A/N:
Dilemma. Those of you who follow the constant blathering on my profile, will know that I just figured out a rough outline for the rest of this fic. …14 chapters to go…give or take (I changed my mind from what it was previously, but then…if you've read the most recent blather, you'd know that, too).
If I'm going to finish this story THIS year…I have to start speed-writing. …and despite a friend telling me that haste makes waste, he was promptly banned from the argument and thus:
I'm going to attempt speed-writing anyway. Addendum—the bulk of this chapter was actually compiled rather quickly, had I not lost two weeks of writing time due to some…life upheavals, lol. This last month doesn't count!
Err…so as the word count continued to crawl upwards, I began to write this in smaller and smaller chunks and…well. If some sections seem more coherent than others? I was probably awake. If they become less coherent? I was probably writing in the wee hours of the morning and was very eager to just get the chapter finished. Sorry!
p.s. Yes I am evil.
p.p.s. Ackbar.
Chapter 22 – The Sealed Cave
The directions given to the party by the Eidolons had proven more than effective. Within hours, the airship came within sight of a ring of plateaus matching the dwarves' description, but Cecil kept the Falcon at a safe distance.
"The Red Wings," Rosa commented, clutching the railing as she peered into the distance, her robes shimmering iridescently in the light from the magma. "There's no sign of them."
"My concern exactly," Cecil admitted, as he skirted them round. They flew in a circumspect fashion for nearly an hour, until they sighted a cluster of buildings nestled into the eastern face of the plateaus. It had the look of a dwarvish village, and Cecil set the ship down nearby and they disembarked, keeping an eye on their surroundings. They weren't in the mood for surprises, not with so much at stake, and they scanned the area more closely for signs of Golbez and his forces as they approached the main gate of the dwarf settlement.
They passed beneath a gate made of stone. Nothing looked broken or bombarded, and in fact, nothing looked unusual at all. The five of them walked cautiously along the main road, noting that the dwarves in residence had stopped everything they were doing to stare-until a babble broke out.
Men carrying pickaxes and shovels over their shoulders hustled over. Rydia tensed, and saw Cecil's hand fly to the hilt of his sword, wondering if the dwarves meant them harm or not. Within minutes, they were surrounded
"Who'r you?" one of the dwarves asked, pointing a meaty finger at the five of them.
"Friends of Giott," Cecil answered succinctly, ever so slightly relaxing his stance.
There was a murmur of assent, but also a note of distrust, as the dwarves shuffled from one foot to the other while they considered these outsiders.
"Big'uns nah cah'mun 'round hea'," one of the dwarves said to them, his voice so low and rumbling that it was hard to distinguish anything he'd said.
"We're here on a mission for the king," Cecil elaborated, spacing his words so as to be understood.
"Giotto," one of the dwarves nodded fondly, his red beard bobbing with his head as he turned to his companions. "Aye, aye, what'n we do fer ya?"
Cecil glanced at Kain, and then at Rosa. Rosa shrugged at her love's plight, and Cecil frowned, finding he was on his own.
He lifted his hand so that it was above his head and said, "Have you seen another person, taller than myself—" and then he pointed at his armor. "Black armor?"
The dwarves stared at him, befuddled. "Armoor," one of the dwarves said carefully. "Kokkol, yes, armoor," he added, mimicking Cecil's gestures.
"Mach armoor for big'uns, he doos," another dwarf chimed in, his accent as thick as porridge. "Com ya big'uns," he said, walking away from the group and waving them after him.
They all shared a brief, indecipherable look, and followed the dwarf.
They were led to a low stone building, and once inside, were surrounded by piles of precious stones and elegant chains of metal, including several breastplates inset with more of the gems.
Everyone took a moment to stand stock still, shocked by how carelessly such costly items had been tossed about.
"Armoor," the dwarf said approvingly, pointing at the stash of goods.
For a moment, Cecil had no words to say, as he tried to determine how to impart what he had really meant to say.
"Yes," Cecil replied, nodding encouragingly at the armor. "Dark—black," he attempted to clarify. "Big big'un," he added, raising his hand high above his own head to convey height once more.
Rydia had to stifle a giggle at Cecil's awkwardness, and the dwarf's slack-jawed expression.
"Aye," the dwarf said again, pointing to the five of them. "Big'uns. Dark," he said again, pointing at Kain.
"Something tells me that Golbez has not come this way," Kain said, sounding put-upon.
"I agree, Cecil," Rosa added. "The dwarves seem genuinely surprised at our being here. If Golbez had arrived with his forces, there would be more fear in their eyes."
Cecil offered the dwarf a tight smile, trying his best for it to appear genuine. "Thank you," he said.
"Hi-ho!" the dwarf replied with a smile of his own, showing off crooked teeth. He then turned away, muttering to himself, and began to sort through a pile of glittering gems on a work table, ignoring the humans entirely.
"Oy, big'uns," interrupted another dwarf voice behind them. They all turned to see a dwarf dressed smartly in chain mail with an axe tucked into the elaborately tooled belt at his belly. By all accounts, he was a formidable sight. "Vulf 'as na gift fer yer speek. Ye seek 'nuther big'un like yerselves, ye say?"
Relieved there was someone among the dwarves who understood them, Cecil eagerly replied. "Yes, have there been any others like us here?"
The dwarf shook his head. "Dunno wha' the king want, but yer not'ah find it here."
Rydia released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, simultaneously relieved and disappointed. They were getting nowhere fast.
"Pardon me for asking, but where did all of this armor come from? It looks too large for dwarves," Cecil inquired.
"Ah," the man said with a hearty chuckle. "Kokkol."
"Kokkol?" Cecil echoed.
"Aye, rumor 'as it he fell fro' the earth ceilin'. A big'un hisself. Natters on 'bout armor an' the sort, makin' a legend or somesuch. Mach these, he does. Wrong size, always. We take the gems an' put 'em to other use."
"He makes armor?"
"Aye, the smithy."
Cecil's shoulders relaxed at hearing it was another man and not Golbez who had been in contact with the dwarves. After a moment, he changed the topic. "Tell us, do you know anything about the Sealed Cave?" he asked.
The dwarf frowned, and cast a glance at Vulf, and then back at the humans again. Deeming this was not an appropriate venue for them to be speaking, the dwarf beckoned them out of the shop.
With baffled glances, the five of them followed this new dwarf to another low building on the opposite side of the village. The villagers nodded to their companion as he passed, and then puckered their lips at the sight of the humans, some of them spitting on the ground and making curious hand gestures behind their backs.
Rydia raised a brow. They seemed almost—superstitious? She ducked her head to follow Rosa through the doorway of the building behind Cecil and Kain, and was surprised to find herself in a wide antechamber lined with shelves and packed to the brim with items and trinkets and…books? Immediately distracted by her own curiosity, she hadn't noticed that the knights had been led into a room in the back of the house, while she and Rosa remained in the large antechamber with Edge. Rydia peeled her eyes from the books bound in leather, their spines inscribed with small stones, to see Rosa staring at the same shelves with a look of consternation.
She wanted to ask the mage what had been bothering her, but a sharp sigh from Edge, indicating his boredom, made her pause to glare at him.
"Did you have something to say?" she asked archly.
"Were you planning on following them, or were you merely going to monopolize the entire aisle?" he asked blandly, glancing significantly at the shelves hedging them in on either side.
Rydia rolled her eyes and stepped to the side, allowing the ninja to walk past.
Once he was in the back room, did Rydia allow a disgusted groan escape her throat. "I don't know why he assumes everyone owes him a favor," she complained to deaf ears, noticing that Rosa was too preoccupied in her own musings to reply.
Rydia sighed and followed the mage as she meandered silently through more aisles, pausing now and again to study the objects on the shelves inquisitively. Rydia found herself doing much the same, only, she had come to admire that each of the shelves was made of stone and elegantly carved. The dwarves here were proud of their stonework, just as those in the castle, and every cornice, lintel, and shelf in the house was scribed with friezes of vines and plants, and on occasion, insects. Rydia trailed her fingers over the art, wondering at them. How could dwarves from the underworld know of such things?
"Strange, isn't it?" Rosa remarked, breaking the long silence, and looking at Rydia over her shoulder.
Rydia lifted her gaze to the mage's face. "It is," she answered, and then gathered her nerves to ask a forthright question. "Rosa, you've been worried about something since the Feymarch. Is everything alright?"
Rosa gave her a nervous laugh, tossing her golden hair across her back. "How could anything be alright?" she asked, returning her attention to the shelves.
Rydia took a few steps forward, and finally reached out to grip Rosa's arm. "Hey," she said. "What is it?"
"It might be nothing."
"The Sealed Cave is just over the ridge. Are you worried that we might already be too late? The dwarves said-"
"I know what the dwarves said," Rosa interrupted her, pinching her brows together. "But Golbez has been searching for weeks, always a step ahead. Have you ever…sensed things before they've happened?" Rosa asked quietly.
Rydia studied the other woman more closely, trying to see past her curtain of hair. "Sometimes," she reflected.
"I just have a bad feeling, and it's been building the closer to that cave we've come," Rosa replied, staring past the shelves, her fingers resting on the stone as though she required the support to stay upright.
"Is there anything I can do?" Rydia asked.
Rosa smiled at her, a smile that never reached her eyes. "I don't know," she answered, and was then distracted by the sound of the men returning to the main chamber.
"Ye may wan' ta take armor wit ye. Fer uh price, a'course," the dwarf was saying, looking eager to be rid of the extra supply in his inventory and receiving a very different kind of precious metal from the deal.
Rydia saw Cecil and Kain share a glance, reluctantly nodding. "He did give us the information we sought," Cecil mused.
"Speek ta Vulf. An' he'll set you up with goods," the dwarf added, seeing them all to the door.
They returned to the shop they had first visited, and while the knights picked through armaments, Rydia pondered Rosa's concerns. How could it be that Golbez had already been searching for weeks, and yet there was no sign of him in this area? Surely, he would have found the sealed cave just as they had. And why was this village left unmarred when so much else had been destroyed?
It didn't take long for Kain and Cecil to patch together what had the appearance of complete suits of armor. Vulf seemed pleased with their choices, and then the bartering began.
"I'm na' gonn' part with 'em fer cheap," he told them proudly, meaty hands on his hips.
Cecil haggled the dwarf down to offering them two suits for the price of one, and then handed the dwarf a drawstring purse filled with gil.
Vulf accepted the coin, and then withdrew a piece and stuck it between his teeth, biting it to see if it was genuine. Satisfied, the dwarf gave them a toothy smile, and Rydia now understood why the dwarf's teeth were in such disrepair.
"Whateve' erran' Giotto 'as sent ye on, be car'ful. The Seal'd Cav' is a foul rumr'd place. Ancien'," he told them, spitting on the ground as though to ward off evil.
Cecil nodded to the dwarf and the five of them took their leave, returning to the main road and the curious eyes of the small dwarf community.
"This must be the backwater of the underworld—minus the water," Rydia heard Edge mutter while they walked, looking at the dwarf settlement disapprovingly.
She pursed her lips, annoyed at this display of his royal opinions. It had been a while since he'd voiced them, but surrounded by incomprehensible dwarves, she imagined that his patience had expired within the first few minutes of their arrival.
"I think they're endearing—if a little peculiar," she replied with an indignant sniff.
He groaned.
She eyed him sideways. "It would really serve you well to be nicer to people," she pointed out.
"Will I ever see these people again?" he asked.
"Does it matter?"
He screwed his features into a scowl.
"That doesn't serve you well, either," she retorted as they passed beneath the village gate.
The path the dwarf had suggested to Cecil, Rydia discovered, was a narrow foot track—and a treacherous one. Rocks had tumbled into crevices and the group had a time of climbing around them or splitting them altogether with magic and weapons. There were several underworld fiends that paid them more than a passing notice, and the five of them were stricken by blindness and on occasion, silence, while they fought their way through Rock Moths and their slimy, newly hatched spawn.
After several hours, the footpath gave way to a wider road that had been caused more by natural erosion than the work of the dwarves, and they stepped out from the shadow of the rock to the inner circle formed by the plateaus. They rested, trying to collect their bearings while Rosa applied her ministrations to those of them that had been wounded.
Cecil took a long swig of water from his canteen and then looked at Kain, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Does Golbez have any more minions we should know of?" he asked the dragoon.
Rydia looked over at them, sensing hesitation on the part of Kain. None of her Baronian companions had been quite themselves since leaving the Feymarch, and the closer to the cavern they marched, the more keenly she felt it.
"I can't read his mind, Cecil," Kain replied tersely, digging for something in his pack. "If the dwarves say there's been no one here, there's been no one here."
"I meant nothing by it," Cecil said contritely; though Rydia could see the lines of frustration on his brow.
"You meant that as one of his minions myself, that I could shed some insight into—into this," Kain said heatedly, gesturing to the strange earth-formed arena surrounding them.
"That's a hell of an explanation," Edge commented from his perch where Rosa was healing a gash on the ninja's arm. The white mage turned to look at Kain as well, a touch of the same worry in her eyes that Rydia had seen in Tomra. The same worry she'd seen since the Feymarch.
"It's none of your business, prince," Kain retorted, grabbing his pack and hurrying away. "I'm going to scout ahead. If any of his minions are here, you can be sure I'll inform you," he added, not quite able to contain the bite in his tone.
Rydia glanced at Cecil, wondering what exactly was going on. She had seen Kain dissident before, but never to this degree.
"Cecil—?" Rosa asked, but Cecil just waved her off, shaking his head.
"I'm sure he'll be fine. The heat has been getting to all of us," he said.
Rydia stared in the direction the dragoon had gone, at the glistening plates of his diamond armor, thinking heat was not the sole excuse.
Nevertheless, after they had rested for several minutes, they resumed their journey across the blistering stones, and Kain rejoined them eventually. He kept a significant distance between himself and the rest of them, but then, so did Edge. At least Rydia trusted Edge to be keeping an eye on their back, but Kain—he seemed intent on himself; separated from them by more than just distance.
Several more hours passed and they had already skirted a large portion of the plateau's interior, with no sign of the Sealed Cave. They paused again to rest after an attack had sprung from the rocks to their east, and left each of them stricken to some degree.
Rosa was with Cecil, carefully prying the long fang of a black lizard from his forearm where the flesh had turned gray from petrification. She was murmuring the words to Esuna and Rydia pretended to busy herself with her supplies while she eavesdropped on their conversation.
"Rosa, what is it? What's on your mind?" Cecil asked quietly between winces as Rosa's deft fingers prodded the pierced flesh.
Rosa sighed, finishing the first of several incantations. "I feel like someone's watching us," she said, and then frowned. "But Edge doesn't sense it. I'm wondering if Golbez is closer than we realize."
"Kain?" Cecil asked.
"I don't know," Rosa admitted. "I remember what Golbez's presence felt like and it feels like he's still dogging my footsteps. I close my eyes and it's like I'm back in the tower."
"I'll keep my eyes open," Cecil assured her, taking one of her hands into his, as he raised his other hand to her cheek.
"Thank you," Rosa murmured, as she closed her eyes, inviting the touch. Rydia watched the two of them out of the corner of her eye, feeling a sharp pang of—something. Longing? Longing for the understanding that the two of them shared? She sighed, returning her attention to her pack in earnest and leaving her friends to their quiet intimate conversation. No sooner than this, did she have the suspicion that a certain someone was approaching her from behind.
"What do you know about him?" Edge asked without preamble, confirming her suspicions. She glanced at him, half-turning.
"Who?" she asked stubbornly.
He nodded in the direction of the dragoon who was standing watch several yards away.
"What's his damage?" Edge clarified.
Rydia sighed, hugging her knees with her arms. "Why do you want to know?"
He gave her a significant look. "Why do you think?"
Rydia rolled her eyes, and pursed her lips, but decided it was best to explain out of earshot from the others. She walked a short distance away and then whirled to face him. He was scrutinizing her, and she imagined he wore a frown beneath his mask.
"He's unraveling," Edge said after a moment.
"You noticed that too?" she asked lightly, not surprised he'd picked up on the tension on his own.
"There's more of a history between those three, and it has something to do with the part of all your tales that you haven't shared," he pointed out.
Rydia tilted her head side to side, stretching sore muscles and tendons, as she wondered how to explain what he wanted to know in as few words as possible. "Golbez used Kain," she said simply.
"He was working for the enemy?" Edge asked, his blue eyes narrowing to slits.
"Cecil said it was mind control," she explained. "And while he was under Golbez's control, he helped to take Rosa captive, and to thwart Cecil and all of us on our quest for the crystals."
"Why is a known traitor here—in this group?" Edge wanted to know, and his voice held a note of anger that took Rydia by surprise.
"The spell over him was broken and he returned to his senses," she said with a shrug. "Cecil and Rosa forgave him and he returned to the group."
"Just like that?" Edge asked.
Rydia frowned, thinking about her own reservations on the subject. "There have been—tensions," she amended. "But for the most part, he's been helpful, and he's given us insight into those who serve under Golbez's command."
"And you trust him?" Edge asked, folding his arms across his chest.
"I—" she began and then stopped. "I admit, he isn't my favorite of traveling companions, and I don't think I can ever trust him as I do Cecil, but I don't hate him," she admitted, surprised she'd said the words.
Edge continued to study her, obviously displeased by this new information; but after a moment, he turned away. "I'll keep my eye on him," he said as he casually waved a hand over his shoulder.
It was Rydia's turn to cross her arms, as she watched Edge's retreating form. Far to her left she could still see Kain standing watch, his axe leaning against his leg as he stared out across the basin. There was something decidedly off about the dragoon, but what it was, Rydia couldn't figure out. Rosa was concerned, and even Cecil and Edge had their suspicions. Was it possible that Kain knew something about what lay ahead that he wasn't telling them?"
Kain suddenly turned and caught her staring. She went ram-rod straight and strode back to the others, embarrassed that she'd been seen.
Once she'd rejoined Cecil and Rosa, she saw Cecil's arm had been made good as new.
"Rydia?" Rosa said her name as a question once she'd drawn near.
Rydia quickly pasted a smile on her face, trying to hide her discomfort. "Are we moving on soon?" she asked.
Rosa arched a brow at her, sensing the redirection, but choosing to ignore it. "We will be," the mage answered, wiping dust from her hands as she stood. "Is everything alright?"
"Everything's fine," Rydia lied. "I was just curious."
Rosa watched her peculiarly as she slung her pack over her shoulder and jostled it into a comfortable position on her back. "I'm ready when you are," Rydia informed her friend, though truthfully, she was just eager to have a distraction from their brooding companion.
Cecil, thankfully, agreed with her. "I'm rested—you?" he asked Rosa, as he retrieved his weapons.
The white mage nodded and the five of them continued their journey across the basin, albeit, with a little more caution than before.
After several hours they approached a crevice in the rock face, the first irregularity they'd seen since reaching the plateau's interior. Through it they saw stanchions made of marble set in perfectly straight rows; and behind those, they saw a great smooth slab of stone inscribed with dwarf writing. The cave entrance.
They approached with caution, and Cecil withdrew the key given to him by Giott so long ago, holding it delicately in his palm. Rydia had stolen glances at it before, but never had she looked on it fully, and she was surprised by how intricate it was. They key itself was made of a polished white stone and its blade was long and had teeth on both sides, so slight and close together that they looked like an elegant comb. The bow was carved with elegant impressions, and at its base, a gleaming red jewel had been set. Rydia's eyes swept from the key to the sheer rock face before them, looking for the equally impressive lock that was meant for the key. Instead, all she saw was a flat and impassive surface denying them access to anywhere.
"No wonder Golbez never found it, it is the rock itself," Rosa said, running a hand along the dwarvish runes.
Cecil joined Rosa by the wall, staring at the writing, and handling the key in his palm, turning it over and over.
Rosa looked at the key in his hand, making a curious expression. "Is there an incantation of some kind?"
Rydia took the opportunity to examine the stanchions, wondering if they served some purpose in the opening of the door.
"Are we sure this is the correct entrance?" Edge asked, staring at the entire cavern doubtfully. "They could be using this as a decoy."
Cecil looked at the ninja with a furrowed brow, and walked between the stanchions; stopping to stand in the middle, clearly underwhelmed. At that precise moment, the key reacted. It blazed ruby red and thunder crackled through the air as liquid fire jumped from the jewel and into the stanchions, lighting each with an unnatural flame. They all leapt back at the unexpected explosion and felt the ground begin to rumble and shake. The flat stone slab with the dwarf writing glowed with heat, and the words themselves dripped like molten metal as a seam appeared in the rock and split the slab into two halves. The ground continued to quake and dust was flying through the air as pebbles and rocks slipped from the cliffs around them. Rydia nearly lost her footing, but felt a quick hand catch her elbow, and glanced behind her to realize, annoyingly, that it was Edge.
It took several minutes for the dust to settle, but once it did, the five of them saw a wide gaping entryway leading further into the belly of the earth.
"Looks like we found the correct entrance after all," Cecil commented, as he led them forward, keeping his shield raised before him. They entered the cavern as dust continued to fall periodically from the ceiling.
"This doesn't seem stable," Edge observed, looking around them.
"Does this cave have more defenses than the entrance?" Rosa wondered aloud as they fanned out near the door. The cavern itself was surprisingly well-lit, glowing from rivers of magma deep below their feet. Rydia peered over the edge of the rock ledge they were standing on, trying to see how far the cave fell beneath them.
"This cavern has survived ages, I'm sure it can suffer us," Cecil replied, joining Rydia at the ledge.
"Look!" Rosa suddenly said, directing their attention with her pointing finger to a rope anchored farther across the ledge.
She and Edge were the first to inspect the rope, and Edge was tugging at it, testing its tautness.
"Well?" Cecil asked. "Is it passable?"
"Should be," Edge replied, rubbing his chin with a hand, as though still considering how best to cross it.
Rydia stared at the rope and at the expanse beneath it and swallowed hard. If they fell…
A quick movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Edge had thrown one of their packs across the ledge and onto the next solid outcrop. She watched as it raised a puff of dust when it landed and felt an impressive sense of dread that she would soon have to join the pack on the other side.
"Now it's a question of who goes first," Edge said, eyeing each of them in turn.
"I'll go," Cecil volunteered, slinging his shield over his shoulder and taking hold of the rope. Rydia watched nervously as he shimmied across, keeping an eye on the rope at both ends lest it snap while he was in the middle. Edge followed after Cecil was safely across, and afterwards, it was Rydia's turn. She carefully held onto the rope, hooking her ankles around it as she slid hand over hand to the other side. Every inch of the way she silently prayed that she wouldn't fall to her death, and kept her eyes firmly affixed to her destination.
Once she had reached the other side, she reached out to grip the stone ledge and haul herself up, but Edge leaned down to take her hand and pull her up instead. She reddened with sudden embarrassment, simultaneously insulted that he thought she couldn't pull herself up, and relieved that he'd offered. He lifted her to her feet, and she took a quick step away, pretending not to have needed his assistance. He gave her a lopsided smirk and shook his head, while she busied herself with straightening her robes and equipment. He returned his gaze to Rosa who was shimmying across next, and Rydia let out a deep sigh, glad she was no longer the object of his attentions. He had a knack for making her uncomfortable and she still couldn't put her finger on why.
0-0-0-0
Once they had all safely reached the other side, they continued to navigate the cavern's interior, following narrow paths, and natural bridges. The cave floor had a coating of fine sand, and there were times when the path ahead became obscured when the cavern roof shuddered and tawny clouds spewed down from above.
Several fiends lurked in the crevices of the rock—slithering Nagarajas and vampire bats whose gleaming green eyes peered out around dark corners. The five companions picked their battles carefully, not knowing how deep the cavern plunged and when they might next be able to rest.
"These doors are enormous," Rydia observed, as they approached their first genuine barrier since entering the cave. "Do you think they'll still open for us?"
Rosa frowned and stared up at the impressive double-doors before them. "I feel as if it's watching us," Rosa said, a little alarmed.
"The door?" Cecil asked, finding this a ridiculous notion.
"She's right," Edge added, backing up. "Where's the handle? Where are the hinges? And it has a strange feeling about it that I can't place. Something's definitely not right."
Rydia stared at the door, thinking that her eyes were playing tricks on her. Had the door itself moved? She jumped back when two horrifying orange eyes suddenly sprouted out of the ancient wood. The eyes glared at them, and the seam of the doors transformed into a mouth with angular teeth.
"No mortals shall pass," a voice boomed at them, deep and dark and terrifying.
Rydia sensed magic being cast as the door sparked, and she watched a strange purple aura spread around Kain.
"Kain, get away!" Rosa shouted, hurriedly.
But Kain did not respond—he didn't even move an inch. He was transfixed with the door.
"Kain!" Rosa cried out, as a second spell stole his spirit from his body. He fell limply to the ground, his knees slamming into the dust; and Rosa hastily began the Raise incantation, her words tenuous on the air.
"A trap door?" Cecil asked in shock, torn between wanting to check on his fallen friend, and lunging forward to thwart this foe.
The door posed more of a challenge to their journey than they would have liked. It stood in their way, forcing them to fight their way past, or to turn back. While they considered their options, the door began to cast another spell—this time targeting Cecil. Rather than do nothing, Cecil charged forward and heaved his sword at the door, hacking until there were splinters. He succeeded in making one jagged gash in the wood before the trap door took him down in a graceless heap of bones and sinew, no longer animate.
Rosa began casting once more, and the tremor in her voice was unmistakable. Rydia could tell her friend was shaken.
Edge picked up the slack of Kain, who remained motionless and detached from the battle, and Cecil who was slowly crawling to his feet; and threw a series of darts at the door, clinks and thuds sounding as each one struck home. It was a valiant effort, but they did little more than melt near the door's eyes and stick to the surface of the planking.
"Kain, are you going to do something?" Edge snarled, tugging at the dragoon's arm. "Come on!"
But Kain stood like a limpet and did nothing.
The impassiveness of the dragoon caused Rydia to worry that without his help, this battle could very quickly turn out of their favor. She closed her eyes and began to summon, weaving the ancient words of her people with the sacrosanct rites of the Feymarch, beseeching assistance. She summoned Ifrit, the heat and force of Hellfire surrounding him and all near him the moment he arrived. The mighty beast flung his flame against the door, fire splashing against it like a wave; but just as his unearthly bellow shook the air, Rydia felt the aura of death creep up around her like an insidious chill. She watched as Ifrit's hellfire scorched a blackened circle in the door; but all she had time for, before death circled near, was to dismiss Ifrit to the Feymarch as her spirit was severed from her senses.
She had no idea how much time had passed, but she felt weightless, detached-and then her spirit was re-tethered to her body. Opening her eyes, she felt herself being lifted to her feet, and blinked, seeing it was Edge beside her.
"Welcome back," he told her with a worried smile that she couldn't help but wonder at.
She was glad to be back, but she had no idea how long she'd been out.
Her eyes flitted to Rosa, and saw with dismay, the cold purple aura that had targeted the mage as its next victim. She and Rosa both shared a frantic look, each understanding the other's plight. Cecil had already begun to chant the Raise incantation, but Rydia knew there was no avoiding the fear and panic of your life being snuffed out. Even with the safety net of white magic, there were times when you'd wonder if you'd ever come back at all.
The sinuous spell of death coiled around Rosa, and the instant she began to fall, Kain sprang into action, causing a burst of wind that whipped Rydia's hair across her face. He leapt, and on his descent, skewered the door right between the panels into the depth of the trap's gaping mouth. The door's face bellowed in rage, the sound like that of antiquated hinges in sore need of oil, and the panels were dislodged so that they hung askew.
Rydia wove the words of Firaga on the heels of Kain's attack, bending flame and heat to her purpose until they spewed against what remained of the wood in hungry torrents. The doors burned to smoldering coals on the floor revealing an entryway that had previously been concealed; and seeing that the trap was indeed destroyed, Rydia fell to the cavern floor, breathless. Everyone around her was breathing hard, trying to make sense of what had just happened.
Cecil was raising Rosa to her feet, and the white mage was holding onto him as he assured her that she was alright—that the threat was gone.
Edge turned on Kain. "Fine time to decide to be useful," he snapped. "What were you doing, taking a nap while the rest of us were dying?"
"I—" Kain said, staring at his hands as if they were not his own. "What happened?"
"What happened?" Edge asked, aghast. "The trap door!"
"I lost track of—of where I was for a few minutes."
"You were dead for a few minutes," Cecil said quietly.
Kain looked at his friend, archly. "That must be it."
Edge wasn't convinced. "Space out again, and I'll feed you to the monsters myself," he said, walking toward the doorway and kicking a charred piece of wood out of his path.
Rydia raised a brow, surprised by Edge's threat, but not entirely. She was glad someone else had decided to throttle the dragoon for being useless when they'd needed him most.
"The defenses of this cavern are impressive," Cecil observed after a minute, inspecting the doorframe.
"Not much good this key affords us in terms of safe passage," Rosa remarked, nodding to the key that Cecil had tucked back into his sword belt.
"Hopefully this will be the last of the defenses," he said, trying to be optimistic.
Edge turned from up ahead and gave the paladin an incredulous look, saying nothing.
Cecil shrugged tiredly. "It was worth a try," he said.
0-0-0-0
They continued onward, shimmying down more ropes like the first, and navigating the passages into myriad rooms and chambers. The quantity of fiends increased the deeper they traveled, and they added bite wounds and exsanguinations to their list of woes. And as if to add insult to injury, no door was what it seemed. Hours had passed and a dozen doors had met their ends in showers of flame and high impacts, but not without imparting their own cruel sort of justice.
"How many times do you think we've died today?" Edge commented eventually, trudging wearily through the passage they had just cleared.
"Too many," Rydia replied, not sure why she was indulging him. Her head was pounding from repeated Raise incantations leaving an over-abundance of magic humming through her nerves.
"Are all the doors like this?" Cecil asked offhandedly.
"I hope not," Rosa answered flatly. "My magic is dangling by a thread and if I don't take the chance to rest soon, there isn't much we can do should another door challenge us."
"Wonderful," Edge answered dryly.
Rydia stared down at her hands that were cut and blistered from rocks and climbing ropes. Her voice was hoarse from repetitive casting, and she felt light-headed from loss of blood—damned vampire bats….
If they faced one more door she was sure her own magic would fail her, and she eyed her dwindling supplies with apprehension.
Cecil led them past a row of closed doors, and they elected for now, to leave them be. It wasn't until one particular door caught their attention that they paused to examine the inscription on the door's frame.
"This looks encouraging," Cecil said, as his eyes roved the placard. Edge joined the paladin and the two of them came to a general agreement that the room had the markings of warding—of safety.
Rosa sighed deeply, shrugging her shoulders. "Is it a warding?" she asked, sounding hopeful.
"It seems to be," Cecil answered, still studying the runes.
"Now if the door would cooperate with us—" Kain muttered, taking a step back.
"I volunteer for not opening this one," Edge said with a grimace, sliding his twin katanas from their sheaths.
Cecil let out a sharp breath and glared at the prince. "This makes three, Edge."
Edge simply shrugged. "You're more heavily armed."
The paladin's gaze turned piercing. "Armor doesn't protect against death," he said matter-of-factly, and then thought better of it when he noticed Edge's irritating smirk. "You know what I mean."
Rydia rolled her eyes and readied herself. None of the other doors had simply been doors, why would this one be any different?
Her suspicions were proven correct.
This time it was Kain and Edge who fell, for all the ninja prince's complaints about avoiding imminent death. Rydia was tired of ineffectual attacks against the relentless doors, and with two of their companions down, she called upon the most dangerous in her arsenal. Leviathan made an appearance with the full force of the ocean behind him, water rumbling and fangs and fins slamming into the door with terrifying ferocity. The door creaked and groaned and hung askew, and Rydia dismissed the King of the Feymarch with an appreciative nod. Surely that should have put an end to the menace.
"Something's coming!" Cecil shouted as a haunting cry pierced the wide open cavern behind them. Rydia's hair stood on end while she watched a beast with pale green skin, a sinuous neck, curved fangs, and the legs of at least two creatures, come into view through the broken door. A manticore.
Rydia's spirits dropped. She remembered the unpleasant sting of a manticore's attack from earlier on that day, and she was not eager to see it repeated.
"Take cover!" Cecil shouted again, bracing himself behind his shield, and trying to cover Rosa as quickly as possible. Rydia ducked, protecting her head with her arms as the manticore's blaze sizzled across the cavern floor, licking at her skin and hair, and sapping her strength.
Tears pricked her eyes and she bit her lip to keep from crying out, and just when she thought she couldn't take anymore, the attack ceased, and Rosa's steady voice was chanting. The soothing balm of white magic covered Rydia's body, healing sores and burns. The manticore was hissing and pawing the ground, but Cecil had already plunged forward with sword and shield in hand. Rydia began chanting as well, Bio leaving her lips as Rosa's Raise incantation returned Kain to his senses.
The manticore lunged with its tail, battering Cecil's shield with a tremendous thunk, and throwing the paladin back on his feet.
Edge was also conscious at last; and his disgust at realizing the situation he'd been brought into was more than obvious. He began throwing shurikens almost immediately, complaining loudly about bad timing and the whole venture altogether.
Rydia was more preoccupied with keeping away from the manticore's fangs and claws than to Edge's misgivings. She dodged and rolled, keeping away from a sweep of the manticore's tail, but it proved fruitless when the creature bellowed and blue flame showered them all in a painful wave.
Rydia fell to her knees, her head swimming as she fought off the shock. She felt Rosa's white magic envelope her, but the healing was meager, and she knew Rosa was at the end of her reserves. She knew her own magic reserves were useless to her now. All she had with her was the Blitz whip tucked into her belt. She uncoiled it now, not waiting for someone else to take the offensive. She sprang forward, and swung with all her might, snapping the flail of the whip into the flesh of the manticore's chest with a snap of sparks and electric fire. Green ichor spewed from the torn muscle and skin, and the manticore charged. Rydia prepared herself for another attack, but the manticore suddenly changed tactic, there was a blurring in her vision, and all of her senses became consumed by a sense of falling.
She wasn't sure how it had happened, but she was waking up what felt like hours later. When had she lost consciousness?
There were snippets of conversation around her, but she only heard them dimly.
"We should conserve what items we have," she heard Cecil saying. "We can regain our strength here in the warding. Rydia, can you hold on?" she realized he was directing the question at her and she nodded numbly, not quite sure what was going on.
She sensed that somewhere above her, someone was peering down at her with concern, but everything was sort of jumbled in her mind. Maybe she was imagining things.
She tilted her head so that she could see her companions more fully and noticed the beginnings of a structure being built in a close space. They must have reached the warding after all.
As her head wrapped itself around its surroundings, she realized that someone was looking down at her. Edge—how typical.
"What—happened?" she asked, slightly delirious.
"You were out cold for a while," he replied, and his voice sounded tired.
He was awfully close—uncomfortably close, and Rydia attempted to sit up to move away from him, but instantly gave up when her head raged in protest. She fell backward, bumping into something soft and warm part of the way down. She realized her head was leaning against Edge's leg and had been all along. She frowned.
"Why aren't you building the cabin with them?" she asked, aggrieved.
"You're not the only one who's wounded," he volleyed.
She angled herself to see him better and noticed the crude bandage wrapped around his other thigh with blood seeping through it.
"What happened to you?" she asked, impressed by the wound.
"Manticore jabbed me with its tail—while I was trying to pull you out of the way," he explained, slipping a jab at her into his last remark.
Rydia reddened with embarrassment and guilt. "No one asked you to do that."
"It's what comrades do," he answered with a shrug and a long-suffering sigh. "Besides, I thought it might get me back in your good graces," he added with a quick grin.
Rydia closed her eyes, too tired to care. "It failed," she mumbled.
"What were you doing, anyway?" he wanted to know. "You charged ahead right at the last minute."
Rydia cracked open her eyes and stared drowsily at the ceiling of the cave, at the stalactites dangling above them. She wondered idly, how securely they were affixed to the ceiling and then wondered morbidly what it might feel like to have the cave collapse on them…
"Hey," Edge prodded her, jostling his good leg so that her head bobbed with it.
She paused, trying to mask her embarrassment with a flash of anger. "Everyone else was pinned down, what did you expect me to do?" she demanded, fixing her attention back to him.
"Take your beating from a safe distance like the rest of us," he complained.
"I'm sure you were so inconvenienced," she replied, incensed.
"Next time, stick to magic. You're better at it," he lectured.
She frowned, and pondered what sound he'd make if she hit his injured leg. Probably some undignified, un-princely sound. She smirked at the thought, closing her eyes again.
"What's so entertaining?" he asked dourly.
"Nothing that you'd find nearly as entertaining," she answered smugly.
Cecil walked over to them several minutes later, his brow beaded with sweat, and his armor streaked with dust and blood. He knelt beside them, giving Rydia a serious once-over.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, trying his best to smile.
"Heavy," she replied with a deep sigh.
Cecil flicked his gaze to Edge, and then at the ninja's injured leg. "Bandage needs to be changed," he noticed.
Edge made a noncommittal grunt and Rydia felt him shrug. "I've been worse."
"I'll carry Rydia; would you like—"
"No," Edge replied instantly. "I can limp there perfectly fine on my own."
The paladin smiled a little devilishly and scooped Rydia into his arms. She felt like a small child in Cecil's arms, as if she were no more burden to him than a feather, as he walked her to the cabin. Once inside, she was set down onto a cot and her pack was laid beside her. Several minutes later, Edge hobbled in and claimed a cot near the door, pulling gingerly at the dressing of his wound.
"How's Rosa?" Rydia had enough sense to ask.
"Tired," the mage replied from somewhere behind her. Rydia turned over and saw Rosa sitting on another cot with a wedge of bread in her hand, pulling pieces off of it and savoring each bite. Rosa extended the bread to Rydia. "Are you hungry?"
Rydia shook her head, too dizzy to feel like eating.
"I can't seem to shake my hunger," Rosa complained with a frown, retracting the offer. "Every time I use magic to this extent—I can't help but eat."
Rydia grinned tiredly. "I can't help but sleep," she replied.
"Then sleep," her friend advised. "We used our supplies heavily in this last stretch and neither of us has any magic left between us. All we can do now is rest."
Rydia agreed with this plan, but she noticed someone was missing when she watched Cecil approach Edge and try to cajole the ninja into letting him help with his injured leg.
"Where's Kain?" she asked.
There was a pause as glances were exchanged. "Out scouting," Cecil answered, returning his attention to Edge and pouring water over the wound, making the ninja wince and scowl.
Had something else happened while she was unconscious?
"He'll be back soon, I'm sure," Rosa assured her.
Rydia stared at her friends curiously, but none of them spared her any more details. Deciding she didn't care all-too-much, Rydia set her head down on her pillow and was instantly asleep.
Later on that evening, Rydia awoke thirsty for water. She sat up on her cot and saw everyone else was still asleep—except for one cot which remained empty. She took several swigs of water from her canteen and ventured out of the cabin with a dual-purpose—to stretch her legs and to figure out where Edge had gone. The moment she stepped out the door, she saw a small fire had been built near the side of the warding with bits of wood from what had probably been the latest trap door. Edge was sitting next to it, his knees drawn up loosely to his chest.
"You're not sleeping?" she asked as she walked over.
He spared her a glance over his shoulder and then returned his gaze to the fire, the light flickering in his eyes.
She joined him, sitting a few feet away, her hands on her knees. She stole a few glances in his direction, but he seemed content to let the silence reign.
"You should probably go back inside," he told her eventually.
"I'm not one of your subjects," she retorted. "I do as I like."
He frowned and sighed. "You were the one complaining about being tired earlier, and now you're the one who can't sleep," he pointed out.
"It's hard to sleep here," she replied. "What about you?"
He furrowed his brow. "Too much to think about."
"How's the leg?"
"Bearable. How's the head?"
"Better."
They were quiet for a few minutes more, and Rydia began to fidget a little anxiously. He stirred finally and she nearly jumped, looking at him curiously.
"I was just thinking how this time last year, we never thought—" he said, looking away, "—that we would be as devastated as we are now," he finished haltingly, looking back at Rydia with such pain that she almost reached out to grip his hand. She was surprised that after making her bear the brunt of his sarcasm for the last few days, that he would suddenly open up to her in all sincerity.
Mist had become a distant memory, but one inexorably fixed in her mind like the after-image of the sun burned into your vision long after you'd looked away. Eblan was recent, very recent, and she remembered how volatile her emotions had been when she'd first joined Cecil, and her first few months in the Feymarch. Disbelief, despair—she knew.
She stared back at him, wishing she could offer him the gift of healing that time had brought to her, but it was pointless. There was no Feymarch for him to run to.
"I'm sorry," she said, looking at the ground between them. It was a paltry thing to say in light of the storm raging in his heart, but she had to say something.
He looked up at her with a sad grin. "Why are you sorry? You've seen enough destruction in your own life."
"That doesn't make it any easier to see it in someone else's," she answered.
He released a slow breath. "So much is different now," he mused.
"You'll take the throne, won't you?" she asked.
He shot her a glance and then stared at the fire. Apparently she'd struck a nerve. "Yes, I suppose I will."
Rydia, mis-reading his reticence, said, "You suppose? Don't all princes inherit the throne?"
He smiled ruefully. "One day you expect your father to live to see old age and for yourself to lead a life of your own. The next, you're claiming your inheritance, and you're not even sure how it all came to be, let alone why."
"What would you have done otherwise?" Rydia asked quietly. "If they were both still alive?"
"I don't know. Something other than be trapped in a castle," he answered grimly. "They had to go and leave me with this mess to fix."
Rydia had never heard Edge speak ill of his parents, and this last comment surprised her. "You don't want it, do you?" she asked.
"The throne? Not particularly," he answered with a frown. "It's a life sentence, and to take it now—"
Rydia finally did reach out to grip his hand. "If you're afraid you won't be able to meet the expectations of your people, or your parents, I'm sure you're wrong."
He stared at her hand on top of his, and then at her. His eyes were narrowed, staring at her as if she'd just said something astoundingly novel.
"For someone who spent her life away from humans for so long, you're surprisingly perceptive," he told her, reaching out to brush her disobedient bangs away from her eyes with his thumb. His hand lingered behind her ear for a moment, as if he was considering her. She felt her heart perform a somersault in her chest, and she stiffened at his touch, unsure of how this turn of events had come about. It had started off perfectly innocent, but he had that certain look in his eyes, appealing to that other side of her that she didn't understand.
She pulled back a little breathlessly, and whatever spell between them was shattered. "I'm going back inside," she informed him. "You should try to rest, too."
There was a brief wave of disappointment on his face that she chose to ignore as she turned her back on him. She returned to the cabin and her cot, her dizziness returning. She buried her head in blankets, hiding her blush from even herself.
The next morning arrived too soon. There was some debate about staying where they were for longer, but Rosa felt much better rested by morning and didn't think it was necessary to delay. She had even healed Edge's leg before the cabin's enchantment had worn off and the beams and cots around them faded like vapor in the air.
"I went ahead and tried to find a better route," Cecil informed them, returning to the warding. Rydia hadn't even realized he was gone.
"And?" Edge asked curiously.
"There don't seem to be many doors left. We should be able to proceed down a staircase to the far side of them—it was tucked away a little."
"Are we bypassing the other doors between here and there?" Edge pressed.
"I think they serve as decoys," Cecil replied. "The true path is that staircase. It wasn't that easy to find."
"Well, then. I'm all for skipping a few annoyances," Edge announced, standing up.
Rydia, too, was eager to avoid more of the doors, and she was ready for this errand to be over. What would become of them after retrieving the crystal, she didn't know, but it would be better than stumbling aimlessly in the dark.
"Kain, are you ready to move on?" Cecil asked his friend, and Rydia glanced at the dragoon and noticed the dark circles under his blue eyes. Had he not slept at all?
The dragoon shrugged. "Whatever you think is best," the man grumbled, absently.
They left the warding behind them and walked past several imposing doors. This time, they ignored the traps, keeping their eyes warily fixed on them instead. Cecil led them to the staircase he had discovered earlier in the day. It was tucked into a crevice in the rock around a sharp corner. They followed the stairs deeper into the cavern, and from there, across several more narrow paths suspended over deep chasms. The cave seemed to go on forever, and Rydia was becoming distressed that they would never reach the crystal at its end. It didn't help that behind her, she heard Kain muttering to himself. He spoke nonsense, generally, but every once in a while it sounded like he was carrying on an argument with himself. She glanced at him time and again, and whenever she called his name, he would snap to attention as if he'd been asleep.
Much to her chagrin, Edge had taken to walking at her side, glancing at the dragoon as well. She knew he had promised to keep an eye on the dragoon, but now she felt that he was keeping tabs on her as well.
"He's getting worse," Edge noticed after they'd stopped to rest after being attacked by a vampiress and her den of bats.
Rydia took a swig of water from her canteen. "Why do you think that is?"
"I'm not sure, but it's almost as if—" Edge said, stopping himself from continuing.
"What?" she asked, slightly alarmed.
"As if he's reverting," Edge finished at last, staring at the dragoon suspiciously.
Now Rydia was truly alarmed. "You think Golbez is trying to ensnare him again?"
Edge shrugged. "That, or it's the heat."
Rydia wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and stared at Edge very seriously. "Should we tell Cecil?"
"I think he already knows, even if he won't openly acknowledge it," Edge replied.
"What should we do?"
"Keep him distracted," Edge said with a sigh, standing up and sauntering over to the dragoon. Judging by the blank look on Kain's face, he was lost in some sort of daze, and Rydia hoped that Edge could snap the other man to attention long enough to keep him with them—in spirit as well as body. Edge had a knack for irritating the dragoon in any case, and Rydia admitted that this was a job best suited to him.
"Rydia?" Rosa's voice called down to her. Rydia looked away from the tableau shaping up in front of her, and saw Rosa standing on the next ledge above her.
"Rosa?" she replied, not sure what else to say.
The white mage stepped down and took a seat on the cave floor beside her. She had a stern look on her face and there was a hint of worry in her eyes. For a moment, Rydia thought it had to do with Kain. She had wanted to keep that burden off of Rosa's shoulders for as long as possible, but now it seemed her plans and Edge's had been for naught.
"What is it?" Rydia asked after a few minutes had gone by and Rosa hadn't spoken.
"I've noticed that you spend a lot of time with Edge," Rosa began, looking Rydia in the eye a little awkwardly. "And I can't fault you for wanting to become more familiar with our newest companion," she added a little hurriedly, "But I just want to caution you. Don't always trust a man's intentions, Rydia. Some men pursue women for sport, and I don't want to see your heart toyed with. Not that I'm entirely certain of the prince's motives or his interests, but he's older than you; and, I think, knows more of the ways between men and women than you."
Rydia blushed red immediately. She hadn't ever thought of her interactions with Edge in any such way, but then her mind returned to the previous night and their talk by the fire. The way he'd touched her…. Her blush deepened. Had Rosa seen them?
"There's nothing—" Rydia stammered, embarrassed. "There's nothing like that between us."
Rosa looked at her frankly. "Guard your heart, Rydia. For now, that's all the advice I can give you."
"I'm not looking for that kind of friendship," Rydia shot back, a little incensed. "He's just been asking questions, and I happen to be the only available ear."
Rosa arched a brow. "And it has nothing to do with him always being near you in battle, or always being the one to offer you assistance?"
Rydia was becoming more flustered by the minute. "Perhaps he's just concerned," she sputtered, not sure why she was defending him when truthfully, she'd been wondering the same things. He had been straying to her side more often than usual, and he had been nearby whenever she had stumbled or fallen or needed help being pulled to her feet. Was it some sort of affection on his part? Her embarrassment turned into irritation.
"I appreciate the advice, Rosa," she told the other woman. "I'm alright, really."
Rosa studied her for a minute longer and then shifted her attention to Kain and Edge. "What is he doing now?" she asked, glaring at the prince.
The vacant look had fled Kain's eyes as he had turned to verbally spar with the ninja beside him. Edge seemed rather pleased with himself, and Rydia shook her head. "Being himself," she replied with an exasperated sigh.
"Time to move on," Cecil announced from above a short time later. Both women looked up at the paladin, prying themselves away from the cavern floor to stand up and follow him.
The path Cecil led them on became steeper and narrower, and it felt like they were journeying to the center of the earth. They finally reached a chamber that had been cut into the rock by what looked to be human hands—it had smooth sides and pillars set at regular intervals. There was a deep chasm that ran through the center of the room with a rope bridge that spanned across it.
"This looks like the end of the journey," Rosa said, relieved.
"Not quite," Edge added, pointing to the door that stood closed to them on the opposite side of the chamber.
There was groaning, but they marched forward anyway. They had already come this far, after all.
0-0-0
Fighting this door, for some reason, felt easier to Rydia than the battles that preceded it. She supposed it had something to do with the doors themselves becoming so much a part of their routine. Not a single one of them succumbed to the trap's perils; they had become too efficient for that. Instead, the door was torn asunder in a quick and relentless fashion, and all that was left of this long errand into the deep was to discover what the door had been protecting.
They stepped across the broken threshold and onto dazzling tile that reflected light from the outer room in prismatic colors. Once the five of them had stepped through, lights flared to life around the chamber. Rydia hadn't set foot in a crystal chamber since Fabul, and the scope of the room took her aback. It was wide and long, and in the center, the crystal dias shimmered like glass. A gleaming crystal sat at the top of the steps, a dark jewel with hues of burgundy and crimson. Unconsciously, they'd all stopped to stare.
"So that's what a crystal looks like," Edge quipped. "It's been so long, I'd nearly forgotten."
They all glared at him, but he shrugged innocently.
Cecil took a deep breath and walked to the dias, climbing the steps. "This is what we came for," he said, reaching down to take the crystal.
Once it was in his hands, the lights in the chamber extinguished themselves and the only source of light was the crystal itself.
"We should leave before Golbez decides to come in after us," Rosa said anxiously, leading the way out of the crystal chamber with quick steps and back to the rope bridge.
Rydia eyed the crystal Cecil was holding, thinking this had been too easy. For all of this cave's traps and perils, retrieving the crystal itself had been simple…
Moments later, she cursed herself for thinking such thoughts. The cavern began to rumble around them, the loose stones on the ground clattering into oblivion in the chasm beneath them. They ran for the rope bridge, but a sharp jolt in the bedrock snapped the bridge from its tethers on the opposite side of the room. The bridge fell limply against the cliff face nearest them, the dull clunks of wood echoing back at them.
"We can still use the ropes!" Edge shouted, but it did them little good trying to reach them with the rocks falling down from the ceiling and on either side of the room.
"Another trap?" Rosa nearly screamed.
"Go back to the crystal chamber!" Cecil shouted, and they all bolted for the doorway. They never reached it. Three violent tremors toppled the doorframe, burying it in a pile of boulders too massive to move.
They slid to a halt, hopping out of the way of falling debris.
"Cecil!" Rosa cried out as she dropped to the ground, pulling Rydia down with her.
Rydia shielded her face from a shower of stones and pebbles and searched for the source of Rosa's fear. At first, she thought it was just the rockslide Rosa had pulled her down to avoid, but when the dust shifted, she saw what had the white mage worried, and her own stomach dropped. A menacing figure was clawing its way toward them, half encased in solid rock and dragging its prison with it. It was part of the wall and it was the wall. Skeletal hands raked the air and dug into the stone floor, pulling and tearing itself toward the five humans.
"You have got to be kidding me," Edge muttered, seeing it at the same time.
"They've managed to enchant an entire wall?" Rosa said in disbelief, scrambling to her feet and readying her bow.
"It means to crush us here and stop us from escaping," Cecil growled, bringing his shield to bear.
"Easy to get in, difficult to get out," Edge intoned, avoiding another stone falling from the ceiling, "These dwarves have a twisted sense of humor."
"How do we stop it?" Rydia wanted to know, glancing behind them and seeing an insubstantial length of footing.
Cecil's gaze followed hers and then returned to the trap before them. "We break it down," he concluded a little reluctantly.
Break it down? Rydia wondered, staring the trap up and down, searching for some sort of weakness. The skeletal grin of the creature affixed to the rock was horrifying. She kept her eyes on it, at the deep sockets in its skull that glowed blue with enchantment and an ancient, cold menace. Its stone ribs protruded just enough for its arms to pivot in their shoulder joints, and the wall had crept just close enough to swipe at them with its sharp fingertips.
The creature attacked, and all of them threw themselves to the floor, avoiding a swipe that sliced through a section of the wall to their right, showering them with rocks.
Rydia was thinking, rapidly thinking, how to tear apart a solid wall of rock. She had none of the weapons that Cecil and Kain had for piercing, nor did she have Edge's skill for throwing. Leviathan would wash them all into the abyss, and fire would do nothing to the rock itself that magma already couldn't.
Cecil rushed forward, swinging an axe in his hand. He dodged the wall's reaching arm, and ducked beneath it, planting a firm hit where the creature was anchored to the rock. A sickening crunch resounded, like old bones breaking, and the creature bellowed, clutching at itself with both arms. Cecil quick-stepped and parried when the wall retaliated with a hissing screech, and was knocked to his knees. He crawled away through the creature's blind spot, as it groped for the stone floor for purchase, dragging itself forward.
Kain covered Cecil's retreat, a lance in his hands. He jabbed at the creature's breastbone, blocking the creature's arms while it lashed out at him. Edge, in turn, pelted the creature's ribs with darts, distracting the wall as flies distract a much larger beast.
This tactic proved successful for a few minutes, as the efforts of the three men had caused the wall to stay rooted in place. But another sudden tremor in the cavern caused Kain to stumble, and the creature took its chance, swatting the dragoon like he was made of air. The knight slammed into the adjacent wall, a few snaps and dull thuds accompanying the impact while he tumbled lifelessly to the ground.
Rydia trusted Rosa to set the dragoon to rights again, despite the damage she was sure he had just endured. She had worked out something of a plan, and as the creature continued to pull itself closer, and their room to move decreased, she knew she had to set it into motion.
She began to summon, stepping far back from the battle itself, and allowing herself time to concentrate.
She hadn't called upon Mist in a while, and she had forgotten how much she'd missed the feel of cold dew on her skin and the cold fury of mountain valley air. Every time she summoned the dragon of her home's namesake, she felt for a moment, that she was home.
Mist materialized beside her, nearly invisible in her concealing vapors. Ancient eyes looked at Rydia and then at the situation at hand.
What would you have me do? Rydia heard the question in her mind.
Drench every inch of rock, she answered.
Mist surged forward, her serpentine neck extended to show her open maw at its end. Cold mist poured forth, coating the wall before them with water, penetrating into even the slightest cracks. Rydia smiled grimly, hoping the next part of her plan would be as successful. She dismissed Mist to the Feymarch, and began another incantation. This one twisted ice and arctic air together into a single formidable attack. Rydia unleashed Blizzaga on the wall, and ever droplet of water left by Mist's attack crystallized, expanding in the cracks, and sloughing whole sheets of rock from the face of the wall. The creature screamed in fury, and Cecil ran forward again, taking the creature's distraction as his opening. He swung his axe at the creature's right arm, and found that it was so brittle from cold, that it snapped at the elbow joint; clattering to the cave floor.
Kain had been restored by Rosa's magic at this point, and had joined Cecil in the melee. The wall had become furious, lashing out wildly with its remaining arm at the both of them. Kain succeeded in gauging a deep hole in the creature's breastbone, cracking several ribs with it. The creature screamed, and raised its arm.
Rydia sensed it before she saw it—the salvo of rocks falling from the ceiling that the creature had summoned. A shout of warning had barely escaped her lips before one of the rocks struck Cecil's shoulder, and Rydia clenched her eyes shut at the sound of it, the horrible crack of bones, as he fell to the ground with a cry of pain.
Rosa was chanting again, and so was Rydia, trying her best to block out the sounds of Cecil's agonizing groans. She summoned Mist once more, halting the wall's advance with a sheet of frigid water that clung to it like early morning frost. Blizzaga was Rydia's second reply, and she focused the attack where she felt it would do the most damage—right at the heart of the creature. Its stone bones splintered and cracked, the collarbone slumping and the left shoulder joint bursting apart. The wall had nothing left but its fearsome skeletal face, and that, too Edge put an end to—picking up Cecil's fallen axe and throwing it with all his weight into the creature's skull. The axe wedged itself into the wall itself, crushing the creature's skull against it, and extinguishing the lights in its cruel eye sockets. With the creature's demise, the wall itself began to crumble, stones seeping from cracks like blood from a wound until the entire barrier shattered into dust.
The five of them coughed the dirt and debris from their mouths, and waited for the dust to settle before determining if the threat was truly gone. The cavern around them was still rumbling ominously and there were still stones shaking loose. Cecil was slowly climbing to his feet, almost gingerly, as if the pain from his crushed side was not totally forgotten despite Rosa's healing.
"Now what?" Kain asked grimly.
"Help me with these ropes," Edge ordered, striding over to the cliff's side and tugging at what remained of the rope bridge. Cecil and Kain seemed to catch on at once. The three of them pulled the ropes and the planks connected to it up onto the ledge. It was in disrepair, but as Rydia watched, she realized it wasn't the bridge that Edge wanted—but the ropes themselves.
None of this did much to instill any faith in her that they were going to escape this place alive. She still had the uncomfortable doubt that they would be trapped in this dark place forever.
Edge glanced up at her after a few minutes with a much put-upon expression on his face. "You could be helping us, you know," he informed her.
She arched a brow and frowned, disliking the bossiness in his tone. This was madness, anyway. Regardless, she did feel guilty about doing nothing, so she eventually knelt down beside them, inspecting the tangled mess that had become of the bridge.
"Start pulling out the planks," Cecil told her a little more gently.
She nodded, and assisted the men with whatever strange plan they'd hatched. Rosa also joined a few moments later, and after several minutes of swearing, tugging, and struggling with unruly knots, they had amassed a large coil of rope. Edge took two ends and began to measure lengths, doubling the rope back on itself a few times, and then slipping more rope in and around into intricate knots that Rydia had never seen before. When he was finished, they had a sturdy braid of rope with a large lasso at the end.
She watched as Edge then took the rope and found some space, tossing the end with the lasso so that it hooked around the remains of a pillar on the opposite side of the chasm. He cinched the rope tight, and then pulled hard, testing its strength. Satisfied, he then searched for something to anchor the rope to on their side of the room. Not much had survived the rock fall or the trap wall, but Edge managed to find a heavy enough rock embedded in the cave floor to tether their end of the rope. What first had appeared like a hopeless situation, now showed promise. They had a rope suspended across the gap that could bring them to safety.
Rydia sighed with relief, so glad that they wouldn't be entombed with the crystal all these miles south of sunlight.
"We can escape," Rosa said her thoughts aloud. "Where do we go from here?"
"To Giott," Cecil replied. "We undertook this mission for the dwarves; they can decide what's to be done with their crystal once we arrive."
Rydia looked at Cecil, and then her gaze fell on Kain. The dragoon was staring at the crystal in Cecil's keeping with a peculiar sort of eagerness. She blinked, and when she re-opened her eyes, Kain was looking at her instead, the former glint in his eyes erased. He shrugged at her, bewildered by her regard, and she wondered for a split-second if she'd seen anything at all. But she couldn't fight the cold feeling in her stomach—the feeling that told her something was wrong. She glanced at Edge, and the ninja had a grim expression on his half-covered face. His gray-blue eyes were issuing her a warning that she understood without him having to say a word.
Watch your back.
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A/N:
Just in time for the weekend!
Beastly. Bean sprouts. This chapter was a monster. 12k!
Thank you all for waiting—I know some of you have been waiting rather anxiously, lol. And from here…things start to get interesting :P
I tried to give you a longer update, though, since you had to wait another month, lol.
Multifan, I have not forgotten about the rat's tail! Never fear!
Thanks for reading and reviewing, everyone! You are all wonderful! I will probably begin drafting the next chapter this evening :)
~myth