The Unnamed Saga: Sisters and Song Script, Chapter Eighteen: "Advent"

Chapter Eighteen: Advent

 

Open on the Anthem Mansion guest room interior.  Mary and Elsea are waiting around Zelos’ bed.  Mary is sitting cross-legged.  Elsea is nodding off.

Show Zelos sleeping quietly.  There is still a faint flush to his cheeks and a wet rag on his forehead.

Show Elsea snoring softly.

Mary stands and turns toward the door. 

She stretches.

She shakes Elsea awake.

 

Mary: “Good Lady, mayhap you might wish to wake and rise.”

 

Elsea: “Hm?  What? Miss Mary? Is it morning?”

 

Mary: “Not yet, but I’m afraid they won’t wait until morning.”

 

Elsea wipes her mouth and looks at Mary.

 

Elsea: “What do you mean?”

 

The door bursts in.

Anthem soldiers pile into the room.  They are outfitted with armor and weapons.  Archers stand in the corners with swordsmen in the lead.  President Thaddeus stands at the center. 

He enters with a look of self-satisfaction.  His hands are folded behind his back.

 

Thaddeus: “Hello, ladies.  I apologize for calling on you so late.”

 

Mary: “Yes, quite poor manners, that.  And arriving unannounced, too.  Please, do come back in the morning, if you wouldn’t mind.”

 

Thaddeus: “I do mind.”

 

Mary: “Unfortunate.  However, we are not entertaining guests.  We’ve an ailing child to attend to and all.”

 

Thaddeus: “I see. However, I really must insist.”

 

Mary: “Yes, yes, games aside, are you mad or are you a fool?  Remember, if you care to, the power that we mages house within our hands.  We are no simple maids to be captured and towered in the night, no damsels to be your bait, Sir President.  Nay, we are women, powerful ones, and we can fight our way through if we so choose.”

 

President Thaddeus smiles.  Behind him mages enter the room.  Their hands burn with magic of different colors.

Zoom in on President Thaddeus’ face as the lights dance along his cheeks, illuminating his features with frightening edges.

 

Thaddeus: “And you remember that I have mages of my own.”

 

Elsea stands beside Mary.  Her hands now blaze with sky-blue light.

 

Mary: “Mayhap you do, but—But?”

Mary turns to look at Zelos.

Mary: “Oh.  No!”

 

Show Zelos from a top view.  He is sleeping soundly, but fire can be heard burning in the background.

Zoom in on him.  Show a faint glow of golden light beneath his eyes.  The sound of burning kindling grows more intense.

Zelos opens his eyes. Both shine gold.

 

Cut to the Anthem streets by night.  Glenn and Zara runs down the narrow streets quickly.  Glenn’s cloak has a small splash of blood across the front.  He leads Zara by the hand.

They come to a stop beside a tall building and hide in its shadow. 

Glenn peeks around it.

They leave the building’s shadow with Glenn in the lead and run out into the street.

Show the mansion in the distance, on a hill high above.  Show them in the foreground, with silhouetted buildings ahead of them.

 

Glenn: “We’re almost there.  We just need to grab the others and run.”

 

Zara nods. 

There is a golden gleam off screen and an explosion.

Zara: What was that?”

They both look.

 

Show the Anthem mansion in the distance.  One of the rooms is blown out.  Smoke rolls from the open wound on the building.  Yellow and orange flames dance and illuminate the night.

Show Glenn frowning.  The light dances on his face.

 

Glenn: “Something bad.  Come on, let’s go!”

 

Cut to the Anthem Mansion guest room interior.  Show swirling yellow flames intermingled with shades of orange and red.  The screen is bright, and the room crackles in the heat.

Show a sphere of flame in the center.  Shadows dance in its interior.  Everything around it burns.

The sphere parts in a burst of wind, revealing Mary and Elsea inside.  Mary has her hand up and it is glowing red.  Elsea is kneeling beside her in shock.

The wind blows all of the other fires out.

Mary lowers her hand.  Elsea stands beside her.

 

Mary: “Are you okay?”

 

Elsea nods.

Mary steps forward and snuffs out a single cinder.

 

Elsea: “What was that?”

 

Mary: “A considerable amount of trouble, that is what.”

 

Show the blackened room.  Cinders glow red in the corners.  The outer wall of the room has been blown out and the balcony is shattered.  Burnt bodies lay scattered around the room.

Show President Thaddeus lying beside the door.  He is wheezing and burnt.  Bodies lay around him like human shields.  He has glowing yellow cinders imbedded in his body.   He coughs.

Mary steps over to him and kneels down.

 

Thaddeus: “What was…”

 

Mary: “A monster of enormous power.  Mayhap he didn’t like the threats what you were throwing around.”

 

Mary stands.  Her hands glow red with power, and so do her runes.

He twists her hands, and off screen there is a wet snap. Elsea is shocked.

 

Elsea: “Miss Mary!”

 

Mary: “Yes, yes, my behavior is morally ambiguous at best and all, but he was trash, and even were to have survived, he would have continued to be trash.  Should it help you to sleep at night, consider that I was also ending his suffering as he struggled toward the very same conclusion. More importantly, we’ve other matters to attend to, such as a prince with a renegade god what is navigating him.”

 

Elsea: “A god?”

 

Mary: “Oh, my, had I not said as much?  I am almost sure I had.  Oh, well, I suppose the cat is now out of the bag, as it were.  Mayhap, though, we should prioritize and save this conversation for a later date?”

Elsea stares blankly and nods.

Mary goes to the hole in the wall where the balcony was.  The burnt edges of the balcony hang from the side.

Mary: “That is a good lady.  Now then, how are you with heights?”

 

Elsea: “Erm.”

 

Mary: “Delightful!”

 

Mary leaps from the balcony.

Hold on the open hole in the wall, now with Elsea standing, staring out of it.  Below, off-screen, there is a red flash.

 

Cut to the Anthem streets, just outside of the mansion.  Show Zara and Glenn running up the road to the gate.

Show the gate swinging outward with Mary and Elsea coming out of it.

They meet, and Zara and Elsea embrace.  Glenn and Mary stare across at each other.

 

Glenn: “You’re okay.”

 

Mary: “Only just barely, sir knight, and then only because of my quick thought and even quicker magic!”

 

Show the smoldering ruins of the guest room from the outside.  A black ring is burnt around the hole in the wall.

 

Zara: “What happened up there?”

 

Mary: “Why, princess, it is quite the long story, but in short: Zelos happened.”

 

Glenn: “What?”

 

Elsea: “Zelos just opened his eyes and…”

 

Glenn frowns.

 

Glenn: “His eye.”

 

Mary: “Eyes.  I’m afraid things may have taken a sharp turn for the worst, and our little pumpkin is in the deep of it.  Now then, we need more information.  Sir Knight, when you found him, I assume you noticed the wound what is on his neck?”

 

Glenn: “Yes.”

 

Mary: “I see.”

 

She rubs her chin.

 

Zara: “What’s going on?”

 

Mary: “Well, were I to wager, I’d say that something is using the boy as a vessel.  That we’ve known for some time, but judging from the scar on his neck, I would say that something inside of him is somehow keeping him alive.  Should my theory be correct, then here is the situation: Zelos suffered a wound what ought have killed him, and his little guest took the opportunity to seize control of the body, which means that we’ve a much greater problem than Fiona’s war march or Anthem’s betrayal.”

 

Glenn: “What problem exactly?”

 

Mary: “That is the question, is it not?”

 

Elsea: “But, Miss Mary…”

Everyone looks at Elsea, who shies away.

Elsea: “I thought you had said…”

 

Glenn: “Mary?”

 

Mary sighs dramatically.

 

Mary: “Well, I do have something of an answer, but it is one that may lead to much laughter from the audience.  So, in consideration to that, I exercise my right to reserve such information until sufficient proof has presented itself.”

 

Glenn: “Denied.”

 

Mary: “Now, Sir Knight, I do fear this will go over about as well as my theory about Metis, if not worse so.”

 

Zara: “By the gods, just tell us, woman!”

 

Mary looks at the three.  Elsea looks curious.  Glenn has his arms crossed.  Zara is tapping her foot and has her hands on her hips.

 

Mary: “Oh, fine, if you three do insist.  Who am I to say no to such handsome faces?  What is currently making home within the heart of our little pumpkin prince is, simply put, a god.”

 

They are all quiet.

 

Glenn: “A god.”

 

Mary: “Yes, and one of an ancient sort, I should think.  Remember you the myths?  The Fox and the Flame? The Song and the Serpent?”

 

Glenn: “Yes.”

 

Mary: “Well, in truth, they are no simple myths.  Once, they were history as it was being writ.  Enough time has passed, however, that they became stories, and as things often do, they became fictions.”

 

Zara: “But that’s impossible.”

 

Mary: “Yes, impossible.  Like a single magician igniting an entire city with only a single spell.”

 

Glenn and Mary trade looks.

 

Glenn: “So, what does this god want?”

 

Mary: “Something simple, I’d say.  Gods are simple things, after all.  Song wants to sing.  Serpent wants to shine. Sea wants to churn, so on and forth.  Were I to wager upon its course, however, I’d say it is heading determinedly toward the Anthem cathedral.”

 

Zara: “The cathedral?  What does it want?”

Zara goes wide-eyed.

Zara: “Oh, no.”

 

Cut to the Anthem streets outside of the Cathedral.  The streets are blackened and smoldering.

Show burning buildings flanking the street.  Anthem soldiers are dying in the flames.  Some are still screaming.

Show an Anthem soldier lying in the street.  He is wheezing and burnt.  His armor is melted against his body.  A thin shadow is over him.

Show a foot stepping over him.  It glows with magic and leaves a burnt ring on the stone.

Show Zelos walking ahead.  Both of his eyes glow.  Magical flames swirl around him, casting color across his body.

Show Anthem soldiers at the far end of the street, all outfitted with weapons.  Archers stand between them with arrows knocked.

 

Anthem Soldier3: “Ready?”

Show the line of soldiers from a long, left view.  Show the archers pulling their arrows back and aiming their shots.

Anthem Soldier3: “FIRE!”

 

Show the arrows release and arcing through the air.

Show the arrows hit.  A few land shy of him.  The rest hit a swirling barrier of flame and are incinerated instantly.

Zelos stops and stares blankly ahead.

Show flames fill the streets and wash over everything.

Show the streets from a distance.  Tongues of flame of flame rise between the buildings and illuminate the city.

Show fire spilling out of the end of the street and spreading to nearby buildings.

Show a single Anthem soldier flat against a wall.  The right side of his face is blistered and his armor is burning hot.  He stares ahead wide-eyed.

Show where the soldiers were lined up.  The flames have receded, leaving burnt bodies and melting steel in their wake.

Zelos steps into view and the flames part around him.

Show Zelos from a front view.  He is standing beside the Anthem soldier, who is quaking.

He grabs the soldier by the neck.  The soldier screams.

The soldier goes rigid.

Show a close view of the solder’s face.  His eyes are blank.  Smoke rolls from his mouth.

Zelos drops him the soldier and walks on.

Hold on the soldier’s body as it burns up from the inside.

Follow Zelos up a long, winding hill.  He leaves foot prints burnt into the stones in his wake.

Show the anthem cathedral exterior.  It glows brightly from the flames in the city.  The entrance is barricaded.

Show the interior, where Anthem soldiers hold the barricade.  They wait with pikes and bows ready.

Show the barricade.  The room is dark and quiet.  There is a light hissing.

The barricade glows orange in the center.

The barricade glows red in the center and bulges inward.

The barricade melts away in a rushing stream of flames.  The flames spread, hitting soldiers and pews and reducing them to ash.

Zelos enters the Cathedral.  Flames pour from his open, smiling mouth.

A nearby soldier stabs him in the chest with a pike.

Zelos looks at the pike, which is melting.

He pulls the pike out and the wound heals in a flash of fire.

He pulls the soldier forward by the pike and breaths fire into his face.

Pull back and show the flames pouring past him, hitting soldiers who are waiting, and burning them alive.  Screams fill the cathedral as surviving soldiers retreat.

 

Anthem Soldier4: “Hold! We have to hold!”

 

Anthem Soldier4 leads another soldier up.  They have short swords drawn.

Just before they are in range a jet of flame appears from the ground and burns them both alive.

The flame recedes and Zelos steps over the burnt remains.

Show the palanquin. A single soldier is standing before it.  A pike shakes in his hands.

 

Anthem Soldier5: “S-Stop right there or—or else!”

 

Zelos stops and stares at him.

The pike bursts into flames.

Anthem Soldier5 drops the pike and staggers back.

He grabs his short sword and charges.

Anthem Soldier5 erupts into screams and flames.

As Anthem Soldier5 falls to the left and from the stairs, Zelos climbs up.

Show Zelos standing before the palanquin.  His body burns with magical energy, and the flames curl and hiss. The veils on the palanquin burn slowly, carefully, as they dance in the heat.  They reveal Aria waiting inside.

Show Zelos from the front.  His eyes are shining gold.  Behind him the cathedral still burns.  Soldiers lay scattered, smoldering and blackened.  A smile is cut across his face.

Cut to black.

 

Zelos, off-screen: “Hello, Song.”