All Heaven in the Midnight of the Sun

Chapter Six

Kurin slipped through the trees, away from the shadowed figure of Garret. He felt ashamed for listening in, but he had to know more, and he knew that Garret might never tell him everything. His hunch was growing stronger. The girl reminded him of someone, a person from the ancient history books he kept in his home. Her face, her mannerisms, they all brought forth a memory of a person he used to know.

He walked out of the trees and onto the path, then began walking towards his home. He met nobody on the way, and that was best. He stepped into his house without a sound and closed the door behind him. As the historian of the village, he had in his possession a wealth of different books related to the history of the moogles. But that was not what he was looking for. What he wanted was the human histories, which were far fewer, containing only the most important human events. He knew, though, that whoever the girl was, she was important. He had no doubt that he would find her.

He opened the most recent volume and set it down on the floor. Then he began to flip through it, scanning the ink drawings for her face. He found nothing, nobody even resembling her. He checked again, but her face was not in the book. He frowned, puzzled. How could she not be in the most recent histories? She looked fairly young, probably in her twenties, and if she was not in the more recent volumes, she wouldn't be in any of them. Nevertheless, he began to search through all the volumes, hoping against hope that he was not mistaken.

As he looked through the volumes tracing the various triumphs and failures of the human race, he felt a pang of sadness for the bygone days. When these histories were written, all the species of the world were locked in the combats between good and evil. When a great evil rose up, the combined forces of good would fight and die to stop it. Those days were gone now, he knew. There were great evils, as he imagined there always would be, but there were no heroes, no noble saviors to drive back the tides of darkness. The Emperor fought to "purify" the world, and steadily forced his people deeper into hiding. Nobody would rise to stop the Emperor, no one dared. And it was not as though his evil was the only one. Hideous demons now roamed the countryside, monsters now spewed forth from the dark caves where they had hidden before and feasted upon the flesh of mortals. The darkness would not be pushed back.

A tear slipped down his cheek and landed on the page. He brushed it off. His tear-filled eyes scanned the pages. Then they opened wide in shock. A face. Her face. He checked the date of the book and gasped. It was a thousand years old. But it was her. He was sure of it.

He began to read.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The shadowed figure slipped through the early dawn mist. He moved from house to house like a wraith, moving right before the moogle guards without being detected.

Inside his cloak, the black thing smiled. Everything was coming together so…nicely. The girl was here, in this village, and within his grasp. He had to be cautious now. Her powers were growing. He could feel it, moving through the air in steady pulsing waves of energy. If he wasn't careful, all that power would be turned on him. Then nothing could save him.

Not that anything would want to.

A guard looked up, startled. The black things cursed himself. He had been too lost in contemplation to keep himself hidden. Now he had to play his hand early, perhaps even give himself away. He stepped back into the shadows and waited for the moogle to come within range.

The guard stepped around the corner and saw him. He started to yell, but his voice choked off in sudden horror. The black cloak rippled and fell away.

The night began to bleed.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Aeris Gainsborough stepped through the screen of trees and into the clearing. She looked around, hoping to find Garret, but he was nowhere to be seen. The clearing was empty, the remains of the festival long since cleaned away. She lowered her head in frustration and that was when the fire lanced up her arm. She screamed in pain as her arm exploded into green fire. Power, incomprehensible and magnificent, tore through her. With it came blinding realization of who she was, what she was, why she was. She choked it down in sudden horror, her mind unable to cope. The images disappeared, and with them the power. The green fire flickered and died, leaving her arm unblemished. She raised it to her face in shock, unable to comprehend. It was as if nothing had ever happened. Her arm wasn't burnt; it didn't even hurt.

"What is happening to me?"

"Interesting question. I have another. What are you doing here, Aeris Gainsborough?"

She turned, startled at the voice. Kurin stepped from the trees, his face grave.

"I...know that name...I..."

"Because it is yours. Well, it was yours some thousand years ago. We have…much to talk of, Aeris Gainsborough."

And he began to speak.