Final Fantasy IV 100 Themes

1: Life

He brushed his fingers lovingly through the hair of the woman who slept beside him. She was, in all things, exquisete, and he would never regret coming to her nation.

He loved her.

Once upon a time, very far away from here, he had been convinced he was in love with another, a woman like himself, but... It was true that he did not know what love was until he had descended upon this small blue planet and found her.

Cecilia.

Beautiful Cecilia, with her riveting green eyes, luscious blond hair, and her way of seeing beauty in all things. The mother of his child.

KluYa thought of the small boy in the next room and smiled fondly.

How much love could exist in his heart? How had he come from being one of chilly logic to feeling so wholly? And now...

Now, once more, she was with child, though KlyYa felt that soon this hapiness would dissapate into nothingness. He must enjoy this while he could, embrace this passionately firey woman and their ambitious, strong spirited son.

Cold fear gripped him momentarily as a premonition of the future dug its claws into his mind, enthralling him. It was a vision he'd had many times, the one that had driven him here, to this blue planet.

An unknown man of great moral fiber, an apiration in his mind with hair as fair as moonshine and eyes as brillant emeralds, must cast off the darkness and embrace a mantle of great light. To the stars he would ride on KluYa's carefully wrought airship, the Lunar Whale. There he would fight off an enemy, KluYa's enemy as much as this planet's, and bring prosperity to the world with the hallowed light he held.

Birthed in womb of Dragon's Maw... he thought, remembering were he had placed the ancient ariship centuries before when he had descended upon this earth.

And borne onto the stars.

By Light and Darkness cast aloft are Dreamtide oaths resworn.

Moon is swathed in ever-light ne'er again to know eclipse

Earth, with hallow'd bounty reconcilled.

When he'd first arived this was the prophecy he'd penned and given to the Mysidi Tribe, the peoples closest to where he'd hidden his vessel. Rumors carefully spread, and he went and established a shrine upon the place called Mount Ordeals, knowing he would one day have to instill the light into this misguided hero.

But it was only now that he fully understood how he had brought the prophecy to fruition.

Staring at his hands he shook, seeing for the first time both himself and his lover in the face of the distant appiration. KluYa remembered how he had looked when he was a much younger man by several hundered years, remembered his smooth, strong jaw and his powdery skin. Then he thought of Cecilia's beautiful green eyes and how they shone so brilliantly upon the face of that man, filled so with integrity.

But that was not what caused the shivers to creep down KluYa's spine and compelled him to dress and step out into the moonlit night.

No.

There was something in this vision that had never been there before and it made his blood run cold.

Kneeling over the small pond in the very back of the village he inhabited with his family, KluYa placed his hand over the waves and stared at his reflection as it slowly shimmered out of sight. He was older now with his ever-pale hair and his strange, opalescent blue eyes. The thin beginings of a beard adorned his fair countanace, ever bit as shockingly white as his hair. His expression appeared grim, but his face still handsome.

Slowly the face was replaced by that of his brother, who closely resembled their mother even in old age. His long, flowing white beard hid his very oval face, and his foggy eyes stared back at KluYa from their position in the pond, posessing every bit of command that their mother's had in life.

"It has been awhile, Fu," KluYa said softly to his elder brother.

"...You sound disturbed, little brother," the elder said, precisley intuitive, as always. "What is the matter? Do not tell me you have discovered a new branch to that little prophecy of yours?"

"There is something I 've neglected to tell you," KluYa hesitated, wary of what FuSoYa would think of Cecilia and Theodore; interspecies breeding had not been an accepted idea back upon The Moon.

"Oh?" FuSoYa arched his bushy eyebrows in an expression so like their mother's that KluYa almost wanted to laugh.

Almost.

"There is a woman," was what he said, waiting to gauge his brother's reaction. "Do you remeber that place I told you about? The land with the man who deciphered the secrets of Airships?"

"Do not tell me you did something rash like make love to her, KluYa," FuSoYa looked stern. "You cannot possibly gauge the consequences of such a thing."

"... I didn't initially, brother. In fact, she rather hated me at first, but as things have come to pass, we are in love. Cecilia and I have a son, Theodore, he is nearly eight years of age, and she is once more with child," he closed his eyes. "I know you are dissapointed, but our races our more similar than disimilar, as I have discovered."

"That is not what this is about," FuSoYa stated, tyring to change subject; as if he thought KluYa could not see the anger in his eyes.

"In a way, it is," KluYa explained. "As I have already told you, there are two men in my dream. The Harbinger, who goes before Zemus to sow darkness in the world, and The Hero, who smites Zemus with unsurpassable Holy Might."

"Granted to him by yourself. Yes, I already know. What is your point, KluYa?"

"... They are my sons, FuSoYa," KluYa finally said, somehow managing to stop his voice from cracking. Just the mere thoguht of his children being pit against one another in such a way... he could not bear it.

After a very long, very painful, silence, FuSoYa at last spoke, "how do you know?"

"You yourself said so. In my vision I distinctly heard your voice say 'he is a son of KluYa.' The Hero responded with 'then I have hated my own brother enough to kill him. Zemus could have just as easily used me, and our roles might have well been reversed.'"

"...Are you absolutely sure?"

"There is only one thing I have ever been more sure of in my life Fu," KluYa replied softly, his voice now barely above a whisper, "and that is that my destiny awaited me upon the Blue Planet."

"All you can do is pray for the best." FuSoYa assured, speaking nonchalantly.

"You're not a father, Fu," KluYa snapped. "What can you understand of my pain! I love them both so, and to see them fight... to know that one hates another... I am unable to bear it. What's more is that I am sure now that I will die."

"Then your spirit will live on."

"I know, but that is not enough. My son will not know me."

"At least he will live, Klu."

"... Yes. You are right," KluYa said at last. "What more can I, as his father, hope for? Unfortunately, Theodore's fate in all of this is still cloudy..."

"Get some rest, brother. You will need it for what is to come."

KluYa nodded slowly and stood, his brother's reflection disapearing as he returned to the house to live the rest of his mortal life and pray to the gods that his son not be forced to make the same choice he had.