Masters' Poison

by Anna-mathe

(FFIV)Masamune gets weird and an ancient evil that roams the eart every few thousand years stop by for a nasty visit!

9. Masters' Poison: Advanced Stages

8)---------- Masters' Poison: Advanced Stages.

)---------- Cecil ----------(
(Dragoons!)

Sir Rorunar paced back and forth between the seven rows of them. Seven rows of seven. The kids from the Kingdom who decided they wanted to be Dragoons, and had passed the physical requirements.
In spite of himself, Cecil gulped self-consciously just as Sir Rorunar passed by in front of him - a tall man, with eerie, silvery deep-blue eyes that had a habit of staring right through you, and armor the color of burnt gold. That and an unshakable aura of . . . indifference?
He'd been Head of the Order of Dragon Knights (Dragoons, Reformed) for as long as Cecil could remember, yet gave no impression of time passing having caused him any difficulty. As he was head of the department, he didn't oversee all of their training, of course, but always insisted on hand-picking each class, and was known to pop up at the worst times during drills with either a spontaneous inspection, cryptic words of wisdom spoken with a low voice which featured an almost hypnotic musical lilt, or simply a raised eyebrow and no comment.
An odd thing, however (one of many, in fact), was that he did not carry a sword for purposes other than for training students such as Cecil hoped to become. Rather, his Lance was slung over his back, and hanging from his sword-belt was, rather than a blade, a musical instrument of some sort. Some said that he could enspell any living creature simply by playing a song.
Not that he'd have need of an extra weapon. Record had it that he'd not once - not once been injured in battle. No one yet had managed to touch him. That, and -
He stopped.
"Nervous, young man?" Sir Rorunar inquired, raising an eyebrow. It was the first thing he'd said since arriving.
Cecil blinked.
"No?"
Rorunar tapped his foot.
"Now now."
"Yes, Sir."
"Scared out of your skull?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Heard the rumor that I'm descended from an Esper and have, at times, turned untidy students into blocks of ice?"
Cecil blinked.
"Euh . . . no, Sir, I hadn't heard that one."
Rorunar scratched his head.
"Really? You haven't?"
"No, Sir."
Rorunar turned away from him.
"Have I missed something? Has my favorite rumor simply gone out of style, or is anyone else familiar with it?"
Everyone other than Cecil raised his hand.
"Well?" Rorunar inquired, turning back to him.
Cecil shrugged.
"I'm from out of town, Sir."
"Ah. So tell me, which rumors have you heard? Because everyone, it seems, has heard at least one."
Blinking heavily, Cecil searched his memory to figure out exactly why he was so tense.
"Um, I heard that you'd been preserved in a block of ice for three thousand years since the time of the last Light Warriors, and that you . . . " he trailed off, noting the bemused expressions of the kids around him. "Or maybe not."
"And that I control ancient magic from that time which is more powerful than anything we now know?" Rorunar suggested, raising his other eyebrow.
"Erm . . . "
He laughed, an eerie laugh that made Cecil's flesh crawl especially with that musical tingle ever-present. Someone had once put forth the theory that he was part elven, but Rorunar himself had disdainfully denied it.
"I'll not deny either tale," he told the forty-nine of them. "If you don't believe that they may be true, then you'd better leave now. You'll believe stranger things than that before I'm through with you all." The faintest murmur ran through them, and Sir Rorunar grinned. "Now then," and he turned back to Cecil. "What's your name?"
"Cecil."
Rorunar frowned ever so slightly for a moment, then returned to a neutral expression.
"Cecil. Hmm. How heroic. And tell me, Cecil, what made you want to be a Dragoon?"
Cecil opened his mouth, but had to let it hang open for a moment when he realized he didn't have an answer. Caught by the oldest textbook question in the textbook! What could he say? That he was here mainly to support his best friend, who'd worked himself into a hole . . .
"It seemed like a good idea at the time, Sir," he heard himself say. "At least, it beats being an Accountant."
Sir Rorunar had looked poised to shoot back some strange reply, but cut himself off in his own fit of laughter.
(During the course of the following years, everyone would learn of Rorunar's "disagreements" with the Accounting profession. As it was, though, no one quite knew why he found the statement quite so hilarious, and poor Cecil turned colors slightly.)
Beside him, Cecil could hear Kain snicker faintly before he could stifle it.
"You there!" Rorunar exclaimed, pouncing on Kain's mishap. "What about you? Why are you here?"
Kain shrugged.
"I'm with him!" he replied, gesturing to Cecil.
Rorunar put a hand to his forehead.
"Oh my," he sighed, shaking his head. "I can see this is going to be a fun group. A very fun group indeed."

In the next hour or so (or however the heck long the thing took), everyone learned why Dragoons had, in recent years, come to be known as strange.
"Where were you on the night of August 25th?!?!" Rorunar screeched in one guy's ear, making him jump a mile high.
"Euh - euh - this year, Sir? Or last year? Or the year before?!"
"Pick one!"
"Euh - euh - what time?"
"Pick a time!"
"Euh - "
"How about you?" he snapped at someone on the other end.
"None of your business!!!" he replied, suddenly turning bright red at some memory.
Rorunar golf-clapped.
"Good answer. Lacking in subordination, but for now, rather nice. And what's your name?"
It was the same story. When he asked for your name, you could consider yourself accepted.
For the that particular round of questioning.
"What's the square root of 29?!" he bellowed at one poor soul, after about twenty of them had been chopped out of eliminations.
The kid just stared at him.
"I have a positive thinking complex!!" he finally blurted.
Rorunar seemed intrigued.
"Really? Explain."
"Well, see, I, uh, I can't think in terms of division or subtraction or . . . anything negative. Only positive! Get it? Uh, it runs in my family, Sir."
"What was your name again?"
"Jason."
"Well, Jason, I've heard a lot of stories in my time, and that is definitely one of the oddest. You are to be congratulated."
"Thank you, Sir."
And people kept getting knocked out. Cecil was beginning to feel queasy when there were only ten of them left. He knew that every year, only seven were accepted.
"What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?!" he demanded of Aromuth, who had so blatantly refused to divulge his whereabouts for a certain August 25.
"What do you mean? A Baronian or Toroian swallow?"
"I don't know that!" Then Rorunar grinned again. "Actually I do. But it's none of your business. Kain!"
"Sir!" he snapped back, stepping forward.
It looked to Cecil like Kain was having the time of his life with all this.
Rorunar looked at him quizzically.
"Why are you here, really?"
Kain opened his mouth to reply, but Rorunar went on.
"And does this have anything to do with your father?"
Quickly, Kain snapped his mouth shut. He knew Rorunar wanted a serious answer - they were down to the wire. No more swallows and positive thinking complexes and accountants.
"Well, euh . . . " he failed under the Dragoon's searching gaze.
"Interesting. Do tell."
Kain glanced out each corner of his eyes.
"Yes, in front of everyone. And don't worry - I happen to know for a fact that Aromuth over there is here because he simply wasn't fit to be a cat-herder like the rest of his family. I doubt your reasoning can be worse than failed cat-herder."
Aromuth blinked, then meowed.
"My father was a Dragoon." Cecil blinked. Kain's father had been a member of the Guard. "You knew that, didn't you?"
Rorunar nodded, saying nothing.
"I didn't. Not until recently. I never knew him. He died before I really came about, and my mother remarried again, but really made little mention of it to me. None, in fact. So he has no part in my being here. I'm here because of a mistake that I grew to like. The whole concept came about by accident. That's all." And Kain fixed Rorunar with an almost accusing glare.
"Very nice." And Rorunar turned to Cecil. "Is he telling the truth, Cecil?"
"Well . . . if he says so."
"You'd take his word on that?"
"I would, Sir."
Kain glanced at him from the corner of his eye, knowing that Cecil had no idea what he'd been talking about.
"One further question for you, Cecil."
"Yes, Sir?"
"Why is your hair purple?"
Cecil had to step sideways to get his balance, he was so startled by the question.
"M-my hair?"
"Yes, Cecil, your hair. Why is it purple?"
Cecil looked at Kain, dumbfounded, who just shrugged helplessly. So he turned back to Rorunar.
"You'd have to ask my mother," he replied, softly. "And she's not here."
Rorunar blinked and mumbled something in a foreign language.
They were in.


)---------- Cid ----------(
(Children of KluYa)

"The Airship . . . it's not going to be rebuilt, is it?"
Cid shook his head and glanced at Julia.
"I don't think so."
She sighed. Cid wasn't sure what had brought her there that night, to the warehouse just outside the Kingdom where most of the planning and initial construction had been done. Now there were just some papers and a lot of wood . . .
He wasn't sure what had brought him there that night, either.
"But everything had seemed so perfect . . . "
He nodded.
"The King says no. He says that after what happened, it would be better for everyone if the whole thing was forgotten."
"He's been like that . . . ever since he had that child . . . "
Cid ground his teeth.
"The Prince is a spoiled brat. But he won't endanger him, or so he thinks."
Julia whirled to regard him sharply.
"He knows well that unless the war is stopped sometime soon, there won't be much left of the Kingdom to preserve for that kid. We are losing, Cid!"
He frowned.
"No we're not! Everyone knows that we - "
She shook her head adamantly.
"Everyone's wrong, Cid! Hang out, sometime, around the Barracks. You'll hear what really goes on . . . we're losing, and we're losing badly, but the King doesn't want us to know. He wants us to believe everything's going well, because he's afraid of what the people would do if they knew how awful of a beating we were taking! Eblan is destroying us!"
He shrugged.
"It happens . . . we have good years, we have bad years. The point of the Airship was to finally end all these wars, and finally have peace, so we could all have normal lives!"
She leaned against the wall.
"Would any of us even know what to do with a normal life?"
"Fight the evil which has entered the world."
"KluYa told you that, didn't he?"
"That's why he was here. But he's gone. And he's not coming back, ever. But his kids are around somewhere." He sighed. "One is named . . . it was weird, sounded like Cecil. CeCil, I think it was. That's all I know."
"Did he - did he have eyes like KluYa?"
Cid nodded.
"Then - then we should know when we see him?"
Frowning, he glared at her.
"I thought you'd tagged him up as crazy along with the rest of the Kingdom. Why are you so concerned about the kid?"
She floundered her hands helplessly.
"Sometimes . . . I dream . . . and all I see is a glowing pair of green eyes. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's evil, sometimes it's just innocent, others it's dark, yet ignorant. I don't know what to think, except that somehow it connects with him. Somehow, I'm connected to either him or his children. And my own children - they're involved somehow as well. And I don't know what it means."
Cid thought about that, wondering how on Earth Julia could be connected with Cecil/CeCil whatever or his brother.
"KluYa asked me, before he left, to look after the kids if I ever met them - try and keep them on what he called the 'right path'."
"I guess that's all we can do," she mused. "If these kids, or kid, or whatever, have to fight such a great evil, there's little we can do to help. We don't even know what it is."
"Or maybe KluYa did manage to defeat it in time . . . but I guess we'll never know."
"We'll find out," she stated primly. "We will. But I have a feeling we won't know either way until it's terribly, terribly, too late."

)---------- Kain ----------(
(Child of KluYa)

"So you made it in, huh."
Kain glanced over his shoulder at Veronica.
"I'd've thought you'd've figured that one out by now."
"I did, actually. Just trying to make conversation."
Kain decided to ignore her and glanced around his room. He was home for the weekend, but even after just one week away, it seemed almost alien to be back. It was amazing how quickly he'd gotten used to the dormitory . . . no older half-sisters meddling . . .
Then he turned and looked at her. She was looking straight back.
"What've you been doing?" he suddenly asked.
A smile twitched at the corner of her mouth.
"I finally did it . . . "
"You talked to Cid?!"
"I talked to Cid."
"And? What did he say?"
She bit her bottom lip and sat on the corner of his bed.
"He says . . . girls can't be Engineers . . . "
"Aw, crud."
"But then he said tradition sucks, and he'd give me a crack at it."
"Really?! Congratulations . . . I guess."
"Yeah . . . you too . . . I guess."
They were silent for a time.
"How's Momma doing here? Is she on her own now?"
Veronica nodded.
"But she insists there's nothing wrong - that she's moved around this house for so long, she'd be able to do it blindfolded . . . except that she's already blind."
"Yeah, that sounds just like her."
"So that's it - I'm happy, you're happy, she's happy - what is wrong with this picture?"
He let his eyes meet hers.
"It never lasts."
She nodded.
"It never does. Be ready . . . for anything."

That night, when he knew Veronica was asleep in her room and had been almost certain Momma was asleep too, he reflected on his past week, and figured something terrible was pretty much bound to happen. It was the perfect setup, after all.
But, he figured, may as well enjoy it while it lasts.
Then he heard the faintest sound of motion outside. Getting up and peeking through his window, he saw someone below carefully push open the door and enter the house.
Instantly, he jumped up and rushed from his room to the stairs to deal with the intruder, but stopped cold when he heard the voices downstairs.
"I'm glad you could come."
It was his mother's voice. What was going on?
"First chance I got, Julia. Everything's going to heck lately - what can I do for you?"
He heard a pause.
"He's here."
Whoever the intruder was, he bumped into something, presumably from surprise.
"Here?!"
"Oh, not here, exactly, not in this house, but - "
"But you've seen him?"
"More than that, Cid."
He heard his mother's voice fail for a moment, and took the moment to try and figure out exactly what Cid was doing in their house in the middle of the night. This couldn't have anything to do with Veronica, could it? Who was this "he" they kept -
"He's been coming to this house for eleven years. He befriended my son . . . "
Kain caught his breath. Whatever was going on, it was about Cecil.
"Why didn't you tell me?!"
"I couldn't be sure - not until just recently. I was, almost, but had to be certain."
"Yes . . . I guess that makes sense. Where is he now?"
"At home, with his stepfather."
"Stepfather?"
"Yes."
"Dang it. Then . . . "
"Yes. He must not have completed his mission in time."
"I knew it. Then he's . . . "
"Apparently so. I'm sorry."
"I knew it. Now it's up to the kid . . . which one?"
"Cecil."
"Hm. I wonder whatever happened to . . . "
"I don't know. Cecil never mentioned such a person, I'm not sure he knows he even existed."
"What's he doing?"
"He is going to be a Dragoon."
"Really." Cid sounded impressed. "I guess that's a good sign . . . "
"He's a good child - I think that, whatever his mission is, he'll manage it."
"Too bad we don't know what it is . . . "
"I'm certain he doesn't have any idea. He doesn't know about any of it."
"And I'd been told not to tell him. I promised I wouldn't."
"I will not endanger him with this knowledge either."
"Maybe I should say something to Rorunar - "
"No. If he is to be able to face what is ahead, he must be strong, and he must learn the same way everyone else does, without any favor."
"It wouldn't be fair to the others anyway, I guess."
"No, it wouldn't. And I'm not sure how much trust I'd place in him anyway. They say he's descended from an Esper . . . " She paused again, and Kain had to force himself to breathe, hidden there at the top of the stairs. He didn't understand any of this, his whole life, he'd never understood some of the strange things she'd said to or asked Cecil, but thought nothing of it. Now it seemed that they both knew something, something important, and something quite possibly dangerous about his friend, and he couldn't think of a single thing he could do about it. "The King is dying."
Then it was all Kain could do to keep from falling down the stairs.
But Cid didn't seem surprised.
"How did you know?"
"I could feel it."
"Julia, you're getting pretty weird."
"I know. But I like it."
"Marion never knew what she was missing . . . "
"Magic is not my strong point, Cid. It never was. I'm just an Empath, and an untrained one at that. Little good I'd have ever been to her. I had other things to deal with."
"Like the son of KluYa?"
"Among others."
"Oh yeah, your own kids, right?" And Kain thought he could hear a humorous edge to that.
"Cid, you're weirder than I'll ever be."
"Thanks. But you're right - the King's dying, and that stupid Prince . . . "
Momma cut through in her ever-calm voice.
"Things may turn out for the best, you know."
"The best? Gosh only knows what that's gonna be!"
"Just wait. You may be surprised."
Kain heard no more after that, and it took him a few minutes to realize that he had gone. Quickly, in case his mother turned her "Empath" abilities to him, he scurried back to his room.
He didn't know what to think.

)----------- Cecil ----------(
(Jumping)

Jumping.
("This is, as you all know, the trademark attack of the Dragon Knights," Rorunar explained, seeming quite eager to see how his new young charges fared with a new command. "It's highly powerful, highly dangerous, and yes, it looks quite spiffy. Sadly enough, it's also rather difficult. An ill-executed Jump can and often does result in painful and sometimes tragic ends. There's a lot of impact to be absorbed with a very little amount of foot. The foot extends just so far. You miss your timing by a split second and . . . well, you're severely wounded. Miss it by more than a split second, or land anywhere other than the balls of your feet, and consider yourself happily deceased. If you decide to grow reckless, for heaven's sake, do not get reckless with this!")
This was something Cecil hadn't counted on.
After about six months in training, Rorunar decided it was time to hit his Trainees with something a little more difficult than just using a Sword and Lance. So he sent the usual trainers on a donut run ("Make sure they're Bavarian cream-filled!!") and began them on the Jump command.
It was . . . interesting.
There was a trick to it, to getting to the altitude required to make a decent blow out of it, and they'd all been blood-sworn to secrecy on that, but even with this secret under his belt, Cecil felt himself muffing it up. Fortunately, they were well-supplied with extensively padded footwear.
"Kain! Hit the plastic sheep!" Rorunar instructed, pointing out the intended target out in the field.
"Right!" Kain enthusiastically conceded, Jumping up into the air.
He missed, slightly, and instead slammed into a nearby tree.
"I'm okay!" he called, trying to untangle himself from the branches.
Rorunar shook his head.
"Cecil, hit the plastic sheep."
"Euh - couldn't I just charge up to it and run a sword through its head, Sir?"
"No."
And so Cecil gritted his teeth and Jumped up into the air.
And landed head-first ten feet short of the target. By sheer luck, he was still alive. Or was it luck? The realization had dawned upon him that no one was ever severely injured when Rorunar was overseeing training. The moment he left, someone usually broke a leg. If the Dragoon noticed any scrutiny over the matter, however, he blandly ignored.
"Work on that, Cecil," Rorunar absently told him. "Kain, do you need help?"
"No, Sir!" he replied, still stuck in the tree.
"The blood's going to all flow to your head, and your brains'll explode. Dreadful mess, you know. Stains up the place, and smells rather awkward as well. Then we have to put the pieces in a barrel and feed them to the prisoners in the dungeon, and what they don't eat gets ground up into hot dogs. Are you quite sure you don't need help? "
"Um . . . can someone give me a hand here?"
Jason and Aromuth, two of their peers, hurried to pull him down.
Cecil rubbed his head.
"So that's what hot dogs are really made of . . . "
Rorunar glanced at him with bland interest.
"So, Cecil, what else have you learned from this experience?" he asked in a droll tone.
"Well, Sir, I learned why we wear helmets."
Rorunar raised one eyebrow.
"Is that why? I'd always wondered about that . . . "
Cecil just looked at him.
Just then, the heavy brass tone of the emergency bell rang forth from the City. Rorunar didn't spare a moment of surprise.
"Everyone, back to the Castle!" he ordered curtly, taking off.
Kain hauled Cecil to his feet as he rushed past.
"Okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, you?"
"Peachy."
"What's going on?"
Kain frowned as he continued running along with the others.
"I'm not sure . . . but I think maybe the King just died."
Cecil stopped dead in his tracks.
"What?!?!"
"Keep running."
So he did.

)---------- Cid ----------(
(Sister-in-Law of KluYa)

Cid felt his life growing more and more meaningless.
After all, what was the point of being the Head Engineer for the Kingdom, if there was nothing to design or build?
One war machine after another. That's all it was. One stupid deathtrap after another.
So he did what anyone else would do. He went out and got conveniently drunk.
Which worked for a while, until someone dumped an icy bucket of water over his head.
He blinked and looked around, having no recollection of where he was or how he'd gotten there. So he said the only thing he could think of.
"Huh?"
A strange woman stood in front of him, lips pursed, fists at her hips.
"Don't give me that, Cid," she snapped, shaking her long plait of light hair over her shoulder. "What happened to my sister?!"
Cid frowned.
"Huh?" he repeated, completely befuddled.
"My sister, you stupid Engineer!"
"Who the heck is your sister?!"
"Like you don't know?! C'mon! I'm not stupid, you're the only one in the Kingdom who might know - "
"Who the heck are you?!" he exclaimed, noting that from now on, if he ever felt like getting drunk, he'd better only do it in trusted company. "While I'm at it, where am I?"
"Take a look around, you dolt!"
So he did, his groggy senses finally coming back into place. And he realized where he was.
"Okay, who are you, and why have you brought me to KluYa's house?"
"Because you're going to tell me what happened to my sister!"
"Who the heck is your - "
"Are you playing me for a fool, or are you just ignorant?!"
He glared at her.
"I'm just ignorant."
She shook her head.
"Well," she informed him, "if I were as ignorant as you, I wouldn't let on."
"Who are you?"
"My name," she snapped, jabbing a thumb at herself, "is Matryad."
"Matryad. Okay. Who's your sister?"
"Alexandria."
"Ah." The whole thing fell into place. "Ah," he repeated.
"So?" she inquired sharply. "Where is my sister? Why haven't I heard from her in a year - "
"I really wish I could tell you," he replied in an equally sharp voice, "but I can't. KluYa never told me where they were going. He didn't know himself."
"You expect me to believe that?!"
"Yes, actually."
"Why? Why should I believe you?!"
"Because it's true, why else?"
She started pacing around the room, and he finally realized that he was sitting on the floor in a puddle of icy water. So he did what anyone else would do. He got up.
"You are so getting my cleaning bill . . . " he muttered.
"Have you no sense of occasion?!?!" she screeched. "This is not the time to be going on about wet pants - "
"Are you kidding?! I go walking through the City like this, and do you know what people are going to think?!"
She just gawked at him.
"Really!" he emphasized. "I'd really like to know what happened to KluYa and your sister, and their kids, too, but the only thing I know for sure is that you just soaked me!"
She continued gawking at him. Then she broke out laughing.
Cid now gawked at her.
Time for a shameless ploy!
"Hm. Wanna go to dinner sometime?"
"Sure," she laughed, shaking her head.

)---------- Kain ----------(
(Deathknells)

The seven of them stood at attention as Rorunar paced in front of them, absently humming a song that Kain knew he'd heard before, but couldn't quite place.
Don't you just hate it when that happens?
"Well, kids," Rorunar finally said, after fussing with a note that he couldn't quite get in tune, "this is it. Next time we meet, it's going to be at your initiation ceremony."
He stopped in front of Cecil.
"Cecil, your Jump sucks, quite frankly. But you're quite possibly the best fighter on the squad. Just try to stay on the ground."
"Yes, Sir!" Cecil eagerly replied, seeming very relieved by the order.
"Everyone else, you're all airheads."
A chuckle ran through them - they'd all gotten used to Rorunar's bad sense of humor by now. It was never so much what he said that was funny, always just the way he said it.
Ah, Rorunar's bad jokes. The true reason for becoming a Dragoon.
"So go on and enjoy your last weekend of freedom." He paused for dramatic effect. "Ever."
It felt as if someone had just rung a deathknell in Kain's brain.

"Hovercraft."
It was the only word he heard, anymore. It was Veronica's pet project - something she and Cid were both piling their brains into. He had no idea what they were talking about, so he just ignored them.
"Well," he observed to Momma, "I guess being the first female Engineer in Baronian history isn't so rough after all."
"She's having the time of her life," Momma replied. "Just like you, I believe."
He had to grin. She still read him like an open book, which still amazed him, even though he knew how she did it.
"Kain, I need to talk to you about Cecil."
Again, a deathknell rang in his brain.
"What about him?"
Veronica was off in her room poring over some new diagram, so he wasn't concerned about her overhearing.
"Cecil . . . has a destiny."
"And this means . . . what?"
Momma frowned to herself, and Kain could tell she didn't really want to get into this.
"I think he's in danger. I know he has been his whole life. His father had been on a mission to defeat some great evil - he was supposed to have completed that mission."
"But he didn't?"
"No. I . . . Kain, do you remember when I had the fever?"
Kain shivered. He'd never forget.
"One vision kept playing through my mind through the whole thing. I hadn't been certain about Cecil's identity just yet - but in this vision, I saw his father. Just as I remembered him . . . always killing evil things when no one noticed. We'd had monster activity around here for far longer than anyone realized, because he'd always weeded it out. But that's beside the point. Then the bolt of lighting that shot through the air when the Twilight exploded flashed through my mind, and he disappeared, leaving Cecil instead, holding a sword and a large boot. So I knew - I knew that whatever this quest of his father's was, that it now fell to him."
("I don't get the boot."
"Why - he must follow in his father's footsteps.")
She leaned forward. "He's in danger, Kain. You have to make sure he's protected - he has to be able to fight this, or it may mean the end of us all."
Kain wasn't liking this, to put it mildly.
"You mean that all these years, you knew he was in danger?"
She nodded primly.
"So I protected him as best as I could."
"How? What did you do?"
"Encouraged him to hang out with you."
"Oh." He didn't know what she meant by that, but didn't feel like asking.
"What's this danger?" he asked. It was the first question that entered his mind.
"I don't know."
"Well, how can he fight it?"
"I don't know."
"Do you know anything about it?"
"No."
"Well, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to tell him?"
"Don't tell him anything."
"What? But - "
"It's in his best interest."
"Best interest?! I can't know that something's out to get him and not tell him about it!!"
"Tell him about what? A dream that your mother had?"
"Oh, come on - "
"I can't give you any advice, and you can't give any to Cecil. Just do your best to protect him. He is vital to the survival of this planet."
Kain shook his head.
"I don't get this. I don't get any of this."
"Neither do I."
He sighed and, frustrated, left the room.
"Protect him, Kain!" she called after him. "If every other duty given to you falls through, you must protect him at all costs!"

)---------- Cid ----------(
(The Serpent Road)

The Earth shook, and the whole City rumbled for a moment.
Cid, confused, dragged himself out of bed to figure out what was going on.
Before he could do more than get dressed, though, a frantic knock came on his door.
"What?!" he exclaimed with early morning grumpiness, opening it.
"Sir," a nervous Page said, swallowing, "there's a Mysidian insisting on speaking with you."
"A Mysidian? Can't he wait until the sun's up?"
"No, Sir. They just now popped up out of the ground, and insist it's urgent."
"Popped up out of the ground?"
"Well, euh, yes. You see, the ground just collapsed in one corner of the city, and a crew of miners all popped out, and then this other guy jumps out of the hole and says he has an urgent message for you."
"They dug their way here just to deliver a message? Why couldn't they just come in through the gate like everyone else?"
"Euh - why don't you just come and talk to him?"
Matryad appeared at Cid's elbow, yawning.
"What's going on?"
He shrugged.
"I'll fill you in later." Then he shrugged. "Aw, heck. Come on."
She grinned and followed him out the door.

"You're the one called Cid?" the man asked, tilting his funny hat and looking at Cid quizzically.
"I'm Cid," he replied. "This is my wife, Matryad."
"Ah. Then this is for you." And he handed Cid a letter.
Cid took it.
"Um, while we're at it, would you mind telling me what's up with this hole in the ground?"
"Read the letter."
Frowning, but not yet awake enough to argue, Cid opened the letter and read.

Dear Cid,

I doubt we'll ever meet again, so I'm sending this letter to explain.
Before arriving in Baron fifteen years ago, I spent some time here in Mysidia, working along similar lines to
that which we dealt with in Baron. However, while the Airship turned out to be a tragedy of sorts, if you ever
get this, then it can be established that the Serpent Road was, in fact, a success. Or will be, upon activation.
Hopefully, no one will mind the sizeable hole in the City.
It has spent over twenty years being constructed, and when fully completed, will allow almost
instantaneous transportation between the two cities. It's not as convenient as flying, as it can only
travel to places with a special tunnel dug between them, but such of its like may help your Kingdom in certain turmoils which are to come.
The nice Engineer who delivered this message will explain the rest.
I thank you for your help, your trust, and your friendship. Be careful.
The children are safe.

Sincerely,
KluYa

Cid frowned.
"Be careful. The children are safe."
He wasn't sure what to think of it.
He handed the letter to Matryad, knowing she would want to see it, although it made no mention of Alexandria's well-being.
"Okay," he said to the nice Engineer who had delivered the letter. "Start explaining."

)---------- Cecil ----------(
(For"war"ned)

"Okay, boys!" Rorunar welcomed as his squadlings took their places in the lineup. "I'm sure you're all wondering what this is all about."
No one replied, which was good, because you're not supposed to talk when at attention.
"Really?" he murmured, bemused. "I would've thought that . . . oh, never mind." He was silent for a moment, and Cecil wondered what on Earth he was talking about.
"Okay," Rorunar continued, after shaking his head in a bewildered manner. "Here's the deal. We're at war. We have been for almost a hundred years. Now, as you all know, we've had our good years, and our bad years. This, however, has been a very mediocre year for both sides."
He flapped a hand in the distance.
"Eblan's forces are just as shaky as our own." He paused for a moment in reflection on something. "This last year was particularly bloody . . . both sides lost more than we can afford. Some of you," and Cecil felt his eyes rest on him for a split moment before moving on, "are very new here. Unfortunately, you may be put out to battle before you're completely ready. The Ruling body sends apologies. You're all good fighters, though, or else you wouldn't be here." He sighed, looking a little forlorn. "So anyway, we're going to war tomorrow. Sleep well."
And he pivoted on his left heel and left the room.
For a moment, no one moved, startled.
Then, slowly, they began to move around, and carry on in a normal fashion.
Except for the new guys.
The seven of them who had only been initiated for about a week.
Cecil tossed a glance at Kain.
Kain looked almost as nervous as Cecil felt.

"Going to battle already?"
Cecil shrugged, setting his helmet down on the table. They'd all been given the evening off, so he'd taken the opportunity to come home, not knowing when he'd next get a chance to do so.
"Yep," he replied, trying not to sound queasy about the matter.
Dad mumbled something under his breath.
"You watch that Rorunar. They say he has the powers of a water elemental."
Cecil frowned.
"I hadn't heard that one."
"It's an older rumor, I suppose. Doesn't have the zip of some of the newer ones . . . "
Cecil grinned.
"You know, for all the weird stuff everyone says about him, I think he's perfectly normal. I mean, he's a little weird, (okay, a lot weird), but he's still human."
"And what if he wasn't?" Dad tapped his cane against the floor. "Would it make much difference to you if you suddenly discovered that someone you'd known and trusted turned out to be . . . not human?"
The thought had never occurred to Cecil before, so he thought about it for a moment.
"Well," he eventually replied, "I guess it would depend. I mean, if Sir Rorunar suddenly started turning everyone into ice just because he felt like it, I wouldn't like him much anymore, but if he just carried on the way he does now, I guess I wouldn't mind." He glanced over at him. "Why do you ask?"
Dad shrugged.
"Idle speculation. Ignore."

The next morning, as everyone lined up to board the ship to head out to Eblanian Territory, Rorunar seemed to be in a particularly perky mood.
"Hope none of you get seasick!" he warned with a smirk. "It's a long, long, long trip! And if you get sick and smell up the joint, you're gonna get tossed overboard, no joke! If you feel like ralphing, make sure you do it outside!"
"He's serious," the man next to Cecil muttered to him. "My first trip, three guys got tossed over. Rorunar's serious about whatever he says . . . except for when he's kidding."
Cecil, not knowing if he was prone to seasickness or not, swallowed nervously.
"But don't worry," Rorunar continued with a wink and a bright grin. "The food's pretty good."

)---------- Kain ----------(
(Death Gamble)

Kain stood on the deck, staring up at the sky. Not a single star shone. Nor did the moons. In fact, it was cloudy.
In fact, as he suddenly realized, it was raining.
A bolt of lightning shot through the sky, but he didn't notice. He was . . . preoccupied, to say the least.
"Hey, man," Cecil greeted, coming up beside him and looking up at the sky. "It's raining."
"I noticed. Just now."
Cecil raised an eyebrow, and Kain grinned slightly.
"Um, maybe you should come inside. It wouldn't do to die of exposure before we even go through our first battle," Cecil suggested.
Kain laughed lightly and shook his head.
"Naw," he retorted. "Rain never hurt anybody."
A flash of lighting struck the mountain that was now appearing on the horizon, and they could see the sparks fly as it connected with a large structure. It must have been a large structure of some sort, otherwise it wouldn't have burst into flames the way it did . . .
Maybe rain never hurt anybody, but lightning did.
"So that's where we're fighting," Kain mused to himself, forgetting Cecil's presence for a moment. "Crescent Mountain. Eblanian stronghold."
"You gonna avenge your father?" Cecil asked, out of the blue.
Kain raised his eyebrows at him.
"I'm gonna try," he replied, attempting a confident aura.
Cecil stared out over the churning water.
"At least you can," he realized. "Goodness only knows whatever happened to my father. Both your real dad and the one who raised you were killed in this war. I really don't have any idea."
"I thought you didn't really care about that," Kain objected, recalling his mother's strange dream, and her warning of Cecil's fate. All logic told him that the more involved Cecil grew with his father's fate, the more dangerous the whole situation was going to become.
Cecil shrugged.
"I don't know. I just wonder . . . I mean, he was my father, after all. I guess I'd like to know anyway, you know, how he died, what he was like . . . "
"I can't help you," Kain replied, suddenly feeling like a traitor.
Strategic subject change.
"You know," he realized, looking over the water at the mountain in the distance, "we may not make it back?"
Cecil glanced up at him sharply.
" . . . ? . . . "
"We're novice fighters. What're our chances out there?"
Cecil seemed disturbed by that.
"I guess I didn't let any of my worries go past whether or not Sir Rorunar would throw me overboard . . . "
"You kidding? You've got the toughest stomach I know, Cecil."
"For all the good it's going to do me out there." Cecil shuddered. "I really wish I'd managed to master that Jump better . . . "
"Relax," Kain told him dismissively. "Just keep stabbing people through the head the way you do, and they won't bother to check your agility, I'm sure."
Cecil looked at him like he was crazy.
And so, Kain decided to place a bet.
"First one who dies," he suggested with a grin, "has to pay the other 20 GP."
"You're nuts!" Cecil snapped. "30!"
"Done."
Another crack of lighting split the sky with an angry green flash and hit the water near them, shooting odd sparks up into the air.
"Youch!" Cecil exclaimed, watching. "Did you see that?!"
At about that moment, a rather displaced sound reached them - an odd melody played lightly on a ceramic flute somewhere behind them. A ceramic flute was not what one expected to hear when watching green lightning on a warship.
Turning, they realized for that first time that Rorunar had been sitting on the cabin roof, presumably for some time.
Kain wondered just how long.
"Quite a light show, don't you think?" he inquired, his tone so dark that Kain felt a chill run up his spine. "Evil has many faces in these days. You've just been witness to one of the more . . . sour ones."
"What does it mean?" Cecil asked him. Apparently, the shadow over their Trainer's aura wasn't noticeable to Cecil, or else he was just ignoring it. Kain, however, found it very disturbing.
Rorunar looked down, at last bothering to meet their eyes, the silver tinge in his own seeming brighter than usual. Kain got the feeling that whatever face this evil was going to take on, Rorunar would still be watching each and every move it made, and would be ready to counter at a moment's notice. And he reminded himself to never, never, never get on this guy's bad side.
But his answer was light.
"Dirty work afoot in Fair Eblana . . . you two, get below deck. Rest up. You fight tomorrow."
Exchanging a worried expression, not content with this explanation but not about to question, they turned and obeyed.
Kain, glancing back just as he was going down, watched as Rorunar lifted his Lance to the sky, and it began to glow a soft green which radiated over the entire ship.
He wasn't sure if that made him feel better or not.

)---------- Cecil ----------(
(Ethics)

"Right, boys!" Rorunar snapped as they prepared to leave the ship and charge the Eblanian fortress. What was left of it, anyway. "The fort's in disarray - got struck by lightning last night and a good bit of it burned to the ground. They lost a good many people and are not at their best." He jabbed a finger to the ship next to them, another of many in the attack fleet. "Watch out for them - that's the Fenix Battalion with the Royal Guard, and they don't like us. They don't usually fight on the front line with us - heck, the Guard usually doesn't come at all - but today, they are. Why, I don't know, I don't really care. Watch your step around them - they'll stoop to whatever means possible to get you discharged. We all know how they feel about Dragoons." A cruel laugh ran through the ranks. Dragoons didn't have to answer to the King, which disturbed the loyal Guard. It was a technicality that served as the basis for several damaging practical jokes from both sides, although theirs always seemed to come out on top. "So, good luck, although I don't believe in luck, and may you manage to Jump accurately!" His gaze again rested on Cecil, and a grin tugged at his features. "Unless Jumping's not your bag, in which case, may you accurately drive your sword or lance, be that as it may, through the enemy's head! Now," and he pointed his Lance, the Venus Gospel, over to the mountain and down the gangplank, "LET'S GO FRY OURSELVES SOME EBLANIAN BACON!!!!!!!!!!!"
And before Cecil could even think of moving, he was rushed along with the force of the charge, moving with the others onto dry land, and engaging the enemy almost instantly.
One thing you don't have when invading with an entire attack fleet is the element of surprise.
The Lance not being his preferred weapon, he managed to get some breathing room away from the others and found himself head on against an Eblanian soldier - without stopping to think, he jabbed forward with his Sword, driving the blade directly through his opponent's head.
For a moment, he was spellbound. Never before had he done that to a living, real, live, breathing, living, human being . . . he wasn't sure he liked it.
Some instinct told him to turn, and as he did, he saw another bearing down on him, fury blazing from his every feature. Cecil didn't stop to think why, rather, he dealt with him the way he had the first.
Stick to the drill, you stupid-head!
He could argue ethics with himself later.

)---------- Kain ----------(
(Crescent Mountain)

After a few minutes of fighting which were utter chaos, there was a large rockslide in one corner of the battlefield which killed about 13 people and sent another small legion tumbling to the land below, where they continued battling to the death, Kain among them.
As they fought on that rocky ground, slowly, everyone began to be killed off - one of the Guards, the two Knights, and another of the Guards. Finally, all that remained were three of the Eblanians, Kain, and -
He spared a split second to glance at his ally.
NO way! Not HIM????
"Don't look at me, you idiot!!" Baigan snapped, taking down one of the Eblanians with one swipe of his Sword, decapitating him. "Fight!"
Kain whirled quickly, catching his attacker in the stomach with his Lance. Not the best place to hit -
He heard a yowl from Baigan, and turned to see him stagger back, and stumble down to the ground.
He turned his attention back to his opponent, and found him also brought to the ground by the blow.
Baigan hissed something rather profane and somehow defeated his own opponent.
"Finish him!" he barked at Kain.
But Kain, having a sudden revelation, suddenly felt very weak indeed.
He looked at the man on the ground in front of him, who looked back up at him, shaking and grinding his teeth to keep from crying out at the pain of it -
And the look in his eyes made Kain stop in his tracks.
But . . . this guy's just a kid . . .
He knelt down beside him.
"How old are you?" he inquired in a low tone.
The man just stared at him until Kain put his Lance to his neck and repeated the question.
" . . . sixteen . . . "
And Kain felt even weaker.
He was sixteen. This guy . . . was just like him.
The world suddenly whirled.
What on Earth was going on?! He was here to avenge his father and make a point to his sister - how did he ever end up so trapped in this war that he was killing people his own age -
What would happen if someone had killed him? What would they tell his mother? His sister? Half sister. What about all his friends? What about - what about reaching the legal drinking age?!?!
Poor Kain: he was having his first case of Uncertainty.
And he continued staring at the man in front of him. Unable to react in any way.
"Dragoon!" Baigan's pompous voice shook him. "Finish him, now!"
"I can't . . . " he whispered.
"What?!"
"I said," and Kain jumped to his feet, "I CAN'T!!!!"
"WHY NOT?!?!"
"BECAUSE THIS ISN'T RIGHT!!!!"
Thus, the Dragoon came down with a sudden Morality Attack.
Now, as we all know, Uncertainty complicated by a Morality Attack can be for either good or bad, but always ends up in an extreme shift from something to something else.
Scratch that - it didn't make sense.
To put it mildly - Kain had just screwed himself up real, real, real bad.
Baigan narrowed his eyes.
"If you don't kill him now, it could be considered treason," he reminded the Dragoon in a light, but evil tone.
"Treason against what?!"
"The King!"
"The King who wants us to slaughter innocent people?!?!" Kain yelled. "The King is a FOOL!!!!!"
Baigan, despite the wound in his hip, stumbled to his feet to look down on Kain.
"You, as a Dragoon, can get away with not killing him," he informed Kain in a low tone, "but speaking against the King in such a manner is outside of your freedom." He threw a hard glance at the shivering form on the ground. "Report directly to the King upon return to Baron," he snarled at the young Dragoon. "You will pay for this . . . "
And he stumbled away.
Kain still stood, rooted.
" . . . why?"
Slowly, he turned back and knelt again beside the boy on the ground.
"I can't . . . " he whispered to himself. "I can't do this . . . " Aloud, to his wounded peer, "Because . . . because, you know, I really don't like that guy."
The boy looked confused.
"But . . . you're supposed to all be so evil . . . "
Kain blinked slowly.
"So are you . . . " He shook himself. "You killed my father."
"And you killed mine."
Kain blinked, and suddenly found himself feeling rather calm. Ah, yes, everything made perfect sense, didn't it?
This was so foolish, it was all so foolish . . .
Suddenly, the boy's eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to speak, but could make no sound.
Kain reacted too slowly, and managed to jump aside quickly enough to only dodge fatality - the blade of his unseen attacker driving through his back. In the next split second, he looked down and saw the blade sticking out of his chest - it had cut all the way through him -
Dude - ?!
He grabbed his Lance with both hands and drove it back over his head, felt it connect with flesh, felt the searing metallic ring inside of him as the blade was retracted.
It hurt. A lot.
Somehow, he got to his feet.
His attacker kept a safe distance away, brandishing his bloody Sword with his left hand, his right now hanging limply at his side, an effect of Kain's blow.
Kain couldn't stand straight, his own right hand clutching at the wound spasmodically. He brandished his Lance with his left hand, being left handed, and wondered if such was true for the other -
Then the air wavered.
He saw the astonished look on his opponent's face, turned, saw the naked fear on the face of the boy he had nearly killed, and felt a magical tingle envelope him.
For an instant, there was darkness.
And then, when he opened his eyes, he was standing in the City of Baron.

People were running in all directions. White Mages and Healers were charging through the scattered ranks of fighters, screaming orders in all directions.
Kain just stared. What had just happened?! How had . . .
Rorunar bolted past him, skidded to a halt, and bolted back to his side.
"Kid, find yourself a Healer!" he quickly snapped, turning to bolt off again.
"I can't," Kain sputtered in a dejected tone. "I've been ordered to report to the King immediately upon my return to Baron . . . " he trailed off, unable to speak from the pain in his chest.
Rorunar apparently forgot his intention to bolt off again. He stared at Kain for a brief moment, then took a firm hold of his left arm and edged (gently, with consideration for the large hole in his person) him in the direction of the Castle.
"Then we'd better go then."
"Sir . . . you don't have to get involved on my account . . . I think I committed treason."
"All the more reason for me to be there," Rorunar replied in a somber tone, helping him along.

Baigan, completely healed due to the prompt action of a local White Wizard, glared up at Kain as he entered the Throne Room.
"Your Majesty," he said to the recently-crowned King, "this man has committed an act against you."
"Do tell," the King replied in a bored tone.
"He had one of the enemy at his mercy, but refused to carry out his duty."
"He let him live?"
"He let him live."
The King leaned forward and smirked.
"What do you have to say in your defense, Dragoon?" he inquired.
"I . . . " Kain began in a faltering tone, " . . . couldn't kill . . . myself . . . "
The King blinked and Baigan frowned.
"He's allowed, Your Majesty," Rorunar intervened, glaring at the young King with stern apprehension, as if the answer made perfect sense to him, but he wasn't too keen on it. "In the code of the Dragoon, and the law stated by your great, great, great grandfather - "
"He then blatantly spoke against you, Your Majesty," Baigan continued. "He said, if I remember correctly, that you are a fool."
Kain could sense Rorunar wincing beside him.
"A fool?!" The King suddenly seemed no longer entertained, but furious. "Why . . . no one would dare speak against me! Especially not some foolish young Dragoon - "
"Sentence, Your Majesty?" Baigan prompted.
"Kill him," the King stated with a wave of his hand.
Castle Guards stepped forward hesitantly at the order - the same Guards Kain had known all his life, who had served with his father.
Stepfather.
"Your Majesty . . . " one of them spoke up in a tiny voice. "Couldn't you maybe . . . "
"Disobeying me?!" the King bellowed. "Fine, you can get killed too!"
"NO!" Kain denied, putting almost all the strength he had left in the cry. "Don't kill them because of me!"
The Guard bowed his head.
"Your Majesty." Rorunar stepped forward, as placatingly and excruciatingly calm as ever. Logic was his weapon. Cold logic. He could use it, or he could abuse it, and he could do both well. "Please take into consideration this young Dragoon's inexperience. The first time on a battlefield does strange things to a person . . . makes people react differently than one normally would. I'm sure Kain meant no disrespect - he was merely overwhelmed. And you know, Your Majesty," and he moved into a tone that was so excruciatingly placating that Kain almost pitied his two attackers, "you really can't afford to kill off one of your fighters. Do you have any idea how many people were lost today?"
"That's not my concern," the King snapped.
That one astonished Kain more than anything else he'd heard in this eventful day. The man ruling this Nation didn't even care that his own people were being slaughtered? This was the moron they were serving?
"Oh, I think it is, Your Majesty," Rorunar replied softly, and Kain could sense the disapproval in his voice as well. "If your army falls, then someone else, probably Eblanian, will take this Kingdom, and you will likely be tortured and executed by their hands." He smirked slightly at Baigan. "You need all the troops you can get. Surely, you can let a case of jitters pass unpunished under these circumstances?"
The King seemed disturbed by the implications of what would happen if his army fall, and looked as if he were about to give in, but Baigan stepped in and whispered something in his ear.
After listening intently, the King nodded.
"My counsel is to let you live," he informed Kain, who was now in almost too much agony to care about his fate, "on one condition."
"What condition?" Rorunar inquired in a dangerous tone.
"The condition that his freedom and privileges as a Dragoon are hereby lifted. As of now, he will have to ultimately follow my command, and answer to me above all others. No longer will he serve either you," and he glared triumphantly at Rorunar, who stared back with a gaze of condescension, "or his conscience, which is what caused him all this trouble in the first place. You won't miss it," he told Kain, who couldn't even make a move to nod.
"But, Your Majesty - "
"It's that, or his head, Sir Rorunar."
The ruling Nut-head looked quite pleased with himself. What a dork.
Rorunar looked down at Kain, who was all but unconscious beside him, dripping blood in a gory manner that one wouldn't want to discuss at the supper table.
"All right," he muttered, seething something sour under his breath. "I submit. My authority is surrendered in this case."
Baigan laughed.
Ah - bad move. Rorunar flashed a look at him, one eye squinting slightly, head tilted very faintly at a dangerous angle. That Look said it all.
"For harming my charges, I will see to it that you meet with much agony," would be a loose translation.
Even Baigan ceased laughing when faced with one of Rorunar's Looks.

Kain was barely conscious of moving out of the Castle and back into the Barracks. In fact, the next half hour or so would always remain a blank in his memory.
The next thing he was aware of was being in a sitting position, his armor removed, the wound in his back and chest being bandaged up. He shook his head.
"Relax." He identified the voice as Rorunar's. "You're a tough one to heal." And he heard the unmistakable sound of a Potion being cracked, and felt more of his senses return. "A Potion or even a regular spell wouldn't be able to heal that up entirely without giving it time to heal some naturally. You were just a smidgen from having several integral organs pierced, which wouldn't have been pleasant, I assure you."
Kain didn't say anything. He felt as if he were imprisoned in a tiny room, which was constantly growing tinier and tinier every second.
Rorunar gripped his shoulders.
"Say something," he snapped.
Kain looked up at him, not having the strength of body or will to summon up the proper respect for his superior. "Why? What more am I supposed to say?" He shuddered, the motion spreading a new wave of pain through him. "My stupid mouth has gotten me into more trouble today than . . . "
Rorunar sighed, wincing as if he'd expected just that answer.
"Listen, Kain," he said in a confidential and almost trusting tone (Rorunar had never trusted anyone), "I have to agree with you. The King is a fool. He's not fit to rule, and he's certainly not fit to pass judgment . . . he's really a good guy, you know. The people like him, for the most part. But he just has no common sense, none at all . . . " He sighed again. "Tell me. What happened out there?"
Kain swallowed against the disgrace he felt. How was he ever going to explain this to his mother . . .
He told the story, haltingly, to Sir Rorunar, who listened intently, nodding at intervals.
"I don't think," he said when Kain had finished, "that you are at any fault. If anything . . . I guess I have to agree with you. You're just a kid, they were just kids . . . no offense to you or your class, but it's almost like murdering a nursery. Robbing the cradle. You're sixteen, I'm . . . well, let's not go there. There's not going to be anything left of either Kingdom if this keeps up . . . but Kain, whether or not you're really at fault, the sentence is passed, and it's permanent. Only the King himself can lift it now . . . and something tells me he won't."
Kain sniffled, then sneezed suddenly, completely overwhelmed by all that had happened that day. And he suddenly felt very, very angry.
"I refuse." He could hear the seething note in his voice. "I couldn't follow orders from that - "
"Clam up," Rorunar told him, "or else you may get your head chopped off yet."
Kain rolled his hands into fists.
"Maybe that would be better!!!"
"I seriously doubt that, Kain. Death may be intriguing, but the fact is, we have to keep fighting. Now, he said you follow his commands ultimately, but you're still under my jurisdiction. He can intervene if he wants, but I doubt he will, for the most part. He'll have other things on his mind - he may forget all about it."
"Baigan won't."
"Well, he may - "
"He won't. I beat him up once in school."
Rorunar frowned.
"He wouldn't have been in your class - I was pounding his head in for being boring when you were still learning inverse functions of trigonometry. You beat up someone that much bigger than you?"
"Yeah . . . it seemed like a good idea at the time."
Slowly, Rorunar blinked.
"It just goes to show - the stubborn impetuosity that I love so much to manifest in my soldiers comes at an early age. Did he go down easy?"
"Oh no, Sir."
Rorunar blinked again, grinning very faintly.
"You know, Kain, I like you," he remarked. "You're a good kid - and you've got a sense of humor. That's something Baigan never had. He was way too persistent on meaningless things. The way I see it, you shouldn't offer your life on a battlefield unless you're willing to experience life for what it is first. He never did, but you have, and that's why all this is so hard on you. But we'll manage."
He paused.
"You owe His Majesty much, Kain, but still, you must never disgrace the Dragoons."
"And what have I just done?"
"Gotten on the King's bad side. Not really disgraced anyone, though. I don't think so, anyway."
Kain just sighed.
Rorunar grinned slightly more.
"Kain, Kain, Kain. Lighten up."
"Lighten up?!"
"Yes! You know, no matter how strong a person is, someone with half the strength but twice the joy will almost always find the ability to overcome the stronger. Joy is the greatest source of strength known to us. And you could use some strength right about now."
"Well, I don't feel much joy at the moment, in case you haven't noticed."
"Why not? You're still alive, aren't you?"
Kain suddenly frowned, thinking on that point.
"What happened?" he asked. "I mean, how did we get out of there?"
"Why," Rorunar replied lightly, "I used my abilities as a water elemental descended from an Esper who knows magic from another time to transport what remained of our forces back to Baron."
And try as he might, Kain could not figure out if he was serious or not.
A light knock came on the door.
"Sir?" came a voice. "Are you - "
The door pushed open and Cecil peeked in, only to stop in his tracks when he caught sight of Kain.
Kain realized he must've been pretty shocked. After all, here he was, a bloody mess, bandaged up like a mummy . . .
"I'm okay, Cecil," he assured him.
Cecil just stared.
Rorunar glanced back and forth between them a couple of times, and backed out of the conversation.
"Cecil?" Kain asked, suddenly concerned.
Cecil entered the room and stood in front of him.
"Kain . . . "
"I'm okay, I said!"
"But . . . "
"Cecil?"
" . . . "
"Cecil, what's wrong?"
Cecil glanced down for a moment, then looked back up at him.
"Kain, we got a message for you . . . no one knew where you were, so they left it with me . . . " He held forth a piece of paper.
Kain took it, but couldn't look at it.
"Cecil - what is it?!"
" . . . "
"Cecil - "
"Just read it!!" Cecil squeaked out in a choking voice.
Kain, alarmed at his behavior, unfolded the piece of paper he'd been handed and read it quickly, feeling a dread cold spread through him.
"Oh my God . . . " he whispered. "No . . . "
He looked up at Cecil, who already seemed on the brink of tears himself.
"No," he stated.
But Cecil nodded.
"Yes. It's true . . . "
Kain stared back at the paper.
"No," he repeated to himself. "No."
Rorunar could tell from the expressions on their faces exactly what had happened. He silently exited the room and left them alone.

)---------- Cecil ----------(
(More Good-Byes)

Cecil stood on one side of Kain, Veronica on the other. At first, on their way there, Cecil had worried that maybe he shouldn't be there with them like that - that maybe, since there was no real relation between him and Momma -
But Kain had seemed overly distraught by the suggestion, and had dragged him to the funeral with a grip on his arm so tight it cut off the blood flow to his hand. Only when they'd arrived was he released, and he wasn't going to aggravate the situation by opening his mouth again.
No one knew why she had died. According to Veronica, she'd just grabbed her stomach, screamed, and died a moment later, in fact, only a short while before they'd returned by some strange power.
On her skin had appeared a slight deformation matching exactly that of a Lance scar.
Cecil didn't know what to make of it. He didn't really care, either.
I mean . . . Momma's dead!
The memory returned to haunt him -

"Why are you crying?"
"Because my mother just died."
"Then she's in heaven!"
"Huh? What's that?"
"My momma says, she says that when someone dies, they go to heaven! So that must be where your momma is!"

Somehow, thought, it didn't seem like four-year-old logic was going to cut it. Not this time.

"What's heaven?"
"Oh, it's a real nice place! Everyone's happy there, and they can do whatever they want, and play all day if
they feel like it, and no one's ever sad there!"
"Really? And my mother's there?"
"Well, was she nice?"
"Yeah, she was nice."
"Then she's in heaven!"
"So she's happy?"
"Course! I told you, no one's ever sad there!"
The first boy thought for a long time.
"Okay. Then I guess I should be happy too."

Cecil looked at Kain. He looked at Veronica. He looked at the fresh grave in the ground.
He thought of the battle they'd fought the day before. He thought of his own mother, of the father he'd never known, of all the thousands of fighters from this hundred years of war who's names could never all be recounted. He thought of the stupid King, reacting at Baigan's command. He thought of his Dad. He thought of Sir Rorunar.
And something told him that Baron was not going to be happy for a very, very long time.
The ceremony had ended, and the crowd slowly filtered away, murmuring condolences and good wishes.
Veronica suddenly burst into tears, and someone - Cid, Cecil recognized - quickly tried to quiet her.
Kain was staring off into space.
And Cecil knew that he didn't want to know what he was thinking.

)---------- Cid ----------(
(Rorunar)

The Serpent Road, as KluYa had written, was a success - at least, they guessed so.
It was a little . . . odd, though.
It had been activated with no difficulty, and more importantly to many, no explosions. And no evil lighting.
The strangeness began when it was first tested.
Cid, Matryad, the team of Baronian Engineers, and over half of the Kingdom was waiting near the Baronian gateway to the passage, waiting for the Mysidian volunteer to come through - hopefully in one piece.
A loud whirrring sound could be heard from below -
And then he appeared, spinning for a moment at the opening of the gate.
"It works . . . " he sputtered, "now excuse me . . . I think I'm going to be sick!"
Motion sickness was not the only thing he should have been worried about, however, as everyone watching realized.
For the Mysidian had not arrived alone.
A tall man in deep golden Dragoon armor also appeared at the Serpent Gate, shivering so badly his teeth were chattering.
"Y-yyy-y-eeeeee-e-aa-aaaa-hh!!" he exclaimed, startling the Mysidian in front of him so badly that the poor soul lost his lunch.
"Yuck," the Dragoon pronounced, dodging the mess.
Cid stepped forward to check out this strange man.
"Who are you?" he inquired, arching an eyebrow.
"I?" he replied. "My name is Sir Rorunar."
Cid stared at him, confused, as did everyone else.
"Oh," he responded to that. "Euh . . . how did you end up in the Serpent Road?"
Rorunar looked behind him into the Serpent Tunnel, shuddering one last time as one coming from a deathly cold back into warmth.
"Is that what that thing was? I'd wondered." He looked up into the bright sky. "Dang, it's hot here." He looked back at those assembled. "Would it be rude to inquire as to exactly where I am?"

"Now, this is to be kept completely confidential," Cid warned Matryad.
"So why are you telling me?"
"Because I feel like it. Anyway, on this Sir Rorunar guy."
"Oh, yes." She set down the pot she'd been carrying on the stove and turned to face him. "What did they find out about him?"
"Well," Cid explained with a large degree of astonishment still, "it seems that he's from another time, approximately three thousand years ago."
"No way."
"Yep! See, this is why they don't want it getting out - no telling what people would think if they ever heard about any of this. Anyway, I guess he's back from before the Cataclysm!"
"No way! Like, did he know the Light Warriors?"
"Yep! And oo, it gets better. He says he's descended from an Esper."
Matryad frowned quizzically.
"No way."
"Yep! I guess, many thousands of years ago, our favorite Ice Queen Shiva had an affair with a human and - !"
"Son of Shiva?! No way!"
"Yep! So he can apparently freeze people on sight . . . apparently nothing, I saw him do it . . . and he has all the powers of a water elemental."
Matryad shivered. This was getting creepy.
Cid couldn't help but grin at the expression on her face.
"Not only all that, but he was studying a lot of very, very, very potent magic while he was then - things that were taboo in that time, and not even thought of here. This guy's pretty dangerous. So we were pretty relieved when he offered his services as a Dragoon to the King."
Matryad frowned.
"But how did he get here? Now? And what was he doing in the Serpent Road?"
Cid snorted.
"I guess he made his mum pretty upset about something - he wouldn't say what - and she froze him solid as punishment. He's been in suspension for the past few millennia, underground. I guess, we guess, when the Serpent Road was dug, it was near enough to where he was buried to drag him into the pull with its suction force, and shatter the ice block which held him. That's why he was shivering so badly when he came out."
"No way!!"
"Yep!"

)---------- Cecil ----------(
(Recovering)

" . . . I guess everyone's doing okay," Kain answered after a long wait.
It was about a month after the tragic attack on Crescent Mountain. A month, and still, no one had fully recovered.
While it had appeared that half of the Eblanian fortress had been destroyed and the troops in disarray, it had turned out that this had only been a ploy - to bring the Baronians on in an overly confident attack and take them by surprise, destroying them.
It had worked all too well.
Half the army had been obliterated. Many were still wounded too badly to be cured by magic or Elixirs. Some things were just beyond their ability to heal . . .
Kain and Veronica still seemed to be in somewhat of a shock from what had greeted the army's unexplained return. Not that Cecil was handling it any better . . .
But they had to go back. They had to go back to Sir Rorunar (who had let them both go off on leave for an undetermined time) and help defend the Kingdom, which was so weak, despite the numbness that still remained.
Kain shook his head when he said this out loud.
"I know . . . you're right . . . I'm just not sure how I'm gonna be able to go back there . . . "
Cecil sighed. No one knew exactly what had happened between Kain and the King because he refused to go into any detail, but everyone knew about the sentence placed on him, and Cecil for one was certain that it must have been unjust, as were many others.
"Believe me," he told his friend in an attempt to be comforting, "you made more friends than the King did that day. None of us hold it against you."
"No?" Kain asked, cynically. "Funny. I do."
Before Cecil could formulate a reply, the emergency bell sounded across the Kingdom.
"No time to fight about this," Cecil hissed gently. "We've got to go."
Kain nodded, and they hurried to see what had spawned the alarm.

)---------- Kain -----------(
(Attack on Baron)

"We're under attack!!!" was the general scream in the streets.
Sir Rorunar was little help in clearing up matters.
"You two - don't hang around here!" he exclaimed, hurrying past them and out of the Barracks as they came in. "We're under attack!!"
Kain somehow managed to push his preoccupying thoughts aside and concentrate on what was going on. This was different than Crescent Mountain - this wasn't a surprise attack on an enemy fortress - this was a surprise attack on Baron!
As they clamoured out with the rest of the Fighters, however, they realized too late that there was little they could do to stop the oncoming slaughter -
Bombs, balls of fire, barrels of hot tar, and other things were suddenly bombarded at the City with Eblan's fleet of catapults. Even as Kain charged through the street with the others, the City was being destroyed.
A burning ball of flame smashed into the street near him, and he heard a series of loud yells. But he didn't turn to look. He couldn't stop.
He reached the City Walls and waited. Rows of archers lined the top of the walls, doing their best to fend off the intruders before they reached the gates, but in the event that they failed, the armies were waiting to burst out and drive them off.
If they could.
A loud crash made him turn.
One of the Walls was collapsing. A large portion of it crumbled to the ground under the fire of the catapults, and the Eblanian attack force instantly swarmed in through the gap.
Without thinking, he charged at them, along with probably about fifty others, engaging them immediately and fighting for his life, wildly, driven by a fear he'd never felt before. His injury from the last battle was still not yet fully healed, but he knew there was no time to dwell on that now. He ignored the pain, and fought.
And fought.
The gates burst open, and the invading army plunged into the streets of Baron, and with them they brought a sudden feeling of despair for all those fighting to save their Kingdom. Despair and hopelessness.
Reinforcements came from the Castle - the entire team of Black Mages, giving voice to their spells in the hope of bringing down the attackers. The Kingdom became a battlefield, and the battlefield was suddenly so filled with fire, lightning, and ice that it was hard for Kain to tell who and what he was fighting.
But that didn't matter - he just had to keep fighting anyway - better that he couldn't see his opponents - he didn't want to take the chance of falling out of this battle as he had the last.
The White Mages arrived, with their CUREs and their SHELLs, and other spells that were used to restore the Baronian fighters and protect them from further harm.
Marion alone wielded the spell known as WHITE.
The wall that had joined the Castle to the City collapsed completely as the enemy force attempted to get to the Castle by means other than the City. And cut them off from one another.
There're too few of us - too few - they're going to win - they're going to take Baron -
He couldn't shake the thought. They couldn't win. Their armies were scant and the few people they had were mostly wounded already -
But even as these thoughts pounded on him, he could sense the enemy falling back.
The Archers continued their onslaught, now turned to the insides of the Walls, aiming carefully to avoid hitting their own.
Between them, the fighters, and the mages . . .
Finally, Eblan called retreat.
As they charged away, leaving the City a devastated ruin, no one even considered following.

Kain took one wild look around what had been, until an mere hour ago, the usual stalwart City of Baron, and felt himself grow weak.
I can't pass out . . . I can't pass out . . .
He stabilized his feet and realized, for the first time, that he hadn't seen Cecil since the beginning of the attack.
Most of the buildings were ruined - burned to the ground, or blown up, or just demolished by the fighting that had taken place. Yet, he realized, he saw none of the citizens of the City anywhere. What could have -
No, he'd worry about that later. He had to find Cecil.

"Check that - the City's been blown up . . . "
It took longer than he thought it would to accomplish this, and when he did finally locate his missing friend, it was to come face to face with a very shameful expression on a very shaky person.
"I can't believe that happened," Cecil sighed, after being partially restored by a Potion. "Really, I can't believe it . . . "
Cecil had, as it came out, been among the many who had been struck down by the catapulted attacks - one of the balls of fire had come down right on him.
Kain remembered the ball striking. He remembered that he'd been too preoccupied to check the damage it had done. He hadn't even noticed when Cecil had been struck down.
He felt rather ashamed of that.
Cecil, on the other hand, seemed ashamed that the whole thing had happened.
"I still . . . I can't believe that happened . . . "
Kain snagged another Potion from someone passing by and cracked it over Cecil's head, returning enough of his strength that he could get back to his feet.
"Don't worry about it," Kain told him in a reserved voice. "We still managed to get rid of them . . . "
"But at what cost . . . ?" Cecil murmured, taking in the devastation. "Kain, check it! The City blew up!! What can we do now?!?!?!"
A whirring sound shook the ground, suddenly, and then, one by one, the people of Baron began appearing through the Serpent Gate.
"Of course," Kain mused out loud. "When we realized we were under attack, everyone used the Serpent Road to get to safety . . . so everyone's okay!"
"Everyone who left is okay," a passing Mage corrected.
That hit home. So many people had been killed in the invasion -
"It's the end of the world as we know it," sighed Sir Rorunar, coming up beside them. "You two okay? Good . . . wish that were the case with more . . . "
He moved on past them, checking in with the wounded, offering comfort in the form of a placating smile and meaningless words spoken in a low, melodic voice.
Kain had to grin.
"I'm telling you, that guy is immortal," he told Cecil. "Not a scratch on him."
Cecil shuddered.
"Wish I knew his secret."

)---------- Cid ----------(
(The Stupid Prince)

Cid couldn't help but feel that Rorunar would've gotten along great with KluYa. They both made about the same amount of sense: none.
"So," he'd asked him idly one afternoon, running into the Half-Esper on the streets, "what's it like being three-thousand years ahead of your own time?"
He shrugged.
"It's really not my place to say. I didn't pay much attention . . . nothing lasts forever, you know. Well, very little, anyway."
"Really."
"Really." Rorunar sighed and looked around at the City. "A lot of what I knew has been lost, though. Hmm." He glanced at Cid, who always felt somewhat queasy making contact with those silvery eyes. "I used to know another guy named Cid."
"Really?"
"Yep. Interesting guy . . . tell me, you know anything about Airships?"
Cid froze in his tracks.
"What do you know about them?" he inquired in a cold voice.
Rorunar shrugged.
"Oh . . . just wondered."
And he trudged off to do whatever.
Cid shook his head.
Was it some kind of theme? Strange men coming from nowhere with input on his pet project? It had to be fate. It just had to.
But Rorunar? He was beyond any kind of fate Cid had met with yet.

"He may be odd," Matryad told him later concerning the new arrival in the City, "but from what I hear, he's an amazing fighter."
"Yeah, I heard," Cid acknowledged. "I guess the King's pretty happy with him. That stupid Prince, though . . . "
"Oh, him. Well, maybe he'll catch a plague or something before he's crowned."
"Well, then what would we do? Someone's gotta be a King!"
"We could make like Toroia!"
"Toroia?"
"Yes! Get a bunch of people who act like they know what they're doing, and let them fight about how to run the Kingdom all day!"
"You'd get a kick out of that, wouldn't you?"
"Oh yes, I would."
Cid was silent for a moment, wondering whether he should tell her about the strange conversation he'd had with the Dragoon earlier that day.
"He knows something about the Airships," he finally said.
Matryad frowned.
"How?"
"I don't know!" Cid replied, shrugging. "He just asked right out if I knew anything about them!"
"Well," Matryad speculated, "the diagrams your father and his people found were very old . . . maybe they date back to Rorunar's original time. I mean, maybe they were commonplace when he was growing up."
Cid blinked. The concept of that strange man ever being a kid boggled his mind.
"I don't know. But I really don't intend to ask, either. There's little or no chance we'll be seeing another Airship in Baron . . . "
"Hm," Matryad hummed. "We're still young, Cid. A lot can happen in a lifetime."


)---------- Cecil ----------(
(Knight?)

"And so," Rorunar summarized, weaving in and out of the dwindling lines of fighters, "the King wants us to try and balance out our forces. He says there're a lot more Dragoons left than anyone else . . . so he wants some of you to switch to another vocation."
"He's an idi - " Jason began to object, but was cut off as Kain slammed his hand over his mouth.
"Think what you like," Rorunar said, emphasizing Kain's action, "but keep it to yourself. You run a terrible risk, speaking against the King. I recommend you don't."
"But," Cecil objected, "how could he expect us to just up and switch?"
Rorunar sighed, wincing.
"In fact, Cecil, you're one of the ones suggested for a change. Apparently, someone noticed that your Jump lacks zip, and says you'd make a better Knight."
In spite of himself, Cecil had to snort at the concept of himself as a Knight.
"Also, all you more recent additions to our little group . . . " Rorunar continued, speaking to Cecil's entire class, "are asked to switch to another force."
"I still say he's an idio - " Jason began again.
Kain pounded him upside the head, and he shut up.
"What does he expect to accomplish by doing this?" he sharply inquired. "We've all been trained to be Dragoons, not Knights or whatever."
"What does he expect to accomplish?" Rorunar repeated, blinking. "What else? Fewer Dragoons, more soldiers with utter loyalty to himself. He has said, however, that you, Kain, are to remain with us. No one else is permitted to accept you."
"HA!" someone yelled. "Of course - he just likes knowing that he's forced one of us under his thumb - "
"Shut up," Rorunar snapped. "We're all hating this, but the best choice of action, I'm afraid, is to go along with it."
"What?!" was the general cry.
Rorunar raised a hand for silence.
"Listen," he explained, "our King is one with much . . . persuasion . . . at his disposal."
"He can't order you to move us," someone reminded him.
"No - but he can make it very clear that unless we do as he says, we may find ourselves in a whole lot more trouble than we're currently able to handle."
"You mean he'll have us attacked by our own people if we don't obey?!" Cecil exclaimed.
"Goodness, Cecil, you're a real bright boy, you know that?"
"He can't do that," Kain snapped.
"Why not? Everyone must obey the King - if he says to take a group of unruly Dragoons and put them in order, then you'd better believe that's exactly what everyone's going to do." Rorunar frowned. "Enough of us have been cut down recently - I'm not feeling up to allowing anymore to be lost. Especially when it's within our abilities to prevent it."
"But we've taken our oaths," pointed out another. "We can't switch."
Rorunar shuddered.
"Sure you can. If the King says so. And he says so."
Cecil felt everyone around him looking back and forth between friends, muttering and trying to decide what to do. He just let himself stare straight at the ground. Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to meet Kain's gaze. Kain's fate was already decided - he had to stay where he was. There was no choice. But staying here, even with all his freedom taken, was surely better than switching over to one of the other factions - all of which had been against the Dragoons for centuries -
He didn't have a choice, though. He knew that. It wasn't worth fighting over, not worth setting them against their own people to remain.
They had to do as the King ordered.
Cecil agreed with Jason.
The King was an idiot.

Later that evening, he stood in Sir Rorunar's office. Officially resigning.
Rorunar shook his head, seeming sadly helpless for the first time Cecil had ever seen.
"Sorry all this happened, Cecil . . . believe me, no one's more sorry than I am. But you're taking it better than most of the others who've been through here today, I suppose."
Cecil shrugged.
"No use wasting away over it, I guess."
"No, I guess not." He frowned. "Cecil, why did you come here? I mean, why did you really join the Dragoons? And don't give me that Accountant stuff again - "
"Kain wanted to," Cecil cut in, "but he was really nervous about it. I hadn't really cared about what I'd end up doing, so I told him I'd come along."
"He asked you to?"
"No, and he thought I was crazy when I said I would."
"I see."
"Maybe all this is just as well - I can't Jump right, anyway."
"No, you can't. But that doesn't make this any less wrong."
"Well . . . it's not wrong . . . it's just not right."
"Nope, I checked it, it's completely wrong."
"Why's it wrong?"
"Because I checked it!" Rorunar turned away and seethed slightly. "His father was weak, and he is a fool. Cecil, I pray that in your time, you will finally see a decent King upon that throne. Preferably one that isn't stupid."
"Sir?" Cecil asked, deciding to be spontaneous, "are you really descended from an Esper? And have special magic and the powers of a water elemental?"
Rorunar grinned slightly.
"Would it make any difference to you if I was?"
Cecil shrugged.
"No, I guess it wouldn't make any difference at all. I just wondered."
"Wonder all you like. Believe what you can. Accept only what you must."
And thus, Cecil was shipped off to Knighthood.

)---------- Kain ----------(
(Priorities, Loyalties, and Duties)

Kain, feeling a little claustrophobic, had slipped out of the Barracks late in the evening and climbed up on the roof, where he was sitting now, turning things over in his head.
That stupid King. That stupid stupid King. He'd ruined everything.
Everything that he and those he knew had been fighting for. Ruined with one order and one veiled threat.
Who knew what would happen now? Cecil was, in all actuality, now a member of an enemy faction in the Baronian Army. And there was nothing either of them could do about it.
As he sat there, he caught sight of a young woman rushing out of the Castle and into the City. Squinting slightly, he recognized her after a bit of thinking.
"Rosa!" he greeted, jumping down from the roof and landing beside her.
"Yow!" she exclaimed, startled by his sudden appearance. "Huh?" She stared at him blankly for a moment before brightening. "Kain! Hi! What are you doing here?"
He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the Barracks.
"I live here."
"Oh, yeah."
"What are you doing here?"
"Late class."
"Class?"
"In White Magic."
"Magic?" Kain raised his eyebrows. "You?"
She shrugged self-consciously.
"Yep. After that attack on the Kingdom . . . I couldn't stand to be there and not be able to do anything." She shook her head. "So I'm going to be a White Wizard. So I can help."
Kain nodded.
"Just watch where you sign your loyalties."
"Yes . . . I'd heard about what has happened here. How's Cecil, anyway? It's been so long since I've talked to either of you . . . "
"He's doing okay - he's going to be a Knight."
"A Knight? How nice."
"Yeah. Nice." He shuddered, an ancient quote coming to mind: "All nice people go to Hell." "Why do I get the feeling that the King is just going to break him into a thousand pieces . . . "
"Oh, Cecil's got a good head on his neck. He'll manage."
"Like we all will?"
She nodded.
"Priorities, Loyalties, and Duties. That's what it's all about, isn't it? I mean, we all have our priorities, but fortunately, that alone remains the same for all of us - we have to protect the Kingdom. And its people."
Kain nodded. That made sense.
"But we all have our different Loyalties . . . whether to the King or to ourselves . . . or to whatever or whoever we decide. And that's where we run into problems."
"Our priorities should overshadow that," he pointed out. "That's what's most important - the safety of our people. Not who gets to give the orders."
"Which is where duty comes into it," she supposed. "Even when our loyalties collide, we have to do our duty. Which is different for each profession, but amounts to the same thing."
"Protecting the Kingdom," Kain surmised. "But from what?"
Rosa frowned.
"Well . . . Eblan. What else?"
"Try each other. The whole thing's screwed up - none of that matters anymore. Everything's been taken over by one word: obedience. No matter what happens to no matter who or what, the King's in charge. No one can fight him. There're too many stupid brainless obedient people in this Kingdom who'd rather hide behind their obedience than stand strong and do their duty."
"But that's also hiding."
"Huh?"
"By saying that . . . you're hiding from your own duty, saying that you can't because others won't."
He had to consider that, and he wasn't sure he liked his conclusions.
"Priorities, loyalties, and duties," she reintegrated. "That's just the way it is. Whether or not we admit it. And that's the way it's going to be. Forever."
"Forever?" He raised an eyebrow. "And for now? I just don't see it, Rosa."
"Forever, and for now," she firmly stated, turning and rushing on home.
Kain watched her go and climbed back onto the roof.
He had even more to think about now.

)----------- Cid ----------(
(Revisions of Twilight)

Cid pulled out the files and diagrams from where he'd hidden them.
Maybe it was treason, but he didn't care. He couldn't go on like this.
Quietly unfurling the layout design for Twilight, he sighed to himself and looked over the drawings and designs that had been forbidden to look at for the past ten years. Nothing had changed. Of course, nothing could have changed anyway, but it was just good to see.
A quick examination of the records, combined with the years of experience he now possessed, allowed him to, in just minutes, see a multitude of tiny modifications which could be made to the design that, when combined, would improve performance, speed, and -
He slammed the diagram shut. He didn't know why he was doing this to himself - planning all these changes to improve the design when he knew that another Airship would never be built.
But he couldn't help himself.
Why not?
"Cid?!" came Matryad's astonished hiss.
He must have jumped about six feet.
"What are you doing up?" he asked sharply. "It's two in the morning!!"
"What am I doing up? What are you doing up?!?! Hon, you get caught messing with Airship design, and the King's gonna have your head!!"
"Then the King's just going to have to not find out, isn't he?"
"But - but - but - why? Why, all of a sudden, do you have to press this?! Just wait! He may still come around on the matter, and then you can tinker all you want, but now - "
"Why?" And Cid, despite the need for silence on the matter, burst out laughing. "Why, Matryad? Because I'm obsessed beyond the safe limit of obsession!"
And he turned away from her and began marking on the diagrams, which changes should be made where, what would happen if this was done here . . .
He knew he was obsessed. He'd known it for years. But during those years, there had been nothing he'd been able to do about it except get more and more obsessed with each passing day. Now it finally snapped. He had all but redesigned the entire Airship in his mind, and had to get it out on paper, or he'd go thoroughly crazy.
And no one really wants to be thoroughly crazy. That would, in a word, suck.
Twilight had a unique design. He, his father, and KluYa had spent enough time on it to assure that it would not only work, but that it would work well. But fate, as well as that great evil of his, had interfered, leaving that dream a pile of burnt ash on the streets of Baron.
This time it would be different. The Airship would be designed, and every minor fault from the original design would be eliminated. This would be more than just a flying weapon. This would be a work of art.
Matryad watched him with an expression of morbid interest as he puttered away at the design. He knew that she knew that even by watching, she would be considered an accomplice to treason. But she still sat there. Just watching.
The King would come around. He'd have to. Sooner or later, he'd realize that this was the only way to end this terrible war.
And when he did, Cid the Engineer was going to be ready.
Why?
Because he was buff. Cid the Buff. Buff Cid.
"What are you going to name it?" Matryad asked out of nowhere, startling him out of his considerations.
"Huh?"
"The Airship. The last one was Twilight . . . what are you going to name this one?"
Cid frowned, thinking.
"I'm not sure," he admitted. "I didn't get a choice about the last one. Since I was just some kid working with them, I didn't get that sort of privilege."
"So?" she pressed. "What are you going to name it?"
"Buffy?"
"No."
"Well," he replied with a grin, "if the first was Twilight, then I think at long last that we should have one named Dawn."
"Makes sense," Matryad agreed thoughtfully. "And when you finish the design, what are you going to do?"
"Wait," Cid quickly replied. "The day's gonna come . . . we'll see our Airship fly. I can feel it."
"You can feel it?" she replied. "Sure Julia didn't just happen to mention it to you?"
He glanced up at her quickly.
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean."
"No, I don't."
"Julia's got powers. She can see things. Has she mentioned anything to you about the Airship?"
"Julia? No, she hasn't. Why would she? What sort of powers - Matryad, are you sure you're thinking straight? What kind of powers could she possibly have?"
"You know her background is questionable. We know where her bloodline comes from."
"Nothing that would suggest this sort of thing!"
"How do we know that? Her people have been renegade for so long - "
"If they were as powerful as that, they wouldn't need to hide and lurk the way they do."
Matryad began to reply, but silenced instantly as they both heard the door downstairs creak open and closed again.
Cid hastily rolled up the designs and shoved them under his pillow, knowing what would be done to him and Matryad if he were caught with them.
A moment later, as they both watched, bemused, Julia silently rose up the stairs, carrying a large pot of tea.
"Thought you might need the caffeine rush while you redesigned the Airship," she told them by way of greeting.
It was all Cid could do to keep from screaming.
"You really do have some kind of power you never told me about?!!?" he exclaimed as loudly as he dared, astonished that his old friend could have kept such a secret, and he'd never even suspected.
Julia shrugged.
"You never asked." She frowned slightly as he pulled the designs back out. "Have you ever received any word on KluYa's children?"
"No. Why?"
She shook her head.
"I just wondered . . . "
Cid knew she had done more than just wondered. But he didn't press it. He knew that if Julia had anything concrete on those two, she'd let him know.

)---------- Cecil ----------(
(Captain Cecil)

"Reporting as ordered, Sir."
"Don't call me Sir."
"Yes, Sir."
Cid pressed a hand against his forehead as if in pain.
"Something wrong, Sir?" Cecil inquired.
"Look, kid, I've heard so many stories about you that I feel like I've put up with you personally for the past however many years. So whether or not you realized it, we've been on a first-name basis for quite some time, now."
Cecil frowned, still not sure what to think.
"You know why you're here, Cecil?"
"Haven't the foggiest, Sir - euh - Cid. I was told this morning to meet you here."
"Here" was outside the City Walls at a very very large warehouse which looked as if it had been deserted for a good many years. Cecil recognized it easily - it was where the doomed Airship Twilight had been constructed.
"And so you did. Good move." Cid seemed to be examining him very closely, taking notice of every detail on his face. "Take off your helmet - it makes me nervous."
Cecil, still feeling confused, did as he was told and let his violet lockes spill over his shoulders as he pulled off his helmet.
Cid nodded slightly, as if he'd just confirmed some theory, but wanted to keep it a secret.
"Anyway, Cecil, I have a special assignment for you, if you want it."
"What is it?"
The Engineer grinned triumphantly.
"You see, after the attack on the City - I'm sure you remember?"
Cecil shuddered. It had been three years since that attack, but even now signs of it could still be seen in the City.
"I see you do. Anyway, after the attack, the King and I have been reconsidering many things, and he has come to the conclusion that it would be in the best interest of everyone in the Kingdom if the - if the Airship were to be reattempted."
"You're going to build another Airship?" Cecil inquired politely, although he had no clue how this involved him.
"You got it, kid. Now I suppose you're wondering where you are involved in this."
"Yes, Sir, I was."
"Don't call me Sir. Anyway, Cecil, I can build the Airship, but I need someone to fly it."
Cecil blinked, flabbergasted.
"You want me to fly an Airship?!" he blurted, astonished.
Cid nodded.
"Now, it could take well over a year to build it - so that'll give you plenty of time to familiarize yourself with the technique, don't you think?"
"What technique?! None of us know how to fly an Airship! No one on the planet has a clue how to handle anything like that in the air - "
"One person does, Cecil. One person who has flown in one before."
A chill ran up Cecil's spine.
"That's spooky."
"Is it? Sorry."
"Who? I mean, how could anyone have flown in an Airship? The only one ever built blew up before it got more than ten feet off the ground!"
"Twilight wasn't the only Airship ever built, Cecil. Just the only one within the last three-thousand years, that we know of."
Realization jolted Cecil so hard that Cid laughed.
"You don't mean - "
"Cecil, don't look so surprised," admonished someone new.
Cecil turned and saw, surprisingly unsurprisingly, Sir Rorunar perched like a cat on the roof of the warehouse.
"Sir Rorunar?!"
"Why not? I was frozen in ice for three-thousand years . . . but as far as I can tell, my brain hasn't gone too numb."
A series of conflicting emotions ran through Cecil, and he turned back to Cid.
"Why me?" he inquired.
"Why not?" Cid quipped back.
"Because I'm the new kid. Because I've only been officially knighted for a little over a year, when there're flocks of more experienced people in all the vocations. Because I've been proven to be terrible at anything that has to do with the air."
Sir Rorunar burst out laughing - bright, musical laughter that made the nearby Baronian Swallow look around in confusion. It then laid an egg, much to its surprise.
"There's a lot to the air, Cecil," he informed the young Knight, sliding down from the roof and alighting easily beside him. "Jumping is only a very small portion of it."
"So why me, then?"
Cid crossed his arms challengingly.
"Because."
Cecil put a hand to his own forehead. He didn't feel up to rising to Cid's challenge. This was all too weird for him.
He looked at Sir Rorunar. They hadn't spoken in over two years - not since shortly after Cecil was enrolled in training for Knighthood. He hadn't ever had a chance to stop back and see everyone . . . or maybe he just hadn't dared after enough time passed.
The King was more than edgy around the Dragoons. In fact (and more likely than not at Baigan's urging), he seemed turned dead against them. And because Cecil had now sworn loyalty to the King . . .
But Sir Rorunar apparently held no grudge against him. Not that he would. Sir Rorunar never changed, Cecil realized. Everything about him was exactly as it had been three years ago.
"Relax, Cecil," Rorunar told him. "You just might like it."
For a moment, Cecil looked back and forth between the two of them, unsure of what to think.
Then the last person he expected to see arrived on the scene.
"CID!!!" came Veronica's unmistakable yell as she bounded over the hill and down to where the three of them stood. "Oh, Cecil! Hi! Long time no see! Cid," and she turned away from him to the Engineer, "I GOT IT!!!!!!"
She waved a document under Cid's nose. He quickly snatched it and read what it said.
"Woo-hoo!" he whooped. "YES!!"
He caught Veronica's hands and they danced in a wild circle for a few moments before calming down.
Sir Rorunar seemed hard-pressed to not start laughing again. However, out of respect for a local wildlife, he restrained himself.
"I told you, you skeptical old goat!" Cid jibed at him, tossing Rorunar the document.
Rorunar didn't even read it.
"Yeah, yeah," he jibed back. "But I didn't think you'd ever stoop so low to get it . . . "
Veronica starting laughing so hard she fell over on the ground.
"Crud, you should've SEEN it!!" she cried, still laughing so hard that Cecil worried she'd burst a blood vessel.
"What's going on?" Cecil asked in a tiny voice, feeling a little claustrophobic among all the joy.
"This is going on," Rorunar told him, handing him the document.
"We got us a contract, signed by the King!" Cid sang. "Saying that we have commission to build five Airships - and no matter what natural disaster, flaw in planning, or great evil intervenes, we cannot be canceled again! This time, we're going to get our Airships off the ground!"
Cecil skimmed down the paper.
That was right! Somehow . . . they'd gotten the King's guarantee that they would not be canceled again.
"How?" he asked. "I mean, he'd been so adamant about not building them, how did you get him to - "
Veronica cut him off, flinging her arms around him and kissing him soundly on one cheek.
"Gosh, Cecil, I never noticed how handsome you are!" she exclaimed with a wink.
Cecil blinked.
"You flirted with the King and got him to sign it?"
She started laughing again and began dancing in wild circles around them all.
"Low," Rorunar reminded Cid. "Very, very low."
Cid shrugged.
"It was her idea."
Veronica still hadn't stopped laughing.
"You should've seen that old coot!" she cried. "And that idiot, Baigan . . . " And whatever other words she may have said were lost in her laughter.
Suddenly, Cid looked perturbed.
"What about Baigan?"
She sobered somewhat.
"Nothing."
"Veronica . . . "
"Look, I was totally harmless!"
"I warned you to stay away from that creep! You don't know what he might do - "
"Oh, Baigan's a sissy, he always has been!"
Cid shook his head and groaned.
"For cryin' out loud, Verny, now you'll never get him off your back!"
Veronica looked at him seriously for a moment, then burst out laughing all over again.
Rorunar shook his head.
"So low . . . you two will stoop so low for one piece of paper . . . "
"Stop being so critical, Rorunar!" Cid snapped. "It worked, didn't it?"
"Did it?"
"Yes!"
"Oh! Well then . . . never mind."
Veronica's laughing only increased.
Cid rolled his eyes at her and turned back to Cecil.
"So what do you think?" he inquired. "You with us?"
Cecil lowered his head, staring at the ground, still feeling a little uncertain if he really wanted to do this. He looked up again and caught Rorunar's gaze, exactly as it had always been: prying, but somehow aloof.
"I'll get back to you on that," was all he could say to Cid before he turned and sped away from them all.
"I hope this is a good idea," he heard Cid say after he was over the hill and hidden from view, but still within hearing distance.
"Oh, don't mind Cecil," Veronica assured him. "He could be having a bad day . . . but he's a great guy. Love 'im like a brother."
And he could hear Rorunar's voice, but couldn't make out the words.
And he wasn't sure he wanted to.

He headed back to a place near his house, a small pond with a fallen tree at its bank that was nice to sit on. Surrounded by forest, and the one place he felt he could still go and find some piece of peace in the world.
For some reason, Sir Rorunar's presence intimidated him. He wasn't exactly sure why - he'd never had a problem with the Dragoon in the past. Much the opposite, in fact. He'd grown to rather like the man in past years. But in these last two . . .
Cecil shook his head, suddenly wondering if all the badmouthing of Dragoons he'd been subjected to as a Knight was finally setting in. He hoped not.
The forest parted, and Kain entered the tiny clearing.
"Hey," he greeted, sitting beside Cecil. "What's going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Rorunar asked very nonchalantly if you were having any form of problems, which is a sure sign that he thinks something's screwing with your head. Now, I'd not been under the impression that anything was wrong. I'd figured you'd have told me if something was. So, is something?"
Cecil shrugged.
"I'm not sure. I take it he told you about the whole thing with the Airships?"
"He said that Cid had asked him to help him and a selected individual learn to correctly fly an Airship. I didn't know it was going to be you."
"Neither did I. I'm not sure if it's a good idea."
"Why not? You've still got the strongest stomach of anyone I know. I doubt you'd get airsickness or anything like that, so what's the problem?"
"What do you think?" Cecil snapped, suddenly impatient.
"I think that you're worried about the consequences of a Knight working in close proximity with the Captain of the Dragoons."
"I think you're right."
Kain shrugged.
"It's up to you, Cecil. You know Sir Rorunar. And he doesn't intend on getting you into any trouble - he never did. He'll do his job, and no more if you don't want him to. It's completely your call as to how close he gets."
" . . . "
"Really, Cecil," Kain went on in a softer voice, "I'd have thought you'd be happy about it. Dragoon, Knight, you could get the best of both worlds, if you think about it. Because as we all know, the best part of being a Dragoon is Sir Rorunar's bad jokes."
Cecil, in spite of himself, had to laugh. He was very familiar with Rorunar's bad jokes.
"And Cid, well, he's just Cid. I'm wary of the guy, but that's just because I've driven him so crazy over the past few years that he's hurled a brick or two at my head. But that's my own fault. He's supposed to be an okay guy."
"He hurled bricks at you?"
Kain shrugged again, this time tossing out that sarcastic smirk of his.
"Yeah . . . I'd stop by every now and then to see Veronica home . . . and get into little tangles with him."
"Hm."
"Hm hm. So, Cecil, are you going to do it?"
"I don't know."
"Gotta decide, man."
"I guess I'd normally jump at this . . . "
"So why aren't you?"
"Because I can't get over the feeling that Cid has some other reason for wanting to keep an eye on me."
Kain frowned.
"Really? Odd. Think he means any harm?"
"No, not really. It's just a little freaky."
"I wouldn't worry about it."
Cecil looked at Kain, and suddenly got the feeling that something was being held from him.
"Are you keeping something from me?" he asked pointedly.
Kain shook himself.
"I was just remembering something my mother said once."
"What did she say?"
Blinking slowly, Kain looked him straight in the eye.
"She told me not to tell you."
Cecil bit his bottom lip.
"Well . . . give me a hint."
Kain swallowed, looking very uncomfortable.
"Just be careful, Cecil." And he got up and shot away with the practiced speed of one whose living was based on an agility rating.
"Well . . . " Cecil said into nothingness. "That's comforting."

)---------- Kain ----------(
(Stalkers)

Veronica paced back and forth across the room anxiously.
Kain just watched her go, not about to interfere with her incessant mumblings.
"He's such a jerk!!" she finally blurted.
"Who?" Kain inquired lightly, pouring her a glass of water, which she chugged.
People get thirsty after mumbling incessantly for about two hours.
"Baigan!" she seethed. "Really . . . I flirt with him once, and I'm still hearing about it five months later!"
It was all Kain could do to keep from laughing.
"Maybe he's just completely taken in with your charm," he suggested jovially.
"Not hardly!" she spat. "He's furious!"
Kain frowned, suddenly concerned.
"What do you mean?"
"He may be a blockhead, but even he finally realized the stunt I pulled on him and the King to get that contract . . . and he's not happy about it. Not happy at all."
"So what's he doing?"
"Nothing I can tie him to. But this is the third night this week someone's tried to mug me on my way home."
"What?!" Kain snapped, jumping to his feet. "Why didn't you tell me th - "
"What could you do? You have a day job - defending the Kingdom and all that stuff. I can defend myself, Kain, you know that. It just bothers me that he'd stoop this low to get revenge - I don't know how low his line is. That creep is driving me crazy!!!"
This news definitely disturbed Kain. The very thought of that pompous ------- stalking his half-sister made his blood boil. But he knew she was very capable of taking care of herself, and that she never left the house without being armed at least with Aerin, their mother's blue Mithril dagger (which she was pretty darn lethal with). Still, he was concerned.
And he knew for a fact that Baigan's limit was very, very low. He'd stoop to however low it took to get back at her for humiliating him, because over half the City knew how she'd gotten the contract out of the King. It didn't look very good for either of them, and their humiliation was wrought entirely by this Engineer girl with the long, black and almost blue-hair.
"Maybe you should stay with someone else for a while," he suggested. "I mean, maybe it would be safer that way."
She snuffed it off.
"I'm not afraid of that arrogant pig, Kain. Just annoyed. Very annoyed. If anyone should be afraid, it should be him, not me."
Still, he worried.

He made a point of seeking out Cecil upon his return to the Barracks the next day. Knights were on the opposite end from the Dragoons, and the two ends were carefully separated, but it was fairly easy to find him, being familiar with his schedule.
When Cecil headed out to meet with Cid, Kain caught up with him.
"Cecil, I need a favor," he said by way of greeting.
Cecil raised an eyebrow.
"What's up?"
"Veronica. She's being stalked."
"Huh?"
"Yeah - you see her more than I do anymore. Just keep an eye on her for me, could you?"
"Sure, no problem. Who's stalking her?"
"She thinks it's a certain member of the King's Guard who has a grievance," Kain replied, not wanting to mention any names when it was so likely they'd be overheard.
Cecil nodded, understanding.
"She never mentioned having any trouble."
"She rarely does. I wish I could be around more at home - but I can't. You see her during the day, though."
"Yeah. I'll keep an eye out."

Even with that reassurance, along with Veronica's capability, he felt freaked out by the situation.
A few nights later, the situation finally came to a boil. Literally.
It was the middle of the night, he'd been sleeping uneasily as it was, and jumped a mile when the fire klaxon rang throughout the City.
Somehow getting his footing after the rude awakening, he tossed on his clothes in a few seconds and bolted, much to the wonderment of the others in his room. But he ignored them - they weren't important right now.
It took a little over five minutes to reach his house.
Too long.
Already, it was enveloped in flames, flames constantly reaching higher and higher.
Neighbors and others from all around the City were gathered outside, staring, horrified.
"Where's Veronica?!?!" he frantically inquired of one, who turned and gawked at him.
"Veronica? Well, she's in there, of course! No one could get through those flames - "
They'd sent for a Black Wizard. Someone who could cast an ICE and put out the fire. But Mages took forever to do anything - he wouldn't get there in time.
So Kain, taking one look up into the burning house, did the first thing his mind told him to.
He Jumped.
Up, up to his own window, which he always left open when he left. He grabbed the sill and swung himself inside.
"Kain!!!!" came the frantic yell of his half-sibling who half charged half stumbled over to him through the burning hallway. "Get me outta here!!!!"
He scooped her up without a word and Jumped right back out of the window, landing lightly on the ground.
A loud crash was heard - the second floor had just collapsed.
As they watched, the house fell in, collapsing into nothing but a ruin.
Veronica clung to his neck, shaking.
"Are you okay?" he asked in a voice that was also shaking, horrified by what was happening.
"They burned our house!" she hoarsely cried. "Momma's house! They burned it!"
"But are you okay?!" he repeated, more urgently, setting her on the ground.
She wrapped her arms around her knees, buried her face, and just shook.
"Verny?"
" . . . "
"Veronica!!"
" . . . "
Rosa appeared.
"Veronica," she said in a calm voice, "look at me."
Veronica wouldn't look up.
Rosa sighed and began chanting. It took Kain a moment to realize that she must be casting a healing spell of some sort - he couldn't get used to the concept of her using magic.
Cecil arrived next.
"I just heard - !" he exclaimed, sliding to a halt on the ground beside them. "Is she - "
"I don't know! Veronica!?!!"
" . . . "
Then Cid arrived, followed by Sir Rorunar (of all people. After all, the so-called demi-Esper rarely involved himself with the affairs of mortals).
"Verny?!" Cid exclaimed. "What the heck happened?!?!"
Rorunar tossed one glance at each of them, looked over at the remains of the house, which was just now being extinguished, and looked up past Kain and Cecil, suddenly tensing. He didn't say anything, but his eyes flashed bright silver for half an instant.
Kain followed his gaze and turned around.
Baigan stood a few yards behind him, shaking his head.
"Terrible tragedy," he said in a sugary voice. "I do hope the lady's all right?"
And he turned and left.
Rosa finished her spell, and Veronica finally looked up, burns lining her face even after the CURE1.
"I'm gonna kill him," she seethed in a low voice. "I'm gonna kill him - "
She struggled against hands which tried to hold her still and climbed to her feet, turning to where Baigan was disappearing into the crowd.
"I'm gonna kill him, I'm gonna kill him, I'm gonna kill him - "
Kain reached out and grabbed her arm, but she shook it off violently, suddenly taking off after the Captain of the Guard, yelling and screaming incoherently.
Cecil and Kain both jumped after her, grabbing her and forcing the hysterical woman to the ground, where she continued screaming, beating the pavement of the street with her fists.
"Verny - calm down!!" Kain cried, frantic. "Verny!!"
Rorunar knelt beside her and placed his hand against the back of her neck.
Almost instantly, she collapsed into silence.
"What - " Kain began, alarmed, but Rorunar shook his head and held up a silencing hand.
"She's just Asleep, don't worry," he assured him, soft confidence exuding from every pore.
He was plotting.
Kain, feeling too shaken by the whole thing to waste time wondering how Rorunar had done that, just gathered Veronica up in his arms and stood.
"What now?" he demanded in a rattled tone.
"Come with me - she can stay with us until we figure out what's going on," Cid told him.
Kain nodded, and they of them took off.
Rosa stared after them, he noticed, gawking at Rorunar. Of course, she'd be familiar with the standard SLEEP spell, and know that whatever Rorunar had cast, that was not it. She had every reason to gawk at him.
But Kain didn't really care at that moment who might be gawking at Rorunar.
He, too, was plotting.

)---------- Cecil ----------(
(Architect?!??!)

Cid answered the knock at the door and accepted the letter without comment, quickly shutting the door again. He read the paper he'd been handed, and slammed a fist into the wall behind him.
Cecil, Kain, and Rorunar stood in the other end of the room.
"What's it say?" Kain asked in a tight voice.
Cecil glanced at him with concern. Kain was not handling this situation well, and it was worrying him a bit.
"What's it say?!" Cid snapped, plopping into a chair at the table and gesturing for them to do the same. Matryad appeared in the doorway, listening, carrying their baby girl in her arms.
Cecil and the others sat without comment. Veronica was still asleep upstairs. Rorunar said she'd be okay. No one asked how he knew. No one cared now he knew. They just accepted that he did.
"It says," Cid told them with a flourish: "'From His Majesty, King of Baron, to the Honored Head Engineer, Cid. We have been following your progress with much interest in the Airship projects. Congratulations on work well done thus far. However, it has reached our attention that not everyone in your staff appears fully competent. It is our recommendation that the woman in your staff by name of Veronica be removed from this project, and perhaps into a new field altogether. Her work indicates that she would show much promise in the Architectural field. Noted, this is only a suggestion.' Etceteras, etceteras, signed His Majesty, the King!"
"Only a suggestion my foot!!!" Kain yelled. "That's a threat if I ever heard one - we're being threatened by the King himself!! Isn't there anything anyone can do about this?!?!"
Silent looks were cast across the table. Matryad left the room.
Kain sighed.
"What can we do?" Cecil pointed out. "If we don't do what he suggests - "
"If we don't do what he suggests, he'll destroy the whole town, if he has to, to get at her!" Kain snapped. "And you all know he will!"
Cecil glared at the tablecloth in front of him. The hatred he'd felt for the King had slowly subsided as he grew into Knighthood, but this kindled it all right back up to as high as it had ever been, if not considerably higher.
It was strange. To most people, this King was not a bad one at all. It was only to those who crossed him that he showed the crueler nature within. It was only those on bad terms with him who learned how weak, foolish, and desperate he was. And it was they who always ended up suffering.
But he'd sworn himself to this King. To serve him. What could he do?
What could any of them do?
"The decision should be hers, not ours," Rorunar pointed out, deciding to agree with logic in this case.
"Well, thank you kindly," came a snippy voice from the stairs.
Everyone turned and rose as Veronica limped down to their level.
"Architect? That bloated fool wants me to be an Architect? Fine. I'll be an Architect. For one reason, and one reason only," she added as they all began to protest her hasty answer. "That reason being, Kain's right. I torked 'em off, now he and Baigan will do whatever they feel they must to get their revenge, and I'd rather not involve the Engineering staff. I'll switch. But I'll make sure every danged thing built for that freak has a faulty foundation!!" she ended on a sneering yell.
"Calm down, Verny," Cid sighed. "Don't do anything that'll get you killed."
Veronica sat heavily between him and Kain.
"Cid, I've wanted to be an Engineer my whole life. And I got it. Not only that, I got to work on the Hovercraft and Airship projects. I knew it was too good to last forever. And it was. Just because I knew it was coming, though, doesn't make me any less torked about it!!!"
"Torked," Rorunar repeated. "What a perfect word."
Cecil remained silent through all this. He felt like he was contributing nothing to the situation, but he also felt that, as a friend to all parties involved, he had to be there.
"They'll probably wipe the records," Rorunar pointed out. "They always do, when someone hits a bad note. You'll never have existed as an Engineer, Veronica. I've known of it happening before."
He threw a glance to Cid, who kept a carefully blank expression.
Cecil didn't know who he was referring to, but suddenly got a cold feeling inside.
"Cecil," Rorunar said, dragging him into the conversation. "You have a loyalty to the King."
Cecil just looked at him blankly for a moment.
"I also have to duty to the Kingdom," he replied.
Rorunar nodded once, slowly, satisfied with that, something in his manner seeming deeply satisfied.
Kain gave him an odd look, but said nothing.

)---------- Kain ----------(
(Traitors)

The five of them were almost like a private rebellion against the monarchy.
Two Dragoons, a Knight, an Engineer, and an Architect.
Not particularly intimidating.
But, Kain realized, they couldn't afford to be intimidating. The King's ego was his greatest hindrance - if he ever felt that a small group such as themselves was opposing him, he'd have them squashed by some anonymous force.
Or rather, have Baigan squash them with some anonymous force.
The strangest thing about it, though, was the development that Veronica began to rather enjoy being an Architect. But that was beside the point.
Late at night, Veronica and Cid would still go over the Airship plans together, working out kinks here and there. Even if she couldn't safely be involved with the construction anymore, she still insisted upon contributing to the design. Even if the records would never show any of her involvement.
Cid continued the construction of Baron's second Airship.
As he did so, Rorunar and Cecil followed along, figuring out exactly how it would be best to run the different aspects of the ship under various conditions and whatnot.
He himself did little but watch. Having no official reason for being anywhere near the Airship, he had no excuse to hang out and chat with the others, so he turned his energies elsewhere, excepting for a period of a little over a week during which no one had yet managed to figure out where he'd been, only that he'd asked for "it" and gotten "it," and "it" seemed to have been rather painful. But whatever on Earth had happened when he'd broken the first piece of advice his teacher had given him ("Whatever you do, just don't ask for it."), he emerged from the ordeal a stronger fighter in every aspect.
On the battlefield over the past year, he'd made himself a name. And a reputation. This hadn't really mattered to him much, though, until one night, after Cecil and Rorunar had returned to the Barracks, and he was chatting lightly with Cecil just outside the City Walls.
"I'll be the first to admit - it's pretty weird," Cecil admitted. "It's just so huge!"
Poor guy. He still was a little uncertain about being selected to pilot the Airship, even after going at it for so long with the others.
"You'll get used to it," Kain absently assured him.
Cecil shuddered.
"Something else - we found evidence of monster activity near the site."
Kain frowned.
"It seems like there're more than ever lately . . . I wonder where they're all coming from?"
Cecil shrugged.
"I dunno . . . checked under any thrones lately?"
"Ha. I think it's freaky."
"Yeah, it is. But I think we could handle it if any of them came too close, don't you?"
"Sure," Kain replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. "We could take 'em down when we were ten, we could sure as heck do it now!"
They got an uneasy chuckle out of the memory - one that was quickly cut off by a WHIZZing sound, followed by the faint CLUNK.
It was unmistakable.
The shot of an arrow.
Reacting as one, they both rushed to the wall where the arrow was embedded. There was a paper attached to it.
Kain pulled it off.
"Traitor to the King," he read, raising his eyebrows, "and traitor to the Kingdom."
Cecil glared into the darkness.
"I'm assuming that the traitor to the King is supposed to be me," he declared into the night, "because I'm a Knight. And that would make you the traitor to the Kingdom, although I'm not so sure how they get that."
"Simple," Kain explained, also glaring into the darkness. "I'm a Dragoon."
It was as if he'd just challenge the forces of Hell.
With the loud THUNK, a masked attacker jumped from the top of the wall, landing on Cecil and driving him into the ground.
"Argh!!" he exclaimed.
Before Kain could even think of giving him a hand, another jumped from the wall, but fortunately, he darted aside quicker than the blink of an eye, and the attacker was the only one to hit the dirt.
He gave Cecil's attacker a swift kick in the head, and then Cecil was up again.
As Kain pulled him to his feet, however, they turned to see about twenty of the attackers facing them, swords pointed at their throats.
"Yo, what now?" Kain whispered to Cecil.
"Euh . . . fight?"
Kain pulled out his Lance.
"Good idea."
The tight circle of attackers closed in on them. Kain did the one thing he could think to do.
He Jumped.
Landing on the ground behind his attackers, he managed to sock three of them in the heads as they turned, rendering them senseless.
Cecil had done the same thing, and while it took him a moment to regain his balance after his rather shaky Jump, he knocked down one of them.
So the others converged.
Kain again took to the air, knowing he'd do more damage to them that way than if he stayed on the ground and fought.
Cecil, as he watched below, just fought. No Jumps, no magic, none of that. Just fought.
Still, they were outnumbered by about twelve. Not good odds.
One of them dealt Cecil a staggering blow which sent him right to the ground, stunned. This left the others free to pounce on Kain as he landed, taking out one of them, and quite possibly killing him.
But the others converged on him, and it was all he could do to raise his hands and drop his Lance.
"Now," said the one Archer in the group, stepping forward, "don't think we're too bold, attacking you right outside of the City . . . "
"I think you're more than bold," he replied through gritted teeth as someone bound his wrists together. The Sword tip at his throat kept him from reacting against the motion.
"Oh, really?"
"Yes. I think you're rather stupid."
"Really. And just why is that?"
Kain didn't answer. Rather, he stared right past his interrogator and just grinned slightly.
One of them had gotten Cecil, still a little dazed, to his feet and tied his hands, and now he was slammed into him.
"Hi!" Kain greeted.
"How's it goin'?" Cecil replied, equally jovial.
"Cecil, everything is crescent fresh!"
"Crescent fresh! Ch-yes!!"
The Archer glared at them both through his mask, seeming confused by their lightheartedness. After all, the two of them were at his mercy -
"YAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!!" came a piercing scream to their left.
Turning in shock, the Archer gasped as he saw one of his men transformed into a figure of ice.
He whirled, searching the shadows.
"Where are you?!?!" he yelled. "I know you're there - where are you?!?!"
The air wavered slightly, and Sir Rorunar suddenly became visible.
"I'm right here, no need to yell," he lightly responded. "Now, if you would be so kind as to let your hostages there go - "
"I think not."
"Hm? Why?"
"Because we have a personal vendetta with them!"
"Really?" Rorunar grinned menacingly. "And do you want me to have a personal vendetta with you? If not, I suggest you let them go."
The Sword blades remained pointed at Cecil and Kain's throats.
The frozen man suddenly shattered into a million pieces.
"Don't tork me off," Rorunar advised.
"Hm. Am I supposed to be frightened?" the Archer inquired, sarcastically.
"Well, yes, you are. Aren't you?"
"No!"
"Oh." Rorunar blinked his deep blue eyes, looking confused. "Tell me, exactly what is this personal vendetta you have against those two lovable hooligans?"
The Archer sniffed.
"None of your business. Now step aside, before we slice their throats."
"Ah, but if you do that, you'll have lost your bargaining posture altogether."
"Fine. We'll only kill one of them."
Rorunar shook his head.
"So weak . . . so foolish . . . "
The two who were holding Cecil and Kain at Sword point froze up into two figures of ice, their Swords crystallizing as well. And the ropes binding them mysteriously vaporized.
Rorunar raised his eyebrows.
"C'mon, you two. Bedtime. You don't know what sorts of strange people lurk around here at night," he told them, glaring at the Archer, who was shaking with fury.
Kain almost started laughing, but thought better of it.
"Run," Rorunar ordered the Archer. "Run away, and never return."
The Archer didn't move.
Rorunar sighed, and the two new iceblocks also shattered as the first had.
"Why are you being so stupid?!" he demanded.
For a moment, it looked like the Archer was going to glare at them all night, but then a shout was heard from inside the Castle Gate.
He spat out a garbled order, and the remaining group of attackers all but vanished into the night air just before Baigan and the King's Guard arrived on the scene, drawn by the sounds of battle.
Rorunar threw a frantic gaze between Cecil and Kain for a moment, then grinned slightly.
Kain knew what the grin meant. They'd planned for this situation before . . . hopefully Cecil would play along . . .
"Fine!" he snapped at Cecil, who took a startled step away, looking at him like he was crazy. "You win - but next time your pals from the King won't be around to save your sorry butt!!"
"Huh?" Cecil exclaimed.
Kain, facing away from the Guards, grinned, trying to convey that everything was all right.
"Kain," Rorunar said in a dejected tone, "why do you keep doing this to me? As if you haven't already caused enough trouble . . . "
"What's going on here?" Baigan insisted, directing a condescending look to the two Dragoons.
Rorunar flailed his arms in a helpless manner.
"Nothing serious . . . no harm came to the City . . . or them," he replied in a tone that suggested nervous relief.
Baigan looked back and forth between Cecil and Kain, confused.
"What exactly happened here?" he repeated, looking a little uncertain.
Cecil opened his mouth to say something, but Kain cut him off.
"He started it!!!" he snapped, pointing at Cecil.
Cecil looked utterly dejected.
"What?!"
"Shut up," Baigan snapped at Kain, who sulked in response. "You," he said, gesturing to Cecil, "come with me."
Cecil followed as he turned and, with the rest of the Guard, re-entered the Castle, looking as bewildered as Kain had ever seen him. He threw a look over his shoulder, and both Kain and Rorunar flashed an OK signal.
Cecil still looked confused, but continued on.
"I'm gonna have a hard time explaining this to him later," Kain remarked to Rorunar as the Gate closed behind them.
"I just hope the King doesn't ask the wrong questions," Rorunar replied.
For a moment, the two Dragoons made no further comment. Rather, they just stood there, staring at the gate which had been slammed a moment ago, one in his blue armor, and the other in a dark, golden color.
Rorunar was just a dark kind of person. Very dark. But only when he wanted to be.
Kain ground his teeth.
"Why do you think they took him in? By all logic, Baigan holds me responsible for causing an uproar, why'd he take Cecil?"
After all - the King already hated Kain. If he took the blame for the "incident", then no one should be any worse off than they were already.
"I have an idea," Rorunar sighed. "And I doubt Cecil's going to get a choice about it."
He shook his head and headed back into the Barracks, where quite a large group was congregated at the windows. At one sour look, they all vanished.
"What do you mean?" Kain asked, matching his stride.
Rorunar glanced at him.
"Nothing yet. Let's just wait and see."

)---------- Cecil ----------(
(The Dark Knight - Yet Another Lunar Encounter)

Cecil was, in two words, Dejected and Confused. ("and" doesn't count as a word in there, Fussy!)
He didn't know what was going on. He didn't understand why Kain and Rorunar had apparently turned on him when the Guard had arrived. Yet they seemed to feel the whole situation was in check.
Didn't they realize that their actions were going to bring down even more wrath on the Dragoons?
For centuries or longer, in all of Baron's history, the Dragoons had been honored and respected. This was the first time that they'd ever been held in such contempt, merely because every now and then they felt they must disobey and order or two that they felt was unlawful.
The King was an egotistical jerk. Cecil now knew that for a fact. And the fact that the Dragoons alone held the right to waive an order made him angry. So he rallied everyone else against them.
So why were they making things worse? Why didn't they just explain to Baigan what had really happened? Why had they, by placing the blame on him, brought blame upon themselves?
Of course, if they'd done that, then the three of them would be in trouble, because it was probably a group of Baigan's men who had assaulted them.
How had he, Cecil, managed to grow so passive in the service of Knighthood? How had it happened that, just a year before, he was actually beginning to feel a grudge against the Dragoons himself? Heck, he'd been one once! Now he was allowing himself to be swayed by propaganda, and if not for Cid's unusual request for assignment that had brought him away from his peers, and of course, the assault on Veronica, he may have continued to be swayed until -
"Cecil!" Baigan snapped, and he realized that he'd been spoken to.
"Sir?" he replied automatically, noticing for the first time that he was standing in the Throne Room. Before the King.
Baigan shook his head slightly.
"He's the one, Your Majesty," he told the King, pointing at him. "He was trained as a Dragoon, then switched to Knighthood."
"I see." The King leaned forward and nodded thoughtfully. "What made you change, young Knight?"
Your threat, you idiot.
"Your request after so large a portion of our forces was claimed in battle," he said out loud.
The King nodded.
"I've been told that you've displayed great loyalty."
"Have I?"
Cecil had no clue what was going on.
"And that you're an amazing fighter. And so I have a new option for you."
"Sir?"
"You have been selected to pilot the Airship once completed. Now, it would seem a little strange for our greatest weapon to be manned by a mere Knight, would it not?"
"Sir - "
"And so, at Baigan's suggestion and my own consideration, I have decided to bestow upon you the rank of Dark Knight."
"Sir?!?!"
It was all he could do to keep from falling over.
The Dark Knights - there hadn't been any in the Kingdom for years! They were like the King's personal Mafia! The strongest fighters, the meanest ones, the ones who were sent on the most dangerous missions, who were feared by almost everybody, and respected by even those who didn't fear them -
The counterparts of the Dragon Knights of long ago - the original Order of Dragoons, the Elite force of the Kingdom. The Dark Knights had been able to match their predecessors in nearly every aspect - strength, skill, and brute power. Both had a daunting special attack - the Jump, and the Dark Wave. Originally the premiere enemy of Baron - finally forced into submission long ago and taken under the orders of the King, where they served for nearly two centuries straight. The Dragoons had been able to outmatch them in only one area: Spirit.
A great honor.
And he would be directly under the King's thumb.
"Sir, I - "
"Kneel, Sir Cecil."
"But I - "
"Kneel, Cecil!" Baigan emphasized.
Cecil knew that the moment he knelt, it was all over.
"But I - "
"Don't contradict the King!"
"But - "
"Is there a problem?" the King cut in, looking mildly concerned.
Cecil thought frantically. What could he say? How could he keep from accepting this fate?
"Sir, I'm - well, I'm only eight-teen years old! Surely there're others more qualified - "
"Not really, no."
"But . . . Your Majesty, if I may, exactly what did I do to earn this honor?" Cecil blurted, still feeling so boggled by everything that had happened that night that nothing was becoming clear in any way, shape, or form.
The King smiled.
"Well, Cecil, your fighting skills are spectacular, or so I'm told."
"Sir, there are many more spectacular fighters than I. I'm only at level 12!"
"You are familiar with the Jumping technique, which no Knight before has ever known - "
"Sir, one of the reasons I was suggested for transferring to Knighthood when there was the need was because my Jump was always less than satisfactory."
"But you did change. That shows extreme loyalty to the Kingdom. You would renounce the rebel group known as Dragoons and sign with the Kingdom. Good choice."
"But Sir!!" poor Cecil exclaimed. "They're not rebels! They're every bit as loyal to the Kingdom as I am - and they're willing to do what it takes to ensure the safety of the Kingdom, even if it happens to be against your orders!"
"Then what would you call that incident outside just now?" Baigan cut in. "It struck me that you and a Dragoon faced off on something. Kain, I believe it was. Isn't he a close friend of yours?"
"Well . . . " No use denying it. "Yes, Sir."
"And has been for a long time."
Cecil nodded, swallowing nervously. He didn't like where this was going.
"Yet you were willing to face against him to defend the honor of the King. Is that it?"
And Cecil could see in Baigan's eyes that if he denied it, he would regret it. And he knew in that moment that it was Baigan who had ordered that attack on him and Kain. If he denied his supposed act of bravery, it would cause more repercussions that he could imagine.
"Y . . . " Oh, crud, Kain, what am I getting myself into?! What are you two planning?! "Yes, Sir." I hope this was part of your scheme . . .
The King smiled again.
"Kneel," Baigan ordered in a stern tone. "His Majesty is very gracious, and you should accept his judgment, and the honor which he bestows upon you." He glared at the young Knight. "So kneel. Now."
The King raised his sword.
Cecil, dazed by all that was happening and their fast-talking, felt his knees give way beneath him.
Placing his sword on one shoulder, then the other, the King officially stole what freedom Cecil had left.
"I dub thee, Sir Cecil, Dark Knight of Baron, to serve the King and the Kingdom as ordered until death or discharge. You may rise."
Cecil couldn't. He just knelt there, feeling numb.
Rorunar . . . don't hate me for this . . .
Members of the King's Guard then entered, carrying with them his new articles - Shadow Armor, Shadow Shield, Shadow Sword -
His mind froze, and he stared defiantly at the floor, as if by will alone he could make it so that this night had never happened.
"You will now reside in the Castle's left tower, as is the custom for one of your rank. By tomorrow noon, you are to be moved in and ready for assignment."
A weak pang rang through Cecil.
"Assignment?!" he blurbed. "But - but - Your Majesty, what about the Airships?!"
The King paused to consider.
"Yes, of course. Still, your affairs are to be in order by tomorrow, noon. Dismissed."
Cecil rose to his feet and accepted his new articles with numb despair.
And he could have sworn that Baigan had a triumphant glint in his eye.

When he finally got out of that hateful place, he bolted straight for Sir Rorunar's office.
Rorunar and Kain were both waiting for him.
For a moment, as he entered and stared at them both in silence, he wondered about the fate of himself and his old friend. Kain, only one year older than he, seemed to be almost like a shadow to one of the most revered (if royally despised) fighters in the Kingdom. More so, in fact. Apprenticing and the like was not such a common practice among Dragoons as it was with Knights, and Rorunar had never been known to take one on, until now. (Really, although he had the absolute loyalty and devotion of all those under him, very few knew him well. Rorunar was about as introverted as they came - it seemed sometimes that he trusted no one at all.) Kain, of all people, had been selected as his apprentice and taken under his wing for some unknown purpose, while he himself, only eight-teen, was -
"They made me a Dark Knight," he sighed, weakly collapsing into a chair just inside the door.
Odd, there had never been a chair there before. The room had always just had the bare essentials . . .
Sir Rorunar must've planned that he'd be feeling weak.
So they had known . . .
Rorunar sighed.
"I thought as much . . . I knew it was only a matter of time before they tried."
Kain, however, rushed to his side in shock.
"A Dark Knight?!?! You?!?! But . . . how?! Why?!"
"You tell me!!" Cecil snapped. "I don't get it!! What happened?! Why did you both turn on me back there?! I didn't know what to think, what to say - "
"Cecil, shut your mouth and take a deep breath," Rorunar advised in his offhand way, although he seemed deeply concerned by this turn of events. "Baigan was looking for a goat. He has been for some time, but if we'd reported exactly what had taken place, he wouldn't have rested until the two of you were found dead. And there's a good chance he may keep that plan with the two of us," and he gestured toward Kain, who blinked at him but didn't seem alarmed. "We're Dragoons, and therefore seen as a threat to the Royal Authority. You, though, you still have a chance, Cecil. We have to keep you in the King's good graces, or it may be your life. Now, as a Knight, there was a lot of potential good you could do for everyone as your position matured. Now, I'm not so sure. The Dark Knights have traditionally been dark folk . . . but maybe there's still some good you can do. Odd . . . you as a Dark Knight . . . very odd . . . Do you understand, though, Cecil? We're doing our best to protect you - to keep you out of this rotten situation the King has for us Dragoons. You have no reason to be involved, and we don't intend for you to become so."
Cecil felt himself shaking. He stared at his hands, picturing himself clad in the black armor bestowed upon him. The very thought made him sick.
"To serve the King and the Kingdom as ordered until death or discharge . . . " he whispered. "Do you realize, Sir Rorunar, exactly what that means?"
Rorunar nodded, blinking quite calmly.
"It means that you must obey his every command for the rest of your life, and quite likely, you're going to be set against us sometime in the near future."
Cecil felt even sicker.
"But I can't do that."
"Leave it to us, Cecil," Rorunar told him in a low tone, one that almost seemed comforting.
But not just, not now.
"Leave it to you? Just like leaving all this to you got me into this?!?!"
Kain blinked, startled by the venom directed to Rorunar.
Rorunar, on the other hand, seemed to have expected it, and replied as he always did: calmly and excruciatingly placatingly.
"You'd have been gotten into it anyway. Why do you think Baigan really came out tonight? It wasn't to break up some fight, I'll tell you that! He's been waiting to reel you into his grasp. But it'll be better for you that it happens with the King still on your side than not."
Cecil shook his head.
"I want out of all this," he sighed in a quavering voice. "I just want . . . I want to be an Accountant!!!"
He's going to set me against them - and I have to obey - I don't have any choice anymore but to do exactly whatever that stupid idiot of a King tells me . . . even if he tells me to help obliterate the Dragoons . . .
He would now be serving with the same men who had attacked him, he realized. Serving with a group of thugs and murderers who burned houses with women trapped inside -
Serving with brainless minions of ambition who would do whatever it took to see a fighter dishonored for not taking the life of a 16 year old boy -
Serving with those who would see everything he cared about destroyed -
Cecil wasn't sure what was happening. The room was spinning, but it wasn't. He was passing out, but he was still awake. He was crying vulgar obscenities at the top of his lungs, but he was still staring at the floor with a blank, vacant expression. What was happening? Who was he, anyway? What was he doing here?
What was the strange tingling that suddenly ran up his spine and rang throughout his body -
What was it that dragged him out of the Barracks and into the streets, despite Kain's attempts to hold him still?
What was it that forced him into unconsciousness on that one night, every year, when the two moons were in perfect eclipse?
What was it that took an innocent attempt to help a friend and turned it into the service of a heartless man with a crown who would just as well see him dead as his personal agent?
And the last thought to enter his mind as unconsciousness became complete.
Why is my hair purple?