Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long since an update. As you can probably tell, I'm finding this one hard to write. This story in general that is. So updates are much slower than I like. And normally when I get them written, they're poorer and shorter, which I apologise for. I feel really bad about it. Leaving you guys with nothing then these substandard chapters. On the plus side, the plot moves a bit more this time.

I honestly can't remember anything important I had to say in responses to reviews or plot it's been so long due to my crappyness at updating. I'm even getting worried I'm messing up the plot I'm taking so long to get chapters done.

I've also decided to give up on my chapter naming convention (up until now, everyone has been based on an FF song). It's proving too much effort. Mostly though, they'll probably be named after something.

CHAPTER XIV

Remasa opened her eyes slowly with a groan. The tightness of the restraints had been removed. Leanne didn't want to kill them yet, evidently. They still couldn't escape however.

"Remmy's awake." Voldos observed.

"'bout time. Told you white mages had no stamina." Bootus grumbled.

"Well, you've been busy." Remmy muttered back.

"Wha?" Was all Bootus managed to say in confusion.

"Destined and heroic Light Warriors. Yet we're still captured. I thought you'd have escaped by now." Remmy mocked lightly.

"We're waiting for the opportune moment." Voldos offered in their defence.

"I think that would have been a few hours ago." Zinkata groaned.

"Well don't you guys have plans for situations like this?" Remmy asked in desperation.

"We generally just wing it." Voldos explained.

"Bootus! When you told me stories about being a Light Warrior you never mentioned you were so incompetent!" Remasa cried.

"We prefer to think of it as competency impaired." Zinkata sighed. "Look. There has to be a way out of these bonds."

"If only they weren't magic proof." Remasa complained.

"Wait? They're magic proof?" Voldos asked.

"Well, yeah. They have to be, right? I mean, you've already tried to escape that way, right?" Remasa answered. The three Light Warriors remained silent. "You haven't?" Remmy cried. "You mean we've been chained here for hours and you haven't even tried just blasting the bonds with magic?" The three Light Warriors shamefully glanced to their feet, but didn't say anything. Remasa began to chant and a bolt of lighting shot out, hitting the bonds. They paused for a moment, waiting.

"Ha! Nothing happened. We aren't that stupid." Voldos laughed. There was a slight creaking, and suddenly the elvaan's eyes went wide. The pillar they were strapped to collapsed, pulling the Light Warriors and Remasa, who were still strapped to it, down with it.

Vivli was curled up in a small room onboard the ship. Leanne had thrown her there shortly after her mental breakdown. She was still sobbing, and still unable to even think straight enough to make it to the door (which was in fact not locked, a taunt left by Leanne). Her mind was filled with images of her friends screaming in agony because she couldn't save them. Images of her own weakness failing her. Her thoughts were like a pounding headache she simply couldn't escape. She was desperate to try and escape, but she simply couldn't get away from her thoughts. She was trapped in her own mind. Everything she had fought to overcome had come crashing back down on her.

Olose's body seemed to be floating in the air, circling in the magical bonds of the werewolves' voodoo magic. Leanne was once again stood before him. Behind her, another figure in a black robe was stood, long brown hair flowing in a ponytail, and piercing brown eyes examining Olose. She seemed unusually engaged in studying him.

"Can you wake him up for a moment?" Leanne inquired.

"The status is a little shaky." Replied the other woman, clearly a necromancer. "He is held by his bonds to the ship. The slightest disturbance could awaken him again and free him."
"Could?" Leanne questioned irritably.

"Well, I should be able to hold him, but it won't be easy." The necromancer replied.

"Life isn't easy, dear. Do it." Leanne instructed.

"Okay." The necromancer sighed, beginning to concentrate. The orange electrical bonds that held Olose in the air began to fade slightly, flickering. Olose began to stir from unconsciousness. He let out a sudden roar and tried to move.

"Don't bother." Leanne laughed. "You can't break those bonds."

"Leanne!" Olose growled. "What's the matter? Abaj not available?" He taunted angrily. "He always had you be his lapdog. Somebody on his leash."

"It would be wise to remain silent." Leanne told him simply.

"Why? Feeling a little humiliated?" Olose mocked. "I've had plenty of time to figure out what happened. Abaj Tuh was a werewolf that died, but one you managed to resurrect. That made him the legendary The One Who Is Dead, your champion. So you followed him blindly and he led you to destruction."

"It was only temporary. We are back, and this time we will be victorious." Leanne spat.

"Abaj will lead you to ruin." Olose told her simply. "But you're beginning to figure that out, aren't you?"

"Silence!" Leanne suddenly roared. "I can kill you now!"

"Wait." The necromancer suddenly said, faltering in her concentration slightly. "You're plotting against my father?" Olose's eyes went wide at this.

"Your father?" He whispered in confusion. "Abaj has a daughter?"

"You know we would never do that, my dear." Leanne smiled to the necromancer. "Abaj is our leader. By the sacred prophecy of Prometheus."

"What are you planning?" Olose asked, floating helplessly yet still seeming dangerous.

"That's why I woke you up. I wanted to explain." Leanne told him gleefully.

"What is wrong with you villains? You just decide to explain your plan to me?" Olose began to rant.

"Well, if you preferred I did not…" Leanne began with a smile.

"Let me guess. You want to tell me just so I know before you kill me? Don't you villains ever learn?" Olose was almost joking, had it not been a legitimate question.

"Why are you so quick to assume we are villainous?" Leanne snapped, yet her tone remained strangely friendly.

"You serve Prometheus." Olose reminded them.

"Not for long!" Leanne countered. "You've seen the coming wars between the nations?"
"That was your doing." Olose pointed out.

"We but applied a pin point of pressure. This world is ready to tear itself apart at the drop of a hat. Mortals have lost sight of what it means to be alive. The gift they have." Leanne began to tell Olose.

"So you seek to punish them by wiping them out?" Olose assumed.
"Oh no. Nothing so dark." Leanne smiled. "We attempted that, and we failed. Life is a force too strong to be eradicated. But beings such as us, we are destined to rule."

"Oh, so you just want to take over the world. How mundane." Olose mocked. The young looking necromancer almost looked offended. Leanne chuckled to herself.

"No. Not in a way you're thinking. This world. It needs rulers. It needs us to rule and control it to prevent the coming bloodshed. The wars between nations will occur, and occur again, and continue to occur until these pathetic mortals find ways of eradicating themselves with weapons so powerful the entire world will be gone. It is just a matter of time. We immortals can stop that. We don't want to rule the world. We wish to save it." Leanne explained.

"And crush everybody who can stand in your way? Including me?" Olose guessed.

"The prophecy says you can defy us. But now we have you beaten. You cannot stop us." Leanne told him. "Our plot for ultimate supremacy is already underway. We shall soon have control over Vana'diel."
"And then what? Squander it? Sit on your thrones and smile? Kill each other for the right to rule?" Olose questioned, trying to make her see the futility of it. "You'll slip into far worse than what the world is at the moment. I know you will. You think Abaj will share power? Or will you? None of you will!"

"My father will share our power! My father is doing this for good! He only tried to kill the mortals before because he saw it as a better solution! He wants to protect them! That's why he wants to rule!" The necromancer suddenly began to shout.

"Silence!" Leanne cried at her. "Do not speak to him!"

"You know magic." Olose told her suddenly. Leanne's eyes seemed to begin to fear. "How? Werewolves can't learn magic. But you're Abaj's daughter."

"I am half human." The necromancer snarled. "My mother was a hume. As such, I am a combination of the two. Able to cast magic and become a wolf. I even revived my father after you killed him!" She cried triumphantly.

"What?" Olose whispered. "You were born before Abaj died?"

"I was but a baby. But yes. You murdered my father before I was given a chance to even grow up. It was twenty years before I could bring him back! Twenty years!" She screamed.

"STOP!" Leanne screamed.

"Abaj had no daughter." Olose whispered to himself. "Abaj had no daughter!" He suddenly yelled to the necromancer.

"Freeze him again!" Leanne ordered frantically.

"YOU ARE NOT HIS DAU-" Olose was forced to stop yelling as he screamed in agony, becoming tortured, and eventually floating again in silence. He had been returned to stasis.

"Good job." Leanne sighed. "Your father will be pleased." The necromancer remained silent, and turned beginning to leave. "You don't believe what he said, do you?" Leanne called after her in an intentionally sweet voice. The necromancer looked back for a moment, and then left.

FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINE YEARS EARLIER

Phabrizoe smiled as Olose opened the door to his wife's manor, and greeted his old friend with an ecstatic handshake, despite their height differences. Phabrizoe's hair was graying now. It had been a long time since they had first met.

"Have you seen the news?" He asked happily, holding out the Vana'diel Tribune.

"No. What happened?" Olose questioned.

"They've found the body of the last known necromancer. Killed by an orc ambush it seems. Authorities have been tracking him for a long time." Phabrizoe explained. "It must be the guy who resurrected Abaj. He's finally found justice." Olose thought for a moment.

"I thought you said only a werewolf could have resurrected Abaj." Olose stated. It had been a subject of much discussion between the two over the years.

"I did think that." Phabrizoe admitted. "But one of the items they found on him is described as a strange wolf with two crossed blades. We saw that symbol in the hideout of the werewolves. He has some connection to them. He must be the one. Necromancy is a strange thing, Olose. Nobody is quite sure how it works. It goes way beyond the usual raise spells. It's something that is almost impossible to understand." Olose took the paper from Phabrizoe and looked over it.

"Well, I guess it's over. A male hume. Long tangled black hair. A slight beard. Medium height. Reads nothing like I expected." Olose smirked.

"What did you expect?" Phabrizoe asked.
"Somehow I thought he'd be an elvaan." Olose smiled.

FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINEYEARS LATER

Olose's mind had managed to remember the dead male necromancer just before he was frozen. Something didn't add up. That man had a connection to the werewolves. But what? If he wasn't the one who resurrected Abaj, and that was the girl he had seen, then what did he do? What was his role? Olose couldn't understand. Something didn't add up. Hell, nothing added up. How were the werewolves even still alive? He needed some answers. And he'd need them fast. Before they succeeded in whatever their plan was. They wanted to take over the world. The scary part was that Olose believed they could do it.

The room which contained the Light Warriors had fallen strangely silent. Finally, a voice broke it.

"Okay. I admit that could have gone better." Remasa managed to say, still strapped to the pole which was now laying on its side on the floor, broken free by her lightning bolt.
"I'll say." Grunted Bootus, crushed under the other side.

"You're a white mage! What were you doing with black magic anyway?" Voldos grumbled.

"People take two classes, stupid." Remasa muttered with a sigh.

"Okay. We are, at least, slightly free." Zinkata began. "Things are beginning to look up."

"Not from down here." Came a muffled moan from Bootus, who had the weight of the pole and the three other warriors on top of him.

"Right. Bootus. Push yourself up." Zinkata ordered.

"Oh yeah. Real easy." Bootus grunted.

"C'mon. You used to be a monk! And you're a galka!" Remasa criticized.

"Oh, be quiet, shorty!" Bootus shot, straining and lifting up the pole (along with the other warriors). Eventually all four stood balanced, stumbling around, still connected to the pole.

"How are we going to fit this through that door?" Voldos asked, pointing to the exit in question. Zinkata simply sighed.

"This is going well." He managed to state.

Olose's eyes flew upon. The bonds were weak. Clearly the necromancer hadn't been able to hold him. Just like she had feared. Reestablishing the bonds had been too difficult. Olose allowed himself a slight smirk before he yanked every muscle in his body. The bonds of energy crackled and suddenly burst apart in a bright flash of orange. Olose was flung to the floor and landed with a grunt.

He quickly climbed to his feet, and took a moment to look around the hold of his old ship. He smiled slightly. It felt odd to be on the small boat again, but he remembered it perfectly. Too perfectly. It was why they could use it to capture him in the first place.

Olose began to run, but skidded to a halt instantly. The necromancer stood before him in the doorway.

"I knew you'd free yourself. I let you." She stated simply.

"Sure. Whatever. Now move, or die." Olose warned.

"I freed you for a reason." She told him. "I wanted to hear what you had to say." She explained. Olose paused. This was his opportunity to solve the little mystery.

"Why did the wolves have another necromancer if they had you?" He asked inquisitively. "There was a hume necromancer. He worked for your cult. Why?"

"Simple." The necromancer stated. "He saved my life." She told him.

"What?" Olose questioned.

"I died. When I was a baby. A miscarriage." The necromancer explained. "But I was the only half human half werewolf. They needed me to resurrect Abaj as their hero. So they got the hume necromancer to bring me back. I was half his species, so the magic worked."

"Died as a baby?" Olose whispered. "What's your name?"
"Talia." The woman stated.

For the first time in his six century long life, Olose fainted from shock.