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Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time

Book 1: The Beginning

Chapter 2 - City of Dreams

Part 2.8 - Cold Night in Narsille

Dune happily welcomed sleep when it finally came to him. Being in his own bed with his wife by his side put him in a state of ease he had not felt since he left. Something stirred him from his sleep, though. A sudden chill had overtaken him, and he turned to put his arm around Mae and perhaps snatch a bit more of the blanket she enjoyed hoarding from time to time. To his surprise, there was no Mae beside him, and no blanket. He shot up from his side of the bed, a cold sweat quickly spreading over him.

"Mae? Mae! Where are you?"

The panic in his voice was readily apparent, but there was no one to hear him yell. The coldness and sense of emptiness around him were steadily growing more intense, and it was becoming more than he could bear. He struggled to get out of bed and out of the room which seemed to be suffocating him with every staggered breath he took. He fumbled his way across the bedroom in total darkness and slapped the wall where the light switch was supposed to be, but there was no switch to be found. Blindly waving his hand back and forth along the wall, he hoped to find the doorknob and a release from this cold prison that was only a few moments ago a warm respite from the pain and isolation he had thought was over. The familiar form of the doorknob met his cold grip, and without thinking he thrust the door open and desperately yelled out for Mae one more time, his worst fears seemingly materializing right before him.

"Mae! What's going on, where did you go? Mae, I need you-Ah!"

The second Dune had opened the door, a frigid blast of wind from behind forced him to his knees, his hand clutching his chest in a vain attempt to grab more air from his lungs. Instead of his lungs though, his hand grasped the crystal still hidden within his clothes, and its painful coldness shot through his body, chilling him to the core. The cold wind continued to blow from behind, as if all the air in the room was being sucked out through the doorway. Deprived of all warmth and strength, Dune fell forward lifelessly into the next room, but his body never hit the floor. There was no floor, or room for that matter. Dune tumbled out of time and space and spiraled helplessly into the void, slave to whatever force had beckoned him here. All logical thinking was at a standstill for Dune, and he was too weak to even try to comprehend what was happening to him.

After what seemed like an age had passed, Dune felt something growing around him. The infinite vastness of the void around him was slowly being replaced with a stifling closeness. The space he was in seemed to be contracting, becoming denser, more tangible. It was becoming harder to breathe again, although there didn't seem to be any air to breathe in this place. Dune felt as though it was not only the space around him that was contracting, but himself as well. He tried to look around and make out what was happening, but there was nothing to be seen, heard, or felt, except the ever-present coldness that pervaded this world. Dune had never felt so alone in his life, and the only thing on his mind was where Mae had gone and whether she was safe or not. He cried out to the nothingness that was creeping ever closer to his soul, hoping for any kind of response.

"Is anyone out there? Help me, please! I can't take this anymore. Mae help me!"

There was no answer from the void, and Dune's fear was giving way to frustration and anger. The space had become excruciatingly close and it seemed that if Dune didn't do something soon, he would be swallowed up by the collapse of this emptiness upon itself.

"Answer me, dammit! I know you're out there, whatever you are. If my death is what you want, then you can have it! I won't give you the satisfaction of watching me suffer any longer! This is obviously some wretched attempt at punishment, when I have done nothing wrong. Who is doing this? Is this the Committee? Sade? Leave me be! The crystal is mine!"

With that final futile cry of anger, Dune raised his fist into the space around him, and to his surprise hit an invisible surface. It felt as smooth as ice, and just as cold as the emptiness around him. Scrambling to determine the dimensions of this new entity, he soon found it completely surrounded him. Even worse, it seemed to be getting closer and closer, ignoring his presence within it. Now Dune was beginning to lose control. The only thing worse than being trapped in a void of infinite nothingness was being trapped in a void of infinite closeness. He let out a scream of agony at the overwhelming helplessness of it all. And his cry was answered by a chillingly calm voice that sounded more like a death knell on a cold winter morning than any human voice he had ever heard.

"It won't do you any good you know."

The sudden curt response to his pleas stunned Dune into silence. With bated breath he waited for the voice to return. The voice was the sound of death itself, but it was still a presence in the unwavering solitude, and Dune couldn't help but feel a wave of relief. For better or worse, he wasn't alone anymore.

"Nothing else to say? No more anathemas to throw at me? Is that feeble attempt at a curse the most potent venom you humans possess? I made a much more valiant stand when I was first imprisoned here. Pitiful child."

Now Dune was lit with a cold fire that seemed to be emanating from the unseen entity before him, and yet at the same time from within himself. "Who are you? Why have you brought me here? I will not give you the satisfaction of my screams any longer. Either answer my questions, or leave me to endure this place as I see fit."

The voice returned, with a hint of laughter hidden beneath the mournful rasp, "Very well, human. I see you do not understand your situation yet. The crystal you try in vain to control. Gaze upon its surface and tell me what you see. I will be waiting."

Curiosity at this odd response temporarily overcame the cold fury that was threatening to take Dune, and he obliged the voice. The crystal was still safely resting in his shirt, still putting forth its own cold aura that seemed to compliment the more intense aura of the void. Dune slowly took the crystal in his hand and looked at it, not expecting to see anything but the blackness it always shined with. The first thing he noticed is that it no longer felt cold to his touch. Dune assumed he had gotten accustomed to the coldness of this place and that the crystal's coldness had stabilized with the rest of the void. He cautiously peered into its unforgiving blackness, at first not seeing anything. Slowly a shape started to take form, deep within the blackness. It looked like man, but distorted somehow. It looked almost bestial in form, demonic even. It had two cruelly curved horns protruding from a lion-sized mane of thick white hair that hung down the back of its heavily scarred and tattooed body in a single long lock. Dune looked closer and with a sudden realization of what he was looking at, flung the crystal away from him. His own reflection!

The moment the crystal left his hands, it hit the clear surface of the invisible cage ever closing in on him and shattered into a thousand infinitesimal pieces. No sooner had the crystal shattered into oblivion than Dune felt his body being pulled from every direction. It was all he could do to stay conscious in the face of this new pain. He struggled to see what was going on around him, but all he could see was the same blackness as before. He shut his eyes to the darkness and waited to be broken by the forces at work on him. The air around him felt like it was being stretched and pulled just as he was, and what sounded like faint groans of stress seemed to be slipping out of the surrounding surfaces that still enclosed him. At the last possible moment of pain Dune could endure, the pulling stopped and Dune suddenly felt like he was falling, or perhaps being thrown down. Very fast. Before he was aware of what was happening around him, what was happening found him. A cold hard surface met with his face with astounding force and pain, but Dune did not seem to be any worse off than he was a moment ago. He opened his eyes slowly and steadied himself against this newly found ground. When he looked down, he could once again see his reflection in what appeared to be a sheet of ice. To his immense relief, he no longer looked like the monster he had seen in the crystal. He let out a laugh at this, the first happy occurrence that had happened to him in this place. The laugh reverberated throughout the surrounding area almost endlessly, and for the first time Dune got an idea of the size of the place he had fallen into. He looked up from the ice and was taken aback by the world that met him. As far as he could see in every direction there was a vast lake of ice, and try as he might he could not find any remarkable features in it except for a pale glow that seemed to rise from the surface like a fine mist. The lake was perfectly flat and clear, with no end to its cold, heartless perfection. Dune looked up above him, but the total blackness that had previously consumed him was the only sight that met his weary eyes. He grimaced at the sky and lowered his view to the horizon, and was once again left speechless with what he saw towering in the distance.

Far off in the distance, perhaps a mile, perhaps a thousand miles, a monstrous shadowy form rose up silently from the pale, perfect sheen of the frozen lake. The faint glow seemed to gather in strength the closer to the form it got, as if that was the source of the cold light that filled this empty plain. Dune struggled to make out the shape of the form, but could only tell it was immeasurably large and exuded an overpowering will that could be felt even as far away as he was. Whatever it was, it was definitely alive. With the reckless abandon of a scientist(or a madman), Dune boldly stepped forward and tried to address the form. Before Dune could utter a word to the lone inhabitant of this realm, though, a harsh blast of freezing air hit him hard in the face, lifting him off his feet and high into the air, and then threw him to the ground face-first with almost as much force as he had landed originally. Dune lifted his face off the ground and desperately tried to regain his footing, but it was no use. As soon as he managed to stand, another merciless blast of air forced him to the ground. After several vain attempts at standing, Dune decided to try and crawl towards the distant form. At this, the harsh voice returned and echoed all around Dune, seemingly pleased with the current flow of events.

"That is right, crawl to me, child. Humility is a lesson you must learn before all else in this place. For what it is worth, I welcome you...to Hell."

Rather than be afraid at these ominous statements, Dune simply continued to crawl forward with the same perseverance as before. Such nonsense of Heaven and Hell had left Dune's thoughts long ago, when he solidified his belief in science and logic. Even here in this place he refused to give way to the delusions of a weak-minded sheep, as he usually thought of the people who followed such illogical fantasies of gods and magic. Wherever he was, it wasn't Hell, of this he was sure. Nothing was going to stop him from confronting the only hope he had of discovering the truth of where he was and what was going on, even if he had to crawl on hands and knees to get those answers.

"Good. I see you take after my own heart. You have already cast aside the irrelevant fears and fancies that consume most mortals. The powers that be care nothing of you, so why should you acknowledge them? Come to me, Dune. Come and meet your Doom."

Ignoring the taunts and threats, Dune continued to make his way to his newfound adversary. Through endless stretches of the frozen wasteland he crawled forward, never losing sight of the form in front of him. As he moved closer to his goal, he was able to make out more of its true form. Its size was truly immense, far larger than any living thing Dune had encountered or studied. Dune estimated that it was at least several hundred meters across at its base, and its summit was at least a mile above him. Its shape and composition seemed to defy any logical description, but Dune was intent on trying to bring some semblance of logic to this place, even it was only in his mind.

Unless he was much mistaken, the entire base of the creature seemed to be connected to the frozen lake, or perhaps trapped in it? As he got closer, the composition of the base became clearer and clearer. It was definitely connected to the surface of the lake, and at first glance might be confused with a mountain base, but there was one distinct and disturbing difference. The entire base seemed constructed of a single complex mass of bone. Not human bone, or the bone of any creature Dune could identify, but whatever it was, it was definitely skeletal in nature. There were various processes and crags jutting out from the main structure at distorted angles, with a crystalline mist thickly flowing from some of them like blood. This must be the source of the pale haze that covered the lake. The sight of this macabre scene was the first time Dune had felt a sense of dread at what he was facing, but this did not stop him from continuing his trek.

Above, Dune could just barely make out an equally impressive body rising from the skeletal mount. It was a deep shade of dark blue-black, like a corpse that has been exposed to extreme cold for far too long. The specifics of the body were still obscured by distance, but from where Dune laid, he could just barely make out six appendages that could only be arms, each one folded across the massive breadth of the creature's cold blue chest. It seemed this foe was patiently waiting for Dune to struggle to its base, basking in the sense of superiority it gained from driving Dune towards it like a common beast of burden.

Above the main body he could sense the first signs of movement from the form since he arrived. There appeared to be two massive, sleek wings spreading out into the distance on either side of the creature, as far as his eyes could see. The wings looked like large golden bat's wings, but were frayed and tattered along the edges and full of small holes, looking very much like they had been left to decay, much like the rest of the creature's appearance. The wings were slowly batting the air around them, and Dune concluded that these incredible appendages must be the source of the icy winds that had continued to hound him whenever he slowed or stood. Sensing Dune's studious gaze and momentary halt, the wings sprung to life and furiously spanned out to their full length, then retreated back to their original position with equal malice, sending a powerful gust of air towards Dune and flattening him against the cold glassy surface once more. In defiance, Dune spat onto the ice before fully raising himself to the ghastly apparition and pressing forward.

Once Dune had made it within a few dozen meters of the monstrous base, he could feel the presence of the beast bearing down on him even more strongly than before, and craned his neck back as far as he could without standing to catch a glimpse of the face that could possibly belong to such a hideous conglomeration of defilement. What Dune saw was the face of Death itself. The head was not a skull, but far too decayed to still considered being alive by any mortal standards. There were no eyes, but where they would have been were four gaping black holes emanating the same fluid-like blue mist that Dune had seen at the base. There didn't appear to be any identifiable mouth, nose, or ears, but the level of decay made it impossible to discern one orifice from another. Deep scars were etched across the face, barely recognizable among the rest of the defilement. The only expression that could be sensed from the marred face was one of mute defiance to everyone and everything. The epitome of arrogance.

As soon as Dune dared to look up into its face, the creature openly growled with a malevolent force that Dune could not stand against. He instinctively lowered his head to the ice and covered it with his hands, awaiting a strike from one of the six arms for his impudence. But nothing came except another heartless blast from the wings and after a moment Dune lowered his hands and warily completed the dark journey to his Doom. Upon finally reaching the base, Dune attempted to address the being once again, his anger at being so humbled showing through his words.

"Here I am, my self-proclaimed Doom. I have braved your humiliating taunts and cold, lifeless breath for the answers I seek, so give me what I ask! Why am I here? Where is this place, and who or what are you?"

Dune heard the hollow voice echo throughout the wastes once more, but could not sense any reaction from the mountainous being before him. "Impudent child! Here you stand looking into the very face of Doom and yet you still find the breath to mock my words? Greater beings than yourself have been humbled to silence by my stature alone. All of them I destroyed utterly in the end. Or would you prefer I send you headlong into the farthest reaches of this frozen tomb, only to climb back to my feet, to be my amusement for all eternity? To destroy you now seems like a waste of good fun. What do you say to that, mortal?"

Dune paused for a moment, seemingly unfazed by these words. Similar words he had heard before and it had all turned out to be empty threats from a dreamworld. Dune was beginning to suspect that this too was merely some hallucination brought on by fatigue. Whatever the truth was, his heart was filled with a cold defiance that he cold not explain, and he continued to press the being for answers.

"Your threats mean nothing to me, Doom. I suspect you are trapped here as assuredly as I am, which means you are powerless to hurt me in any way that matters. Now answer my questions, and maybe I will show you the respect you think you deserve."

Doom let out a long, cold laugh at this taunt, and retorted with equal coldness, "You learn quickly, child. I am beginning to see why the crystal chose you as its emissary. Your cold calculating indifference will be your undoing, as it was mine. You will make an excellent pawn in the coming game. Perhaps more than a pawn by the end. Very well, I will tell you what you want to know. Be warned that knowledge is one of the few gifts that can not be taken back once received. You will do well to remember this before you demand such rewards from my kind in the future." Doom stopped for a moment and let out what seemed to Dune like a sigh of regret.

If Dune hadn't known better, he'd have thought at these words Doom almost seemed to harden himself against a painful memory locked away in the eternal recesses of his past. It seemed impossible, but Dune almost felt sorry for the creature. These thoughts quickly subsided when Dune remembered the road he had been forced to travel here.

After a moment of quiet reflection from both sides, Doom resumed his speech. "This forsaken realm you see around you is my prison, my Hell. Cocytus it is called by those that give names to such things. I was banished here from before time began by my fellow brethren, who abandoned me for the greater good, or so they say. I believe you have met one of them already. He is known as the Master of Earth, and it was he who fashioned my place of banishment. I once held a similar title as he. I was known as the Master of Ice. That was another reality ago, though, and I now have no need for names. I have since fashioned this place more to my essence, and used its properties to draw strength from the power of Earth that still flows through it. The time is coming when I will be able to break free from this prison, and it is you who will allow me to do so."

While Doom had been speaking, Dune listened incredulously. He could scarcely believe the things this creature was laying claim to. They went against all scientific thought, and Dune refused to give them any credence. If Doom knew him so well, surely he knew his words would never be believed. On the other hand, this was the first explanation Dune had been given on the events that had been happening to him, and he was curious as to what part he was supposed to play in this vile creature's escape. Doom gave Dune a moment to take in his words, then continued, as if he was reading Dune's thoughts.

"You don't have to heed my words yet. The time will come where you will be forced to choose between worlds, and only then will the stage be set for my rebirth and revenge. Until then, the aura of the crystal will make sure you do my bidding. It is only in the deepest dreams of mortals that we are allowed to express our true might, so when you wake you will be free from my powers, as you suspect. But do not wane in your fated role, for the gravity crystal that you possess is one with my spirit and will bend you to my will at the slightest faltering of your own, weak as it is. Do not fail me, my Emissary of Doom..."

With those final prophetic words, the form of Doom began to shrink from Dune's sight and Dune could feel himself being pulled away from the lake of ice. A last cold blast of air escaped from the prison as Dune lost sight of the creature and after a brief moment of disorientation Dune was once again lost in total darkness. A sense of warmth greeted his face, a sensation he had all but forgotten, and suddenly Dune was aware of a presence beside him. He turned himself over and saw Mae sleeping soundly beside him. He leaned over and kissed her, stirring her to life.

"What was that for, Dune? I thought you just wanted to get some sleep?"

"Nothing, Mae. I'm just so happy to see you by my side. I was worried I'd never see you again. I love you. Good night."