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Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time

Book 1: The Beginning

Chapter 6 - Omens of the Past

Part 6.7 - Light and Dark

Levi wormed his way through the blurred corridors of the dead city. There was darkness here, but it was not total like the black hallway before. If Levi looked hard at the sky, he could just barely make out the sun shining through a violently purple haze. Around him, he could still make out his surroundings, although only just. Everywhere he looked this haze clung to surfaces like congealed blood and ate away at any life that happened into this world. There was no noise here. No wind, no water, and no sign of life.

Abandoned buildings, rotting wood, spilled belongings and ancient bones - all looked as if they had been swept through a great storm, and all stank of the smell of death. The streets were littered with the tell-tale signs of a hurried escape, and the bones of those who were too late. Levi hurried through the refuse-filled streets and did his best to sweep away the miasma that clutched at him everywhere he went.

The city itself seemed built in a giant circle, with concentric rings of half-crumbling buildings rising from a central pit far below. It looked like a great bowl carved from the earth, filled to the brim with poison. Levi judged that the central depression must be the heart of the city, and knew he would find the most valuable secrets hidden there. He rushed downwards, coughing and sputtering as the poison air entered his body.

"I...will survive...ack!" Levi muttered his mantra to himself, tasting blood in his mouth and spitting it out. This bothersome gas would not be the end of him. He had struggled to make it this far in life, and one more struggle wasn't enough to do him in. He swore and kept running, calling on a feral strength only the most hardened and ill-used wretches were capable of. He must keep moving.

"Why do you run?"

A raspy voice echoed inside Levi's mind, and he ignored it. More tricks of this island, or maybe the poison was now entering his brain, eating away at his sanity next. No matter, just keep running. Survive no matter what.

"I say, if you don't slow down, you'll give yourself a heart attack Jonah."

Levi kept running, but answered the voice inside his head. Anything to stay conscious and alert.

"So you know my name, eh? Nice trick, but I am going to keep moving until I find what I am looking for."

"And what are you looking for, hmm? Do you even know anymore?"

"Of course I do, you miserable ghost, " Levi replied heatedly. Was he arguing with himself, or something else? It was impossible to tell, and there was no time to worry about. Keep talking, keep moving.

"I want whatever secret treasure this island holds. I know it must have something truly magnificent for those Order rats to hide it so well. Now leave me alone."

"But I am you, I am a part of every living thing. I will never leave you alone Jonah. I will always be a step behind you. And right now, I am all around you, inside you. You haven't long now, Jonah."

"Enough! I will survive. I always have, and I always will. Go away and leave your mind tricks to someone else."

"Yes, you always survive, like a rat, don't you Jonah? And how do you keep it up? You climb to safety on the backs of those who would help you. You lie, you cheat, you steal, and you take advantage of everyone and anyone who is foolish enough to pity your wretched lot. Well I am here now, and I pity no mortal. You are alone, and you are in my grasp. Now why don't you stop and rest a spell. I would so much like to chat with a man such as you, Jonah."

As the voice spoke, Levi felt a strange fatigue come over his mind. Everything was becoming even more blurred than usual. He blinked twice, hard, and struggled to keep moving. There was definitely a temple down at the base of the city's central area, and he was nearly there now. He jumped from one level to the next, stumbling and barely keeping his balance as he half flew, half tumbled down the sloping city's streets.

Now Levi knew he must be losing his grip on reality, for he heard something that could not possibly be here. A low, mournful train whistle was rising up from somewhere, or everywhere, and it was getting closer. A baleful red eye appeared in front of Levi, just at the entrance of the temple structure. It blinked on and off, and grew in size, the train whistle reverberating through the fatal air until it reached a frightful scream. A clacking sound like wheels on a track started coming towards Levi, and despite not seeing any sign of what surely must be a train, Levi leaped aside, feeling a great presence pass him by.

Levi struggled to his feet and tried to keep going, but the poison was growing thicker the closer he got to the temple, and that blazing red eye was now closer and larger than ever, lingering just ahead of him. If these hallucinations kept up, he would surely go insane, if he wasn't already.

"I...will...survive..."

"Heh, yes, you just might yet, Jonah. But I am coming for you. You can never escape the fate of all mortals. You keep surviving, and I will keep my eye on you. Remember me, Jonah.

"Go...away," Levi whispered as his throat burned and he lost his voice. He was only a few steps from the temple doors now, but his deep reserves of strength were all but gone now. He felt a hundred years old, and his head throbbed thickly with poison. He clawed his way forward on his hands and knees, forcing his body to obey beyond its limits. Just one more step and he would be at the temple entrance.

His eyes were fogged over with deep violet hue now, and he could see nothing but that damnable red eye, filling his vision. But there was something else, too. A black form began to swirl into shape at the center of the eye. It looked...human. This was surely another hallucination, and Levi grimly crawled forward knowing the temple entrance must be right in front of him. Ignore whatever you see. It is not real.

"But I am very real, brother."

That voice! That was not the raspy voice of the mysterious presence before. That was a very familiar voice, one he had not heard in over thirty years, since he was a child of ten. This was a voice far more terrifying than any that could have found its way here. His blind eyes opened wide with fear and he struggled deep in his throat to produce some semblance of sound.

"B...Barab..basssss..." his voice trailed off in a gurgle as blood pooled in his mouth and he at last lost the fight with the venom that now flowed over and into him in torrents. Levi was gone to the world, lost to his own inner nightmares of a past long suppressed and blotted out from memory.

What demons haunted Levi in his poisoned sleep were unknown, but he struggled and silently yelled out in fury and pain, his violet-tinted eyes weeping uncontrollably. Every once in a while he would suddenly break out in a malevolent grin, and laugh like a lunatic, his hoarse throat making the laugh sound like a death cry. Levi was truly lost.

"What should we do with him?"

A voice.

"He did not help me when I needed it, I see no reason to help him. Leave him and let us continue."

Another voice.

"No. I will help him. He is a human being, and maybe having his life saved will improve his disposition a little. I can't help but pity the man. He always looks so wretched, especially now. I can't imagine what that poison must have done to him."

So familiar. That voice...

"If you believe in him, then I will believe in you, Professor Karn. Come. Let us carry him inside the shrine. The Dark Master's influence holds no sway within the shrine's holy walls."

Karn...yes. I remember...Silas Karn...

"I remember..."

"He's awake!"

Levi opened his eyes and looked around him. He could see! And he could talk! Where was he? The afterlife? No, those walls...he must be inside the temple. He had survived! But he was not alone.

"Back with us now, Captain?" Silas said good-naturedly from Levi's side.

"Fools! I made it! You couldn't stop me after all, old man! And you too Barabbas! I will let nothing stop me, not even death itself!" Levi spat out in a single breath, laughing heartily, wisps of poison air visibly spreading from his mouth as it left his system.

"Well you're certainly in a good mood, but we aren't trying to stop you, Levi," Silas said, a little disturbed by the look of glee in Levi's face now. "In fact, we just saved you from that cloud out there. You may want to calm down a bit and regain your bearings. You seem a little...off, still."

"Nonsense! I've never felt more alive." Levi said as he leapt to his feet. "Now Mr. Karn, we need to hurry, yes. There's much to do!"

Levi was definitely acting strangely. His former miserable disposition had been replaced by a frenetic, almost maniacal one. And that blood-flecked grin on his face was terrifying to behold. The violet hue had not gone from his eyes, and he looked every bit the mad man, dredged up from the brink of insanity.

Jehad kept his distance from Levi, afraid of what the poison had undoubtedly done to his mind. Silas was not afraid, though, and remained by the crazed Captain's side. He could feel the feverish heat of Levi's energy radiating off him in waves. It was almost electric.

"Alright then, let's get going." Silas said. "We're nearly at the end of this little quest, and Jehad says the last rites of the ritual are to be performed down at the end of this hallway here, at the heart of the shrine. The light you see around us, Levi, protects us from the cloud of poison. If you stick close to us, you should be safe."

Levi laughed a deep, rich laugh, and replied smartly, "I don't see a damn thing around either of you. More tricks, eh? Well I'm not falling for anything anymore. I made it here without your tricks, and I will find my own path. This place is just bursting with valuable secrets, and I'll be the one to find them! You go do your little dance and leave me be!"

Silas was confused. Surely Levi could see the aura of white light around them? It practically filled the dingy hallway with light, bouncing off the walls all the way down to the doors to the inner sanctum. Levi wouldn't even be able to see them at all if it wasn't for the light. The man was definitely still suffering from the effects of the poison, but there was no point trying to convince him. There was no poison inside here, and surely even in his state he wouldn't be foolish enough to wander back outside. Let the man sate his lust for wealth, Silas was sure the skeletons here wouldn't mind.

"Fine, do as you please Levi," Silas reluctantly said. "Just don't go back outside."

"Fools! There's nothing out there but death," Levi angrily replied. "Everything I want is right within these walls. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a date with a goddess. A Golden Goddess, hahaha!"

Silas and Jehad left their laughing partner to his own devices without another word, and walked down the long downward-slopping hallway to their destinies. Once they completed the ritual, the world would be safe for another hundred years according to the Order, and everyone could go home to their families.

Silas thought about his family, waiting for him back in Narsille. It would not be long now before he could hold his infant son in his arms again and regale him with the tales of his adventures on Phoenix Isle. Kate would be right there by his side, listening just as eagerly to his stories, smiles on both hers and their son's faces. Silas's mind and heart was always with the secrets he unearthed out there in the deserts of the world, patiently waiting to be discovered, but his soul remained at home with his family, and he would always return to them.

Silas looked at Jehad with a strange warmth in his eyes, and nodded. Jehad knew Silas was thinking about home, as was he. Jehad had no family besides the Order, but he had always thought of the Elder as his father, and his fellow Order members as his brothers and sisters. He was sure he would be welcomed home with open arms, voices singing with praise at his great accomplishment. This place may be his religion's homeland, but Narsille would always be where his heart lay.

Both men smiled knowingly and looked straight ahead at the great doors to the inner sanctum. Jehad held up the Nacre to it, and the aura of white light narrowed and shot out ahead of them, bathing the doors in an unearthly light.

The doors were not made of stone like most of the structures on the island, but glowed blue with the tell-tale signs of mythril. How a primitive civilization such as the Phoenicians had managed to fashion doors from a mineral as obstinately hard as mythril Silas couldn't even begin to guess, but he knew something truly important must be behind these doors to require such a sturdy barrier. There were no markings on the door, possibly due to the fact that carving them into the diamond-hard doors would be more effort than it was worth. There were words carved all around the frames, however. Silas could only guess at the language, and fervently wished he had more time to study them in depth.

With an explosion of sound much too large for the simple opening of doors, however strong, the final barrier between the men and their journey's end disappeared. Both mythril doors swung inward by their own force, beckoning the two travelers to this forbidden sanctuary.

The room was as dark as the rest of the shrine, but warm sunlight flowed from high above them in a narrow beam of light. The single lone ray fell directly onto a small dais at the center of the surprisingly small room. Jehad pointed to the platform and said that was where he must go.

This part of the ritual was definitely meant to be a solitary one, for the edifice contained only enough room for one man to stand, or kneel as Jehad was now doing while Silas looked on from the entrance. This place had a feeling of penitence to it, and Silas could just imagine countless other Order devouts kneeling alone in this dark room, barely more than a cell, praying forgiveness for the transgression of their ancestors.

The ritual was both of global importance and intensely personal, requiring all the sins of the past to be concentrated in one person, and offered to the Holy Master Altimus as a show of unwavering faith and trust. Little did either man know the truth of the ritual and that Jehad would need to do more than just pray for forgiveness, he would need to offer his very life, willingly, to Altimus in order to complete the ritual. But would Jehad be willing? And would Silas allow it?

As if to avoid this complication, the great mythril doors suddenly began to move, and before Silas could get out of the way he was swept out of the room by the doors' massive weight. He called out as the opening quickly vanished and the doors were once more sealed shut, no hope of being opened by the mere hands of a mortal. Whether Jehad heard him or not he never knew. One of the last visions he ever had of the poor priest was of him still kneeling in the dark, one lone ray of light shining on his bowed head.