~*~ Interlude One: Ruby ~*~
Many generations before the picnic...
Mysidia was known for its school of magic. Students from all over the world vied for a spot in that school, to learn the art where all the greatest Wizards had learned it. Those that succeeded in becoming students became the best.
Ruby, as he was often called, was determined to be one of the best. He felt that he had done well on the entrance examination, but he and the other students would not find out who had made it until the next day. He had not spoken more than necessary with the other candidates, preferring to stay in his room in the Inn and study his worn magic book.
The book was called The Art of Balance, an old text he had found at a used book sale at a fair four years ago. It was written for a beginning Red Mage, and he had painstakingly taught himself how to cast each spell detailed within its faded covers. There were the three core Black Magic spells: Ice, Fire, and Bolt. There were three simple White spells, as well: Cure, Esuna (which cures poison) and Libra (which showed the strength of an enemy.) That was the limit of the book, but he had practiced constantly, sometimes going to the point of wounding himself to test his Cure spell.
He did so now, gritting his teeth as he ran the tip of his knife along the skin of his forearm. Watching as the blood welled, he chanted the incantation that would bend the magic to his will.
"Power of Healing, obey my command.
Cure my wounds with Your gentle hand."
It worked perfectly, the wound glowing with a green light as it healed itself. Ruby wiped the blood away with a rag and looked at the unmarred skin. The spell had worked.
Now all I have to do is wait for tomorrow.
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February. Icy wind filled the air, cold snow covered the ground. The first-year Red Wizards trudged through the snow to their training session.
Ruby sighed. It had been a tough six months. After his acceptance, the Wizards had taken one look at his technique and told him that he was doing everything wrong, using much more power than he should have been using for much less effect than he should have been getting. With that, they wiped the six spells from his mind and started teaching him again. So far, he had re-mastered Cure, Bolt, and Libra, and was working on Fire with his class. They were to stand inside a three-sided stone shelter, casting the spell out into the snow. The first student, Nyssa Orilson, went. Stepping out of the enclosure, she spoke the incantation.
"Power of Fire, come to my call!
Raze those I fight to help me conquer all."
Nothing happened. Master Rhin, the Master Wizard who oversaw their lessons, simply said, "Try again." Nyssa did, creating a small blaze. Master Rhin nodded, and motioned for Ruby to step up. He did so, and cast the spell on his first try, toasting the grass that had recently been covered by snow slightly.
"Well done," Master Rhin said, smiling, and Ruby smiled back.
Later that day, after the lesson, Ruby was walking near the frozen-over river. Suddenly, he sensed what felt almost like a gentle tug on his magical senses, pulling him toward a small wood. He followed it, walking for almost ten minutes as the tug grew stronger. I wonder what that could be, he thought as he followed its lead.
He almost missed it when he came to it, its gleam catching his eye. Looking at it, Ruby saw a shining red sphere, about the size of his fist, sitting on a rock. There was no snow in its immediate area. Ruby picked it up experimentally, weighing it in one hand. It was a little heavier than a normal glass or crystal ball of that size would have been. He could sense its magical power, and it took him only a few heartbeats to decide that it was too powerful for him to be messing with. Setting it down on the stone where he had found it, Ruby decided to get Master Rhin to look at it in the morning.
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When he got back to his room, Ruby took off his cloak and went to his desk, planning on studying his magic.
The orb was there already.
"What the...." Ruby said to himself, confused. "It couldn't have moved on its own." He grabbed it off the desk, felt its promise of power sing in his veins.
I really should take this to Master Rhin now.
But Master would probably just take it for study. It's chosen me.
What am I thinking? It's chosen me? For what? And it's powerful...
Powerful. It will help me become the best.
Yes, it will, but-
It is mine! I found it!
Ruby shook his head rapidly, dizziness overtaking him for a moment.
That was... strange....
He gazed at the orb for a while longer before putting it into a drawer.
This is getting creepy. He sighed, resolving to think about what to do with it.
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The rest of the year passed rapidly. Ruby had intended to show the orb to Master Rhin ever since he found it, but he always found himself putting it off until the next day. The one time he actually tried to take it to Master Rhin, the Wizard was out of town. The thought of taking it to someone else never crossed his mind.
It was the beginning of summer, hot and clear and bright. Ruby was holed up in the library, reading out of an old, dusty book.
...And so the Light Warriors found themselves with the four dull Orbs, one for each High Element: Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. They proved themselves the true Light Warriors by defeating the Dark Knight Garland, said to be the first of that line....
They resolved to go on a quest to re-light those Orbs, by defeating the Four Fiends who held the power of the Orbs captive. After a few minor quests, they found themselves in the village of Melmond, where they battled a Vampire that had taken residence in a nearby labyrinth.... They soon found that the Fiend of Earth, Lich, was also in the cavern, and there they slayed him....
Under the advice of the Circle of Sages in Crescent Lake, the Four went next to the great volcano of Gurgu, and there fought the Fiend of Fire, Kary, They defeated the demon and lit the Orb of Fire anew....
The Light Warriors continued on their quest, finding the lost airship of the Sky Warriors; the elite fighters of a lost people.... They completed a quest for the Dragon-Lord Bahamut, and he gave them his power.... The Four traveled then to the city of mermaids near Onrac, and there vanquished the Fiend of Water, Kraken, restoring the Orb of Water.
The Four found the lost race, the Lefinish, and learned their secrets, and entered the Castle of the Sky, that floats still there today. There they defeated the final Fiend, Tiamat, Queen of all the Dark Dragons who left Bahamut's race to join the force of Evil. And they defeated her, and lit the final orb.... and in the Castle of the Sky they looked down and saw the lairs of the Four Fiends, and they made a perfect square. In the center of that square, there lay ruins, the ruins where Garland had sheltered at the beginning.... And there the Light Warriors united their Orbs and used the Black Orb to travel backwards through time, and there they fought the Fiends each again, and each one was more powerful than before; for they had been reborn by their dark master.... The Four reached the very center of the temple when they encountered the Dark Knight Garland once more, but yet it was not him, but the Emperor of Fiends, Chaos, who had taken his body over after he accidentally triggered the Black Orb in the future, and used the human's body to ensure that the future-Garland was always sent to the past, completing a loop in time.... So the Light Warriors defeated Chaos, and ended the loop in time, and so the Light prevailed.
Orbs. Light warriors. Epic journeys. The ideas dashed in Ruby's head like excited chocobos, and he thought. What if that Orb was one that belonged to the Light Warriors? What if that is why I was given it? In Ruby's mind, the orb had become a gift, not a finding. At that minute, Ruby made his decision: if he had an orb, the Orb of Fire, then logically there must be three others in the world with similar Orbs. And perhaps, perhaps, they were meant to be heroes, the new Light Warriors.
And so the Red Mage "Ruby" Enyesada left on an epic journey with one purpose: to find the three who held Orbs like his own, and to seek adventure. But he realized not that his future lay not in Light, but in deepest Darkness, and that even then the Orb was beginning to change him, slowly....