Hello to anyone reading this story. hope you're enjoying it. i hope someone will leave a review thought.
Enjoy.
SEVEN
I stood up a serious look crossing my face as I looked at the lion man and the old man standing across us. The wolf was standing beside me the blue eyes were also looking at the opponents, sometimes showing his teeth and growling.
Now how am I going to defeat him, I thought to myself.
That was the main question that was running through my head right now, and I knew that the giant man was fast and his weapon was making him dangerous and hard to get to close and his Summoner was able to create some kind of shield around him when he had tried to punch him, meaning that he had to catch him off guard to hit him.
A bunch of images descended on my head so fast, making me shake my head in the process and turning to look at my companion whom was looking at me.
"I guess we can tried that," I told him, "but are you sure I can do those things?"
Approval and confidence was what I was met with and I nodded.
"Let's take this fucker down then," I said getting my hands into fists.
With that I jumped on the wolf's back and he charged forward, with me hanging on the soft fur. I opened my palm and I pointed it toward the man and I yelled, "Firaga."
The ball of fire appeared around my palm and was send toward the man who looked shocked that I had thrown the blast at him and the giant lion man blocked it with a swig of the Scythe he was holding nullifying the effect of the spell.
He then, charged straight for me and my temporary ride and the wolf let out a snarl, charging for him with a jump as the animal's front paws were going straight for the chest of the other Familiar who had the Scythe high over his head coming down with a vertical strike.
I had both of my palms toward him, "Thundara."
The blast of lightning slammed on its chest sending him flying backward, roaring in pain but the Scythe was still in his hand as he landed on a crouch.
"Don't you have a cool weapon like him?" I asked the wolf.
An image of a staff appeared in my head. It was the same color as the wolf's and with a strange design all over it and a crystal was at the top for decoration and it was shining as bright as the sun.
"I won't need it yet," I told the Wolf.
The Wolf nodded at me and I returned my attention toward the Lion man who was on his feet again and he was holding the Scythe with his head bowed and the man was walking toward it.
"You are reckless with your magic young Crystalline," he said, "but those are minor spells that are known in Spira today, but you are not using your Crystalline magic yet to give me a challenge."
I looked at the man in front of me, narrowing my eyes at him and looked at the wolf that was lowering itself so I can get off. I did so and stepped on the floor which below was still raging waters. I was still having trouble believing that I was standing in midair.
"That is because I don't know any," I told him, deciding to go with the truth, "the one I'm using is the one I've learned from Fang."
I stopped wondering why I just called the wolf Fang. I knew that earlier I had no idea on how his name was but now I knew it.
Weird.
"The magic bond between you two is strong," the man said, "it's amazing on how you are able to perform them so easily…but then again, being part of the Crystalline, I wouldn't be too surprised."
I was looking at him with a raised eyebrow at this. The man once again was talking about things that I had no clues whatsoever.
"Who are the Crystalline?"
"Who are the Crystalline?" he repeated, "Who are the…dear boy, you are one of them."
"What?"
"The Crystalline are a race of pure beauty and grandeur," the man said, "but you don't know of what you could do. They are known as the People of the Crystal around Spira, but more believe them to be more myths and legends since it had been millennia's ago. You might be the last one I believe."
"Why?"
"The one before you is almost at their life's end," the man said, "I can feel the power disappearing from her body and fading into the Farplanes."
Evangeline…
That was the only name that I can think of right now. I remembered that I was supposed to be going to met her and take over something for her, and I was stuck here with him.
"I need to get back,"
"Without completing the Trials you cannot return," the man told me again.
I rounded on him and shouted, "Firaga."
The blast of flames came so unexpectedly that he was hit full blast on the chest that sends him sprawling back on the invisible floor. Coughing, he seated up his hand still on the burnt mark on his chest.
"Do I complete your Trial now?"
He looked at me shocked that I even hit him, and I turned my attention toward the lion man who had dissolved into thousands of light bubbles that were floating away.
"You…defeated me?"
"You actually fell for my trap," I said, smirking on how easy that I had fooled him, "I was going to go for the punch but I'm not fast so I launched the Fire Spell at you. Since when I take a hit my Familiar felt it, so I gave you a critical one causing them to disappear so you can conserve your magic to heal yourself, isn't that right?"
The man laughed out loud at my words.
"You are different than most that have faced me," he said still laughing, "most have grown into a world were honesty is the best weapon. You took my guard down and also, used my own strength against me. I must say Eclipse of Crystalline; you are maybe the change that will be needed for our people."
He walked toward me and pressed his hand on my face, with the thumb on my forehead and the other fingers on the side of my face and his eyes turned gold.
"You have the blessing of the Gods my child," he said, "and may this gift from me be of use to you in the most challenging tasks."
Something warm was enveloping my body as blue lights seemed to grow from within my body. It was almost like an embrace from a loved one.
"Go now my child,"
I was falling again this time through darkness itself, but I didn't feel cold at all. The sound of the raging sea waters was all but gone silent. It was the same as last time something strange had happened to me as seems as all my sense have been cut off from me, but this time I wasn't scared as I was before.
It was pleasing and also soothing.
When I woke up, I was feeling sunlight on the side of my face and I was lying on the softness of a bed. Groaning, I seated up and I noticed that I was seating in an elegantly made room with bed post.
Where am I?
At that moment a woman entered the room.
She was dressed in long white woolen clothes with something like a small servant's hat on her head. She noticed that I was awake and a gasp ran from her mouth.
"Master Eclipse, are you okay?" she asked me.
"Er…, sure," I answered, "I'm fine."
"You have been out for three days Master Eclipse," the woman said, "Cedric was worried."
"Three Days?" I yelled.
"No need to yell Master Eclipse," she said, raising her hands in alarm.
"I need to see Evangeline right now," I said, throwing the cover off, "I am in Bevelle right?"
The woman nodded.
"Can you show me her room?" I asked.
"Mistress Evangeline is in delicate condition right now," the woman said, a hint of authority within her voice.
I was angry at her. I wanted to see Evangeline and a stuck-up maid isn't going to stop me. Taking hold of the collar of her robes and drags her toward me until we were nose to nose.
"I didn't travel all this way to listen to you stuck-up bitch," I snarled in her face.
"What is with all the yelling?" a new voice joined us, a voice that brought me some relief.
"Cedric."
He was dressed in different clothes and was now looking; I dare say it, cool.
"Eclipse, you're finally awake," he said, happily.
"Yeah," I said, "I finished the Trial."
He smiled, nodding, "That's pretty good, you finished earlier than I expected, or anyone else expected."
"So, can I see her now?" I asked him.
Cedric nodded, "but get dressed first, it's not well polite to walk in sleep clothes."
I changed into my clothes, which were similar to Cedric clothes at record speed and followed Cedric down the enormous hallway which was white and blues everywhere and other peoples in robes similar to the woman that I had threatened earlier.
"Say, Ced, who are they?" I asked.
"They are the ones that take care of the Palace," he said looking at me, "They are servants at your mother's service who is quite a famous figure here in Bevelle and the entire city is quite shocked to hear that she is dying."
"She is not going to make me take her place as a politician or something?" I asked, suddenly getting an image of me seating by a bunch of greedy old men.
"Off course not," Cedric told me looking at me with amusement, "She didn't call you for this I can assure you; Bevelle is already under the protection of Grand Measter Saul Guado."
"You mean those priests that worship Yu Yevon right?" I asked.
"Yes Eclipse," he answered.
"Cool."
We, then, arrived in front of a large double door with a guard standing there and Cedric talked to him about me coming and he stepped aside.
"Go on Eclipse," Cedric said, "She is waiting for you."
I nodded and entered the room.
It was well light and had a slight mixed design of European and Asian home, the bluish color fitting beautifully with the design. They were the descending sunset coming in through the window, thought I could see a giant wall like structure in the distance, and what looked like people walking on top of it. I, then, turned my attention toward the bed in the other side of the room.
Walking forward feeling somewhat sad and heavy hearted. I was going to see my mother for the first time in years and she was dying. How could have I hated her? Was I so selfish with myself that I blamed her for everything that had happened in my life?
When I got on the side of the bed, I seated at the end with my eyes looking at the figure sleeping in it. She looked so frail and deathlike that I wonder if she was already gone before I could even see her, talk to her…
Stinging started to appear in my eyes as tears slowly started to fall from them. I grasped her hand, which felt clam in mine, but the hand moved, closing around my own and she turned her head toward me before opening her eyes.
They were the same color as mine, thought hers has less life behind it then mine and they met mine before opening wide for a moment, before a smile started to grow from her lips.
"Hello Eclipse," she said her voice feeble.
I leaned toward her and put my head right by her shoulder, feeling more tears falling from my eyes. For the first time in my life, I wasn't embarrassed by crying freely, and I felt safer than I've ever felt, as my mother's arm encircled my body, pulling me into a hug.
"H…Hi…Mom," I answered through my tears.
"Don't cry my little Angel," she said, "don't cry."
"How can't I?" I asked her, "You're…"
I still couldn't say it.
"It's my time to go Angel," she said, "Every life had its ends."
I sniffed, "I hardly got to know you fully. All the memories that I have of you are so few."
Evangeline didn't answer me right away as a long sigh send shivers through her body, "I thought you would have hated me right now."
I felt something in my heart break hearing such sadness in her voice that I just wanted it to be gone from her.
"I had left you when you needed me most," she continued, "But I couldn't stay any longer for the Crystal had called me to its service."
I looked at her, "The Crystal?"
"It is the lifeline of our peoples Eclipse, the line of the Crystalline family," she said, "she was given to us by the Goddess Senya which watch over our kingdom hiding it from unwatchful eyes with her grace and only one of us can find it."
"An entire Kingdom," I said, amazed.
"Spira was growing larger in the Young Years," Evangeline continued, "Frightened by the other World finding about our existence, the Last King of the Crystalline line prayed to our Goddess for a way to hide the truth from anyone that had tried to find us and we were dispersed from this world, into the 'World of Dreams'"
"You mean…?" I said.
"The world you came from is the world that the Goddess Senya had created for our People, which are known as Indians back in the early Earth years," Evangeline said, "but The Crystal cannot remain unguarded for it is our lifeline, and every century a young Crystalline from our Bloodline will take in the place guarding the Crystal with their life."
"That was your mission isn't it?" I asked her, "To guard the Crystal?"
"Yes," Evangeline said, closing her eyes "but something is wrong."
I looked at her alarmed, "Wrong?"
"My sickness," Evangeline said, "It is unnatural even for Spirans standard. Whoever is protecting the Crystal is protected by it as an unmovable shield against our enemies. Something is seeping life away from the Crystal and I couldn't do anything against it since it was seeping my life away, but I figured something about the enemy."
"You know who it is?"
"Our People was in dealing with Guados before they had disappeared into legends," Evangeline said, "they are the only ones that had had gotten a whim of our culture and the Crystal that gave us our power and also Zanarkand."
"Zanarkand was destroyed right?" I said, remembering Cedric's story about Sin.
"Yes, in a war long ago," Evangeline said, "but the recorded histories may have survived. I have journeyed to Zanarkand ruins in hope of finding any clues from the past, but I couldn't find a thing and the Guados don't trust enough to let me get a look at their history."
"You want me to take over for you, in your journey?" I asked her.
"You are the last descendant of the House of Crystalline Eclipse," she said, "You are the only one that can save our people's lifeline, and since you have completed your first Trial, you are already on your way of becoming a Guardian, or as they say in Crystalline, Uwilu."
"Uwilu," I whispered, the name feeling a sort of pride.
Evangeline smiled at me, and I could see that the sickness was killing her, and I said, "If whoever is stealing the power of the Crystal know that I am going to take over from you, won't he use the same spell against me."
"I hope he doesn't know that you've come to take over from me," she said, "if he did, I hate to think that he would target you again."
So, I am to take a chance at something…wait a minute…again?
"What are you talking about again?" I asked her seating up, looking at her with wide eyes, not thinking about anything as image of a burning house came into my mind…
No way, no fucking way.
But the look on my mother's face tells me everything I that I didn't want to be the truth. Now that I think about it, the police never could identify what caused the fire in the first place.
"I did come back to see how you were doing," Evangeline said now her voice was heavy with pain, "but seeing the ruins of the house, I was so heartbroken and in grief that I didn't even paused to think if any of you had survived and I abandoned the 'World of Dreams' vowing the never return, and I appeared in the Calm Land and a lady helped me, and then I told her that I was going to Bevelle."
I remembered the lady, Vick telling me about her coming through years before, and all I have felt was anger and hatred toward the woman.
"But one day I've felt your magic," Evangeline said, "but this was the same day I've become sick. I've never felt happier in my life, so much that I cried in joy, and as my sickness grew, I become weaker so I had to send Cedric after you so that he could bring you here…to see you with my own two eyes…"
Her hand touched my cheek and I looked into her eyes feeling tears rising again. I couldn't hate her even if I had tried in that moment, I simply couldn't hate her.
"I don't want you to die," I whispered.
"I will watch over you Angel," she said, "I will always watch over you, don't ever forget that Eclipse."
I smiled at her, as tears flowed from my eyes again, "I won't Mom."
She nodded at that and said, "Now, that I think about it, you're sixteen and I haven't given you a birthday present yet…"
I laughed a little, "Seeing you and talking to you again was the best present I never asked for."
Evangeline grasped my hand and put something in it.
"Then let me make it even better."
I opened my hand and a silver band was there.
"Your wedding ring?"
"It's more than it seems," she said, "believe that."
Well, Eclipse had finally met his mother and had learn the truth behind his house fire and the sickness that is killing his mother. Hope you enjoyed this one.
R&R
Jacques0 out.
