Author's Note: This is the first story I have actually managed to put on ff.n. My next chapter won't be up for a bit, but please come by and check again anyway.

Disclaimer: All material related in part or in the whole to the Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles game, including but not limited to title, characters, locations, objects, and plot is property of SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. And is licensed to Nintendo. All original material was created by the author, but is not copyrighted.

By the Light

Prologue

Moschet Manor loomed in the distance, on the crown of a wooded hill. Forest spread as far as the eye could see, disturbed only by that lone hill and the dank clearing in which the man stood. The sky was dark and sprinkled with stars, and the air hung heavy with the stench of rot mixed with long-standing miasma. Vermin seemed to pulse outwards from the figure silhouetted in the center of the clearing. The man slowly started to walk forward, through the mass of rats.

Suddenly the person at the core of the grotesque scene realized his presence. She whipped around just as the intruder drew a brightly shining crystal from his belt. A burst of blue-white light flew from the small shard, illuminating the horrible figure before him. She must have once been a Clavat, but now she had patched hair, near skeletonized body, loose, scabby flesh stained with blood and crystals know what else. She was kneeling in a shallow, feces-covered ditch from which the flow of rats issued forth. As soon as the light hit her, she reeled back in pain and horror.

"You!" she screeched, showing her rotted gums and elongated incisors. The man flew forward towards her. "Keep him away!" the vermin-thing yelped, stumbling back and pointing a knobby, quivering finger at him. The dirty creatures flew at him as one, burying him in a fetid, gray, moving pile. An excruciatingly long moment passed, then a violent storm of blows scattered rats in all directions.

The pitiful woman screamed with fear as the warrior jumped down in front of her. A blade leveled on her chin, piercing flesh ever so slightly. "Where is Ra'agth, fiend?" the man interrogated venomously. "I-I don't know-"the thing stuttered. "YOUR ACT DOESEN'T FOOL ME, KAZNAK!" the warrior roared, holding the bright crystal on her forehead. The mere touch of the shard seemed to burn her, and she cried out under it. "ALFITARIA! ALFITARIA!" her cracking voice called out. "Good," the man grunted, standing. A quick swipe, and he sheathed the long sword he wielded.

The air already felt cleaner. Rats no longer spread from the clearing. As the small form softly thumped to the ground, the lone knight spread a fine dust over the body. The powder glistened in the moonlight as it drifted to the earth.
"One more wretched soul you can not torture..." he whispered softly, painfully.
"...I am beating you..."
"...Slowly..."
"...I am destroying you..."

"...Raem..."