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Chapter 3-Revelations
"The Book to the End of Days......" Edea said, holding the book in her hands. "Do any of you know what this Book is?" She looked around at their faces. "This is a Book of prophecy. A very important Book of prophecy. Sorceress Adel tried to get her hands on this Book for a long time. When I was possessed, Ultimecia would have searched for it had she known it still existed in our time. This is a very important Book indeed."
Sunlight flooded through the window of the living room of the old orphanage, shining on them all. Selphie, Irvine, and Rinoa sat on the couch near the window, all leaning forward to listen to what their matron and headmaster had to say.
"Why was the room closed off, Matron?" Selphie asked.
"Most of the books in that room are books of prophecy. They're not meant for untrained eyes. So, Edea and I sealed it off," Cid said to her. "But, we knew that when the time came, someone would find it. But, not even *we* knew that *this* Book was down there."
"We knew that someone would find it eventually, but we could only hope that it was someone who knew the importance of these writings. Our hope was fulfilled, it seems," Edea said, looking around at the teenagers before her.
"Matron, I saw one of the prophecies," Zell said, taking the necklace from his neck and holding it out toward her. She took it from his hand and examined it.
"You saw a vision of one of the prophecies...?" she said. He nodded. "Show me which one."
Zell opened the Book and pointed at the passage he had read before. "'When the one with the Stone of blue ascends to power, a war begins in the garden of good and evil. The time will come when all hope is lost and faith is a distant memory. The Lion will fall, as will the Angel, for no one may oppose the one with the Stone.'"
"You saw this? You saw the true meaning of this prophecy?" Edea asked him urgently.
"What do you mean 'true meaning'? Are you saying that it's going to happen?" Zell asked her. "I'll tell you what I saw, if you want me to. I saw--" Edea covered his mouth.
"Hush!! Have you told *them* what you saw?" Edea asked, pointing to his friends behind him.
"Only Squall and Rinoa. Not the others," he answered.
"You must speak to no one of what you saw in that vision. Do you understand? If you see anything else, you mustn't speak of it, you must keep it to yourself. Do you understand me?" Zell nodded. "Do any of you know what a self-inflicted prophecy is?"
They all shook their heads.
"A self-inflicted prophecy is a prophecy that, if the one mentioned in the prophecy knows of its meaning, the prophecy will occur. We have no way of knowing which prophecies are self-inflicting, so the meanings must be kept from those who cannot see them as they are meant to be passed down," Edea explained to them. Irvine held up his hands.
"Whoa, you lost me. He can't tell us what he saw in that vision, because if we know of it, it might happen, right?"
"No," Cid stated. "We don't have any way of knowing if this prophecy will occur if you know of its true meaning. *That's* why it must be kept a secret. Also, we don't know yet if this prophecy is on a true fork or a false fork."
"True forks and false forks? What the..." Zell said, confused.
"Forks are the result of all prophecies," Quistis stated, sounding sure of herself. "All lines of prophecies will fork at one point or another. It's like a fork in the road. If we get to a prophecy that can go one way or another, and one fork comes to pass, whichever fork the prophecy takes is called the true fork," Quistis said, moving her hair out of her face. "The other fork is followed as far as possible and every prophecy on that fork is void and marked out as false. *Every* prophecy that comes from the false fork is marked off."
"That's right, Quistis," Edea said. Irvine massaged his temples.
"Run that by me again, Quistis, this time in slow motion," he said.
"Okay, if you get to a fork in the road, you can go one of two or more ways. It's the same with prophecies. Some prophecies can go one way or the other. The way we want and the way we don't want. Like this one," she said, flipping in the Book to the picture. Edea gasped at the words on the page. Quistis looked up. "What, Matron?"
"That word," she said, pointing at 'stragenichas'. "I know that word very well. It means 'sorceress'. 'Strageniches' means 'sorcerer'."
"That's bad....right?" Zell asked her. She nodded.
"I'm afraid this is the prophecy that forks. This is where the prophecy that you read picks up, Zell," Edea said. "'For every thousand sorceresses, one sorcerer will be lifted.' That's what it means. The sorcerer is the one that the Book speaks of as the 'one with the Stone of blue'." She looked on the page before the picture and looked at the passage that was there. "What's bad about this is that the prophecy that speaks of the sorcerer directly follows the prophecy of the defeat of Ultimecia."
"Whoo-boy....we're in deep doo-doo, aren't we?" Selphie said. Edea looked up from the Book.
"It would seem so, Selphie. It would seem so."
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They had all stayed the night at Edea's house, letting her and Cid study the Book. They had all slept in the living room, the beds being too small for any of them to sleep on.
Selphie was stretched out on the couch with Irvine on the floor next to it on a pallet. He groaned and turned over, fighting to stay asleep on the hardwood floor. Squall and Rinoa slept together in front of the fireplace. Quistis had chosen to sleep upright in one of the chairs, no matter how uncomfortable it seemed to the others.
And Zell? He slept underneath the coffeetable, allowing for a walkway through the room.
A small boy entered the room and looked around. He was almost 10 years old with black hair and wearing over-alls. He took in a deep breath and nearly doubled over.
"WAKE UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPP!!!!!"
Everyone in the room awoke with a jolt. Irvine lifted his head up to see who was in the doorway. Squall propped himself up on his elbow, reaching for his boots. He picked one up and hurled it toward the doorway. "Get outta here!!!!"
At the same time, Zell's head rose quickly from his pillow and came into contact with the bottom of the coffeetable. "Owwww.....! Son of a....." he said, placing his hand on the back on his head, lowering his injured skull back to the pillow. Irvine and Selphie pointed and giggled.
Zell took his face out of the pillow and looked at them, hurt. "Stop it you guys.....What'd I ever do to you....?" he whined, burying his face in the pillow again.
"Leave him alone, you two," Squall sighed and turned back over to go back to sleep. Edea walked in the door and took the boy by the hand.
"What've I told you about waking people up like that? I told you to wake them up, not scare them to death," she scolded.
"I'm sorry, Matron," the boy apologized. "I won't do it again."
"Don't tell me, tell them," Edea said, pointing in the living room. The boy looked around the room: all eyes were on him. He shuffled his feet.
"Sorry....Can I go now, Matron?" he pleaded. She pushed him from the doorway.
"Shoo, get back to the others." She shook her head. "I don't know what I'll do with that boy. [sigh] I read the Book all the way through last night," she said. "I have bad news."
Squall got up and stretched. He ran his fingers through his hair and exhaled. He went to retrieve his boot from the doorway and looked over his shoulder while he bent down to pick it up. "Everybody up. Let's get started."
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"I found something," Edea said, sitting down at the breakfast table. "It's about that vision you had, Zell."
"What about it?" he asked, looking up from his plate of bacon and eggs. His eggs were covered in salt, pepper, and ketchup. He wiped the ketchup from the side of his mouth with a paper towel, giving Edea his full attention. He rarely stopped eating for anyone.
"I've got bad news. That prophecy that you read has to happen," she said. Squall nearly choked on a piece of ham.
"That has to happen? Why?" he asked, taking a drink of milk.
"It has to happen to save this world. Like I said, the prophecy that speaks of the sorcerer forks. It can go one of two ways: the prophecy that Zell read or the other fork. You don't want the other fork. You *don't* want the other fork."
"What does the other fork say?" Quistis asked.
"The other fork reads 'the one with the blue Stone will bring forth a great darkness to the land, laying waste to all in his path. Salvation's hope shall then be as dim as the light of the sun.' You don't want that fork," Edea said to them. "What follows is misery and hopelessness for the rest of time. The only way for the world to be saved is through the fork Zell had the vision of. There is no other way, for there is no other fork from which to choose. The prophecy does not say that any of you will die, it only says that you will fall, because no one may oppose the sorcerer."
"So, what you're saying is, we won't die, but we'll get defeated if we go up against him, right, Matron?" Irvine said, propping his elbow up on the table.
"Exactly-get your elbow of my table-but there is no other way, the Book makes this much clear. Almost every prophecy after this is a fork. In order to prevent the prophecy I just read to you, we must take the correct fork on all the prophecies hereafter. We can make no mistakes."
"You mean even after what happens in Zell's vision happens, we can still screw up and make the other fork true?" Rinoa asked her.
"Again, yes. If any of these events do not take place, we will be swallowed into a darkness not even Ultimecia could rival, if she had lived to be a thousand. This fork connects to the other one in more than one place, so if we make an incorrect decision, the other fork can still be made true, no matter how far along we are on this fork. For some reason, that necklace Zell wears let him see the true meaning of the prophecy that mentions all of you. I don't know what that necklace is, or how it made you see that prophecy, Zell, but you need to protect that necklace at all costs," Edea said, pointing at the necklace.
"Wait a minute. Yesterday you said that Zell saw that prophecy as it was meant to be passed down. What do you mean 'as it was meant to be passed down'?" Irvine asked Edea, leaing forward on the table.
"I don't think I have to tell you that prophecies are very dangerous things. Simply knowing of one can cause it to happen. These prophecies are written so that *we* without the gift may only read them. Ones with the gift for the prophecies read them and see their true meaning, as they were meant to be passed down. We are not meant to know what they really mean. Only ones with the gift," she answered. She looked at Zell again. "That is why you mustn't let that necklace, whatever it is, fall into the wrong hands. That is the only safeguard we have against this sorcerer of the prophecy. If it's a safeguard at all. But, we can ill afford not to have it."
"We need to return to Garden," Squall said, rising from his seat. Edea pointed her finger at him and curled it down. Squall sank back down into the chair.
"Sit back down. I'm not finished," she said. "Yes, you do need to return to Garden. But only when I'm done. Which will be soon, I'm afraid. I can't help you much more than what I already have. I have marked which prophecies must be fulfilled in order to save the world. I've followed the true fork as far as I can. How you accomplish letting them be done will be up to you. As long as they happen. To you Zell, keep that stone safe and tell no one of what it brings to you, should it give you any more visions. If, by a miracle, the stone brings you a new prophecy, one not recorded in this Book, share the words, not the vision itself. To all of you, no matter what happens in the prophecies I marked, you must not keep them from occuring, *no matter what*. The only thing that matters is that you save the rest of us in the world. You mustn't be selfish. Greed will civilization's downfall if you keep a prophecy from occuring out of selfishness. You will be responsible for the outcome of this new trial you have been chosen to bear. You *must* *not* fail."
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They all assembled outside the orphanage in front of the Ragnarok, Edea and Headmaster Cid seeing them off on their new mission. Squall was about to follow everyone into the giant ship when Edea pulled him aside. "I need to tell you something, Squall," she said, taking a hold of his jacket sleeve. She pulled him close, glancing at the hangar door to make sure no one was listening.
"I don't want Zell to be left alone by himself for any reason. With that stone, he's as dangerous as the sorcerer in the prophecy,"she said. She looked once again at the hangar door. "He's also *in danger*," she added quietly. Squall arched his eyebrow.
"What kind of danger?"
"The prophecies. If that stone has the ability to *give* prophecies, he's in danger. If he gives a prophecy, it will not be pleasant," she said, shaking her head. Cid nodded.
"From what I've read, giving a prophecy is dangerous," he said to Squall, sunlight glinting off his glasses.
"What do you mean 'give a prophecy'? How can he give a prophecy? I thought all the prophecies were written in books like that," Squall questioned. What did they mean 'give a prophecy'? He had heard Matron mention it before at breakfast, but he hadn't thought about it then.
"Giving a prophecy is like a prediction. Giving a prophecy is giving a new prophecy that no one has heard before. Like in the Book, not all of them are true. But, like I said, giving a prophecy is dangerous. They come without warning, sometimes violently, depending on the nature of the prophecy. If it is a prophecy foretelling happiness and joy, it will come to him *peacefully*. However, if it is a prophecy that foretells war, misery, and death, the prophecy will strike him violently," Edea said.
"'Violently', like how?"
"If he gives a prophecy now, it will more than likely be a violent thing to watch. He will have something similar to a seizure. You'll need to watch him and not leave him alone by himself for any reason," Cid said to him. "You know how to handle a seizure, don't you? Keeping him from hurting himself is all you can do; you can't stop the prophecy from coming once it starts, just like in a regular seizure. You can't stop it once it begins nor even before it begins."
Squall saluted Headmaster Cid and Edea. "I'll take care of him."
Headmaster Cid returned the salute. "Good. Off with you. You've a world to save. Again."