Medina forest, 599 Kingdom Calendar
Two blue-haired figures were walking through the forest, light chatter amongst them.
"Basically, I found light and dark themselves in what is called the 'mind's eye', and from there I was pretty much good to go..."
Schala nodded. "Well, I'm not proud of a lot of what you've done, but I must applaud you, Janus... even if your understanding of it is still a little... narrow." she said with a smile.
Magus glared back at her. "...what do you mean 'narrow'!?"
Schala rolled her eyes, standing on a fallen log and balancing herself on it. "Just because you learned fire and water out of books does not mean they were not also in the mind's eye. I remember doing that exercise myself, when I was about your age."
Magus kept staring at her. "...I'm 30."
"Look..." Schala corrected herself. "You know what I mean! When I was... the age you were... when... ... ... ...when you left."
The fall of Zeal was a bit of a sore subject for her.
"It is impressive you were able to find huge bounties of both light and dark spells in there without any previous research, though..." she continued.
"Heh," Magus smirked. "Maybe you'll have to teach me, sometime..."
"hehehe..." Schala laughed. It was a forced laugh, for an uncomfortable or awkward thought.
"yeah..."
"Well," Magus smiled. "Here it is."
Schala stared in wonder at the big blue pyramid of energy.
"The barrier still holds, after thousands of years... incredible!"
"I found it here way back, when I was still a child," Magus explained. "If this were Zeal, I can't imagine what Mother would do to me for going near it... but she's neither here nor there..."
Schala continued just gazing in wonder at the structure. She rested her palm gently on the barrier's surface, and found that it held, as if the energy were a solid. She could even lean on it, as if it were thick glass. "Belthasar constructed this... he must have known it was still around, even from his perch in the future..."
"You still have your pendant, right?" Magus asked. "We could break the seal and find out."
Schala shook her head. "Unfortunately, I do not."
Magus looked disappointed to hear this.
"I sold it in Truce, for some provisions" she explained.
"That's no trouble to me," Magus spoke encouragingly. "We could go and buy it back, easily."
"Janus..." Schala stopped him, "If I could be totally honest, I *don't* want to see that pendant ever again. It was constructed to control the Mammon Machine, and has only ever brought me pain and misery. I'd just like to be rid of it."
"So..." Magus sighed. "The Zeal North Palace ruins remain an enigma..."
"Well," Schala replied, "Maybe that's exactly what they should be. Come on, Janus. Let's head back to your castle."
Magus was about to move, when he suddenly stopped, dead in his tracks. "Wait...!"
...
...
"We... are not alone..."
Schala began looking around, unable to spot anything. Magus however, stayed perfectly still for several moments, before suddenly reaching out with a palm and suddenly dragging a figure before him, seemingly out of thin air.
"...Axl."
Axl squirmed, trying to free himself. "Hey, I have a right to be in these woods too, you know! Let me go!"
Magus dropped Axl before him. He wanted to put the fear of God in Axl's heart, but with Schala present, he felt too awkward about it.
"Axl..." Magus sighed. "What are you doing here?"
"Look..." Axl replied. "You've been acting weird since before *she* showed up. Some of the fiends are... you know... starting to ask questions."
"Dammit..." Magus thought to himself.
It was happening: Schala's arrival was beginning to undermine his plans. God bless her for doing it but... it wasn't affecting his work well.
"Everything is fine, Axl. My sister is someone I haven't seen in a long time, is all. We have a lot of catching up to do. Why don't you run back to Ozzie and the others, and tell them I said this?"
"Not so fast," Axl pressed. "...why aren't you mad at me? You're always mad..."
"Axl..." Magus continued. "Truthfully, your poor attitude, insolent and insubordinate though it may be, reminds me greatly of myself at one point in time. Perhaps someday, you too may become the Fiendlord. Until then, I need you to just have faith in me, alright? I will raise Lavos, and the world will be yours."
Axl sighed, uncertain about this. "Alright.. ...I guess. I'll leave you two alone, then."
...and with that, he simply disappeared. Magus and Schala returned to the castle in relative silence.
"... ...Janus?"
Magus nodded. "Yeah?"
"What you said back there, about Lavos... are you *still* planning to do it?"
"I am," Magus told her. "Lavos destroyed our kingdom, Schala. I can't let him get away with that."
Schala shook her head. "It doesn't matter, Janus. Lavos is the reason the future is so bleak."
"All the more reason why I must succeed," Magus argued. "I will destroy Lavos, and then you and I may return to your future, to find it a more pleasant realm."
Schala shook her head. "No, you don't understand..."
"Then what?" Magus grilled her. "What do I need to understand?"
"Just..." Schala thought to herself. "Please, Janus, don't obsess over Lavos. That's what happened to Mother."
Her words seemed to get through to him... ...for a moment.
"... ... ...I will destroy Lavos."
Schala sighed. "Janus, you thick-headed fool" she thought to herself. "I only hope you can see the error in doing this, before it is too late."
"I must be attended to by my generals," Magus spoke. "I will again have Flea accompany you for today, since you seem to be hitting it off well."
"Of course..." Schala said, sadly and deflatedly.
"Well," she thought to herself, "it was nice while it lasted..."
Alone, she sat in her room. It was nice of him to make sure she wasn't lonely, but still, she came for him and now he was blowing her off. Worse yet, he was crazy-obsessed over ending Lavos, and she couldn't find it within herself to tell him the truth: that his obsession was going to get him killed sometime next year. The year 599 was almost over, and once it was? She didn't know how much time she would have before he began his spell.
"One way..." Schala thought to herself. "One way or another..."
Once again, Axl was eavesdropping.
"I cannot let him bring forth Lavos."