Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own anything by Square-Enix. Once again, all character names, places, items, and events belong to Square, I simply embellish them.

The Summoned Land

Rydia followed Leviathan through the twisting passages of the cavern. To her surprise, she found that instead of walking on the floor, she was floating a few inches above it. She wondered at how she was floating, but guessed it was probably Leviathan who had cast the spell.

His deep purple robe swished as he glided on the air, looking almost like a specter because to Rydia it appeared he had no feet. He said very little as he guided her, and she didn't have the courage to ask him anything, so they walked in silence through the dim, but strangely glowing cave.

The monsters Rydia had seen when she first found herself here, fled when Leviathan walked past. It made Rydia feel slightly safer that they wouldn't bother her so long as she kept close to the summon.

They passed several more chambers and rooms, and Leviathan finally brought her to a passage that simply ended. There were no other chambers to enter, it just ended in a wall that looked like petrified vines. Rydia looked down and gasped. Past her feet and through the floor she could see lights and houses. There was a whole city beneath her! She couldn't believe that a city had been built beneath a cavern, but then again, she couldn't believe she was standing beside the most powerful of summons either.

When he walked away from her and stopped next to a small metal plaque on the floor, she paused and looked up at him, confused.

He pointed at the plaque and she curiously walked forward, inspecting the plaque but finding nothing too remarkable about it except for maybe a few runes she didn't recognize. She glanced back up at him warily.

"I don't understand."

"Step on it. There's nothing to understand," he answered, gesturing with his hand towards the object on the floor.

Step on it? Rydia remembered hearing about teleporters, but she didn't know what they looked like or exactly what they did, and she wasn't too eager to find out. It appeared that Leviathan did not have the patience for a battle of wits and when Rydia's hesitation lasted longer than a few minutes, he pushed her onto the plaque and she felt the magic surge through her, melting the world around her and bringing her to an entirely different place. She had to take a few breaths to collect herself, but as she looked around, she noticed that the buildings and lights all looked familiar. She had been transported through the floor and into the city she had seen. Leviathan emerged from the portal behind her, taking her by the shoulders, and leading her once again to where he wanted her.

As she walked the unusual plank streets of the city, she saw people in long hooded robes staring at her from a distance. She heard strange voices whispering to each other, fingers pointing, and noticed that no one would meet her gaze. Who were these people?

The city was made of many different levels, each being connected by a set of stairs. Leviathan led her to the lowest of the tiers and to a building with a chocobo standing near the entrance. It kweh'd at her and hopped, causing Rydia to jump back, a bit alarmed. What on earth was a chocobo doing in a place like this? When she studied the bird a bit closer she noticed that it looked very familiar. It looked like the chocobo she had frequently summoned to help her in battle while she and Cecil journeyed together.

"This way," Leviathan directed her, interrupting her thoughts, and opening the door to the building and ushering her inside.

When she stepped through the doorway, the smell of old books was almost overwhelming. Shelves upon shelves of tomes faced her from every direction. This must be a library, she realized. A few more hooded citizens were seated at a table reading, and the moment she entered they scurried away from the table and ran behind the bookshelves, hiding.

Rydia couldn't help but feel that she was an intruder in a place she didn't belong. Nothing about this city seemed normal or friendly, and Rydia wanted to know why Leviathan had taken her here. She missed Cecil, Yang, and Edward. She missed traveling with them, learning everything she could, and listening to their stories. Why had Leviathan rescued her from the ocean, but left her friends to die? Was it all just to bring her here? Hadn't she gone through enough already?

She followed him down a set of stone stairs in the library and found herself in a room lit by torches with stone walls and a wooden floor. There were two men in long robes standing in the room, and there was also a woman in an elegant gown who caught Rydia's gaze immediately and made her want to shrink away into a corner.

"What is this, Leviathan, a drowned rat?" the woman asked.

Leviathan walked forwards, taking his place beside the woman. Rydia felt her cheeks grow very red. She had forgotten in her confusion that she was still soaking wet from the shipwreck. She tugged absentmindedly at her damp hair.

"This is no drowned rat," Leviathan replied.

"Then what is she?"

A strange kind of indignation welled up in Rydia. Why was she being referred to as a thing and not a person? Just because she was young and soaked to the bone, didn't make her some kind of abomination.

"I-I'm a girl," she blurted out, not sure how the words escaped her lips.

The woman's eyebrows rose. "A girl? Are you some kind of stowaway, to have found our hidden city? What's so special about you, girl, that you are here?"

Rydia clamped her mouth shut.

Leviathan looked over at the woman and sought out her attention. "She is here because I brought her here. She is a summoner, the last of her kind, it seems."

"She is a summoner--this little girl? My, my, you certainly are an interesting creature after all."

Rydia's eyes widened in disbelief. She was a creature now?

"I'm sure you're wondering where you are," the woman continued. "You are now within the borders of the secret city, the land of the summoned ones. Humans are not allowed here, but if it is true that you are a summoner as Leviathan believes you to be, you are welcomed here only because of the connection you share with our kind." She paused, inclining her head in a haughty manner, making sure Rydia understood her place. "My name is Asura. I am the queen of the land of summons and I am the intermediary between most everyone and Leviathan. By Leviathan's grace, you were spared my interrogation, but you will not escape my questions now. You are the last of the summoners, is this true?"

Rydia nodded her head.

"How did you come to be the last of your kind?"

Rydia gulped and took a deep breath. "There was a fire…"

"Mere fire does not wipe out an entire village of mages, there must have been more than that."

"We were attacked--"

"Attacked by whom?"

The queen's quick questions caught Rydia off guard.

"B-Baron. Baron sent men to kill us."

The queen's eyebrows knit together and she pursed her lips. "Baron? Strange, I've been hearing many murmurs about that kingdom recently…But how did these men enter the summoner's village? Had we not sent the Mist Dragon to aide you?"

Rydia's throat began to tighten. "The Mist Dragon, my mother…they defeated her."

The queen closed her eyes, and a strange silence fell over the room. "So Arya is dead. I thought I felt the bond between our worlds weaken."

"How…how do you know my mother's name?"

"I'm intrigued. I never knew Arya had a daughter," Asura remarked. "Your mother was the best summoner of the village, the high summoner. She was charged with protecting the village from unfriendly visitors, and we helped her by sending the Mist Dragon. It is the Mist Dragon who has been known for many years as the namesake of the valley. Mist had gone missing about the same time that we felt the connection between the worlds weaken, and we worried that something terrible had happened. Leviathan went looking for the summoners but it seems the only one he could sense with the gift was you."

A startling realization struck Rydia. "You knew I was on the ocean? You knew where we were going so you attacked us, just to find me? What about Cecil, Edward, and Yang! They could be dead!"

"Who are these people you speak of?"

"My friends! They protected me ever since the village. Why did you do that to them!"

"That's quite enough!"

"No, it's not!"

Leviathan and Asura both looked at her, startled.

"I have to know if my friends are still alive!"

Asura glanced at Leviathan.

"And I need to go home!" Rydia shouted, desperation creeping into her voice.

Asura gazed at the girl with indifferent eyes. "I'm afraid going home is out of the question. You have seen the hidden city and we cannot allow you to leave. This is your home now. As for these friends of yours, their fate is no longer your concern while you are here. You have other things over which to concern yourself. Rest assured that whatever fate they met, they all met for their own reasons. Leviathan, I'm through with my questions, you may take her from here."

Rydia was immediately horrified.

"You can't keep me here, people will come to look for me! Take me back right now!"

Despite her clamouring, Leviathan approached her and picked her up by the arms, carrying her as she kicked and squirmed. Once they were out of the basement of the library, Leviathan set her down.

"You really must calm down, little one. And I must advise you not to take everything Asura tells you too seriously. You see, she has many faces, and today was not one of her better ones. In time you will learn the order of things here in the Summoned Land."

"I don't understand. Why are you keeping me here?"

"You are the last of the summoners. Without you, our existence is called into question. When we lose our footing in one world, we begin to lose our footing in the other, until eventually we perish."

"You can die?" Rydia asked, shocked.

"All things can die, little one."

"But why are you keeping me here? To keep you alive?"

"You are here because we were searching for the summoners and found you. If you are truly the last of them, we cannot afford to risk your life. If you were to die, so would we."

"Where are you taking me now?"

"I am taking you to a home where you will live. By tomorrow we will have decided what to do with you during your time with us."

Rydia, overwhelmed by everything she had just heard and experienced, followed Leviathan out of the library and out into the streets of the city. He led her to a half tier, and after they'd climbed the stairs, she was face to face with a door to a small house.

"Is this entire house mine?" she gasped.

"Yes. I hope it is suitable for you. You will be retrieved in the morning," he replied.

Rydia looked away from the house and out into the surroundings. Morning? Everything outside of the city was completely black. The only source of light came from the lamps on poles that stood at every street corner. It was like staring out into complete nothingness, and living in a space that was just floating somewhere inside it.

"I advise not to walk around the city. The others are not keen on outsiders. Someone will come for you in the morning," Leviathan instructed her, gesturing towards the door of the house.

Rydia stared at him skeptically, but walked towards the house and opened the door. The inside of the house was nicely furnished. Lamps burned softly in the main room, illuminating a small table, chairs, a bed, and a few trunks. When she turned around to ask Leviathan something, he was already gone. She stood warily in the doorway for a few seconds before stepping inside and closing the door.

She was a prisoner here, and nothing they said could change her mind. She would never be allowed to leave. She would never see the sun, the ocean, the mountains, or her friends again.

She flopped onto her bed, tears forming in her eyes. The last thing she remembered before sleep overtook her, was the overwhelming determination to escape. She vowed that somehow, someday, she would.

……………………………………………………………………..

Author's Notes: Hmm…where to begin. I must say that the most difficult thing about writing this sequel is trying to figure out where to go with it. At the moment, I'm letting the story kind of take itself, so we'll see what exactly becomes of it. I predict this will be very long…could quite possibly take me into second semester of this upcoming year to finish, but if I'm successful, should hopefully satisfy anything you could ever want to know about what happens to Rydia in the Land of Summoned Monsters. I've been battling through over the last couple days, what to do with the time acceleration. I think I'm going to pull a Chronicles of Narnia and have Rydia actually live out ten years in the Land of Summoned Monsters, but when she comes out, it will be that only a few weeks have gone by in the real world. I figure…Rydia has a lot to learn while she's down there. Let's just say you can expect to see in this sequel, more history on the summons and summoners, more of Rydia's personal story and of where she comes from (parents and such), Rydia training to become a high summoner, and her coming to terms with being separated from the others and getting along better with Leviathan and Asura.

In regards to questions about Asura…I wanted to have somewhat of an antagonist, so I utilized the fact that Asura has many faces and could be mean one day and nice the next. It just adds a bit more spice to life…

Next chapter things should really start to pick up.

myth.