Here we are, chapter twelve. I keep having gaps between these chapters…I have so much going on right now, it's difficult to sit down and write, but I'm working on it. Here's the next installment, and once again, thanks for everyone for their reviews!
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Part XII: Leaving Damcyan
Knowing it would take Edward some time to lead them to the hovercraft, Cecil and Rydia walked all the way back down the stairs together in silence. While re-tracing their steps through the smoky and dust-filled chambers, Rydia was having a hard time understanding Tellah's abrupt departure; surprised that a man of his age and skill could harbor so much anger. She was afraid for him. If the man who destroyed this castle was the same man Tellah was after, she didn't see how the old man could survive.
"Cecil," she asked quietly when they reached the base of the castle's main tower. "Do you think Tellah will be alright?"
"I'm not sure, Rydia."
"Why does he want to do this by himself?"
Cecil paused and looked down at her. "For revenge."
"Revenge?"
"When someone harms you or someone you love, you retaliate and seek to do as much harm to them as they did to you."
"Does it bring happiness to the person who goes looking for revenge?"
"I haven't heard of any quests for revenge ending happily, no."
"So Tellah…"
"He may not go that far, Rydia. He may turn back."
"I hope so…"
While Cecil and Rydia waited for the king, they took some time to search through the ruins. As they wandered through the battered courtyard, they saw movement among the rubble. Some of the guards had been unconscious, not dead, and they began to sit up and brush themselves off before standing up to see what had become of their compatriots. Rydia felt her heart jump with excitement and happiness. Not all had been lost! Realizing that there was something she could do to help, she ran from person to person, using her cure spell to get them up on their feet. Soon there were many more guards coughing and pushing rubble off of themselves, before they too tended to the other wounded. Those already up had begun to carry off the dead.
Before their eyes, the damaged castle started to come back to life. Cecil helped some of the surviving guardsmen take the dead and move them beneath the courtyard, into the cool catacombs, and Rydia helped to cure more of the wounded as best she could.
When Edward finally emerged from the castle's main tower with two other people, an old man and an old woman, he found his courtyard full of activity and life. He almost wept for joy when he saw the other survivors, and came up to Rydia and Cecil with tears in his eyes.
"Thank you!" he exclaimed. "You have helped my people in their time of need, how can I ever repay you?"
Rydia looked up at the king with a huge smile plastered on her face, but tiredly swayed forward and back. She had spent the last of her energy the heat hadn't destroyed by curing the wounded. Cecil stretched out a hand to keep her upright.
"If it's no trouble, your majesty, is there anything here that might cure exhaustion?"
Edward furrowed his brow and looked at the sky while he thought. The old woman, who had entered the courtyard with the king, stepped forward then.
"As a matter of fact we do!" she announced. "Follow me. I'll take you to the pots of healing water."
The three of them, the king, Cecil, and Rydia followed the old woman back into the main tower, but this time they stayed on the first level.
The woman led them to a far corner of the room and found a large, decorative barrel. She pryed off the top and beckoned to Rydia.
Rydia stepped forward and peered into the barrel. The water inside was quietly lapping back at forth at the sides and she cautiously reached inside with cupped hands and lifted a handful of the cool water to her mouth. It was refreshing and delicious. Rydia had never tasted water like it in her life, and no sooner did she finish the rest of the water, she felt completely re-energized.
"This water is delicious!" Rydia said happily.
The woman beside her smiled, and then Cecil stepped up to the barrel. He tilted his helmet back and took a sip.
"This is delicious water," he confirmed.
"It's used to make elixirs; found in the purest underground springs. It will give you back your strength," the woman explained.
"Now that you're refreshed, I will take you to the hovercraft!" Edward said, and then led them back to the courtyard and towards a side entrance that led to an exterior chamber.
Inside the chamber rested an unusual looking vehicle.
"If I may ask, how did Damcyan come across such a contraption?" Cecil asked Edward.
Edward smiled sheepishly. "Baron's rejects I'm afraid. While in the process of creating the airships, they created this vehicle as well. But being disappointed with it, they offered it to anyone who wanted it, and we bought it to cross the shallows between here and Kaipo."
"Interesting. I didn't know Cid had constructed anything quite like this."
Edward looked at Cecil curiously. "Cid?"
Cecil shook his head dismissively. "Baron's chief engineer. He built the airships."
"Do you know him?"
"I do. I was raised in Baron, and met him there."
"Was he the one who built the Red Wings, then?"
Cecil didn't answer. "I'd rather not discuss it right now, your majesty."
Visibly disappointed, Edward turned his attention back to the hovercraft.
"Can it really fly?" Rydia asked.
Brightening, Edward answered her. "Of course it can fly! Not as high as the birds, but it floats above the sands like a butterfly flitting between flowers of the field…" he told her, starting to sound like a song.
Rydia tried to hide a grin and gave Cecil a very mischievous glance when Edward wasn't looking.
"Come along now, let's find this ruby for your friend!" Edward announced, jumping into the hovercraft. "Before we go though, I'd prefer if you didn't call me 'your majesty'. Please call me Edward."
Cecil nodded, and he and Rydia then climbed into the hovercraft after Edward.
Edward started the hovercraft with a small crystal embedded into its front panel and it steadily lurched itself off of the ground. Once they were up, he maneuvered some of its pedals and they exited the chamber to find themselves once again at the mercy of the blazing sun.
"Hold on now!" Edward told them and allowed the hovercraft to go to its maximum speed. Rydia nearly fell over in her seat. They were moving faster than she had ever imagined it possible to move without the help of magic. The wind made the desert almost bearable, and it whipped through her curly locks, making it feel as if she herself were flying away. The sands beneath them, the mountains to the south--they all began to melt away behind them, but in front of them they began to see water; clear blue streaks of it on the horizon.
Rydia had never seen the ocean before and when they neared it, even though it was one of the smaller bays, she practically jumped out of the hovercraft to go stand at the its edge.
They passed miles and miles of coast before finding pale shallows that the hovercraft sped over, lifting the water up from beneath and spraying it behind them. When they had crossed the shallows, Edward brought them close to another chain of mountains and stopped at the base of one of the mountains where a cave entrance could be seen in the hills.
"Here is the cave of the antlion," he told them, reaching over to grab his harp before jumping daintily out of the hovercraft.
He led them to the entrance, and they all descended into its cool depths. This cave was much different from the water caverns, Rydia noticed. The walls were red, and looked and felt quite a bit like clay. It reminded her of an ant nest the more they followed its bends, curves, and hollows.
Cecil held up the torch that shed light onto the chiseled out walls as they explored the various tunnels. Edward led them from room to room, and was a fairly quiet guide unless something caught his interest, and then he chattered on about it for some time. Rydia was amazed at how talkative the king could be, almost like a young boy eager to show off, but at the same time, sheepish, and he sometimes had more words than his tongue could speak.
While they descended deeper into the tunnels, following Edward's directions and listening to his knowledge of the cave, they encountered monsters that Rydia had never encountered before in their previous experiences. Not even Cecil's sword could damage them. Rydia found herself relying on her magic more than her bow, especially on the strange black lizard creatures that had almost turned Cecil to stone. The monsters here were strange; most of them were insects, and Rydia wondered why that was. During one of their battles, Cecil and Rydia were struggling to take down another one of the lizards, when they both heard music coming from behind them. Rydia turned to see Edward gently picking the strings of his harp and singing a lilting tune. The black lizard, that Cecil had determined was a basilisk, fell to the ground, asleep.
"What did you do to it?" Rydia asked him, amazed.
"I sang it to sleep. All creatures have a certain weakness to song, even the basilisks," Edward answered.
Cecil, taking the opportunity, approached the basilisk and dealt the final blow.
Rydia kept her attention on Edward. "How many tunes do you know?"
"Oh, many! There are songs of enchantment, songs of sleep, I can even sing love between two people. There is so much power in music."
Rydia smiled brightly at him.
"Was it your singing that won Anna's heart?" Cecil asked, returning to where both Edward and Rydia were standing.
Edward's expression immediately fell. "W-well, yes. She loved it when I sang and played for her. I would have played anything for her."
"I'm sure she can hear your tunes even now, Edward. They say that music is eternal. If there is as much power in music as you say, surely she can hear you even now."
Edward smiled slightly, "Thank you, Cecil. I'm sure you're right."
They continued onward, and thankfully, this cave was not as large as the water caverns. After only having traveled for a little while, they finally reached a chamber that sloped downward to a pit. Edward walked ahead of them, headed towards the pit.
"This is where the antlion lays its eggs and where we can find the sand ruby," he explained while he walked. Cecil and Rydia followed some distance behind him.
When he reached the bottom, two large pincers drove their way out of the sandy pit.
Rydia gasped and jumped back in fear. That was why the cave was full of insects. This was an ant nest!
"No fears, the antlion is quite tame. All I have to do is step forward and take the—my goodness!"
Rydia and Cecil watched as the pincers snapped shut and almost caught Edward between them. Shocked and looking very close to panic, Edward jumped back towards the two of them.
Cecil immediately took initiative. "Seems he needs some help, Rydia," he said, drawing his sword and advancing.
Rydia followed Cecil towards Edward and together they faced the antlion who had now completely surfaced. It was brown and red, very wiry, and its pincers were almost half the size of its body. It anxiously snapped the pincers at them, waiting for someone to make another move.
"Edward, can you draw its attention with your music? I'll go in from the other side."
"But I—I—" Edward stammered, still stunned from the attack.
"Never mind!" Cecil shouted, charging forward with his sword raised, and striking the antlion behind its pincers near one of its shoulders.
The moment the antlion was hit, it retaliated, shaking a multitude of small spikes in Edward's direction. Hit, Edward crumpled to the ground.
Rydia saw him fall and immediately went to work chanting the cure spell. Once she released it, Edward was no where to be found. The spell fell to empty air, and she looked about curiously for the king.
"Rydia, just keep attacking it, hopefully it will give up quickly," Cecil told her in a rush.
She agreed, and gave up looking for Edward to focus on summoning. Cecil struck again and again at the antlion, and every time Cecil hit it, the creature retaliated with spikes. Rydia was hit by them on a few occasions and they tore at her skin like rose thorns. However uncomfortable, she continued to summon her chocobo and command it to attack the other creature. The antlion was a very persistent creature, and it was quite a while before Cecil and Rydia had any success of weakening it.
Cecil struck two last times, and finally, the creature gave up, collapsing to the dirt, its jaws slack and open. Cecil stepped up to its body and found the nest it had been guarding. Among the eggs rested a small, but very deeply colored ruby. Cecil picked it up and stared at it in the dim light of the torch they had set into the cave floor.
"This must be it," he said, relieved.
"Now we can go cure Rosa!" Rydia said smiling.
"Is it—is it over?" they heard a voice call out from behind them.
Cecil and Rydia turned to see Edward cowering behind a stone formation in the chamber.
"It's over."
Edward hobbled over to them, looking very pathetic and bleeding profusely from the wounds caused by the antlion barbs. Rydia once again chanted the cure spell, and this time it found the proper recipient. Feeling much better, Edward stood up fully and looked at the stone in Cecil's hand, then at the still form of the antlion.
"But I don't understand. Normally the antlion is tame, docile. Why was it so aggressive?"
"It's happening everywhere. Once tame animals are becoming fierce and aggressive, and they're multiplying in numbers. Something is upsetting them."
"So you have the sandruby?"
Cecil nodded.
"Come on! We have to go!" Rydia said quickly. "We need to help Rosa!"
Cecil looked at Rydia who was impatiently staring at him, waiting for the two of them to follow her and return to the hovercraft.
"You're right, Rydia, we have to hurry. Edward, are you ready to go?" he asked.
Edward, still a tad bit shaken, finally turned his eyes from the antlion, and nodded. "Yes, we should leave right away. Your friend is in need. I don't want to be the reason for another loss."
"Let's go!" Rydia shouted, and ran up the sides of the pit to the opening of the chamber.
Cecil and Edward followed behind her, and they quickly returned to the exit of the cave and out again into daylight. They ran for the hovercraft, and Edward brought it into the air. Rydia looked over at Cecil, who held the sand ruby in his hand for inspection. She wondered if he was alright.
As the hovercraft sped over the land, the sea, and back into the desert, she hoped that Rosa was still alive, and that they could still cure her.
As he watched the landscape fly past them, Cecil was hoping the same thing. He stared at the ruby in his hand, watched its imperfect facets reflect the light, and could only hope that they made it to Kaipo in time.
