A lone figure crept across the pitch-dark hall.

His head swiveled right and then back left. "Good, the coast is clear," he muttered as softly as he could, though it failed to smooth over the gravel in his larynx. "Should be another couple minutes before the priests catch on to me."

Slowly yet surely he navigated the maze of pillars, following the soft lavender light that pulsated as if to bid him come closer. When the source of the glow finally lit his rough, jagged face, his onyx-black eyes widened.

"That is a big jewel!"

Before his eyes stood a podium on which lay the object of his mission, a great purple stone glimmering with alternating reds, blues, and every hue and shade in between. Inside it were three small orbs: one red, one blue, one green. Even King Edgar Figaro XVIII would likely foul his royal trousers at the sight of it.

Wasting no time, the thief produced a leather bag. "I should've brought a bigger one," he sighed, but he grasped both edges and tried to squeeze the mouth of the bag over the huge gem. When the bag refused to admit the gem, he seized the gem with both hands and strained to lift it, but to no avail. In desperate anger, he set the bag on the floor right next to the podium, then threw all his might against the gem.

Eventually it toppled from the podium, but certainly not into the bag as the thief had expected.

There was a blinding flash of light followed by a deafening explosion as the pieces flew apart.

---

"Master?" The thief gingerly peered into the mouth of the blazing pit, but not so close as to singe his face. "Are you there?"

"OF COURSE, YOU FARKTWAT!" boomed the eardrum-busting reply. "SO DID YOU GET THE STONE OF BALANCE?"

The thief stared idly at his feet. "Almost."

"ALMOST? ALMOST?" The flames climbed higher. If there was a face behind that voice, it must have been beet-red with rage. "WHAT THE %#&^ DOES THAT MEAN???"

"Well, see, I got past the priests and the guards."

"UH HUH."

"And then I found the Stone."

"RIGHT, SO WHERE IS IT?"

The thief's face turned whiter. "In pieces, kind of."

For a moment there was no reply. Finally the pit bellowed, "IN PIECES??? SO HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW, YOU IMBECILIC DIPWAD?"

Kiss-ass time, the thief thought. Hurriedly he knelt and prostrated himself. "I'm not worthy of thy greatness, O Dark Lord!"

"PFFT. YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF ANYTHING, WORM!"

"No, I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy, O Master of Evil!" He banged his forehead on the rough stone floor for good measure.

"WAIT."

Cautiously the thief looked up. "Yes, O Mighty Evil One?"

"ALL IS NOT LOST." The anger in that great voice was fading. "I STILL FEEL THE STONE'S PRESENCE. ONLY IT'S…DIFFERENT… FRAGMENTED, THIS TIME."

"Fragmented, O Wise Disemboweler?"

"IN PIECES, YOU DOLT! JUST LIKE YOU SAID!"

"Ah. I get it."

"BAH, DON'T LIE." The voice turned commanding once again. "NOW I WANT YOU TO FIND THOSE PIECES, YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"Yes, Master." His hand went to the lump in his pants. "Actually, I did manage to grab one piece before I left…"

"YOU DID? LET ME SEE, LET ME SEE!"

The thief pulled the glittering lavender shard from his pocket and held it out for inspection.

"HEH HEH…IT'S A START. NOW GO FIND THE OTHERS!"

"Yes, O Lord of Treachery! I shall not fail you!" promised the thief as he hurried out.

"YOU'LL BURN IN HELL IF YOU DO!" he heard his "Lord of Treachery's" farewell echo behind him. "SO BRING THEM TO ME AND I SHALL BE FREEEEEEEEE! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

---

"Oh, what to do, what do?" fretted the young priest as he worriedly circled the empty podium.

The Stone of Balance had not been reported missing until that morning, when only a handful of novices were awake. But not long after one of them had waltzed into the Hall of the Stone only to find a trace of purple dust where the Stone should have been, the whole place was in an uproar.

"It's not the end of the world, Heironymus," the other priest assured him.

"Oh, sure, Cthunik," Heironymus sneered. "Now that there's no Stone of Balance to maintain the equilibrium between Good and Evil and the gods only know what might happen next, everything's juuuuust peachy!"

Cthunik gazed at the podium. "I knew there was something iffy about that novice."

"Well, duh, who else could it be?"

"In any case, it's probably better that it broke into pieces and scattered across the world than if he got it out of there whole."

"Right, so what we need to do is get the pieces back before that bastard beats us to them!"

"Thank you, Cap'n Obvious. Well, where do we start looking?"

Heironymus halted in mid-pace. "Whoa, slow down, now! We're priests, not adventurers!"

"I was getting to that," snapped Cthunik. "Yes, we do need someone who can help us."

"Anyone in particular come to mind?"

Cthunik thought. "Do you remember that one story about the young Esper-woman who toppled the reign of a Lord Kefka?"

"That fairy tale?" Heironymus scoffed.

"Hey, this is serious. It's all over the history books, don't you know."

Heironymus was livid with frustration, but at this point he would have gladly assigned Smoochy the Rhino to the task. "Fine, go ahead and summon her."

Cthunik made the gestures for summoning as he incanted, "TERRA BRANFORD, APPEARIUS HERIUS NOWIUS!"

Heironymus stared at him. "You remembered her name?"

"Quiet! I'm not done yet!" Cthunik continued to wave his hands in the prescribed motions.

Finally he finished by slamming his fist on the polished marble floor. Bolts of multicolored electricity streamed every which way from the dent Cthunik's fist made. Eventually they coalesced into a slowly expanding sphere of pure white.

When the sphere had grown to the size of a boulder there was an ear-splitting crack, soon followed by light, then darkness.