AEHU/Plot/Plot Sketch Chapter 6

"Ties That Bind"

  • Schala accompanies her mother and father on an annual beast hunt tradition meant as a show of the royal family's strength; Zeal has not seen war in centuries, so this is the only true combat exercise they ever get. Suddenly there's a beast attack on Algetty. King Zeal realizes the Earthbound lack the capability to defend themselves from such an onslaught and Queen Zeal worries about the impact of Earthbound losses on energy production efforts critical to keeping the Sky Islands afloat. King and Queen Zeal go out to meet the beast horde head-on with Derben and Dalton among their entourage, leaving the Seneschal - King Zeal's sister Demeria - to protect Schala. When she sees another swarm of beasts head into the Algetty cave network after King and Queen Zeal, Demeria makes a snap decision to head in as well, and Schala agrees to go along.
  • Schala and Demeria meet the younglings Masa and Mune briefly and hook up with Derben inside the Algetty cave network. Demeria notices a few Earthbound armed with advanced recoilless rifle (i.e., bazooka) weapons, a serious breach of Zealian law. Derben argues that the Earthbound are probably just using the weapons for self-defense and they're perfectly justified in doing so given the circumstances. Schala & co. take down The Horror, a giant creature the beasts' imp overlords drag around for heavy firepower; King and Queen Zeal vanquish the imp lord apparently commanding the assault.
  • Back in Zeal, the following events are witnessed by Schala and her sidekick brother:
    • Belthasar summons King Zeal to a meeting in which he unveils the discovery of an Object capable of yielding tremendous amounts of energy; it may just spell the end of Zeal's energy crisis.
    • Derben is demoted from the palace guard and assigned to the Guru of Life's sky island laboratory security detail. Demeria visits Derben to say her farewell, since his being in the royal guard meant they were working in close cooperation until now.
    • Queen Zeal argues vehemently with her uncle, Seith Dragus Creojeanne, about her involvement in the Algetty beast raid. As the royal family line's "conservator," Seith ensures the long-run political integrity of the Creojeanne family. His penchant for emotional manipulation of Queen Zeal and his disgust for Earthbound become apparent. Surprisingly, he approves of Schala's wish to teach Earthbound language classes, but he's most interested in the intelligence-gathering implications of Schala's work.
  • After his meeting with Belthasar, King Zeal shares a tender moment with Queen Zeal while she's in recovery from her scuffle with Seith. He announces that he'll accompany Belthasar for an immediate expedition to get a look at this Object for himself. King Zeal also wants to take care of the Earthbound weapons cache dilemma on the sly, so he brings Schala along as interpreter and entrusts Derben with working out an appropriate political solution, since he can rely on Derben's pro-Earthbound leanings.
  • The Blackbird lifts off on its maiden voyage, complete with an orchestra to send it off properly. On board, Schala meets the Gurus (Bekkler-Life, Belthasar-Reason, Gaspar-Time) as well as Dr. Melchior, an extremely gifted engineer and Dreamstone specialist attached to Belthasar's team. Schala also witnesses a heated argument between her father and Demeria over his choice of Derben over her to deal with the Earthbound weapons issue; Demeria feels slighted by what she perceives as a lack of trust.

Back to AEHU/Plot