Chapter 3 Meetings
o Mobliz o
Pain that was the first thing that Chris noticed. It took several moments to realize that this meant she was still alive, which must be a miracle from the Goddess herself. Chris just wished the Goddess had seen fit to reduce her pain a bit more.
Chris opened her eyes and looked around, but her head was whirling so bad that she was having trouble making sense of what she was seeing. She saw that the bed she was in had only half of a footboard. Either her eyes were deceiving her or something had cut a large part of the footboard away. Why would anyone keep using a bed that badly damaged? She blinked, but her eyesight did not get less blurry.
The smell of food being cooked was wafting through the room and it reminded Chris of how long it had been since she ate, then she realized she wasn't actually sure how long that was. She lifted her head to try and find out where the smells were coming from. That action alone took almost more energy then she had, but she was able to see a group of people, mostly kids, over at the other side of the room.
One of them noticed her and came over. At first Chris thought that her eyes were not working properly, but the woman's hair was actually green. She knew that this woman's name was Terra Branford. How do I know that? There were other things in her memory now that she had no way of knowing. She would have to think about those later when her head hurt less. She had to ask one thing now though.
"Where am I?" She had to know so she would be able to get back to Brass Castle. She was the Captain of the Zexen Knights. She had to get back to them.
"Mobliz," said Terra, looking down at her.
"Never heard of it." What had happened before she ended up here? Was that memory about the two worlds combining correct? "Where is Mobliz?"
Terra smiled. "I would be surprised if you had. It is nearby Nor now."
Chris wasn't sure exactly where Nor was, although she had heard of it. It was a small farming village, she thought. There were so many thoughts crowding Chris' mind right now that it was hard to decide which to think about first. She felt tired and hungry. It might be best to take care of those first.
"How do you feel?" asked Terra, interrupting her thoughts.
Chris' head was whirling worst now, so badly that she could barely hear what Terra was saying, "Awful. Your name is Terra isn't it?"
Chris concentrated on Terra's words to keep herself from slipping off into unconsciousness again "It is. You are Chris right?" at Chris' nod Terra asked. "Do you feel like having something to eat or drink? Katrin cooked a good meal."
"Yes, please."
The food she was brought was spiced a little oddly, but Chris hardly noticed. After the food was eaten she felt better. It was her intention to think about everything that had happened and all this new information she had in her head now.
o Brass Castle o
Celes was up with the sun. It was odd waking up in a bed again, last time that had happened things had not turned out well. The fact this well appointed room in an inn was very different then a worn out shack on a dieing island did not help much. Waking up to find that it had been a year and the world was dying because I hadn't been fast enough to stop Kefka was one of the worst things that had happened. I failed and it looked like everyone was dead due to my failure, she thought as she sat up. Celes shook her head. Sabin was still alive, so the others must be too. Nothing good was going to come from dwelling on these thoughts. She had to keep moving and find the others: Terra, Edgar, Cyan and... Locke, especially Locke.
Lily was still asleep in her bed with her dark hair splayed out around her. It looked like she would be for several hours yet. Last night she had complained long and hard about sharing rooms, but there wasn't another room to be had and Sabin had been insistent. Quite odd since he didn't seem to care about his royal heritage. Yet he did argue with Lily despite the fact he was risking them not having a place to sleep.
Celes slipped out of the room without waking Lily. From the look of things she would have time for a full morning practice today, which was good because she had yet to regain the muscle mass that she had lost during that year she was unconscious. Not good; she needed to be in top form for when things got serious, and they would. They always did. She just wished she had a better idea of what was going to happen.
Celes was able to quickly find a side courtyard that was empty to go through her sword drill in. First stretching, then basics, then on to more complicated moves. Celes was nearing the end of a complicated sword drill called the Steel Dance when she heard a sound behind her. She whirled to meet... the weaponless older man wearing a breastplate and some fabric around the waist that could be a uniform. She pulled her strike before it sliced into him.
"Don't get behind me like that." There was a young boy about twelve dress in a simpler version of the mans clothes next to him. His eyes were quite wide. Celes felt sick thinking about what would have happened had she not pulled the strike. "sorry," that was a hard word to say, "Why are you here?"
"I am Salome Harras of the Zexen Knights. I was told that you are Celes Chere." said the man
Celes nodded as she sheathed her sword. Sir Harras didn't seem at all fazed that he had almost lost his head.
"Good," he said in response to her nod. "You had talked about finding Lady Chris."
"And Terra, as I told Leo and Percival yesterday the chances of success are rather low." Celes found herself drawing up into parade rest as she spoke and forced her body to relax, even if her mind would not. If Sir Harras noticed this he gave no indication of it.
"I am aware of this, but what exactly are your plans?"
Now that was the tricky part, Celes hadn't had any real defined plan since she woke up on that lonely island and found out what Kefka had done to the world. "I was going to follow the strip of land that has all of the dying plants and dangerous monsters until it dead ends or we find a town. The people there should have some information." That last part was a lie, she had no way of knowing if they would know anything.
Sir Harras didn't say anything about stupidity of the 'plan' although she had expected him to, instead he commented on the part that made sense. "I presume that following the dying plants is to make sure that you stay within the land of your world." Celes nodded and he went on to ask, "Can you and your... traveling companion ride?"
Celes thought that was a bit of a change of topic, but she indicated that both of them could. She had been one of the few people in the Empire who could ride a Chocobo, although due to the difficulty of getting them she mostly had been trained as infantry. She knew now why there was that difficulty, but she hadn't then. As for Sabin she couldn't imagine a prince of Figaro not knowing how to ride one.
"Good, it will take some time to gather supplies," said Sir Harras. "Let us meet here at the noon bell." A breeze picked up as he turned to go, rattling the shutters on the nearest windows.
"Right, can I ask who exactly will be accompanying Sabin and me?" Celes asked. This time she would follow the advice 'Try and find out about the people you will be working with beforehand.' It was good advice that Celes hardly ever followed.
"Roland Lesaurus and Percival Fraulein." He left with that boy following close behind.
Celes gave one moments thought to wondering who the boy was before turning her thoughts to gathering information. She would need Sabin's help with this.
o Mobliz o
The sound of people moving around was what woke Chris up this time. She opened her eyes to see that she was in the room that she dimly remembered being in last night. There were two things that she noticed right away that somehow escaped her notice before. One was that this room must be underground, because of the lack of widows of any sort. The other was that she wasn't wearing anything but bandages.
A young woman with sandy blonde hair who looked to be about seventeen was nearby. Best to ask her before panicking about this last fact.
"Where are my clothes?"
"Terra had to cut them off you to heal you. Here, I'll get you some new ones." The woman turned and pulled some out of a nearby chest. "Don't worry there was a blanket covering most of you last night. I'm Katrin, by the way."
After hearing that Chris was torn between relief and embarrassment. Chris sat up slowly and put on the clothes, trying to keep her face from flushing at that last piece of information. The clothes were so worn that they were as soft as a linen would be, even though they were rough homespun. As she did this she realized that she was much less worn out now.
"You made the food last night didn't you?" Chris asked after getting dressed
Katrin looked a bit surprised at this. "Yes, I guess you weren't as out of it as you looked."
"I just have a good memory for names." That ability had stood Chris in good stead many times in the past.
Terra came down the stairs at the far wall and came over. So I wasn't imagining that last night. Her hair is green, I wonder why?
"Thank you for watching her, Katrin." said Terra "It is good to see you awake. How are you feeling Chris?"
"Fine" still worn out and I am not sure what's going on. I need to get back.
"Let's see what your arm looks like then." When Terra unwrapped the bandages from Chris' left arm all that was there was a few half healed scars. Chris had been expecting worse, even though she hadn't felt any pain from her arm since she woke up.
"You are a good healer," she told Terra, "Where did you train?" she asked looking straight into Terra's bright blue eyes.
"I just kinda picked it up." Terra looked like she was going to say more but was interrupted by the sound of a disagreement between two of the kids, which Terra had to go settle.
"My mother used to do the same thing when I was little." said Chris when Terra came back after a few minutes, "Are any of them yours?"
Terra shook her head, "Their parents died. Kefka killed them."
"Well at least they have someone who loves them." said Chris laying back against the worn headboard a little.
Terra had this look of shock on her face then she started to smile, "Yes they do, thank you."
"I was wondering if you had any idea about this," Chris searched for the right word, "information we have received, like the fact we know each others names."
"I don't know." Terra paused like she was worried, "What do you think happened to the espers? All I got was a flash of a symbol."
Espers, where have I...oh right those beings I saw. Maduin, Ramuh and others, thought Chris."Kefka did something to the Elemental Runes and they fixed it, I think. Is it important?"
From the look on Terra's face, yes it was, but she didn't say that, "Probably not, he was already dead."
o Open road o
A cool wind blew across Jimba's face as he lead a group towards the Kuput Forest to provide assistance to the Alma Kinan clan. He could see some people off in the distance coming towards his group. As they grew closer he recognized some of them.
The group was a motley bunch They were all well armed and most were wearing a jacket or overcoat of some sort. That was were any similarities in clothing ended through. Jimba didn't know any of their names but he knew they worked for an old friend of his who was leading them. Geddoe who was wearing a suit of the flexible armor you could get on the island of Kanakan. As they came closer Jimba saw Aila, a fellow clan member who he had thought was dead.
"Going to look into the truth of the vision, I believe we both had." said Geddoe as he came up.
Jimba nodded "More going to see if any help is needed, then going investigating, but yes. We had a woman from Alma Kinan appear at Chisha, literally appear out of thin air with out the use of a blinking rune. She was in pretty bad shape and hasn't regained consciousness yet."
"Ah, could you use some more help?"
"I won't say no."
They soon reached Kuput forest, but every time tried to enter the forest they ended upwalking out of the forest.
.
After the fourth time this happened Geddoe said, "Ramuh says that he might know a way to pierce the magic surrounding the forest."
"How? I was hoping that the wards would recognize me since I have been there many times before," said Jimba, "but that obviously isn't working."
"He says that he knows a way to look at the magic more closely, but it's dangerous to do this without being in a meditative trance."
"We need to take a break anyway everyone is tried."said Jimba. :Maduin, Do you know anything about what this is going to intail?:
:Only vauely I didn't really study much magic.:
That was hardly what Jimba wanted to hear. :How did you manage to do any magic if you never studied it?:
:Instinct:
:That doesn't... You can't do magic by instinct.:
:Of corse you can. It's a good thing too, otherwise no esper would make it to adulthood.:
Jimba wasn't sure what Maduin meant by that, but he had enough other things on his mind that he let it go for now. There were more important things to worry about :Will your instincts be able to help me with what we need to do:
:I will be right beside you.:
Once they had stopped, Jimba settled down into a crossleged position and started a breathing exercise. He closed his eyes.
o ? o
And opened them in a realm of blue mist and colored threads. The first thing that Jimba noticed, even before the odd misty scenery, was the person beside him, Maduin. It was odd seeing him instead of just hearing him. He had straight horns on his head and clawed feet, but otherwise looked like a fit human. What he didn't look like was any race Jimba had seen before
"So that is how you look." said Maduin, his voice sounding just the same as before.
Jimba looked down to see that his clothes had a bit more formal cut and he had a straight sword at his side, not one of the large curved daggers that the people of the Karyan Clan used. The sword had the crest of the Lightfellow family on it. This is getting weird, but then things haven't been normal for the last few days.
The others appeared then. He had never before seen Ramuh, but they had such a presence that who they were was unmistakable. If it wasn't for the aura of power surrounding Ramuh, he could almost have passed for a human.
He turned to Ramuh. "Mind telling us a bit more about this place?" he said gesturing to the foggy, blue landscape shot with threads of different colors.
Among the colors of the threads ware purple, blue, green, yellow and others that Jimba could not identify.. Some made elegant loops that made Jimba smile when he looked at them. Others gave him a sick feeling in his stomach.
Maduin spoke up,"We are in The Tapestry I saw aren't we?"
"Yes, The Tapestry is magic it's self. It looks very different here now and I haven't figured out all the new rules yet."
Ramuh opened his mouth then shut it again and rubbed his chin, "Do any of you know anything about shielding magic?"
"I'm not even sure what you mean by that. How will it help us now?" said Geddoe.
Ramuh blinked "What do you do when someone attacks you with magic?"
"Avoid the spell and get rid of the rune user." said Geddoe. Jimba knew from experience that this was true. That was how Geddoe lost his eye. He had charged though a whole unit of Harmonians to get at one particular mage.
"So there was no way to deflect magic in your world, I take it?" Said Ramuh, "we need to use shields, well a variation on them anyway, to separate the strands of magic that we are interested in from all the others."
"How long will this take?" asked Jimba, "We don't have much time."
The process its self should hopefully not take long, but you will have to learn the basics of shielding first."
These basics fortunately seemed to be easy to understand and and they soon got to praticeing Geddoe went first.
"I have never seen a human get this right on the first try." said Ramuh after Geddoe pulled up a shield.
"Ramuh, that might be because you know how to do do it." said Maduin
"What do you mean?"
"Well remember why Geddoe has magic."
"Because I have the True..." said Geddoe.
"I see what mean." said Ramuh. He shook his head. "Well right now that will make this task simpler. I assume you remember how to make shields Maduin."
Ramuh turned towards the threads and said, "Now you will have to keep the lines I have checked from separate from the others."
Jimba nodded, hoping that nothing went wrong.
Ramuh grabbed on to a light blue thread of magic. It writhed around in his hand. "Whoa," Ramuh held the thread for a moment, looking at it. "It seems this is just a loose leftover from an illusion spell."
Jimba, Maduin and Geddoe tried to put a shield around it to keep it separate from the others, but the thread jerked around and broke the shield. .
Then everything jerked and they were thrown out of the Tapestry.
o Kuput Forest o
They had failed. Jimba did not know how many people would die because of their failure to find Alma Kinan, but it was likely that there would no longer be six clans in the Grassllands any more. There was nothing to do now but go back to Chisha and take steps to protect the other five clans. He didn't even know why Ramuh's plan had failed . That really worried him.
When they made it back to Chisha Jimba found out about the All Clan meeting and went looking for Geddoe who he soon found.
"Leaving?"
"Yeah I have more concrete things to worry about, like the fact that they might know that I have a True Rune up in Harmonia now.".said Geddoe crossing his arms.
"That would cause you some problems, wouldn't it," Geddoe had been part of the Harmonian Southern Frontier Defense Force for a number of years now, Jimba was sure that he had stopped any number of Harmonian plots from that position, "They may not know yet though. Hikusaak hasn't been very active in his government in the past few decades and the only other active True Rune that is confirmed that they have is the True Earth Rune. Its bearer is about ten miles north of here. I think it will be a while before he is able to return to Harmonia. Do you mind waiting until after the All Clan meeting?"
"Active runes yes I see what you mean. We did get less then twenty seven names didn't we?" said Geddoe. Jimba had known Geddoe would pick up that he meant the Runes that currently had a bearer. They both knew that Harmonia was collecting True Runes, but couldn't find bearers for most of them. "But why should I stay for this meeting?"
"There were a number of odd things leading to the collapse of the truce meeting with Zexen that throw what truly happened into doubt." He was of course refearing to how peace negasations fell apart with the Lizard Clan Chief's assassination.
"I see what you mean. The tracks of the 'knights' that killed the Lizard Clan chief were not deep enough for someone wearing that much armor."
"See you should tell the Clan Chief that." said Jimba, "Besides do you really think that it a good idea to go into danger when your rune is distracted."
"All right I will stay for the meeting." Geddoe laughed, "Ramuh is very insistent about getting his safe area set up after all and I would hate to disturb him."
o The Cult of Kefka Tower o
Sarah was waiting for preparations to be completed so they could head towards the Grasslands and Alma Kinan. She had spent the last night figuring out where she was relative to the grasslands where Luc was trapped and exactly who Kefka was. He was that crazy dangerous man sealed up with Luc. These people here thought for some reason that he was their god. It did not matter why, she would play along until she was able to save Luc.
"Well, stop standing around and get up there." said one of the Favored pointing to the top of the metal monstrosity. It was a big mass of metal that looked like a demented blacksmith had tried to make a human statue in a fit of madness. Its arms ended in wicked claws and in place of the head was a seat surrounded by more metal. There seemed to be someone up there already.
"Up there." glancing over at the cart that had been tied to the metal thing. These people are completely mad.
"Yes up there. You are the one who know where to go, so get up there and direct Strago. Get going before I find a way to hasten your steps."
Sarah climbed up the ladder set against the metal thing, to find the old man who had given her water yesterday. "Are you Strago?"
"Yes" said said the old man, "Are you all right?"
"I"m fine. We want to head northwest, I think"
"Right, now take a good grip on the ropes there."
Among the ropes that were connected to the cart bhind them, there was a tied off loop of rope. I think this is what he meant. As soon as she grabbed hold of it, Strago pulled one of the bits of metal in front of him. The metal thing jolted forward.
The next few hours were very terror filled for Sarah as she was sure that she was going to fall off any moment. Gradually she realized that she was not going to fall off and die. She looked over at Strago.
"You could run away now" said Strago. He pointed to a tree limb that was going past. "Just grab on to that and you would be gone before I could stop you."
"Why would I do that?" said Sarah, "We are going where I want to."
"You want to release Kefka." he said coldly as he continued to pull and push those bites of metal.
"Kefka wasn't the only one sealed up."Sarah said thinking of Luc's passion for changing the world..
Strago glanced behind them, back to where the Favored were, before saying quietly, "Kefka is going to be a danger to whoever you want to save. I have a plan to get rid if him. Would you be willing to help with it?"
"Why are you offering me this. You hardly know me?"
"I need a second person to pull the plan off. You are the only one available."
"Really that seems like bad planning."
"The events of a few days ago took everyone by surprise."
"That may be true, but," Sarah gestured in the direction of the Favored's cart, "Why shouldn't I go over to them when we stop for the night and tell them of your plans?"
"Two reasons, one if you don't help me then Kefka will kill whoever you are trying to save. Kefka thinks killing people is fun. The second reason is because who do you think they are going to believe. What you know will not save you The moment they think that you won't follow their orders, well let's just say that Kefka told them some ways of controlling people. If you work with me than you get to save whoever-"
"Luc, his name is Luc."
Strago's face softened for a moment, "Luc and you will go have a good life after this is over. However, if you don't help me than I will tell the Favored of your plans to kill Kefka in order to distract them from my own plans. If you are not killed then what you will have left can hardly be called life."
"All right I will help you. What's your plan?"
o Brass Castle o
"I have been asking around about the knights. Apparently Roland is an elf, which some think this is a bit odd since elves are a bit standoffish normally. Seems that there are a number of nonhuman races around here." said Sabin leaning on the table.
Celes was in the wood paneled common room of the inn with Sabin talking over the facts they had found out about the Zexen Knights and other things as the two of them waited for the knights . One thing was sure, things were very different in this new world.
"That is a change. Doing better with inter-species relations then some aren't they?" said Celes, they both knew what The Empire had done to the espers and Celes hated having that knowledge. If only she had been able to stop Kefka, maybe some of them would still be around.
"Yes, thing is I think non-humans are truly different species than humans here. They can't interbreed. I got some weird looks from Reed asking about that too." Sabin was smiling though so obviously the weird looks weren't bothering him.
Celes had read every piece of information that the Empire had collected concerning espers. It had been in her best interest to do so, what with the magic that she had been infused with as a child."Wonder if that text about the Warring Triad transforming humans into espers was true?"
"It would explain things." Sabin said, "Though you know I don't think anyone would look at an esper and say they are -" Sabin broke off as he saw Lily coming over.
Lily demanded "What are you two talking about?"
"None of your business." Celes wasn't sure what Lily would think of their conversation, but it would probably be something stupid.
Lily actually managed to look offended at that, maybe if she hadn't been barging in on a private conversation Cele might actully have believed it.."Well, if we are traveling together it is."
"We won't be traveling together anymore." said Celes getting up from the table so she would have a height advantage if Lily was going to start a confrontation.
"What, just because I want to know what you are talking about?" said Lily her voice rising
"Lily, We have other things that we need to do and so we will going a different direction then you," said Sabin, "We have to part company here."
"You two don't even know what direction I am traveling, now do you? Well do you?" The wide brim of Lily's hat quivering quite ridiculously as she gestured.
"It makes no difference to me,"returned Celes crossing her arms.
Two people in odd heavy armor came up. One of them was Percival. So the other must be Roland. He doesn't look much different from a human, except for the ears. "How are you doing today Celes, Sabin?" Percival said.
"Good, we better get moving if we want to make any time today," replied Celes, glad to have something else besides Lily to concentrate on and wanting to get going.
"Hey where would you be going with the Zexen Knights? How do you even know them anyway?" getting no response from Celes, Lily turned to the Knights, "Well, why do you want to have anything to do with her?"
The one with pointy ears who Celes assumed was Roland said, "She wants to help us find Lady Chris."
"What her? She..." Lily glared at Celes, "Then I am coming along. Chris is my friend and I will help find her."
"No, you'll only slow us down," Celes said as she reached down to grab her small pack. "Let's get going."
"I will not. How could you say such a thing?" Celes just ignored the idiot's screeching, as she headed out the door.
Outside were some of the most odd looking creatures. They stood two heads taller then a Chocobo and they had four legs instead of two. They also had fur, not feathers. Yet these things had saddles and packs on them just like a Chocobo would. Pervical pulled himself easily into the saddle of one of them and gestured for Celes and Sabin to follow suit.
It was better to feel like a fool for asking a question then to not ask the question that needed to be asked, so Celes asked "What are those?"
"Horses, I thought you said you could ride?" said Pervical.
"Yes I can ride, but I have never seen these horses before."
Lily had followed them outside and she had to butt in now. "Then what is it that you know how to ride, goats?"
Sabin answered that question, for he would be able to give a much better answer then Celes would, being that he was a prince of Figaro and admittedly he was less likely to lose his temper.. "Chocobos. They are avian mounts that can run at high speeds."
"So there are more things that are different between the worlds then just the magic?" asked Percival.
"Yes, quite a few things." said Celes and your fellow knight is one of them.
Lily had to butt in again, "Well if you don't know how to ride then I won't be slowing you down now will I?"
Celes pulled herself up into the saddle of one of the horses. The sattle was different and a lot higher off the ground then one on a chocobo would be.
"Reed, go get me a horse," Lily was yelling as Celes started off to find Terra and Chris, or whoever else they might find.
Riding a horse was odd. Since they had four legs rather then the two a chocobo has the gait was rather odd. Celes was sure that if she was religious, she would have come up with several reasons why these beasts were blasphemous or whatever priest say about things they don't like. Such a thought would be stupid though. Not the beasts fault that I think it is weird. Celes' thoughts would probably have continued in this way, but she was interrupted by sounds behind them.
"Really? Couldn't you have found a more fitting mount for me?"
"But milady, you didn't give us much time to find one."
"We didn't have the time. We have to catch up with the Zexen Knights. I don't trust that woman."
Lily is not going to go away is she... "I assure you the feeling is mutral." Celes called out to Lily as she came into view.
"Eep, what are you doing here?"
"What am I doing? You are the ones following us."
"I forgot that you know so little about horses that you would be going slow." Lilly dug her heels into her horse's side. The horse didn't seem to like that and it started rearing up on its hind legs. By the time Celes realized that there was a danger, Percival was already calming the horse down.
"So you will be coming with us then, Lady Lily?" asked Roland.
"Yes" said Lily glaring at Celes for some reason.
"You have to do your share of the work." said Celes
"How dare you imply that I would do something like that?" yelled Lily tossing back her hair.
This is just too tempting. "I didn't imply anything," Said Celes, "I stated it outright."
"Was that a joke I just heard Celes?" said Sabin.
"Of course not, everyone knows I have no sense of humor," replied Celes as they started off again.
o An overhang near Mobliz o
There was a spot in Mobliz that Terra went to when she wanted to be alone. It used to overlook the sea, but no longer. Now there were plains below and a mountain in the distance. All the kids knew to leave her alone when she was there.
The weather was a bit cold, but that was fine. She would be warm soon enough. Terra had not come up here to think this time, but to test her magic. The same magic that had caused so much trouble in the past was back now. She didn't know what to think about being able to kill so easily again.
Feeling lost and adrift without any idea what to do was nothing new for Terra. It was the first thing she remembered feeling when she woke up in Narshe. The feeling was different now and worse in some ways. Before, she didn't know who she was but now she had people she was responsible for, if something went wrong they would be hurt too. Her mother had died trying to protect her from Gestahl, when he had found out that Terra was half Esper. Terra now knew why her mother had done that, because she would be willing to do the same for any of the kids under her care. It was good to finally understand that. Terra doubted that Chris even knew how much it meant to her, when she pointed out that Terra's feelings were actually love.
Terra held out her hand and called fire. A flame came without the slightest effort. It had always been thus, except for this last year. When she had first woken up in Narshe she had been able to do this, but not known why. She knew why now; It was because of her father, Maduin ,being an esper..
Chris had not been able to tell her anything about what happened to Terra's father, or his spirit rather. Maduin had died over a year ago from the Empire's draining tanks, but his spirit still lived on inside of a piece of magicite. He had helped Terra come to an understanding of her powers from there.
There was one last test Terra wanted to do before heading back. She closed her eyes and transformed into her esper form. The transformation seemed to be the same. Terra opened her eyes, looking at her pink fur. She thought about flying up to get an overhead view of the land, but decided that would attract to much attention. She changed back.
Terra once again wished that one of her friends was here. She just knew that there was so many things that she could be doing to help the kids here, but she didn't know what they were. Staying here wasn't going to help anything, but going elsewhere was dangerous. What should she do? If only she had more information, but she didn't even know where to start. Maybe she was going about this the wrong way. Chris might not know any more about how all this happened then she did, but she probably did know concrete details about the towns around, maybe.
o Inside Mobliz o
Chris wanted to be traveling back to Brass Castle right now, but she was in no shape to do so and had been told quite firmly by Terra to rest. So instead she was watching what was going on in this odd little community. Everything, tables, chairs, beds, they all looked worn out and battered up. Terra was off somewhere right now. Katrin and a man Chris assumed was Duane were over by the fireplace washing dishes, from the look of it. One of the children was keeping watching outside the door and the others were huddled together in a corner talking. Every so often they turned to look at her, so it was obvious what they were talking about. Finally one of the children approached her looking nervous.
"Can you tell stories?"
That was what they wanted to know, Chris smiled, "I am not much good at telling them." Then seeing the look of disappointment on the boy's face she said, "but I can tell you a story that my mother told me. I can't promise it will be any good though."
She had pitched her voice so that all of the children could hear this and they soon came over and waited for the story to start.
"The town of Telven was beset with many problems. One was a great bandit horde." Chris had once looked to see if this story was true. It was in a way. It might be better to say the story had a grain of truth, for example in the story bandits that causing trouble but in history it must of been the Harmonian army. "Another was a dragon that had chosen to roust on a nearby mountain. This made the life of the townsfolk hard. What the bandits didn't take, the dragon carried off."
"So what did they do, miss?" asked a little girl wearing a shirt that was too big for her small frame.
Chris had to remind herself that the kid did not mean to be insulting by calling her miss. "Well a young man named Nathaniel was in charge of what was left of the sheep herds. One day as he was watching the sheep he slipped and fell down a hole into a cave. In that cave he found one of the Twenty Seven True Runes, The Dragon Rune."
"What are the True Runes?"
This question startled Chris. Everyone knew what the True Runes were even if they didn't know the names of any of them. "They are...a powerful source of magic. The bearers of True Runes stop aging and become immune to disease." She remembered that when she was little her father said that True Runes were more complicated then that, but that explanation would do for now.
"My older brother said that magic didn't exist."
"Well your brother was an idiot." said another boy "Mama can do magic."
"So what happened next?" asked the same girl as before.
"Well, The True Runes are very powerful and with his Nathaniel was able to tame the dragon. But he didn't stop there, he then went on to drive away the bandits with the dragon he had tamed." Chris did know that someone named Nathaniel had joined Kranch Rugner in the rebellion that lead to the Scarlet Moon Empire and later founded the Dragon Knights.
Apparently the children liked her bad rendition of Nathaniel and the Dragon Rune and wanted another story. Chris knew what to tell this time.
'In the beginning, there was "darkness." Then, the "darkness" shed a "tear." From that "tear," the brothers Sword and Shield were born. Shield claimed it could defend against any attack.
Sword claimed it could slice through anything. The brothers began a legendary battle."
o * o
When Terra came back inside, some of the kids were listening to Chris tell a story. Chris looked like she was recovering just fine.
"At the end, both Sword and Shield shattered. Sword became the sky, Shield became the earth, and the sparks from the battle became the stars. As for the jewels, they fell to the ground and became the True Runes-The runes that all other runes were born from." finished Chris.
"I'm afraid that I need to talk to Chris right now, so you all will have to wait for another story."
Terra said as she came up to the bed. She so wanted to ask what that story was about but she had just decided she was doing to ask about concrete details, not stories.
"Ah, but she knows really good stories." said Alic
"Maybe she can tell you more of them later. Now go see if Katrin needs any help." Terra turned to Chris as the kids left. "They seem to think you are a good storyteller."
Chris shook her head, "I didn't do the story justice. It was one of the stories my mother used to tell me before she died of that illness."
"You still have a father, don't you?" said Terra hoping she was right about that.
"He disappeared when I was little before my mother took ill actually. Part of the reason I was in the Grasslands was that someone told me that I would find him if I searched for the Flame Champion."
"Um, what do you mean by the Grasslands? From what I saw you were in a forest." Terra sat down on the bed that was next to Chris'.
"Oh, I guess you wouldn't know about the geography of this world, would you?"
"You mean where things are? I wanted to talk with you about that actually."
They were interrupted by the sound of Caspian running down the stairs from his lookout spot, "Mama, there's some people coming."
"What sorta people?" asked Terra
"Um, people like people. One of them's wearing armor."
"Ok let me go see. You stay here. Keep the door closed until I say otherwise."
Terra wasn't sure what to expect. Would these people end up helping us or would they bring destruction to this little community. She didn't know but she would protect the kids with her life if need be. She knew why she felt this way now.
The first thing Terra saw when she got outside was the most awkward suit of armor Terra had ever seen. It looked much too heavy and it didn't seem to fit its owner right. Next to that person was another, a young man with an earnest face. They didn't look like they could bring destruction to anything.
"Hello, I am Thomas, The Castle Master of Budehec Castle. We heard you were out here."
There was a pause. Am I suppose to introduce myself now? "I'm Terra Branford. I guess you could say I'm the mayor of Mobliz." I think that is the right word to use.
There was a roar and all the sudden it felt like the very earth was vibrating under the footsteps of a great beast. It was Phubaba. The deformed purple creature was one of the monsters that had been released when Kefka caused the world to come undone. He was the biggest threat, for the eight dragons were far away and Doom Gaze usually didn't attack people on the ground. This time Terra would fight him. She had no choice. She just hoped that these people here would be able to help.
o * o
As soon as Terra left up the stairs, Chris pulled herself out of the bed she was in and grabbed her sword. She needed to help Terra.
"Are you sure you should be up?" asked Katrina
"I can help. People respect the Zexen Knights." And the Silver Maiden, that title was a bit much at times, but could prove useful for once today. The only group she couldn't help with were the Grasslanders, admittedly for good reason, but it wasn't them that Terra was dealing with now, for they didn't wear armor.
Chris tried to ignore how weak and shaky her legs felt as she crossed the room and started up the stairs. Halfway up she forgot all about being tired, due to hearing the sounds of fighting. She rushed up the rest of the stairs.
The scene outside was different then expected. Terra was facing a giant deformed monster, her sword looking rather puny compared to the monsters bulk. The monster had obviously just swatted two people into a tree. One of them looked to be the castle master of that small little castle with the unpronounceable name.
Chris pulled some magic from her flowing rune, but it was blades of wind, not water, that hit the monster. That didn't make any sense. She had never had a wind rune affixed. She looked down at her hands, there were no runes on them. How was she able to use magic, then? Especially a type of magic that she not only didn't have the rune for, but had never received any training in.
These thoughts did not stop Chris from hitting the monster again with the wind blades, this time killing it When she tried to move forward though she felt a wave of dizziness and she had to grab hold of the door frame to keep from collapsing. She didn't have to hold on for long, however. After Terra checked on the other two she came over and gave Chris a shoulder to lean on.
"Did you wear yourself out? You probably shouldn't even be up yet let alone lobbing magic around," said Terra
Chris just nodded tiredly in response, glad someone seemed to know what was going on.
o * o
Phunbaba had backhanded Thomas and his guard into a tree in the first few moments of the fight. Now that Chris had taken care of Phunbaba Terra went to see if they were still alive.
"Are you alright?" she asked Thomas as he started to get up. He nodded. "Good. It might be best if we finish talking inside." Why did I say that? I wasn't planning to, it just slipped out. He has nice eyes. Well, anyone who fights that badly isn't likely to hurt any of the kids.
Thomas' guard was fine too, her armor had protected her. Chris, on the other hand, looked worn out, but then she had just been tossing magic around. Terra knew that feeling well and was in fact a bit glad to see it in Chris. For being tired was normal and seeing Chris tired meant it was likely that nothing was wrong with her magic. Right now though Chris could hardly stand. She needed to sit down and have something to drink.
While Terra was helping Chris, Thomas came up. "I never knew you used a wind rune, Lady Chris."
Chris replied that she didn't and had no training in them. This left Terra wondering what exactly these runes were. People kept talking about them whenever magic came up. The next thing Thomas said made any thoughts of runes leave her mind.
"I heard that magic changed somehow, but still..."
If magic has changed then I might lose control of my power again... No I won't let that happen. Terra tried to keep her voice from trembling as she asked Thomas how magic had changed.
Thomas' reply was simple and not very helpful, "Um, I don't actually know. I was hoping you could tell me."
Before Terra had enough presence of mind to ask what he meant by that Chris spoke up, "I think it would be best to speak about this in a more organized fashion. Terra, do you have a room we could use for a meeting?"
Terra replied that she did and then lead them down the stairs to where everyone lived, still helping to support Chris. The stairs would not be a good place for her to stumble and fall. When they got downstairs Cecile said something Terra did not catch, but Katrin obviously did.
"Nothing, this is not nothing. If it wasn't for Terra then we wouldn't have even this." Terra's face flushed at Katrin's words, she hadn't done that much.
"Sorry I didn't mean it that way," said Cecile, "Um... I'll go guard the door." she madw a great deal of noise as she ran back up the stairs.
As Cecile was leaving Terra explained, "I am going to be talking with Chris and Thomas in my room, Katrin."
"Then I am coming too," said Katrin, "You shouldn't have a strange man in you room without a chaperone."
A what? Terra thought, I have never heard that word before. How does it have anything to do with talking about magic?
Chris seemed to understand what Katrin was talking about though. It turned out that a chaperone was a married woman, like Katrin. Why exactly a chaperone was needed escaped Terra right now, but Katrin seemed to think it was important. No one seemed ready to argue the point, so Katrin came along.
Terra's room was small and there wasn't much in it besides the bed. First thing Terra did once they were in her room was to make sure that Chris sat down on the bed and got something to drink. Chris was then the one that started off the meeting.
"First Thomas, you say that magic has changed, how?" That was exactly what Terra wanted to know too.
"Um, this might sound odd, but an older man with black hair and an eyepatch over one eye told me. He was rather unspecific about what was different. The reason I think what he said was true is that the rest of what he said matches up with what Terra told the villagers of Nor." Thomas turned to Terra, "Thank you for helping them by the way."
"I didn't do much of anything." It was just a just a couple of Buffalax. They were easy with her magic...Wait a minute...
While Terra had been thinking, Chris had asked if that man was Geddoe and explained about the knowledge they had gotten when the worlds combined, but Terra wasn't paying much attention to this because she was wondering why she could use magic again.
Chris cut through Terra's thoughts by asking, "Terra, have you noticed any changes?"
"Changes, you mean in magic? Yes, there was some magic that I hadn't been able to use for most of the past year that I can use again now." Terra wasn't sure why her magic had been escaping her grasp, but she was fairly sure, now that she thought about it, that the worlds combining was what made her magic come back
"So you have full use of your powers again now?" asked Chris.
Terra shook her head. "I haven't tried all of them."
"Why not try them now?" asked Thomas
Terra paled, "That would not be a good idea." Terra replied.
"Um, all right, if you say so." said Thomas, "So how does magic work for you anyway?"
"It's complicated." How was she suppose to explain properly without something bad happening. "The Warring Triad gave magic to the espers before they sealed themselves up in stone. So all magic comes from espers."
Katrin decided to speak up now, Why now, I am having enough trouble getting the words out of my mouth "But that's just an old legend-"
"I wish Gestahl had believed that." Terra's eyes filled with tears as she thought of the pain everyone would have been spared from if only Gestahl hadn't decided to seek magic.
Chris brought the conversation back on topic. "What happened to those statues?"
"The statues that were the Warring Triad you mean," At Chris' nod Terra said, "You would know better then me."
Chris looked down at her arm. "How does stone explode? when it isn't actually stone." she said so quietly it could hardly be heard then louder "I guess that explains why I can use magic without a Rune now, doesn't it?"
Terra nodded, "You got very lucky. I...I think that some others that got infused didn't fare well." Those were the dreams that really hurt, even more then the ones about killing while she was wearing the Slave Crown. The ones where they were still working on the infusion process. They would bring the ones they made mistakes on down to where she was kept to see if they could figure out what they did wrong. It hurt, a lot. What was worse now was remembering the faces of the other children. They were just too close to the faces of the kids here.
"So this has happened before?" Chris sounded scared but a bit hopeful too. Why? There is nothing good about this.
"No, no one has ever been hit with pieces of one of the statues before." Terra stammered out
Chris leaned forward "Then what were you talking about, Terra, please tell me."
Terra didn't know how to explain the things she could not truly remember and her throat was so tight that she doubted she would be able to get any words out even if she knew what to say.
Terra ran out of the room.
o * o
Thomas was surprised when Terra ran out of the room. Both he and Lady Chris looked at Katrin hoping that she would have some idea of why Terra had just run off.
Katrin just shook her head, "Terra never talks about her past."
"You mean she isn't from here," asked Lady Chris.
"No, she just came wandering in shortly after Kefka's Light of Judgement killed..." Katrin stopped for a moment then started again, "Terra said she got separated from her friends. I'm pretty sure Kefka killed them, her friends that is, whoever they were. She started helping us and the reason we are still all alive is because of her help."
"Oh, so you don't... Now is not the time to talk about this." Lady Chris tried to stand up, but fell back onto the bed.
It was fairly obvious what she wanted to do, so Thomas said. "I'll go see if I can find Terra."
Lady Chris nodded, "Good. Katrin, can you talk to the others here and calm them down?"
Thomas didn't wait to hear Katrin's reply. He was up the stairs and outside in moments.
Thomas asked his Commander of the Guards, who was also his only guard "Did you see where Terra went, Cecile?"
"That way," Cecile pointed to the left, "What is-"
It probably would not be the best thing to look intimidating when he found Terraby having a guard with him,
"I'll explain later." Thomas said as he ran off to the left. There wasn't much in that direction but grass and a few bushes.
Soon after he left Cecile behind, Thomas jumped at a sound in the bushes, but it turned out to just be a chipmunk. This is crazy. Thought Thomas, I am running around monster infested wildness with a sword I barely know how to use, and I told Cecile to stay behind because I didn't want to intimidate someone who is a better fighter then both of us. He continued to look for Terra anyway. After another minute or so of searching he saw Terra's green hair out of the corner of his eye. Her hair was an odd color, but it seemed to fit her so well that it was hard to imagine it being any other color.
Is she crying?, "I'm sorry."
Terra looked up at him with tear-stained eyes, "Sorry, what for?"
"What ever made you run off." Thomas scratched the back of his head feeling awkward, "If its something I said or did I am sorry for making you cry."
Terra shoke her head. "It's nothing you did...I...somethings in my past" Terra stopped talking looking sad again.
"You don't need to tell me unless you want to." Thomas remembered one of the villagers saying Terra had a number of scars across her chest. I better change the subject to something else, he thought, "It is a nice view from here."
"Yes it is, it used to be of the sea though." Terra said looking out over the land.
"Oh," not another wrong topic, "sorry."
Terra stood up, "It's not a bad thing, some changes are good, maybe with you guys here we will be able to survive this coming winter."
"Um for safety's sake the villagers of Nor are staying at Budehec over the winter. Would you like to do the same?"
"You are so completely different from anyone I have ever met before." Terra was beautiful when she smiled; realizing this just made Thomas feel more awkward.
"Me, I'm nothing special. I can hardly fight. I don't know anything about being a leader. There's nothing special about me."
"Yes there is." said Terra, "We better head back. Need to start packing after all"
o The land around Brass Castle o
Between the late start they got and the fact that no one knew quite where the next town would be due to the worlds combining, the only one who was surprised that they ended up camping in the wilderness was Lily.
"We will need to set up watches," Celes stated as Percival set up the fire pit. "Lily, you have first watch."
"What? Why should I have to take a watch? I'll have you know that I am the daughter of the President of Tinto." said Lily tossing her head.
Percival cocked his hand and the rune on it glowed. Fire jumped from his hand to the twigs. That was different, thought Celes. She had seen fires lit by Terra's magic before, but it was hard for anyone else to get the fireball small enough.
"Hey are you even listening to me?" said Lily.
"What, never heard of Tinto and even if there was a king here he would have to stand a watch too." Celes wouldn't even have to say anything if Edgar was here.
"Samus-" Called Lily. Surely she wasn't that much of an idiot.
Celes facepalmed, "You can't order one of your guards to stand watch for you."
"I wasn't... Why not?" Said Lily glaring at Celes.
"They have to stand their own," said Celes wondering just how stupid the girl was.
Lily's eyes flashed with anger. "Fine then, you have to stand it with me. That is what you people do right? Have two people for each watch."
"I was planning to take a later watch," said Celes
"Well, you will be taking first watch with me."
Celes could hear laughter from behind her. "All right, fine." I bet the idiot doesn't even know first watch is the easiest.
Celes looked over at the others. Sabin at least had the decency to pretend he hadn't been laughing moments before but Percival was grinning. It was hard to tell what Roland thought of events.
"I trust you jokers will be able to figure out the rest of the watch rotation yourselves."
"Yeah, no problem." said Sabin.
o Chisha Village o
It was evening and the All Clan Meeting had gone fairly well. Sargent Joe had stood in for the Duck Clan chief with proud beak Chief Dupa had been quite agitated though out the whole meeting, judging by the way his tail had been lashing around. Part of that was likely because when they talked about the events of the failed treaty meeting it became obvious that he had been played for a fool. They didn't stay on the topic for more then was needed to understand that it might not be the the Zexens fault. They also didn't spend much time talking about the Harmonian army that had smashed the Safir Clan and had been about to do the same to the Chisha Clan, although normally they would have. Even members of the Safir Clan that had survived agreed that their world combining with another and the immediate question of providing shelter for the displaced during the upcoming winter was of greater importance.
Jimba thought over the facts of the meeting that had just finished as he watched over Yumi. The only clan that hadn't been in attendance was the Alma Kinan clan; This was because Yumi was only member of the clan to known to still be alive and she had not regained consciousness.
:So, everyone was tricked into fighting with someone called Ironheads. Might I ask who or what are the Ironheads: asked Maduin.
:It's a derogatory term for people from the Zexen Confederacy. People from the Grasslands, that's where we are now, have been fighting off and on for the past few years. There's a lot of bad blood because of that. Made it easy for someone to cause trouble using illusions: replied Jimba.
He would have said more but Yumi started to stir.
"You're awake," said Jimba as Yumi opened her eyes, "How are you feeling?"
"When, what, where?"
"You are in Chisha Village. You fell out of the sky yesterday. I have some-" said Jimba reaching for a bowl of food.
"Please, you have to send some help to Alma Kinan. My people..."
"We tried to We tried, but we can't find the village."
"The spells we placed are keeping you from coming to our aid, aren't they?" Yumi tried to get up.
Jimba pushed her back down, "You are in no shape to be moving around."
"But I must-"
"Look I'll go to the Clan Cheifs and another group will be sent out."
"You will need my help to find it."
"Yes, which means you have to get some rest now so you will be in good enough shape to help." Jimba grabbed a bowl of food off the table. "Here, have something to eat."