Chapter 9 for your pleasure.
Disclaimer: Standards apply.
Date: 12005 B.C.
Schala walked Lucca back to the citadel almost everyday after that; these times, however, it was out of the Princess' own free will. Lucca was totaled, as usual, at the end of almost every exercise, and with her training at the frequency of five days a week, sometimes six, there was barely enough time to rest adequately. Lucca ever-present desire to explore the city was constantly repressed, since after all, she was asleep any day she didn't have to meet with Zeal.
Over time, the exhaustion lessened. It had been 2 weeks after the beginning of the routine that she could cast the flame pillar spell without becoming close to or entirely comatose, and one more week before she did not feel wobbly, dizzy, or outright nauseous. Then, as expected, Schala would come to Lucca and her Majesty's designated training grounds and help Lucca up, all the while talking about nothing important. It was all a part of their lives now; Lucca could almost close her eyes and count down to when Schala would tap her on the shoulder, just near nightfall. As their meetings after training increased, Lucca's previous feeling of reverence whenever the princess approached was replaced by amity. She began to talk to Schala about her family and friends in Truce, though not before making the Zealian swear to never reveal Lucca's origins to anyone. Every so often, Lucca would mention Marle or Crono, though it wrenched her heart whenever her thoughts fell on them…well, them wasn't the right word, since Crono was the one she really wanted to see. Marle was really just an obstruction, something that was there, but that Lucca could not get rid of. Sure, the blond-haired princess was always friendly to Lucca and tried her best to develop their friendship, but the recipient of all of Marle's attempted camaraderie was never fond of her in the first place.
This pattern went on for about 3 months, until Queen Zeal began to teach Lucca new spells instead of helping her control old ones. These were mainly useless tricks that Lucca vaguely knew how to do, but never found a purpose for. The first of these was making copies of one's self using magic. Essentially, Lucca was made to create clones of herself (illusionary clones, of course; they dissipated in time and couldn't hurt a fly), which took extreme concentration and discipline, though that energy could have been better spent frying someone. And so, Queen Zeal made Lucca study this technique, as well as almost all variations of it, for a good three weeks before Lucca could do it consistently, though her Majesty added "review sessions" here and there to make sure Lucca never forgot the spell.
Being that Lucca couldn't dare voice her opinion to someone like Queen Zeal, she vented at Schala at the end of her practices. Almost everyday, Lucca couldn't help but mention how pointless she thought the exercises she was learning were; Schala always answered that Lucca should put more faith in her Majesty, being that she had stopped Lucca from fainting constantly. Lucca had no retort for this and simply nodded, while Schala beamed proudly at having bested her friend in a dispute, which rarely happened. Lucca once questioned where Zeal got all the time to train Lucca day in and day out, but Schala honestly did not know. Apparently, Lucca's training was so high on Zeal's priorities that she often refused to see individual council members unless there was an immediate urgency, or a previously requested conference had been delayed too long. She never once missed a group assembly, which occurred once every three weeks to discuss various issues arising. Schala, being part of the council (the youngest member in it by 1000 years, in fact), knew most of the details, though she did not give all the particulars about such summits to Lucca during their frequent get-togethers. One of the most discussed issues was the proposal to annex another piece of land into Zeal Kingdom, thereby increasing the number of islands to four, in order to house its burgeoning population and to allow sufficient space for the prospect of another city. The ideal piece of land - which was not yet entirely permafrost - lay in the outskirts of the Earthbound territories. As soon as the issue of negotiation was brought up in order to acquire the potential island, nearly all of the council's 2000 members urged her Majesty to oust whatever Earthbound lived in the area and spare the need for further unwanted association with the land-dwellers. Queen Zeal saw such brash actions as a bad idea, since it would not change much. The hidden reason, however, was that she foresaw the eventual reliance on Earthbounds once magic couldn't satisfy the Enlightened Ones' basic needs. Schala pointed out that her Majesty never openly said this to anyone, though she had discussed it with the princess at least twice, and that the few times that the topic arose between mother and daughter, Zeal would end the conversation. After cutting their talk short, Queen Zeal would enter her chambers and look out a window, silently brooding.
This reminded Lucca of the time she had spoken with Queen Zeal inside the monarch's chambers in Kajar. Her Majesty voiced the same ominous prediction, that the reliance of magic would eventually be the Kingdom's downfall. The night that Schala had spoken to Lucca about this, she pondered what could have been of Zeal Kingdom if they had never blindly followed their leader and awoken Lavos, prematurely destroying all that they had built over thousands of years. Most likely, the same result; the demand for magic to supply all of the Enlightened One's basic needs would be too great for its supply. After all, only a few people in the Kingdom developed their magic enough to handle much more strain. For this reason, the Sun Palace was built, and for this reason, the Mammon Machine would have been built and Lavos awakened eventually. There would be no difference, because Zeal Kingdom and its society was built in a way that required its eventual collapse. The only way Lucca saw to rectify this inevitability would be for Enlightened Ones and Earthbounds to co-exist and merge entirely, so Zealians would have a backdrop of knowledge on how to farm, how to build, and how to redevelop their society entirely once their magic failed them. Then, there would be no need to awaken Lavos because any additional need for energy would come in the form of Earthbound knowledge; with the two subgroups integrated into each other, the genes that granted magic would be spread through the entire human population, and farming and domestication would developed as they would have. In fact, Lucca saw this integration as the sole salvation of the Enlightened Ones; however, they were already too far into their hatreds and prejudices to even conceive such an idea, and they were too used to spells and incantations simplifying their lives that they couldn't possibly relearn what it meant to use one's sweat and blood to build a house. This all saddened Lucca; the anger that she previously held against the Enlightened Ones turned into pity. They would collapse under what made them unique in the first place, and none but Schala, Queen Zeal, and herself could see the eventuality. Perhaps the Gurus were aware of this as well, being that they were the wisest among Enlightened Ones, their knowledge surpassing even her Majesty's. However, Queen Zeal would eventually see them as threats some time in the next five years and ostracize them from their positions. Melchoir will be sealed in his icy prison soon enough, and Marle, Crono, Lucca, Frog, Robo, and Ayla would all be barging through the mountain to free him. Even though Lucca knew it was folly to try and prevent the following events from happening, it further saddened her that she could not do it, even if she wanted to. There was only five years left, after all, and she couldn't change this race of people whether she had five or fifty thousand.
The irony of the situation was so thick, it almost pained Lucca to think about it. The Enlightened Ones were doomed to failure one way or another, and that inevitability was as plain as the light of day; yet, the common Zealian knew nothing of this, and suspected nothing, and could think only of their carefree, nonchalant lifestyle. Lucca didn't remember the last she had seen an Enlightened One sweat or bleed, and at times she even thought this race was incapable of such natural human responses to exertion and pain. Did they ever cry after losing parents, grandparents, friends, family? Did they ever whimper and grovel, stricken with the plague or yellow fever? Did they pant as they foundered wood to provide shelter for the winter? And more importantly, did they relish in the feeling to a full belly because such a thing had been denied to them before? Did they covet however reward they received for their labors, their suffering? To Lucca, these people were barely human beings, because they did not live as such. They did not feel the inevitable feelings of loss or fear; likewise, they valued life so lowly because they had never had theirs threatened. Why else would they live in luxury while Earthbounds suffered in the freezing cold? Any human being who has known destitution, pain, or suffering would not allow their fellow human to endure the same dismal feeling.
Yet, all these thoughts only compounded into her further admiring Schala. The girl had probably never gone so long as thirty minutes without the most luxurious clothes on her back, or the most exquisite food in her belly, yet she cared so much for those who had nothing. Schala was a saint, or an angel, or maybe both; but either way, the princess was capable of love and compassion that Lucca had never thought possible in a person, and for no reason other than her own kindness. Others are philanthropic because they believe it amends for their sins, but Schala had, has, and will never sin; others care because it is politically correct, but Schala had, has, and will never place politics over her concern for humankind. It was saddening then, that Lucca was this angel's foil, for the inverse of one million can only be an infinitesimal number, and the inverse of absolute goodness and grace can only be evil beyond comprehension.
Date: 12005 B.C.
Lucca woke up that morning gloomy, still slightly troubled by all that she had pondered the previous night. The sun was still slowly rising, and the sky was an odd tint of gray. It must have been dawn. Getting up slowly, Lucca yawned and stretched before heading for the small pool at the bottom of the sourceless waterfall. Over the weeks, Lucca had rearranged a number of rocks that lay at the bottom of the pool so they made three separate enclosures. One was large enough to bathe in; the other was small and conveniently at the edge of the pool, made for washing one's face or brushing one's teeth; and the third massive for when Lucca felt like swimming, which wasn't very often. She had never liked swimming very much in the first place, her element being fire, and water its instinctive enemy. Lucca strolled over to the smallest enclosure, and plunged her hand in the water. A few seconds later, steam rose from the makeshift sink, and Lucca doused her face in the warm water, waking her up entirely.
"What am I going to do today?" Lucca muttered out loud. It was her day off, so the lingering prospect of her exercises was gone. She could always play with the children that often frolicked in the fields immediately outside Lucca's quarters. They were often her emergency entertainment when there was nothing else to do, though such a day only occurred when her Majesty had to cancel a lesson because of a council meeting. That meant Schala, with her aura of goodness and purity and the general friendliness she brought, would not be there. During these days, Khadgar was often there to keep Lucca company, though he was often called upon at the palace to help design the plans for a provisional form of energy called the Mammon Machine. Lucca became somber when she heard this; Khadgar would probably die when Lavos awoke, since she hadn't seen him in the village of Commons after Zeal Kingdom was destroyed. Running her hands through her hair, which had stopped growing entirely but still reached her knees, Lucca strolled lazily back to her bed and sat down. She looked at her palm and formed a fist, then unballed it to look at her palm once again. She felt like burning something. An odd desire had been building inside of Lucca for a few weeks now, but she could never quite place her finger on it. She had discovered what it was now; she had been idle too long. Her magic was a burgeoning force waiting to be unleashed, and her pointless exercises didn't satiate its hunger. It was a sensation new to her, almost like a longing, but she was certain it had been there since she was attacked by the dinosaurs.
"What can I set on fire…" Lucca said absent-mindedly. A ball of fire formed over her palm, grew to the diameter of a plate, and dissipated as fast as it had come. Lucca did this a few times, the ball larger at every occasion, until she couldn't take it anymore, and felt like she had to burn something, had to unleash the destructive force that was her magic, or she would die.
A short chapter. Most of this chapter was written quite a while ago, but a large chunk of it is recent. See if you can figure out which through the discrepancies.