It's finally here!
I'm back off my hiatus (during which I wrote "Guilty Gear: The Missing Link" if you want to read it) and back to writing "The Servant". I've actually been writing it for a while. This early part of the story, in my opinion, runs a bit slowly. I tried to keep things moving as much as possible until the "good" parts. I'm just starting to get into them in my writing, but there's a few chapters before that. This is the first. Hope you all enjoy.
THE DIABLOS SAGA
Five Years Later
"I hope you can help us out with this, buddy. Because we're at a loss."
The figure addressed said nothing in response. He stood still as one of the demolition crew members of the New Shinra HQ Dome turned to the ground and opened a trap door that had been deployed there. After doing so, he reached over and turned a switch on a machine, letting temporary lights that had been installed on the other side come on and illuminate the area.
There was a bit more sunlight here now. After five years of demolition, the original Dome shape of the New Shinra's HQ was a massive gutted indentation. The center had been stripped and removed. And since this was the center, that meant that sunlight was now free to pour down into the deep crater that had once been the sub-basements of the Dome. All around them at a distance, rising for hundreds of feet, was the edges of the remaining Dome. They were rubbled and fragmented now, torn apart by countless hours of manpower tearing them down. They still had their structure, but they were not yet far enough away from the center to spare those there the sound of machinery humming and tools working.
This was the former sub-basement, and as a result those gathered here were far below the surface of the ground. One could hardly tell, however, with how large and open it now was. There was only a ridge of visible ground for reference surrounding the center, and the workers were tearing apart this deeply around them as well as above them.
Five people were gathered in the center at the moment. Three were workers who had been there for a while. One of them was the man who had first driven too deep with his jackhammer and had found the entrance to where they were. After calling his foreman over, and after getting more people to do some further work, they began to find something far more extensive. At first they thought it was a strangely-shaped sinkhole…but then they started to see things in it on closer investigation that looked unnatural and far older than a mako sinkhole. They had "spruced" it up a bit, giving it lights and covering the entrance with a trap door, as well as a later modification down below. But other than that, they had left it be. They weren't sure what to make of it. They should have been happy. It was, after all, probably a massive archeological find. However…that place had made the workers nervous. Everyone seemed more on edge now who hung around that area. Soon, people were working extra hard to put distance between themselves at the spot, and everyone signed up for areas as far away from it as possible. Something about it made them uncomfortable…
That was why the master foreman, once he started getting excuses of fear for unfinished quotas, had requested the presence of a certain man. Although he wouldn't recognize Cetra architecture from Lufenian calligraphy, he had a feeling that people who were archeologists would have a better time making sense out of what they had found. To that end, he had found out that a particular VIP was doing archeological work in the City of the Ancients. Mistaking this place for just another "Ancient site", he had called the man in to check it out. After getting some details, the man had brought along one of the better geologists he had working with him and came.
And now…Ragnar Vice stood on the edge looking down into this new pit in the world.
That's what it looked like, now that it was illuminated. Just a deep, cylindrical, vertical pit…stretching hundreds of feet down into oblivion. He turned his head over the edge, and could just barely see the bottom far below. It was rather dizzing, like something out of a fantasy world. No wonder it had made the workers uncomfortable. Even as he was, and after all he had seen in his life, he was dizzy himself.
Yet there was no way that this place was natural…unless it had been a victim of cosmic odds. That was because a great circular staircase was made into the edges of it. The stairs were not put into the sides, but rather rose from the ground below, forming a series of concentric circles leading to the bottom while simultaneously narrowing the shaft. That only made it more mystifying and eerie.
Ragnar's geologist, a young student named Rex, was far more bewildered than he was, and far more on edge as well. However, he let his curiosity take control of him. It was a desire to learn about strange materials and geological events that led him north to study how the fascinating City of the Ancients could have naturally arisen. Here was another phenomenon. He was a bit wiry, with messy hair and oversized glasses. Picture of a science nerd, but good at what he did. He leaned down to the sides of the pit, and reached out and felt the rock. He leaned a bit closer on doing so, and scrutinized it a bit better.
"This rock isn't anything like the surrounding strata." He mentioned aloud. "It's layered with sediment…kind of like caverns with stalagtites and stalagmites. A lot of water has to have found its way to it over time, and run down these edges. It has to be tens of thousands of years old at least. But there's no underground stream here that wouldn't have been frozen off. My guess is that some of the seismic activity that occurred around the siege of the Dome drove this up to the level where the workers could find it."
The three demolition men turned and looked to Rex with some puzzlement. Ragnar himself looked down a bit with an eyebrow raised. "You found out all that just from looking at this?"
The young man looked back up, and pushed his glasses back against his head with a shrug. "Well, a lot of it is just theory. But it would have made sense as to why the New Shinra didn't run across this earlier. Of course…that only makes the situation weirder. If this thing did get forced up, how come it didn't get wrecked during the upheaval? It has all this empty space in it, after all. It must have been capped in some way by the same material the sides are made out of. Yet I've got no idea what that is."
"That's still more than we know already." One of the workers answered. "Come on. But watch your step. These stairs are pretty smooth."
The worker stepped forward and took the lead in walking down the tunnel. Ragnar and Rex quickly fell in behind. Soon after, the last two workers came.
It didn't take long for the climate to change. It seemed far drier and cooler. It was rather pleasant actually. The air was surprisingly fresh, considering how long this area had to be under the ground. This, of course, only made Ragnar more curious. He had been to places under the ground before, and usually it took something rather special to make the air this fresh. Usually, it was a place that was brimming with life…like the crystal shrine beneath the City of the Ancients. Yet he somehow doubted this was made by the Cetra…
"Pardon me…" One of the workers suddenly spoke up. "But did you just say that this place had to be tens of thousands of years old? I ain't no historian, but I know staircases haven't been around that long."
"Nevertheless, that's the case." The student answered, already turning to the sides of the pit and examining the wall again. "This sedimentation proves it. If it wasn't for the nature of the stairs, we'd probably see stalagtites hanging down around here. Of course…this does confuse me. Who would have built this structure that long ago?"
"Aliens?" One of the workers ventured.
Based on his knowledge of ancient planet history, Ragnar knew that was actually a more valid guess than the worker probably realized. However, given the age, he doubted it. Over ten thousand years ago had been another age…one that not even the espers knew very much of. During that time, this place could have been made. Of course, the thought that it had survived that long in Gaia's turbulent history since that moment was amazing. About the only chance it would have had was buried deep underground, and even that wasn't entirely safe. This was interesting…
The five slowly made their way down the long spiral staircase. True to what Ragnar had believed, it was rather dizzying. Yet he held on, and kept walking down the long path. He kept an eye on his surroundings as he went. The part of him that was Cetra could detect that there was a strong amount of spiritual energy down here…yet of what nature it was he had no idea. He had never sensed anything like this before in his brief time with his powers awakened. Aerith might have had a better idea…but she was hundreds of miles away in Edge at the moment. Voices were beginning to grow more distinct as he lowered…and he knew they were from the Lifestream. But something was unusual about them…something he couldn't put his finger on. He'd need time to listen more closely…
As they continued to lower, things began to appear on the walls. Though they had been covered with sediment long ago and were hardly distinguishable, the vague outline of lettering appeared to raise off of the rock wall. It looked like something had once been imprinted there.
"I don't suppose you've got any idea what this says, do you?" The first worker asked, gesturing to the letters as he turned to Ragnar.
The man frowned and shook his head. Unfortunately, it was likely that no one knew what this said anymore. Cosmo Canyon had records dating back to the early years of the Third Age, but before that there was next to nothing. This likely dated back that far. His own innate ability to understand the Cetra language extended only to, of course, the Cetra language. Either this was something different or a dialect so old that even he couldn't figure it out. It seemed as much gibberish to him as everyone else.
They seemed to descend forever. With each run around the chamber, they saw it get a bit smaller. It eventually shrank down to such a small diameter that two people on either side of the pit could stretch out and touch hands with one another if they wanted. So now it wasn't only dizzying and confusing, but also bad for those with claustrophobia. Luckily, they were almost there by the time they got to that point. A few moments later, and they touched down on the bottom.
Here, they stopped. Ragnar and Rex were allowed to look over to what they had come to. Ragnar had seen it as he had been descending, but he had used the time to study the walls. The lower they went, the sharper the writing on the wall seemed…although all was still covered with rock sediment. However, something else had been happening. Water had obviously been running down these walls for thousands of years, creating this whole pattern. But toward the bottom, they seemed to focus. Apparently, the walls had some sort of fine designs in them that caused the water, even after all these years, to separate into more distinct parts. Large rifts were in the sedimentation on the wall, indicating where the water had separated out into more distinct strains. One could reason that this was a trick of fate…but it didn't look that way. They seemed almost equidistant from one another…as if they had been designed to form these strains… Each one formed a short stalactite that touched the floor. To Ragnar's intrigue, each one seemed to end on a small hole on the ground, which formed a circle around the bottom.
However, he had spent enough time watching this. Now he focused on what the bottom possessed. Some circular, sedimented slab was on the ground. It looked almost like some sort of cap or covering. It had been moved recently. He could see fractured stone on the sides from where it had been pried loose. The workers had attached hinges and some sort of opening mechanism to it in order to move it at will.
One pointed to it. "You see how we rigged it up. It was a pain in the ass, too. We drilled first, and it went into the stone easy enough…but then we hit something that busted all the bits. Whatever this thing is made out of is as strong as steel. We worked around it as best we could though. We can get in easy now. You won't believe what's on the bottom."
Yet Ragnar only half-listened to this. He finally saw something that was useful.
The hub stone had rather large writing on it, the biggest thus far. Somehow, the sediment hadn't covered it enough to be completely obscured. Yet fate hadn't been the only thing that had kept it clean. Rex soon realized the same thing Ragnar did…that this hub had been cleaned off at one point.
One point was an understatement. Someone had indeed cleaned the sedimentary stone off of it and read the letters…but whoever had done it had done so thousands of years ago. It was covered up with considerable layers again. Still…they were still visible. And Ragnar knew that the one who had uncovered it hadn't been just anyone…but a Cetra. That was because the person had put their own lettering underneath the original writing. At that point in history, the Cetra must have possessed the ability to read this language, and wanted future generations to read it. Ragnar was indebted to this mysterious benefactor, for though this language was covered with sediment as well he could read it.
The man leaned over the hub slightly, garnering the attention of everyone else in the chamber. They realized he saw something, and turned to see what he was looking at. Ragnar hesitated a moment, getting a better look at the characters, but then reached out with a finger and ran along them as he read aloud what it said.
"The Well of the Guardian Forces."
Rex raised an eyebrow. "Cetra characters? Lucky break for us, I guess. So you know what this place is?"
Ragnar frowned and shook his head. "I haven't the slightest idea. Nothing ever mentioned a well or Guardian Forces in my readings…whatever those are. I'd be inclined to think this isn't a place we should be, if it wasn't for the fact that these guys have gone into it once."
"Maybe you'll get a better idea of what it is once you look inside." The first worker spoke. "We sure as hell don't know what to make of it." With that said, he reached over to the machine and pressed a button.
The engine and workings sputtered, but then began to roar to life. With a great grinding sound like millstones, the hub stone was slowly pulled aside and off of what it protected.
Ragnar soon began to see the edges of a hole form, and light beneath it. It wasn't just any sort of light, however. It was the natural illumination that was found inside special areas with the City of the Ancients. Whether this had always been there, or the last Cetra explorer had put it there, was a mystery to him. All he knew was that it allowed him to see down there much better than before. This wasn't industrial light, but natural.
Yet lighting was soon the least of his thoughts. As the hub stone was moved…voices came again. They were far stronger this time, and far more distinct than before. And yet, something was still different. He couldn't tell what, but it seemed almost as if these voices didn't realize they were being listened to. And it wasn't the sound of the Lifestream, where random spirits formed a collective consciousness. It sounded almost like individuals…certain ones out of the whole of the Lifestream that were being drawn inward toward this place. It was such a strange effect that Ragnar had a hard time concentrating on reality…
The hub stone finished moving to one side. Immediately, the first worker stepped over the edge and began to go down. A metal extension ladder had been set up, allowing those overhead to enter at will. They didn't have far to go. The chamber that had been revealed below them was a great bi-convex disk, like some natural bowl. There was sedimentation down there as well, despite having been covered for obviously a long time. It was very smooth down there, looking almost polished and crafted to perfection. Whether that was its original appearance or not was a mystery lost to the ages. It wasn't perfect. Ragnar could see a few breaks in rock and fractures from water and time. Yet he didn't hesitate there. He soon went down the hole as well, and Rex and the other workers followed.
The man soon touched bottom and began to look around himself. He was soon fully amazed by what was around him.
This strange ellipsis chamber wasn't that large. It could barely fit the five men who were now inside. It was lit up just like the places within the City of the Ancients. Eight beacons of fair green light were places around the room, casting an eternal glow to illuminate the chamber. It was just pale enough to prevent distorting the color completely.
Yet what was the most incredible of all were the walls. The edges of the chamber had what looked like natural rock formations in them that made "racks" of a sort. Positioned over them were the holes in the ceiling that had come from the floor above. Over the ages, more stalactites had formed from the holes, causing long stony spikes to extend down and over the racks.
And here was the strangest thing of all. There was no question now that the water had formed the pattern overhead by intention and not accident. That was because each stalactite terminated over the stone rack…and a very small stone bowl. The bowls alone lacked sedimentation. Each one was simple and small, looking like a drinking receptacle from an earlier time. Ragnar could see each stalactite had a tiny drop of water on the end, hovering over each bowl. The water didn't look like it was moving anywhere. Indeed, it took decades for enough water to trickle down to form a drop big enough to drip into the bowl below. The bowls that were there had been collecting it for millennia.
Each bowl itself had just enough water in it to form a drink for one who might chance to pick it up. Of course, it didn't look like it was for drinking. This looked like some sort of sacred shrine. Only instead of candles, it had these bowls of water. Despite how much sediment had to be in the rock, Ragnar was surprised to find that each bowl contained only clear, pure water. Somehow, the water had left all of its sediment on the growing stalactites, and had left the water below pure and crystal clear.
Etched into the rock behind each bowl was a single symbol. Each one was different, and Ragnar had no idea what they meant. He didn't stare at them long, however. He looked around the chamber and counted up the bowls instead. There were eighteen in all, each with a different symbol behind them. After making this survey, he turned back to Rex. The geologist was marveling over one of the bowls of water, noticing how pure it was.
"This is weird…" He said out loud, noting the clarity.
Ragnar began to approach him. For some reason…he didn't like the idea of him touching the water in one of the bowls.
Yet as the man drew nearer…he noticed something else. Before, he had been in the center of the room. He sensed voices that were specific, but they were still muddled. Now, as he neared one of these bowls…he sensed something more. The voices were suddenly tuned out until only four or five of them came forth…and two of those were stronger than the others. It was like some sort of radio signal, only it was one that was tuning spirits. To Ragnar's surprise…it was as if whatever these bowls were somehow fine tuned spirits…focusing reception on one of them. And yet, he wasn't trying to listen to anything. So what was doing this? Was it the bowl itself?
This was peculiar. Though he had no idea what any of this was, the man wanted to find out. He didn't have much knowledge on his own to work with, but he had powerful connections.
"Rex."
The geologist stopped just short of touching the water, and turned around to his boss.
"Get a sample of this rock and try to find out what it's made of." He instructed him. "I'm going to go back topside and make a few calls. I feel like bringing some other people in on this."
"I'll bet you're the worst mage in school!"
"Shut up! I am not!"
"I bet you can't even do Fire!"
"I...I don't need to do Fire! I can mute you before you can cast it!"
"Then why don't you do it?"
"...Uh..."
"Come on, chicken!"
"I'm not a chicken!"
"I'm going to cast Fire on you at the count of three... You better mute me!"
"You're going to what, Alex?"
The two children who had been bickering in the playground area immediately froze up. One lost his bold look entirely, while the other one turned into a different sort of fear. Slowly, the two of them turned around to look to the voice that had sounded out behind them. Their worst fears were realized when they saw the form of Matron Aerith standing behind them, looking down on both with her normally gentle expression, but also a rather hard and disciplinary air present in her eyes and mouth.
The rest of the children on the playground were indifferent to the situation, continuing to chase each other around, play on the swingset or slide that had been installed, and generally enjoy "outdoor time". Aerith normally watched the children outside at this time of day. It was inner city, after all, and most of the children needed supervisors due to their ages. A chain-link fence had been built around the playground portion of their "complex", but one still had to make sure that they wouldn't try to get out. In the five years that they had been open, only two children had ever attempted to run away. Aerith wouldn't admit this herself, but anyone who looked around could see that she had a very "motherly" nature about her, which tended to make the children stay close to her. That eliminated the need to worry about runaways. Children like Ran might be miserable some times for being picked on, but rarely did they get to the point where they wanted to leave Aerith. The orphans clung to her, and those with parents enjoyed being around her regardless. (In some cases, it was preferable to their parents...) Nevertheless, that didn't stop people from getting in if they wanted to.
Yet there was another important reason that Aerith went out...and that was for what was happening right now. Occasionally, kids seemed to "forget" the rules about magic not being allowed outside of the classrooms...
Aerith watched patiently as Alex tried to think of an explanation. He stammered and stared at her as he did so. She did have a way with the children, and sometimes, just by looking at them, she would make them feel so ashamed that they would bow their heads and confess. Alex, however, was a bit older, and he had been a bit of a "troublemaker" in the past, although Aerith never referred to any of the children in that way. In the end, he tried to make something up.
"Um...er...we...we were just...just playing a game, Matron...and I just wanted...wanted Ran to...to run a race with me...at the count of three..."
Aerith raised an eyebrow at this. "Did you, now?"
"Um...yeah..." Alex managed to answer, although the hesitancy of his voice was all that Aerith needed to hear.
The Cetra stared at him a moment, but then turned her gaze over to Ran. "Is that what happened, Ran?"
Ran answered by bowing his head and keeping silent. Ran showed some tact in "pleading the fifth" when it came to things like this. Aerith was smart enough to realize that children had the unwritten rule where you didn't tattle on others. In the case of children like Ran, it wasn't just a rule. It was a threat. He was little enough to get picked on by older boys when adults weren't looking. It wouldn't go well for him if they thought he had told on them, and they decided to get revenge... It was better for him to keep quiet, and let Aerith draw her own conclusions.
The Cetra looked back to Alex. For a moment, he seemed someone hopeful, and had an innocent expression. Perhaps Aerith would buy silence as an agreement. However, Aerith merely let out a sigh instead, and crossed her arms in front of her.
"Alex...I told you before to stop telling lies."
Ran's face relaxed considerably as he looked back up. Alex, on the other hand, paled a bit more as he turned meeker looking.
"I heard you two talking over there." Aerith continued. "I knew what happened. I just wanted to see if you would tell the truth. And I believe I told you to stop giving Ran a hard time as well. And I told everyone that magic isn't allowed outside of classrooms. Why did you break three of the rules, Alex?"
Alex's face pursed. "But..." He tried to protest. Aerith actually gave him a few moments of silence, willing to let him say something if he thought it would make a difference. However, there was nothing he could say. He eventually closed his mouth, and then bowed his own head. Now, he began to look as ashamed as the other kids did. He knew there was only one answer to Aerith's question. It was the simple reason that since he thought the Matron's back was turned, the rules didn't apply to him.
Aerith sighed again and uncrossed her arms. "Alex, you're going to be standing next to me quietly for the rest of Outdoor Time. You're not to talk with anyone else. Once time is up, you will walk in with me and I'll discuss your punishment. But first, what do you say to Ran?"
The boy continued to keep his head bowed and tried to look small. However, he managed a weak turn over to the boy next to him. Though mostly closed lips, he managed out a tiny apology to him. "...Sorry."
"Alright." Aerith answered. After this, she turned back to Ran. "Ran, you can go back to playing. Alex, you come over with me."
The smaller boy immediately turned and ran off. As for Alex, he waited until Aerith turned back to her place against the wall where she had been standing, and then solemnly followed her back to her spot.
Aerith suppressed yet another sigh as she walked. She hated the discipline portion of this job. She herself had never received much in the way of discipline growing up, but that was because she had never needed it. She always did as she was told, except at times when she needed to do something like going to the store or gathering flowers for sale. She was scolded for this, but usually she was able to reason with her foster mother why she had gone and done it, and on doing so she could find no argument with her and waved punishment. It wasn't until Aerith had become a mother of two herself, and an "unofficial mother" of some thirty more that she really got a grasp of how different kids could be. And unfortunately, sometimes they did need to be punished to learn consequences for their actions.
There weren't this many when the orphanage/school/shelter opened. Initially, they had a hard time convincing all of the candidates to come there. They only managed to gather about ten. At first, it was shaky going. Tifa and Cloud had some experience with orphan children and care, but actually boarding ten of them was a bit of a new venue. Aerith and Ragnar had to learn a bit themselves, in particular Aerith...seeing as this was her idea.
Luckily, the female Cetra was perfectly suited. She was a natural when it came to children. Standoffish children instinctively trusted her. She seemed to always be able to connect with them emotionally right off of the bat. Her nature attracted them to her. She spent a lot of time with them, and as a result the children almost always felt right at home in a matter of days. The two runaways had both been children who had just gotten there. After they had been picked up and taken back, it only took a few more days before they felt right at home, along with the others. As the case with Ran, some were more well behaved than others, or at least fit in better than others. But all of them wanted to stay eventually. After all, even if they didn't get along with other people so well, everyone got along with Aerith. There wasn't a child who didn't eventually like her.
The first ones in had been orphans. They were found easily. As it turned out, the children formerly afflicted with the Geostigma turned out to be most of the ones experiencing new phenomena and unexplained powers. Some were setting off emergency devices where they stayed. Some put other people to sleep when they sang. Some experienced wild periods of blindness and deafness for no apparent medical reason. But the first ten were the easiest to find. These were the orphans that had taken to hanging around the Seventh Heaven. They remembered Cloud and Tifa from years ago when the Geostigma was cured, and since many other people in the area branded them as freaks both from their first afflictions and now due to their new powers, they had no choice but to leave or hang around the two adults who accepted them. That two had become four since Ragnar and Aerith had moved in. When they offered to board them permanently, the younger children leapt at the chance to have a roof over their heads and regular meals. The older ones had a bit harder time giving up their free life, but because they trusted Tifa, Cloud, and Aerith they hung around, and usually dire straights eventually forced them to stay at least for a little while, and they ended up staying permanantly in the end. These ones, who had never experienced a loving environment, flourished under Aerith's motherly care and Tifa's kindness, and so they did well.
After being open for a few months, and getting out some first-hand accounts from many of the children, their name began to get around. In particular, word started to circulate at how the orphanage was doubling as a sort of school for children with "special abilities". When that happened, they continued to take in orphans, but also children with parents.
Some were good. Parents would show up with worried expressions, and would tell the story of how their child had been causing strange things to happen at home, stores, and/or school. Sometimes it would be popping lids off of all the bottles in the house, or sometimes freezing the pipes inside so that they would burst, or even one case where classmates at school had been afflicted with poisonous boils. They would ask for help. Most of them wanted to know if there was a way to stop this from happening. Only one or two had gone so far as to ask how to control it. So far, none had wanted the power developed. At any rate, these were the good ones. Tifa, who handled a lot of the business end, would usually talk to them and tell them that the children would have to remain there for a period of months on end, like any normal boarding school. They could visit home on summers or winter vacations.
But not all of these were that simple. Some of the children would have parents...but they would still be living on the streets. These were usually more poverty-stricken children, although by no means were all of them that way. A few were actually from well-to-do ones. In this case, their parents had either chased them from their homes or they had fled when they couldn't take home life anymore. Through various methods, they found their way toward the orphanage and sought refuge. Many were bruised and dirty, and quite a few were hungry or thirsty. Some had broken bones. These children were admitted immediately, even if they couldn't always cope with them. They hadn't turned away a child yet. However, the story would always be the same for them. In these cases, the parents themselves had turned against them, turning to abuse and sometimes threatening lives.
In only three of these cases did the parents come and try and pick up their children. Out of these few, only one had been with parents with tears in their eyes, begging forgiveness, and pleading to be able to see their child and allow her to be brought home. In that particular case, negotiations had followed, and eventually they arranged for her to stay there. In most cases, they simply left them and never sought them out. Once they had come...but in a violent temper. They demanded to see their child to the tune of many curses and threats. The boy they wanted to see had come in malnourished and with multiple broken bones, and Aerith was forced to employ some of her own miraculous healing abilities to help. When the Cetra tried to intervene against the parents, they threatened her. Although she was more than capable of it, Aerith never let the thought cross her mind that this couple was a mere set of insects compared to her overwhelming power, but instead let Cloud come out and "escort" them away. Needless to say, they hadn't been allowed near the complex since.
In many ways, they were like an orphanage or boarding school. They had rooms that four children could share at a time, and each one was allowed to name and maintain a little "grouping" among members within said room. They had scheduled times that they had to be up by, and times for meals, classroom learning, indoor and outdoor recreation, among other things, including when they had to be in bed. They had play areas that they could spend their free time in, and they had books and games and toys of various sorts. There were classes that taught basics of reading and writing and mathematics. Aerith and the others weren't the best teachers in the world, but they had picked up some textbooks with teacher's editions that told them most of what they needed to know.
However, this was all secondary to the main reasons the children were there. Each and every one of them had demonstrated an innate talent for magic. By now, it was no longer just a rumor or fantasy. The world was growing aware that people were demonstrating real talents for new, amazing abilities. More people were showing up every day that could do strange and unexplainable things around them. More and more incidents of strange phenomena were occuring. Light bulbs shattering... Electric shocks from wood... Even goldfish temporarily turning into frogs. At first, only the tabloids had published news like this. But now it was appearing in more mainstream reports. Pundits were beginning to speak on it. Very soon, it would reach a high enough level to enter the political sphere of the world. But before that would happen...fear was breeding. The more people that realized these powers were not just fantasies but real, the more people began to react with suspicion and unease...and from that grew fear. From the fear, anger was beginning to form. Some people didn't like the thought of kids with strange abilities running around. Some of them were explaining it away in bad terms...such as ideas of demonic possession or mutant freaks. And that, naturally, led to greater fear and greater anger against people who displayed these abilities...even the beginnings of hate. And some wanted to get rid of the source of such fear and uncertainty to make themselves feel more safe... Oh, they explained that away too...in terms of the need to "destroy monsters" or "purge the gene pool"...but it all came down to the fact that they were afraid of these new powers and they wanted to destroy them before they could pose a threat to them. For now, there were only small mobs that actually were engaging in violence, and only a smattering of those. But as the issue continued to gain momentum...became political... People were starting to get hurt, and hate groups were potentially forming...
The issue of magical power was not going to go away, however. From now on, people would be born with these abilities, just as they were in older times. Because of this, they needed to be accepted and taught how to use their powers in constructive ways. Merely attacking them or trying to kill them would only drive them to become true menaces, to use their powers to harm others intentionally. If people were going to try and attack them and face them with anger and hate, it would be only natural for them to retort just as badly. So that was the purpose of their facility. To protect the children from a world that was growing more hostile to them, to raise them in a supportive environment to be good people, and to teach them to harness their abilities to full potential to aide others. This new generation had to be upheld and saved before things became too hostile for it. In that sense, it was fortune that Ragnar had learned of what would happen from Bahamut. It gave them an edge on the world to prepare this while there was yet time.
Aerith was placed in charge of teaching about magical abilities. She spent every morning with the children just relaxing, clearing their minds, and meditating. Each one was to try and delve inside themselves and learn the ways their magical power was moving through them. They had to learn to feel its natural flow and ebb within themselves, so they could see what type of power they possessed and learn how to manipulate it to produce desired results. This was the longest lesson of every day, and each new arrival only did this all day at first, until they realized their innate abilities and aptitudes. Only when they did that could they move on.
The children were separated according to categories that had been defined millenia ago, but for which records still existed both in Cosmo Canyon and Ragnar's literature. For the most part, it was tied to personality. Ones with more passionate and emotive personalities usually were keen on offensive spells, or Black Magic. Ones who were meeker or gentler tended to be good at healing spells, or White Magic. Others who were quick thinking, prudent, and had a lot of "street smarts" were good at a middle-ground level of magic called Time Magic. Children who tended to be good at everything but were still magically inclined ended up being knowledgable about both black and white magic, and the term for this was Red Magic. In the same vein, ones who were very intelligent and spent a lot of time learning new things were good at the unusual brand of Blue Magic. Last but not least, children who were pure naturalists at heart who seemed to enjoy aesthetics and the environment above all things had a bit of Aerith's own innate abilities as well as new ones. Ragnar's literature termed these Geomancers.
These colors were not just there for fancy names. When the children began to come in touch with their own inner power, they actually said they began to see that color through their closed eyes. Aerith herself could sense their own energy radiating off of them taking a color. Normally, the Lifestream in all people was green. It turned a specific shade for a specific mage, however. Time was orange colored, but seeing as all of the magic involved was related to time and space, that name had stuck. As for Geomancers, their color remained green, although it became slightly more livid. Yet if they could still cast magic, then it meant they were tied to the Planet's own innate power, and were therefore Geomancers.
Once an attribute was discovered, the children began to train to hone their abilities. The first part of the afternoon began with them studying their own specific powers. Luckily, Ragnar's books and Red XIII's books had lots of suggestions for this. Ones studying white magic began with the most basic of cure spells, and would normally look at something like a dying leaf on a plant and attempt to focus on it to regenerate it. Ones studying black magic had a pile of shredded newspaper in an ashtray, and had to try to light it aflame. In both cases, all groups would focus on what they wanted as well as their own innate powers, and try to see what natural words came forth to their mouth to send their power out. It was a lot harder than it appeared. It took hours of steady focus to pull it off for even the simplest spells. More advanced ones required more time.
The exceptions to this were blue magic and geomancers. A geomancer almost always picked up instantly on their abilities. That was because the Planet was already working through them. Unfortunately, this magic was chaotic and unpredictable, and the hardest by far to control. As for one studying blue magic, they had to wait for Cloud or, less often, Ragnar to come out and take them on an all day trip out to a forest, field, or waste somewhere far away from Edge, where there were wild monsters. There they would fight with them, and tell the child to observe. Blue magic was strange in that it could not be learned innately. Only when a child studying it spotted another creature using a special, Planet-energy-derived technique could they learn the spell themselves. It was strange, but on observing it, it would be as if the child had always known it, or as if in seeing it they had been taught a complete lesson that made a previously complicated task very simple. Somehow, the children could always reproduce it after seeing it. No one could describe or theorize why this happened, but according to numerous ancient sources this type of skill was known right up to the first vanishing of magic. Some materia in the world had similar effects. And so it was accepted.
The late afternoon was devoted to actually practicing the techniques. Now the children would actually try to heal the leaf or burn the paper. And if they succeeded in that, they would try it on a larger scale. Large areas indoors and outdoors were devoted to this purpose, and both areas looked rather beaten up and torn from extensive use. However, this was the favorite part for most students, in which they not only got to use their powers but demonstrate them to impress friends. Here, they could practice for up to two hours, but usually they ended long before then. They exhausted their stamina for magic before the full time elapsed. Apparently, in addition to regular stamina, there was a limit of how much magic they could practice in a day, just like with materia orbs. Although this limit was extended the more magic they cast, it seemed as if using their powers worked as using muscles or any other talent. The more it was used, the better it became.
For the first four years, things were pretty good. Their small school slowly began to fill up. Most of the time, Aerith took care of everything. Tifa helped out when she wasn't working the bar, and occasionally Cloud and Ragnar would drop in...Cloud the more frequent of the two. Ragnar was away for months on end with his other job. Cloud was still running deliveries. Aerith herself helped out as waitress when she could spare a few hours. After all, Krystea's investment wasn't going to last forever. They had to make more money to care for everyone. As the population increased, and the kids got older, they were able to help out as well. Marlene and Denzel were both 14 now, and Azure was at least physically that age, if not older. In addition to that, the teens were rather well-suited for combat due to their training and enhanced physicality.
Nevertheless, problems had started in the fifth year. By now, it was impossible for the issue of magic powers to be hidden. And though their own school had been a secret for a while, eventually old friends of homeless children who had moved in had broken in to visit. And sometimes they let matters "leak". Also, the fact that loud noises and flashes went off around the complex with no explanation led the surrounding neighborhood to start suspecting things. Also the fact that the "flower girl" that had used to be a familiar face in old Midgar Sector Seven (whose populace had mostly relocated to Edge) and the additional fact that many of the children who had formerly had Geostigma were now living there, and the rumors practically wrote themselves. Some were starting to get wind that magic was being thrown about in that building. And because of that...people were starting to get vocal around the building. Some were going to the city government. And just yesterday...the first graffiti message had appeared just above their sign, "The Refuge of the Ancients: Orphanage and Boarding School for Gifted Children".
"Freak Farm".
Needless to say, Aerith was worried. Usually she didn't fret too much about things, but she knew what it was like to be hunted and feared your entire life, and especially how bad it was as a child. She wouldn't wish that on her own students and charges... Eventually, this would have to be dealt with, although she had no idea what they would do. This town was too full of people, and they had already put so much into building this place. To build another, and to move out that far... Yet this was a big city with many homeless children already. In a way, settling in Edge had been a good move on their part. Most magically powered individuals were originating here. And those homeless couldn't afford to move somewhere secret and secluded. They'd be abandoning a large portion of them...
Of course...Aerith always had lingering just a bit in the back of her mind...there was the fact that she was, unknown to all but her closest friends, one of the most powerful beings on Gaia...
But she ignored this. She wasn't going to rely on that power. Might didn't make right, no matter whose side took it. At least, she hoped it didn't...and she would try to make a world where it wouldn't. That was why she had started this place. That was why she was having to punish Alex.
Alex stayed at Aerith's side for the next thirty minutes, unable to play or talk to his friends. At the end of that time, however, Aerith gave out the call to the kids to line up. Once they did, she led them inside to go for their second session of free time before they would get started on mental practicing for the day. Yet once they were all in and going about their business, Aerith called Alex over to her. They walked past where the children were mostly headed...the bedrooms, the playroom, or the reading room...past the classrooms and through the annex area...all the way until they reached the door that connected the house and Seventh Heaven to the orphanage area.
They came right up to it before Aerith came to a halt and turned to Alex. The boy, still looking uneasy and uncomfortable, turned and looked up to her.
"Alright, Alex." She stated. "This is your punishment. You are going to go to Tifa. You are going to ask for the window cleaner and paper towels. And then you are going to go to each and every window within the Seventh Heaven and the school and wash them. When you're done, you can go back to the play area or your bedroom for the rest of the day until dinner and bed time."
Alex initally looked rather bad at the first portion, giving the typical child face of "come on". But when he heard this second part, he looked a bit more confused. "But...what about mental exercises and magical practice?"
"You won't be doing that today or for the next two days." Aerith simply answered.
Now Alex looked really troubled. "What?"
"I warned you already not to pick on Ran."
"Matron Aerith!" Alex whined. "I've got to go to practice! The other boys will get better than me at black magic! I'm trying to beat Ramus to being the first black mage to learn Fira! If I can't practice for three days, he'll beat me for sure!"
To this, however, Aerith drew in a deep breath and let out a sigh. Her face softened a bit, but her tone stayed unchanged.
"Is that why you wish to learn black magic, Alex? So you can beat others at casting more dangerous spells? Or so that you can pick on others who can't manage black magic?"
Alex went silent at this. His face once again grew ashamed as he bowed his head. He was unable to answer.
Aerith inhaled and exhaled again, and her voice grew softer. "Alex..." She spoke in a gentler manner. "You and the rest of the children have all been given great gifts. You all have the potential to do a lot of good in this world. You owe it to yourselves and everyone else to use what you have been given responsibly. Don't you remember when you used to live on the street? Don't you remember having to be around kids who were a lot bigger than you when you were younger?"
Alex kept his head bowed. However, his mouth turned into a frown. "...I could beat them if they tried to be mean to me now..." He murmured.
Aerith answered by dropping to one knee in front of him. "Yes, you could." She answered calmly. "But that's not the point. Remember before you knew how to control your power? The names the other children called you? How they used to bully you around because they were bigger than you? Because they could push you around before you could help yourself?"
The boy was quieter at this, and his frown faded slightly.
"...Yes."
"So how do you think Ran feels when you bully him?"
Alex looked anxious again at this. He was quiet for a while, swallowing but refusing to meet Aerith's eyes, which were now level with his. In the end, he balled his hands into fists and spoke more angrily.
"I've never been good at anything before! This is the first thing I've ever been good at! Everyone always used to be mean to me before I knew black magic! Now nobody picks on me or bothers me!"
Aerith simply nodded in response. "That's right, Alex. They don't. But you can't make people respect you by bullying them or scaring them. All of those older boys were mean to you. Did you like them any better for that? Or did you just say nothing to them because you were scared?"
Again, Alex couldn't answer. His anger subsided.
"Cloud and Ragnar are both powerful swordsmen, Alex. Tifa's great at martial arts. And I'm quite skilled at magic myself. But people don't like us because we push around other people using our abilities. They like us because of what we do with them. We help other people and defend people who can't protect themselves. You're not old enough to use your magic in a fight yet, Alex. But you can help the other young black mages. Or you can help red mages like Ran learn how to use their black magic too. That's how they'll really respect you. Then you'll be using your power to help other people. Some people might still try to pick on you, but you know what? I have a feeling you wouldn't want them to like you anyway. The people who you help will really appreciate you."
Alex kept his head low and didn't answer. However, his expression was quite a bit softer now. Some of it was even turning a bit back to normal.
Aerith smiled a bit, and reached down her fingers to his chin. She gently raised his head and aimed it at her, so that his eyes were looking into hers. She smiled wider.
"And I promise...if you behave and don't pick on anyone else...I'll make sure you know all the black magic spells before anyone else."
This was the sinker. Alex's eyes brightened, and his gloom vanished. "Really?"
Aerith nodded. "Cross my heart."
Alex grinned in response, seeming to almost forget he still had his punishment to look forward to. "Alright!" He said in response, both in agreement to the terms and in enthusiasm for his new deal.
Aerith stood up after that, keeping her smile on Alex as she got to her feet. They both smiled at each other a bit longer, before Alex turned and looked to the door. Now he was ready. He wanted to hurry up and get through the next three days so that Aerith could start living out her end of the bargain. The Cetra answered by opening the door and letting him in.
The bottom level of this portion of the Seventh Heaven hadn't changed much. They went through the doorway that had once been the rear entrance, but was now just a connection to the new building. Inside was a short hallway filled with shoes and coathooks, as well as a rather dirty mat that people wiped their feet on. The hallway to the annex had a door leading outside of it, and so one could still come indoors from outdoors not far from here, which was why these things remained. There was also the staircase leading to the bedrooms, and a newer hallway that had been built when the building had expanded. There was still the door to the main bar, however, and it was to this that Aerith and the boy turned. They began to make their way toward it.
They had only gotten about two steps, however, when the door to the barroom suddenly swung open. Inside came a fair, brown-haired woman, dressed for business with an apron over her clothes. Based on the powder remnants of flour and sugar on her wrists and darker portions of clothing, she had been cooking. However, she also had a ready look about her when she came in, as if she was preoccupied with something. However, on entering this small room and spotting Aerith, she suddenly looked surprised and snapped out of it.
"Oh...Aerith!" She announced on seeing her. "You're just who I was looking for." She paused for a moment, and then looked down to her side. She spotted Alex, and immediately placed her hands on her hips with a sort of nagging frown. "Alright...what have we got here?"
"Alex needs you to show him how to do the windows." Aerith answered, gesturing to the boy. Luckily, he seemed eager to get started now, having had his blues chased away. "What did you need me for?"
Tifa indicated the way she had come. "In the kitchen. The phone's for you. It's Ragnar."
The Cetra walked forward and swapped places with Tifa, who took Alex, and made her way into the bar area. After working her way past the main bar and a few tables, she found her way to the kitchen door. It was still swinging after the remodeling, and she walked in easily. She went to the wall phone a moment later, and saw the carriage empty. The phone itself was sitting down on the counter. She quickly took it up and placed it to her head.
"Hey General." She teased a bit.
"Hey Aerith." She heard in response on the other end. The voice was affectionate, but it quickly became serious afterward. "I need to ask you something..."
TRANSMISSION RECEIVED.
PARALLEL MONITORING ENGAGED.
Origin: (432) 555-7844 (Personal Cellular - Ragnar Vice)
Destination: (246) 555-0640 (Business - Seventh Heaven, Edge)
Code Citrix: 542768139-1237
Transmitting:
D: Hello?
O: Hey, Tifa. It's Ragnar.
D: Oh, so remembering us now, are you? You didn't call last night.
O: Er...Something came up... Could you put Aerith on the phone?
D: Alright...but she's not happy.
O: Um...I'm...
D: Oh, I'm just kidding, Ragnar! You know she doesn't care! I'll go get her.
O: Alright.
O: (1:24 of indistinct breathing noises, no recognizable words detected)
D: Hey General.
O: Hey Aerith. I need to ask you something...
D: What's up?
O: I didn't call last night because I finally got a chance to go in and look at that site beneath the former HQ Dome.
D: So what was it?
O: I have no idea...but it's very big. It's older than anything else we've found at Gateway or the City. There's some sort of powerful Lifestream energy surge coming through it as well. I've never sensed energy like this. I can hear voices almost as if they were right next to me and alive.
D: ...Wow. The only place I felt like that was in the Crystal Shrine...
O: I don't understand any of the writing here, although some might be a variant on an older form. I'll try to get Red XIII to look in on it. I don't know if anything will turn up. I'm calling to ask if you can come up. You might know more than me.
D: Well, I don't know if I'd be much better, Ragnar. You learned the Cetra language long before I did.
O: But you can still sense things a lot better than me. Especially since...
D: ...Yeah, I guess you're right.
O: Besides, it's been a while since you've been up here. And the kids haven't seen it yet.
D: So you want me to bring Samoa and Simoa?
O: Yeah. I miss them too. I don't like being gone this long on end…
D: Tifa's right, you've got to loosen up more. You need to get home and dance on that game with me some more.
O: Heh heh... That's not such a bad idea. But I want to check this out first.
D: Alright then. I'll call you back.
O: Alright. Take care.
D: Love you.
O: I love you too.
Transmission ended.
Shelke the Transparent waited until she heard the clicking of the receiver and actually "saw" the text cease within her synaptic mode dive before she reached up to the helmet-like hood with a large, glowing "eye" on the front of it that covered her head. She touched it and proceeded to slowly lift it off, revealing that it was attached to several monstrous coaxial cables. In response, her reclining, cushioned chair at her work terminal, which allowed her body to go limp during these interfaces, automatically leaned up and brought her closer toward the set of computer monitors and keypads that stretched in front of her. Above all of this was a small, electronic sphere about the size of her head. She proceeded to calmly set the hood on top of it, and then turned to the keypads and began to type numbers.
Although the girl looked to be no older than ten, the truth was she was closer to twenty-six. Her face was fair and youthful, but her expression was cold and emotionless. It had long since ceased to show any care for anything in Gaia...or more appropriately underneath it. Her blue and white suit looked both technical as well as close fitting yet comfortable. Her head almost seemed to rest in the collar around her neck. Only when she tilted slightly could one make out a small radio device around one of her ears.
After a moment, she ceased typing, and then waited. Another moment later, and a voice...long, slow, and seeming almost to ooze out of shadow...began to answer.
"Nero the Sable here. What is the report?"
"Shelke the Transparent contacting. The latest transmission from Ragnar Vice to the Seventh Heaven is interesting. I've already sent it to you, and highlighted some of the more intriguing parts." Though Shelke spoke as if these things were valuable, her tone of voice indicated that she might as well have been telling someone that a pack of gum was one gil.
Nero didn't answer, but Shelke knew that he was reading the transmission at his own terminal. As a result, she patiently waited for a few moments to give him time to peruse it. After calculating roughly the time it would take him to go over the transmission, and followed it up by counting off that much time mentally, she spoke up again.
"According to the transmission, the Refuge of the Ancients will be at the lowest guarded level it has been in years. Now would be the best time to capture new recruits."
"That is not for you to decide or to recommend." The voice answered. Despite her emotionlessness, Shelke almost felt the slightest wave of fear deep inside her as she thought of a faint trickle of Nero's darkness seeping through the phone toward her. "I will evaluate this. As for you, continue to monitor this situation as it develops. I wish to know everything about their discovery and what type of power it possesses."
"Understood." Shelke responded. "Hail Weiss."
"Hail Weiss."
To be continued...
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A question you might have right now, for those of you that read the end of "The Aleron Saga" and have moved on to this, might be, "What exactly has DeepGround been doing for five years? Twiddling their thumbs?" Unfortunately, that answer won't come for quite a few more chapters. But no, I didn't try to just hide them inside an enormous plot hole. :)
