CORNERIA CITY, WORLD B.
CYCLE "014", DAY 2, MID-MORNING.
LAYLE
"The Scholar? Never heard of him," Layle said, giving a flippant shrug.
"That's quite alright," The Scholar said, stepping nearer. The others took a step back and raised their weapons as he did. He tilted his head to the side, then, laughing, said, "I mean you no harm. I know all of you as if you were my own children. Why would I ever want ill for you?"
"You . . . know us?" Ramza asked, voicing the question the others had thought.
"Oh of course I do! I have labored very hard to bring you all to this place. Getting you all here, together, has been hard work. Of course I know you! I've done so much for you! I know you, Ramza. I know your hopes and dreams, I know your strengths and weaknesses, and all your secrets."
"All his secrets? Give me a break, buddy," Layle said. "If you were looking to tell us you're a God, that ship's sailed already. We just met one yesterday."
"I am no God," The Scholar explained, bowing as he spoke, "I am a humble servant of the people. It is the people I have come to help, and it is their cause that I champion."
"I've never seen so boastful a servant," Kaze stated dryly.
"Boastful? I apologize if that is the intent you have perceived. What I have said is the simple truth, and nothing more."
"You said you knew our darkest secrets, though," Y'shtola hissed, "How is that true?"
The Scholar sighed, then, adjusting his glasses by pushing them up his nose at the center, he said, "If you insist I demonstrate, very well." He pointed to each of them as he named their secrets off. "You, Ramza, are terrified. Absolutely scared. All last night you prayed to any God who could hear you that the group would not turn against one another.
"You, Kaze, are surprised by how vocal you have been since arriving. This amount of speaking is uncharacteristic for you. You suppose it might be a pathetic attempt to bed Ms. Brea, and worry that your attempts to lead her away from the group have this same purpose.
"You, Y'shtola, are offended by the fact that no one here is like you. You don't know why it bothers you so much, indeed, you don't know why anyone here bothers you so much, but you have these thoughts none the less. What's more is that you liked that meat, and even now you'd kill for another.
"You, Aya, have been planning on leaving this whole group behind since the moment you first woke up. But for all your talk, you know you never will, and for as much as you challenge Ramza's leadership, you know you trust him, even if you don't know WHY.
"You, Brandt, have already contemplated the idea of sex with both Aya and Y'Shtola. You don't quite know that that's what you've contemplated because you are still a young man, but the desire is stirring inside you. Your little crush on Y'Shtola has motivated you to follow her wherever. Don't worry, though, because:
"You, Layle, have been every bit as naughty as Brandt, and then some. You're interested in keeping the group together because you, like Brandt and Kaze, have something other than saving the world on your mind.
"And you, dear Benjamin-,"
"Let me guess," Benjamin interjected hastily, "I want to sleep with Aya and Y'Shtola, too, huh? OoooOOOooooh. Good job! You figured me out! I like girls! What other revelations do you have up your sleeve?"
"Do you really want to know?"
"Depends, do you want to know what shocking revelations I have about you?"
"Try me, boy. You couldn't expose the truth if it were a naked woman before you on Romantic Beach."
"Here's one for you, Scholar: I see you in the very near future! Would you like to know what you're doing? Going and fucking yourself! Want to know how? You're taking these revelations and shoving them up your-,"
"How cute," The Scholar replied. "Is this how the rest of you welcome your benefactor? With obscenities and juvenile japes?"
"Our benefactor?" Aya asked, "You haven't done anything beneficial so far."
"And for that I apologize. I have been . . . distracted . . . thus far. Allow me to provide you with a few things which you will find to your good." The Scholar waved a hand and in it appeared a strange, semi-solid, transparent blue mass. "I understand you are . . . hungry. The mummified meat you found is indeed proof that there was life here, once. To explain that, though, would require more time than we can afford.
"To the matter of how to feed yourselves, then, I present the following." With a flourish of his hand, he flicked the mass and it jiggled softly as he did. "This is the flesh of a fygg. Fyggs are the only edible plant that still grows in this world. They grow on the Kaypey tree, and were once valued by the Moogles of the realm. You can eat these, and will have enough nutrition and strength to carry on for a few hours more. Or," he said, twisting the wrist of his other hand to cause an opaque, crystalline mass to appear in his hand, "You can eat this.
"It is the meat of a Manikin. Unpleasant, it is true, but far more nourishing than the fygg fruit will ever be. He who eats the Manikin meat will grow stronger every time. It is a rare candy, good for the bones, if harrowing to the soul."
"You propose we eat the Manikins?" Aya asked in horror.
"I propose nothing, dear Ms. Brea. I am only informing you that, should you desire it, you can."
"So we must eat one manner of crystal or another in our quest to obtain the crystals?" Layle joked, sarcasm evident, "what a joy."
"Ah, yes, the quest to obtain the Crystals. About that . . ."
"What now?" Aya groaned.
"More information, that is all."
"Inform, then," beckoned Kaze.
"What has Cosmos told you about the Crystals? That your getting them will help you defeat Chaos?"
"Yes," Y'Shtola answered. "Did she lie?"
"Lie? No, I suppose that, technically, what she told you was the truth. If you obtained the Crystals, you could, indeed, defeat Chaos."
"What's the problem then?" Layle asked, more than a little impatient at this point. All this talking was beginning to annoy him.
"Consider," he said, waving the two crystals away as if they were made of fog, "what have you just learned? Though we all believe that crystals ought to be nothing more than ordinary rocks of a slightly greater visual appearance, that is not the case in this world. The evidence suggests to your mind that if fyggs and manikins are both edible, and both crystalline, what?"
"Crystals are edible?" Layle supposed.
"Crystals are life. If you are to defeat Chaos and live you need them. If you are to eat, you must eat one or the other. If crystals, then, are life, what is the absence of a crystal?"
"Death, obviously," Y'Shtola answered.
"Precisely! But whose death? In the case of the Manikin, it is his death should you take his crystal and eat it. In the case of the fygg it is the same. In your case it is death if you don't do one or the other. Who lives and who dies if you obtain Cosmos' crystals, then?"
The revelation came swiftly to them, and each party member looked away in distress. Not a one dared voice for a moment the inevitable conclusion that The Scholar had presented them with. Until, of course, Ramza spoke up.
"Cosmos will die if we obtain the crystals."
"Correct," he affirmed.
"Why would she send us on such a mission, then?"
"Who can say?" the Scholar shrugged as Benjamin muttered, "that's a trademark!" "Perhaps Cosmos is tired of fighting Chaos. She has been doing so for a very long time. Perhaps the weight of Her sins has at last crushed Her, and She has realized how evil it is to send men and women to die for the pleasure of the Gods. Perhaps She values your lives above Her own. Perhaps She has tired of trying to force order and harmony on a system that at once rejects her vision of such concepts and, perhaps, such concepts entirely. For myself, I think She has just given up all hope.
"After all, if you get the crystals, She will die, but if you do not get the crystals, She will still surely die."
"What does that mean?"
"Cosmos has perhaps lied to you, or rather misinformed you. You are her last defenders. Not her only defenders."
"You mean she has other warriors out there, too?"
"Has? No. Had."
"When?"
"Ah, too much information for one day, my friends. Perhaps the next time we speak? For now, though, I must be going."
"Wait!" Aya called out. The Scholar, turning already, stopped and looked at her. "Please, tell us!"
"If you so desire. This is not the first time Cosmos and Chaos have done battle with each other. They have been fighting each other for a long, long, time. The War of the Gods has been waged with the lives of all men, everywhere. Some of them were good men, some evil, on either side of this battle.
"That is why I am here. I am a servant of the people. The Gods have treated our lives as if we were cattle or lower. We have been their toys, and now that needs to stop. I have worked a long, hard time to free the people from this battle of the Gods. That is why I aid you now: to free you."
Benjamin snorted in derision. When he did, Layle asked, "You got something to say? You seem to not like the guy."
"Me? No. I've got nothing to say. And there's nothing here for me to hear, either. If you want to listen, fine. As for me? I've got worlds to save." With this commentary he departed, evidently angry.
When Benjamin left, The Scholar said, "You will face worse than this, yet. Take note of your allies. Ask yourselves: Are the Children of Chaos going to look any different than you? But more importantly, ask yourselves this: Is Cosmos truly your ally? A Goddess who explains nothing to you, can She be trusted? This is the mystery you will need to solve. On that note, though, my friends, I must leave."
The Scholar abruptly vanished from before their eyes, leaving a pale, thin wisp of smoke in his wake. They were left then, the six of them, to hope discuss amongst themselves the strange things which had transpired this morning.
Layle broke the silence, saying, "This place just gets weirder and weirder every day, huh?"
"If there's even such a thing as normal anymore," Aya said.
"What do we do now?" Brandt asked. "Are we really gonna eat the Manikins?"
"Naaaaaaaah," they all said after a pause.
"That's just gross," Y'Shtola said, "They look too much like people to eat."
"Plus there're fyggs, so it's not eat or be eaten."
"How far can we trust this Scholar, anyway?"
"Benjamin seems to think we shouldn't trust him at all," Layle said, "unless I'm mistaken on that."
"No," Ramza said, "He certainly seemed upset."
"Someone should go talk to him," Brandt said.
"I'd do it," Layle said, "but what's there to talk about?"
"I'll talk to him," Kaze said.
"You?" they all asked in unison.
"Yeah. I'm a good listener."
"What do we do about the Crystals, though?"
"Why don't we all think about it, then discuss our thoughts at the end of the day?" Ramza proposed.
"Sounds fine to me," Aya said. She smiled at him to emphasize her agreement.
"Well then. Kaze, go see Benjamin, then we'll start heading out and looking for these fyggs."
"And that's a wrap!" Layle said, clapping his hands. Despite every warning, he was genuinely excited about the adventure. Things, he supposed, could still be fun.
