Chapter 7: Cecil's Test

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The long, tall, perfect mirror reflected the room, making it seem much larger. Everything that it reflected was a slight shade darker than it really was.

"What is this place?" Porom wondered, gazing around the empty room and feeling slightly dizzy.

"I never thought I'd get to see this day," Tellah whispered. "If I had known…"

"Tellah, surely you know something of what happens next," Cecil insisted.

"I'm afraid I don't. This is all, it's surreal."

The twins huddled together out of instinct, confused and a bit frightened. The room was completely empty, and it looked so big. Then they noticed something: Cecil was glowing, almost sparkling.

"Cecil, look! Something's happening!" Palom cried.

The knight looked in time to see his armor beginning to dissolve in the strange light that had encompassed his body. He looked like he was about to panic.

"My son," came the voice again, "I have waited in silence for all these years, in deep and terrible pain, to give you my light. My pain will only deepen, but you are meant to have it. You have a job to do; I wish I could help you, but…"

"What?"

Cecil got another flash of light for an answer. When the light dissolved again, what little of his dark armor he was wearing was gone. In its place was a gleaming new set of white, silver, and blue armor. A new sword had appeared in his hand; the metal was bright silver with some strange letters carved near the hilt.

"Amazing…" he breathed, assessing his mysterious new equipment.

The twins admired his new armor and his new sword too. It all looked so new and so bright. And it was all so much nicer than the dented black breastplate and ugly black sword to look at.

The mirror caught their attention. In the reflection, Cecil was still wearing his dark armor; in fact, his reflection was fully suited in the black metal.

"Now face the darkness that threatens to consume you. Fight the darkness, and face yourself. Any paladin is given a new sword, but the wise ones will sheath theirs."

Cecil's reflection began moving on its own, pulling the old black sword out of its sheath. The glass rippled and, to everyone's horror, the dark knight stepped out onto the floor.

"Oh no!" Porom cried in alarm.

"We'll help you, Cecil," Palom offered and began chanting his Fira spell.

"Hold your spells," Cecil commanded, stilling the mages with a majestic wave of his hand. "This fight is for me alone." He turned to look at them with a look of grand and confident determination.

"And it is a fight that I do not intend to lose."

Palom and Porom were awed. This was not the passive, soft-spoken Cecil they were familiar with. In the past few seconds, he had changed into a totally different person.

"As much as I hate it, he has a point," Tellah agreed. "Stay here and cheer him on. I think he'll do a fine job."

Cecil and his reflection charged at each other; the dark knight roared a battle cry, but Cecil remained silent. The dark knight brought his blade down, intent on Cecil's head, but the paladin dodged the attack. The blade landed with an echoing crash on the glassy floor. It wrenched the sword back out of the floor and swung at Cecil's middle. Cecil eluded the attack again and the dark knight spun around with the force; he nearly fell on the floor.

Palom felt confused. Why wasn't Cecil attacking? He'd never slay the dark knight if he just kept dodging it; he'd tire himself out and then he'd be easy prey! When Cecil continued to dodge the attacks, Palom began to feel frustrated.

"Tellah, why isn't he attacking? He's never going to beat that thing if he doesn't start hitting it!"

"You'd think so, wouldn't you? Didn't you hear what the voice said?" Tellah asked.

"Of course…Uh, what did it say?" Palom asked sheepishly. Porom whacked him.

"Pay attention! It said, 'Any paladin is given a new sword, but the wise ones will sheath theirs'," she reminded.

"So? What's that supposed to mean?" Palom demanded. Porom was about to whack him again and explain the riddle, but she realized that she didn't know quite what it meant either.

"A paladin's job is to protect, attacking only when necessary," Tellah explained. "The point of this test is that, in order to beat one's dark side, you must avoid it all together and thwart its attempts to take it over. In order to beat this adversary, Cecil must alternately elude and block all attacks his dark reflection throws at him."

"He's doing a great job," Porom marveled. "Look! See the reflection? I can see through it!"

Her companions looked and saw that she was right: the dark knight was standing in front of Cecil, and the gleam of his new armor was shining through the reflection as if it was made of gossamer silk.

"The dark reflection is beginning to weaken," Tellah noted with pride.

The reflection threw his sword up over Cecil's head and tried to bring it back down on his shoulder. Cecil put his new sword to block it. The black sword clashed down on the silver one and broke in several pieces with a kashink! The pieces fell to the floor with a ringing, clinking sound. The reflection dissolved into thick black smoke, which quickly evaporated into the air.

"The test is won, the battle decided," the voice declared. "Your shield is won, my child. My light is yours."

There was one more bright flash, which forced them all to close their eyes. When they opened their eyes again, they were standing before the little stone alter as if they had never left.

"Fare thee well, wherever you go, my son…"

"No, wait!" Cecil yelled to the sky. "Come back! Who are you?"

He got no answer.

"Who was that?" he wondered.

He didn't have time to wonder. Something jumped on his back and attached itself to his legs.

"You did it! You're a paladin!" Palom shouted triumphantly in Cecil's ear. "You did it! You did it! You did it!"

"We knew you could do it! We both did! I never doubted you for a second!" Porom added, hugging Cecil's left leg as tight as she could. "Tellah, didn't he do a great job?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at Tellah. He looked stunned and was staring at his hands as if he'd never seen them before. Porom let go of Cecil's leg and dropped on her bottom with a soft "oof!" The two others turned to see what was happening.

"Tellah? What's wrong?"

The sage didn't respond. He laughed a short, disbelieving laugh.

"I… I remember…"

"Huh? What was that?" Cecil asked.

Tellah grinned, still staring at his hands. The he jumped in the air with a whoop of joy.

"My spells! All the spells I—Gah!"

As he landed, his back snapped audibly and he began massaging the sore spot.

"Tellah, what's gotten into you?" Cecil asked, growing concerned for the sage.

"All the spells I've forgotten over the years," Tellah replied, sucking his breath in sharply. "I've forgotten so many of my black and white spells; but I just remembered them all!"

"CURAJA!"

Tellah's voice boomed through the mountainside and he began glowing. After a second he stood up straight and flexed his arms.

"I haven't felt this good in years! Wait a minute…" Tellah began mumbling to himself; the words were a spell. He mumbled for what seemed like a long time. Whatever the spell was, it was a big, powerful one.

"Me…te…or…? I, I know it now! I know the Meteor spell! That bright flash must have done it all! Brilliant!"

The other three all enjoyed Tellah's antics for a bit, but Palom and Porom looked at each other doubtfully. There was still something weighing on their minds: they helped Cecil, there was no doubt of that, but they had initially been sent to keep their eyes on him. But somewhere between goblin attacks, walls of fire, absent minded sages, elemental lords, and paladin tests, they had forgotten to do this. All the same, they felt like they should tell Cecil about this.

"Um, Cecil, we need to tell you something," Porom announced. Cecil turned back to them. He was grinning broadly, laughing at Tellah; they had never seen him so amused. They hated to spoil the good moment with this confession, but they knew that had to tell him now; if they didn't they might not tell him at all.

"What is it, kids?" Cecil asked.

"Well, you see," Palom started nervously, "the Elder asked us to, uh—"

"Meteor! Can you kiddies believe it? Me, an old man, I have access to one of the six forbidden spells!" Tellah interrupted. He ran over to the twins and caught Palom in his arms; he flung the boy around in the air like he was a bird.

"I'll bet one day you'll be a grand enough mage to learn a spell this powerful as well! Faraxhae you are, I have no doubt that you will!" Tellah cried.

"Tellah! Put me down! I'm getting dizzy! If I throw up on you, it's your own fault!"

Tellah finally set Palom back on the ground. The boy stumbled awkwardly for a few steps and then fell to his knees. He would have fallen on his face if Porom hadn't rushed over and caught him.

"Well, what do you know about that, Cecil? You become a paladin, and I learn a forbidden spell," Tellah said proudly, giving Cecil a friendly punch in the shoulder. Cecil gasped in pain (Tellah's blow was harder than he meant it to be) and rubbed his bruised arm.

"Yes, I think it made you much stringer," Cecil agreed.

"Made me stronger? Look at you, my boy! A paladin warrior! And you kept saying that you'd never amount to anything; you said that the darkness had consumed you and that there was no light left in you. I never believed it for a second! Your girl, Rosa, she was right."

"She was right? You've never met her," Cecil pointed out.

"You said that she said you were a good person, and there was still time for you to turn yourself around. Guess she was right after all. Goodness, I'd love to meet this young woman of yours. What a gal she sounds to be! I'm sure that she'll make a good wife for you!"

Cecil blushed. "Tellah, cut it out!"

"Ha! I knew she was your girlfriend! I knew it all along!" Palom cried.

Cecil blushed deeper red than before. "She's not—!"

The mages all stared at him doubtfully.

"Well…"

"Ah, but you love her," Tellah pointed out. "Why would you be trying so hard to rescue her if you didn't?"

Cecil stared off into the distance, defeated. "We certainly aren't getting closer to rescuing her while we stand here celebrating. We can celebrate when we get back to the city," he informed.

"Oh yes, good idea," Tellah agreed. "I have worn myself out a bit. Back to the safe spot, then." He began walking back to the bridge, taking a moment to spit down the chasm where Scarmiglione had fallen. "Come along then, children. The sooner we get back to the safe spot, the sooner we can rest up and use my emergency exit charm."

"You have one of those?" Palom asked excitedly.

"Why yes. And if you'll come along, we'll use it in due time."

They started off once more, the twins in their usual place in the back.

"Porom," Palom whispered, "we didn't get to tell him about spying on him, 'cause Tellah started throwing me around. Should we still tell him?"

"Um, maybe not now. They're both in such good moods. Maybe when we get to the safe spot."

"Oh. Alright."

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Rai felt so antsy he could barely contain himself. He could feel so much strong energy coming from the mountain. At first it was terrible, dangerous, and he instantly feared for the twins, but the bad energy soon faded to be replaced by a strong holy presence. Cecil had taken the trial and had passed it. He and the twins would be returning in a day or two, and he could feel no vibes saying that they were dead.

He just had to go and tell Mira. He didn't care if she threw things at him, cast her Firaja spell on him, or if she wouldn't even let him into her house. Her children were alive and were coming back home. She had to know as soon as possible. He grabbed an old cloak out of his closet and ran for his door. He ran out and across the veranda and swooped down the stairs like a bird of prey, startling Dharma and Sheila.

"Sir? What's the matter?" Sheila asked, closing her book and running to her boss.

"You and Dharma keep an eye on the tower. I have to go talk to Mira," Rai answered and headed for the door.

"Uh, sir, do you think that's such a good idea? Remember what happened yesterday?" Dharma reminded.

"I don't care. The kids are alive and she must know." Rai ran out the door and pulled it shut behind him.

He ran down the streets, not caring that it was completely undignified for an Elder to run so fast. He hadn't run in years, and his legs protested immensely, but he didn't stop until he reached Mira's door. He was out of breath, his legs felt like they would fall off, and everyone around was staring at him as if he'd gone crazy, but he knocked on the door. He sagged against the door post, gasping for breath.

The door opened and Mira stuck her head out. She saw who her caller was and scowled.

"Men of your age aren't built for running," she said coldly. "What do you want?"

"The kids… alive… coming back…" Rai gasped.

Mira perked up a little bit. "Really? Then the dark knight reached the top?"

"He took the test," Rai informed between breaths. "He was accepted and took the test. He passed."

Mira laughed. "Ha! That'll be the day. If there's a single scratch on either of my children—"

"They're fine. They've done a good job."

Mira regarded her brother, not sure of what to say.

"Mira, don't do anything to Cecil. He had no idea you didn't know. Leave him and the kids alone."

"Why should I? He's the one who started it all in the first place."

"And I got in the way. He had nothing to do with it."

"You went behind my back and sent my children into the lion's den, trusting on a murderer to keep them safe. Why should I do anything you ask of me?" she demanded.

"As your high Elder, I command you to leave the knight alone."

Mira's expression turned from stony to surprised. "You never use that on me," she said, sounding shocked.

"And I hate to do it. But if you lay a wrong hand on the boy, I will have you charged with treason. You must leave him alone, no matter how badly you'd like to hurt him."

"Why do you care so much, that you would arrest me for his sake? Does he mean more to you than us? The twins and I are the only family you have left and you set our needs to the side for the man who laid waste to our city. Why?"

"I keep telling you, the twins are destined to be a part of this man's journey. I don't like it any more than you do; I'd rather they stay here, where they would be safe, just as you would."

"And yet you knowingly endanger them? Why?"

"You'll understand in time, sister. You'll see; this man will be able to go where is destined to go because Palom and Porom were with him when he did one thing or another: a battle will be saved because Porom had a heal spell or a protect spell at the ready; a great obstacle will be removed from his path because Palom mastered his blizzard spells (at last). Without them, his quest will not go very far, I don't think."

"What quest?"

"I'm not sure yet. Be patient, if you can. If not, go back to your skulking."

"Either way, I'm not getting anything done," Mira replied icily.

"Misery loves company," Rai stated, pushing away from the door beam, "but I won't be joining you. When they return, you'll be in for a few surprises. Mark me."

"We shall see; the state of my only children remains to be seen." Mira went back into the house and shut the door in her brother's face.

Rai turned to see that a small crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle. With a single disapproving look he sent them all away. He walked back to the tower, wondering how long they would take to come back.

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Cecil regretted that all he could find for Palom was a long stick, but he had promised him lessons. Now that they were camped again, now was as good a time as any to start the first lesson in swordplay.

For half an hour Cecil instructed the boy how to stand, grip the sword, and how to move when in battle. Palom was discouraged easily sometimes, but was still eager to learn and kept trying.

"It's the longest something has held his attention for months," Porom noted to Tellah as they sat watching. "He's too interested in everything. Nothing can hold his interest for too long; not even the Firaga spell."

"Curiosity will do that to a young boy," Tellah agreed. "Aren't you curious about things, Porom?"

"Of course I am. I just like to learn a lot about things instead of only learning a little bit about things because I'm too curious."

"You'd rather have a lot of knowledge about a few things, unlike your bother, who would rather know a little about many things. An interesting disposition," Tellah said thoughtfully.

"Tellah, do you own a hairbrush?"

"…What?"

"Do you ever brush your hair? It's sorta wild," she pointed out.

"Well, I haven't brushed my hair in a while, now that you mention it. Keep it clean? Oh yes; brush it? Well, there isn't always time these days."

"Oh."

They watched Cecil and Palom for a while in silence. Cecil hit Palom's stick so hard that it went flying over the cliff by mistake.

"No! My stick!" Palom cried and ran to the edge to look for it. His makeshift sword was gone.

"Whoops; I'm so sorry. Let me find you another one," Cecil offered and began to look around.

But Palom had other ideas.

He popped up on his feet and charged at Cecil while he was distracted. He pounded into Cecil's stomach and they both landed on the ground in a heap.

"Palom, what are you doing?!"

"I'm playing!"

"I don't like this game! Get off!" Even though he was yelling at Palom and telling him to stop, Cecil sounded like he didn't mind. In fact, it sounded like he was enjoying himself. Before long the two were roughhousing like two brothers.

Tellah and Porom laughed, amused. "What's wrong with them?" Porom asked.

"Oh, boys will be boys, lass. You'll come to love it eventually, trust me," Tellah promised.

"Is this also in my blood or something?"

"No; all girls fall for ideals they thought were pointless as children. Likewise, all boys fall for similar ideals they thought were fussy before. When I was your brother's age, I thought that dollies were stupid."

"They are, just a little bit," Porom stated.

"Well I thought they were boring. And then, when my Anna began playing with

them, I thought they were impossibly cute. But then, Anna made everything seem cute when she was little. Children do that a lot; especially to their parents."

"Oh, it looks like they're winding down now," Porom noticed. "I wonder if they need me to heal them?" She jumped up and ran over to Cecil and Palom, sitting in the dirt catching their breaths. She knelt down with them and looked them over: they were both a mess, but they didn't seem hurt.

"You see?" Palom was saying to Cecil. "This is the kind of thing that mom and Porom won't do with me."

"And for good reason," Porom put in. "It's totally barbaric. Do either of you need me to heal you?" she asked hopefully.

"Nope, I'm good," Palom informed. "How 'bout you, Cecil?"

Cecil didn't answer right away. He was just staring at them as if they had just appeared out of nowhere and began talking to him like he was supposed to know them.

"Cecil, are you okay?" Palom asked.

"He zones out like that a lot; haven't you noticed that?" Porom noted.

Cecil blinked a few times and sighed. "I'm sorry I do that so much." He laid a hand on each of their shoulders and stared hard at them, as if he wanted to memorize their faces. It was like he wanted to be able to tell their faces in a crowd from three miles off. He pulled them both close and held onto them tight, as if they were going to slip away.

"You have no idea what you two have done for me," he whispered. His voice sounded shaky, like he was going to cry.

"We didn't do much," Palom insisted.

"No, you've done so much for me. You'll never understand how much you've done. I wouldn't have been able to do this without you. Thank you so much."

"Like, the same sort of things that Rydia did for you?" Porom asked. "She had big spells and was really smart and—"

"No, no, no; this isn't a competition. Don't compare yourself to Rydia, okay?" Cecil insisted. He sniffled and rubbed his eye.

"Did we do something wrong?" Palom asked.

"No, you didn't. I just want to hold you two for a little bit," Cecil answered and cuddled them closer.

"I feel… safe," Palom aid quietly. "For the first time in months, I feel really safe and happy."

"I feel safe too," Porom agreed. "You wouldn't let anything hurt us, would you, Cecil?"

"Of course not. I would never let anything happen to you, ever. I promise."

Porom yawned and covered her mouth. "I'm feeling a little sleepy."

"It's been a long day," Cecil agreed. "Palom, how are you feeling?"

"I'm not tired at all," Palom insisted, though he sounded drowsy.

"We might have to spend the night again; it is starting to get a little late," the paladin announced, eyeing the sinking sun.

"Not so, my friends," Tellah informed. The others all turned to face him and saw him reaching in his pocket. He extracted a small black and silver bauble on a white cord.

"This, children, is a charm that will beam us to the foot of the mountain. They call it an emergency exit charm."

Palom was wide awake again. "Oh boy! That's the emergency exit! I've always wanted to see one!"

"It will take us to the beginning of the trail that led us up here," Tellah informed. "After that, there's a chocobo forest to the southeast. We can pick up one or two and ride them back to the city. We should be able to reach Mysidia in, oh, five hours by chocobo."

"Wow. That's way better han the whole day it took us to walk here," Porom said happily.

"Shall I activate the charm, then?" Tellah asked, rolling the bauble around in his palm.

"Yes, we're ready," Cecil agreed.

"Then everyone gather around; you have to be within five feet of the charm for the magic to work." Everyone came and crowded around Tellah, who began muttering a spell over the charm.

"WARP!"

The world began to spin and the mountain disappeared. When the spinning stopped, they were standing at the base of the mountain, the peak looming ominously over them, just as Tellah had promised. All that was left of the pretty bauble was some fragments of glass in the sage's hand.

"Now then," he said, brushing the glass off his hand, "the chocobo forest is that way." He pointed away to the southeast, where a little cluster of trees stood out in the distance. "It should take us, maybe, 30, 45 minutes to get there."

"Then we should hurry; I'd hate to be caught in the dark with monsters about," Cecil said and walked after Tellah. The twins followed dutifully behind them.

"We didn't get to tell him again!" Palom said frustrated. "And I didn't finish my sword lesson!"

"Maybe we shouldn't tell him at all," Porom reasoned. "We didn't actually spy on him, so we don't really need to tell him that we were supposed to… right?"

"That's good enough for me. Let's just forget about it, then."

"Okay. That does sound good."

"You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd think he loves us," Palom mused.

"I think he does," Porom agreed.

I wonder if this is what it's like, she thought, to have a dad.

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Ending the chapter on a sweeter note; the next chapter will be a bit sad.

Heehee, mercilessly mocking Tellah's crazy hairdo is fun! I wonder if he uses styling product or if he just gets out of bed and purposefully avoids mirrors?

Okay, enough poking fun at Tellah's weird hygienic habits. Off to Mysidia!