Chapter Eleven – The Chamber of the Mages, Altrisiac
Author's Note: First of all, zipis1, as I forgot to tell you last time, Tarreiz isn't the leader because she's had enough of leading and because Jandegar won't hear otherwise. As the First Mage, he has decided that he gets to be their leader, and if anyone argues then they'll probably get thrown out of Altrisiac. Ah, megalomaniac Mages…
All right, this is where you start moving into my own interpretation/opinion. You will definitely find out. As I stated previously, you don't have to agree with this, it's just my thoughts on the subject. Please don't flame me! It's just an idea!
Crono moved curiously into the room to which Jhyskar had led them, recognising it as the Chamber of the Mages. The Fire Mage had been grinning about something ever since he came to transport them to Altrisiac, saying only that he had a surprise for them. Several days had passed since Tarreiz had left them on the Island of the Sirens and they had been pretty much wandering around, lost, since then.
Alfador gave a mew of utter delight and loped past all of them. Crono was the second into the room and he stopped dead. Lucca, behind him, looked over his shoulder and gave a cry. She pushed past him to run to the blue-haired man with the cloak, giving him a big hug.
"I'm pleased to see you, too," Magus commented, hugging her back a little uncomfortably.
"Magus! Where have you been?" Schala scolded as she stalked over. "Leaving us all to worry over you that way!"
"Perhaps I should have written you a note," Magus remarked, easing Lucca away a little. He glanced down and smiled. "Alfador!"
"It's good to have you back with us," Crono said, smiling.
"Don't get all sentimental on me."
"Do I not get a welcome too?" protested the young man to whom Magus had been talking.
Lucca glanced at him. "Who are you?"
"It is I! Frog!" exclaimed Frog, most upset.
"Frog? But you're… you're not a frog!"
Frog – Glenn – looked blank. "I am not?"
"Have a look at your hands," Schala suggested gently.
Glenn looked down at his hands. They were human and did not contain a single trace of greenness. "I am not a frog!"
"That's wonderful!" Marle commented, going to him.
"I liked being a frog!" Glenn complained. "I was getting used to it and everything! Why did Kelke have to go and turn me back into a human?"
"You don't want to be a human?" Lucca asked him with surprise.
"No wonder I could not reach that cliff. At least as a frog, I could jump decently! I think I will ask him to transform me back," Glenn decided.
"That'd be right," Magus sighed.
"Where have you been?" Lucca demanded of him. "Tell us everything!"
Sensing that they were in for a long bout of story telling, Crono suggested that they sit at the table. Magus took over Jandegar's seat, sensing that it was the seat of authority. (It was gold, after all.) Lucca sat next to him – Kerrelei's chair – with Ayla at Jhyskar's place, Marle at Tarkyn's, Frog sitting in Tarreiz's chair, Robo in Ciaruse's and
Schala (oddly, she felt, although she couldn't think why it should feel odd) in Kelke's. Crono took the last seat left, unaware of the significance of the eighth chair.
Waiting until they were all comfortable, Magus began to speak. "I left the Masamune at Cyrus' tomb before using something I've been working on lately to transport myself to this universe using magic alone. I then had to find the Otherworld – I'd decided to get Kelke out of the Otherworld, just to prove that I could, and I was pretty certain that Frog would be with him – and that was what took me so long. I just couldn't find it. I located it at last just in the nick of time to find Frog trying to get up the last half a metre or so of the cliff. I gave him a hand. After all, he'd saved my life, and there is no way I'm going to stay in debt to a frog for long," he added with a slight glare in Frog's direction, because although Magus was mostly a good wizard now old rivalries die hard. When he turned back to the others, he was all smiles. "What have you lot been getting up to?"
The others took turns to tell him of their search for him, then of the Mages showing up and asking for their help Well… okay, demanding their help. They showed Magus and Frog the items that they had been given. Then it was Frog's turn to speak (he insisted that they continue to call him Frog). He described the Otherworld for them and detailed his journey with Kelke up to the cliff.
"And that is about all," he concluded.
"Now that we're all together again," said Marle, looking about the group, "we can continue with what we were originally asked to do. That is, we can find the Eighth Mage."
"Can't we just go home?" Lucca complained.
"Speaking of the Eighth Mage," Magus began, leaning forward in a distinctly conspiratory fashion, "I did some thinking during my own journey – and you can just keep that comment to yourself, Frog – and I think I have a fair understanding of where we can find the Eighth Mage."
"Where?" Schala asked curiously.
"Here. In our own group."
"Impossible," Crono protested. "Someone would have noticed it by now."
"No, think about it," Magus protested, defensive of his theory. "Before this all began, Tarreiz told me that she'd help us because we had the Eighth Mage travelling with us. And look at this room, at the chairs. You have Jandegar, gold. Or yellow, or whatever. Jhyskar, red. Kelke, black. Kerrelei, blue. Tarkyn, green. Tarreiz, that odd dark colour. Ciaruse, silver."
Lucca, glancing around at the chairs, expelled a breath, finally understanding what he was getting at.
"And the Eighth Mage, purple," Magus finished. "Purple, Schala?"
The others began to look at the Zeal Princess, wearing her customary purple robes. Schala began, "You don't seriously think… what makes you think that I would be… it's hardly probable that…"
"Out with it, Schala," Magus urged quietly.
She sighed, eyes downcast. "I can't lie to you," she said finally. "I am the Mage of Existence, and I've known it for a long time. It's just… I didn't…"
"Why didn't you tell me before? You could have told me."
"I thought that… that if you knew, you'd treat me differently somehow," Schala said in a rather small voice. "And I know you would have, if you really knew everything. I don't want that, Janus… everything I've done has been for you… Lucca, for you…"
"Excuse me," said Ciaruse from the doorway, "but if I may interrupt, Kelke is asking for someone known as Frog."
Crono was still wearing the medallion and, although he did think briefly about how beautiful the Mage's voice was, it didn't affect him as much as it did, say, Magus and Frog.
"I don't believe we've been introduced," said Magus smoothly, rising to his feet to go to her.
Ciaruse smiled at him, moving further into the room to meet him about halfway. "Are you Frog?"
"No. I'm Janus, a prince of Zeal."
"Oh, is he now?" Lucca muttered darkly. So he was plain old Magus to them, but to Ciaruse…
"Ciaruse, the Sixth Mage."
"Ciaruse," he repeated thoughtfully, taking her hands in his. "What a lovely name. You're the Mage of the Moon, are you not?"
"That's right. You know that much about us?'
"I've picked up a little here and there," shrugged Magus in a careless manner. He seemed to know all their names already, and their colours. "I'm sure you could tell me a lot more about them sometime, though."
Ciaruse smiled again. "I would like that, but perhaps later. Kelke told me three times to fetch this Frog person for him, and whenever anyone takes the trouble to tell me something three times, I know it's important. Where is Frog?"
"Um," said Frog uncertainly from his seat. "I am. I mean, here. It is I. Who is Frog."
"Tell me I wasn't like that," Crono pleaded of Marle.
"If you would like to come with me…?" Ciaruse suggested to Frog as she gently removed her hands from Magus' grasp.
"Certainly, my lady," Frog responded a little too quickly and went with the Siren as Magus returned to his, or rather Jandegar's, seat.
"What a beautiful creature," he sighed when Frog and Ciaruse had left the room.
"Magus!" Lucca snapped, finally unable to take it any longer.
"You're beautiful too," he assured her, but she could tell that he was only saying it to placate her.
"Get over her," Schala instructed him with a roll of her eyes. "And don't you dare ever let her sing at you. You probably wouldn't know about her. She's a Siren, so stay away!"
"What did you mean before, Schala?" Robo queried politely. "When you said that everything that you had done was for the benefit of Magus."
"You would have found out eventually, I suppose," Schala began reluctantly. "I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you the truth. I am the Eighth Mage, the Mage of Existence. I am also the Entity."