Part XVIII: Trouble on the High Seas (or, if you prefer, The Breaking of the Crystalship, )

When Rydia awoke, she was convinced everything had been a dream; that Rosa was still with them, that Fabul had never been invaded, and that Kain had never tried to kill Cecil. The overpowering ache she felt when she tried to get out of bed reminded her otherwise. She blinked when she noticed the rich scarlet carpets, the beautifully woven tapestries hanging on the walls, and that everything around her smelled pungently of spice. They were still in Fabul after all.

Cecil, Edward, and Yang sat at a table across the room from her, talking in low tones. She walked slowly over to them, not realizing until now how much the previous day's battles had taken out of her. Yang looked up and smiled when he saw her.

"It's off to the king's chambers then," he said, standing up and waiting for everyone else to join him.

Cecil's helmet was off and his face was weary. He looked down at Rydia with a tired smile. "How are you today?"

She nodded absentmindedly. "Tired. Cecil, is she really gone?"

Cecil looked away sadly. "Yes she is," then more quietly that Rydia could barely hear, "Along with the crystal and Kain."

"Where are we going to look for her?" Rydia asked again, as they followed Yang through the corridors of the castle.

"We'll ask the king of Fabul for a ship, and with a ship we'll sail to Baron and try to find my friend Cid."

"Why do we want to find Cid?"

"Cid built the airships. If he helps us, we can use an airship to find Rosa."

"We're going to fight them," Rydia stated.

"We may have to, but I was hoping to do something else."

"Wait here," Yang instructed, interrupting Cecil, and making everyone halt in front of a large set of double doors. He went inside and returned a few minutes later.

"The king will see all of you now."

Cecil stepped into the king's chambers with Rydia and Edward following after. The room was modest, and it was appointed with only the most essential things. A nurse stood against the wall, watching the company with quiet interest as they approached the king who was sitting up in bed with a tray and a roll of paper.

The king set his papers down and looked at the four of them.

"Yang told me you were in need of a ship."

"That's right, your majesty," Cecil answered.

"I understand that you will take good care of the ship and its crew, that you will only do what is necessary for the rescue and not entangle my men in some lengthy sea campaign, and that you will use this opportunity to undermine Golbez's attempt to gather the remaining crystal in any possible way. Oh, and I'll be needing the ship back."

"You have my word, your majesty," Cecil replied, grinning at the king's candor.

The king scrutinized Cecil's helmet-less face.

"Good. I will have a ship made ready and its crew assembled as soon as possible. When you are ready, head to the east and the ship and crew will be waiting for you at the docks. I would like to seek retribution for Baron's crimes as much as the next kingdom, but I suppose at the present I will have to leave it in your hands."

"Thank you."

"However," the king interrupted, "before you leave, I must give you something. This sword belonged to a dark knight who passed through here many years ago. It's a powerful blade, but be warned--You will never be able to truly conquer evil so long as you wield this sword. The path of the dark knight can never defeat true evil."

The king beckoned for a servant to come forward, and spread across both of the servant's hands was a long sheath with beautiful engravings. The servant held it out and Cecil accepted it, taking the sword by the hilt and the end of the sheath. He drew it out of the sheath and uncovered a long and wicked looking broadsword.

"Hades," the king answered, unbidden. "As far as I know, one of the most powerful of the swords of darkness."

"Again, thank you, your majesty," Cecil said, bowing.

The king nodded. "Use it well." Then shifting his eyes to Yang, "Yang, you will accompany them on the rescue. You will be my eyes during this time of unrest. We cannot allow Golbez to collect all the crystals. If he does, the world may face an unprecedented crisis."

Yang bowed. "I go gladly, your majesty."

"I grant you my blessing, and give the goodwill of Fabul to you and your journey. May you meet with success and defeat the evil that stands against us all," the king proclaimed, sending them all on their way.

When they were out of the room, Yang led them down from the king's quarters and to the armory. Women and a few men were scurrying busily about the castle, many of them carrying the bodies of the dead or wounded, or moving supplies around from place to place to help repair damages. The castle was still healing from the previous day's attack.

"The armory is this way. We can equip ourselves there before we infiltrate Baron," Yang was saying.

Rydia followed the monk, but could do little more than dizzily gaze ahead, feeling caught up in something she didn't fully understand. They were going to Baron. They were actually going to Baron, the one place she thought she would never go. Did Cecil really know what he was doing by going back there? Would Cid really want to help them? She hoped for Rosa's sake that he would.

Her mind was a whirlwind of unease as she followed Cecil to the armory and elsewhere. Before she knew it, everyone had equipped themselves with better gear and supplies, and Yang was taking them to the city gate where their chocobos were still waiting to take them to the docks. When they finally did reach the city's gates, Rydia barely took the time to notice that one of the birds was missing.

"Rydia, you can ride with me," Cecil told her, taking her by the waist and lifting her up in front of him.

It was much different riding away from the kingdom than riding towards it. Rydia had a sense of sadness in seeing the city return to the distance, knowing that they had been five when they entered it and now they were four leaving it. She missed the white mage already; all her quirks and concerns. She really wished Rosa could still be with them on this journey over the ocean, that they could all be helping each other find the rest of the crystals and protecting more kingdoms.

They rode away from the castle and crossed the surrounding river, heading east towards the ocean. The chocobos brought them there within an hour, and once there, they found the ship waiting at the dock as the king had promised, a crew and captain waiting for orders.

Yang dismounted his chocobo and walked up to the captain, shaking his hand.

Everything appeared normal, until a woman that Rydia recognized jumped into sight and practically pounced on Yang. Suddenly, Rydia understood what had become of the other chocobo.

Yang seemed surprised, but then realized it was his wife and hugged her back.

"Be careful, hon, and bring back something useful this time!" She glanced over at Cecil, her cunning dark eyes meeting his. "And keep your chin up, dark knight. You'll get her back in no time!"

"Thank you," Cecil told her.

Yang grimaced as if to apologize for his wife's frank manner, but turned to her afterwards with a smile. "I trust you will look after everything."

"Of course. Take care. I love you," she answered, smiling broadly and bear hugging her husband. With a final smack on the back, Yang joined the others and they climbed aboard the gangplank and onto the ship. The captain had already beaten them aboard and tugged at his wiry black beard.

"Cecil, I presume," the captain addressed Cecil. "I heard you beat the hell out of those Baron lovelies. Sit back, mate, and enjoy the ride. We'll take care of everything from here, no worries. Anchors aweigh!"

The crew answered in unison, and the gangplank was pulled in, the anchors were pulled up, and the sails unfurled.

Cecil and Edward were led to the cabins below the deck, and while the ship's captain was preoccupied, Rydia stared at the huge masts and sails. They looked like giant clouds when they billowed in the wind, and they fluttered when the ropes were pulled here and there. Rydia was amazed. She had never been on a ship before, and this would be her first journey over the ocean.

For the first time all morning, she suddenly became very excited, forgetting momentarily her concerns about Baron, and ignoring the strange looks she received from the crew members. They had never seen a little girl traveling with such older companions before, and her avid interest in the ship bewildered them. Never had they seen such interest in a seven year old, let alone one with green hair.

Rydia ran to the ship's railing and peered over. Marcy was standing on the dock, waving wildly and smiling. Rydia smiled and waved back, glad to have met Yang's wife through all of the trouble they'd weathered. While Rydia waved, she noticed Yang come up beside her and wave to his wife as well. Marcy shouted something up at them, but the ship began to pull farther and farther away from the docks and Marcy's voice faded away with it.

Yang sighed. "I hope she'll be alright."

Rydia looked up at him with bright green eyes. "She said she took care of everything on her end, and not to worry about anything."

"Oh?"

"She saved me yesterday during the attack. I would have been gone if she hadn't rescued me in the tower. She told me to tell you that."

Yang laughed. "Sounds just like her."

He paused and looked over the water to the docks in the distance. "Have you ever been on the sea before, Rydia?"

She shook her head. "No. I lived in the valley all my life."

"The ocean is vast," Cecil suddenly added, coming up to them from behind. "It takes some getting used to."

Rydia turned to look at him.

"It's a long way from here to Baron," he continued, looking out over the open water.

"What will you do once you arrive there?" Yang asked.

Cecil exhaled, obviously in thought. "I'll look for Cid directly. I'm sure he'll help us, if not, I think I know a way to get a hold of a ship."

"How long do you think it will take us to reach Baron?" Rydia wanted to know.

"A week, maybe longer. There's no way to tell with the sea," came the response.

"I suppose we should make ourselves at home then," Yang stated, stepping away from the railing and heading towards the cabins down below.

Cecil stayed with Rydia for a while, listening to the calm waters, and the gentle rocking of the ship as they sailed away from Fabul.

"It's pretty," Rydia commented, still in awe by how big and blue the sea was.

"It is. The ocean is a beautiful and mysterious place."

"I'm happy I'm here."

"I'm happy you're here, too. We would never have gotten here without you, Rydia," he assured her.

She looked up at him again and blushed.

"I don't think any of us would have gotten here without each other," she hastily added.

Cecil paused and seriously regarded the green haired girl beside him. "You're right. We all helped each other get this far."

"We'll find Rosa and we'll rescue her together."

"Thank you, Rydia."

A few more minutes passed and finally Rydia spoke again.

"I hope Edward's okay. He didn't look well when he came on board the ship."

Cecil chuckled. "No, he really didn't. I don't think you're the only one who's never been on the ocean. Why don't we head below and see what he and Yang are up to."

Rydia giggled. "He looked really green, didn't he?"

"Rydia," Cecil warned, his voice advising her not to tease. "Not everyone can be as good on water as you. I wouldn't give him too hard of a time if I were you."

"I wasn't!" she insisted, but couldn't keep the smile from her face. "I'll go find him!" she announced, running off for the cabins.

Cecil followed after her, smiling. There was something about that girl that could lift hopes even when there were barely any left to lift. He had to admit, though, that Edward being green was worth laughing about, and he descended into the cabins with a smile on his face and more than a few strange looks from the ship's crew.

……………………………………………….

A week had passed since the party of four left Fabul, and Rydia had grown accustomed to the movement of the ship and the look of the horizon. She spent a lot of her time by the railing, peering out into the distance and looking at all the islands they passed. The sea air felt good and she loved when it blew through her hair and left a fine mist on her skin.

The ship had just passed a string of islands and Rydia had heard that those were the last they would see until they reached the mainland. She felt a pang of anxiety in her gut. She both looked forward to and dreaded seeing Baron. Somehow, looking over the railing helped calm her nerves, and she tried not to think about what she would see in Cecil's kingdom.

Every once in a while she would leave the railing to visit Edward down in the cabins, who seemed morbidly afraid of the sea and had spent most of the voyage sick in bed. Rydia felt sorry for him—sorry that he couldn't enjoy such a wonderful experience of being on a ship on the ocean.

She was just about to visit him again when the ship's crew started racing across the deck and shouting things at each other. Rydia stood where she was, watching them run for the ropes and move things around. She felt the ship lurch and heard the captain barking orders at the crew, but still didn't know what was going on. She didn't understand what they were saying, but after a while she began to understand what they meant. Terror had taken hold of the ship and she suddenly thought she heard a great rumbling and rushing of water up ahead.

In all the racket, Cecil appeared on the deck and caught Rydia's eyes for only an instant before going to speak to the captain. Yang and Edward too, came on deck and tried to sort out what was going on. That was when she heard it:

"All hands on deck! Whirlpool ahead!"

Her eyes popped open immediately. Whirlpool? Another of her greatest fears was coming true in front of her eyes. She was terrified of whirlpools, had heard about them in plenty of stories, and was now being pulled towards one. The panic that gripped her, paralyzed her next to the railing.

"Good grief! The lord of the seas—Leviathan!" the captain shouted, frantically trying to turn the ship and move them away from the great funnel of water that was drawing them in.

There was a roar from ahead, but Rydia couldn't see it, she just imagined what and where it was, and that made it all the worse. The ship was gaining speed, but it was gaining speed in the wrong direction and the planks creaked and groaned in the surge of water and against the anchors that had been dropped to slow the ship.

Cecil was trying to help the captain steer, and Rydia wanted to go up to him, but the moment she moved, the ship jerked out from under her feet and to her horror she found herself on the wrong side of the railing.

She screamed but her voice only let out a strangled shriek as she plummeted down from the ship into the water below. She hit the surface hard, thrashing in the water and panicking because she had never been good at swimming. She saw Yang race to the ship's railing and look over, determination on his face to come and get her. Rydia dipped below the surface in the ring of waves that came towards her, and when she came back up again, Yang was no longer at the railing. She looked frantically around her in the water, wondering if he'd fallen in too, and as her hazy mind tried to make sense of what had just happened, she heard Cecil shouting and calling her name.

"I'm here!" she shouted back, knowing that he probably couldn't hear her.

She continued to be swept around in the furious current, and there came a point in the confusion and the crashing waves that she lost focus and couldn't keep fighting against the force that was sucking her in. Farther away from her, the ship was also losing its battle against the water and she witnessed it splinter in two, beginning to sink in sections, and being pulled further apart by the tremendous force of the whirlpool. Many of the crew jumped or were thrown off the wreckage, and the next thing Rydia knew, she was under the water, moving faster than she knew was safe.

The air in her lungs burned and her ears pounded as the current swept her faster and faster beneath the surface. All she wanted was to return to the surface and gasp for air, but the crushing force of the water pushed her farther down.

It felt like the water had swallowed her whole. In some part of her mind, she kept a small hope burning that Cecil would find her, that someone would rescue her from this and it would all be alright, but then the air was forced from her lungs, and her hope began to dwindle.

She was already dizzy from the spinning current, but now she was so desperate for air that her mind could think of nothing else. She felt a coil around her waist and feebly tried to free herself, realizing that if she went with the coil she'd never come back up. It was thick and powerful, holding her firmly by the waist and not letting her go.

She fought it for only a little while and then all her strength was spent and her mind was fading more and more to darkness.

In the haze of her mind, she heard, "Hold on to me," and with that she surrendered to the water.

She didn't remember what happened next, but when she opened her eyes the water was gone. The pressure, the horrible sinking feeling, and the coil were also gone, and in their place was firm ground. She fell on her hands and knees choking, but she realized, relieved, that she was alive, and was grateful for every breath she drew. When she recovered, she took a chance and looked around. The ground was honeycombed like a bee hive but solid in most places. Some of the depressions in the floor were filled with a luminescent red-orange substance, but she immediately got the feeling that she didn't want to find out what would happen if she touched them.

A new form of panic overtook her, and she looked around her in alarm, not knowing at all where she was, how she got there, or why she was there. She wanted to scream for Cecil, wanted to have someone there to protect and look after her, but when she looked around, all she saw were monsters of all shapes and sizes lurking around corners and staring at her with strange glowing eyes.

She started to crawl backwards with her hands and went only a few inches before bumping into something. For a moment she froze, then looked behind her and found herself face to face with a dark piece of fabric. Her eyes drifted upwards and she realized it was a robe, then found herself looking at a strange older man with unusual eyes and a long brown, almost black, beard. It was the color of his eyes that caught her most off guard, though. They were blue or purple or somewhere in between.

"Little summoner," he said in a deep, rough voice, "Are you well?"

Rydia simply stared at him, petrified. "Who are you?"

"I am the king of the land of the summoned creatures. To your kind I am known as Leviathan."

Rydia's mind began to spin again. Leviathan? The Leviathan? In her wildest of dreams she never thought she would meet the most powerful of the summons. Her mother had told her about all of the other summons, what they were like, but Leviathan was a summon that was respected and feared. He was almost never called upon, unless there was dire need.

"I-I'm fine," she answered, unable to say anything else.

"Why has no one answered our calls, little one?"

Rydia looked up at him and confusion showed on her face. She didn't understand what he was asking.

"Where are the summoners, little one. There have been very few summonings for some time, and I have grown concerned."

Now Rydia understood. She stood there in front of him, mute. She didn't know how to tell him, or how to accept herself, that she was the last of the summoners.

The wise summon waited for her to answer, his face giving no sign of irritation or impatience. Rydia finally gathered her nerves, but had to look away when she answered him.

"They're…they're dead."

Leviathan stared down at her. "Dead? How could this happen! There are none but you?"

Rydia hopelessly nodded her head, tears beginning to run down her face.

Leviathan's expression softened, and his strange indigo eyes were filled with compassion. He rested a hand on her shoulder and began to lead her through the caverns that made up his home.

Rydia let him guide her away from where she first arrived, a numbness spreading into her limbs, as her legs continued to move without her command. She was alone again. She didn't have her mother or her village, and now she didn't even have Cecil. The horrible memory of the whirlpool drove a dagger through her heart. Were they all alright? Had they all survived like she had? She wished as she walked with Leviathan that everyone had gotten to safety and that she would see them again, but wherever she was going, she had a feeling she wouldn't be leaving for a very long time. Nothing made sense any more. She didn't have a home, her friends, or anything that was familiar, she was now entirely at the mercy of a summon she barely knew and had never thought to meet. She glanced up at Leviathan and he returned her gaze out of the corner of his eye.

"What's going to happen now?" she asked timidly.

He looked ahead, a resolute expression on his face, and answered simply:

"We have much work to do. You're to come with me, last of the summoners."

El Fin