Authors notes: Wow! I got to thinking and typing and I wasn't pleased with
just one Introduction so I had to make a second Introduction. So you can
think of these two Introductions as "Earth" intro and "Cephiro" intro or as
I am calling them Introduction part'Umi' and Introduction part 'Clef'. So
fun! I can't believe that I wrote all of that Introduction and I still
wasn't pleased (even though its a short introduction!) and so I am writing a
second one. I am just so inspired and I thought I might fall back on that
promise about one part a week.Funny me. I'm already writing a second
part (still Introduction) on the same day as I wrote the first! I hope you
people enjoy this story. I am having fun writing it. If I ever stop having
fun writing it somebody slap me. Okay? Oh and visit my page
http://clefchan.tripod.com/
Here is the usual: Do not sue me because you wouldn't get anything. Magic
Knights as well as most other characters in this story are not mine. They
belong to the wonderful ladies of CLAMP. (Mokona save CLAMP! its a joke so
laugh...) If you wish to use this story on your page just send me the link.
Okay? My e-mail is clef@comic.com or shadowplaygirls@yahoo.com
This story takes place after Magic Knight Rayearth the second visit. (I have
not seen all of that one so I am going by ear on some parts!)ON WITH THE
STORY ALREADY!



"Love Story"
Introduction part 'Clef'
by Tina 'Chi-na' Plunkett
Date: June 30-July 1, 2000


The horizon stretched across Cephiro's landscape. The sun peeked its head
above the clouds from a long nights slumber. It was strange to think that
the same sun that shown down on Cephiro also shown as a star somewhere else.
Clef sighed and moved his gaze back to his study of a magic book a previous
Guru had left behind. He had just found it stuffed behind a shelf in one of
his attempts to clean his study.
The leather bound book inscribed in small cursive scroll smelled of dust
and rot. Not that it had a unpleasant smell but it smelled like everything
else around him. It smelled as well as looked old. Upon opening the book
pages crumbled and tore at the mere touch of his fingers.Yet another book
lost to age. To think what legends and spells it held. The thought of
holding something so important gone to ruins made him slightly sad. Although
it was no use in getting upset. When something died it was best laid to
rest.
At least he had been able to save a few pages. The few pages he had managed
to save were decorated with elaborate artwork. A small picture on one of the
page caught his attention. 'The rune god of fire...' The legend of the Magic
Knights from another world. The legend was old. Even he could remember as a
young child the legend his mother told him.The legend of the Magic Knights.
The citizens of Cephiro did not know the true legend of the Magic Knights
or the one true wish of each pillar. 'Hikaru, Fuu,.....Umi.' They were not
the first Magic Knights but
perhaps they were the last. They had to be the last Magic Knights. Hikaru
had reformed the system. Instead of one person, the pillar, praying for all
the people of Cephiro it was the people who prayed for Cephiro. Perhaps this
was the best way. 'Emerauld...' She had died loving Zagato.
Clef slowly exhaled a breath he had been holding and turned the page over.
'The Rune god Celes...' It was the Rune god Umi donned, Celes. The picture
of Celes, painted in flaked blue ink , showed the rune god holding a ball
which held the sea. 'Umi...' Clef set the page down gently and made sure the
image was face up. 'The Legend of the Magic Knights. Chosen from a different
world to grant the one true wish of the Pillar as foretold forever.' Clef
raised an eyebrow. 'Foretold forever?' The words rung in his head. It could
mean something but it could also just be an ancient text written by a
superstitious Guru.
With a wave of his staff Clef urged a chair to materialize. Exhaustion from
sleepless nights and from the work of putting Cephiro back to the land it
had been before Emerauld's death nagged him. 'A draught, a sleeping potion
is what I need...' Clef closed his eyes and pulled his staff across the arm
rests of the chair. A contented sigh escaped his lips while the chair
floated, suspended in one place.
The remembrance of a dream touched the edge of his mind. A dream of the
Forest of Silence;the day he had wondered off into the forest with out his
mother's knowledge. Not that she would have let him go into that accursed
place.
But it wasn't a dream. That day had been real although hundreds of years
had passed. The memory, though foggy, still surfaced day after day. It had
gone dim with age but the first visit of the Magic Knights had prompted the
memory to reappear as a dream. The second visit of the Magic Knights had
only made the memory much more prominent. Every time he fall asleep he
remembered more and more of that day.
It had been the day that he had stumbled into the Forest of Silence. The
place where magic would not work for mage nor Guru and especially not a
young boy, who in a few years would be in training to the Guru. He had been
frightened. Who wouldn't be at such a young age? Lost and alone with out his
magic to guide him. He had only been 12 at the time.
'The day I stopped aging....' He had stopped aging because he had chosen
to. Though his original reason for stopping his growth was lost he hadn't
chosen to correct it. True, he was able to grow and his will would allow it
but there was a deeper purpose for this. There was something about that day
in the forest that he remained as he was.
His hand rest in a patch of sun that warmed him. Slowly he flexed his
fingers in the light. What was in the past was best laid to rest with the
dead. Clef spread his fingers out and lifted his hand off the armrest. The
purple ring that acted as a key to the upper room with the pillar's circlet
glinted in the beam of the early morning sunlight.
'Magic Knights...girls from another world...' Clef placed his hand back on
the armrest and looked up at the glass ceiling. It had only been a few weeks
since their last visit to Cephiro but perhaps on their world time slipped by
differently. Hikaru with her willingness to do almost anything. She was a
born leader and had a rare fire to her. She wasn't like most others. Clef
smiled at the thought, 'None of the Magic Knights are like most others..not
on this world.'Hikaru had the will to become Cephiro's pillar and she had
done so. It was because of her that the world of Cephiro still survived. It
was not her alone that helped Cephiro survive. Truthfully Fuu and Umi were
just as important but neither had the will to become the pillar.'Why?' Eagle
had the chance to become pillar but not even he could out shine the Magic
Knight of fire.
The chair swayed momentarily as he leaned towards the table he had placed
the pages on. Slowly he shifted through them looking for an answer. If this
book was really a legend book then it had to contain some reference to the
occurrence of would be pillars. As was Eagle slept in a deep slumber because
Hikaru could not bare to part with him. Unsatisfied by the lack of answers
the pages gave him her frowned outwardly. If only he had been able to save
the complete text. 'The information is lost now..just like part of that
memory...' Clef's brows furrowed together.
Unwillingly his attention had been brought back to that memory. The memory
of the forest. He had eventually found a way out but he felt sad. Why had he
felt so sad so long ago? He had survived the Forest of Silence with out his
powers, and with out his mother. It was one of the things that had initiated
him to try hard in everything that he practiced including the magic that had
been forbidden in the forest. The Forest of Silence was still no laughing
matter in Cephiro. The forest, however, had begun to shrink and with drawl
back into the hearts of the
people.
It was not the same forest that he had last seen nor the Magic Knights had
seen. On their first visit it was there that they battled themselves in one
of the first tests of the heart. It was there that Fuu meet Prince Ferio.
Hikaru, Fuu, and Umi had survived. Even Fuu survived. Fuu who had been more
of a magic user then both Hikaru and Umi. She had the knowledge deep in her.
He had been told that in the Magic Knight's world magic did not exist.
However Fuu had always held magic in here it just hadn't been unlocked.
Clef cleared his throat and looked back towards the window.The budding
trees outside frequented the air with sweet scents of perfumes and yet he
dared wonder what it was like in Umi's world. 'Umi...' Clef felt his face go
hot for a moment. The more he tried not to think about the Magic Knight who
controlled water, the more he actually thought of her. It was she who first
stood up to him on the first visit. At first he had been no more then
annoyed at her loudness and her rude attitude towards him. 'Umi, she had
only been a girl wanting to go back
to her world.' Clef pulled his legs underneath him in the chair with his
head bent down.
"If I had been in the same situation I would have wanted to be back here in
Cephiro," Clef said to himself absently. She had been lonely and afraid. She
was truly a bird without wings to fly her home. Out of all the three girls
he had been increasingly worried about her. Her figure,already taunt and
lithe, grew thinner as she spent time in Cephiro. Umi had needed the most
comfort and guidance out of the three. He had given that to her on her late
night visits with him. Her visits were not unwelcomed. The visits she paid
him actually cheered him up. Even though he listened to her it was as if he
too spoke and was listened to. His actions prompting more issues and
discussing. Those talks were breaks from the world around him. Cephiro had
been falling apart even the castle had started to give under the lose of the
pillar. It was the late night talks that had kept something bright in him to
wish for. A Cephiro that was once more green and budding like the trees
outside.
How could a man like him fall in love with a mere child? In the sense of
love he was still a child himself. He never had the need to form
relationships like that. There was no one there to hug or kiss him and that
was how it was. He wasn't in love with the Magic Knight Umi. He couldn't be,
but his thoughts always returned to her. Perhaps out of fondness. 'Yes,I do
miss the Knights. If only...' Clef frowned, 'The Magic Knights have the
ability to go between worlds now. If they wanted to come then they would
have. Hikaru made sure of that because of Lantis.'
Lantis.Hikaru had Lantis as Fuu had Ferio but Umi had who? Ascot had seemed
taken with her. He had even done what Clef chose not to do. Ascot had willed
himself to grow for Umi. Though on the second visit Umi had seemed not to
notice Ascot a lot. Even when Ascot talked to her she seemed distant. Was it
her beauty that drew Ascot? Or was there something
more to the Dragon water Knight that was just below the ocean's surface? A
breeze ruffled his robes and he looked up from his lap.
'Cephiro...' Clef scooted to the edge of the floating chair and pushed his
feet away from under him. Slowly he lowered his full weight on them and
waved his staff again. The chair vanished to the void to which it had come.
Just beyond the window past the over look of the gardens was the sparkling
ocean of Cephiro.
For only a moment Clef could see her face reflected there by the ocean. Her
hair blown back by the summer's breeze. Her face turned towards him looking
almost directly at him with her hand to her hair pushing back a few lose
strands of hair. Umi's eyes shone in the sun with a brilliance behind
them.Clef blinked and the vision was gone but one thought was left on his
mind, 'Her eyes....were always blue as the sea...' And for a moment time
seemed to stop forever.

******
After word:
When I get the fic site on my webpage going I'll probably put the two
introductions together as one whole one. Well, hope you enjoyed this little
post for the week. Next week's post is a surprise even to me. ^_^;