A/N: ….If there is anything you must know about this chapter in advance, it's this: EHRMAGERD! D:
And have another happy long update ;)
Lunar Bound Part II
"These fiends-" Edge groaned, tentatively sheathing one blade in a stop and jerk motion that betrayed his exhaustion, "-are a pain in the ass."
Cecil nodded tiredly, gasping for breath. His armor was flecked with blood and the vitreous humor shed by the creatures that lay dead about them in haphazard piles, as he stooped to his knees to rest.
The cavern fiends were unlike anything they had encountered—translucent and unexpectedly quick. They propelled themselves with tendril-like appendages, and the four of them had been poisoned, paralyzed, lacerated, and bruised in the time since they'd entered the cave.
Rydia winced as her fingers trailed over a blistered wound on her arm—the result of a fiendish tentacle seeping acid through her sleeve. The contact sent tears to her eyes, but this latest wound seemed like nothing compared to the others.
The tentacular creatures were Rydia's least favorite of all the fiends, she'd decided; lashing out with barbed whips that burned like fire on the skin and caused a feverish sickness.
Rosa was now studying the fluid that had afflicted Cecil, checking his pulse with two fingers on his neck. "The toxin moves quickly," she remarked, looking up at Cecil with concern. "I'm amazed by how easily it weakens the body," she murmured, frowning.
Cecil winced. "If the double vision was any indication..."
"Are the rest of you alright?" Rosa asked, giving them a cursory once-over.
Rydia nodded, weak from exertion; but she knew Edge had hit the ground harder than he was letting on. She glanced at him pointedly, and he narrowed his eyes back at her. His predilection for walking off injuries was all well and good, but her self-supposed guardian was beginning to look rather rough around the edges.
"Might be a rib," Edge finally admitted through gritted teeth.
Rosa nodded back at him, focusing on Cecil first. "I have to leech the poison from your body," she informed him, giving Cecil a wry smile. Rydia knew it was not a painless experience, as she'd had the poison eradicated from her own body with much resistance to Rosa's magic. Cecil only nodded, expecting this.
Rosa closed her eyes and began chanting. Poisona took form, causing the residue that had found its way to Cecil's skin to glow. Wherever the glow spread, so too did the magic, seeping through skin and vein, binding itself to the toxin and causing a brief but searing fever before eradicating the poison and its illness from his body. Rydia watched with fascination, wondering how Rosa's spells could still achieve their intended purpose while hers had been ungainly and uncooperative.
Cecil slowly stood, stretching his neck, and Rosa walked to Edge next. She clicked her tongue as she glanced over him. "You really shouldn't have done that," she scolded him, referring to their last encounter, before casting Libra to determine the extent of his injuries.
"The rest of you were too slow," he retorted, forbearing Rosa's examination.
Once her spell had been completed, she sighed again. "Two broken ribs," she announced unsurprised. There was a stitch in her brow out of frustration, however, knowing it was an injury that required her skill to heal.
Edge made an unappreciative face at Rydia as Rosa began another incantation. He grimaced twice as each bone was set and fused by magic, but then relaxed as the rest of Rosa's spell repaired the damage to the surrounding tissue.
"We can't keep doing this," Rosa lamented upon completion of her work. "I can't keep all of you whole indefinitely."
Cecil looked the group over, staring at Rydia particularly. He knew what her magic's absence had done to her mood "It can't be much longer," he assured them. "The crater walls can't possibly span more than a mile."
Rydia rested her hands on her hips, staring at the ground. For all her attempts, not a single spell had answered her. They had been more nuisance than anything, and she now had a throbbing headache as a result.
"Still nothing, Rydia?" Cecil asked her quietly.
She shook her head with a tightlipped frown, trying to ignore the buzzing that had returned to her ears.
Their gaze held for only a moment before they each looked away. Whatever thoughts Cecil had on the subject he kept to himself.
"We should keep going," Cecil said, sheathing his sword.
None of them were enthusiastic about the prospect, but they had now gone too far to go back. Cecil led them onward, proving the journey to be shorter than they had feared, and Rydia was relieved to see light again.
They were deposited into another path that was crowded by steep crater walls and the northern face of the plateau. The fiends that had plagued them with illness and paralysis, had been replaced by fiends of a more explosive nature here. Grenades floated lazily between the rocks and boulders that littered the lunar pathway, slipping in and out of view. Cecil avoided them whenever possible, but there were times when avoidance was not an option. Cecil and Edge strove to make quick work of the fiends before the gases contained within them ignited.
Rydia began to chant automatically—hoping to cast the infectious Bio and slow down their enemies with disease—but she had forgotten her present limitations, and even this one spell sapped her of strength. She spent the next several minutes gasping while the men finished off the creatures; and even afterwards, was fighting off fatigue as the four of them limped along the pathway. Their morale had fallen and there was a half-heartedness to their actions, bringing them to pause and rest at more frequent intervals.
Rydia sat down on one such occasion and cradled her head in her hands.
"It's getting worse," Edge said, and she tiredly peeked up to see him standing in front of her.
She groaned and closed her eyes again, sensing he had stooped down to a crouch beside her. "What do you mean?" she asked evasively.
"Your head," he stated.
She frowned. "It's this...pounding that I can't ignore," she complained. "It's a headache that won't go away."
"I know," he admitted, surprising her.
"You know?" she scoffed.
"There's pressure in the air—intense magic," he answered.
She lifted her head up a little higher, having thought her headache was a side effect of her failed spells. She had wondered why her headache and the strange buzzing in her ears were only getting worse and not better. "You feel it too?" she wondered.
"The headache, no, but magic this strong?" he asked. "Who wouldn't?"
"Why didn't you say anything to Cecil and Rosa?" she hissed.
The look he gave her was exasperated. "And have them question all of my actions as well?"
Rydia thought it over for a moment, then frowned. "Why haven't you been as affected as me?"
He shrugged. "I can sense magic in the environment, but I don't draw my power from it. You draw yours from the crystals and the closest crystals are in Babil. Perhaps something here is interfering with your senses."
Rydia crossed her arms and looked toward Cecil and Rosa who were chatting nearby.
"Except that Cecil and Rosa sense nothing," she mused. "But there is something else—something sleeping here on the moon," she revealed. "An Eidolon."
Edge regarded her sharply. "An Eidolon—here?" he asked.
Rydia was surprised by his brusqueness. "Yes, an Eidolon," she repeated.
"Do they live in your head or something?" Edge asked.
"Yes. Like your delusions," she answered with a roll of the eyes.
He grinned, and she sighed. "I was told one lived on the moon," she explained. "But I didn't expect—if this is his presence, I didn't expect it to be so—"
"-So?"
"Overbearing," she concluded.
Edge studied her for another long moment. "That still doesn't explain this," he pointed out.
She glanced at him. "What?"
"Your magic consuming more of your strength than normal. Your constant fatigue."
Rydia felt the need to be contrary. "If you don't draw your power from the crystals, where exactly do you draw it?" she countered.
He appeared surprised, but remained tight lipped on the topic.
"I thought so," she retorted. "So why should I tell you anything?"
"I'm tired of glancing over to see you wincing," he answered flatly.
Rydia sighed, realizing she might have overreacted. "It's almost as though...the melody that I'm listening for—" she told him uneasily, and then paused. She frowned, wondering how else to explain it. "It's as if another person is shouting over me, drowning out my words. I can't shut it out."
To his credit, Edge hadn't started laughing at her strange rationalization. Instead, he was looking back at her, intrigued.
"Do you think I'm mad?" she asked sheepishly.
"At me? Always," he replied with a quick smile.
She rolled her eyes, and he regarded her more seriously the second time. "No," he told her honestly. "Not mad."
Rydia propped her chin up with her hands, staring over Edge's shoulder. "I wish I could understand why this is happening."
Edge frowned. "Have you tried listening to the other voice?" he asked.
Rydia blinked, looking back at him. "I always thought it was never a good idea to listen to the voices in your head—especially when they weren't your own."
Edge offered her a wry smile. "It's never too early to try."
She snorted, finding his attitude inappropriate to the situation. "To go insane?" she asked. "You're only asking me this because you want me to admit that I should have stayed behind," she said.
"It would be a small victory at this point," he admitted with a long suffering sigh. "I gave up on that hours ago."
She rolled her eyes at him again. "I'm still glad that I'm here," she said defiantly, "Despite what you may think."
Edge remained dubious on that account. "Let me know when you start seeing things that you shouldn't."
She stared at him, then tilted her head with a puzzled expression. "I'm seeing one right now," she told him smartly.
He grinned, then nodded as he stood to leave. "Fair enough."
0-0-0-0-0
"I'm worried about her," Rosa told Edge later.
"I thought this was a perpetual issue." Edge remarked, disinterestedly.
"I've known her since she was a child," Rosa continued anyway. "Her magic has never done this to her before—her confidence hasn't been this rattled since…"
"Since?" Edge inquired, finally curious.
"Since Mount Hobbs."
Edge raised his brows at the mage, having heard this story before, but wondering if Rosa was going to divulge more on the topic.
"I asked it of her," Rosa revealed with a sigh. "We needed her magic. She was just a slip of a thing—scared, nervous—but she cast fire when we needed her."
"You think she's scared again," Edge ventured.
"I am. I'd hazard a guess that we all are." Rosa said.
"We never knew what we'd find once we got here," Edge answered, leading the mage. "But we can't rely on her for everything."
"Losing her magic in this critical stage, has…had unexpected consequences," Rosa explained quietly. "I never anticipated traveling this strange land without her power. We're barely treading water."
"She'll sort it out," Edge answered instantly. "She always does."
Rosa stared at him out of the corner of her eye, appearing pained. "She's become…close to you," she admitted.
"Oh?" Edge asked sharply. "As close as one might be to a feral cat, maybe."
Rosa frowned at him, but there was a spark of triumph in her eyes at the remark. "She sees a kindred spirit in you, I think," she went on, despite herself.
Edge glanced at her, waiting for her to continue.
"For better or worse, she's in your confidence. Look after her," Rosa entreated him.
He nodded, as he'd never had any intention of doing otherwise, and watched her walk away, appeased.
Rosa sidled close to Cecil, taking his arm and whispering something quietly to him. The paladin nodded, and Edge watched them for a moment. The two of them had been very much in each other's confidence since Mysidia. Rosa's stand in Baron's tombs had evidently taken Cecil by surprise, and he had taken great care to keep her close ever since. Edge smiled, looking away. Clever woman.
Rydia, on the other hand, had become more distant. She had taken a moment to be by herself during their most recent respite, but now returned to the group, looking tired.
Cecil deemed it time to move on, and Edge briefly took time to count the shurikens he kept in the pouch at his hip. Not many, he noticed, deciding this was a problem. There were advantages to long-range combat in the absence of magic, and his bag of tricks was beginning to run dry. He hoped Rydia sorted everything out before their situation became more desperate than it already was.
Edge glanced at her and saw the perplexed expression on her face. She hadn't spoken much in the last few hours, and he stayed nearby, gladly doing as Rosa had asked. He grinned privately, thinking the request itself odd. The white mage had been against him from the outset, always skeptical of his intentions, and now she was going against her better judgment to foster their closeness. Things must really have become desperate for her to ask such a favor.
He looked away before Rydia could suspect him of staring, and thought again about his intentions.
Astrid, damn her, had mentioned them on the Falcon. What were his thoughts on the woman beside him? He'd thought he was casual, aloof—safe. Apparently not.
And then Astrid had to go and bring sentiment into the equation. He wasn't smitten. That would mean that Rydia, unlike the many women whose company he had enjoyed in the past, had actually made an impression on him…
A bend in the path presented an unexpected problem, and Edge swiftly left Rydia's side to join Cecil at the front of the group. A gaggle of flans had appeared, and without their black mage to assist them, Edge's own expertise was required.
He was thankful for the distraction. The opportunity for violence had a tendency to improve his mood, but as he drew abreast of Cecil, his mind idly wondered whether Rydia would appreciate lightning followed by fire, or if she preferred water instead….
And then he scowled at himself for thinking to impress her at all.
The flans took notice of the four humans, and bobbed to and fro excitedly, thinking they had found an easy meal.
Edge stepped forward, and moved through signs and gestures with expert speed, his fingers operating by memory. Some had a tendency to execute ninjutsu with flamboyance and grand gestures. Edge had no time for such flourishes, preferring speed and control over showmanship. Admittedly, he did know how impressive a figure he made as he cast his magic—calm, fluid, controlled. He felt power flow through him as naturally as his own blood coursed through his veins, unimpeded by the moon's influence. There was an extra-sensory awareness that always accompanied the instances when he tapped into his own magic, the part of his spirit that beat like a second heart; and he enjoyed the rush it provided. The flans were decimated by one spell artfully followed by another, and Edge released his magic with a mental shrug, severing the immediate connection and allowing his energy to ebb to the back of his mind.
Rydia was staring at him jealously as the four of them continued on. He never would have given her feelings much consideration weeks ago; but he realized, chagrined, that her feelings and opinions mattered to him now. How she regarded him mattered.
…He was an ass.
He gave up on trying to figure out how to help her when another cavern entrance loomed before them. This one seemed to burrow in the direction of the crystal palace—a positive sign—and they made the odious choice to enter it, having an idea of what to expect.
Edge returned to Rydia's side, his eyes searching the dim cavern environs. A flash of light caused him to blink, as Rosa's Sight spell faded to a silvery gleam, coating the rocks with a residual glow.
The light revealed fiends in crevices, and weapons were drawn without thought, without preamble.
Cecil kept his shield raised high, defending the mages and allowing Edge the time to circle around. Edge corralled the fiends, pre-empting them, and made sport of severing their tendril-like appendages before they could be used to poison and infect the others. Cecil's efforts were more brusque than elegant—heavy blows that struck the fiends through their jelly-like, virile bodies. Between the two of them, the paralytic fiends were systematically slaughtered. Edge's twin katanas sliced neatly through the body of the last fiend standing, and with the fiends dispatched, the four of them took a moment to regroup.
A subtle vibration in the cavern floor, however, caused Edge to stand completely still; glancing at the others with concern.
"What is it?" Rosa asked, noting Edge's rigid posture.
He slowly shook his head, tilting his ear closer to the ground so that he could better listen to the disturbance. The vibration grew in magnitude, until the cavern floor began to rumble ominously.
"What is that?" Rydia asked, staring worriedly at her feet.
"Not sure," Edge answered, walking away from the others as his eyes searched for clues. "There's something beneath us."
"We shouldn't stay here," Cecil suggested briskly, sheathing his sword and taking off at a run with his shield still affixed to his arm.
The others didn't question his logic, following quickly on his heels. They ran down a corridor opposite the one they had just been in, rounding a bend as the sound of rock being burrowed out of broke the silence of the cavern. The creature that had emerged sounded enormous, like a giant mole scraping its way out of the ground, and their pace quickened as a peculiar bellow sounded out behind them. They hurried across one chamber and then another, hoping to avoid an encounter with the cave dweller behind them, and entered a narrower stretch of passage—a corridor of sorts.
"Get down!" Cecil suddenly shouted, ducking as a Grenade flew overhead. The spikes on its body were raised in anger, and it appeared agitated, wounded.
The four of them threw themselves to the ground as the Grenade made several low swoops, trying to pierce them with its protruding spines.
Edge's swords were drawn in an instant, while Cecil's shield kept the fiend at bay.
"There's something different about this one," Edge complained, sweeping his sword in a vertical arc, only glancing the creature's hide.
"You missed!" Cecil shouted, standing up to strike the creature on its return. Flames had now ignited on its body, and Rydia knew it was only a matter of minutes before the flames ignited the gases within the creature.
Rosa fired an arrow, striking the Grenade between its coal black eyes.
And that set it off.
The explosion flashed brilliant blue and green, and the concussion threw Rydia from her feet, hard spines embedding into her arms and left shoulder. She cried out when she hit the ground, feeling the pull on wounded flesh and the aggravation of old bruises. There was an ominous crack overhead, hairline fissures spreading like spider webs across the cavern ceiling by the time Rydia opened her eyes and realized what was happening. She climbed to her feet and sprinted back as dust began to pour down from above, and noticed suddenly how strangely she had been positioned from the group—three on one side, and herself on the other. Stones began to skitter to the cavern floor followed by larger rocks, and she panicked, bolting backwards as a section of the ceiling crumbled; bringing part of the plateau down into the passage.
"Rydia!" Cecil called out, as she slipped into a crevice in the passage wall, hoping to avoid being pinned beneath the falling debris.
His voice was buried by the cacophony of the cave-in. The entire passage quaked and reverberated, and large boulders rolled and tumbled past. Rydia covered her ears, waiting until the rumbling settled and the rocks eased to a stop before peeking her head out of her hiding place to take stock of the situation. Dust was everywhere, clinging to her eyelashes, and she choked on it trying to breathe.
"Cecil?" she called out.
She waited a few minutes, straining her ears, but no answer came.
Rydia approached the fallen rocks, pushing at them to see if any could be moved. And then she felt a wave of disorienting anxiety pass over her. She was separated from the group—alone, and without magic. She was no match for the fiends in the caverns on her own. She had no healing skills, and she didn't dare to summon the Eidolons to her here in her present state.
She squinted through the gloom while tears pricked her eyes. The spines embedded into her arms were weeping blood and she winced as she gingerly plucked them out and threw them on the ground where they landed with a clatter. Defeated, she crouched at the base of the rock fall—pain mingling with thoughts. The buzzing in her ears had now grown to a roar, and she winced again, convincing herself it was sound lingering from the explosion. But this was different than before. It felt as though a conversation was chattering through her mind; words being exchanged, and herself, an unwilling bystander. She blinked, frowned, and shook her head, having trouble distinguishing which thoughts were her own and which were not.
Listen.
She slowed her breathing, trying to lay things out and then piece them back together. She had to control her emotions, and Edge's earlier advice returned to her now. Why should she listen to the strange voices of the moon, and allow what might only be madness into her mind?
She opened her eyes and stared at the path behind her. There was an unknown creature waiting for her in that direction, but she had no way forward. The thought of being trapped here was suddenly very real.
She stood again, slowly, hesitantly, walking along the blockage and thinking. She had one spell—one that could crumble the barrier before her to dust. But at what cost? What if the rest of the plateau fell down around her? As she thought this, a brief hum brushed against her mind. It was a faint assurance, and Rydia nearly jumped, surprised by the close contact.
"Get out of my head!" she shouted, and then reddened, remembering she was alone.
Rydia tossed her green hair, dusty though it was, and again considered the blocked cavern passage with her hands on her hips.
Quake. The elemental spell that had eluded her before. The spell that had already been unwieldy before her magic had decided to go haywire. Did she dare to beg its cooperation now…
Dread settled onto her shoulders, just as a song drifted across her mind. It was a melody very much like the ones she sang with every spell—a definite cadence and rhythm. She paused to listen to it, noticing phrases and refrains that were at once familiar and not. Was this the same spell? It was and was not. She felt like she was listening to magic with a fresh pair of ears. She listened more carefully, allowing this new song to paint an image with her thoughts, the shape of what she desired to do—and the spell came into focus.
She closed her eyes and latched onto the song, allowing her lips to move in accordance with the words supplied.
Magic to move stone. Magic to manipulate and to shape the earth. Magic to push and pull, to build and to flatten. The foundation of worlds. The song was simple, concise. The weight of it was not a burden too great to bear, to tame, or control, and she could see the spell clearer than she'd ever seen it before. All that was required was one good push—one precise application of force. She could easily tell which rocks were load bearing and which were simply stubbornly piled.
Rydia completed the incantation, sensing that the source from which she was drawing her power was far closer, far older than the crystals of earth. The power surged through her, overwhelmingly intimate, and sent boulders toppling out of the center of the blockade, creating a gap wide enough to climb over and through.
The spell's power fled her body, falling through her feet and into the stone beneath her. She stood unsteadily, but not fatigued. On the contrary, she felt a rush of energy.
"Rydia!" Rosa's anxious voice cried out through the opened passage.
The white mage's voice returned Rydia to the present. She blinked twice and climbed forward through the opening. Once on the other side, Rosa's hands gripped her soundly at the shoulders.
"Rydia," the other woman said, staring at her intently.
Their eyes met, and Rydia sensed Rosa recoil from her briefly, as if surprised by something she saw. Then, Rosa did step away, holding out hands covered in Rydia's blood.
Only then did Rydia's energy fail her, and she crumpled to her knees. Rosa's soft voice was chanting without having to be told anything else, and Cecil was holding her upright, she realized. She opened her eyes sleepily, and noticed the extreme concern on Cecil's face.
"Twice in two days, Rydia," Cecil told her wryly.
She grinned, shrugging. "I know."
Edge was studying the blockage behind them, and glanced down at her curiously after a moment. "How did you do that without collapsing the cave?" he asked.
Once Rosa's ministrations were completed, Rydia took a moment to look back at the rocks herself. "I was—" she began, remembering how the spell had come to be. "The invocation was given to me," she went on hesitantly.
Edge appeared at once skeptical and impressed. "Was given to you?" he asked.
"It made sense to me," she elaborated. "I was finally able to focus on the words I required."
She wasn't ready to admit that she had been hearing voices, let alone that she had listened to them, but something in Edge's gaze told her he had suspected as much.
"You have your magic again?" Rosa asked.
Rydia furrowed her brow as she wondered the same thing. "I have one spell at least," she said. "As for the others—I think I know what to do."
"Why are they answering now, but not before?" Rosa wanted to know.
Rydia looked up at the white mage reluctantly. "I think—there are crystals here."
"Crystals?" Cecil asked, puzzled. "More of them?"
Rydia nodded. "These feel older, almost…sentient."
This earned an arched look from everyone.
"Sentient?" Rosa asked.
Rydia felt her cheeks begin to redden as she realized how strange it must sound. "It's not something I can easily explain."
"How could you tell which crystals' power you were beseeching?" Rosa continued, perplexed.
"They—" Rydia paused. "They beseeched me," she realized.
No one spoke for several long minutes, each looking at one another.
"However it was done, I'm glad your magic has been returned to you," Cecil said at last. "But if there are crystals on the moon, I wonder what their purpose serves, or if it's even safe to use their power."
"They're probably the same as ours," Edge added, unbothered. "It would only make sense given that the tower shares a connection with this place. Why not have two sets of crystals?"
"Rydia, the crystals spoke to you?" Rosa prodded.
"Not spoke so much as supplied the melody I was looking for," Rydia answered. "I think it was the crystals here that were causing my headache."
"And I haven't sensed a thing," Rosa mused.
"Do you feel well enough to move on?" Cecil asked Rydia quietly.
Rydia nodded, standing up again. With a wave of relief, she discovered that the buzzing in her ears was finally absent. Had its purpose been to draw her attention in the first place?
Cecil led them away from the blocked passage, and Rydia followed a little more slowly. There were a number of thoughts on her mind. Thoughts on magic and of the crystals.
Ramuh had always scolded her for inventing her own spells, for following instinct and not form. She frowned now, thinking that she had abandoned his teachings, and reverted to old habits. The spell she had just cast was not like the spell she had learned, but they were somehow one and the same. And yet, they were different somehow.
"What song is that?" Edge asked after a while, interrupting her musings.
"What?" she asked, looking at him in surprise and wondering if he was reading her mind.
"That song you're humming," he repeated.
Rydia thought about it, stepping over rocks and uneven ground. "I don't know," she admitted with another frown. She hadn't realized she had been humming, and now she couldn't remember the tune while she was thinking of it.
He gave her a strange look.
She caught his eye and sighed exasperatedly. "You aren't honestly suggesting—"
He shrugged. "You were in that pod for several hours," he said. "You admitted that these environs were familiar to you, and you've been humming that song since you blasted your way through the cave in."
"You think the ship did something to my mind?" she wanted to know.
"I'm only trying to help you figure this out," he replied.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "By planting suggestions in my head that I might actually be insane. You really did want me to stay behind on the planet, didn't you?"
His expression was inscrutable. "We're both here now, aren't we?" he said before receiving another cue from Cecil to join him at the front.
Rydia watched him leave her behind, puzzled that he was the one who kept asking her these questions. She sighed, watching him scout ahead. The cavern fiends had a tendency to lurk within the nooks and crevices, but Edge, she'd noticed, had a knack for sensing where they were. How marvelous it must be, she thought, to have magic that was never affected by anything but emotions.
She hung back with Rosa, annoyed. Was it possible that being connected to the ship had had some effect on her mind, had attuned her to these crystals? Was it magic she was singing?
"Rosa, has your magic really been no different than before?" Rydia asked while Rosa readied her bow.
The white mage shook her head. "Not really," Rosa answered distractedly. "But my magic has never been at the mercy of any one crystal. Some resistance, I admit, but nothing to affect the efficacy of my work."
Rydia considered this, having forgotten the intricacy of white magic's invocations as she uncoiled her whip and felt the familiar feel of braided leather in her palm. Rosa's magic relied on subtlety and cross-discipline. No wonder Leviathan had told her to abandon the pursuit of it—as it was an art that also consumed a considerable amount of time to master. It made sense then, that there had been no discord when Rosa sought out the crystals. They were already twined in the Tower of Babil—their power in unison. There was no need to separate them, as Rydia's spells required.
The four of them fought their way through the cavern, their hands rarely leaving their weapons, and after a while, Rydia put her thoughts aside to focus on more simple tasks. Walking and fighting had become automatic and interchangeable, and it was with no small amount of effort, that they eventually climbed out of the cavern and into the confines of another ravine. This one was much wider than the last, and the crystalline palace loomed in the distance, glittering with starlight it caught and amplified.
They approached, not fully appreciating its scale until they were standing right before it. It rose hundreds of feet, spires twisting toward the sky—a mineral formation perfected into art.
They paused, relieved to have finally arrived, and walked up its stairs toward the entrance. The doors swung open before them, behemoths on hinges that made no sound.
Rydia glanced inside, half-expecting something foul to be guarding the entrance, but all that greeted them was a hallway with a high vaulted ceiling that ting'd with the sound of crystals striking each other like chimes.
A current of color pulsed through the fractal walls, like vessels pumping blood through a body.
"Come," a voice beckoned them from the room beyond.
Everyone looked up at the sound, eyeing each other to be sure it had been real and not imagined. It was the first time they had heard a human voice since landing on the moon.
They walked into the adjacent room. It was a room very much like a crystal chamber on the Earth. The walls were panels of glass—or something crystalline—and they bounced light from a dais in the center of the chamber.
"A crystal dais?" Cecil asked.
"But there's nothing on it," Rosa observed with a frown.
A beam of light from the ceiling surprised the four of them, making them take a step back and their hands fly to their weapons.
"Peace, peace," a voice called to them.
They remained rooted in place, their hands still at the hilts of their weapons, when the light converged into a form, and finally, a man.
Rydia had to blink a few times to clear her vision, and when her eyes had adjusted, she saw an elderly man with pale blue robes and snow white hair that trailed to his waist. His eyes were a lavender hue, and they seemed to pierce her like a falcon's from halfway across the room.
"At last, you've arrived," he said, taking their measure.
Cecil squinted at the man, and took a few hesitant steps forward. "Who are you?" he called out.
The strange man smiled and it dimpled his cheeks. "I am FuSoYa," he answered in their own language, but with a strange accent. "And I am charged with guarding the slumber of the Lunarians."
"Lunarians?" Rosa asked, puzzled.
FuSoYa turned his sharp gaze upon the white mage. "Yes," he answered pragmatically. "We, the people of the moon. Long ago, the world that lay between the Red Planet and the Great Behemoth stood at the verge of destruction, both terrible and complete. The last survivors of that devastation boarded a ship and escaped to the Blue Planet."
This made them all pause, searching silently for answers. "Blue planet?" Cecil finally asked.
"The one that you call home," FuSoYa said simply. "But your planet was still in the midst of its evolution. And so those travelers created a second moon for the planet, and there they settled into a long and quiet slumber," he revealed, holding his hands wide to indicate the chamber they were standing in and a great deal beyond.
"And they're the ones you called the Lunarians," Edge confirmed, looking dubious about the entire tale.
"Indeed. But there was one among us who was loath to sleep," FuSoYa continued. "He thought it fit that we should simply raze all existing life on the Blue Planet, and claim it as our own."
"That's horrible," Rydia gasped, unable to comprehend such terror on a grand scale.
"Yes," he admitted, descending the dais steps. "And so I used my powers to force him into hibernation with the others. But as he slept, his will grew stronger and took on a consciousness all its own. It reached out to men with tainted hearts on your planet, twisting them into beings yet darker still. And through them, he began to gather the Crystals.
"He was manipulating Golbez," Cecil realized, to which FuSoYa nodded.
"Does this person have a name?" Edge asked.
"His name is Zemus," came the solemn answer. "The Crystals function as a source of energy, you see. I fear he has gathered them in order to activate the interdimensional elevator within the Tower of Babil. With it, he will be able to transport the Giant of Babil to your planet and use it to extinguish all life there."
"He can do such a thing?" Rosa murmured, crossing her arms.
Rydia was trying to follow the conversation as best she could, but it all seemed too strange for her—much like everything else she had seen and heard in the last few hours. A man who wanted to destroy all life on their world; a man who would not sleep and could control others with his mind; a man who wanted to activate a device that functioned in a way she didn't understand.
"But do not be mistaken," FuSoYa went on. "His will is not that of all we Lunarians. The rest of us have been waiting quietly for your planet's people to progress to such a point that we might treat with one another as equals. We but wait and sleep, dreaming of that day."
Cecil remained perplexed. "And the lunar whale, where did it come from?"
FuSoYa smiled. "Ah, the ship…" he mused. "My younger brother Kluya built that vessel long ago and flew it to the blue planet. He took with him several of our secrets, such as the ones employed in your Devil's Road and in airships—a gift to your people. Kluya was fascinated by your planet and wished to know more of it."
The elderly man trailed off until he came to stand at Cecil's side. "His final voyage there, he fell in love with a woman of your planet. He never returned here, choosing to stay with her and her people. She later bore him two children."
At this, he flicked his wise gaze upon Cecil who frowned under the other man's scrutiny. "One of them was you."
There was silence for a tense moment as everyone turned to Cecil in disbelief. "What?" Cecil demanded, taking a step back from the man he had just learned was his uncle. "Me?" he repeated. "Then, that voice I heard at Mount Ordeals—was the spirit of my father?"
"Indeed…you are the very image of Kluya in his youth," FuSoYa remarked with a sad smile.
"So it was my father!" Cecil said, amazed, and a little more than concerned.
"He vested you with his power so that you might prevent Zemus' plot from coming to fruition. Undoubtedly, it was the last act he accomplished before succumbing to the final rest. He was in sharp disagreement with Zemus and his plans, and believed he must be stopped. Kluya would not have imparted his strength to you if he did not think you worthy of the task. For your planet's sake, and for that of my people as well, we must hurry to the Tower of Babil near Eblan."
Edge frowned disapprovingly at the mention of his kingdom. "The Tower?" he asked. "It's protected by some kind of barrier now-there's no way in."
FuSoYa glanced at the prince for the first time. "I should be able to bypass the barrier," he answered briskly, almost annoyed. "We must not let the Giant of Babil be unleashed upon your world."
"We?" Cecil inquired, staring at the Lunarian incredulously.
"Yes, of course," FuSoYa immediately replied. "Who else did you think had called you here, and who else did you think would be deactivating the tower's defenses in order to stop such a calamity?"
"We hardly know this man," Edge warned Cecil, unflinching in the face of FuSoYa's glare.
Cecil released a slow breath. "You were the one who summoned me here?" he asked.
FuSoYa appeared bored by the question. "There is but one who would beckon you here and that person is myself. I am the guardian of this vessel and of the sleepers here."
"How do you know of Eblan?" Edge snapped. "Why do you know so much of the tower?"
FuSoYa glanced at the prince, equally bored. "I am an observer. Surely, you didn't think that I had paid your planet no heed in the time of my people's great rest? The rise and fall of nations has not gone unnoticed, nor has this most recent plot to gather the crystals into one place—the Tower. How were we to know when we might treat with you if no one was watching your progress?"
Rydia shivered, to know that they had been watched all this time.
"Why didn't you intervene sooner?" Cecil asked.
"The Lunar Whale was landlocked and required one of Lunarian blood to activate its controls. I required your assistance to bring the vessel forth so that I might return with you to the planet."
"You used us," Edge pieced together succinctly.
"Would you rather I had left you to die?" FuSoYa wondered.
"If you have the ability to communicate with people on the planet, why can't you also deactivate the tower remotely?" Edge pressed.
FuSoYa smirked in a condescending way. "Projecting thoughts and transporting one's physical being are two completely separate affairs. No, I might have deactivated the tower's defenses had the arrays that controlled them not been sabotaged and damaged in such a way that only direct access to the tower would yield results."
"But you can deactivate the shields?" Cecil wanted to know.
"I should be able to, yes, but I can't do that by standing here."
"How do we know you aren't Zemus?" Edge asked instead, barring the man's path from the room.
"You are a suspicious person," FuSoYa mused. "An admirable trait, I suspect, were it not for how little time we possess for this task."
"How would we know whether you are who you claim to be, or whether you are Zemus himself, hoping to find a way to the planet?"
"He's a sociopath, not a fool," FuSoYa answered briskly. "Who would place themselves in the path of danger when the destruction could be watched from afar?"
"Edge," Rosa interrupted, affording him a pointed look.
"Why didn't my father remain here to sleep with the others?" Cecil suddenly asked, causing everyone to look at him.
"Your father was a man of study," FuSoYa explained patiently. "Who believed that to understand another culture, one had to be immersed in it. I...disagreed with him on this point on account of our physiology. I feared he might be recognized for what he was and thrown into the path of great harm."
"But he went to the planet anyway," Cecil pressed.
"Yes. Several times. I had not thought that his last journey would indeed be his last," FuSoYa told them, his face registering a soft sort of resignation.
He walked closer to Cecil and rested his hand on the paladin's shoulder. "You are his legacy now," he said. "With your help, I will save the people he so came to love."
Rosa was looking at the two of them in bewilderment. "What do we do once the tower has been deactivated?" she asked.
"We figure that out as we go," FuSoYa informed them, leading the four of them from the larger chamber and back to the foyer. "But first, your bodies have sustained injuries and must be repaired before we can return to the lunar passages. I'm afraid the specimens that dwell on the surface of this moon have adapted for the sake of their own survival. They must have given you considerable trouble on your way here."
Rydia caught Edge's eye, seeing the look of annoyance there, but was too baffled by this Lunarian to pay the ninja much notice.
FuSoYa was striding surprisingly quick for a man of his age, and the four of them were brought to a chamber that was narrow but possessed a high ceiling. There was nothing in the chamber save for a pedestal in the center of the floor, slightly raised. FuSoYa beckoned them toward it.
"Please," he said. "It is but a small offering for having brought you through such perils."
The four of them stared at the pedestal, unsure of his intent.
"What are you asking us to do?" Cecil asked at last.
"This device will heal your injuries," FuSoYa explained. "All you must do is stand upon it."
The group silently nominated Cecil to attempt the device first, and he did so, only to be enveloped by a beam of light. Streams of symbols circled him, relaying information of some kind, before retreating into the glass tile beneath Cecil's feet and the beam of light with it. Cecil stepped off of the pedestal appearing shocked but unharmed and nodded to the others.
The others each took a turn, and finally Rydia stepped onto the tile. When the beam encircled her, she felt time reversing. Filaments of light spun a cocoon around her, infusing her muscles and bones with strength.
"What is this magic?" she asked, stepping off of the device, sufficiently healed. "It feels like—the effects of elixir."
"Our scientists were able to create a field that stimulates..." FuSoYa trailed off when he noticed the glassy eyes that greeted his explanation. "No matter," he said. "Suffice it to say that we have long found a way to heal the body of many ailments. Fortunately your physiology is similar enough to ours to be compatible with the technology."
"Pardon my asking," Rosa mentioned. "But I am a healer and have never seen magic such as this."
"Magic," he scoffed as if bemused by the term. "With time, perhaps, you might," FuSoYa told her instead.
"You said physiology—how precisely are your people different from ours?" Rosa asked again.
"That remains entirely to be seen," he answered enigmatically. "But each Lunarian shares a certain...bond, if you will. I believe your people might call it a connection of the mind. We are able to share our thoughts."
"Like telepathy," Edge supplied.
FuSoYa glanced at the prince unappreciatively. "In a fashion, yes. We are also more compatible with the crystals, and our technology is well beyond yours, including our knowledge of healing."
"Elitist bastard," Edge muttered under his breath loud enough for only Rydia to hear. She looked at him sharply.
"Did your people ever share this technology with ours?" Rosa asked.
FuSoYa looked at the mage, sizing her up. "It was my brother's desire that your people benefit from our knowledge. He believed that if our two cultures were to co-exist, that there needed to be an exchange of ideas."
"An exchange?" Rosa inquired. "What could we possibly offer you?"
FuSoYa paused, looking away. "That is a question with many answers. I'm afraid now is not the time to explore them."
Rosa looked at Cecil and then back at FuSoYa, as if trying to decipher how the two could possibly be related.
As they were led out of the crystal palace and returned to the lunar landscape, FuSoYa paused, then grimaced. Turning around, his eyes sought out Rydia's.
"You," he said, stepping toward her. "There is something about you—" he trailed off, thinking through what he desired to say. In the end, he pursed his lips as if he were having a silent argument with himself. "There is someone who wishes to speak with you before we leave this place."
Rydia straightened. "Me?" she asked sheepishly.
"Yes, and we had best make haste. I fear he is as impatient as myself."
Everyone glanced at Rydia, as she stood stock still with bewilderment. She shook her head at Cecil, who in turn, glared at FuSoYa.
"Who is this person?" Cecil asked.
"A being who dwells on this moon," FuSoYa answered vaguely.
"Not a Lunarian," Cecil fished.
"No, not a Lunarian," FuSoYa replied impatiently. "A being of a different nature. One, who I believe, holds some affinity for this one," he said, pointing toward Rydia.
Rydia blanched, understanding immediately who he was referring to. The Hallowed Father—the Lord of the Eidolons.
"Come now," FuSoYa impatiently prodded them. "Time does not stand still and we've wasted enough of it."
Fusoya swiftly turned and guided them away from the crystal palace. They each followed, becoming more perplexed by their new guide by the minute. He spoke very little for quite a distance, paying little attention to even Cecil.
"His uncle?" Edge whispered to Rydia while they guarded the rear of the party.
"I thought he'd be more curious about Cecil or even us," Rydia noticed disappointedly.
"He's probably unimpressed by our existence," Edge remarked at Rydia's inquisitive stare. "He doesn't seem to hold 'our people' in high esteem. I can hardly imagine him viewing a child produced from such a match to be anything but an annoyance," he went on with a sour expression.
Rydia glanced back to the front of the group where FuSoYa had placed himself. "But they're blood relatives," she argued. "Why wouldn't he want to know more about his brother's son?"
"I can think of several reasons," Edge shot back. "What worries me more, is him taking you to see that Eidolon."
Rydia felt her heart jolt at the mention of the Hallowed Father. "You knew—" she began.
Edge looked back at her, matter-of-factly. "Who else could it be?" he asked her.
Rydia looked away, feeling foolish. Indeed, who else could it be? "But how could the Hallowed Father even know I was here," she murmured, not realizing for a few steps that she had left Edge behind.
"What?" he demanded.
She angled her brow, curiously. "What is it?" she asked.
"The Hallowed Father," Edge said. "The Hallowed Father."
Rydia's expression morphed from surprise to disbelief. "How are you familiar with that name?" she wondered.
"That name was given to the Lord of all Dragons—there are stories about him passed down among my people. He's an Eidolon?" Edge practically hissed.
"Yes, he is," Rydia replied, noticing that they had returned to the cavern they had left behind hours before.
Edge went silent, disturbed by this revelation, but it was FuSoYa who shifted their focus away from their conversation.
"I'm surprised," he said, looking around at the corpses of fiends in the cavern passage. "You were able to eliminate quite a few all on your own," the older man mused, nudging a few of the fallen creatures with his booted foot. He turned, taking their measure. "But without magic, I see. Strange, that you travel with a caster, and yet she does not cast."
Rydia felt her cheeks redden with indignation and embarrassment. "My magic has not been…stable," she said hotly.
"Really?" FuSoYa inquired critically. "How so?"
"Reasons," Edge cut in, angrily. "Why didn't you come out to meet us, or was this all part of some test?"
"Edge, please," Rosa interrupted, afraid they might anger their guide.
"He raises an interesting point," Cecil seconded, turning toward his uncle. "Was this a test? To see if your brother made a wise selection in choosing me?"
FuSoYa straightened his lips into a thin line. "You never knew him, did you," he asked as a statement.
"I did not."
"You had no idea of your heritage before coming here," FuSoYa continued.
Cecil frowned. "No, I did not."
"You are the child of a brother who abandoned his own people, who took comfort and shelter away from everything else he had known. His entire education, his reputation—all of it, he left behind—in order to…what, exactly?" he asked. "How was I to know the purity of your intentions? How was I to know there was any semblance of Kluya in you and not the influence of Zemus?"
"You loved my father," Cecil said.
FuSoYa looked offended. "He was my brother and friend. Of course I loved him."
"I grew up knowing another as my father," Cecil admitted. "I had always wondered what kind of man my real father was. Where he had come from."
"He was a good man—an honest man. His search was for truth and for justice. Evidently, he found what he was looking for, or he would not have lingered on your planet."
"I'm sorry," Cecil admitted. "But I am not your brother, nor can I offer any insight into who he became after he stayed on the planet. I am who I am, and I owe that fact to many good people."
"And I'm sorry you never knew him," FuSoYa told him sadly. "You passed the test. There was, however, the question of whether your companions would as well."
"Us?" Rosa asked. "You wanted to test us as well?"
He looked at each of them. "Zemus is a manipulator. His strength lies in the cunning of his words, of the twisting of emotions. Had any of you been compromised, you never would have survived these caverns."
"I'm assuming we passed?" Edge asked irately.
FuSoYa smiled at the prince's disquiet. "You did. And now, we must visit another who has a test of his own in store, I suspect," he added, looking at Rydia. "Which returns me back to why you have not cast magic, when it is clear that you are suited for it."
Rydia fidgeted, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "The crystals that I call upon—they won't answer to me here."
FuSoYa nodded shrewdly. "I see. Well, you had best learn to solve this problem, or this next challenge may prove too much for you."
"She'll be fine," Edge retorted. "And what exactly are your skills?" he prodded.
FuSoYa's eyes sparkled with mirth. "My skills—well, they are best seen."
Edge studied the Lunarian and FuSoYa likewise stared back. "Lead on, then," Edge suggested, gesturing onward.
0-0-0-0
The newly formed group of five traveled backwards through the cave, passing fallen fiends and climbing through the cave-in that Rydia had toppled with magic. FuSoYa glanced at the formation of rocks surrounding the cave-in, nodding and clicking his tongue, but said nothing, much to Rydia's relief.
There was still the matter of what was waiting for them at the other end of the cave. The creature that dwelled underground.
When they reached the chamber where they had almost encountered the monster before, Edge gestured them to be quiet, walking on the balls of his feet. Rydia followed suit, walking quietly behind him.
The vibrations from all of their feet was too much to hide. Sooner than later, they felt the cavern floor begin to shake.
"Get ready," Cecil warned, drawing his sword.
They all stood still, waiting it out. The vibrations ceased. And then began again.
Instinctively, all of them bunched together, making an island of themselves, when a violent explosion of rock erupted from the cave floor. The rocks showered them painfully, and when Rydia opened her eyes again, she glimpsed Cecil being pulled into the hole that had been carved. Edge, who was closest, reached out for Cecil, grabbing the paladin's forearm and being forcefully dragged across the cave floor. Rydia, in turn, reached out for Edge's hand and caught it, being pulled along as well, both of their feet digging trails in the lunar dust but failing to find purchase.
The force by which they were being dragged surprised and frightened Rydia. The thought of Cecil being lost beneath the lunar rock and being buried alive or eaten seared through her. Her emotions swirled to the surface, allowing herself to hear strains of magic just as she had earlier in the day. If her traditional methods were useless to her here, she would rely on instinct, just as she had as a child. And then she heard it, the chorus in her ears—the voices of the lunar crystals—and she listened until she found the one she required. She began to chant, quickly, frantically, and felt magic bend space and time.
She closed her eyes, picturing where she wanted to be, and that was where her magic deposited her. She was still holding on to Edge who was holding on to Cecil, when the three of them plummeted to the cave floor across the chamber when her Warp spell had done its work. Cecil was bleeding from multiple deep wounds, and Edge was covered in dust and scrapes, but both were alive. The ninja let go of Cecil and stared at her, out of breath.
"Where—" he began, looking over her shoulder where the fiend was still burrowing its way below the surface, too shy to show itself. Edge jumped to his feet, not needing further explanation and sped off, but Rydia sat beside Cecil. He was laying flat on the ground, coughing.
"Cecil," she said quietly, her fingers grabbing hold of his arm.
He looked at her tiredly. "Thanks for that," he said, wincing as he tried to sit up.
Rosa was already running toward them, chanting as she went, and Rydia looked up at her, relieved. She smiled down at Cecil. "Let us take care of the rest," she assured him.
Rydia stood up, seeing the raised trail of upended rock where the creature had burrowed. Several more eruptions of rock and debris betrayed where its head was, and Edge was light on his feet, keeping the fiend preoccupied as he tried to lure it out of hiding.
Rydia kept her distance and watched. Without a visual mark, there was little she could do.
Edge was slowing down, still trying to bait the creature, and in the last second before the large head and jaws of the monster sluiced through the rock beneath the ninja's feet, Edge was nothing but a flicker of light, disappearing and reappearing several feet away. The creature roared, annoyed at its prey alluding it so completely, but it had emerged at last.
A worm—a colossal worm the shade of old rust and covered in barbs that no doubt propelled it underground, was tossing its gaping mouth to and fro, enraged.
Rydia had her target.
Her ears were now tuned to the lunar crystals, and she forewent her training and listened instead, picking apart melodies and allowing her emotions to direct her down the proper course.
Firaga blazed into existence, swirls of liquid fire coiling around their intended target, and tightening like a noose around the large lunar worm's neck. Allowing this spell to flow from her tongue, Rydia sensed the slight differences between the casting of this and others of the same spell. There was greater depth—more power she could draw from the crystals, and the realization surprised her. The creature thrashed its head, bellowing, while the spell seared a black band of necrotic flesh on its body.
The creature lunged, the multiple fangs on its large mouth converging into a point like a drill as it dove back into the earth, twisting its long body behind it to fit into another burrow. Arrows followed its descent, darts whose fletching stood out in sharp relief against the creature's red body. Rydia glanced over to see Rosa standing with her feet wide apart, her bow drawn tight with another arrow to the string, before the last of the creature's tail vanished.
The creature drew a trail in the cavern floor with its underground path, surfacing some distance away. Cecil was on his feet again, healed of his wounds, and his sword was in his hand, the point kept at an angle with the ground.
Rosa fired at the monster's face, aiming for the deeply set eyes; distracting the creature while Cecil ran along its side, aiming for its soft underbelly. The creature curved its head downward, biting in the direction of the attacks, but Edge was quickly there, keeping the creatures mouth occupied with several quick and irritating slashes.
The creature rose and dove, fangs searching for flesh to pierce, but the ninja provided a small and difficult target, allowing Cecil the time to carve a weeping seam in the monster's side.
Rydia allowed her anxiety to fuel her next spell-casting Firaga with as much urgency and vengeance as she could muster. The clip and edge of her tone crafted the magic into new and dangerous forms, and the creature ducked its head to escape the onslaught. She was relentless, holding on to the spell for as long as she could, deriving a strange sort of satisfaction from how easily the lunar crystals recognized and lent her their power.
The creature wailed, trying to burrow underneath the rock and escape the blistering heat, but Cecil's sword was swiftly under its jaw when the spell abated, hacking through the burnt but leathery skin until he struck deep into the creature's throat and hit an artery. Yellow fluid spilled out of the wound, flooding the ground and the cavern with its stench. The creature gurgled, wriggled, and fell still.
Everyone stared at the enormous worm, warily catching their breath. Rosa returned to the group from her distant firing perch, and ran her hand reassuredly down Cecil's arm as she passed him by. He looked back at her gratefully.
"Why are there creatures like this on the moon?" Rosa finally asked FuSoYa, glancing in his direction.
The Lunarian was impassive. "Why are there animals on your planet?" he asked simply, leading them away from the corpse.
"Smartass," Edge grumbled before Rydia smacked his ribs.
0-0-0-0
They left the cavern and kept going, pausing some time later to rest.
"Fascinating," FuSoYa said, looking at Rydia. She looked back at him shyly, unsure of how to interact with this man from a culture so far advanced from their own. Should she be deferential? Guarded? Curious?
His regard was cool, detached—something like a scientist.
"What's fascinating?" Rydia asked after a moment, uncomfortable with the silence.
"You are compatible," he answered.
"Excuse me?" she asked, raising her brows.
He cleared his throat, "I mean to say that your body is adapted to our magic, you are a suitable conduit."
Rydia glanced at Edge who was sitting nearby, but he shrugged.
"When you say our magic, you mean the Lunarians?" she asked quietly.
"Your magic stems from ours. The crystals were not of your invention, nor were the spells you created to harness their inherent elements."
"The spells—all of them—were yours?" Rydia asked, surprised.
"Spells," he said, chuckling. "I would expect no less of a term from such an undeveloped race as your own."
Rydia could tell Edge's ire was piqued, but she reached out and placed her hand on his arm. She didn't want to start a fight with the Lunarian prematurely. "What do you call it?"
"We call it power, and we channel it. The words we use are commands, not spells, and they trigger a sequence that is answered by the crystals to a specific function and duration. Your rudimentary language touches but a surface of the crystals' capacity. Were you to learn the true commands, your "magic" as you call it, would be boundless, limited only by the words in your vocabulary."
Rydia was stunned. "You make it sound so...technical," she observed.
"The crystals are but tools, and in the hands of a skilled master, they are dangerous and useful tools. Golbez has collected the earth crystals for this very reason—in the proper sequence, Lunarian machines are driven by the energy they emit."
"And the Eidolons, what of them?" Rydia asked, feeling as if a cork had been removed from a tub, and she were caught in the swirling waters.
"The Eidolons are another matter. They are the product of life forms exposed to levels of radiation over the course of several decades. The science division once had many such beings in their ranks—hybrids that were more "magic" than mortal. Some experiments were more successful than others."
"You're saying that the Eidolons were experiments?" she was appalled.
"We do not hold to the same mythical presumptions as yourself," FuSoYa replied. "We are purists, and our endeavors were for the survival of our people."
"Is that what destroyed your planet?" Edge asked under his breath.
"There were several differences of opinion as regarded the fate of our planet," Fusoya replied archly. "But when the core of our planet became unstable, a team was assembled of the most brilliant minds of the generation. We brought our research and our most treasured specimens and samples, as well as all the power sources we could gather, and we departed on this ship."
"Ship," Edge said, startled. "This entire moon is a ship?"
FuSoYa appeared nonplussed by the prince's reaction. "The core architecture is organic in nature. We possess the technology to transform rock into an actively growing structure, suitable for burrowing and reconstructing the inner strata of the vessel as our needs change."
"Just how many of you—are there?" Edge asked cautiously.
"As a guardian of their slumber, I cannot divulge how many sleepers are within my keeping. I can tell you, that there is sufficient number."
"And Zemus—he's awake?" Edge prodded.
"His consciousness is integrated with our systems. He broadcasts his awareness through our arrays. In this way, he is able to manipulate the minds of men who are weak to his psychic suggestion, and to teach his puppets superior forms of 'magic'."
"But if your people invented magic, how were we able to learn it?" Rydia asked.
"From what I have seen, your magic is many generations away from what it once was, and what it is meant to be. You learned by trial and error, intuitively, and were able to create facsimiles of ours. Yours fall short, of course. The crystals are merely interpreting a best guess with the input you supply."
"What?" Rydia asked, perplexed.
"Fire, and its derivations," FuSoYa stated matter-of-factly, closing his eyes and holding out his hand. He chanted a clipped word, and a lick of flame shot forth from the ground and engulfed a nearby boulder until it was charred black. "The most basic incarnation of fire," he informed them, and then closed his eyes again.
He spoke at most, five brief authoritative words, and a jet of fire rose fifteen feet in the air, snarling and roaring as it changed the surface of the boulder to glass. "Fire's second incarnation," he said.
Rydia glanced at the older man, amazed by his precision, his control, and the lack of superfluous incantation. He merely spoke fire into existence—no rhythms or melodies. The spell was more concentrated than any of her own, more powerful. With a bit of stubbornness she held onto the belief that while he held all the efficiency of a skilled caster, it lacked emotion—soul.
"Last incarnation," FuSoYa said, speaking a ten word phrase that fluidly ran together on his tongue, annunciated in just the right places. The blaze that erupted from the boulder itself was blindingly white, blue at the edges, and streaked with green. The glass boulder popped and hissed as a maelstrom surrounded it, finally cracking the stone until it split wide open. Veins of molten rock ran through the cracked halves, turning from molten red to silver. "Firaja."
Rydia's eyes stung from the heat of the spell, and at the smell of scorched earth.
"In the caverns it is too cumbersome to operate large tools or machines. 'Magic' is all the assistance we need."
"You can change the composition of rock?" Rydia said, still amazed.
"We can change the crystalline composition of minerals, we can smelt metal with flame, we can drill with a careful application of earth moving magic, water is a vessel for the carrying of materials, wind, for ventilation, and then there are the healing applications—which takes a greater base of knowledge."
"What of the forbidden spells?" Rydia asked later.
FuSoYa studied her carefully. "Forbidden?" he asked.
"The spells that were sealed."
"Ah. Yes," he said, rocking back on his heels. "My brother was fond of your people and taught them many things. You learned magic from his teachings, and years after his first departure, you practiced them, subverted them to your own needs and petty grievances. Some magic was so potent as to be kept from your hands. Destructive magic, the kind of magic used for wiping clean the land of its inhabitants and for fueling the cores of vessels in the absence of crystals."
"Such a magic exists?" Rydia wondered aloud.
"Energy to give life; energy to take it away; the power to sustain it. I'm surprised that your life forms can handle the requirements such magic demands of the host. That you are able to wield the crystals' energy without suffering mental damage or systemic organ failure."
Rydia understood his meaning. There was a cost to all magic, a dulling of the senses, a mental tax that if pushed far enough, began to fatigue the muscles, and then wither away the body's own energy source. She had reached that point only enough to have a faint impression of it. She had never cast beyond her reserves—to do so, she had been told, would render her insane. Or kill her. And then there was Tellah, who had cast beyond what his body was capable of facilitating, casting until the crystals had burned him out from within.
"I would like to see you cast again," FuSoYa interrupted her thoughts.
She stared at him, feeling supremely self-conscious. "Now?" she asked.
He nodded and gestured to a boulder. "I would like you to split this rock with lightning."
Rydia noticed that Edge was staring at the both of them curiously, and swallowed hard, studying her target. It was impassive and cold, and the light of the stars twinkled back at her from their cradle in the heavens. She began to chant the words for Thundaga, capturing the essence of the magic, the spirit of the storm. Her voice rose and fell amidst the backdrop of ominous lunar silence. When she had woven her spell to completion, she released the power from her body like a spring.
A column of white-blue fire lanced into the rock, sparking and popping; the hiss of magic on stone, overwhelming. The thunder that followed in its wake slammed the separated air into union. Rydia received a whiff of ozone for her trouble, and stared at the rock that was blackened, but not broken.
Fusoya shook his head. "Very eloquent. Very verbose," he commented, and then spoke several words in his own tongue, and a spell very much like Rydia's materialized out of the air; wider, hotter, faster. It bore into the rock like liquid metal, before burrowing into the ground beneath it and fizzling out.
The thunder was so intense, and the joining of the air so compelling, that Rydia was pulled forward and her hair set on end.
"The same spell as the one you attempted. This is the power you desire," FuSoYa informed her. "You've a talent for the elemental magicks. If you could learn these new commands, your friends would have the support of your magic in mere heartbeats, not after a lengthy proclamation invoking the various gods of your planet and all of their second cousins."
"I'm not invoking the powers of any gods," Rydia objected, offended at her magic being called crude.
"Do you know the meaning of the words you speak, or do you simply say them?" Fusoya asked. "You're improvising, and while admirable, it is an unsuitable way to create a sustainable, repeatable power source."
His assessment reminded her of Ramuh or Shiva, but her experiences with the Lunar Crystals had led her to believe the opposite. These craved her emotions; her raw, unbridled emotions. "You want to teach me the Lunarian methods?" Rydia asked, surprised.
Fusoya made a face, sizing her up. "Your genetic code has been altered by radiation already—you possess a certain resistance, or receptiveness, for it," he muttered to himself and cast a spell that when it encased her, resembled Libra, though in no incarnation of it that Rydia had ever seen. Banded strands floated around her, twisting in delicate parallel spirals. Fusoya was studying them with a hand pressed to his chin.
"Your makeup is quite fascinating indeed. There are mutations specific to the influence of certain crystals; bundles of genes that show a vast deviation from, no doubt, one of your parents. You are the offspring of an interesting coupling."
Rydia swallowed hard, unable to comprehend what he was talking about. "I'm an interesting sample of breeding?" she said, offended. Edge, beside her, was threatening death with his eyes.
"You, my child, have magic in your very blood, in the very code of your makeup. There was a theory once among our own people that such a phenomenon might be possible, but we lacked sufficient test data and time to study subjects over the course of several generations."
"I am not a creature to be studied," she said vehemently.
Fusoya smiled at her. "I did not mean to insult you," he said. "In fact, I must commend you. Your race has progressed far in less generations than expected. Should our own race fail, your people may be all that remains of our legacy, and of the knowledge we possess. I would like to teach you, to correct the vagaries between what our magic was meant to be, and what you've made of it."
"You want to re-teach me magic?" Rydia asked. "I spent the better part of ten years learning what I know, and you want to undo it within a few short days?"
"Not undo, but sharpen. I hear in the underlying architecture, the base code of our commands. You have modified the wordings to suit your own needs. You have made songs of your spells—they tell a story—when they were meant to serve a single function. As a poet whittles down prose, so you must shed your spells of their burdensome incantations. You must seek the true words. You will become a faster spell-caster, and one who can be relied upon in battle to stand fast and not hide behind her allies for defense. Where you are going, this will be all the more necessary."
"Excuse me?"
"You must be as quick with your spells as a swordsman with his weapon. There lies the potential to be as nimble with words as with deeds, and you must learn to do this."
"Why me?" she asked, feeling as though the weight of someone else's destiny had fallen upon her shoulders.
"Because those of a dying breed must learn to adapt," he answered simply.
0-0-0-0-0
The return to the ship was far less dramatic than the foray to the Crystal Palace had been, and FuSoYa took command of the vessel with expertise, showing Cecil the finer points of its operations.
When they lifted from the lunar surface, FuSoYa flew them beyond the palace, hovering over the landscape below them with its ravines and crevices until they were above a large crater with a solitary mound in its center. Here, he set them down.
They walked the length of the crater, and Rydia tensed with each step. She knew who was waiting for them, and it frightened her more than she cared to let on. They entered the cavern in the crater's center, sensing a presence upon their first steps inside.
"I feel I've been patient enough," Cecil said, directing the statement at FuSoYa. "Who is it that we've come to see? And why does everyone else seem to know what this is about?"
FuSoYa was implacable, turning his gaze on Rydia instead. She blanched, looking at Cecil. "An Eidolon," she told him hesitantly.
"An Eidolon," Cecil repeated, staring between her, FuSoYa, and Edge. "Here."
"The Hallowed Father of the Eidolons," Rydia elaborated. "He is revered in the Feymarch, the Lord of all Dragons."
Cecil went pale with anger, glaring at FuSoYa. "This hardly seems safe," he argued.
"Of course it isn't safe," FuSoYa replied. "But it is necessary."
"Why?" Cecil pressed.
FuSoYa nodded in Rydia's direction. "More for her sake than for yours. The one we are going to see holds great power—power enough to challenge Zemus."
"Rydia?" Cecil asked, bewildered.
"If the Hallowed Father wishes to see me, I don't know that we have much of a choice," she said, unable to shake the notion that she was being summoned and not the other way around.
"Eidolons are particular about whom they keep as company," FuSoYa explained. "Even our presence they disdain. But her—her, he might oblige."
"Let's get this over with, then," Edge said impatiently, staring into the narrow corridor below them.
"Yes, I agree," FuSoYa answered, looking at Cecil for confirmation.
Cecil was not pleased about the situation, but even he couldn't deny the presence of something waiting for them in the belly of the cave. They decided to continue, following the steep cavern entrance until it widened onto a platform of rock that overlooked a vast chamber, so vast, they couldn't see its end.
The Lair of the Father was pristine. The air was crisp, sharp even, and the minerals that comprised its walls were pyramidal and reflected a peculiar bluish light from an unknown source.
The path was strange, like a hive mined into the moon; its tiers were joined by delicate arches that serpentined down, spiraling around large columns, burrowing through and around others, and falling away to steep drops.
FuSoYa led them into the depths, explaining briefly that even among the Lunarians, there were secrets and experiments that had gone wrong; of which, Zemus had been a key player. Rydia listened to the history lesson while her eyes scanned the cave. Her senses had been in disarray since entering the cave, and had been playing games with her the deeper they traveled. There was magic everywhere, as if the very air was comprised of it.
Edge's forehead was pinched into a frown, so she knew she wasn't alone in her suffering, at least.
"Everywhere," she heard him mutter at one point.
She glanced over at him, and he looked back at her, pained. "What is it?" she asked.
"Normally, I can tell when there are fiends nearby," he complained. "Now I can't even distinguish you from them."
She furrowed her brow. "Excuse me?"
He sighed and looked at her exasperatedly. "Your magic," he said. "I can tell your magic apart from the fiends—or even Rosa's. But you're blending in with the magic of this place—camouflaged. And so are the fiends for that matter."
Rydia's brows rose in surprise. "You don't know if there are fiends nearby?" she asked.
He shook his head, his expression grim. "We could be surrounded, for all I know."
"Run!" FuSoYa's voice startled them. They both looked to the front of the group where a ball of flame was approaching at ravenous speeds. Cecil and Rosa jumped out of its path, and Edge and Rydia did the same, only the ends of Rydia's hair being singed by its passing.
It exploded against the wall behind them, dissipating with a snarl, as the rest of them regained their footing and drew weapons.
A lone woman appeared farther down the path, holding a gnarled staff in her hand made of stone, not of wood. Her eyes were black like coals and her mouth was moving again, strains of magic drifting across the distance and reaching Rydia's ears.
"She's a mage!" she shouted, trying to find cover and break the line of sight between herself and the strange woman.
Thundaga struck the rocks beside her, tearing through the air with searing heat, and lurching Rydia's heart to a stop for a fraction of a second before it regained its rhythm again.
"Beware her spells!" FuSoYa warned a moment too late.
Rydia glanced over at Edge who had thrown himself behind a nearby pillar and was peering around it. Blizzaga coated the cave floor in the space between the two of them, and Edge ducked back quickly, sparing her a fleeting look while the spell creaked and popped before dissipating.
They stood no chance if they were pinned down. Rydia would have to create her own sight lines if she wanted to attack the mage with magic. She crouched, hesitantly lifting her head above the scorched boulder beside her, and gasped when a sword blade searched for her neck, but missed, slicing her shoulder instead.
Rydia clutched at her slashed sleeve and at the blood trickling down her arm as she fell backwards.
Another woman—this one different from the mage, leapt atop the boulder, brandishing two swords and leering down at Rydia as though she was a defenseless creature waiting to be butchered. Rydia grabbed her whip, uncoiling it hastily and trying to gain enough purchase to swing it. The woman slapped it from her hand with one sword, standing above her with both swords poised for a killing blow.
Rydia's anger flew to her lips, chanting automatically, but Edge was there as well. He filled her vision, quick as a cat, and hooked his own twin blades between those of the woman's, pushing her back as she hissed.
"Rydia, find Cecil," Edge interrupted her, halting her spell halfway to completion. When she didn't move fast enough, he glared at her. "Now!" he shouted, engaging the woman in battle and drawing her away.
Rydia crawled to her feet, running clumsily across the passage and behind another pillar, glimpsing what had become of the others. Cecil was trying to approach the mage but was pinned by her magic, holding his shield above his head to deflect her spells while Rosa was supporting him from a distance. FuSoYa was casting spells of his own, keeping the mage on her toes as she danced and leapt away, but no one could seem to get near enough to damage her.
Summon us, she heard in the back of her mind. She blinked, feeling as though the Feymarch was nearby, separated from this world by only a thin veil.
The Eidolons had never touched her mind in this way, nor asked to be summoned. She glanced around the pillar again, realizing that maintaining a sightline with the mage was too difficult. Too difficult for magic, but not for an Eidolon.
She closed her eyes and steadied herself, beginning to chant the language of her people. Shiva's name rose in her thoughts, and she invoked it.
The Eidolon of ice strode out of nothingness as if she'd only stepped through a door. Long hair bound in beautiful cords fell to her calves, and the garment she wore clung to her like frost itself.
The mage paused in its salvo against Cecil and stared at Shiva with narrowed eyes. They were two foes sizing each other up, and Cecil even glanced at the Eidolon as she calmly walked by, ice coating the ground wherever her feet touched it.
The mage hissed, hastily casting another spell which Shiva deflected, barely blinking; bouncing the Thundaga spell far afield. And then she raised her hand, cold air swirling into a globe of vapor above her palm. The mage stepped back, concerned by Shiva's advance, as the Eidolon readied herself, fingers pointing artfully in the direction of the fiend. Icicles flew like swords, piercing the mage through the chest with four deadly thuds. The fiendish woman fell snarling, casting magic in Rydia's direction out of furious revenge. The mage aimed wide and hit nothing, but Shiva wasn't quite done. She formed a blade of ice out of the air, serrated and billowing steam, and without flinching or slowing down, drew it across the mage's throat, ending its miserable life.
You've been hard to reach, Shiva shared with Rydia through their bond. Rydia wavered slightly, unused to being able to communicate in this way. We told you we would answer your summons and we never lie.
Shiva turned, admonishingly catching Rydia's eye, and nodded. Rydia released the Eidolon gratefully, feeling her energy wane with the summoning.
"Where's Edge?" Rosa asked, looking over her shoulder in Rydia's direction.
Rydia shook her head, not sure where he had disappeared to, and was suddenly worried.
"Here," he tiredly announced, climbing out from behind a cluster of columns, covered in slashes and bleeding wounds.
"Are you alright?" Rydia asked, staring him up and down.
He grinned at her, though it came off looking ridiculous, battered as he was.
"I'm conscious and upright" he answered, bemused.
Rydia looked around him. "And that sword woman?"
"Dead," he answered, sheathing his swords.
Cecil was also back on his feet, exhausted from enduring so many spells, while Rosa approached Edge to examine his injuries.
"It's been a while since we've seen Shiva," Rosa commented to Rydia, while she looked Edge over.
Rydia watched quietly as Edge reluctantly allowed himself to be mended, and realized how long it had been as well. It had been weeks since she'd summoned Shiva, but months since she'd experienced as close a connection to any Eidolon since the Feymarch—and not since entering the Void. It was so similar here—an invisible barrier separating her from home, and all she had to do was walk through the veil as if it were glass.
"The Eidolons are close," was all Rydia said as explanation.
"Good, because it seems we'll need them," Cecil said, staring at the corpse of the mage on the ground.
"But who taught the fiends how to use swords?" Edge asked annoyed, picking at the ruined portions of his clothing.
FuSoYa crossed his arms. "As I said—even the Lunarians kept secrets from each other. Zemus conducted experiments. The depths to which they went? Not even I know that."
0-0-0-0
The witches of the caverns were dangerous and irritatingly prevalent, the group discovered. They cast magic with the same power FuSoYa had exhibited, but they were slower and Rydia was quicker. What she lacked in precision, she made up for with speed, and FuSoYa had helped with that. Rydia had learned the lunar variations to some of her more familiar spells, executing them with expert skill. Rosa's own voice layered atop hers, a combination of defense and offense. The men had had their chance to show off, but now it had become a game of magic.
Reflect quickly protected Rydia from above, deflecting Thundaga away from her and into a part of the cavern wall. Stone shattered and flew, and the five of them dodged the searing flames of Firaga as it melted the ground beneath them while Rosa cast silence, striking down one mage with the malady. Rydia sent Blizzaga crackling on the air as a rebuttal; every droplet of moisture surrounding the witches freezing solid to bursting.
They charted a course through the bodies of fallen fiends, until the path widened again.
There were dragons in the cavern as well, skeletons of dragons that walked as though they were alive. Those had been more than a difficulty, nearly decapitating Rosa and Cecil both during one encounter. The five of them had become better at trusting their ears, and passed through several more of the mined passages with fewer surprises.
But as the passages delved deeper, the silence grew more profound.
Edge suddenly tensed at Rydia's side, and she glanced at him, trusting his instincts. Her eyes swept the passage, searching for the sight of scattered bones or the glint of a sword, but none of the usual tells were present. She frowned, puzzled. She had sensed it too, the horrible feeling of being hunted—of being prey.
A low growl tickled her ears and she spun, only fast enough to see the clawed paw of a terrible beast descend upon her in one swift, crushing motion. The monster's attack took she and Edge together, hurling them sideways. Rydia landed on her hands and knees, feeling the passage rocks tear through her gloves and into skin. The abrasions stung, but Rydia rolled over, gasping out a cry as the same paw tore a trail of grooves with its enormous claws in the place where she had been moments before. The creature roared, baring curved fangs, and she felt every hair on her body rise.
"A behemoth!" FuSoya shouted, quickly taking cover with Rosa in the mouth of a tunnel ahead of them.
Rydia had become the focus of the beast; and Edge, dazed, had returned to his feet with twin blades in hand. He was bleeding from a gash on his scalp and his blood was a stark contrast to his silver hair and gray cloak, but his eyes were sharp as ever.
He sprinted beneath the behemoth's other massive paw, stabbing upward as he did, and received a snarl and a quick snap from the fiend.
Edge was too fast for the larger animal, and the behemoth soon gave up on chasing the ninja between its legs, focusing again on the smaller, more vulnerable summoner before him.
Rydia felt rooted in place, crippled by fear. The fall had rattled her nerves, and there was too much distance between herself and Cecil. She had no knight's shield to protect her. She dodged and rolled, avoiding claws again, and began an old summon. It was a familiar bolero, the incantation that drew one fiery beast from the furnace of the underworld. She felt his answer quicker than she expected, and she pulled on the tether, on the line she had cast, and pulled with every ounce of concentration she possessed.
The behemoth lunged and she cowered, still chanting, but death never came. Rydia peered upwards through cracked eyelids and saw the muscular and furious form of Ifrit standing above her, his strong arms keeping the Behemoth's at bay. The two beings wrestled, each snarling at the other. Ifrit cast off the behemoth's paw, charging into the fiend's shoulder and driving the monster off-balance and backwards. The behemoth's purple hide rippled over its muscles as it lowered its body, preparing to spring.
The beast was as beautiful as it was terrible, but Ifrit was no tame creature either. The behemoth leapt, still hoping to kill its intended prey, but Ifrit also pounced, intercepting the monster in the air with his own jagged claws.
Rydia watched in dismay, as the two exchanged blows, circling around each other in a competition of strength. And then her breath was stolen completely by a strong arm around her waist, dragging her away.
Edge, she realized. Always at her side, especially when she least expected him to be.
He pulled her away from the battle and behind cover where the others were waiting.
"Release him," Edge gasped once they were safely behind a large column at the entrance to the tunnel where the others were sheltering.
Rydia peered around the column, watching the battle behind them with fear in her eyes. Ifrit had received a deep wound to his leg from the behemoth's scythe like claws , and retaliated with hellfire. The flames slammed into the behemoth's face, eliciting a roar, before Rydia severed her connection to the Eidolon, returning him to the Feymarch with a heavy sigh.
The behemoth continued to snarl and prowl, searching for Ifrit as if he was a mouse that had gone to ground.
"How do we fight this beast?" Cecil demanded quietly, keeping his voice purposefully low.
"They are some of the strongest beasts among all that we brought with us," FuSoYa explained. "They were…specimens to be preserved."
"You look surprised to see it," Edge observed with a frown.
The Lunarian appeared mollified. "They were not to be revived."
"So how are we supposed to kill it?" Cecil repeated.
"All you can hope to do is tire it out," FuSoYa admitted. "It will never let you near enough to its head to strike its jugular. Avoid its claws, and also—"
FuSoYa never finished that thought, as all of them leapt back when the Behemoth pawed at the column they were hiding behind, it's jaws snapping for meat.
"Keep it occupied!" FuSoYa cried, rushing for more cover. "You—" he said to Rosa, who was looking in the direction of the behemoth, but had her head tilted toward the Lunarian. "—cast Blink."
"Blink?" Rosa asked, surprised.
"The behemoth relies on its eyes more than anything else. Trick its eyes and we might stand a chance."
Edge glanced at Cecil as the two of them quickly stood and bolted, trying to lure the beast away from the others. They each ran in opposite directions, and the behemoth swung left and right, undecided, before lunging for the slower of the two.
Cecil had found armaments left throughout the cave, and he held his newly acquired shield before him, using it to keep away the behemoth's teeth as they snapped and snarled in his direction. Cecil was lighter on his feet than before, finding his new armor more maneuverable than his last, but even so, there was no escaping the biting jaws of the behemoth.
Edge ran until he was behind the creature, hurling shurikens with ruthless precision. The beast was preoccupied with Cecil, and so Edge aimed for its soft joints, drawing blood as darts pierced the tendons and ligaments of its knees and ankles. The behemoth roared and half-turned, more annoyed than mortally wounded; and Edge realized too late, that he had paid too little attention to the fiend's hind legs. He was struck hard by the behemoth's tail, sending him sprawling to the ground with a crack. There was no mistaking the break of a bone, and Edge's arm sent messages of pain and alarm to his brain, but he had lived through worse.
He gritted his teeth and was up in a fraction of a second, rolling to his feet and running again, a constantly moving target.
When he glanced again in Cecil's direction, he blinked. Was he imagining things? The paladin looked like he was shimmering and in two places at once. Edge squinted while he ran, pelting the behemoth's hide with more darts as he went. And then the behemoth roared and struck Cecil with its forepaw, throwing the knight to the cavern floor while blood trickled from its mouth. Cecil had finally landed a hit?
Cecil hastily returned to his feet, ducking behind his shield, and a flicker of green from behind let Edge know that Rydia had rejoined the battle. Her lithe form was indistinct, blurred, and he realized that Rosa's magic must be at work.
Rydia let loose a number of spells in quick succession. Fire, ice, and finally disease. Only one had any effect on the beast, and it snarled, then wheezed, as Bio took hold. The behemoth took several steps backwards, shaking its head and whipping its tail in all directions.
Edge circled wide and returned to the group, catching Rosa's eye. "We should fall back," he said tersely.
"Not without Cecil," she said, looking anxiously at where Cecil was still keeping the fiend at bay.
"Fall back!" Edge shouted across the passage.
Cecil blocked another bite from the behemoth's mouth and finally began to step away, waiting until the beast lunged wide, and then ran, joining the others as they all hurried into a narrower passage riddled with columns and pillars that the Behemoth had no chance of navigating. The mineral maze spread out before them like a forest of dead trees, and they sprinted between and around the columns, leaving the behemoth behind them, roaring its displeasure. They slowed down as the passage began to widen and the maze to spread out, but slid to a complete halt when three large columns shattered in their path. Crystal shards were sent through the air, and they shielded their eyes from the debris, not knowing what had caused it. They ducked behind what cover there was, holding their breath and straining their ears.
Snarling. Snarling accompanied by the sound of heavy padded feet and the glimpse of a purple hide over corded muscle.
"Two behemoths," Rosa uttered, out of breath.
They were trapped.
Edge glanced at Rydia whose face was ashen pale. Her eyes flicked around the pillar she was cowering behind, searching for her new target. She was chanting again, and Edge caught Cecil's eye as the two of them silently decided to venture back into the pillar maze for more cover. Rosa tapped Rydia's shoulder before the four of them began to run, letting the summoner know of their plans as she cast Bio at the behemoth barring their path. Edge looked over his shoulder, seeing Rydia running to catch up to him, and the Behemoth behind her, enraged. It bellowed and charged, sending crystalline shrapnel through the winding tunnels as it clawed its way in after them.
Edge reached back and grabbed Rydia's hand with his good arm, tugging her forward as he dove for a crevice. The behemoth's claws raked the air above them, and they took off running at a diagonal, slipping between narrow openings between pillars and then changing direction again. The behemoth fell farther behind them as it lost track of their movements, until finally, the two of them rejoined with the others, running until they were lost in the maze.
They could hear both behemoths on either side of them, growling, and calling out to each other like two cats that had cornered prey. The five companions circled together, listening as the behemoths scraped their own path through the maze. Eventually, they were going to be found.
"Now what," Rosa said, glancing between Cecil and Edge, annoyed.
Edge nearly laughed, so annoyed at their present situation, that he had no plan to offer.
"We can barely fend off one," Cecil commented, staring over his shoulder.
FuSoYa's brow was wrinkled in thought. "They are territorial creatures," he mused. "If they could be fooled into attacking each other..."
"How are we going to accomplish this?" Rosa demanded, holding her bow.
Edge was already considering scenarios, looking around them. "We fool them with sound," he said, standing up.
"What?" Cecil asked, staring at the ninja.
"If we lure them into that open space," Edge said, pointing past their hiding place into a wider section of the passage, "We can pin them there."
The behemoths had already broken through much of the maze, and their roaming footsteps had grown closer.
"Do it," Cecil said, giving Edge the permission he needed to do something potentially foolish and deadly.
Edge wove signs with his hands, silently preparing magic that he then released. A solitary lightning bolt flashed in the wider portion of the passage, away from the group, and the sound of it was like a flock of agitated birds as it squeaked and crackled from the cavern ceiling to the floor. The flash of the spell faded while the sound of it reverberated off of pillars in the maze.
The five of them waited, and then were rewarded by the sight of the two behemoths converging on the same path at once. Finding nothing but charred rock, the behemoths whirled, snarling and spitting as they sized each other up. One behemoth struck the other, drawing blood with its enormous paw, and the two lunged, their forearms locked together while their fangs strove to maim the other.
Cecil slipped the group away from the two battling beasts, leading them along a different path than before. It wasn't long before their pristine passage fell away to the broken stumps and scattered debris left by the behemoth that had pursued them, and with both beasts behind them, they quickened their pace, running more easily through the open tunnel.
The tunnel eventually ended and the cavern ceiling rose far above them, vanishing into darkness. All around them, the deep of the lunar subterrane skirted the newly narrowed path. It was a bridge of rock that seemed to float in the midst of an abyss, running deep into the vast cavern and joining with a large island of rock in the chamber's center.
FuSoYa was unable to maintain the pace set by the others, and they were forced to slow down, breathing hard and laboring from wounds they had put aside since the hunt began.
Rosa chanted softly, setting bones, healing gashes, and mending bruises while they walked. She was haggard, and Edge frowned, knowing that FuSoYa was equally capable of healing them of their injuries, but had chosen not to. In fact, he had been largely unhelpful since joining their company, and Edge scowled at the Lunarian who was standing apart from the group, checking over his shoulder.
Cecil's uncle or no, he hadn't done much to endear himself upon his human companions, and even Cecil didn't fully trust the man.
"They've found us out," FuSoYa said sharply, pointing behind them.
They all turned to look, and then began to run as both behemoths cleared the tunnel and bounded after them with long, purposeful strides.
Rydia was chanting while she ran, a feat Edge found remarkable, and he felt the presence of an Eidolon enter the chamber without turning to look for confirmation. Rydia suddenly stopped, pivoting to face off against the behemoths, and Edge spun a few strides past her, afraid to leave her defenseless. When he finally looked behind them, he realized she was anything but.
A giant—a true giant—consumed the path between the five of them and the two behemoths who pursued them. The Eidolon wore little but a loin cloth and polished beads in a necklace around his neck. He was more heavily muscled than any vain athlete could be, biceps and thighs bulging beneath tanned and oiled skin.
The giant bellowed, pounding both fists in unison into the stone bridge beneath their feet, and sending up a piercing cloud of stone and crystal and dust. The explosion was so fierce that the shockwave sent everyone stumbling to their knees. The bridge collapsed, toppling into the brink, and the behemoths attempted to clear the breach, pouncing through the flying debris only to be knocked down by Titan's meaty fists.
The fell, snapping their teeth as they snarled and twisted in the air, trying to find purchase but failing. Both of them vanished with the stone and dust into the darkness below.
Rydia released Titan to the Feymarch and stumbled backwards as the bridge continued to crumble and rocks to skitter out of sight. Edge reached out and caught her shoulder, and the two of them looked at each other for a long moment.
"Are you alright?" he asked her.
Dirt was smudged across her face, streaked with blood, and after another moment of bafflement, she grinned. "I'm conscious and upright," she replied wryly.
"Three summonings in one day," he said archly.
"Not so useless after all, am I," she retorted, bemused.
He shook his head at her. "I don't know what nonsense FuSoYa has put into your head, but you're stretching yourself too thin," he warned.
She stepped out of his grasp. "I have my magic again—you should be anything but resentful," she scolded.
He frowned at her. "You have their magic," he said. "You're accessing their crystals. You don't even realize it, do you?"
"Realize what?" she asked, offended.
"That you haven't stopped humming since reclaiming your magic."
"What?" Rydia demanded, convinced he was lying. "How could I be humming and not know it?"
"Whenever we pause to rest; when we returned to the ship," he went on.
"I'm not humming," she insisted.
"Rydia, I think the Lunar crystals are having some effect on your mind."
She narrowed her eyes and squared her shoulders. "Would you rather we travel these caverns without magic?" she asked honestly.
He had no answer, and so she shook her head at him. "You were the one who suggested I listen to them," she scoffed.
He looked away, chagrined. "I'm thinking now that it might have been a mistake."
"I'm adapting," she told him acidly, walking away.
He watched her go, rejoining Cecil and Rosa. They appeared as relieved as they were concerned, and Edge followed Rydia a little more slowly, wondering what they had thought of the argument the two of them had just shared.
Neither said a word, but it was FuSoYa whose gaze on Rydia bothered Edge most. He was staring at her appreciatively, like a teacher whose prize student had finally mastered a difficult lesson. Was he using her just as he had used Cecil to get them to the moon in the first place?
Edge had little time to dwell on the subject, suddenly overwhelmed by a surge of energy emanating from the center of the cavern chamber.
A presence followed—an ancient presence that sliced through Edge's thoughts and laid them bare. The ninja froze in place, alarmed at having his mind be intruded upon in such a fashion.
Come, a voice commanded. It was a voice of magic and timelessness, of knowledge and anger all bound together in a singular existence.
Rydia fell to her knees, and Rosa dove to catch her.
"Rydia?" the white mage asked, placing a hand on the summoner's cheek.
Rydia was unresponsive for a full minute, staring listlessly toward the center of the chamber. Finally, she stirred, standing up again.
"Bahamut," was all she said.
0-0-0-0-0-0
The island in the center of the cavern chamber was nothing short of breathtaking. It was comprised of crystals of multiple colors, and they glittered from within. Amid the crystal nest was a wide platform, interspersed with more crystal formations that appeared to be alive and growing.
Three figures stood in its center. Two were short and slight, their bodies covered by long hooded robes, but one towered above the others. His face was partially obscured, save for his reptilian snout with protruding fangs.
His identity hardly needed to be guessed.
"So, you have enlisted the aid of Leviathan," Bahamut spoke to them, not bothering with introductions. "I am surprised you have made it this far, human child," he said, addressing Rydia.
Rydia bowed low, not daring to look at the Hallowed Father, while the two attendants of the Eidolon king left his presence.
"Your Majesty," she said.
Bahamut laughed, a raspy sound that betrayed his true form. "I see you hold proper deference to the one who holds dominion over the skies and those born of the crystals," he said. "Welcome, child of earth."
"Your majesty, you summoned me?" she asked, her voice small in the large space.
"I wished to see the one with magic in her blood—the one who fancies herself a friend to Eidolon kind. She who has won the aid of Leviathan and his chosen queen."
"I am here," Rydia replied nervously, finally looking up at the Eidolon's face.
"Leviathan may be a king among dragons, little one, but I am the Emperor. Power such as his can be won without light's gift. Only the ultimate trial can determine if that most sacred force truly rests within you. The trial of I, Bahamut—Hallowed Father of the Eidolons!"
The five of them hastily stepped back, as the Hallowed Father shed his cloak and underwent a sudden and terrible transformation. Gone was the man who had stood before them mere minutes before. In his place, rose a giant of a dragon, putting all other dragons to shame. The magic unbinding his concealment, pulsed from head to foot, causing his scales to glow a molten gold. Talons curled like sabers into the ground, clicking against the lunar stone. Arms and legs bulged with coiled muscle, and the dragon's neck stretched in a long arc, lined by twin rows of razor sharp spines that culminated into fearsome horns on Bahamut's head. He wrapped his tail about his body, coiling it like a whip, and the tip was like a flail, and made a sound like metal beating the stone. Bahamut loomed above them, staring down at them over his ridged nose. Opening his mouth, his angular teeth glistened, and smoke issued over his tongue.
The dragon suddenly lunged, his teeth snapping a hairsbreadth from Cecil's face. Cecil lurched backwards in terror and watched anxiously as the dragon pulled back his mighty head and stared at the paladin and the Lunarian beside him.
"Lunarians!" Bahamut roared, outraged. "Of all the vile creatures of this galaxy, you manipulators of destiny—you cursed breed," he seethed.
Bahamut shook his back foot and the rattle of chains caught their attention. An enormous shackle had been fitted to the dragon's ankle and it gleamed dully with magic.
"It was your people who chained me here," Bahamut bellowed. "You who keep me here as your prisoner."
FuSoYa folded his arms and regarded the Eidolon before him. "You were warned," he said calmly. "Zemus is the one you want, not myself or this boy."
"Warned?" Bahamut spat. "Such a betrayal is not to be borne!"
"I have brought you one who heeds your kind," FuSoYa said instead. "One who can break your chains."
Bahamut whirled, fixing Rydia with an enormous golden eye.
"Can she now?"
Rydia blanched and stepped back, not understanding the argument she had just stepped into.
"I—I will try," she said.
"Face me in battle, then, and I will determine if Leviathan's judgment was sound," Bahamut bellowed, overwhelming the cavern with the sound of his voice.
Rydia stared up at the Hallowed Father, at the immensity of his form and felt her spirit quail. The others had taken cover, but her feet wouldn't obey her. She was rooted in place, and all she felt coursing through every fiber of her being was magic.
She listened to the crystals, to their voices on the air. They were chanting to her, speaking directions in calm and dulcet tones. She closed her eyes, allowing them into her mind again—a strange comfort in this strange land—and let the thought of the mighty dragon before her slip from her concerns…
Edge had heard many legends about dragons throughout his childhood—and some of the Hallowed Father himself—but none quite compared to the dragon before him now. Bahamut was a legend come to life, and the heat and force of his presence was enough to make the ninja quail backwards. They had no business being here in the cave of the Hallowed Father of the Eidolons, but Rydia had been summoned. Or been given as an offering—he still wasn't sure which.
FuSoYa had filled her head with nonsense and Lunarian mysteries, not helping matters by supplanting her own magic with new and terrible invocations.
Edge glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, at how she was staring at the Eidolon king without really looking at him. It was if she had no need for Libra—that she was seeing his every detail with her mind.
How were they supposed to do battle with such a beast, he wondered.
"We must repel his magic," FuSoYa was saying. Edge listened with half an ear, tired of the Lunarian's advice. "Reflective magic will protect us from the effects of his breath," FuSoYa went on.
Rosa was chanting before FuSoYa had finished his sentence, finding cover behind a large boulder as she wove magic into the physical manifestation she required. Edge looked to Cecil, and then the others. Two sword bearers and three mages. He sighed.
"Looks like it's you and me," he called out to Cecil.
Cecil looked back at him, appearing just as thrilled about the situation.
"Wishing you had a shield?" Cecil asked him offhandedly.
Edge shrugged, sliding his katanas free of their sheaths. "I'll take my chances."
FuSoYa joined Rosa behind one of the crystal formations on the platform, but it was Rydia who had yet to find shelter.
"Rydia!" Edge shouted at her, but she didn't move an inch. She was focused on the dragon, her eyes fixed on some faraway plane.
Bahamut finally stirred, rising from his haunches and uncoiling his tail. It sliced across the cavern, its flail-like tip shattering stone and sending it flying as it whipped through the air. It was headed straight for the company, and everyone else had the sense to duck but Rydia. So transfixed was she, that she merely stared, watching her fate come to her without concern.
"Rydia!" Edge yelled again, sprinting the distance between them in a span that seemed to stretch interminably. He had no time for delicacy. He dove into her, pulling her to the ground with violent force as the dragon's tail whistled overhead, snarling the air into an eddy that whipped their clothes and hair against their bodies. Stone shrapnel flung up crystal formations stung their skin like glass and Edge shielded Rydia with his body until the brunt of the attack had passed.
Sitting up, he snapped his fingers in front of her eyes until she blinked. And even then, it was an effort for her. "Are you even awake?" he snarled at her.
She stared at him, finally realizing he was there, and then her gaze hardened. "I know what I'm doing," she seethed at him.
The tone of her voice took Edge off-guard, but he tried to pull her up with him and back toward the others.
She refused. "I know what I'm doing," she argued, and took off at a run, isolating herself from the others.
Edge watched her go, dumbfounded, and shifted his attention to the dragon before him.
Convex shields of magic spread about the air before them—mirrors that would reflect enemy spells. Edge breathed a brief sigh of relief, knowing he would feel even better if the spell could deflect the beast's claws as well.
Bahamut made a pass for him, and he dodged a swipe of Bahamut's talons, jumping onto the dragon's arm and using all of his skill to remain balanced as he climbed the dragon's scales to the more delicate skin of the elbow joint. Edge removed a kunai from his belt and hurled the weapon as hard as he could at a seam in the dragon's plating. The kunai struck true, digging into the dragon's skin beneath the armor, and Bahamut bellowed. For all his size, the dagger was nothing more than a thorn to the dragon, but annoyed, Bahamut swiped at Edge with his other arm. The ninja slid back down the way he'd come, skidding, and then jumping onto the other arm as the talons combed the place where he'd just been. He was more than an annoyance now to the dragon, who wanted him gone, and the dragon snapped his wrist, sending Edge flying.
It was a strange sensation to be moving at such a great velocity, but Edge had learned a thing or two about great heights recently, and twisted himself in the air, landing well behind his companions and more or less on his feet. The landing still robbed him of breath and it took a few moments before he felt confident enough to return to the battle line.
Bahamut, in the meantime, had decided Cecil looked an acceptable quarry, and the paladin was having great difficulty blocking the barrage of blows from the dragon's claws while being driven backwards. Each strike from the dragon's claws nearly toppled the knight sideways, and without aid, the paladin wouldn't last long.
Rydia was still woefully quiet, and had been for the duration of the battle. By some miracle, she had escaped the brunt of Bahamut's attacks, but Edge wanted to scream at her. She had chosen a brilliant time to go useless on them.
Mages he silently cursed.
Then Bahamut did something that made Edge truly quail. The dragon roared. The sound reverberated off of the walls and the floor, resonating with a certain deep magic, the kind that stirred up terror. Smoke issued from the dragon's maw, tendrils of doom, marking the unleashing of the beast's internal furnace.
The Reflect spell Rosa had placed on him had worn ominously thin, and Edge eyed the faint red sheen in front of him, hoping that such tenuous magic could protect him from the inferno they were about to endure.
"Stand firm!" FuSoYa commanded.
Edge gritted his teeth, knowing how little it cost the Lunarian to say such words when he hid behind rocks and pillars and left the rest to the 'lesser beings'.
Bahamut did not allow much time for the humans to seek cover before he rained liquid fire upon them. The blast rocked the cavern, blistering and blazing across the floor, and turning the stone to glass. It crackled and popped as it was transformed and Edge fell to his knees as the magic smashed into the reflective barrier and leaked through it. The force was such that it drove him backwards, and he had a vague impression of being thrown into something. His back and legs exploded with pain, but the heat of the dragon's flame superseded that. Tongues of flame shot past and around him, a maelstrom of heat and destruction, and through the furnace, Edge caught a glimpse of Rydia. She was fully upright, standing in the eye of the attack, and looking none the worse for wear. Her eyes were open, her posture rigid, and her face alert.
Edge frowned, wondering what she was doing, as she lifted her arms and the dragon fire seemed to swirl around her. Her hair rose as well, like ribbons of green tossed by a golden wind, and she shimmered silver, then blue, encasing herself in an invocation that glimmered with living letters.
Her voice sounded out of the madness, a sure, singular sound; summoning power and gathering it to herself.
Edge stared, unsure of when this change had happened to her magic. This was magic of an entirely different order. Gone were the searching melodies of all she had cast before. Her previous spells had sounded infantile compared to this. In their place, was the calculated exactness he had witnessed in FuSoYa's practice—but perfected into art. Despite the heat of Bahamut's flame, goosebumps covered his skin.
He was sure he was about to witness something that history had never witnessed before—a summoner fully come into her power.
Rydia had been at war with her magic since coming to the moon. But as she stood here before the Hallowed Father, the lunar crystals cried out to her more clearly than ever before. What FuSoYa had harnessed for science, she listened to and wove into art. What flowed through her mind now was pure power-greater than song, and more terrible than silence.
She had been given the power of the dragons—to defeat a dragon.
Rydia stepped closer to Bahamut, her hands still raised. The glow of her spell surrounded her, protecting her from the dragon fire. She was smiling as the ancient letters coiled around her and then ignited, causing a blast so bright that Edge had to look away. A wave of energy threw him from his feet, and when he dared pull his hand from his face, he saw that Rydia had disappeared in a shimmer of heat. The inferno she had invoked, combated Bahamut's flame, and she was but a silhouette in its center, one flame within the other.
The air whistled and whined, like steam confined to too small a space, and Edge felt the pressure down to the roots of his hair. Suddenly, the pressure burst and with another tremendous surge of light and heat, Bahamut was thrown backwards, lashing his tail for balance as his flame was extinguished by the violent force of Rydia's spell. Licks of flame dissipated into spirals of smoke and the cavern chamber was left dim by comparison.
The entire place reeked of sulfur and blistered rock, but Rydia stood firmly in place, an island of unblemished floor amid a sea of glass. She glanced back at her companions, and Edge noticed the furious gleam in her eyes. There was something of a dragon there, a power locked within her eyes, and it took him aback.
What spell had she cast that could have so impressed the Hallowed Father?
Rydia returned her gaze to Bahamut, and the dragon ceased writhing to gaze down at her, thrumming in his throat, a note of contemplation.
Eventually, he nodded his great horned head, lowering it so that his nose was directly in front of her face . "I see," he said in his low and dangerous voice, exhaling into her wild green hair. "Leviathan was right to bestow his blessing on such a one. She who hears the crystals."
He closed his eyes and hummed, and Edge watched as Rydia also closed her eyes, resting her hand on the dragon's snout. It was as if they were sharing a conversation with their thoughts that no one else could hear.
Bahamut breathed on her again, smoke swirling around her. "Yes, you will be the one who calls me to battle," he decreed, resting his chin on the top of her head.
Rydia, to her credit, didn't shudder or flinch in the face of the dragon king. "You honor me," she murmured.
Bahamut laughed, though it sounded like a roar. "You have taken my measure and I have taken yours. But do not think that I can be tamed, daughter of earth. I come when I wish, and I leave when I will."
Rydia bowed and Bahamut transformed back into his hooded guise. "Go," he instructed them, retreating back. "Go with my blessing, and bring justice on the man responsible for so much evil."
Edge didn't know when Rosa had walked past him, but she had somehow approached Rydia's side, guiding the summoner back toward the rest of them with arms hooked under the young woman's elbows.
The fire and fury in Rydia's eyes had faded, and all Edge saw there now was exhaustion. Cecil had also approached, taking Rydia's other elbow as they turned and left the dragon's nest behind them.
They had barely reached the bottom of the stairs descending from the platform when Rydia's strength finally failed her and she collapsed—all of her energy spent.
Edge stared at her anew. He thought he'd known her well enough, and now he found he barely knew her at all.
Just what wasn't she capable of?
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A/N: Dear Mythweaver, why did this take you so long to write? BECAAAAUSE. Not to mention that this and part I have been sitting on my hard drive since October when, quite literally, my life went straight down the pooper. A lot—A LOT—to put into this one. But now it's done THANK. GOODNESS. And I don't even really like it, lol.
Speaking of interdimensional elevators...what the hell, SE? Why did you have to go and do that? Why would you have such a creation chilling out somewhere on the moon? Why would you need a giant fire spewing robot?
Mecha? Why is there always mecha? No, that's a silly question.
But...seriously, where did they put it? Was it in storage? Was it hanging out in a wormhole? Did they pluck it from the x-zone? Sometimes I hate this game.
Also, does anyone else find it suspicious that a race of lunar people from a planet between Mars and Jupiter can somehow reproduce with humans from the earth? WE ARE BOTH HUMANOID. AND THEREFORE, WE ARE COMPATIBLE. But...wouldn't this make Cecil a hybrid incapable of siring his OWN offspring? Hm.
Fact: The spell Rydia casts is Flare. Rydia doesn't actually KNOW Flare until later into the Lunar Subterrane, but...I mean...c'mon, now...fight flare with flare! :D
As for next chapter…I will not have a lot of free time until the end of April…at which point, I will be down to one job again (yay!). Hopefully this means I'll have more time to write fic. Or. It means I will be applying and interviewing for new jobs…which means less fic…
Next chapter's highlights INCLUDE: The Giant of Babil. Kain. Epic flashbacks. CPU. And, oh yeah….THE FOUR FIENDS.
Speaking of which, I REALLY WANT THE ORCHESTRATED VERSION OF THE FOUR FIENDS THEME. Heard it in concert…and I have not been able to get it out of my head since…lol.
Once again, thank you to all of my readers and reviewers! You have no idea how much I appreciate your ongoing support, and I hope these updates live up to your expectations :)
Until next update,
~Myth
