Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time

Book 2: The Goddess War

Chapter 11 - Red Tide

11.9 - Life, Death, Magic

"What is magic?"

That had been Ole Bull's characteristically fundamental first question on the next day of Maduin's training. It was a question Maduin had asked himself numerous times since being born again as a being made of magic. It was a question he was sure many people would ask for years to come, as the new force swept over the land and changed it forever. And at the moment, Maduin was still unsure just what it was, and what he could do with it.

Ole Bull intended to change that, right here, right now.

"What is magic?" he repeated while Maduin struggled to concentrate.

A giant claw came slashing across Maduin's face while he thought about a way to put his scant knowledge into words. A savage bite crunched down on his forearm as he waved off the hairy paw, but Maduin tried his best to keep his mind on Ole Bull's questions and not the twin bears attempting to tear him limb from limb.

"Magic is the essence of our world," he said, letting his body fight back and his mind wander. This was Ole Bull's way. The body knows how to fight, so let it. The more you thought about fighting, the more likely you were to make a mistake. For a human, that meant getting hurt. For an Esper, that meant hurting others.

"Everything is made of magic on some level." Maduin tried to remember everything Genju had ever said about magic. And Doom as well. Genju had been happy to talk to what he thought was the real Maduin during the last legs of their return trip to Narsille. He had been talking to a monster controlled by Doom, but Maduin had been there inside his prison of a body, listening all the same. Doom, too, had said much on the subject, although not in a kindly way and usually only in vague hints. He liked to lord the power, His Power as he put it, over his captive. But now that power was Maduin's power, and he intended to use everything he knew about it against his former Master.

A growl broke Maduin's concentration, and for a moment he almost swatted full-force at the red blur that rushed at him from the corner of his vision. He pulled his blow at the last moment, and only ended up knocking the blur to the ground, instead of sending it flying. Jupiter would jump into the melee at a silent command from Ole Bull every so often, just to keep Maduin on his toes.

"Focus!" Ole Bull shouted as Maduin stopped speaking. Jupiter bounced up happily, none the worse for wear. "Now then, continue."

Maduin gather his thoughts again, blocking a slobbery mouth with his hand. The drooling Ipooh bear tried to bite through his stone-hard fist, but couldn't. The sensation was still quite unpleasant, and the bear's breath smelled distinctly of honey.

"Magic exists inside everything, not just Espers. It's usually such a small amount that it can't be seen or felt. Just enough to control the balance of nature. At least, that's the way it was before Crescent Mountain exploded and wild magical energy started flooding out of the hole in the world in left behind." Maduin remembered the image of the mountain erupting in a cataclysm of flame from Sade's explosive force. There was nothing left but a gaping hole in the earth where the mountain, and the Ultima Gate inside it, used to be. He had barely escaped the fury of Sade's wrath that time, and wondered if he would ever be able to stand against such power, training or no.

"I heard about that. I've had Bugs back from Greffuhle's agents in that area." Ole Bull said, surprising Maduin with his familiarity with even that faraway land. "They say that entire island is now glowing and covered in a thick fog. There's a massive lava flow covering most of the island, and no one can set foot near it. Servais tried to fly over it, but some sort of cyclone kept blowing him away from the spot you say Crescent Mountain used to be. I don't know what happened there, but it was big and it's still happening."

"Very big. The birth of real magic, you could say. I'm surprised you have people out that far. Crescent Island is pretty remote, don't you think? What use do the Stradivari have way out there?"

"None usually. It's just considered part of Greffuhle's territory, should the need arise to go there. She's the Axelrod of the East, and all Stradivari concerns in that part of the world go through her. Until now, none of us had ever gone out that way besides Servais. Now, tell me more about this real magic of yours. What makes you so special, Esper?"

"Like I said, magic exists on a small scale everywhere, even in you. But it's usually invisible and simply a part of the world."

"Like chakra," Ole Bull mused to himself.

"Hm? What's that?"

"Nothing, just thinking out loud. Continue."

"Anyways, I can use magic on a larger scale, but that is only because part of me is connected to the Crystal Furnace at the heart of the Nexus." Maduin explained the complicated idea as best he could, but he felt he had lost Ole Bull. A puzzled look from Ole Bull told him the man had no idea what he was talking about.

"Hmm...I'm not sure myself what it means. All I know is that magic comes from a place beyond our world, a connecting world that exists between our world and the world of the gods, and everywhere else. It is a place of pure energy, pure thought, and normally only the gods can shape and control its power, and then send that power into the mortal world. The Crystal Furnace is the center of that place, and the source of all power. It's...ah, I really have no idea." Maduin stopped and tried to think about Genju's words, as well as his own experience before the Crystal Furnace. This was a subject the elder Esper was hesitant to talk about. "It's sort of like a...furnace...," Maduin couldn't help but laugh at his feeble description. But how do you explain something as beyond mortal comprehension as the burning heart of the entire universe?

"Go on, " Ole Bull said calmly. The two Ipooh stopped their assault at a motion from their master and waiting dumbly, licking their paws.

"It's difficult to put into words. I call it the center of the Nexus, but that's not true since the Nexus has no form or dimensions. It's not an actual furnace or any other kind of tangible object, either. It's like a twist in space...but it's the twist in space at the center of all other space. Everything swirls around it, taking in its light. We live because we exist within the glow of the Furnace."

"Like the sun?" Ole Bull asked.

"Sort of, but it's not a thing out in space sending light to us. It's...ah, it's hard to explain. It's inside us as well as outside. It's everywhere, nowhere. The heart of every living thing is connected to the Crystal Furnace. I'm sorry, I know it doesn't make any sense."

The Crystal is Light. It is not just a source of power for our world. It is the primal creative force of the universe, continually shedding its Light on us all and through us all. The gods are no exception. We did not forge the Crystal Furnace, it forged us. It is us. We are the Light. Never forget where you came from, mortals.

Maduin stopped, as did Ole Bull. The voice had spoken in his mind, faintly. And it seemed Ole Bull had heard it too. No one spoke. No one moved. No one breathed.

Elphis cleared her throat and mumbled tiredly from the sidelines, "That was Titan. He wanted you to hear him. He doesn't usually say so much." Elphis slumped down onto the ground outside the training ground and yawned. "Don't do that again, Titan. It made my head hurt, and now I'm sleepy. I'm going inside to take a nap."

Ole Bull looked at the little girl for a moment, then laughed out loud, shattering the quiet mood. "Quite a little girl you have there Maduin! And this Titan, he's your friend right? The one in the rock?"

"Yeah," Elphis yawned. "He doesn't like to talk to other people though. He says most people can't hear him."

"Well we sure heard him that time didn't we? Alright, you go on and rest. Jupiter! See the lady to her room."

The giant wolf leaped from Ole Bull to where Elphis was sitting on the ground and then lay down next to her. The girl giggled and let the big dog nuzzle her before climbing on its back. She rode the fearsome beast the same way she rode on Maduin's back so many times before - without fear or hesitation. To her, this was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Yes, quite a girl there. I hate to say it but Grey and Fey have the right of her."

"Enough. Elphis is just a child." Maduin had regained his senses after that unexpected message from Titan. Was Titan looking at the Crystal Furnace himself as he spoke? The long-dead Esper was a formless spirit bound to the Nexus now that its body was gone, and who knows what kind of world he saw from his distant dreaming existence. The once-mighty Esper Herald could probably tell them a great deal about magic, if he was in the mood.

"I agree." Ole Bull stopped and scratched his beard. "There are children in the Stradivari, you know. She would be the youngest one since Solomon became our leader, I think, but not the only one."

"I said enough. She is not a killer, and I will die before I let anyone turn her into one."

Ole Bull stepped over to where Maduin was fuming and looked straight into the giant Esper's cold blue eyes, his eyes just as cold. "You know, I'm getting tired of you calling us killers as if that's all we do."

"Isn't it?" Maduin wouldn't let the big man intimidate him. He was still bigger.

"Some of us like our job more than others, it's true. But no one is asked to join our group because they like to kill."

"Then what are you, really?"

"We are a brotherhood. We're a family for people who have no family left. We take in those who have lost everything, and give them a reason to live. The killing just pays the bills."

"But why? Why do you have to be a bunch of mercenaries?" Maduin didn't understand. Besides the Lady Blunt, the Stradivari he had met seemed mostly benign, even friendly. But they were all killers. All of them.

"It's the way the Stradivari works. Always has. I don't make the rules, and I wouldn't change them even if I did. Solomon is the head Stradivari, and what he says is law for us. His predecessor said the same, and his before that. All the way back to Solomon the First."

"Solomon?" Maduin had itching recollection he had heard that name somewhere before.

"All the leaders of the Stradivari take the name Solomon. It's tradition. They say the founder of our order was named Solomon. That was over two thousand years ago now, I would think. We've been around, and we've always been the peacekeepers of the world."

"Is that what you call yourselves? Peacekeepers?" Maduin couldn't help but snort in disgust.

Ole Bull snorted right back. "Oh, you think you know everything? We keep peace when the law fails. We're the hidden hand of justice. When someone needs something done and their country or their king isn't willing to do it, they come to us. If they can pay, and if we decide it's worthy cause that won't upset the balance of a nation, we take it."

"It doesn't seem right that only the rich and powerful can take advantage of your, er, services. The poor are the ones who need your justice the most, if you can really call it that."

"The price is tailored to the customer," Ole Bull said, stepping back from Maduin. "Trust me, our prices are always fair. And usually the real cost is not in money." The big man turned and walked back to the stump he had been sitting on while Maduin trained. He slumped back onto it, and looked hard at Maduin.

"For the rich, our prices are staggeringly high. They come to us looking to right the wrongs of some petty argument, like a stolen treasure or a lover's quarrel. We make them feel the weight of their decisions on their souls if they still decide to go through with the kill after seeing our price. When the job is done, those kind never ask for our services again. The price is much too steep, if you get my meaning."

Maduin thought he did. Taking another's life always left its mark on the taker. He still felt the weight of Cassandra's death, and Cerberus as well, as hateful as that lost creature had been.

Ole Bull looked at Maduin differently now. "I see from the look on your face that you do understand what I mean, at least a little. Part of being a Stradivari is being able to bear that weight for others. But we don't bear it for the rich nearly as much. For the poor, we are much more forgiving, if their cause is a good one. If we feel it's a particularly foul injustice, we may even assist them for free. At least, that's the way we do things here in the North. Different Axelrods have different ways."

"I'm sure the Lady Blunt would have no problem killing for nothing." Maduin couldn't help but feel a tiny bit more sympathetic towards the group, but some of them he had no patience for. The only thing he saw when he thought of the Lady Blunt was a knife at Elphis's throat.

"She has no say in who she kills, at least for the Stradivari." Ole Bull said curtly. "I am the Axelrod of the North, and I decide on who dies and who lives by the Stradivari's hand for this part of the world."

Maduin suddenly realized something that had not occurred to him until now. Something very unsettling. "Did you send Agent Phantom after me?"

"Yes." The Stradivari did not flinch as he answered. "Your friend Sade came to one of my agents in Narsille, requesting one of ours to follow you and keep and eye on your activities. He made a very convincing argument for why you were a grave threat to the stability of the world. And he could pay."

"In that, I suppose he was right." Maduin had to concede that much, at least.

"Aye, I suppose he was." Ole Bull grinned sadly. "In case you were curious, our orders weren't to kill you unless you showed yourself to be a threat. I do not know what truly happened with Lord Dunn-Raven after he was sent to you. Our last report had him still following you into the Mordic, and then, nothing. I never gave the final order to kill you."

"He's Leviathan's thrall now, as far as I can guess. The Lady Blunt said there were reports of him showing up down south, in Jidorik."

"Unconfirmed reports, but she'll grab onto whatever she can. She's like a dog with a bloody bone when her mind's set on something."

"What would you do if she killed someone against your orders? Would you even care?" Ole Bull could say all he liked about proper processes and honor codes, but Maduin knew someone like the Lady would kill just for pleasure if she could get away with it.

"We try not to police our own kind too much. If she was that unstable, she would never have made it as a Stradivari. You have to understand that most of Fey's behavior is all a front. I won't deny she enjoys a good fight, and has a certain bloodlust, but she wouldn't kill an innocent person for no reason."

"She threatened to kill Elphis at knife-point back in Antissa."

"And I gave her a good talking to about that. Still, just trust her, and us, a little bit. All I can say is if a Stradivari ever truly got out of control and went on a rampage, we would do everything in our power to put them down. It's never happened in my lifetime, and I thank the gods for that. It's hard taking out one of your own, however mad they might be."

"I guess I don't have a choice for now but to trust you. I can't say I really do yet, though. At least not all of you."

"That's good. Some of us are worse than the Lady Blunt, and I fear what could happen if they lost their way. Just remember, all Stradivari have complicated, difficult pasts. We all struggle with our own demons in our own way, and the Stradivari exists as a safe haven for people like us - people with special skills and special needs and nowhere to go. I'm no different." Ole Bull softened his gaze and then stood up. "Enough of that. I'm supposed to be training you, not lecturing you. Now! Put up your dukes!"

Maduin had no time to think as the two Ipooh came charging towards him, their clumsy stupor broken. They were harmless oafs made tame by copious amounts of free honey when they were by themselves, but a simple command from Ole Bull flipped a switch that turned them into the ferocious animals they truly were.

"Let's get back on track. What is magic?" Ole Bull voice echoed once more from where he sat and watched, and thought about the future of his Zwill. Would Maduin be ready? Would he?

Tomorrow, he would find out just how much this magic could be used in real combat. It was definitely a force that could destroy the world, just as Sade had said when he had first come to them with his threats of doom and destruction. But in the right hands, magic could shape the world for the better. Maduin could be those hands. Or Elphis? Or perhaps somehow anyone could learn to use magic? Surely Elphis wasn't the only one capable of communing with Espers, dead or alive. Tomorrow, he would try and find out just what Maduin and magic could do for the Stradivari. And Elphis, too.

Ole Bull agreed the girl shouldn't yet be considered for their group or for combat of any kind. Children joined the Stradivari only out of dire need or a real fear of their special talents going uncontrolled, and he had never been asked to take any under his wing, thankfully. He had always had a soft spot for children, but he must think of his people as well. If it came down to life or death and only Elphis could save them, there was no doubt in his mind what he would do.

Deep inside a thick mountain of blankets far away from Ole Bull and Maduin, Elphis slept peacefully, unaware of the plans being weaved around her. Jupiter slept at the foot of the giant bed that was much too large for the little girl, and the Titan magicite glowed warmly in her hands. But the being inside was disturbed, and dreamed of an uncertain future he no longer had any control over. Magic was a force of life, and of death. Which way would the scales tip this time? Was there any way to stop the Crystalline Prophecy, or was Altimus right, as usual?

Titan looked inwards and outwards for an answer, hoping for some sign from the blazing Crystal Furnace he knew was all around him, giving him light and life in this world of darkness and nothingness. But the Crystal shed its light silently...