Master. That's what he called him. That's what all of them called him. The Apandas and the Byblos. They idolized Elibidis, even though they knew he was a little off in the head. He went a little crazy after being confined in Deep Dungeon for improper conduct during the battle to recapture Riovones Castle. He was caught with a young female priest in a rather compromising position. He was torturing her to death, but leaving her on the edge just long enough to let her still feel the pain. All the corruption of the magic had gotten to him. He had gone completely insane with power. King Valowa had to confine him to Deep Dungeon because he was too dangerous.
But the Byblos worked for him anyway, because he was the only human the Byblos had ever seen, and the Apanda lore foretold that a human would come to lead them all to the Promised Land. Unfortunately, Elibidis was unstable, and so was that prophecy. One by one, the Apandas pissed off Elibidis, and one by one, he turned them into stone. Then, the Byblos were the only one left, so it was him that excavated Serpentarius.
"Finally," Elibidis said after ripping the stone out of the Byblos' hands. "The last Zodiac Stone. Serpentarius."
The Byblos growled. That's not proper etiquette for a savior. The Byblos launched himself at Elibidis, growling. Elibidis held up his wrinkled old hand and pointed a gnarly finger at the creature.
"Contradict me now and die, foolish monster," Elibidis said quietly but authoritatively, but his voice quickly escalated. "Serpentarius is mine! And no one else's!"
The Byblos growled. "I will fight you with every fiber of my being," it cried in its own language. "You will feel the full force of my Byblos powers."
Elibidis stretched out his palm and fired a blast of energy at him. It knocked the Byblos off the hill it was standing on and onto an adjacent platform at least fifteen feet lower. It got back up, ready for another round.
Just then, six people entered. Five of them the Byblos vaguely recognized. One, an old man clad in purple armor and a tannish cape, entered holding a Rune Blade. A blonde woman, also clad in armor and carrying a Rune Blade, had two braids in her hair. One was clad in golden armor covered in a hooded, green cape, the traditional armor of a Shrine Knight. Another was in a traditional summoner's robes, including the Robe of Lords, hidden by Elibidis deep on the dungeons deepest floors. The other was a young man with a strand of hair sticking straight out of the top of his head.
The sixth person, however, was a complete stranger that the young Byblos had no memory of at all. She appeared sitting on a flat stalactite with her legs crossed. She had silver armor all over her body. Silver greaves, silver boots, silver breastplate, silver gauntlets, the works. The package was completed by a silver sword. The young woman had short brown hair, and a big smirk on her child-like face.
"Guess what?" The woman chuckled. Her voice chimed off the cavern walls like silver clanging against the ground. "I know you." Suddenly the woman disappeared. "I've known you since you were an itty bitty baby Apanda." She made a reference to the fact that he was born an Apanda and evolved over thousands of years. Her voice resounded behind him now. He turned around, and there she was.
"Who are you?" He asked. "And how do you know how to speak Apandian?"
"I used to be an Apanda," the young woman said. "My name was Reirieties. Then I became a human. By a prophecy, which also said I would someday come back and save my people from oppression. I was the human that would come to save the Apandas from Hell, not Elibidis or even Ramza
Beoulve."
The Byblos' memory came rushing back to him. He recognized the five other people, even though he did not know them very well. Agrias Oaks, Cidolfas Orlandu, Beowulf Kadmas, Ophelia Kaishou, and, of course, Ramza Beoulve. The battle between the great wizard and the Byblos' five companions stopped freeze frame instantly.
"My name is Joan," the brunette woman said. "And I'm dead. It is my charge to bring you back to your homeland of Ivalice. Mostly because the world needs your unique talents, and the talents of our friends the humans, to save the entire world from damnation. But also slightly because it's my only ticket out of limbo."
"But first things first," Joan said, and reappeared in the place of Elibidis. "You have some serious issues to take care of. Betrayal issues."
"Yes," replied the Byblos. "The betrayal of Elibidis."
She winked at him. "We'll see." She cocked her head to the right. "Follow me."
The scene changed instantly to Dorter Trade City. A thief was talking to a handsome, brunette lancer. Behind him stood a blonde priest, a surly knight, a thin, female ninja, a male geomancer, and a young bard.
"Oh I remember them," the Byblos remarked. "The lancer is my old master, Ryan, back when I was an Apanda. And Barsia the priest, Sir Hampsten, Judy the ninja, Little Jon the monk, and… the singer, what was his name?"
"Brian," Joan replied. "Brian Uribo."
"Oh, right," the Byblos replied. "But why-"
"Sh," Joan snapped, putting her index finger to her lips. "I promise if you watch, it'll all be made clear."
The thief held a poorly made knife to Ryan's throat. The lancer pushed the terrible thief back with the butt of his lance, and accidentally dropped the pack he hand strung over his shoulder. A young Apanda fell out and landed painfully on his head.
"That's me," cried the Byblos. "But why don't I remember that?"
"That fall on your head caused you to forget a few things. Like that thief, Jason, who would later save your life when you were attacked by Adramelk, as well as forgetting the other Zodiac Braves. But most importantly, it made you forget your true name."
"I have a name?" The Byblos questioned. Joan nodded. "Then why didn't Ryan tell me that?"
"He didn't know," Joan replied. "He doesn't speak Apandian. Besides, he was never too bright anyway. I don't know what that Judy girl saw in him."
"But enough about that man," Joan appeared in the spot of Jason, the thief. "I want you to remember it, and you do know where it is carved right?"
"Well," the Byblos thought out loud. "Perhaps in the Duguloa Pass. The Apandas used to live by the dozens there. Back when they were a common species, before they were all but wiped out."
"No, you hail from far beyond that time, five centuries beyond that time to be exact," Joan mused. "Perhaps somewhere else. Somewhere, closer to where you were when you met your human."
"Nogias."
"Nogias, the first level of the Deep Dungeon," Joan pointed him in the right direction. She snapped her fingers and they were there. Carved on the wall in the center of the cavern was the phrase 'And the Byblos will be called Pentecireia'.
"Do you recognize it?" Joan asked.
"What do I look like? A translator," snapped the Byblos.
"Sorry, sorry, just asking," Joan said. "Look harder. Deeper. Try and see past the text and read the words that are written."
The Byblos stared. It was a language he was vaguely familiar with for some reason. He recognized a few letters, they were Apandian. It said something like 'And the Bbl wll be alled 'something''.
"Here, let me help," Joan said. "Let me just move this over here." The '' turned into a 'y'.
"The Byblos will be called… something," the Byblos sighed. "I can't make out the last word."
"Starts with a 'P'," she helped. "ends with an 'entecireia'."
"Pentecireia?" asked the Byblos, and Joan nodded.
"Pentecireia," the Byblos said. "I like it."
"Finally," Joan sighed impatiently. "You worked through your betrayal issues."
"My what?" Pentecireia questioned. "But I thought that-"
"You betray yourself when you don't know your own name silly," Joan laughed. "Elibidis. As if the cosmos would throw you something that obvious."
Pentecireia shrugged. "Okay, so now what?"
Joan smiled, and then everything glowed white.
A/N: I promise the chapters will get more interesting once I get into the more interesting characters (i.e. the characters I actually like). Next is another character that really doesn't matter, Worker 8.
TRIVIA
Joan is obviously a reference to the French Saint Joan of Arc, but I patterned her look after the Yu-Gi-Oh card St. Joan.
Pentecireia has the word "pent" in it which is Latin for "five". This may become important later. It's also the number of non-guests you can have in battle, and his age(500 that is).
Ophelia's last name is Japanese for "resourceful" because she's able to become any job class she wants (and she's mastered at most of them too). I spent way too much time on this game.