his face as he read it, and the look on his face showed just how annoyed he was.

"Oh no. Don't do this to me, Citan. Not them."

"Come now, Billy. They're you're friends!"

"No, one is my friend. The rest of them are ditzy, headstrong she-devils who wouldn't even be interested in this kind of thing."

"Don't be so sure, my friend. Go ask them first. Ditzy and headstrong, yes, but they are certainly clever and their strength exceeds possibly your own. So please...try them."









"Tell me again, why are you switching the power from the backup generator to the main generator?" Tolone asked her little sister Seraphita, standing over her as Seraphita kneeled at the bottom of the large battery generator.

"Because we have more power in backup right now than we do for main power! If we take away more of the backup power and put it to main