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Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time

Book 1: The Beginning

Chapter 4 - Demons Within

Part 4.2 - Spirited Away

As Dune sat on his couch trying to piece together the few remaining fragments of memory from his encounter with the woman who identified herself as Cassandra, a sharp ringing broke his concentration. Still in a daze, Dune stared dully around the room, only realizing it was his phone after half a dozen rings. He slowly stood up and moved to the phone, each ring waking him up to the real world a little more. By the time he picked up the receiver, Cassandra and her plea seemed like just a fading dream.

As soon as he touched the phone, Dune knew who was on the other line. The sudden burst of heat that coursed through his arm told him all he needed to know. Sade. Rather than answer, Dune simply picked up the phone and listened. That familiar heat froze his heart, and the only thing on Dune's mind was that drilling stare of Sade's, reaching out to him from across the table at the Committee headquarters.

"Hello, Dune. I trust you are feeling more...yourself now?"

A low chuckle rose from the phone, and Sade's voice seemed to bring Dune back to his senses. His nerves, however, were still very far away.

"W,what do you want? Who was that just attacked me?"

That low chuckle again.

"Attacked you? Dune, Dune, Dune...at least put the blame where blame is due. Cassandra deserves that much. Don't you worry about the girl. She was a traitor, and got a traitor's reward. You should remember that when the time comes, Dune."

A brief pause, and it might have been his imagination, but Dune could swear the heat in his arm had spread across his chest and was making it difficult to breathe or even move, as if an invisible snake had wrapped itself around him and was slowly suffocating him. When Sade resumed, his voice took on a more officious tone.

"Now, Mr. Karn, I want you to listen very carefully to me. That girl was only the first of many. And, sadly, she was hardly a threat to anyone, naive fool that she was. The ones that come next, indeed are coming as we speak, will not be so easily overtaken. We need your help still, Mr. Karn, and your safety is of the utmost importance to us. It is in your best interest now to return to the Committee headquarters, and I have provided a small entourage to make sure you arrive safely. I am sure you will approve of them when you meet them. They are waiting for you on the ground floor of your building. I suggest you leave your apartment. Immediately. Good-bye, Mr. Karn, and good luck."

Before Dune could respond, he heard a click and Sade was gone. The heat that had nearly drowned him vanished, and Dune wondered if it was ever there to begin with. With Sade's presence gone, Dune's mind slowly began to clear. As he considered the choices that had just been laid before him, one thought was pushing away all others. Mae. If Sade's words were to be trusted, Mae was in almost as much danger as he was. He wasn't sure what these people wanted(although if he had had more time to collect his thoughts, the answer would have been painfully obvious), but one thing they weren't going to get was Mae.

After weighing his options, Dune decided the best thing to do was follow Sade's advice and lead whoever was following him away from Mae. He scribbled a quick note for her and left it on the table:

"Dear Mae,

I am sorry to do this to you now and in such a manner, but I must leave again on the Committee's request. There is no time to explain what is going on, but you must trust me and believe I will be back as soon as I possibly can, and that I have no choice on this. I am not safe here, and I fear for your safety as much as my own. Please be careful until I return, and know that I love you, always.

Your loving husband,

Dune

P.S. I WILL return, Mae. On my life, I will return for you. Even if the world should fall, I will return."

Saying Mae would not be happy with his sudden disappearance was an understatement, but there really seemed to be no choice. Stay here and be attacked again, possibly while Mae is present, or escape and hope that his pursuers leave Mae out of whatever it is they wanted. The idea of her being taken as a hostage occurred to him, and not just by his unknown attackers. He did not trust Sade any more than he trusted Cassandra's allies. But there was so little time to think! His analytical mind needed time to consider alternate paths. For now there only seemed one clear route to take. As much as it pained him to do so, Dune took what he felt was the most logical step and left the apartment, his trusty hat in hand, and the crystal safely in his pocket, wondering more than once if he would ever be seeing it - or Mae - again.

At the ground floor of the building, three familiar faces were waiting for Dune as he stepped out of the elevator. The first and foremost caused Dune to inwardly wince. Adam Kruz. No surprise there, but Kruz's pale, flabby face was not a welcome sight. The other two members of Sade's entourage did take Dune by surprise, however. Alex Figaro and...the elderly shopkeeper of his building's ground level shop? Dune glanced first at Alex, then cautiously at the shopkeeper. Alex's expression gave away nothing about his feelings at seeing Dune again, but the shopkeeper seemed in high enough spirits. He gave Dune a big grin and waved two of his fingers in a sort of salute. As if to accentuate the shopkeeper's good humor, his unusual little pet jumped out from behind him and waved its paw at Dune in an attempt to mimic its master, with and equally large grin on its pudgy face. At this, Dune couldn't help but give up a small smile. Kruz was the first to speak up, abruptly cutting through the good vibes that seemed to come from the small creature and its master.

"It's about time you got here, Mr. Karn! We thought something might have happened to you. No time for idle chit-chat in such a vulnerable location. If you want to live, you will follow us. Quickly!" Kruz shot a glance in the shopkeeper's direction. "I trust you are ready to leave as well?"

The shopkeeper's smile wavered for a moment, but he seemed to not mind the current situation nearly as much as everyone else.

"Of course! My shop is all closed up and my little compadre is by my side. I have everything I need. Let's blow this popsicle stand!"

"Good. A ride from the Committee is waiting for us outside. Let's go."

The group of five silently made its way to the car waiting at the foot of the building. The car was a sleek black vehicle, with no visible seems or bumps anywhere on its smooth surface. It looked to Dune like a large, somewhat flattened bullet, ready to fire off at phenomenal speeds the second he got in. It seemed this was an actual manually-operated vehicle, something Dune had seen on Narsille's streets a few times during important gatherings of the Committee, but never driven in himself. Dune was going to arrive at their headquarters with style this time. Alex still had the same emotionless look on his face, and refused to even look at Dune, but the shopkeeper was positively brimming with good will. Alex got into the driver's seat and waiting morosely for the others to be seated behind him. Once they were safely seated in the car and on their way, the shopkeeper spoke something into Dune's ear that made his eyes almost leap out of his head.

"Hello, Dune! Since it seems we will be spending some time together, I might as well introduce myself proper. The name's Indra, Professor Indra of the Narsille Meteorological Observation Committee, if you want to get technical. You can call me Indie, though. All my friends do. Nice to meet you for the first time after all these years behind the counter!"

Dune had no reply to this at first. Professor Indra? THE Professor Indra? This man, whom Dune had known for years only as the pleasant, albeit unusually private, shopkeeper at the foot of his building, was the head and founder of the Committee's weather control facility, the genius responsible for the perpetual good weather Narsille had enjoyed for over thirty years. It soon dawned on him that he was sitting among what were very likely the two greatest minds in Narsille. How had he ever gotten himself into such a group? His scientific side relished the opportunity to rub elbows with Professors Figaro and Indra, Narsille's own personal Masters of heaven and earth. His more human side still knew the danger he was in, though, and Kruz's unpleasant, yet thankfully now silent, presence in the cabin of the car kept him from turning into a giddy schoolboy.

"Professor Indra...it is an honor to meet you! I don't...what exactly is going on? I have so many questions! I..."

"Now hold your horses, Dune. There will be plenty of time for all that in a bit. I'm sure the fellows at the Committee will want to fill you in on your situation. You always were the inquisitive type. Always wanting to know about every little trinket I had on display before you bought something. And I can't remember how many times you tried to weasel an explanation out of me about my friend here..."

Indra softly patted his furry companion on the head, eliciting a squeak and a bit of the creature's gibberish sounding kupo-language. Indra nodded and laughed, as if he actually understood what it was saying.

"Please, Professor, can't I at least know about your involvement here? If you want me to trust you at all, I think I deserve to know exactly why you were posing as a shopkeeper in my building for so long! Were you spying on me?"

"Now wait just a minute there, sonny! I'm no spy, and I wasn't posing as anything. I really did keep a legitimate shop of rare artifacts for my own personal enjoyment. Ever since the completion of my weather grid system, Narsille hasn't let me travel around the world like I used to. They felt an old man like me gallivanting around the world was a security risk, I suppose. That's one piece of paper I regret signing, let me tell you!"

At this remark, Kruz gave a grunt of disdain, but said nothing. He was content to keep out of any sort of idle banter with people he considered to be beneath him. This was just business. A personal request from Eva, nothing more. The sooner this was over and he was back where he belonged, the better. Kruz never liked getting his hands dirty running errands, and preferred to keep himself locked away scheming of ways to further his career from the shadows. Gofer work like this was not his idea of progress.

Seeming not to hear Kruz's disapproval, or simply not caring, Indra continued talking. "I've always been a man of culture, so to speak. You can keep the man away from the world, but you can't keep keep the world away from the man. Opening a curio shop allowed me to keep in touch with many...interesting people and cultures from all over the world while keeping the Committee off my back. Trust me when I say the location of my shop was just a coincidence. Your building is right at the center of the crossroads of the city, and I figured many folk who I'd like to learn about would pass by there. And I was right. I met you didn't I? You were always one of my favorite customers, even if you rarely bought anything."

Indra laughed and gave Dune a friendly jab with his elbow. Dune's mood was definitely improving, in spite of his current situation. There was something infectious about Indra's good will.

"So why keep your identity a secret, then? And what are you doing here now?"

"Always right to the point! That's what I like about you Dune, a scientist through and through. Well, I've always been a private man, you have to understand that. I enjoy learning about other people's lives, not touting my own. If I let word get around I was the main man behind Narsille's glorious weather, and the leading mind in meteorology, I'd never get a moment's peace. As for what I'm doing here now, I'm afraid I can't get into that, and I'd suggest you not bring this up to Alex, either. Let's just say we're keeping a very old promise. You may not have known this, but Alex, Mobius and I go way back. We were the Big Three of the natural sciences back in the day, and boy did we have some grand adventures back then. I thought those days were over, but things have a way of coming back when you least expect them to. Yes, they certainly do..."

For the first time, Indra's expression showed concern, and a look Dune could not readily identify. Fear, or perhaps dread. It was not a look that suited such a free spirit, and it worried Dune. Indra seemed to sense Dune's unease, and instantly regained his former attitude.

"Now, now, don't you fret one bit. We're going to take good care of you, and if anyone gives you trouble, you just let us know. We may not have as much pull as we used to, but Alex and I have enough to keep a friend as safe as a bug in a rug. And hey, look at that! There's the headquarters coming up, and I've done nothing but talk your ear off the whole time!"

"It's alright Professor, I consider it an honor to talk with you. Surely you will be staying with me for a while longer?"

"Of course! Alex and I won't leave your side until you're back in your apartment with that lovely wife of yours. Oh, and call me Indie, please. I won't stand for any of this 'Professor Indra' crap."

The car now slowed down and came to stop at the entrance to the large dome-like structure that housed the inner workings of the Committee. Now Professor "Indie" Indra turned his attention to Kruz. "Well, Adam, we're here. Are you going to show our guest some hospitality, or are you going to continue to sit there and glower at us?"

Kruz was visibly offended by Indie's comment, but did not say anything out of turn. He simply put on his best false smile and got out of the vehicle, holding the door for Indie and Dune. No point getting into an argument with this uppity old fart. His time was over, and it was Kruz's time to shine now. Once Dehr showed up, he would be able to show his true talent for malevolence. His skills were wasted in the presence of such insignificant company. Just keep smiling.