Chapter Three

Nabradia's capital, Nabudis
Year 704 of the Old Valendian Calendar

When Ffamran woke, everything hurt. That was the first thing he noticed; he felt like every bone in his body was broken. After a few moments, he forced his eyes open and sat up.
The Formidable had crashed. Apparently, the nethicite had created an even stronger explosion than they had expected, and their airship had been caught in the blast. All around Ffamran was twisted metal, large slabs of hull strewn over the ground. He couldn't see any other survivors. However, he could see Nabudis.
The Formidable had come down less than a mile outside the city, and Ffamran could see it not so far away. The cities walls and buildings had all caved in, wrecked and destroyed. Myst ran off it, thick enough to be seen in billowing clouds of gold. The land all around, out past where the Formidable crashed, had been caught in the nethicite's blast. The earth was wet and torn up, any semblance of life or greenery obliterated. There was nothing left of Nabudis but death and destruction.
Ffamran staggered to his feet, leaning on a piece of Formidable's hull sticking up out of the ground. She was most certainly dead. What about everyone else? Ffamran decided he had to look for survivors. Some might have survived the crash, but of the city… No, no one could survive that.
Ffamran struggled to keep his balance and he took a step. Every inch of him was battered and bruised, and his head was spinning. Still, he had to look for the others. If he had survived, then surely someone else must have.
Ffamran walked through the wreck until a spark of light met his eye. Something was hidden under the rubble, glowing brightly. Ffamran's head started throbbing when he looked at it, like when he was around the nethicite. Ah. Is that…?
Common sense told Ffamran to leave whatever it was alone, but his instincts told him to go and see if it really was the nethicite. It would have been wiser to listen to common sense, but Ffamran followed his instincts. He knelt down next to the source of light and heaved the wreckage off of it. It was the nethicite, alright, glowing with unimaginable power. Ffamran's head felt fuzzy with all that energy rippling through the air. That small stone, small enough to hold in one hand, glowing in shades of white and pale blue like a winter storm, had just destroyed an enter city, thousands of lives snuffed out in an instant. Something so horrible shouldn't be possible.
A sharp jolt of energy caused Ffamran jump. The stone sparked myst like a firepit spitting sparks. The air around it fuzzed as if with a heat wave, even though the stone gave no heat. Ffamran felt dizzier than he ever had. He tried to stand and back away from the stone, but he couldn't get his feet under him. Everything spun and his head throbbed… Why had the nethicite suddenly started giving off so much energy?
"At last…" An unfamiliar, rattling voice pulsed through the air, one with that rippling power. The world stopped spinning, and Ffamran found himself slumped amongst the rubble, staring at the nethicite. The air around the stone was clouding with some kind of black mist… no, it was a figure?
Yes, it was a figure, but not a human one. It was some creature, shimmering like a ghost, all pale grey, its face swathed in black shadows save for glowing yellow eyes.
"To think, after centuries' wait," the creature continued, "my prey comes crawling straight to me. What irony."
Ffamran struggled a moment, finally managing to get back to his feet. He had no idea what was going on, what that thing was, floating over the nethicite like some sort of ghost. The only thing he could think to do was run, but with all that energy rushing off the nethicite, he could barely stay standing.
"Who are you?" Ffamran managed to wheeze out. "What are you?"
"Don't fight, Ffamran," the creature said in its calm, rattling voice. "It will make this easier on both of us."
Ffamran's head exploded with a sudden pain, and he dropped to his knees with a gasp. It felt like the creature was digging invisible claws into his mind, tearing up every thought and feeling besides pain. Ffamran pressed his hands against his temples, barely able to even cry out.
He could feel the creature's satisfaction, like it was fulfilling a mission it had begun long ago. Ffamran saw a rhapsody of images from the creature's mind, flashing so fast he couldn't make them out. Somehow, that thing was clawing into his mind with its own. Any ordinary person would have been completely helpless.
For the first time in his life, Ffamran was glad he wasn't an ordinary person. He pushed back at the intruding force, trying to remember what it felt like on that night so long ago when he killed the man in Draklor. Maybe he could pull that long abandoned power out again and shove this creature out of his head.
Ffamran could feel it, the struggle. He was fighting back. Only it hurt, his chest tightening and mind on fire. He could hold off the mysterious, horrendous creature, but not forever. Not even for a few seconds.
Ffamran had long ago abandoned his abilities, shoving them away into the deepest corner of his mind so he wouldn't have to worry about them. He'd abandoned his powers, never learned how to use them. Now, he regretted that more than anything. The creature shattered his pitiful defenses, and he felt its grip tighten… then loosen.
"No…" the creature hissed. "That fool fails me yet again. Am I still tethered to this stony prison? No matter. After a thousand years, I can wait a while longer."
And then it was gone. As quickly as it had come, the creature vanished, disappearing like the ghost that it was, sliding back to hide within the nethicite. Ffamran collapsed onto the ground, struggling to even draw breath. Everything around him was spinning and fuzzy, blurry like he viewed it through wet glass. It kept spinning, spinning and spinning until everything was a flash of chaos. Ffamran closed his eyes against the painful sight, giving in to the blackness that called him.

…

Zecht struggled to his feet, taking a moment to take in his surroundings. Everything was destroyed: the Formidable, the city. So many were dead. A stab of gilt hit him; he should have realized sooner. Everyone who died that day, he felt the responsibility of their deaths weighing on his shoulders.
Zecht shook his head; he could not dwell on the death now. He had to search for survivors. Zecht didn't wait a second, not to catch his breath or take stock of his own injuries. He set off, looking for someone else who had survived this terrible tragedy.
A cloud of dust and myst covered the sky, so Zecht had no way of telling the time. His search felt like it lasted hours, until he spotted a form crouching in the debris. He quickly made his way over within an arrow shot and saw it was a woman kneeling on the ground. She was tall with blond, curly hair, trying to unearth someone else. Zecht could see a gloved hand sticking out of the rubble where she dug.
"Hail! Over here!" Zecht called out, and the woman looked up. She waved a "come here" motion and went back to digging. Zecht hurried over to her.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
The woman shrugged. "Sure. Now help me dig this guy out, will you? I think it's Dr. Cid."
Zecht nodded, suddenly unsure. This was Dr. Cid, the man who led this horrific assault on Nabudis… and Zecht was to help save his life.
"Are you just gonna stand there and gawk all day, Mr. Judge?" the woman asked, still digging.
"My name is Zecht," Zecht said.
"Yeah, and I'm Serah." The woman still didn't stop her task. "Now, are you gonna help me, or what?"
Zecht let out a sigh; whatever the man had done, he couldn't just leave him there to rot under the rubble. Zecht crouched down next to Serah and helped her shovel through the debris.

It was, indeed, Dr. Cid. It took a while for the old man to wake up, but he was remarkably unharmed. They decided that Serah and Dr. Cid would set up camp there, where the ground was clearer, while Zecht continued to look for survivors. Amidst his search, he found only one.
It was that other Judge, Ffamran. Zecht had enjoyed their little conversation that seemed so long ago now. Ffamran had seemed like a very reasonable young man. Now, he lay unconscious on the rubble. The way he lay, it almost looked like he'd fallen there afterward rather than being in the ship as it crashed. Zecht came over and knelt down beside him.
"Ffamran. Ffamran, can you hear me?" Zecht shook Ffamran's shoulders, but the only response was some delirious mumbling. Zecht shook his head and let out a sigh. "Too young for war's horrors."
A glittering caught Zecht's eye, coming from the debris just a few feet away. Lying exposed among the rubble was a small stone, glowing brightly in shades of white and pale blue. Zecht had no idea what that thing was, but he decided it was better left where it was. He grabbed Ffamran under the shoulders and started to drag him away, back to where Serah and Dr. Cid were setting up camp.

…

Everything hurt. That was the first thing Ffamran knew. His chest was tight, his whole body ached, and his head was pounding. His mind was blurry, fuzzed and fragmented. He couldn't remember what happened, why everything hurt so much.
Ffamran forced his eyes to open, and at first, everything was fuzzy. There was a person, a woman, sitting close by, leaning against a large lump of rubble. Her eyes were an unusual, bright green…
"Reina…?" Ffamran managed to gasp out. The woman looked over at him sharply.
"Uh, no, I think you got the wrong girl there, Ffamran," she said.
Ffamran knew that voice, and well. He closed his eyes, letting out a painful breath. "Oh. Hello, Serah."
Ffamran took a few moments to get his bearings. He was lying down on a clear patch of ground, dirt underneath him. He could hear a fire crackling nearby, too, and feel the warmth. But what had happened? He woke up, and Nabudis was destroyed. He went to look for survivors and found… the nethicite. And then there was that thing, that creature inside the stone. Something composed of myst, perhaps? That would be the only way it could hide itself inside the nethicite. But what was it? And what was it doing there? The things it had said… My prey comes crawling straight to me… Am I still tethered to this stony prison? And it had known Ffamran's name… None of it made any sense. Perhaps it was all just some kind of dream. But if it was, why did his mind still feel like something had gone tearing through it?
"How're you feeling, Ffamran?" Serah's voice broke through Ffamran's confused jumble of thoughts.
Ffamran let out a pained chuckle, not opening his eyes. "Like someone took a pickax to my head."
Serah let out a small chuckle in response.
"How did I get here?" Ffamran asked.
"That Judge Zecht hauled you over here," Serah replied. "He's alive, and so is your father, but we haven't found anyone else. Well, anyone else alive."
"Where are they now?" Ffamran asked.
"Zecht's out looking for more survivors, though that seems like a lost cause, and Dr. Cid is looking for his nethicite of all things. Zecht told me to stay here in case you woke up."
Ffamran heard the shifting of dirt as Serah moved closer. He opened his eyes to see her leaning over him. Her hair had fallen out of its ponytail, and a bruise painted the side of her face. Other than that, Serah seemed her usual self. The sky beyond her was dark and speckled with stars. Hadn't it been morning when he stumbled over the nethicite?
Serah reached out and put a hand on Ffamran's forehead, her touch starting him.
"You're burning up," Serah said. "We should get you away from the fire. You think you can sit up?"
"Yes," Ffamran hissed through clenched teeth, his pride deeply wounded. Of course he could sit up. Did she really need to ask that?
Sitting up was a lot harder than Ffamran thought. Every movement brought piercing pain through his whole body. After several minutes of inching along, Ffamran managed to prop himself up against a large slab of Formidable's hull with Serah's humiliating help. Then it hit him. This was Serah, the girl who hated his guts. Why was she doing this?
"Why are you being so nice to me?" Ffamran asked. Serah, who leaned against the rubble next to him, shrugged.
"Because Reina'd be heart-broken if you got killed," she said simply. "And I could never live with myself if let that happen."
"What, Reina being heart-broken or me getting killed?" Ffamran asked.
"Reina being heart-broken," Serah said. "I could live with you getting killed."
"Ah. So this is all purely selfishly motivated?"
A familiar smirk crossed Serah's face. "Yep."
Awkward silence filled the next few minutes. The pain that filled Ffamran's body and mind was starting to dissipate, and his memories grew clearer. His encounter with that myst-creature certainly didn't seem like a dream. So, if it wasn't a dream, what was that thing and what did it want with Ffamran? He almost didn't want to find out.
After a while, Zecht came back. He seemed relieved Ffamran was okay, then ordered everyone to get some rest. That night passed slowly for Ffamran. He was desperately tired, but every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was the nethicite's pale glow and the ghostly figure of that horrible creature. Its rattling voice echoed in his ears over and over, as it had been burned into his senses. Dr. Cid hadn't returned yet, probably still looking for his precious nethicite. Ffamran knew where it was, but he wouldn't tell his father for anything. That stone was better left buried in the ruins of Nabudis.