Into the Depths

It was worrying for Valor, seeing Gantz writhe fitfully on the bed.

The Chosen of Wind had been found on the ramparts by guards roughly an hour ago collapsed from exhaustion, and soaked so thoroughly with sweat that it had taken three nurses to peal him down to his small clothes.

Presently, in the long silvery hall of the Citadel's infirmary once again, The Chosen of Earth stood, armored as always, at the foot of one of the many beds along the silvery west wall. It seemed that at night, the walls and floors gave off a soft ambient glow that made it easy enough to see without lit torches or stanchions.

Gantz lay on the bed, eyes closed, teeth gnashed, lean body twitching. It seemed as if he were trapped in a nightmare from which he could not escape, writhing, shaking and even growling, locked in an internal struggle.

Sana-Lynn stood to the right side of the bed in her white robes, her hair slightly tousled since she had been awoken from sleep to diagnose Gantz's condition. She stood silently, her hazel eyes closed as she weaved her white staff slowly over the afflicted thief.

Robin Magus stood to the left side of the bed, fully concealed in her tattered black robes and tall peaked hat. "I sense a lingering aura about him, perhaps something akin to a curse." She sounded fascinated rather than worried, though Valor supposed that was a step up from the pure disdain he would have expected from her only hours before.

Sana-Lynn suddenly opened her eyes. "Not quite, Robin. Curses are like a seeping stain laced through the life aura of their victims, this is something more nebulous."

The black mage merely shrugged. "Well, this isn't exactly my area of expertise."

Sana raised a blond eyebrow at her. "Oh? Well it is nice to see that you can admit you don't know everything."

Robin's voice hardened. "I have never once declared that I knew everything, white mage!"

"Enough," Valor interjected, "Focus on the problem at hand, please."

Robin seemed ready to retort angrily, but suddenly flexed her right hand and kept silent.

Sana-Lynn's demeanor changed quickly as she brought her ashen staff down to grip it with both hands. "This is not any kind of physical ailment with which I am familiar, Valor. I… I believe it might be an affliction of the mind."

Valor heard the desperation in her voice. "Can you not cure such a malady?"

The white mage shook her head in frustration. "I should be able to. White magic should be able to heal any affliction short of death itself, but maladies of the mind are entirely different from physical ailments such as wounds or poisons. I would need to refer to the Litanies of Esuna, the only comprehensive guide to dealing with the complexities of mental maledictions. I studied them years ago, but remember only that the weaves and incantations required were so complex that I couldn't understand them at the time. The litanies aren't even part of the White Temple's standard curriculum for that very reason."

Valor frowned. "So you're saying that such afflictions are not well understood."

"No, Valor, they are not, and without the litanies for reference, even attempting to cure such an affliction could destroy Gantz's mind."

"Bloody hellfire!" Valor swore, startling both mages. "With a siege at our doorstep, we need all four of us together! We will be outnumbered enough as it is!"

Robin pointed her charred rod at the warrior. "I do not see why this bothers you so greatly, Chosen of Earth, surely you'd be glad of a reprieve from this monkey's insolent tongue."

Valor growled in disgust. "I am not so petty as that, Robin Magus! My dislike for Gantz's vulgarity notwithstanding, he is a fellow Light Warrior and a comrade in arms!"

Robin gave the impression of rolling her glowing eyes. "You misunderstand me. I wish no harm upon this lascivious lout anymore than you do… not anymore anyway… but standing here impotently is getting us nowhere. We should be doing something!"

Sana-Lynn gave her a glare. "What can we possibly do about this, Robin? I have already said that the litanies are leagues away."

The black mage shook her head irately. "No, not this sleep-struck simian, white mage. He is on his own for now; you've made that apparent. I am talking about the larger situation at hand. Somewhere below, this fortress has changed. I had already explored some ways down before my… encounter… with the dwarf mystic. I felt something down there, something the Fire Orb was pulling me towards."

Valor cupped his chin with an armored hand. "Yes, I suppose it would make sense to do so. Our orbs resonated when the change happened. It must have been important."

Robin nodded sharply. "Exactly! And instead of fretting here pointlessly, we should head down below the Deep Forge and find whatever awaits us."

The Chosen of Earth hesitated a bit before placing his armored hands on his hips. "Very well," he looked to Sana-Lynn. "What say you, Sana, would you accompany us?"

Worry abounded in the girl's hazel eyes. "I really don't want to leave Gantz like this."

Robin clucked irately. "He is as safe here as anywhere, white mage."

Was that actually meant to be reassuring? Valor thought. "You said it yourself, Sana-Lynn, there is nothing you can currently do. I believe Robin is right in this, and Gantz is safe enough here, for now."

The Chosen of Water shook her head. "How can you be sure Gantz is safe at all, Valor? You greatly underestimate the importance of the mind if you think he is not in danger from this."

Robin suddenly turned away with a growl. "Alright, I've had enough! You two can dither here all you like; I am going to find what waits below." She started off.

Valor sighed in exasperation. "Please, Robin one moment." The black mage halted, but began tapping a foot immediately. The warrior looked back at Sana-Lynn. "You can stay here if you like Sana… but I believe we should go into the depths together."

The girl gave one last worried look at Gantz. "…Very well, I will go… but-"

With her decision made, the Orb of Wind suddenly appeared in a green flash to hover over Gantz, buffering everyone nearby with a soothing breeze.

All turned to look at it as the artifact hovered ever so slightly toward the Chosen of Water. Sana-Lynn was taken aback by the orb's sudden presence, her honey-colored hair being teased by its soft winds.

Valor was perplexed. "It… it seems like it wants you to take it, Sana-Lynn."

The orb hovered slightly closer to the Chosen of Water again. Hesitantly, the white mage reached up and took the Wind Orb in hand before reverently placing the artifact within her robes. "I wonder what this means."

Robin turned away again. "Dwell on it later, white mage, act now."

Valor nodded. "Worry not, Sana, I believe you will find a way to dispel Gantz's affliction. For now let us find out what awaits us below. We have only so much time before the morning comes, and not long after I fear, the goblin invasion will begin."

IIIIIIIII

Sana-Lynn felt uneasy with the extra weight of the Wind Orb in her inner robe pocket. It made her worry even more for Gantz, wondering why his orb would suddenly decide to abandon him.

She kept such concerns to herself, however as she strode side-by-side with Valor behind Robin. Since the black mage had already been below, she had taken point, however, Valor had insisted that they first speak with Commander Rainhart, updating her on Gantz's plight and informing her that the three of them were heading into the depths of the Citadel. Despite her obvious impatience, Robin had conceded to the wisdom of doing so.

Much to Sana's continued disbelief, it seemed that the black mage really was trying to rein in her ever-present fury. She still wasn't anything like amicable, but neither was she always snapping angrily or ridiculing them. Sana-Lynn supposed it was a step in the right direction.

Once out of the infirmary, the three headed down a flight of silver stairs and were soon in the midst of the massive thoroughfare tunnel that cored through the entire Citadel. At Sana's side, Valor glanced over the massive place. "I still cannot believe that such a structure exists."'

Robin gave him a sideways glance. "Oh this is nothing, Chosen of Earth, the Citadel is merely one part of something much larger."

Sana gripped her white staff in both hands, much as Robin held her charred rod. "Let us hope it's not too much larger, Robin. We don't have forever to search below."

The black mage shook her head without turning. "We won't have to, the orbs will point us in the right direction. My Fire Orb has done so for me before."

Valor looked to her. "Truly, Robin, your orb has actually guided you?"

She gave an exasperated sigh. "Again, Chosen of Earth, you sound surprised, I would have expected more from you. The orbs are our link to the Elemental Crystals, and the Crystals themselves are destiny personified. Why wouldn't they be guiding us?"

The warrior shrugged his armored shoulders. "Yes, of course, it makes sense, Robin, I just thought they might be too weak."

"Weak yes, but not dead. Until the Elemental Crystals shatter they still live, and as long as their life still burns, however weakly, they still shed light."

Sana suddenly wished she had Robin's determination. "I thought you weren't one for speeches, Robin. That sounded almost inspirational."

The black mage grunted. "Take it how you will."

Sana-Lynn suddenly bit her lip. "I just wish Gantz was here to witness this change of heart."

Robin grunted more harshly. "Stop worrying for that buffoon, white mage, he will fight his battle and we will fight ours."

Sana wasn't so sure. "But why would the Wind Orb desert him?"

"Desertion?" Robin growled, "You jump to that conclusion so quickly, white mage. Stop letting your compassion blind you and think for once!"

That remark raised Sana's ire, but she summoned the Holy and let its soothing warmth calm her. "If it is not deserting him, than what is it doing?"

Robin's glowing eyes narrowed. "I am not telling you, white mage. You are the scholar here, or so you've claimed, figure it out on your own."

At Sana's side, Valor ran an armored hand through his brown hair. "Perhaps we need the orbs for what waits below."

Sana-Lynn saw his logic immediately. "Yes, of course, the orbs must be needed below and Gantz is in no condition to bring his, so the Wind Orb needed another to take it."

Robin nodded. "Finally, yes, easy enough to see its not desertion at all, just a current necessity. The real mystery is why it chose you, Sana-Lynn. I doubt such a choice was mere happenstance."

Soon after, Commander Rainhart in her black full-plate, her red-haired lieutenant, several human scouts, and Cidolphus Rumsley came out into the great tunnel, not far ahead of the three.

The old engineer greeted them with a big wave. "Ahoy, ya little bastards!"

Sana heard Valor grind his teeth, but the Chosen of Earth was the first to head toward the other group with Sana and Robin following in his wake. He planted himself before Commander Rainhart, the severe-looking woman accepting his respectful salute with a quick nod. "How is the Chosen of Wind, Lord Valor?"

"He is incapacitated by some strange malady, Commander, one for which we currently have no means of curing. However, we now intend to go into the depths of the Citadel to find whatever change occurred down there. The three of us believe it might be important."

The Commander of Truce frowned, which seemed like a scowl on her. "Very well, I will make certain nurses attend to the boy as long as is necessary. Do you require assistance?"

Robin looked ready to burst with impatience, but Valor put up his hands quickly, speaking to forestall her. "No, I believe we should go down to the depths by ourselves."

Cid suddenly stepped forward. "Not without me you aren't, pipsqueaks," the old man added, brandishing his wooden mallet with a big toothy grin.

Valor made a sound of disgust. "Please, Lord Rumsely, I believe we can handle this."

"Believe what you want, whelp, but I ain't got nothing to do up here but twiddle my bloody thumbs, so I'm coming with ya whether you like it or not."

Valor's voice tightened. "I specifically do not like it."

Cid came up and clapped him on the shoulder. "Good, not liking stuff builds character. Now, where in the bleeding piss are we headed, again?"

Robin snarled, "Nowhere at this rate!"

Sana smiled heartily, her mood buoyed by the old man's presence. "Just follow, Robin, Master Cid, she knows the way."

The heavyset engineer rested his two-handed mallet over one shoulder. "The fire-starter eh? Well what're you bloody waiting for, witch girl, lead on!"

The black mage gave another aggravated growl and moved ahead, gripping her charred rod in both hands, but managing not to wrench at it like Sana had seen her do so many times before.

IIIIIIIIIIII

Despite the delays, Robin Magus quickly found curiosity overcoming her anger. She moved down the spiral staircase as she had done only several hours before, the other three behind her.

The black mage was not waiting for them to keep up, however, moving down the stairs with a single-minded focus. It was only when she got to the landing just before the Deep Forge did she force herself to stop and wait for the others. She did this in an attempt to let her impatience subside. It was no easy task keeping her anger so confined.

The others were not so far behind that Robin had to wait long, forcing her foot to stop tapping as the other three came to the landing.

Valor and Sana came down side-by-side, with the old engineer puffing his way down a whole minute later. "Whoever built this blasted place must be infatuated with bloody stairs! I almost bloody puked halfway back."

Robin was about to quip something, but Valor managed a grin at the old man. "You know you didn't have to come, Lord Rumsely. You could have stayed above drinking yourself into a stupor."

After puffing a bit more, the old man just laughed. "Ha! I am way beyond bloody stupors, whelp, come at me when you learn a damned thing about drinking!"

Sana-Lynn giggled. "I got drunk once back in Cornelia… or at least I think I did."

Robin narrowed her glowing eyes. "Yes, let us waste more time with inane babble. Come, the Deep Forge is not far ahead, and it is there we must find the next path down."

As Robin continued to descend she didn't hear any ringing on metal this time, quickly assuming that the dwarf mystic was not present. She admitted to herself some relief at this, and then, with a slight increase in heat, she passed under the archway and into the Deep Forge again.

It was a circular domed chamber with a mighty anvil in its center. A freestanding rack filled with various metal implements stood behind the anvil and several stone kilns were positioned around the walls of the room.

Wheezing, Cid wiped a beefy arm across his balding head as he came in under the archway. "Oh good, it's hot as bleeding demon piss down here… just what I needed after nearly killing myself on those bloody stairs."

"A pity there weren't more of them then…" Valor quipped. Sana giggled.

Robin sheathed her charred rod in the belt loop beneath her robes and looked about, knowing she hadn't paid much attention to this chamber during her last visit. "There must be something that leads to another way down. We need to find it."

Valor glanced at her with a nod. "Right, we should split up and search the chamber."

Cid just sat down on the stone floor pulling a handkerchief from his sleeveless tunic to mop sweat from his brow. "Knock yourselves out, whelps, I'm taking a bloody breather."

The three Chosen split, Valor and Sana going to opposite ends to check the perimeter of the round room for stairwells. It made sense to Robin, since that was the likely place for more stairs to begin. She, however, moved up slowly to the anvil, remembering the lesson she had been taught here only a few hours ago by the dwarf mystic. Previously, of course, she hadn't been in a position to really inspect the huge metal block. It was nearly as broad as three of her, but not very high off the ground, obviously of dwarf make.

Robin went up to the great anvil, running her hands along its smooth rounded edges. Oddly enough, in the very middle of the anvil's broad face was an inlay that seemed of some silvery metal. It appeared to be in the form of a dwarf rune, but Robin had no idea what it meant. It was roughly eight inches across, quite tiny in the center of so large a flat metal surface. It struck Robin as quite an odd decoration being so small and relatively dark upon the already dark metal face.

The runic design was also strange, as the lines didn't connect properly in its center, seemingly offset. Small as she was, Robin had to climb onto the anvil's broad surface to get a better look at the oddly configured rune. She ran a hand along its surface and immediately felt strange indentations in the central offset portion of the inlay. There were five altogether and her fingers fell into them quite naturally. Without hesitation, the black mage moved the offset portion counterclockwise until the rune aligned perfectly with a heavy click.

That click seemed to unlock a series of even heavier clicks and grinding sounds somewhere just below. Suddenly, an especially heavy grating caused dust to fall from the ceiling as the entirety of the domed chamber rotated slowly about.

The metal tools on the rack beside the anvil clanked together as the chamber rumbled. Robin could feel the vibration in her bones as she continued to lie across the anvil's face during this slow grating process.

Slowly, along the northern wall of the forge, an opening appeared. It uncovered what seemed to be a narrow metal bridge leading across a pool of lava roughly thirty feet across. On the far side began another tunnel in a silvery facade that grew into the rock around it.

Cid got off the ground to go gape with the others, just as Robin joined them. "Well, no bloody wonder it's so damned hot down here – blasted Deep Forge indeed!"

"What are we waiting for," Robin said, and stalked off across the causeway.

IIIIIIIIII

Sana-Lynn was already sweating profusely as she watched Robin take off across the narrow bridge. She envied the Chosen of Fire's obvious resistance to heat, but gripped her white staff and took a tentative step out onto the metal bridge. She could feel its warmth beneath her slender white boots, the lava being no more than ten feet below the expanse. Also, with no tresses and only about five feet wide, the bridge itself offered no means to keep someone from falling off its edges into a molten death below.

Brandishing his two-handed wooden mallet, Cid moved passed the girl, ambling across the bridge as swift as caution would allow. "I bloody hope me chosen weapon doesn't burst into flames over this infernal pit."

Sana remained reluctant, swallowing a lump in her throat. She suddenly looked up, however, as Valor, with sweat streaming down his face, offered her an armored hand. "It is a daunting expanse to be sure, Sana-Lynn, but I would never let you fall."

Gratitude blossomed in the girl's mind as she took the proffered hand and started across. They went together slowly, Valor keeping to Sana's pace. She kept her staff clutched in her other hand, balancing with it.

A minor slip halfway across the bridge saw Sana-Lynn yelp and instinctively throw her arms about the warrior. She glanced up at Valor apologetically but said nothing as she merely slipped an arm around his waste at the same time that he put an arm around her shoulder. In this steadier embrace, they continued on.

Already on the opposite side, Cid gave a raucous laugh. "Hey, you two look like you're getting a little cozy there. You want me and the witch girl to turn around so you two can have a smooch?"

Suddenly very conscious of where she was, Sana was glad for the intense heat since it had already flushed her face enough that her blush wouldn't even be noticed. Regardless, Valor's armor kept this from being a truly intimate embrace. It also seemed to trap heat from the surroundings making him very warm.

"I would appreciate it if you would keep such comments to yourself, letch," Valor replied.

Sana heard Robin growl. "Embrace all you like, you two, just move faster while doing it! We do not have all night to dally in this gods forsaken place."

The two made it to the far side of the ledge and quickly let go of each other. Sana then busied herself with tiding her robes, before shuffling quickly away from the lava pool as if to put the embarrassment behind her. "Why in the realm did the dwarves make that bridge so narrow?"

Cid just shrugged and everybody moved on under the archway into another silvery hall. This passage was similar to the Citadel above though they were all far underground now. If it was indeed part of the same structure than Robin had been absolutely right in surmising that the Citadel above was merely the tip of something truly mindboggling.

Valor seemed to be thinking the same thing. "How could anyone forge something so huge out of pure metal, and embed it down into the earth this deep?"

Robin, having taken up point again, spoke without turning. "An ancient form of earth magic was used to build this structure and then mold the earth around it. Such a grand magical endeavor must have taken hundreds of mages."

Valor suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, his blue eyes wide. "No, not hundreds of mages… the Earth Crystal itself."

Sana-Lynn gasped. "Truly, Valor, how do you know?"

The warrior's right hand went to hover about his neck where Sana knew he kept the Earth Orb in a pouch tucked beneath his breastplate. "The orb is resonating. It just showed me a quick glimpse of the past… of this place's construction. Five dwarf mystics, channeling the power of the Earth Crystal, molded this structure and the ground around it, but…" He suddenly blinked. "That is all I was shown."

Cid glanced about the silvery hallway through his thick goggles. "Ah, makes perfect sense I suppose. No mortal mages could've done something like this without major support."

"Fascinating," Robin said, "but now that we are beyond the forge, my Fire Orb seems to have gone dormant. I no longer feel it pulling me as before."

Valor folded his arms and looked to Sana. "And what of you, Sana-Lynn, are you feeling anything from your or Gantz's orbs?"

She took a second to focus. "I am not getting anything, but that is hardly surprising. I don't see how water or wind could've had had much use in building this place."

"Regardless, we must continue," Robin said and started forward again.

As they did so Sana suddenly realized that the black mage had not had her glowing runes of power floating about her all this time, when she nearly always had had them around her before. Thinking it through, it seemed obvious that Robin's active magic made her rage harder to control, so, in a bid to rein in her ferocious temper, she was leaving herself vulnerable, as she likely saw it, in order to keep herself more balanced.

Sana actually considered this rather noble, but before she could remark on it the group went under another archway to emerge into a tall square chamber. It was perfectly seamless and silver, just as the Citadel above except for a massive door across the way. The door was an elaborate mixture of silver and white metal with an incredibly complex circular mechanism built into its center. It seemed like a mass of gears was assembled in the heart of the door several layers deep.

The mighty construct was twenty feet tall and half that in width, and Cid wasted no time ambling up to gaze at the mechanism in its heart. "Well I'll be a baboon's bloody blue arse, it looks like more than just magic was used to build this bloody place."

Robin also went forward. "I can feel something here. Whatever this construct is, it is not entirely mechanical."

Valor moved up next to them. "Do you mean it's a combination of magic and engineering?"

Cid looked between Robin and the warrior. "Don't know about bloody magic, but this is a locking mechanism of a complexity I never could've imagined."

Sana's hazel eyes suddenly widened where she stood just behind the other three. "The Water Orb is resonating..."

Just then along the smooth silvery walls to the side, seams suddenly appeared low along the walls. Below these seems, the silvery walls slid away and smooth silvery basins emerged low to the ground. The sound of rushing water was then heard coming from behind the walls as the purest water Sana-Lynn had ever seen flowed from concealed pipes to fill both of the basins.

Cid gave a big toothy grin. "Ah, I see. Parts of this grand device must be hydraulic but the glass reservoirs about the central mechanism are clearly lacking fluid."

Valor shrugged his armored shoulders. "What does hydraulic mean?"

The old man twisted the haft of his wooden mallet in both beefy hands. "Oh right, it's a type of mechanism that uses compressed fluid to produce mechanical work."

The warrior shook his head. "That doesn't really clear anything up."

Sana-Lynn forestalled further discussion, as a sudden serenity filled her in a similar manner as the Holy did whenever she summoned it. As she went up to one of the low basins near the west wall, she saw her reflection in a crystal clear pool. The words she spoke next were calm and even. "This is no ordinary water. It has been altered… touched… This place was not blessed by the Earth Crystal alone."

Cid scratched his balding head. "Wow, this bloody place is getting spooky. Anyway, I believe you need to get that water into the glass reservoirs, lass. That should allow the unlocking procedure to begin if I have this bloody configuration down right. Hopefully there is something like a hose around here somewhere."

Sana-Lynn knelt down to trace a finger through the cool water, when she noticed that it responded to her touch oddly. Tendrils of the fluid suddenly flowed up from the pool, spiraling slowly about Sana's arm to coalesce into a liquid sphere that hovered over her palm.

"Amazing!" Valor breathed. Robin just grunted.

Cid adjusted his goggles incredulously. "Well, if I ever bloody doubted you for the Light Warriors, its all gone right out the bleedin' window now."

"I believe I know what to do," Sana announced calmly. The special water globe above her palm suddenly flowed about into a stream she was able to shoot up into glass reservoirs at each side of the metal struts embedded in the door's central mechanism. As this globe depleted, more water from both basins flowed out toward Sana-Lynn and the Chosen of Water was able to transfer them in shooting streams toward the awaiting receptacles. As the reservoirs about the mechanism filled to full, the water quickly drained deeper into the construct through parts concealed.

Gouts of steam suddenly shot out from seems all about the central device, as the layers of gears started to turn, some clockwise, other counterclockwise.

As more steam billowed out, the four moved back, Sana soon running out of blessed water and retreating with the others. As the layers of gears began to wind up faster and faster, a rumbling sounded behind the walls and even deeper within the structure as well.

Then the door suddenly split into a half-dozen sections that slowly ground up, down, or to the sides of the entrance. The central mechanism stayed in one piece but also ground down, until the entirely of the door had retreated to open a way forward. What was revealed was a long rectangular passage that led into darkness.

Without hesitation, Robin moved ahead with the other three on her heels. As the passage went on, darkness overcame them, though a nimbus of blazing orange runes suddenly flared around the black mage, giving off enough light so they could make their way through the passage.

As they went on, the rumbling deep within the structure became greater until the passage ended on a large square platform that seemed suspended on the cusp of a truly vast blackness. Only seconds went by before a great light source flared to life nearly a mile away. The bottom of a structure that stuck halfway down out of the ceiling in the distance suddenly glowed with radiant white light.

Cid put a hand over his goggles, peering into the distance. "Well, that bloody structure sticking out of the ceiling over there must be our destination, but how in the gobbledygook are we gonna bloody get there?"

Sana-Lynn felt something odd and reached into her robes, pulling out the Wind Orb. The artifact suddenly glowed a misty gray-green and teased them all with soothing winds. "My best guess is that were are going to fly over somehow."

The Wind Orb seemed to answer her by increasing the winds it emitted until panels around parts of the platform they all stood upon slid open to reveal a series of huge propellers set up in an array on the underside of the platform.

Cid spoke up to be heard over the increasing winds. "Ah, it looks like a bloody turbine beneath us,"

In response the Wind Orb floated free of Sana's hand to hover above the platform, its powerful winds suddenly narrowing into tightly focused funnels of shrieking power that were channeled through the slots in the surface to the waiting props below.

It wasn't long before the platform floated free, ascending upward at a shallow angle toward the radiant structure in the center of the massive cavern.

Cid suddenly whooped excitedly, "Woohoo, you don't do crazy crap like this every bloody day!"

The ascent was steady and slow, but as soon as the group neared the glowing building, Sana could see what amounted to masses gears and other reciprocating parts of enormous size working to and fro in orderly rows throughout the entire cavern beneath them.

"By the bloody blue blazes, it's an engine - a two mile wide bloody engine!" Cid exclaimed, suddenly cackling like a raucous old coot.

Sana-Lynn crouched down to look over the side of the platform, Valor next to her. "Cid is right, Valor, just look at all those gears and things!"

Valor shook his head. "How is such a machine possible? It must have taken centuries to build all this."

The white mage nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, but for what purpose?"

Valor looked back toward the glowing structure. "Something tells me we are about to find out."

The floating platform soon came to a landing and powered down, allowing its four passengers to step onto a round balcony of lambent glass that encompassed the entire circumference of the crystalline structure's bottom.

Sana-Lynn couldn't help tapping the glass beneath her boots with the butt of her ashen staff. With each tap, sudden ripples of light seemed to reverberate throughout the glass structure beneath her. The same happened with each step she took.

Despite glowing, the light was not so bright as to be unbearable on anyone's eyes. Robin, as usual, took the lead, her fiery runes having winked out upon stepping onto the glowing structure.

All four ascended glass stairs that quickly led up to hemispherical dais that stuck out of the main mass of the glass structure, a huge crystalline pillar that jutted down from the ceiling above.

Upon the very top of that dais was an intricate design inlaid in silver within the crystal around it. It took the shape of a sleek serpentine creature with slender fins growing from its body.

Sana-Lynn gasped when she gazed upon it. "It looks like her… like Leviathan."

Valor's head jerked toward her. "You mean the Eidolon of the Seas?"

Robin nodded toward Sana. "Then it is obvious, white mage, that you must stand upon your Lady's sigil."

The blond girl hesitated when a wave of familiarity washed over her. Suddenly dizzy, she put a steadying hand to her forehead. "It… it feels like I've been here before." She took a backward step as doubts assailed her, but she quickly shook them away. "No, many people must have gone through great hardship to build this place at the Crystals' behest. It is my duty to see this through."

She then went to stand upon the sigil of Leviathan and the four Elemental Orbs suddenly appeared, hovering above her: solid glowing yellow, blazing fiery red, bright sapphire blue and misty gray-green.

The orbs hovered stationary for only a second before they began to spin, faster and faster, until their individual colors merged into a bright halo of light.

Heed Us, Chosen of the Dawn…

Fight with all your might against thy enemy in the days to come…

Seek to inspire those whom look to you for hope…

And know that when she is needed most…

Your sister shall reappear to bring you aid…

To bring you victory…

…Warriors of Light

And in a single radiant flash, Sana-Lynn disappeared along with the Elemental Orbs.

Cid slammed the butt of his mallet on the glass. "Well, that's just bloody great, now how are we supposed to get outta here?"

Suddenly, however, the remaining three glowed as power from the glass structure beneath their feet quickly coalesced. In three flashes they were transported instantly to the center of the armory in the Citadel above. Valor quickly confirmed their location before going off to inform Commander Rainhart of what had happened.

IIIIIIIIII

Sana-Lynn found herself strangely disembodied; her consciousness flowing through a tunnel of white light like eddies in a stream. The sensation was immediately familiar and soothing when a voice calmly called out from amidst the whiteness…

Greetings, Chosen of Water… I am Alexander.