Ian paused slightly, leaning forward again, "What?"
Ezel rose, heading to the back of the cramped chamber. "Heh.....I keep forgetting you humans don't have our ears. I just told you I brought you here."
"And how, praytell, could you have managed that?" he replied, flatly, "You deal in Antilaws."
"A genius always hungers to learn." he flicked his tail without looking back, wondering if he would feel the young human's fists soon. "The Grimoire, you called it...?"
"What about it?"
He turned, pulling a large volume into his paws. "It IS a page-turner."
Ian's eyes widened slightly, "Huh...?"
He held it out. "Look familiar?"
Oh, yeah. Definately wide eyes. The tome... the same that Mewt had bought back in St. Ivalice... the Grimoire. "How...? How did you get that!?"
"Didn't they tell you? I'm a genius." he repeated quietly.
The Nu Mou found himself being suddenly found himself being grabbed and lifted into the air, shaken like a rag doll, "Enough of your goddamn ego-stroking, Beriber!!" Ian raged, "How did you get it!? WHY the HELL did you bring me here!!??"
Tail coiling wildly, Ezel gripped at the human's arms, teeth clenching back the pain as his own arms were fairly crushed. No business complaining. He broke it, he bought it. "Easier to explain after you beat me, kiddo."
Ian growled. He DID feel like hitting something... and if Berbier was only going to answer his questions with his asinine "I'm a genius" response, then it certainly would help things go faster. ...but... no... he wanted to save his rage for Babus Swain. Practically dropping Ezel, he turned, fist clenched. "I don't like being used, Berbier." he uttered fiercely, "So if you don't have an answer for me, I'll take that book and deal with getting home myself."
The Nu Mou picked himself from the rugs shakily with a broken laugh. "You aren't very good with jokes either. I'm sorry, kiddo. I do that even more, when there is much to lose....and now, we stand to lose everything."
"Talk SENSE." Ian's lip curled in a snarl, "What is going on here!?"
"You knew of the Grimoire....how?"
"I read about it, in a book." Ian said, "...kid named Mewt Randell bought it in his hometown and was transported to a world called Ivalice..."
"Ah.....it's history, then?"
"In a way, yes."
"Mm. The way he drove you off, I almost wondered if you'd known him, back in your Ivalice."
"No... I don't know him, personally."
"What else do you know...?" The Nu Mou winced slightly as he limped to his desk. Kiddo had a grip like a Lamia.
"About here? Or about the book?"
"All of it." Whoof. He'd feel that in the morning for years. "It surprises me our world is known to yours beyond the Prince and his companions."
"Yeah, well, it surprises me that you had the Grimoire. We're even." Ian replied. "...well, essentially, I don't even live in the same world as the Prince and the others. I'm from Earth. THEIR Ivalice is something I read in a book." He did NOT want to get into video game mechanics, readers, so bear with him, please.
Ezel's laughter fairly shook the dust from the many shelves. "They're a story? Figments of imagination?" He fairly hopped from the chair, aches forgotten. "Ah, the heavens have such a keen humor."
'He sure healed quick for that show he was putting on.' he thought then rose an eyebrow, "Do tell."
His eyes gleamed in the dim candlelight. "They're figments of your imagination.....just as we are figments of theirs."
"Eh..." Ian rubbed the back his neck slightly, "I was, uh... really trying not to get into that..." His eyes widened and, suddenly, he went face to face with Ezel, leaning down close, "WAIT a MINUTE. How did YOU know THAT?? And DON'T say "I'm a genius" or anything like that."
"Not a chance, kiddo. Next time you might break my neck." he patted the Grimoire with a chuckle. "Be patient with me. I know a lot, but I'm not used to explaining."
A touch again to the blue stone and the cover came back to life, circling apart to float over the pages.
"No kidding." Ian stepped back, watching the book closely.
"This is not the Grimoire you know. I've never even seen the Prince's." he spun one thin band of wood about the sapphire orb. "Not personally, anyway."
The pages flipped madly, until abruptly they stopped on a scrawled drawing of what seemed to be a child's room. The image seemed to lift from the page, the lines sharpening until it was almost a miniature reality of its own.
"Mama...." a small figure whispered there, huddled at an open window.
"Wh... Mewt!" he exclaimed softly.
The Nu Mou's paw gripped his wrist sharply. "Shh."
Mama had told him the stars were angel's nightlights. Now, more than ever, he wished it were true, trying his best to find a star he hadn't seen before....trying not to hear the slurred sobs downstairs.
"If it was a magic book, Mama....I'd find a way for you to come back. I'd make a world just for us." he squeezed his hands over his ears as Dad cried out so loud his voice broke. "I'd make us all happy forever."
The book on his bedcovers glowed, opening as Ezel's did.
Ian continued to watch the scene unfold in the book. So... that's what started it all, wishing upon a helluva lotta stars. He wanted to be happy. Him with his parents... ...and, even as they were... there was still something, something that gave him the anguished face he saw in Bervenia Palace. Marche... or was it something else?
"And so....Ivalice as we know it was born. Along with the rest of us. Heh....no wonder I never act my age." Ezel said quietly.
At once, the dim bedroom warped, reforming to a tiled castle chamber fit for a Prince. The loveworn stuffed bear draped across the pillows glowed in response as a familiar Nu Mou with rare white fur opened the door. Downstairs, the father who had been doubled over with grief and drink instead knelt before his wife....
"That's what we've known as our Queen Remedi." Ezel pointed at the stately, russet-haired woman, smile faded.
"Remedi Randell." Ian said slowly, starting at the images before him, "...She died of heart failure, or some such..." He resisted the urge to chuckle as he noticed the similarity between the bear and Babus Swain. Hehe... Babus the Teddy Bear. Suddenly, he frowned slightly, "...but if she was dead... as opposed as Mewt and Cid, who were transformed..." He thought for a moment. Something wasn't right with this.
He glanced over at Ezel, "...she couldn't have been brought back to life, literally... ...nor could she be a mere figment..."
Ezel shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine, kiddo. I'm a genius, not omnipotent."
"I don't like it, either way." Ian quipped, folding his arms slowly, "...then again, from what I've heard, I don't much like the Royals and their laws anyway..."
"Heh....join the club." he agreed, smile faintly returning.
"... ... ...damn." Ian turned slightly, rubbing his chin slowly.
"Could be worse, you know." he mused as the book slowly pieced back together. "You could be a figment with the rest of us."
"You never know. I could be." he shivered slightly, "This could all be a story, and someone could be reading it right now..."
"And I damn well better be a good read, y'hear me?" he pointed toward the unknown readers.
Ezel laughed again, though not as wholeheartedly as before. "Nothing a genius hates worse than being tricked."
"One thing though..." he turned back to face the Nu Mou, "You never told me why I AM here."
"Because I made my own wish." the Nu Mou picked the tome up again, heading for the shelf it had been set on.
"And that was...?"
Ezel kept his back to the youth, voice softening. "For Ivalice to be saved. From Royals, from rebels....from your reality. Heh....I didn't ask for you by name, if that's what you mean, kiddo. I kept it simple. Be careful what you wish for, you know."
"Yeah. You'll end up with a lapload of me." Ian said dryly. "...soooooo, now what? You want me to save Ivalice from Royals, Rebels, and Radiuju, now?"
"The book picked you for a reason, Master. Granted, I never expected it to begin with an alleged assasination, but beggars can't be choosers, eh?"
"Great." he sighed, "Anyone who I should off? Anyone who I should not off?"
Ezel padded back with a teasing curl of his tail and a pat to Ian's shin. "Not the way it seems to end in your near-death."
"Funny."
"Always try to find humor in life, my boy. It does no good to admit the horror of it."
He fingered the rings of precious stone in his ear. "I've accepted the reality I began as a figment, kiddo. I never had family. I really WAS a bastard, eh? I never attended Cadoan Academy with the highest honors. Babus and I never fell in love.....heh, and our twentieth-odd time was actually our first. .....but, the thing is, we're real NOW. We have no past....but I'm going to make sure we have a future. Whatever it may be....the only question is do you want to help me."
Ian's hazel orbs locked on Ezel. Did he... ...he and... ...He suddenly gripped his stomach and turned, guffawing, "YOU... and BABUS!?!?" The feeling of laughter echoed throughout his body as he landed on his knees, supporting himself with a single hand, "The Nu Mou's Pride and the Strange One, as known by their tribe, lawful and lawless, order and chaos... sharing a heart! Sharing love!" He turned back with a mischevious grin, "The irony nearly destroys me, Ezel."
"Shared, kiddo. ....that was one of the first things I could truly call my past." he corrected quietly, tail curling about his legs.
The young man raised an eyebrow. Did they break up? ...well, no kidding. Ezel was an Antilaw dealer, Babus was the loyal retainer of Prince Mewt. Of course they had to have broken up sooner or later. "Sorry." he uttered softly. Still, there was no denying that the irony of such a thing was to be treasured. Suddenly, he winced. All that talk of taking revenge on Babus, making him suffer the way he had done to him. And Ezel was his... damn.
The grin returned with another pat to his leg. "I'm sorry enough for both of us. Just do me the favor of breaking my neck in his stead after Ivalice is at peace? You know I'll make it worth your while." he winked up to the tall human.
"No." he replied sharply. Babus and Ezel may have been lovers... but that was no excuse. "It's his head. He brought it on himself."
Ezel's gaze did not flinch. "You'll end up breaking mine then, anyway. But just wait until the kingdom is restored, eh? Otherwise someone else may beat you to it."
Ian tensed and drew away from him, "...Don't throw your life away for that monster. Truly, even if you were lovers, he would not do the same for you now."
"If you didn't know it already, my boy....I'm as stubborn as I am smart." he chuckled lightly. "Do you really wish to kill him more than you wish to save countless innocent lives?"
"At the moment... yes." he turned slightly, "I'm not the sole savior of this world, Ezel. You didn't exactly pick up a real winner here... and first impressions of this world are the most important... and guess who influenced MY first impression?"
"You're nearly as hard-headed as me." The Nu Mou observed merrily. "No wonder he tried to peel the skin from you."
"...but for now, I'll go along with this..." he finally admitted grudgingly.
Ezel's tail swept the floor energetically. "I knew you would, kiddo."
Ezel rose, heading to the back of the cramped chamber. "Heh.....I keep forgetting you humans don't have our ears. I just told you I brought you here."
"And how, praytell, could you have managed that?" he replied, flatly, "You deal in Antilaws."
"A genius always hungers to learn." he flicked his tail without looking back, wondering if he would feel the young human's fists soon. "The Grimoire, you called it...?"
"What about it?"
He turned, pulling a large volume into his paws. "It IS a page-turner."
Ian's eyes widened slightly, "Huh...?"
He held it out. "Look familiar?"
Oh, yeah. Definately wide eyes. The tome... the same that Mewt had bought back in St. Ivalice... the Grimoire. "How...? How did you get that!?"
"Didn't they tell you? I'm a genius." he repeated quietly.
The Nu Mou found himself being suddenly found himself being grabbed and lifted into the air, shaken like a rag doll, "Enough of your goddamn ego-stroking, Beriber!!" Ian raged, "How did you get it!? WHY the HELL did you bring me here!!??"
Tail coiling wildly, Ezel gripped at the human's arms, teeth clenching back the pain as his own arms were fairly crushed. No business complaining. He broke it, he bought it. "Easier to explain after you beat me, kiddo."
Ian growled. He DID feel like hitting something... and if Berbier was only going to answer his questions with his asinine "I'm a genius" response, then it certainly would help things go faster. ...but... no... he wanted to save his rage for Babus Swain. Practically dropping Ezel, he turned, fist clenched. "I don't like being used, Berbier." he uttered fiercely, "So if you don't have an answer for me, I'll take that book and deal with getting home myself."
The Nu Mou picked himself from the rugs shakily with a broken laugh. "You aren't very good with jokes either. I'm sorry, kiddo. I do that even more, when there is much to lose....and now, we stand to lose everything."
"Talk SENSE." Ian's lip curled in a snarl, "What is going on here!?"
"You knew of the Grimoire....how?"
"I read about it, in a book." Ian said, "...kid named Mewt Randell bought it in his hometown and was transported to a world called Ivalice..."
"Ah.....it's history, then?"
"In a way, yes."
"Mm. The way he drove you off, I almost wondered if you'd known him, back in your Ivalice."
"No... I don't know him, personally."
"What else do you know...?" The Nu Mou winced slightly as he limped to his desk. Kiddo had a grip like a Lamia.
"About here? Or about the book?"
"All of it." Whoof. He'd feel that in the morning for years. "It surprises me our world is known to yours beyond the Prince and his companions."
"Yeah, well, it surprises me that you had the Grimoire. We're even." Ian replied. "...well, essentially, I don't even live in the same world as the Prince and the others. I'm from Earth. THEIR Ivalice is something I read in a book." He did NOT want to get into video game mechanics, readers, so bear with him, please.
Ezel's laughter fairly shook the dust from the many shelves. "They're a story? Figments of imagination?" He fairly hopped from the chair, aches forgotten. "Ah, the heavens have such a keen humor."
'He sure healed quick for that show he was putting on.' he thought then rose an eyebrow, "Do tell."
His eyes gleamed in the dim candlelight. "They're figments of your imagination.....just as we are figments of theirs."
"Eh..." Ian rubbed the back his neck slightly, "I was, uh... really trying not to get into that..." His eyes widened and, suddenly, he went face to face with Ezel, leaning down close, "WAIT a MINUTE. How did YOU know THAT?? And DON'T say "I'm a genius" or anything like that."
"Not a chance, kiddo. Next time you might break my neck." he patted the Grimoire with a chuckle. "Be patient with me. I know a lot, but I'm not used to explaining."
A touch again to the blue stone and the cover came back to life, circling apart to float over the pages.
"No kidding." Ian stepped back, watching the book closely.
"This is not the Grimoire you know. I've never even seen the Prince's." he spun one thin band of wood about the sapphire orb. "Not personally, anyway."
The pages flipped madly, until abruptly they stopped on a scrawled drawing of what seemed to be a child's room. The image seemed to lift from the page, the lines sharpening until it was almost a miniature reality of its own.
"Mama...." a small figure whispered there, huddled at an open window.
"Wh... Mewt!" he exclaimed softly.
The Nu Mou's paw gripped his wrist sharply. "Shh."
Mama had told him the stars were angel's nightlights. Now, more than ever, he wished it were true, trying his best to find a star he hadn't seen before....trying not to hear the slurred sobs downstairs.
"If it was a magic book, Mama....I'd find a way for you to come back. I'd make a world just for us." he squeezed his hands over his ears as Dad cried out so loud his voice broke. "I'd make us all happy forever."
The book on his bedcovers glowed, opening as Ezel's did.
Ian continued to watch the scene unfold in the book. So... that's what started it all, wishing upon a helluva lotta stars. He wanted to be happy. Him with his parents... ...and, even as they were... there was still something, something that gave him the anguished face he saw in Bervenia Palace. Marche... or was it something else?
"And so....Ivalice as we know it was born. Along with the rest of us. Heh....no wonder I never act my age." Ezel said quietly.
At once, the dim bedroom warped, reforming to a tiled castle chamber fit for a Prince. The loveworn stuffed bear draped across the pillows glowed in response as a familiar Nu Mou with rare white fur opened the door. Downstairs, the father who had been doubled over with grief and drink instead knelt before his wife....
"That's what we've known as our Queen Remedi." Ezel pointed at the stately, russet-haired woman, smile faded.
"Remedi Randell." Ian said slowly, starting at the images before him, "...She died of heart failure, or some such..." He resisted the urge to chuckle as he noticed the similarity between the bear and Babus Swain. Hehe... Babus the Teddy Bear. Suddenly, he frowned slightly, "...but if she was dead... as opposed as Mewt and Cid, who were transformed..." He thought for a moment. Something wasn't right with this.
He glanced over at Ezel, "...she couldn't have been brought back to life, literally... ...nor could she be a mere figment..."
Ezel shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine, kiddo. I'm a genius, not omnipotent."
"I don't like it, either way." Ian quipped, folding his arms slowly, "...then again, from what I've heard, I don't much like the Royals and their laws anyway..."
"Heh....join the club." he agreed, smile faintly returning.
"... ... ...damn." Ian turned slightly, rubbing his chin slowly.
"Could be worse, you know." he mused as the book slowly pieced back together. "You could be a figment with the rest of us."
"You never know. I could be." he shivered slightly, "This could all be a story, and someone could be reading it right now..."
"And I damn well better be a good read, y'hear me?" he pointed toward the unknown readers.
Ezel laughed again, though not as wholeheartedly as before. "Nothing a genius hates worse than being tricked."
"One thing though..." he turned back to face the Nu Mou, "You never told me why I AM here."
"Because I made my own wish." the Nu Mou picked the tome up again, heading for the shelf it had been set on.
"And that was...?"
Ezel kept his back to the youth, voice softening. "For Ivalice to be saved. From Royals, from rebels....from your reality. Heh....I didn't ask for you by name, if that's what you mean, kiddo. I kept it simple. Be careful what you wish for, you know."
"Yeah. You'll end up with a lapload of me." Ian said dryly. "...soooooo, now what? You want me to save Ivalice from Royals, Rebels, and Radiuju, now?"
"The book picked you for a reason, Master. Granted, I never expected it to begin with an alleged assasination, but beggars can't be choosers, eh?"
"Great." he sighed, "Anyone who I should off? Anyone who I should not off?"
Ezel padded back with a teasing curl of his tail and a pat to Ian's shin. "Not the way it seems to end in your near-death."
"Funny."
"Always try to find humor in life, my boy. It does no good to admit the horror of it."
He fingered the rings of precious stone in his ear. "I've accepted the reality I began as a figment, kiddo. I never had family. I really WAS a bastard, eh? I never attended Cadoan Academy with the highest honors. Babus and I never fell in love.....heh, and our twentieth-odd time was actually our first. .....but, the thing is, we're real NOW. We have no past....but I'm going to make sure we have a future. Whatever it may be....the only question is do you want to help me."
Ian's hazel orbs locked on Ezel. Did he... ...he and... ...He suddenly gripped his stomach and turned, guffawing, "YOU... and BABUS!?!?" The feeling of laughter echoed throughout his body as he landed on his knees, supporting himself with a single hand, "The Nu Mou's Pride and the Strange One, as known by their tribe, lawful and lawless, order and chaos... sharing a heart! Sharing love!" He turned back with a mischevious grin, "The irony nearly destroys me, Ezel."
"Shared, kiddo. ....that was one of the first things I could truly call my past." he corrected quietly, tail curling about his legs.
The young man raised an eyebrow. Did they break up? ...well, no kidding. Ezel was an Antilaw dealer, Babus was the loyal retainer of Prince Mewt. Of course they had to have broken up sooner or later. "Sorry." he uttered softly. Still, there was no denying that the irony of such a thing was to be treasured. Suddenly, he winced. All that talk of taking revenge on Babus, making him suffer the way he had done to him. And Ezel was his... damn.
The grin returned with another pat to his leg. "I'm sorry enough for both of us. Just do me the favor of breaking my neck in his stead after Ivalice is at peace? You know I'll make it worth your while." he winked up to the tall human.
"No." he replied sharply. Babus and Ezel may have been lovers... but that was no excuse. "It's his head. He brought it on himself."
Ezel's gaze did not flinch. "You'll end up breaking mine then, anyway. But just wait until the kingdom is restored, eh? Otherwise someone else may beat you to it."
Ian tensed and drew away from him, "...Don't throw your life away for that monster. Truly, even if you were lovers, he would not do the same for you now."
"If you didn't know it already, my boy....I'm as stubborn as I am smart." he chuckled lightly. "Do you really wish to kill him more than you wish to save countless innocent lives?"
"At the moment... yes." he turned slightly, "I'm not the sole savior of this world, Ezel. You didn't exactly pick up a real winner here... and first impressions of this world are the most important... and guess who influenced MY first impression?"
"You're nearly as hard-headed as me." The Nu Mou observed merrily. "No wonder he tried to peel the skin from you."
"...but for now, I'll go along with this..." he finally admitted grudgingly.
Ezel's tail swept the floor energetically. "I knew you would, kiddo."