The road to the Sorcery Memory is paved with bone, they say. Discs of bone from great beasts, from proud monsters, and from the corpses of fallen Kings. It is mortared with dragon's blood and lined with the metal of fallen stars. At night, the eye of the moon opens and floods the land with Holy's light. The Way stands prepared.

All roads lead to ruin. When the Eye closes darkness shrouds the way. When the Eye cries, the Way is set alight.

And so they built a rune from the coffins of the spirits, and bid Atlas hold back the sky. But Atlas will tire. 'The sky is falling, the sky is falling,' cries the little bloodied wren.

-

Nida lay on his back atop the Garden transport, staring up at the night sky in utter, all-consuming boredom. It was nine thirty. Theoretically, his team was supposed to be meeting him at that moment. Knowing them, he suspected he would be lucky if he saw them before ten.

Given that he had never commanded a mission before, he had a feeling putting him in charge of this one was some kind of a sick joke.

Light footsteps approached the lot from the direction of the city proper, and Nida glanced over to see who was approaching.

(Selphie,) he identified. (There's one half of this crazy team.)

"Heeey," Selphie called. "...where's Zell?"

"Fashionably late," Nida hazarded.

Selphie tucked her arms behind her, standing up on tiptoe to try to get a glimpse of Nida's face. "you look bored," she said.

"No kidding. Wonder why."

"Why do they have us leaving now, anyway?" Selphie glanced back at the city, which was giving off a soft glow. "It'll still be there in the morning, won't it?"

"We won't get there until tomorrow afternoon, so if it's not there in the morning leaving now won't help, anyway." Nida kicked at a protruding weld on the top of the van idly. He had a feeling that his retort was going a bit over Selphie's head, but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Selphie giggled, and Nida shrugged to himself. "So... really," Selphie asked. "Why?"

"They want us out there to monitor it in case the Crystal Pillar team does something to produce a reaction in the array, and it's a longer drive," Nida explained. "It was all in your briefing."

"I was gonna read it on the way over," Selphie said.

"Well, that's one way to do it." Nida kicked at the weld again.

"What's the other way?"

"Well, you could read it before leaving like they try to teach you in basic training. But, hey, that's just SeeD regulation. Who pays any attention to that?"

Selphie didn't get a chance to respond, as Zell came barreling into the parking lot at that moment. "Hey! Sorry I'm late," he apologized. "My T-Board broke down halfway here--I had to leave it on the side of the road an' everything--"

Nida groaned. "Zell?"

"Yeah?"

"You realize that the skyway will drop you within five minutes' walk of here?"

Zell's hand went up to the back of his neck. "Yeah, but--I never really liked that thing."

Nida rolled his eyes. "Gee, that's not what you said when you got here and proceeded to ride every one in the city three--"

"So, anyway, are we going?" Selphie interrupted smoothly, opening the door to the van. "I wanna drive!"

"Oh, whatever the hell," Nida muttered, sitting up and hopping down from the roof of the transport. "Yeah, let's just go. Try not to crash us into anything, will you?"

"All righty!" Selphie revved up the engine, leaving Nida and Zell to leap into the van. With what was probably an unsafe speed, they left the lot and sped out toward Tears Point.

-

Something was broken.

The Guardian Force rolled over in the darkness, physical form hardly containing its noncorporeal essence. The resonance had spiked briefly and then dissipated, and that was something that shouldn't be happening. And that meant that something was broken.

Slipping into the ether, it shot itself toward the centre of the Pillar. It didn't know what it was looking for--a crack, a hole, possibly even a total break in one of the chords. Whatever it was, it had to have happened recently--and there was no explanation for that.

Unless....

Unless....

...the Force pushed that possibility out of its mind. If that wasn't the case, then there was no sense worrying about it. If it was the case, then there would be no chance to worry about it--not much of a chance, at least, before the world went to hell.

Extrasenses alert, the Force spiraled ever deeper into the fluctuating patterns of magic that traversed the Crystal Pillar. It was sure that everything would be sorted out... soon enough.