A/N: Heh heh, I'm as bad as the people I read from that bug me... dang. Oh well, here I am again. On the positive side, I quit my job, so uh, you know.
No reviews, so nothing to stall you guys with. Ego in misericórdia tua, no?
§ - Chapter 4: Inertia - §
"No!" exclaimed Zelda. Obviously. There was an exclamation point. Backing away from the forth wall now...
"Zelda, you know it and I know it. I've got to go," replied Link, calmly, but clearly annoyed.
"Where will you begin looking?" Gaepora inquired.
"The Sealed Temple. That's where Ghirahim killed Groose. That's where I'll most likely be able to find any useful information," Link answered.
Zelda was quick to respond, "But it's so dangerous!"
Link simply looked at her, neither angrily nor condescendingly, but seriously. The look was not harsh, but left no room for argument. He would be going.
"Good luck, Hero. Go, remove this threat, and avenge your friend," finished Gaepora, standing up to leave.
"Goodbye Link... don't die," Zelda implored, giving her farewell.
With a rare smile, Link responded, "I won't."
The lesser Destiny Island trio stood staring while the major trio looked on awkwardly, not quite knowing what to do.
Lea broke the silence with, yet again, sarcasm, "I know what you're thinking: Who's the old guy in the wizard hat?" This prompting an eyebrow raise from said individual. "Well, don't mind him. He's not important, and neither is the bipedal mouse beside him. Also don't worry about the amazing display of swordsmanship displayed by your 'peers' over there. What you should really be worried about is: does Riku bleach his hair, or is that old man color natural!?" This prompted an eyebrow raise from the other person he insulted.
The royal rodent introduced himself in the odd space left over after Lea's ramble, "I'm Mickey Mouse, and this is Yen Sid. We're here to get Sora, Riku, and Kairi."
"They're going again!? Wait, this is how they got so strong right!? Let me go too! What do you do while you're gone anyway!?" Tidus excitedly demanded.
"With all semblance of secrecy abolished, I suppose there's no harm in explaining, if only to cease this incessant talking. I'll tell you on the condition that you agree to ask no more questions," Yen Sid said.
In a cloud of diamonds Ghirahim appeared before Katib, anxiousness evident in his eyes. "What have you found?" he asked, feigning nonchalance despite his obvious intense intrigue.
"I was going over the ritual in my head, copying it down, and reciting it as an attempt to trigger some sort of inspiration when I recalled the Insanias Prophetica, an ancient text full of apparent nonsense whose thousands of lines are always indecipherable except in the exact situations in which they are meant to apply. I have read it in its entirety, and read commentary and history on when some of the jewels of its meaning have been discovered. One line within it declares, "There is Nothing in the Twilight." The lines of the text are written in many different languages, and that line was written in the same common tongue that the ritual instructions were written in, so the capitalized 'Nothing' is not a translation issue. I will continue to look into it, but I feel quite strongly that this refers to the same 'Nothing' that that spell references." Katib explained.
His pedantic prattling irritated Ghirahim, but the demon sword could not afford to miss anything if his plans were to succeed. On these grounds, he allowed the scribe to continue.
"Obviously, I can't quite say the connection between said 'Nothing' and the Twilight. Indeed, I think that would require a comprehensive, even exhaustive review of the matter; however, it does seem likely that there is an intrinsic link, not an incidental one. That is to say, I think there is some natural connection moving beyond happenstancial relations such as location. It is really a wonder, if you think about it, that-"
"Get to the point!" shouted the pale demon lord. The old record-keeper's blathering was beginning to regress from useful and relevant information unhelpful scholarly tangents.
"Right... it just... here's what I would advise you to do, if I may..." he trailed off in request for permission, not wanting to risk overstepping his bounds again. This decision turned out to be the incorrect one, as Ghirahim's impatience had long since surpassed his desire for submission and politeness from a cowardly weakling of an underling.
"Of course you may! I've been waiting far too long for that exact thing, so speak quickly before I make you suffer." He didn't come up with an actual threat. He didn't need to. Katib knew that his master would come up with a way to torture him without much effort and would enact it with even less.
Now shrinking back noticeably, he counseled his temperamental superior, "I would try conducting the spell as you have prepared, replacing 'Nothing' with a very large amount of Twilight. I say a large amount because I am not certain how much it would take to ensure that enough 'Nothing' is also present. If that even makes sense. Still, as you stated many times, the other pieces would be easy to reacquire if the spell failed, and by then I should have been able to conduct substantial research into the matter. On the other hand, it could actually work, solving the problem up front. One caution for you: be discrete in your acquisition of blood. If you alert the village -and more importantly the hero- to your necessity, they might be able to thwart any effort at more should the first ritual fail."
"I can deal with that. Anything else I should know?" he asked, having calmed down somewhat.
"At the risk of sounding expository, are you sure you are fully aware of the result and magnitude of the spell?" Katib inquired.
"Unless, you have something new to add, I see no reason to waste time on that which we already both know," Ghirahim responded tersely.
Katib thought for a moment, before stating, "Just remember that should the summoned entity feel too powerful, you can cut off the ritual early. It would be better to have to conduct the process again than to call something you can't control. It may not voluntarily listen to you."
Link was thinking, and he was thinking hard. He had an uneasy feeling in his gut, and it was making him very nervous. The problem was actually that he had two feelings at once. It was confusing him. He recognized both easily, as he had had them both before. But they were contradictory. It didn't make sense.
On the one hand, he felt like Ghirahim was enacting his endgame. It seemed as though the setup was complete, the skirmishes were concluded, and all remaining action was leading up the climactic battle soon to follow. He felt this toward the end of every dungeon and temple he had every explored shortly before he faced a giant beast or other powerful foe.
On the other hand, however, he felt like he was stumbling blindly into a much larger mess that he was counting on. He felt this as well in every dungeon and temple, but this feeling came shortly after entering, just as he took stock of his surroundings.
On a larger scale, he had felt impending end as he returned to Skyloft, having learned the complete Song of the Hero. He felt a strong sense of eminent adventure as soon as the dark tornado had come into view.
Yes, he had felt all this before. But to feel it all at the same time... it just didn't make sense. It was contradictory. This gut feeling had him very nervous. Link was thinking, and he was thinking hard.
He was sure he was being stalked, but every time he looked. There was nothing there. However, there were always flickers of movement and strange sounds, sounds that did not seem natural. He was terrified. The nearly black bird was flying as fast as he could straight forward, not caring where he was going so long as he escaped his pursuer. He didn't know who or what it was, but he was in utter panic, absolute dread causing him to take wing and not stop until he reached an unattainable safety. He gave a long glance over his shoulder, trying to ascertain the nature of his follower. He looked too long however, because when he looked forward, all he saw was a pale figure, briefly contrasting with the bright blue sky before he flew head first into a forward pointing blade.
"And now," Ghirahim stated, his voice teeming with sheer delight, "I have blood."
He caught the bird deftly as he shook it off of his sword, licking the weapon and savoring the taste.
"It's only fitting that you would give yourself to appease my needs, just as your one-time rider did. It's quite convenient for me, actually. Who will notice you're gone with him not around?"
Sora eagerly explained ever last detail of anything Tidus wanted to know, excited to finally be sharing his long kept secret. Riku joined in sparsely, apparently above the lowly conversation. However, it wasn't hard to tell that he derived great satisfaction from the surprised looks and awestruck glances from Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. He had to work very hard to hold back a smug smirk at the visual adoration he was receiving.
Meanwhile, Yen Sid grew distant, his eye perceiving something beyond the grasp of the others, attracting the notice of the King.
"Everything alright?" He asked.
"It is interesting," the wizard began, elaborating on his thoughts, "everyone running around, feeling like events are happening so very fast. Things appear, in the moment, to be drastically changing." He paused and chuckled. "And yet, stagnation is only now starting to depart. Movement is just now commencing. Inertia is just beginning to shift, for better or for worse. If anyone thinks that much is happening now, they will soon look back and realize that the current events are nothing compared to what will soon come to pass. The pieces are just beginning to move. The opening is underway. We shall see where this inertia takes us."
A/N: Whew! This was way too long coming. You know, it's been nearly a month since I wrote the note at the top. I just kind of put down the story. I'm going to wait to post this until tomorrow (not that remarking on that will help you. you won't see it until it shows up). I figure I should get some sleep (it's currently 6:09am, and I haven't gone to bed yet). Therefore, I will not be proofreading right now. Besides, even if I did glance over it now, it would doubtfully do any good. It's six o'clock in the freaking morning! What the heck am I thinking? Hmm. Anyway, I'll proofread in what is actually today but feels like tomorrow at this point, and then the unofficial hiatus will be broken. And then it will likely immediately start again. I'll try not to let that happen, but we'll see.
Also, I'm thinking about having Tidus join them. I like the character and feel he would be useful for explaining pertinent recaps without sounding too forced and similarly he could help expose the mundanities of Sora, Riku, and Kairi's pasts and lives; however, I'm not too familiar with Final Fantasy and there isn't much of a base for his character in Kingdom Hearts, so I'd have no basis from which to write. He'd effectively be an OC, or at least very out-of-character... What do you think? Does it even matter? Leave me a review. Seriously, without an alert email about a kind following/favoriting (thanks nisemono96), I might have forgotten that this story ever even existed.
It's afternoon now, and I've proofread and corrected a bit... I continued to be stupid and didn't go to sleep until a bit after 7:00am, so obviously I didn't get up very early... Anyway, finally, your chapter is up. Ta da! Read and review and all that jazz if you're in to that kind of thing.