Act 2: Scene 6

Eidolons.

Garland's cryptic nature kicking in once again, or something of importance?

Silver dragon, have you ever heard of eidolons?

The dragon's head feathers rustled thoughtfully. "The name sounds familiar, but I cannot place it."

I frowned, brushing my feathery hair from my face. The grace of this habitual movement had increased tenfold with the addition of my new costume. "Hmmm . . . Garland wouldn't have mentioned these 'eidolons' if they weren't important."

"The answer must lie in Madain Sari."

"Then I will find it there. Fly swiftly, my friend!"

And it did. We were settled on the cliff overlooking the ancient village in just over a day of intensive travelling.

The weather was torrential. Rainwater seemed to be falling in solid blocks, and thunder and lightning cracked the blackened sky asunder. The charcoal clouds hid the Invincible, hovering at an altitude much higher than any ordinary airship could reach, and for that I was grateful - it would make it all the more dramatic when it descended from above to reap the souls of these seemingly peaceful humans.

Drenched by the heavy rain, which somehow made me more serene rather than agitated, I decided it would be better for me to watch from afar the power of the Invincible, and then move in once the storm died down to kill off any survivors.

"Are you watching, silver dragon?" I roared over the raging sound of the storm.

"I am."

Smiling in anticipation, I threw my arms into the air and called for the Invincible with all of the power that dwelled in my body, and focused on driving this energy into the Eye, as I had been taught. And what happened after that excelled even my greatest expectations.

The immense ship swung down over Madain Sari, and the sky burned with blood as the great Eye blinked and fixed on its target. Even my distance from the chaos, I could feel the waves of heat and sound pumping from the ship relentlessly, and I had to lay a hand on the silver dragon's shoulder when it began to fidget with fear.

The storm seemed to congregate around the Eye, drawn by the magnitude of power, until Madain Sari was little more than a frail silhouette in the midst of a funnel of flaming cloud and burning rain. Parts of the town itself were sucked up into the maelstrom. I could see bodies tearing through the air as well, and I could hear the screams of sheer terror emanating from Madain Sari's quaking walls.

And then I saw them.

The eidolons.

***

Great behemoths rose inside the chaotic tornado. As souls began to explode from the town and whirl upwards into the Eye, these immense monsters stood up and screamed. I was too far away to discern features, but the power they radiated was . . . insane! My pulse rate increased as I watched the souls of even these magnificent entities sucked up and away, stored inside the Invincible for as long as Garland, or I, deemed necessary.

If these were eidolons . . . then they were more powerful than any black mage I could create or any dark force I could harness. They might even be able to defeat him.

And yet the Invincible was killing them! Killing them along with these . . . these 'summoners'. I recognised the term now. I was not a summoner, but there had to be other ways in which these incredible forces could be manipulated . . .

By the gods, I would find them!

***

Madain Sari was little more than a crumbling ruin by the time the sun rose at dawn. Ironically, it looked to be a spectacularly clear day. The waters on the lee side of the summoner village were calm, although wreckage - and bodies - from the night before could be seen floating on the surface of the ocean. The Invincible had returned to the upper layers of the atmosphere, no longer in view from Gaia's surface.

Everything was very quiet.

And it was in this quiet that I descended from the cliff, exhausted from my control of the Invincible, which had required my mind, body, spirit and soul, but eager to find out more about these magical entities known as eidolons.

I told the silver dragon to wait by the village entrance, and stepped inside.

Despite the torrential rain collecting in puddles and pools all over the now uneven ground, the dirt at my feet was hard-packed and my boots clacked against it sharply. From the feel of things, I didn't have to worry - I literally couldn't sense a single soul around me.

I walked through the village, poking my head inside badly damaged buildings, peering down wells, exploring the harbour . . . but there was no one left. All I found were bodies, corpses, and blood. It was a little disparaging to realise that this massive-scale, violent destruction inspired not disgust or horror, but pride and self-satisfaction in me. This was my handiwork. And I was pleased with it?

But what could I expect? I had been created to be this way. I was, after all, an Angel of Death. I couldn't help it if a love for bringing loss of life was already a part of my nature. At least I wasn't personal about it - except in Garland's case. Oh, I'd be his Angel of Death, all right . . .

"You're making excuses for yourself," the silver dragon observed dispassionately. Looking back, I could see it preening outside the village entrance.

I am not. I feel no guilt, so why should I be making excuses?

"Perhaps you are merely trying to explain your actions, to yourself."

"Look! If I cared about these little horned freaks, I'd say so, okay?" I yelled. My voice careened around the desolate square I was standing in. Nothing responded to its echoes, though.

The dragon gave me the mental equivalent of a sniff. "Fine, then." And, thankfully, it remained silent after that.

It was a circular building without a roof - apparently blown clean off in the attack last night - that caught my attention. Compared to the other dwellings in Madain Sari, it was huge, and very tall. As there was no longer a door to bar access, I decided to make myself welcome after ascertaining the building's purpose.

Genomes are good with languages - they have to be. They know the Mother Tongue of Terra the instant they are released from their stasis cylinders, and they pick up the fairly global language of the Gaians very shortly afterwards. Thus, the inscriptions over the doorway took only minutes for me to decipher, and revealed that this building held the Eidolon Wall. Of course, this sounded very tempting.

The first thing that caught my eye when I entered was the painted mural, now a little ruined but otherwise enduring, that ran the entire circumference of the interior wall. In the images I saw vivid depictions of some of the eidolons I had seen early that morning - and many that I had not. That made me very hopeful indeed.

I spent several hours scanning the almost illegible writing that accompanied the images. Eidolons ranged from very powerful to just plain useful, if not damaging. And I needed an incredibly damaging eidolon to beat Garland with. Of course, my creator wasn't stupid, although I liked to think that he was. He would know my intentions for researching into eidolons.

The only solution I could find to this problem was to incorporate the eidolons in my overall plan to bring widespread war to Gaia; that way he couldn't object to it. And the way I could do that was apparent in one of the very last pictures on the wall . . .

Alexander.

That was the eidolon's name. It was the most powerful, available entity I could see on the entirety of the wall, and I had searched it extensively. The important part of the information was this: it was sealed in quite an obvious location, considering its name, and by a single crystal. However, the mural indicated that something had happened to that crystal. If it went into any further detail than that, I couldn't decipher it. At any rate, it was my understanding that the Invincible didn't just devour and store souls - it could control them if need be. And eidolons might be magical, but they too had souls. If I could get the Invincible to control the souls of the eidolons, then they would obey its commands. And since I was currently in command of the Invincible, they would ultimately be doing my bidding. It would be akin to summoning them naturally.

Well, Alexander was my chance. And I had to take that chance by the throat or Garland would reclaim my soul before I gained the opportunity for retaliation against his treatment of me.

It looked like I'd be heading back to Daguerreo, then. Grinning at the long-awaited prospect of a method for my revenge, I left the Eidolon Wall and prepared to leave Madain Sari. It was then that I heard the crying.

To my right, on a lower level of Madain Sari that should have been inaccessible, were three moving figures. One seemed to be an old man, silver-haired and bloodied from the storm and the soul reaping. The other two were younger, but equally as filthy. The female was curled into a tight little ball, sobbing her heart out, while the younger man attempted to comfort her with very close physical contact. Probably in love, I thought with a sneer, and aimed a palm at the oblivious survivors.

The pain of Garland's soul pathing stopped me from firing a spell that would have obliterated them.

"Wait, Kuja."

I was on my knees, and extremely pissed off. "Why?! What now, Garland?"

" . . . Do not kill these ones. The old one will die soon anyway, I expect, but . . . there are reasons that the summoners must not completely die out."

"I thought you wanted them all dead. They are the only ones who can control the eidolons reasonably. And the last thing I need are righteous and sensible summoners out for justice when I start my war!"

"Oh? You'd rather the eidolons fall into the hands of the inept?"

I laughed. "The inept are the people who will think they are in control of the war. And if they have eidolons, they will believe themselves invincible. And when they summon those eidolons, I will prove them wrong. They will aid me in my quest through their ineptitude. But the summoners have apparently been summoning for thousands of years - they know what they're doing! I will not allow them to jeopardise my mission!"

"Oh, they won't. I'm sure you can handle two summoners, Kuja. I forbid you to kill these. One day, you'll find out why, and thank me for it."

"Hah! The day I thank you for anything is the day my soul is no longer my own!"

"That day won't come soon enough for me, Kuja."

He broke contact, and I watched the survivors as I caught my breath back. Common sense ruled out the merciless killing of the three distraught summoners - Garland would not jeopardise the chance the assimilate Gaia, even it meant he could draw pleasure from my failure. So he had to have good reason to allow them to live. I would simply have to go along with it until I found out why.

The silver dragon was waiting for me outside, as I knew it would be. As I climbed onto its back, it began to evaluate my feelings and condition.

"You are tired," it stated. "But you are also excited. You think you have found a way to beat Garland."

"All true," I assured it, neglecting to stand for this trip in favour of resting my head against its feathery back. "Back to the Desert Palace for now. I'll fill you in later, if you haven't figured it out for yourself."

The dragon modulated its usually erratic flight into a smooth, serpentine glide. I would have thanked it for being so considerate, but before I could even form the words in my head, I was asleep, the dragon's breathing a monotonous lullaby for my ever-active mind.

End of Act 2