Echoes in the Garden

## Glitchtale

*"Our stoves and heaters and torches which all use Arnicite, they have to do without it. The whole world needs to be changed, from the bottom to the top. It's not going to be easy. But it's possible. Especially with your help. It's a fight that's worth fighting–and it can't happen slowly. It needs to happen now."*
―Jessee Krovor to Ozrich Maekrik
***Echoes in the Garden*** is a prequel story that provides depth into Jessee Krovor and Milo Ralobella, characters that will appear in *Meropos*. It was written by Devour.

## Plot

Jessee Krovor, leader of the Grey Phantoms, seeks to have a private meeting with King Ozrich Maekrik of Justeco, the wealthiest and most influential person in the world. He, Milo Ralobella and Sae Ereny sneak across the extremely wide-scaled garden of the Royal Castle of Justeco, and Jessee himself feels coldly nervous about this plan. After Sae teleports the royal guards to the other side of Justeco City, Jessee and Milo enter Ozrich's private garden room. Jessee introduces himself as the leader of the second incarnation of the Grey Phantoms, much to ire of Ozrich, since the previous incarnation led by Fergal Baladeva had wreaked havoc, destruction and the killings of innocent people for decades beforehand.

Jessee assures the King that he had overcome Fergal and promises to settle the Grey Phantoms's goal of achieving peace and equality with humans who lack SOUL Traits in a more orderly manner. Much to their surprise, Ozrich reveals that Fergal himself had attempted to speak about his goal peacefully in the beginning, and thus the tension starts. Ozrich states that only two percent of the humanity inhabiting Meropos are Traitless, so therefore, they are statistically unimportant. After a failed attempt to advise how to resolve the Traitless crisis, the angered Jessee declares that they need to reshape the world's system from scratch instantly so that the Traitless can fit.

When questioned if he cares for innocent people, Ozrich, enraged, confirms he deeply cares about the wellbeing the millions of inhabitants of Meropos, mentioning that in the Grey Phantoms's Political Ultimatum, he risked his very own life to end it without sending thousands of soldiers to die in battle. Additionally, he keeps a watchful eye over Marcella Baladeva, who supports her son in secret, to prevent the possibility of causing another war. Ozrich concludes the argument that he does indeed care about everyone, so Jessee, calming himself, decides to leave peacefully and hopes to change Ozrich's mind soon.

As soon as Jessee inquires about having a Traitless member of the Wizard Council, Ozrich snaps and become furious, since in the past, Fergal was just like Jessee, wanting to resolve the crisis peacefully, but his failures caught up to him and forged him into a genocidal warlord. Ozrich bears immense guilt for not killing Fergal when they first met, because it would have prevented the deaths of countless people. Using his Justice magic, Ozrich attempts to execute Jessee, but Milo rescues him by taking the brunt of the attack. The completely flabbergasted Jessee sees Milo bleeding almost fatally, so he collapses the private room into rubble and struggles to flee to the forest behind the castle, with Milo on his back.

Ozrich confesses his motivation towards Jessee, who is heavily insulted and rebukes the idea he will end up corrupted like Fergal. As the battle continues, Jessee is weakened and rendered defenceless, and as soon as Ozrich tries to deal the final blow out of fear Jessee will travel the same dark path, Sae arrives to teleport herself and the two Grey Phantoms to the
Grey Phantoms Headquarters. While Milo is being healed, Gall Gassasu visits without his usual bitter self, but rather a pained expression. Gall admits that when he himself was mortally wounded a while ago, Fergal never bothered to rescue him. Hearing this, Milo makes a promise by himself that Jessee will never end up like Fergal.

## Appearances

### Characters

* Jessee Krovor
* Milo Ralobella
* Sae Ereny
* Ozrich Maekrik
* Gall Gassasu

### Locations

* Justeco
	+ Royal Castle of Justeco
	+ Grey Phantoms Headquarters
* Justeco City, Justeco (mentioned)
* Integreco (mentioned)

### Events

* Traitless Rights Movement
	+ Escape from Ozrich Maekrik
* Attack on Ozrich Maekrik (mentioned)
* Grey Phantoms's Political Ultimatum (mentioned)

### Items

* Sword of Justice
* Arnicite (mentioned)

### Sentient Species

* Humans
* Monsters (mentioned)

### Organizations

* Grey Phantoms
* Royal Guard of Justeco
* Royal Family of Justeco
* Wizard Council (mentioned)
* Royal Family of Integreco (mentioned)

### Mentioned

* Arcane Maethor
* Stelle
* Fergal Baladeva
* Marcella Baladeva
* Apitat