PART II: AFTER THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 20: Innocent Earthseer

• A sheep Anima girl named Lara grew up in a hidden Anima village, where she grew close to the nature spirits attracted to her innocence and purity. One day, Lara was led by the spirits to a forbidden sanctuary, where she found a golden bell and a prophecy stating: “One bright day, this bell will ring… to wash away the Sinners’ wrongs.” When the village elders saw that the bell glowed in Lara’s hands, they believed that Lara was the one destined to make the bell ring and fulfill their village’s purpose.

• In order to make the bell ring, Lara and the spirits went on a journey to a village on the moon of Narin, where she encountered a wolf Anima named Gri, who lived on the streets. Hoping to swindle her bell, Gri pretended to be her friend, though he was both annoyed and impressed by Lara’s innocence and naivety, as she would constantly help the villagers around her, who seemed to be losing parts of their memories.

• When Lara trusted him with her bell, Gri attempted to determine its value and learned that it held immeasurable magical power. Realizing that it was quite important to her, Gri’s good nature overtook him, causing him to return the bell to Lara. Upon seeing that she had truly believed that he had been helping her learn more about the bell, Gri felt guilty and revealed that he had been trying to steal it.

• However, Lara told Gri that she still believed him to be a good person, as the nature spirits, who only appeared to those with good hearts, were attracted to him like sunlight. Lara soon learned that Gri was in debt to the greedy Magistrate of their village, who taxed the citizens dry, for which Gri was trying to pay off his debt so that he could leave the village.

• After coming clean to Lara, Gri decided to help her learn more about the bell. During their research, they encountered a old book written by the creators of the bell, who had claimed that the bell was a type of mysticant. Though most mysticants existed independently of mortals’ wills, the bell mysticant had been created by the authors to embody their will and purpose, though the rest of the pages had been torn out of the book.

• Soon after, Lara and Gri met a painter named Hannah, who saved them from the Magistrate. Lara learned from Hannah that she had known Gri’s father, and that after his father had passed, the Magistrate had taken everything from Gri and his brother, Gru, including a prized keepsake. Though Gru had been working tirelessly to buy back the keepsake, Gru had one day disappeared, leaving Gri destitute and on the streets.

• Eventually, Lara and Gri’s resistance to the Magistrate inspired the townspeople to rise up against him and drive him out of town. Hannah thanked Lara for her actions, as the Magistrate had been forcing her to paint him new pictures every month. Soon after, Lara discovered the missing pages of the book and learned that most mysticants were cursed objects with evil energy. As a sickness caused by a mysticant could only be cured by another mysticant, the bell had been created to purify the dark energies of the other mysticants.

• Meanwhile, Hannah - who was secretly in possession of an evil paintbrush mysticant - decided to stop Lara and tricked her into burning the paintbrush while holding the bell in order to ‘cleanse’ it, fully aware that the bell could not cleanse a mysticant simply by putting it next to one. During this time, she called Gri to her studio, where he was horrified to find Lara burning the paintbrush, which was actually his father’s keepsake, bought by Hannah from the Magistrate long ago.

• Believing that Lara had tricked him while pretending to be his friend, Gri stormed off, breaking Lara’s heart and causing her to lose her connection to the spirits. Hannah then revealed that she had made a deal with the Magistrate to paint him a new picture every month by using the paintbrush mysticant, which had the power to gouge out happy memories and paint them on a canvas, which was the reason why so many villagers were losing their memories. She also revealed that Gri’s brother hadn’t run away, but rather, he had been kidnapped and bled dry of his memories.

• Meanwhile, Gri found a note from Gru and learned that the paintbrush was evil, and that Gru had been hoping to buy it back and destroy it. He then rushed back to Lara, who was overjoyed to see that he had returned. This allowed Lara’s heart to be made whole again, reconnecting her with the spirits. Nevertheless, Hannah easily defeated them with the power of the paintbrush mysticant.

• With no other choice, Lara offered herself and all her countless happy memories in exchange for Gri’s life. As Gri attempted to stop her from sacrificing herself, the bell responded to their pure thoughts and rang with an ethereal note, causing the paintbrush, Hannah, and all her paintings to be erased forever.

• With both Hannah and the Magistrate gone, Gri decided to go on an adventure to find a new purpose, while Lara hoped to learn more about the bell. One of Gri’s contacts instructed her to meet the Shadowdealers at Savage Terminal, where she encountered Cadena and Gen, who suggested that she go to Maple World.

• Meanwhile, Kaling arrived at Narin Village and learned from Gri’s contact that Lara had a mysticant, and that she had used its power to destroy another mysticant, which caused her to grow interested in Lara and her bell.