Act Sixteen: The Prince of Shadows
There was a loud whoosh of wind, and Cecil smashed into something hard that felt like polished wood. His head spinning, it took a few moments for him to get his bearings and will himself to open his eyes.
"Wheeeew! Doesn't get much closer than that!"
Wait…was that Cid's voice?
Cecil sat up, rubbing the back of his head. He was…on the Enterprise.
And so were Kain, Rosa and Rydia, looking equally as surprised. Cid was standing by the steering wheel, grinning at them.
"Cid!" Rosa ran to him and threw her arms around him. "Oh thank heavens! How did you manage to catch us in time?"
"I just had a feeling, I guess. Intuition, is that what they call it? Where's Yang?" Cid asked, playfully messing up her hair. Rosa's eyes watered.
"Yang…he…" She choked, struggling to get the words out.
"He sacrificed himself…to disable the Tower of Babil's cannons," Cecil interrupted. "They were set to let loose on King Giott's castle."
Cid shook his head and pulled his goggles down over his face, which was the telltale signal for those that knew him that he was crying.
"Another good man lost…" He slammed his fist on the steering wheel and spit in disgust. "Golbez is racking up a debt he is not going to be able to pay with just his one, lousy life…"
"Oh…Yang…" Rydia burst into tears again, and Kain, in a rare show of tenderness, sat down next to her and put his arm around her heaving shoulders.
"Who is that one?" Cid asked.
"She is Rydia, a survivor of Mist," Cecil said. Cid nodded to her.
"Sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances, my dear."
Rydia replied with a long wail.
"Chug chug chug chug chug chug chug…"
Cecil stood and was dismayed to see that they were being followed by the Red Wings…again. Cid followed Cecil's gaze, and cursed under his breath. There still ladies present, after all.
"Ugh, we've been followed!" He turned his attention back to the steering wheel and made a few adjustments, starting to pick up speed as they zoomed away from the tower.
"Can't you shake them!?" Kain snapped, watching them get yet closer and closer from his and Rydia's position in the rear.
"This should be the faster ship!" Cid protested. "They must have made improvements to the Red Wings, too!"
Rydia, still tucked into Kain's arm, followed his gaze and shook her head. "They're closing in on us…" She sounded as if she had already given up.
"Come on, Enterprise!" Cid urged, making a hard U-turn around a jutting rock to try to distract their pursuers. However, the Red Wings weren't falling for it, and smoothly cleared the turn, even gaining speed as they did. Cid cursed, louder this time, (ladies' ears be damned) and shook his head.
"The engines can't take much more of this! Cecil, take over!" Cecil ran to the front of the ship and took the wheel.
"Where am I going, Cid?"
"Head toward the entrance to the overworld! There's gonna be something there you guys need to investigate with the tower and Eblan!"
"What!?" Cecil gave the wheel a sharp turn to set them back on course, pushing the engine as far as he dared until he could feel the hull shudder. "Cid, what did you find out about the tower?"
Cid was ignoring him had moved to a provisions box, digging around inside. He found what he was looking for, slammed the box shut, and sprinted to the back of the ship.
"Cid?" Rosa blinked.
"What are you doing?" Rydia asked weakly.
"Listen carefully!" Cid called from the back of the ship. "Once you breach the surface, I'll seal the hole with this. It will trap the Red Wings so that they can't follow you!" Cecil craned his neck, trying to see what Cid was holding. It was hard to tell in the darkness, but the beeping sound that emitted when Cid punched some keys in on what he was holding gave it away.
Cecil's face fell – he wanted to go after Cid, but if he left the wheel, they were as good as dead. They were sailing over a large ocean of magma now, and a hit would mean being burned to a crisp.
"Is that a bomb!?" Kain demanded. "What foolish plot have you cooked up?"
"No!" Rosa shrieked. She tried to run to Cid, but Cecil grabbed her arm, terrified of what she might do. She squirmed against Cecil's grip and screamed. "Not you too!"
Cid smiled sadly. "I was hoping I'd get to see your kids someday, but someone's got to keep Yang company. Now, listen to the rest of the plan. You get yourselves back to Baron, and talk to my boys when you get there. You have to get to the Cave of Eblan."
"But Cid!" Rosa elbowed Cecil in the chest to get away from him, and fled toward the back of the ship. Kain jumped up and grabbed her around the waist. She started kicking and screaming, but since Kain wasn't distracted with the steering wheel, he was able to keep a better hold on her. He pulled her tightly back against his chest and stared at Cid as Rosa struggled against him. He didn't approve of what Cid was about to do, but if he didn't stop Rosa, she was going to get herself killed too.
"You'll die!" Rydia cried.
"And so young, too!" Cid joked, trying to make her smile. It was a wide miss.
Cecil clutched the wheel so tightly that his knuckles ached, willing himself to cry out but his voice failing him.
With those departing words, Cid took a flying leap from the Enterprise. Rosa whimpered and collapsed into Kain, her legs giving out. Rydia covered her face and screamed into her hands. Cecil watched in horror as the airship zoomed past Cid's falling body, not even realizing they were approaching the entrance to the overworld. His body and his mind had totally disconnected from each other in that moment. It was like he was watching all of this unfold from above his body in a god-like third person view.
"Bombs away! Try stopping this, Golbez! My once-in-a-lifetime unaided flight!" Cid let out a loud guffaw, and the timer on the bomb reached zero.
A loud explosion rocked beneath them, propelling the Enterprise the last few yards it needed to cross back into the overworld. As Cecil shifted the engine back down to neutral, he could see that the bomb had created a massive cave-in, once again blocking the path of the underworld to outsiders. Trails of smoke rose from the Agart Mountain range, now fully collapsed in on itself. None of the Red Wings had made it out after them…they were safe for now.
Rydia pulled herself up and peered over the ledge of the ship, her eyes as red as an albino rabbit's and so swollen that she could barely keep them open. "Cid..."
"One after another..." Rosa sobbed, clinging onto Kain so tightly that he could feel a blush tinge his cheeks, even in this horrifying moment.
"…Rushing to die like fools!" Kain muttered, resting his hands on her back and closing his eyes.
Cecil stared out at the setting sun – for what felt like the first time in forever - and angrily shifted the gears on the Enterprise back into drive, turning the wheel northwest.
"We go to Baron - for Cid."
After landing outside of Baron castle, Cecil secured the ship for the evening and approached the others. The entire ride back to Baron had been silent. Kain and Rosa were sitting next to each other on crates, both staring at the floor listlessly. Rydia was slumped against the side of Kain's box, half-asleep.
"Listen," Cecil began, but no one looked up at him. He sighed and continued anyway. "I'm going to visit Cid's apprentices and see what it is Cid wanted them to do for us. I'll take care of everything, so…if you want to rest, please feel free. Rydia, I can give you a room in the castle."
"…Thank you," Rydia mumbled, trying to wake herself up.
"Should I walk you home?" Kain asked Rosa. She looked up at him and shook her head.
"No…I'm OK. I'm just going to stay here for a while, if that's OK with you guys. I'm not ready to be questioned by Mother right now."
"Umm…OK, sure," Kain said, and quickly stood up, suddenly very aware that Cecil was staring at him.
Cecil decided to ignore the guilty look on Kain's face, and crossed his arms over his chest. "Kain, I'd like you to escort Rydia to a room in the castle." Kain mentally noted how it was a command, and not a request, and nodded quickly.
"Come, Rydia…you can sleep inside…you'll catch cold out here." He hauled her up to her feet, and she shuffled behind him as he led her off the ship.
"Are you sure you'll be OK out here, Rosa?" Cecil asked, trying to soften his tone. Rosa nodded, still not looking at him.
"I'm fine. I just need time to process…all of this. Alone."
"I…" Cecil wasn't sure of the right thing to say right now. He had been through this kind of pain so much now that he was beginning to become numb to it. The rage, the urge to scream and question the unfairness of it all was still there, boiling inside him, but he couldn't find the will to summon it to the surface. He knew it couldn't propel him back in time to change anything, so he figured there was no point in acknowledging it. Rosa, however, was now experiencing the death of a comrade for the first time – twice, actually, in such quick succession. He didn't know how to tell her that it never got easier – your soul just got better at going on auto-pilot and compartmentalizing it away. That was war.
He left the ship without saying anything, and entered the castle. For the first time in what felt like ages, he was actually greeted by guards at the door.
"Good evening, Captain Cecil!"
Cecil gave a mere raise of his hand, and made a beeline for the engineering yard. Sure enough, he found Cid's two assistants going over some blueprints, even though it was starting to get too outside dark to see. Cid always had them working late into the night, and Cecil supposed the habit didn't go away even with Cid gone.
"Go light a torch," he heard one of them saying as he approached. Cecil thought his name was Arden, but he always got him mixed up with Andy, the other assistant. Even though they weren't related, they looked like brothers, both with sandy red hair, freckles, the same stocky build, always wearing their blue jumpsuits with grease stains on their faces and hands. They even began to sound alike if you listened to them talk for a while. "I think if we just make this adjustment here…"
"Lord Cecil!" The other assistant exclaimed, noticing him. "The boss told us you'd be coming. Told us to make a hook, and rig it to the Enterprise for you when you came. Won't take but a few minutes!"
"A hook?" Cecil questioned. "What does it do?"
"You'll be able to carry that hovercraft of yours beneath the ship. Just fly over the hovercraft in the Enterprise and activate the pulley we're gonna install. It will pick it up and carry it with you wherever you need it."
"The hovercraft?" Cecil blinked. "But what do we need that for?"
"Boss left you a letter with all the details in your bedchamber," he replied. "Is it OK if we get to work?"
"Oh…um…sure," Cecil said. He decided he would wait until after the work was done before breaking the bad news about Cid. No point in breaking the boys' spirits if they were still eager to do the job Cid requested yet tonight. "If it's only going to take a few minutes, I'll just wait for you here. The ship is parked outside the castle."
Arden and Andy left, chatting so excitedly that Cecil could hear them even as they left the yard. He dismayed over how he was going to tell them about Cid. And what about his daughter, Amelia? She had the right to know what happened, as well…
Cecil sat down in the grass among scattered tools and used rags. He remembered how when he was younger, he and Kain would escape out into the yard just to see Cid. Even though Cid was always too busy to play with them, he would wave them over and have Cecil and Kain assist with whatever project he was working on, showing them how to use tools, teaching him about the latest research he discovered, and tell them how they were going to be one of the first men to soar the skies once his dream project, the airship, was built.
And Cid had kept his promise. On the premier flight of Baron's first airship, the Integrity, Cecil and Kain were among the elite soldiers who had been chosen to man the flight – men that would become the first of the Red Wings. Cecil never forgot the feeling he had that day – as he watched the castle, town and townspeople shrink into the size of toys while they ascended into the air – he realized that even men could create their own miracles. It was one of the few times in his life he had been grateful for being born under the circumstances that normally clouded his existence.
If I hadn't been brought to Baron's doorstep, I wouldn't be flying right now…
"Lord Cecil, we're done!"
Cecil's head snapped up. He realized he had fallen asleep while sitting. Arden and Andy were standing before him, smiling patiently.
Cecil stood up, brushing the dirt and grass off his clothes. He felt his stomach clench as he prepared to deliver the bad news. "Thank you. But, about Cid…"
Arden laughed and shook his head. "Heh. Quite a handful, I'm sure. You don't have to tell us. The man never rests!"
"If you killed him, he'd probably come right back from the dead and keep on working!" Andy added.
Cecil stared at them, taken by surprise. "Yes, but…"
"Please take care of him just a little longer, OK?" Arden smiled. "Tell him we're doing our best to get Baron back on her feet – we're working night and day to get more ships built to replace the ones that dastardly Golbez stole, so that we can get our people what they need again! We'd best be getting back to work - we've a mountain of it waiting. Best of luck to you! You should get some rest too – you look exhausted."
And with that, Cecil was dismissed. Arden and Andy turned their back to him and pulled out a new set of blueprints, talking among themselves again. Cecil blinked and pressed his lips together. He decided that this wasn't the right time. They were anxious to rebuild Baron, and having more ships would truly be in the kingdom's best interests.
Besides…would they even believe him? He had a feeling they wouldn't. They thought their boss was invincible, just like Cecil had thought when he was a child.
Cecil decided to take their advice and retire to his bedchamber for the night. Lighting a torch, he saw the piece of parchment on his desk, sealed with a red wax emblem baring Cid's initials. It had only been half-applied, and looked like it had been pressed in haste.
Getting undressed down to black leggings, Cecil sat down on the edge of his bed and slid his finger under the seal, popping it open. Unfolding the letter, he felt another nauseous wave of grief seeing Cid's scratchy, barely legible handwriting fill the pages.
Dear Cecil,
If you are reading this, it means that I cannot fight with you right now, for whatever the reason. I pray this letter finds you well. If you haven't yet talked to my assistants, ask them to attach the hook to the Enterprise so you can transport a hovercraft. I figured you had one at your disposal since your travels had taken you to Fabul.
I noticed for the first time when I left the underworld to return to the surface that a tower that looked like Babil was north of Giott's castle. When I returned to the surface, I traveled to the village of Mythril to get enough ore to protect the Enterprise from magma. While there, a refugee from Eblan had washed up and was the talk of the village. He had amnesia and dementia, had obviously been through something very traumatic. But in his ramblings, I gleaned a clue, although I didn't know it was of any importance at the time. He said that the Cave of Eblan was the key to the Tower of Babil and that a hovercraft was needed to get there during low tide.
I installed the mythril and paid Giott a visit to find you. He informed me that you were infiltrating the Tower of Babil to retrieve the rest of the crystals. I wanted to have a ship ready for you to transport the crystals, but the comment the refugee had made about the tower kept bothering me. I came up with the idea for the hook while waiting for you and quickly returned to the surface world to have my assistants draw up the plans - and now I am writing this before returning to the underworld to meet up with you.
You may find that this lead is not needed if you've already retrieved the crystals. But I've been bothered about the state of Eblan since we came across the destroyed castle, and I couldn't let it go. If Golbez has been using the Tower of Babil as Giott described to me and if the refugee was speaking truth, then there must be a connection between Eblan's destruction and that tower.
Cecil, know that I am prepared to do everything to see this conflict come to an end.
-Cid
PS - I'm so proud of you, Kain and Rosa – it's like watching my own children come into their own before my eyes. Please continue to take care of them – you are the one keeping all of us together.
PPS – The hovercraft can also be used at the shoals of the Mythril mine. I didn't have a chance to investigate while I was in Mythril, but it looked like a point of interest.
Cecil re-read the letter again, his hands shaking. He set it aside, stunned at the development that had fallen into his lap, literally.
If Rubicante really had moved the crystals to the surface spire, that meant there had to be a way into the tower from the overworld. And Cid had said something about the Cave of Eblan before he detonated the bomb.
A spark of renewed energy suddenly surging through him, Cecil dug through his meager traveling possessions under his pile of clothes and armor and pulled out the map they had used to deduct the location of the path to the underworld. Laying it out on his desk, he peered carefully at the Eblan region, tracing a finger along the coastline.
Cid had mentioned low tide. Did that mean the cave was on the water?
Cecil could see the light outline of white trailing along from the Eblan castle coastline to a mountain range on to the west. According to the map legend, white spots indicated shoals. Nothing was marked in the mountain range as far as a location or town, but it was the only region in the southern hemisphere of the planet that contained any shoals, and Edward had used the hovercraft to take them over shoals to get to the Antlion Cave and Mount Hobs. More suspiciously, if you followed the trail from where the shoals ended up north, you ended dead center of the Tower of Babil.
Cecil rolled up the map and leaned back in his chair, propping his feet up on the desk. He wondered if he could manage to pick up the hovercraft yet tonight and investigate. Time was of the essence – they were now cut off from the underworld, which meant the final crystal was completely out of their jurisdiction. But if you could enter the Tower of Babil from above, it could mean another entrance to the underworld was available to them, AND a way to get to the upper spire where the other seven crystals were held.
He was just plotting a way to leave a message for Rydia, who should have been somewhere in the castle, and wondering how he was going to locate the others, when there came a knock on his door.
"Come in," Cecil said, and it opened to reveal Rosa. She had obviously been crying.
"Oh…!" She sniffled, her cheeks tingeing pink. Cecil didn't understand what the problem was until he remembered he was nearly naked – leggings didn't exactly leave much to the imagination. He blushed and swung his legs down from the desk, knocking nearly everything off of it in the process.
"Sorry, sorry…" Cecil groaned, scrambling down on the floor to pick everything up. "I'll put something on."
"Er…well…nevermind that," Rosa went from pink to red, and put her hand over her mouth, mumbling against it. "It's fine."
"What?" Cecil asked, and in his haste, smacked his head against the desk when he tried to get up. "ACK!"
"It's FINE!" Rosa practically shouted, and looked away. Cecil rubbed the top of his head and stood, using the map he had retrieved to cover his hips. Rosa cut a glance at him and couldn't help but let out a strained laugh at the absurdity she had walked into. Cecil was standing in the path of his open window, and the moonlight was casting its light over his silver hair and making it shine like the overworld crystals. His chest was moving up and down rapidly with his rushed breathing, and when her eyes trailed down to his flat, bare abdomen, the muscles born from hundreds of hours of military drills just barely visible in the light, she thought to herself if she stared much longer she was going to forget why she had come up in the first place. She quickly dragged her eyes back up to his.
They stared for a few moments, until the clock in his room let out an obnoxious chime nine times.
"Um…" Cecil felt his thoughts rushing through his head a million miles an hour; verging between the battle plans he was making and something else entirely inappropriate. "There's something you should read." He nodded toward the letter he had left on the bed. Rosa walked over to it and sat down, picking up the letter as Cecil took the blessed opportunity to put some pants on.
A few moments later, she folded up the letter and set it down on the desk, eyes wide. "Of course. It all makes sense, now. The Eblanese Ninjas must have known about a secret entrance to the Tower of Babil, and that's why they were attacked. They needed to be out of the way for Golbez to come and go as he pleased with the crystals. But for Cid to put all of that together with the limited information he had…"
"Genius, as usual," Cecil sighed. "He was looking out for us, as always." They both reached over at the same time, grasping hands.
"Cecil, the reason I came here was to tell you that…I looked for Amelia. I was going to tell her what happened so you didn't have to. I…I realized how much it must have hurt you to try to hold yourself together for us on the ship and I…"
"What? Rosa…"
"She ended up not being home." Rosa sighed and shook her head. "I asked Mother, and she said Amelia had hitched a ride to Kaipo when Cid's assistants went there to pick up supplies. Said she wanted a change of scenery now that she knew Cid wasn't coming back for a while. He must have visited her when he came back to deliver the orders for the hook and told her he was going to be busy. I kept myself together and didn't reveal what I knew. I told Mother I was spending the night at the castle and cried the whole way here."
Cecil embraced her and stroked her hair, running his fingers over the braid that had now become mostly undone. "It's going to be OK. Cid made another miracle for us today. We can honor him by taking the lead he left."
"I know," Rosa mumbled into Cecil's shoulder. "And now I feel like I understand the true depths of your strength just a little bit better."
"I'm going to fly out to pick up the hovercraft tonight," Cecil said. "…Will you come with me?"
"Now!?" Rosa blinked. "It's so late!"
"I can't just sleep right now, knowing what I have to do," Cecil frowned. "I was going to come back for you and the others – but I wanted to make sure we had everything we needed before going on a wild goose chase tomorrow."
"Oh…alright, if you'll need my help," Rosa nodded. "It IS nice weather for a moonlight flight, I suppose!"
"Meet me at the Enterprise in ten minutes," Cecil said. "I'll finish getting dressed." He handed the map to Rosa. "Bring this aboard."
"Aye-aye, captain!" She smiled, and left.
Cecil pulled on the rest of his clothes, splashed water in his face to banish any remnants of sleep, and raced out across the castle courtyard to the Enterprise. Rosa was aboard as promised, peering over the railing anxiously.
"Ready?" Cecil asked, and Rosa nodded excitedly, the glimmer back in her eyes.
They lifted off, and while Cecil drove, Rosa played navigator. It was a fairly cloudless night, so it was easy to see, and the twin moons watched over them in the skies above.
Lowering their altitude as they approached the base of Mount Hobs, Cecil was thrilled to see that the Damcyan hovercraft was exactly where they had left it. He turned on a new panel that had been installed in the Enterprise, and a screen flickered on. The image was slightly snowy from static, and was in black and white, but he could see from a camera installed at the bottom of the ship where they were so that they could position the hook to drop down and grab the hovercraft.
"Rosa, you take the wheel," Cecil said. "I'll jump down and attach the hook, and then you can pull it up."
"Me!?" Rosa exclaimed. "What if I crash?"
"You won't crash," Cecil laughed. "Here, I'll show you what to do." He stood behind her and took her hands, guiding them over the lever that put the airship in neutral, and placing the other on the new button that had been installed to release the hook, pushing down on it. They heard a whirring noise, and felt the ship shake a bit as the compartment the hook was stored in opened below. "Now, stay just like this, and all will be fine. I'll tell you when to push the button again to pull it back up."
"Got it!" Rosa said. Cecil retrieved a rope from the deck, tied it to one of the posts on the ship, and then tied it around his own waist twice over. He rappelled down the side of the ship, doing a tumble landing into the grass beside the hovercraft. He grabbed the hook Rosa had released, and saw that there was a perfect spot on the rear to attach it. After making sure everything was tight and secured, he shouted at Rosa to retract the hook. It began to slowly pull back up into the airship, the hovercraft lifting from the ground gently like a balloon with a cut string.
Cecil did a silent cheer, grateful that for once, something was going right. He began to climb back up to the deck using the rope he had tied to himself to originally get down. When he pulled himself over the ledge of the deck, Rosa ran to him and gave him a congratulatory kiss on the cheek.
"We did it!"
"You did perfectly. Now, should we try it out?"
"In Eblan?" Rosa blinked.
"No, I think it's too dangerous for just the two of us to approach that region – besides, we don't know if the tide will be quite right for cruising in the darkness. But we can try the other place Cid suggested in his letter – the Mythril Mine."
"Sounds good!"
They flew northeast to Mythril, which sat on a tiny island that was, either in a foretelling of the residents that would come to populate it or a really unusual coincidence courtesy of the universe, the shape of a pig's head. Cecil could see from the air that Cid had been right – there was a pathway of shoals in the shallow coast of Mythril that led to an even tinier island that must have contained the mine. Cecil figured they could just take the hovercraft for a test drive to make sure all was working, and turn in for the night. If something went wrong, they would be closest to a village here in which to get help. The Mythril region, with the exception of the legend Rosa had told them about the witch turning the village's founder into a pig – was known to be fairly safe. For some reason, monster activity had not picked up there as much as it had elsewhere. Maybe it was because monsters didn't want to bother preying on pigs, toads and small people?
Cecil showed Rosa how to use the camera to position the airship, and she pushed the button to release the crane. The hovercraft drifted down lazily, plopping down onto the beach they had selected for the landing spot. Cecil then parked the airship next to the hovercraft, and they prepared for departure.
"It feels like it's been forever since we rode in this thing!" Rosa exclaimed as she hopped into the passenger front seat. Cecil got behind the wheel and tried to remember how Edward and made it function. He realized he had never paid much attention since Edward had always offered to escort them, and he had assumed, at the time, that Edward would have stuck around. After pushing a couple of wrong buttons, he finally found the ignition switch, and the hovercraft purred to life. Rosa laughed and held on to the side as Cecil accidentally accelerated too hard, and they shot violently into the sea, onto the path of shoals before them.
The sea mist ticked Cecil's face as they drove, and he couldn't help but let out a whoop, putting one arm around Rosa. The cold summer air, the spray of stars that streaked across the sky like a painting, the way they reflected back in Rosa's eyes, the light of the twin moons providing just the perfect amount of light to guide their way – he realized this giddiness in his heart must have been what a normal twenty year-old felt like on a date with their first love. And normal twenty year-olds were probably a lot less reserved than Cecil typically was, so he decided to summon his courage and say what was on his mind. He stared out ahead at the sea as he spoke.
"Rosa – when all of this is over – let's go on a real first date."
"Real?" Rosa smiled and reached over, pinching Cecil on the arm.
"Owww!" Cecil cried. "What was that for?"
"This feels pretty real to me," Rosa winked, nestling back deeper in her seat. "It appears that the hovercraft appears to be working fine."
"…Let's drive just a little while longer."
They pulled up on the shore of the tiny island containing the mine, and Cecil killed the engine. He helped Rosa out of the hovercraft, and shrugged his cape off his shoulders, spreading it out on the twinkling sands of the beach. They both took off their boots, setting them aside. Rosa smiled to herself when she saw how small hers looked when right next to Cecil's – she realized she had never seen their clothing mingled like that in their lifetime together. They sat down together, his left hand laced with her right, and they leaned their heads together, wordlessly watching the ocean waves lap back and forth mere inches from their toes. Very far in the horizon, bathed in moonlight, Cecil thought he could see the peak of Mount Ordeals. He wondered if the voice that had spoken to him was still there.
Less than an hour later, they had both fallen asleep, having not said another word between them since exiting the hovercraft. When Cecil felt the warmth of sunlight on his face, his eyes snapped open. For a moment, he couldn't remember where he was, and panicked when he saw he was surrounded by miles of water.
But when he looked over and saw Rosa, sleeping peacefully on his shoulder, the happy memories of the hovercraft recovery mission came flooding back to him. He was about to shake her awake, when he heard a high, squeaky voice come from behind.
"Hey! What are you doing here?"
Cecil turned around, but couldn't see anyone. Rosa groaned and opened her eyes.
"What is that noise?"
"I...I don't know," Cecil said, hesitantly reaching for his sword. "You heard it too?"
"Down here, Romeo!"
Cecil still didn't see anything. Standing up and padding across the beach in his bare feet, he looked behind the hovercraft. Standing there, roughly two feet tall, was a grown man – well, grown in the sense that he had a full black beard, thick goggles resting on his forehead, and very muscular arms sticking out of the straps of his overalls. He was wearing work boots and holding a pick. His skin was so tan that he was the same color as the rocks in the underworld. The look on Cecil's face must have given away his shock, because the man started glowering.
"This is private property, ya know!"
"Oh my!" Rosa suddenly cried from behind. She had snuck up behind Cecil. "Are you from Mythril?"
Of course, Cecil thought. A small person.
"Yeah, and I'm here to work," he replied. The small person had softened when he saw Rosa, from his perspective a statuesque goddess covered in sand and smelling of the ocean that had suddenly materialized before him. "Uh…are you two lost? This is the Adamant Isle Grotto."
"Oh, so that's what this island is called," Rosa knelt down. "Our apologies for trespassing."
"Or maybe you're here from the ad?" The small person perked up even more. "About the rat tail?"
"Rat tail?" Cecil asked, trying to hide his disgust.
"I guess not," the man said, a little disappointed. "I have ads all over town – I'm a collector of tails. The latest I'm trying to acquire is a rat tail. I reckon we don't have anything else to discuss unless you have one."
"No…we'll just be on our way," Cecil said. The man grunted and walked away, whistling and swinging his pick. Rosa and Cecil watched as he climbed a ladder to a small cave they had not noticed in the darkness of the night before, and disappeared inside. When he was safely out of earshot, they both broke down laughing.
"A rat tail! Is he serious?"
"He looked awfully serious," Cecil shook his head. "But speaking of serious…the sun is rising. If we don't get back to Baron soon, Rydia and Kain are going to panic. It wasn't my intention to…keep us out all night."
"Indeed, I had not meant to fall asleep," Rosa smiled gently. "But it was wonderful. Thank you, Cecil. I haven't had that much fun in a long, long time."
They pulled their boots back on and Cecil grabbed his cape, throwing it around his shoulders haphazardly as they jumped into the hovercraft. They raced back to Mythril, and Cecil made quick work of hooking the hovercraft back up to the Enterprise while he shouted instructions to Rosa on how to start the ship. He climbed aboard, lifted the gangplank, and rushed them east back home in record time.
Once in Baron, Rosa appeared from the belly of the Enterprise, a horrified look on her face.
"I'm going straight home to bathe…I look like a sea hag from all that flying around and from the ocean spray. I just looked in a mirror!"
Cecil laughed and kissed her forehead. It tasted salty, and he was tempted to push his tongue against her skin.
"You look fine…but I agree. It might be a good idea to leave the Adamant Isle Grotto out of the narrative if anyone asks." Rosa's ears turned red. They both knew that by "anyone", Cecil meant "Kain". "I'll take care of things here and bathe on the ship. There should be some stores of hot water from the engine room that I can use. If Rydia or Kain come out here, I'll explain that I got the hovercraft."
"I'll be back soon," Rosa waved, and ran back to town.
Cecil sighed dreamily and practically floated downstairs, not believing the lightness in his steps. He had never imagined he could feel so happy again, especially not after losing gentle Yang and his second father. But he swore to himself that he wasn't going to let their sacrifices go to waste – he was more determined than ever to catch Golbez off-guard in Babil and destroy him once and for all, determined to prove his worthiness of their final acts. He was beginning to understand what Yang had told him in Eblan castle about stepping up when needed.
While he was in the engine room, pouring a bucket of warm water on his hair and scrubbing furiously to rid it of the sand and sea, he heard a voice above, but couldn't make out who it belonged to with the door closed. Footsteps followed, so Cecil quickly pulled on his pants and undershirt, leaving the armor discarded in the corner that he had been letting dry by the fire. Cecil opened the door and saw Rydia descending, the sleeves of her tunic trailing behind her on the steps.
"There you are," Rydia said. Cecil was hopeful to hear that her voice sounded much less strained and defeated than yesterday. "One of Cid's assistants told me he saw you landing the ship out here from the castle when I was looking for you. Was that the Damcyan hovercraft I saw as well?"
"The very same," Cecil smiled. "I fetched it from Mount Hobs using the enhancements Arden and Andy made to the airship at Cid's command. We're going to use it to go to the Cave of Eblan and get the crystals back, today."
Rydia's eyes widened. "The Cave of Eblan? Isn't that the place Cid mentioned yesterday in the underworld?"
"Yes," Cecil said. "I'll tell you everything, but I think we should wait for Kain as well. Have you seen him?"
"No…after he took me to my room, he never came back," Rydia frowned. "I don't remember much after that except for the weird dream I had. Cecil…is Baron haunted?"
"Haunted?" Cecil tried not to laugh. "I should say not. Aren't you a little old now for ghost stories?"
"I heard voices, though," Rydia ran her finger over the whip tied to her sash. "And I can communicate with the phantom plane – which DOES contain ghosts, thank you very much. I was positive I heard a voice emanating from Baron in my dreams last night." Cecil combed his fingers through his wet hair, trying to think. It suddenly hit him – in all the excitement of the past few days, he remembered where he had first heard the word Eidolon.
"Rydia…actually…I do of know something." Cecil explained the encounter he had in the Baron cellar, when the voice of His Majesty had told him to visit the land where the Eidolons dwelled, and he was banished from the makeshift throne room in a flash of light. Rydia nodded and folded her arms across her chest when he was done.
"Cecil, I am positive that it was an Eidolon you spoke to. This is…unprecedented."
"What do you mean?" Cecil asked.
"I still have much to learn," Rydia said hesitantly. "But it's my understanding that only summoners can hear the voices of the phantom plane. For one to speak to you…" She shook her head, biting her lip. "What kind of power did you receive at Mount Ordeals when you became a paladin?"
"It wasn't really a power," Cecil said. "It was more like…I had the blinders lifted from my eyes and the chains cut from my heart. The light that spoke to me called me "son", and I was embraced in warmth before it disappeared."
Rydia didn't know what to say to that. She had a thought, but she dared not say it aloud. She knew he was the same flesh and blood Cecil as the one who had saved her from Mist, and felt the same sense of awe she had first felt when she stared into his haunting blue eyes, eyes the same color as their planet.
But what Cecil had described to her didn't sound entirely…human.
"We'll go to the Feymarch – together – when we get the chance," Rydia finally said. "The King and Queen will be able to tell us whom spoke to you, I am sure of it."
"Thank you, Rydia!" Cecil said, hugging her. She hugged him back tightly. She realized that the last time she had embraced him, she only came up to his legs. Now, her head rested on his chest.
"Cecil…I am sorry for my distress yesterday. It was foolish of me to think the Eidolons could undo any of the evil Golbez imparted onto us. I'm ready to take the crystals back…for Yang and Cid. I know that's something that only we can do."
"No more apologies," Cecil pulled away. "Here's what we need to do next – we need to find Kain and Rosa, and I'll explain the plan to everyone. And then we'll take action. Can you help me with that?" Rydia nodded and turned to skip up the steps back to the deck of the Enterprise. But before she reached the top step, she turned back to face Cecil.
"Ah, I forgot…there was one more part of my dream."
"Hmmm?"
"In my dreams, I was wandering Baron's fields, chasing the voice I heard. While I was running, I encountered a Midgardsormr."
"What is that?" Cecil asked. "Some sort of monster?"
"It's a giant, poisonous snake," Rydia explained. "A legendary creature of death…most likely extinct, if it ever even existed. But a snake is an omen that someone important is coming into your life. And the more poisonous a snake, supposedly the luckier the encounter."
Rydia had run into Kain on her way back to the castle. She found him outside, practicing old Dragoon drills with a new lance he had procured from the armory, since Doctor Lugae's abomination had snapped his old one in half. She called his name, and screamed as he spun around, the tip of his lance just inches shy of her chest.
"Gah…Rydia, you scared the hell out of me," Kain groaned. Rydia peered through his helmet – the shadows under his eyes were even more pronounced than hers, and his skin was pale. His cheeks looked a little hollowed, too. Had he been running in his dreams as well? She remembered the tortured noises he made in his sleep when they were in the underworld.
"Put that thing down," Rydia snapped, rising to her full height. "You're going to hurt someone."
"Ha, like I've never done that before," Kain said bitterly, and she put her hands on her hips. She wasn't going to take any of his moodiness today. She knew he had to have been upset about Cid, but she had decided she wasn't going to wallow around in pity anymore, and she wouldn't let him, either.
"I just came to thank you for your kindness in taking care of me last night and to tell you that Cecil has devised a plan. We are all to meet at the Enterprise when we're ready to go."
"Oh, Cecil got everything taken care of with the airship?" Kain softened a little at the mention of Cecil's name. "Great…I will join you soon." Rydia left before her confusion could be made evident on her face.
Mom always warned me that men are simple creatures…why are the only ones I know so complicated…?
"Any thoughts?" Cecil asked. He had just gotten done explaining to Kain, Rosa and Rydia the contents of Cid's letter, and describing the use of the hovercraft in their plan.
"It's worth a shot," Kain shrugged. "Hopefully Rubicante isn't hanging around the upper spire of the tower with a welcome basket."
"Did you ever…um, know Rubicante?" Rosa asked, trying to be careful with her wording. Kain shook his head.
"I think Barbariccia mentioned him once," Kain said. "It's getting harder to remember my time there, which I think is a good thing. She was throwing a fit about him stealing one of her bikinis."
No one knew how to follow that comment, so Cecil cleared his throat and continued.
"I did some research on the tides while waiting for everyone. We should be encountering a low tide in Eblan if we leave now. We only have a short window of a few hours though, so we need to hurry."
"Let's go!" Rosa exclaimed. "Time to solve the mystery of Eblan once and for all!"
It was Rydia's first time seeing Eblan ever in her life – when the ship crossed over the wreckage of the castle, she blanched and turned away. Much like Rosa, as a black mage she was especially susceptible to the wake of destruction magic could leave – she could smell the death and taste the rage behind whoever had torched the castle all the way from the Enterprise's deck.
"There are the shoals!" Rosa cried on the opposite deck, pointing below, "To the west a little more, Cecil!"
Cecil lowered the hovercraft down near the shoals, and Kain, wanting to flex his legs, took a flying leap to the beach below to untangle it from the hook. Once Cecil could see it was freed in the monitor, he parked the airship and the three of them met Kain at the hovercraft. Cecil and Kain got into the front seats, with Cecil driving, and Rydia and Rosa in the back.
"Here goes…" Cecil fired off the ignition. The hovercraft rumbled awake, and Cecil pulled out into the waiting ocean. Unlike the Adamant Isle Grotto, the Eblanese shoals were trickier to navigate, with the path randomly sinking under deeper water and only emerging again with the retreat of a subsequent wave. The end result was Cecil frequently backing up and finding a different path to go down. Finally, Cecil could see the mountain range appear ahead of them on the horizon, and Rydia stood up excitedly.
"I think I see the entrance to the cave! Due west!"
Cecil eased the hovercraft onto the nearest tiny patch of beach, and shut the hovercraft down. Rydia bolted down the beach, waving to the others when she found the entrance.
It was obvious that the cave was normally well-hidden under water – the rocks surrounding it were still soaked, and covered in barnacles and the occasional star fish. The sand at the entryway was also as smooth as silk under their feet – having been tossed about so often by the waves of the tide. The water was already starting to rise again – the waves brushed their ankles whereas at the shores in front of the castle, it didn't touch them at all.
"This looks a little…tight," Rosa laughed nervously. "One at a time, then?"
Cecil slid in first, and immediately stumbled down a slippery slope, falling flat on his face with a splash.
"Watch your step!" He called out, pulling himself out of the puddle of sea water he had become intimately acquainted with. "It's slippery!"
Rosa came down next, and Cecil took her hand as she descended the step he had fallen on, guiding her down without issue. Next came Kain, who leapt down, smirking at Cecil who smiled at his showing off. Kain paused from his showboating, reaching up to help Rydia.
When they were all on the ground, they found that the cavern was fairly straightforward – a crudely dug tunnel that hardly deviated from its main path. It eventually opened up into a larger cavern, where several tents had been erected and random overturned crates and empty potion jars made up the landscape. As they were about to descend to look for signs of life, Cecil, who had taken the rear, felt a cold blade against his neck.
"Answer this question very carefully the first time, or it will cost you your life. Who are you?"
Cecil froze in place. Rydia, Rosa and Kain whirled around, and right when Kain was about to draw his lance, he too was grabbed from behind by someone in the shadows, his mouth covered and his hand with the lance twisted behind his back. Rydia and Rosa stood back-to-back, Rosa drawing her bow as Rydia cracked her whip threateningly. Cecil could hear footsteps pattering all around them – but he couldn't see who they belonged to.
"I am Cecil of Baron," Cecil said slowly.
"The same Cecil of the Red Wings?" The voice hissed in his ear.
"Ex-Captain of the Red Wings," Cecil said, which was still technically the truth. "Dismissed when Golbez stole our fleet. This is Kain and Rosa, also of Baron, and Rydia, a summoner of Mist."
"Lies. Mist has been decimated…by Baron, I believe."
"I survived!" Rydia snapped, overhearing the exchange, "Because Cecil and Kain saved me from Baron's treachery!"
That seemed to satisfy Cecil's interrogator. "Last question. Why are you here?"
"We come to seek an entrance to the Tower of Babil. We have intelligence that Golbez has holed up the crystals there, and we need to restore them before it's too late. Golbez has taken seven of the eight crystals, so we haven't much time!"
"He knows of the crystals of darkness," another voice said, amused. "This is unexpected. OK, let them go." Cecil felt the blade release from his neck, and he was shoved forward a bit. Rosa caught him, and Kain was let go as well.
"Yeowch…break my arm, would you?" Kain groaned, massaging it.
Stepping out of the shadows came three men and one woman, dressed in dark blue tunics that had blended in perfectly with the dreary, water-logged atmosphere of the cavern. They all wore leather sandals that laced up their legs, and had hair either cropped short or pulled into high ponytails. Various knives and metal stars were attached to the belts that wrapped around their tunics, and Cecil noted that the decorative hairpins in the woman's ponytail had razor-sharp tips that could slice a man's throat in one careless flick. They also all had dark blue folds of fabric covering their mouths, wrapping around their necks and flowing down to turn into short capes.
"Forgive us," the woman said, bowing. The others followed suit. "We have to be cautious of who comes through here. In the caverns ahead…" she indicated with an outstretched hand, "…Is the remainder of our population. We are sick, we are dying, and we are utterly trapped like dogs. Our prince has fled through the secret tunnel that leads to Babil to get revenge for the death of the royal family. In case you haven't realized, we are all that remains of the Eblanese ninjas."
"The Eblanese royal family is dead?" Rosa whispered. The woman nodded, and the men remained silent behind her.
"Killed in the fire that destroyed our very home. The coward who did it did not even do us the decency of leaving their remains so we could honor them with a scattering of ashes."
"Oh god…" Rosa blanched.
"Had our prince not been…er…skipping out on his intelligence briefing the day of the fire, he would have been killed as well," the woman explained. "He came back home, and clever as his highness is, rescued what would become the survivors and led us to this hidden cave as sanctuary. But we are running out of food, water and time."
"You must help him!" One of the men suddenly burst out, and the woman glared at him. He shrunk underneath her gaze, but dared to keep speaking. "Please…I mean no disrespect…our prince is brave, but he is not of his right mind right now. As soon as he heard the perpetrator had been spotted, he abandoned our patrols to fight him! No one here is any condition to wage battle, not even him."
"…We'll find your prince," Cecil said, and the man sighed in relief. "If we find him, we'll find the tower entrance, right?"
"Yes, and he will be the only one who can let you in," the woman said, begrudgingly. "So make sure he is good shape when you find him."
"We'll hurry," Kain said. "Please point us in the right direction!"
The ninjas lead them through the open cavern. A few skinny, pale faces popped out of the tents, mostly children, but when they saw the ninjas were accompanied by four strangers, they quickly darted away. Inside the tents, Cecil could hear parents hushing the children and begging them to be quiet.
"But what if they have food, mama?"
Rydia closed her eyes and looked away. She was going to be sick.
The ninjas stopped near a stack of rotting crates, covered in mildew and filled with broken bottles and garbage, and the woman kicked them away. Doing so revealed a small tunnel that someone not much larger than Cecil or Kain could crawl through.
"Go through here, and you will come to another cave you should be able to stand up in," she instructed. "There will be a dead end, eventually…"
"Thank you," Cecil said. "We'll be back…and if you have need of aid, only Baron currently has the means to reach this cavern from the outside world. We can bring food and provisions, if you want."
The woman remained stone-faced, and looked away. It pained her deeply to have to accept help from an outsider, but if their prince had been in such a desperate state of mind that he ran off, she supposed that she was the one who had to make those kinds of decisions in his absence. She already knew what he would say – he would want to go at it alone.
"Let us discuss it after you return with His Majesty," she said, and walked away. The three remaining men bowed once more, and turned to follow her.
Cecil, Kain, Rosa and Rydia single-file crawled through the tunnel, and came out to a more open cavern, as the ninja had promised. Families of vampire bats hung from the ceiling in large clumps of black and brown, which necessitated proceeding as quietly as possible as to not stir them. Trickles of water occasionally dropped down from stalactites above, and Cecil wondered if they were out from underneath the ocean yet. The air around them was freezing cold, and smelled musty and brackish. Their path began to ascend upward, and they found a collapsing door that led to yet another dug-out tunnel.
Before they could open the door, they heard a voice ring out, clear as a bell, and it echoed into the cavern they stood within. Rosa's eyes widened as she glanced back at the bats, but none of them had been perturbed.
"We meet at last! I've so been looking forward to this, Rubicante!"
It was a man's voice – it had a roughness to it, but the threat in his tone was underlined with an immature, almost boyish drawl.
Cecil pushed open the door slowly, and they were met with a long, dark tunnel. Just where the darkness became deepest, he could make out the outlines of two figures. One of them was familiar and not unexpected – it was Rubicante, his red cape fluttering between his bare legs and feet and his hand to his mouth, as if to suppress a giggle. For the first time, Cecil could make out his face, and he saw a horrifying mess of charred black, scarred flesh around his chartreuse eyes – what remained of a broken, crumbled nose and his mouth was tightly wrapped in a red cowl, a crudely cut mouth hole left open for him to speak through.
The other figure, standing defiantly with a wide stance and two daggers – one in each hand –was poised to strike. It was a man with a flop of silver hair that fell in his eyes, the rest of it spiked haphazardly in no particular style. A light gray-purple cowl hid his face, similar to the ninjas they had encountered in the previous cavern, tied off into a flowing scarf layered over a matching cape. A black leather breastplate was secured over one of his shoulders, sinewy but brimming with strength. He wore gray pants underneath a cerulean blue sash that held a black leather pouch and various weapons from his waist, and black leather knee-high boots.
"Should I know you from somewhere?" Rubicante asked, his tone dripping with feigned interest.
"I'm Edge, of Eblan!" The silver-haired figure huffed.
"Eblan?" Rubicante pretended to look pensive. "I'm afraid I do not know of the place in which you speak."
"Ha…" Edge shook his head, smashing his two blades together so hard that sparks exploded from them, quickly dying out in the puddles beneath their feet. "Let me help you remember!" He did a backflip over Rubicante and while in mid-air tossed both of his daggers, one of them wedging into Rubicante's leg and the other landing squarely in his back. Rubicante, however, didn't seem bothered. As he reached over his shoulder to retrieve the first dagger in his back, Edge landed in a straight stance and folded his hands together with his elbows sticking out parallel, only his right index finger and thumb visible as he chanted a mantra under his breath. A curtain of fire rolled up from the floor and engulfed Rubicante, swirling into a whirlwind before disappearing. Rubicante let out a bark of laugher and removed the other dagger from his leg, tossing them both on the ground in front of Edge. Edge was surprised, stumbling backwards a bit as they slid toward his feet.
"That was pitiful," Rubicante sighed. "Allow me to show you true flame." He raised his arm and summoned forth a wall of fire of his own, this one much fiercer than Edge's, the flames licking all the way up to the ceiling.
"Shell!" Rosa whispered, and the magic shield just barely covered Edge before the flames engulfed him entirely. However, Rubicante's spell was still far too powerful, and Edge sustained too much damage from the magic fire, collapsing to the floor in a heap. Rubicante called back the fire with a snap of his fingers, and shook his head.
"Damn…you…" Edge groaned, struggling to push himself back up, but falling back flat on his backside.
"You've strength worthy enough of pride, but not nearly enough to think of challenging me," Rubicante said, though not unkindly. "Hone your skills. I'll look forward to facing you again when you have." With those words, he enveloped himself in a curtain of fire, and disappeared.
"Come…back…here…!" Edge hoarsely cried, closing his eyes, letting his arms flop out at his sides. "You bastard…"
The four of them stared at each other as Edge continued to curse a string of colorful profanities under his breath. Cecil took a deep breath.
"I think we've found our missing prince."