Tal Graile-Rerem

'-Fashnek!- shouted Tal above the wind. -I am the Heir of Ramellan, Emperor of the Chosen...-' Tal referring himself to Fashnek, the keeper of the Hall of Nightmares. "The Violet Keystone, Chapter Three."

Before the "Fall."
Tal is the eldest son of Rerem, guardian of the Orange Keystone, and Graile. He has two siblings, Gref and Kusi. Tal's family was ranked orange, he lived in the orange level. Before the fall occurred his father Rerem had gone missing, believed to be dead. Tal decided to get a sunstone to be able to find him. To do so, he climbed the Red tower with his brother, where they met the Keeper. Shortly afterward, Tal's brother was kidnapped by a Spiritshadow, in a moment of struggle, the chosen boy fell off the tower to be saved by his shadowguard.

Meeting Milla.
Tal first encountered Milla when he fell from the Red Tower and, with the aid of his shadowguard, glided to the world outside the Castle. He eventually landed, only to find himself in the middle of nowhere, buffeted by snow and lost in an endless expanse of ice. Helpless, he sighted a faint glow amid the snow. There, he met Milla.

Unbeknownst to Milla that Tal was a Chosen from the castle, she attacked him thinking that he was raiding on the land of her clan, the Far-Raiders. If not for the timely intervention of a Crone, Milla would've ended Tal's life. Even so, Milla begrudged Tal and repeatedly tried to get him to fight her. Tal was safe, at least, under the protection of the Crone, who held the authority of the clan. It dawned on Tal that these people were not Underfolks (who were servants to the Chosen in the castle) but a totally different race of people who declare themselves as Icecarls, living on the ice outside the world of the castle.

In return for the protection, the Crone demanded Tal to cure the sunstone on the Far-Raider's ship, which was in a worn-out state giving sporadic light. As a Chosen, he had learned light magic since a young age. By successfully tuning the Icecarl's sunstone, he was accepted into the Far-Raiders and was greeted by the Mother Crone of the clan (the equivalent of a clan elder). In reading Tal's future, the Mother Crone gave him and Milla a quest, for Tal to take Milla to the castle and obtain a sunstone for her to return to the Far-Raiders.

As with the Icecarl's custom, Tal and Milla sealed a bond to go on the quest. The ritual of bonding was a declaration of oath of honour to the ship, to the ice, and to each other; each part of which was accompanied by spilling drops of blood from the wrist's cuts and touching each others' wrist. As seen only by the keen eyes of the Crone, the flying droplets of blood from Tal and Milla as they scattered it to the wind miraculously touched and joined into one, symbolising an extraordinary and life-changing bond for them both.

Icecarls were sworn enemies of animated shadows, and Milla was no exception. She remained opposed to Tal's shadowguard, and in turn, to Tal, albeit it was not the killing hostility from their first encounter. For the bond in the quest they shared, the success onto which Milla would reach her dream in becoming a Shield Maiden, she led Tal and his shadowguard on a quest to reach the castle and procure a sunstone for her clan.

On their journey, Tal and Milla had to cross the living sea of the Selski, withstand against hailstorm that lasted for days, and traverse across dangerous terrains with Merwins and Perauls (giant predators on ice). On one such encounter with a gigantic Merwin, they both displayed a selfless fight against the Merwin. In the seconds which Tal managed to blind the creature, Milla climbed onto its back and repeatedly stabbed it to death. However, Milla suffered a fatal wound in the fight and her seemingly last breaths to Tal was to urge him to go on and complete the quest, showing her selfless loyalty towards her clan and earning Tal's respect as he thought no Chosen would risk their life for them order.

A band of Shield Maidens had been tracking the Merwin for days, and arrived to discover the Far-Raider Icecarl girl and the Chosen boy had slew the creature. After hearing Tal's story and seeing his scar on his wrist, the Shield Maidens attended to Milla's wounds. Still wary of the two, however, the Shield Mother ordered that the newcomers be brought to the Icecarl stronghold, the Ruin Ship, for judgement.

On arriving the Ruin Ship, Tal and Milla were brought before the Mother Crone. Tal discovered that the ship was made of a golden metal impervious to shadows. He was led by the Mother Crone to a large chamber where a number of Crones were directing Apprentice Shield Maidens to move miniature figurines of Icecarl ships on a giant map. The figurines represented the various clans scattered across the Ice. The telepathic communication between the Crones at the Ruin Ship and those of each clan created a real-time map of the world unknown to Tal. Tal noticed that almost half of the miniature ships were bereft of a sunstone light. It was to this end that the Mother Crone believed Tal's story and she saw the quest, if successful, would open a new chapter for her people. Hence, she allowed Tal and Milla to continue on their quest to the Mountain of Light, atop of which sat the castle of the Chosen.

With the aid of the Ruin Ship Icecarls, Milla gradullay recovered, albeit not to full strength. Resupplied, Tal and Milla set forth on their journey once more. Tal was given a map by the Mother Crone to access the Castle. This map was etched very finely by a skilled Light Magic user, showing an entryway to the castle through the heatway system.

En route to the entry point, however, the pair came to an impasse. A broken bridge and a chasm stood in their way. Tal was not confident Milla could jump across in her injured state and unwittingly told her so. Carrying the pride of an Icecarl, she mistook the concern as a challenge to her courage and she unremittingly performed a leap of faith. She made the jump by the slimmest of margin. Tal, lacking in courage but not in ability, got across better than Milla. It was here that Milla told her first Icecarl joke, a custom of which the person is asked to revisit danger once the danger has passed, and Tal thought with his half-crooked smile that he could put up with any number of 'stupid Icecarl jokes' as long as he was able to get back home. It was also the first time that he heard Milla laugh.

The pair arrived at the entry point to the tunnel and began their ascend through the heatway system. Halfway through, they discovered a skeleton with a sunstone ring. Milla quickly grabbed the ring and turned back to complete the quest and to become a Shield Maiden. However, Tal was desperate to get a sunstone of his own in order to get his family to the magical kingdom of Aenir, which would enable him to capture a Spiritshadow as part of a coming-of-age ritual for every Chosen. Milla relented as a repayment to Tal in saving her life against the Merwin, allowing Tal 14 days to get her a separate sunstone.

Towards the end of their climb, Tal and Milla encountered toxic air in the tunnel. They fell unconscious and were saved by the unlikely hands of the Freefolk patrolling the area. Freefolk were rebel Underfolk who strive to change the social hierarchy of the castle so that Underfolk would no longer be subservient to the Chosen. Tal had another narrow escape of death as the Freefolk were sworn enemies of the Chosen and Tal prudently hid his sunstone before he fell unconscious.

Discovered themselves on the Underfolks level, the quest mates were eager to move on, with Tal wanting to visit his ailing mother and Milla in search of her own sunstone. Tal's brother was captured during their climb to the Red Tower and he wanted to check on his mother and younger sister Kusi. It dawned on Tal that there were darker forces at work towards his family and the pair decided they would consult Tal's great-uncle Ebbitt on one of the lower Red levels.

It is worth noting that a Chosen's status within society is determined by their rank. In the hierarchy of the light spectrum, from Violet to Red, from high to low, as separated by seven towers within the castle representing each colour. Ebbitt was of the indigo order and as such a high ranking, skilled Light magic user or a Shadow Adept. However, he had since been demoted to the second lowest order of Red, the cause of which was unclear to Tal besides possibly due to Ebbitt's highly eccentric nature.

It was Ebbitt who advised Tal on climbing the Red Tower to 'borrow' a sunstone, or to be haphazardly enrolled in the competition of Light music in the hope of winning one. Having failed in the competition due to foul play by Tal's sworn enemy Shadowmaster Sushin, of the Violet order, Tal decided to take the matter to the highest of the high, the ruler of the castle, the Empress. The Orange order boy found himself playing Beastmaker, a popular Chosen battle card game, with the Imperial Guards in a bid to see the Empress. The game was stopped abruptly by the Empress' infamous Spiritshadow Sharrakor, a giant Aeniran dragon. Bedeviled by a plot to stop him getting a sunstone, Tal listened to Ebbitt's advice of climbing the Red Tower as a last resort, only to discover that there were free-roaming Spiritshadows guarding the Tower. Tal's brother Gref, who was stealthily following him, was captured and Tal fell off the Red Tower due to an attack by a Spiritshadow.

The chain of events in the castle led Tal to the unknown world of the Icecarl and now he came back with Milla to again consult Ebbitt. Having found Ebbitt in a maze of his own furniture, Tal was not disappointed in Ebbitt's eccentricity nor his obstinacy in giving any advice until he had heard the pair's story. Milla was amused by Ebbitt, as she expected to find him akin to a Mother Crone, but sometimes he acted more like a whimpering baby at best.

Suddenly, noises could be heard outside, followed by a blast of Light magic. The Imperial Guards and their Spiritshadows rushed into the abode to capture Tal and Milla. Tal was shaken and was quickly caught in the grip of an Imperial Guard. In the split second before he was captured, he surreptitiously slipped the new-found sunstone into his mouth. Ebbitt managed to escape through the backdoor and disappeared into the Underfolk corridors. Milla chose to confront the enemies rather than to escape, welding her glowing Merwin horn sword which could slice through the Spiritshadows. She was eventually subdued, knocked unconscious by Light magic, but not before injuring a few of the enemies.

The pair were separated and coerced to different parts of the castle for interrogation. Milla was taken to the Hall of Nightmares, a familiar household boogeyman in the form of a half-shadow half-man Chosen called Fashnek who could enter a person's dream and shape it into nightmare at his will. To the detriment of Fashnek, he thought Milla was a deranged Underfolk and an easy target to terrify. Milla was placed in a spherical glass powered by an apparatus of 12 sunstones. The only breathing holes at the bottom could be controlled to eject sleeping gas. Entrapped in a dream, Milla did what every Icecarl child learned to do. She called upon the Crones to drive the nightmare away. As annoyance gave way to fear, Fashnek was terrified to discover that Milla was really an outsider, an Icecarl and he hastened to tell his master this discovery.

Tal was scared of going to the Hall of Nightmares, as any Chosen children would. However, he had never heard of the Pit. As he was escorted by the Imperial Guard, he had a rising dread of the unknown. It turned out the Pit was aptly named, a giant pit of about 30m in diameter and just as deep. Imprisoned at the bottom of the pit, he was approached by Shadowmaster Sushin. Sushin questioned his whereabouts in the last fortnight and scorched his leg in the process, leaving him to commiserate and fear. In searching for a way up, Tal came across traces of names scratched at a corner of the pit, a lot of names. One stood out among the rest, Rerem, Tal's father. He touched the name with a sinking heart.

It became apparent to Tal that he could no longer trust the Chosen's established system in law and order, and that he had to forge a way to rescue his family on his own. Some time later, an Underfolk came to bring him his meal, along with a book, mouthing 'great-uncle Ebbitt paid his compliments'. It was a tutorial book to build a Staircase of Light, a feat that required great skills and concentration in Light magic. Using the new sunstone, Tal succeeded in reaching the top of the Pit by creating a Staircase of Light, only to find his great-uncle coming out of the waterway system to rescue him.

Ebbitt led Tal through the waterway of the castle to the Hall of Nightmares to rescue Milla. Forewarned by a danger of giant water spiders, they were covered in a sickly yellow repellant. To their relief and surprise, they found Milla completely indisposed and sitting in meditation. Milla greeted them heartily and smirked at the yellowish mess that was Tal. Ebbitt told the pair about the Codex of the Chosen, which was a magical book containing all the knowledge of the Chosen. It was lost some twenty years ago in Aenir, believed to be stolen and hidden away. The Codex would know what happened to Tal's father and what the future held for the Icecarls. Emboldened by this new purpose, the pair accepted Ebbitt's advice to enter Aenir.

The Codex was locked away under the Mountain of Four Rivers Meet. Aenir was a magical place where creatures were bounded to certain places by an ancient magic. The mountain giant had been asleep at the place for over five hundred years until three Chosens woke it up with a magical flute. The short period when the flute sounded and the mountain arched and stretched, two Chosens carried the stolen Codex and hid it under the mountain. The Codex, a highly intelligent sentient being, had the ability to take control of the mind of small creatures. Since it's entrapment, it had sprawled a vast network of contacts across Aenir. As it could only answer questions, it eagerly waited for the Day of Ascension each year, when it's people the Chosen would come to Aenir en mass. It was of no small interest, therefore, when the Codex found a Chosen boy and an Icecarl girl at Old Hrigga's Hill a few days before the Ascension.

Upon crossing to Aenir, Tal was dispirited to find his shadowguard gone. It was time for him to get a Spiritshadow and the bond between him and his shadowguard ceased. It was a bittersweet reunion when he found a Dattu, a small timid Aeniran, climbed onto his body and quickly shot away as a farewell gesture of his 14-year companion. There was little time for Tal to remorse as the landscape changed rapidly in a cacophony of moving trees as the grassland transformed into a basin under a deluge of rain. In their desperation to find shelter, Milla had a narrow escape from a Cavernmouth (an Aeniran predator) and they found themselves on Old Hrigga's Hill.

Emboldened by the new quest to find the Codex, Tal and Milla performed the Icecarl ritual in sealing their bond with blood. Unknowing to them, spilling blood on Old Hrigga amid a storm would call forth the Storm Shepherds demanding a blood price in return for a gift. The pair had a fleeting doubt of trust when confronted by the Storm Shepherds. However, as Tal looked at Milla and recalled her bravado, the stupid Icecarl joke, the relief he had when he found her safe at the Hall of Nightmares, Milla had changed him since the first moment they met. Likewise, Milla remembered Tal saving her life when crossing the living sea of the Selski and the encounter with the Merwin, and the genuine concern on his face when he was trying to find her at the Hall of Nightmares. She now saw in Tal not a Chosen bewitching shadows, but a trusted comrade in arms. Together they declared no blood price was to be paid, as the Chosen boy and Icecarl girl faced off the Storm Shepherds.

Unaffected by physical weapon and the Red Ray of Destruction, the storm shepherds quickly subdued the duo and boomed their demand of a blood price. With the hope of saving them both, Tal tried to bind a storm shepherd to be his Spiritshadow. However, the ancient binding spell included Icecarl's words which Milla fiercely repented Tal from speaking, in the process breaking the spell. Having lost only chance to bind a Spiritshadow, Tal was infuriated and the pair soon went at it tooth and nail. By some karma, Milla was knocked unconscious and Tal, remembering what he had learnt in the three parts of binding a Spiritshadow, swiftly made the decision for each of them to pair with a Spiritshadow, not as a servant but a companion. The situation was made dire by the waking of Old Hrigga. The storm shepherds, finding themselves a chance of freedom, jumped at the opportunity willingly. Each taking Tal's or Milla's shadow.

Carried away by the storm shepherds, Tal learned that they were in fact brother and sister, named Adras and Odris, respectively. Adras was the larger of the two, but what he gained in strength was amply forgone in intellect. Odris, the one paired with Milla, was the sister in control. Tal was worried about Milla, but as he approached him to examine her potential wounds, he found himself flatly on his back, with a knife pointing at his throat. Milla was furious at Tal having betrayed him and sold her shadow. Now she could never become a Shield Maiden. She withdrew from killing him at the last second and knocked him unconscious. She would not forgive him and ran away from Tal.

When Tal was awake, there was a directional sign made by flying insects. Suspecting it was a clue from the Codex, he followed the way to a desert. There he found an oasis and encountered a purplish worm which made his hair bright green. The Codex took over the worm's mind in the last second, preventing it from killing Tal. Tal learned of a place or person by the name of Hazror, which Adras was fearful of. Now certain that he had to find a key to release the Codex and the key was held by Hazror, he went in search of the person.

Milla was angry at herself in losing control, as it was the Shield Maiden's way to keep a cool head in order to make sound judgements. She found herself in a jungle with giant predatory birds, and the worst part was that Odris was with her, a constant reminder of her failure. She realised that in her greed to venture into Aenir to bring back information on a place where possibly no icecarls had ever been, she had been astrayed from her mission in bringing back a sunstone to her clan. She decided that she would give herself to the Ice upon return. For now, however, she had to stay alive as she found herself chased by giant birds into a strange tower with tendrils of after-burn smell. The birds stayed away from the tower and it made Milla suspicious. She tried to exit, only to find herself magically re-enter the tower.

As the night worn on, the smell of smoke became stronger. A lizard, a Kurshken by the name of Zicka, appeared at the entrance, announcing himself as a sender from the Codex to help Milla get out on the condition that she would meet with Tal to help him retrieve the Codex. Milla was reluctant to comply. Zicka eased Milla's recalcitrance by telling her that the tower would burn in the first light of dawn. Milla acquiesced and Zicka fired an arrow attached to a rope. By holding something connected to the outside, Milla and Odris was able to escape the tower. Zicka then led them to his boat, onto which they journeyed towards Four River's Meet. To Milla's astonishment, it was the legendary boat used by her ancestor from 2000 years ago, Danir. Zicka told Milla that the magic in Aenir was centred on creatures being bonded to specific places, and this binding was done by Icecarl and Chosen long ago to prevent the Aenirans from entering the Dark World. The Veil, which clouded the Sun from the world below, was constructed on the same purpose. Now the Chosen were undoing the magic, bringing Aeniran creatures back to the Dark World as Spiritshadows, unbalancing both worlds.

Tal arrived at Hazror's domain. Hazror was an aged Chosen carrying the flute, which could make the Mountain at Four Rivers Meet move, on his neck. Tal discovered that other Chosens had died in their attempt to get the flute, and was disgusted to find that Hazror lured them into his domain, just like he did. Overpowering Hazror with his physical strength, he grabbed the flute and with the help of Adras, exited the evil place. Tal grimly realised that past Chosens had died in trying to reclaim the Codex and he asked himself the question on whether it was Hazror or the Codex that was responsible for their deaths. It dawned on Tal that the Codex was a very powerful and so, dangerous, specimen of Chosen magic. In fact, it was the first time that Tal questioned the ethical use of magic.

Relationships
Milla to Tal:

Milla of the Ruin Ship
-I cannot kill you, we have shared too much blood, and I understand too well why you have done what you did. One day you, too, may lose your future at the hands of someone you thought a friend.

-Milla to Tal. "Aenir, Chapter 23."

Tal's relation to Milla was in the start a harsh one, Milla thought of Tal as nothing more than an enemy. But when she and Tal fought together against a Merwin and Tal saved her, she had mixed emotions, first of gratitude, that made her see him as bearable and not an opponent. And second, of annoyance. Milla was a warrior, and by such, she felt annoyed and angry about owing someone like Tal her life. Tal and Milla's relationship grew slightly closer when they traveled to the castle and fought to get to Aenir, during this time they had a more friendlier relationship, but that changed when Tal was forced to bind Milla to the Storm Shepherd, Odris. Giving away her natural shadow in the process. In retaliation, she tried to kill him, but thinking against it she knocked the boy unconscious. When he woke up he felt terrible for ruining the Icecarl's future. And felt sad to think her as an enemy after all they've been through. Eventually, they met again and partially forgave each other even when Milla said her people's nature wasn't a forgiving one. Afterward, when they arrived back to the castle, Tal, was wary of speaking to her, not knowing how she will react.

Powers and Abilities.
Tal is a very powerful and skilled Chosen, he is also the only one that is able to use the Violet Keystone. And by such, he is the Emperor of the castle. Tal also is able to use the highest level of Violet, which is the hardest color to use. Tal was able to merge all the colors, make a hand of light that would take normally three experienced light mages, and create the Violet Unraveling.