A/N:
This chapter may make some of you squeal, shriek, cry, rage, or stomp out of the room…or do all of these things at once.
….I'm sorry.
Delay caused by the entire month of February, which has since been put down in my book as infamously stupid. If I never see a -50f temperature reading again…I will be a very happy person.
Shout-out to I'm_a_tumor for drawing an AMAZING illustration of a scene from last chapter. I may have been all sorts of squeal-y ;)
This chapter is…mid-length? Not as long as some, but long enough. You may want to set aside a block of time…lol.
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Reasonable Doubt
The path through the subterrane had been much clearer from Bahamut's back, but on foot, the walls of the maze closed in.
"We're lost again, aren't we?" Rosa asked, her eyes looking upward at the crystals that clung to the cavern ceiling like whiskers.
Rydia chewed on her lip, also studying the height of the ceiling and the curve of the path. "This was the only path in this direction," she said, flustered.
Kain looked at her calmly. "Do you need another lift?" he asked.
She stared at him for a moment, fighting the knee-jerk reaction to refuse his offer. But then there was Edge's dark glower boring into her shoulder blades that made her all the more inclined to accept.
"Yes," she replied, ignoring the derisive sound emitted from Edge's direction. "That would be helpful."
Kain crouched so that Rydia could climb onto his back, and then he took off, hurtling into the air without so much as a word.
The velocity stung Rydia's eyes, forcing her to close them. Only when she felt gravity take over, did she open them again, seeing that Kain had landed them on a ledge high above the others. She peered over his shoulders to glimpse where they were headed. It amazed her how, from a distance, the path became so obvious.
"You're going to drive him mad, by the way," Kain mentioned to her, as she mapped out a course in her head.
It took her a moment to focus on what he'd said. "What?" she asked.
"Edge," he said.
She rolled her eyes again. "Always Edge," she complained. "His issues with you are his, not mine."
"It's not solely me he has an issue with," Kain told her.
"Who, then?" she asked, raising a brow. "Me?"
Kain caught her glance out of the corner of his eye. "I know when I'm being used, Rydia," he informed her.
She frowned at him. "Used?" she asked. "You're the one who offered."
He chuckled. "I was extending a courtesy for the good of the group—you could have refused. Don't tell me you didn't accept my offer just to make him angry."
A fleeting smile graced her lips. "It's hard to resist," she admitted, her expression becoming thoughtful. "A little too easy."
"You two are such an odd pair," he muttered, helplessly shaking his head. "Watching you interact is a painful sight."
Rydia nearly released her grip on his shoulders and slipped. "What?" she asked. "We are not a pair," she retorted. "The only feelings I have toward him are loathing."
"So you loathe him, but you hate me," he observed. "Yet I can't help but notice that you're on my back, not his. So are you really going to tell me that your loathing is the more powerful of the two?
Rydia bit her own words, and suddenly wanted to be put back on solid ground. "You're not exactly an expert on feelings," she snapped. "Otherwise you would have confessed to Rosa a long time ago."
Kain fell ominously quiet. "You're right," he admitted, his voice lowering.
Rydia reddened, immediately wanting to retract what she'd said.
"I mean—that is—"
"No, you're right," he told her, sounding remorseful. "But," he began again, pausing to consider his next words. "I've learned more than anyone how unspoken words can harden into resentment."
Rydia went still, wondering what it would be like to care enough for someone, even love them, and then to watch that person choose someone else.
"Why didn't you say something?" she asked.
"I don't know," he replied slowly, as if wondering the same thing himself.
She sighed. "But there isn't anything to say to him," she said plaintively, returning to the original subject of their conversation.
Kain's shoulders shook, and Rydia wondered if he'd just stifled a laugh. "No, indeed?" he prodded.
"Well, you try getting anything out of him," she complained.
"He's opened up to you more than any of us," Kain told her.
Rydia frowned, perplexed. "By goading and deriding and being a fool?"
"I thought he was nothing but a brash idiot," Kain admitted, trying to fight the chuckle creeping into his voice. "But I've come to figure out that he's actually quite a bit better at his trade than I'd given him credit."
"His trade?" she prodded, hoping for more of an explanation.
"He's an excellent liar," Kain explained. "He's spent this entire time trying to take our measure while hiding his own."
"And has he?" she asked, finding herself annoyed.
Kain's tone was wry. "With you he seems to have a remarkably hard time hiding his cards."
"Me?" she asked.
"I won't put words into his mouth, but there are a few I suspect he should be saying," Kain replied.
"About what?" she pressed.
Kain leaned forward so that she would be forced to tighten her grip for their descent. "When you last asked him for advice, did he offer any?" he asked.
"He did," she admitted stubbornly, still not comprehending.
"Then there's your answer," he said, launching himself back into the air.
"That's not an answer," she complained as the wind began to whistle in her ears.
"He trusts you," he told her. "And the sooner you two find common ground, the better off we'll all be."
0-0-0-0-0-0
"Well?" Cecil asked once they'd landed and Rydia slipped from the dragoon's back, stepping away from him as if stung.
"Is this the right way?" Cecil repeated, her discomfort going unnoticed.
Rydia blinked; returning to the present, and nodding. "If we keep going to the right, we'll end up at a cross-way," she said.
"Are you sure?" she heard Edge ask. She glanced in his direction, finding that what Cecil had missed, he hadn't. His eyes were just as quickly on Kain as they were on her.
"I'm sure," she said flatly.
Edge shrugged, but Rydia noticed the lingering look of concern.
"Consider what I said," Kain told her quietly before he turned to lead the group down the path they'd decided upon.
The others followed but Rydia hung back, waiting until Edge was beside her.
"Say it," she goaded.
"Say what?" he returned, hardly looking at her.
"You don't like that I keep accepting Kain's help," she said.
He kept his eyes forward, his expression difficult to read. "Have you forgiven him yet? Or do you just enjoy listening to his sad stories?"
She frowned at him, pinning him with a wary look. "I listen to your sad stories," she pointed out.
He laughed through his nose. "At least mine are genuine," he said.
"What are you so worried about?" she wondered aloud. "That this is something else I don't have under control?"
"Have you ever—" he began and then stopped.
"What?" she insisted, not letting him wriggle out of answering.
"—thought that maybe he's using you," he finished uncomfortably.
"Me," she repeated. "Using me?"
"To get at Rosa," he said.
She looked away, trying not to burst out in laughter. "To get back at—that's ridiculous," she scoffed.
"Why not?" he wanted to know.
Now Rydia did laugh. "And here he was telling me how I was using him."
Edge stopped walking. "What?" he demanded, sounding baffled.
She narrowed her eyes at him, dismissively shaking her head. "Just a theory he had."
"What theory," he said, scowling.
She tossed her hair and started walking again. "That you take things too seriously," she said, leaving him behind.
"He's a wanted man in all the kingdoms, but I'm the one who takes things too seriously," he muttered as he followed her.
Rydia smirked, overhearing him; but her smirk quickly dipped into a frown. The number of people who had been referring to them as a "pair" had been on the rise lately.
Kain hadn't been the first to suggest it. There had been Rosa and also Astrid….
Rydia glanced at Edge over her shoulder, wishing she could make sense of all the advice she'd been given concerning him over the last few months. She sighed, looking ahead again, deciding that the puzzle of her magic was more than enough. For now, at least.
0-0-0-0-0-0
It wasn't long before Cecil held up his hand, bringing them to a stop. Rydia glanced at him. Either he'd heard something, or he had become overly adept at reading the caves.
Edge stepped around her with one sword drawn, placing his feet expertly so as not to make a sound.
The air was thick with magic, and Rydia slipped the Stardust rod from her back, curling her fingers around it. She felt as though the rod was a breaker against the sea, waves crashing against it and leaving calm waters behind. It was comforting to not be buffeted by the nauseating presence of magic that was not her own, but that was only half of her battle. She had yet to learn how to quell the storm of the magic within her.
"Seems to be a lot of them," Edge muttered after taking a moment to focus on the path ahead.
Kain looked at the ninja. "No going around, then?"
"Not unless-" Edge said, suddenly fixing his eyes on Rydia.
She stared back at him. "Not unless what?" she asked.
"You were able to slip us past them with your magic," he suggested, placing the idea forward as a challenge.
She stiffened, her eyes flitting from his to Cecil's.
Cecil looked back at her coolly. "I'm not interested in being at the mercy of that spell again."
Rydia swallowed hard at finding his trust still bruised. She supposed she couldn't blame him.
"I wouldn't chance it anyway, not knowing where we'd end up," she said instead, looking at Edge. "It's not just about our safety-"
"So much as your concentration," Edge hinted with a note of amusement.
She glanced at him, irritated. "Are you testing me?" she wondered.
"Consider it training," he replied. "Your magic's been shy lately."
She hooked a brow and followed him with her eyes, chagrined that her reluctance hadn't gone unnoticed.
Edge strode forward with fluid steps, but before he could scout the passage, Cecil pulled him aside, looking serious.
"I'm trusting you not to poke the nest with a stick this time," Cecil warned him, earning only a nod before the ninja slunk away like a ghost.
"Rydia, you're sure we're on the right path?" Rosa asked, looking at her.
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Rydia complained, frowning.
"I'm just weary of fighting," Rosa admitted, placing her hands on her hips while they waited for Edge to return.
It was several minutes before Edge did appear again, hardly making any sound as he crept around a pile of fallen pillars.
The look on his face was grim.
"How many are there?" Cecil asked, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
Edge frowned. "Do you remember when we walked into that pair of manticores in the Sealed Cave?" he asked.
Cecil's own frown deepened. "I do."
"This is worse," Edge deadpanned.
Kain shifted his weight from one leg to the other, exuding impatience. "Are you going to elaborate?"
"Dragons," Edge snapped. "Different than the others."
"Dragons," Rydia repeated to herself, the Wyvern still fresh in her mind.
"Their magic is…" he made a face. "Strange," he concluded. "They may be more of a problem to outrun."
"So we fight," Kain suggested, unbothered by the notion.
"This will be more your fight than anyone's," Edge informed him, slipping a shorter blade from a sheath on his thigh.
Rydia raised another brow at the ninja, surprised by how many places he'd found to strap weapons to his body.
"How so?" Kain asked.
"They prefer the air."
Kain grinned. "My kind of battle, then."
Edge nodded, turning his attention to Cecil. "Ragnarok is a powerful sword, but you won't have much of an opportunity to use it."
Cecil pursed his lips. "Are you saying I won't be able to keep up?"
Edge shrugged. "You're not exactly light-footed," he said.
"They're that quick?" Cecil pressed.
"They're not skeletal husks, they're full-blooded dragons. Yes, they're quick," Edge answered briskly. "You could slip past with Rosa and Rydia if Kain and I offer a distraction."
Cecil sighed. "Why do I feel more of a human shield?" he complained.
"You're good at it," Edge remarked.
"You never did say how many," Kain reminded him.
Edge crossed his arms, twirling the dagger casually in his one hand. "Four," he answered. "Two pairs, and they practically reek of Lunarian meddling."
Rydia found her interest captured at that. "Lunarian meddling?" she asked.
Edge made another face. "Their magic feels wrong. Off. As if they were some form of experiment—like everything else in this place."
Rydia bristled, realizing that there was a good chance they were some form of experiment. One of Zemus' unsanctioned projects.
"Their roost isn't far, and it looks like the passage narrows farther on," Edge said, giving Cecil a brief appraisal.
"How far of a sprint is it?" the paladin asked.
Edge bobbed his head to the side as he considered the distance. "If you can stay out of their reach and run fast, you could get behind them. But that's if they choose not to use magic, and something tells me they will."
Edge then looked at Rydia. "You'll need to cover the retreat," he said.
Rydia felt her heart drop into her stomach. She hadn't been eager to practice with the Stardust rod since Bahamut, and didn't feel equal to the task so soon.
"What, you can't take on all four by yourself?" she joked with a fleeting smile, hoping to deflect responsibility from herself.
Edge frowned at her, and she instantly knew her ploy had failed.
"Pull yourself together," he said, annoyed, and then nodded again to Cecil. "How would you like to do this?"
"Advance with caution," Cecil replied, drawing his sword. "I'll follow until you and Kain create your diversion."
"Well, Highwind?" Edge prodded with a sharp look.
The dragoon followed Edge to the front of the group, putting his shield aside and drawing his sword instead.
Rydia walked behind them at a distance. Each of her steps felt weighted and she kept a white-knuckled grip on the rod in her hand, trying to prepare her mind for another encounter with the ravenous will of the Lunar crystals.
0-0-0-0-0
"Where are they?" Rosa asked a short distance later, her eyes searching the irregular cavern walls and seeing nothing.
Rydia looked as well, and despite feeling the presence of magic, couldn't find its source .
"They're here," Edge hissed back, keeping a careful eye on the steep wall to their right.
"Maybe they won't realize we're here," Rydia said hopefully.
"They know we're here," Edge replied, dashing her hopes. "They're watching us."
Rydia flicked her gaze to the cavern wall on their left, with its pillars that rose at least a hundred feet into the air. She thought she caught a glimpse of gold amidst the crystalline blue, but it was gone just as soon as she'd imagined it.
"Kain," Edge called out from ahead.
Rydia glanced in his direction and practically stumbled over her own feet. A head, long and whiskered like a lion's, had slithered out of a crevice ahead of them; examining them with its impressive silver eyes. The dragon's scales were silver hued; blending in almost seamlessly with the crystals around it. The dragon hadn't yet decided if they were worth the trouble of leaving its perch, but it flicked its serpentine tongue at the five of them instead, taking in their scent.
Kain looked ready to leap if necessary, but for a long minute no one moved.
"Where are the other three?" Cecil whispered.
"Keep going," Edge advised, cautiously moving toward the dragon.
Rydia's feet felt leaden as she followed his advice, watching the dragon with as much interest as it watched her.
The dragon rose as they drew nearer, craning its neck to scrutinize them from a higher vantage point. A low rumble escaped its throat, a growl of authority.
Edge quickened the pace of the group, leading them abreast of the dragon.
It began to bob its head, making a plaintive sound.
"It's calling to its mate," Edge said, starting to run.
Rydia felt her lungs begin to burn, tired from already having worked so hard, as her legs propelled her forward.
"Was your plan just to run?" Cecil huffed out between strides.
"We have to put some distance between them and the next cavern. There's no place to make a stand, here. We need to restrict their movements," Edge called back, his words coming easily as if he wasn't sprinting at full speed.
Rydia sensed a gust of wind from behind, and glanced to see that the silver dragon had decided to pursue them, rising into the air like a serpent. She yelped, picking up her pace.
But it wasn't attacking—why?
"There are the other three!" Cecil shouted, looking up.
And then Rydia saw them—the silver dragon's mate, and another pair altogether. They descended from the ceiling, flying without wings. Two gold, one silver.
In their presence, Rydia suddenly understood what Edge had meant. These dragons were unnatural—they didn't have the feelof dragons—they felt like manufactured facsimiles.
The dragons circled overhead, clicking and chirping to each other in a language only they understood.
Edge cut a path through the uneven trail, finding ways to gain ground with the least amount of effort.
Meanwhile, Rydia's mind flipped through pages of spells, remembering the flicker of symbols and the sound of the crinkling vellum, until she settled on the spell she desired. No sooner had her mind chosen a spell, that words began to fill the cracks between her thoughts. She sighed, knowing that the crystals were already playing tricks on her.
"Now!" Edge cried out, pointing a route to Cecil as he broke away from the group and bounded over pillars and terrain.
Kain had also split off, leaping high into the air, seeking purchase in the higher reaches of the cavern.
Rydia noticed that at least two of the dragons had taken the bait, but a pair continued to follow the main group as they ran, nearly tripping over their own feet in their hurry.
There was a narrow passage ahead, and if they could at least get to there, they could mount an adequate defense.
Magic exploded overhead, an attack meant for Kain as he leapt from perch to perch, leading one dragon on an aerial pursuit.
Shards of crystal fell to the ground, showering them with dust—until a larger crystal fell, missing them by inches as it speared the cavern floor and cracked the ground wide open.
Rydia tightened her grip on the rod in her hand, forcing herself to concentrate on two things at once—on the memory she'd chosen as the anchor for her spell and on the words forming on her tongue.
It took all her concentration not to trip as she focused her thoughts on the crest of the rod; feeling sweat bead down her temple. When she finally spoke the words, channeling them through the rod at the dragon flying just beyond her shoulder, nothing happened. There was no easing of her burden, no lightening of her thoughts. She felt the crystals begin to expand their will on her spell, searching for more fuel to burn, until the spell fluctuated and twisted; unexpectedly backfiring.
Rydia gasped, feeling a furious fever take hold. Her head instantly throbbed and her muscles were wracked with painful spasms.
Shivering, she glanced up as Rosa fired an arrow into the scaly hide of the golden dragon, rushing forward to fill the gap she'd created with her collapse. The dragon coiled and leapt from one perch to another, no longer flying, as Kain intervened from above, distracting the other pursuing silver dragon with a pass close to its nose.
It hadn't worked, Rydia fumed, her head still spinning. Why had it worked with Bahamut, but not now?
She was yanked brusquely to her feet and held there. She glimpsed Cecil beside her, and nodded, knowing it was too early to give up.
The three of them continued to run, and this time Rydia sought out a different spell. Thundaga. Perhaps this time she would be able to wrangle her memory into a suitable form. There was no alternative. It was impossible not to trance this deep in the subterrane, and without the intermediary of the rod, Rydia knew she would succumb to her magic long before the dragons themselves.
She tried to infuse her will against the will of the crystals, tried to see Mist and manipulate her emotions, focusing her thoughts on a fixed point on the rod…until she felt it begin to run rampant once more. Her fever had weakened her ability to concentrate, let alone function adequately, and she abandoned the spell before it had even begun.
More explosions of magic sizzled across the cavern air. Electricity flickered against crystal facets, illuminating the cavern with a multitude of lights.
Through the dull roar of her thoughts, Rydia sensed Edge's magic, quick and wild like a summer storm behind her; but she chose not to pay attention to the dragons behind them, and pay attention instead to Cecil and the narrow passage ahead.
By now, her fever had advanced, and she tripped, too drained of energy to get up again. Cecil and Rosa hadn't realized she'd gone down, leaving her for safer ground, as she gazed bleakly at the cavern ceiling.
She saw one of the silver dragons leap from a precipice above her, spiraling headlong toward the ground. Rydia watched in despair, preparing to be devoured, when a sword came hurtling through the air and struck the dragon in its jaw; sending it wildly off-course and causing it to collide with the cavern floor some thirty feet from where she lay.
The dragon writhed and tossed, its tail beating against the crystals as it tried to right itself, shrieking.
Kain landed nearby, not allowing the dragon to regain its balance. He retrieved his weapon and leapt again, aiming for the creature's sinuous neck. Silver blood spilled in rivers to the floor, and the dragon roared, thrashing as it tried to bite the accursed dragoon.
Kain struck again until the dragon finally went still; its great eyes closing as its blood flowed freely over crystal.
Rydia gaped at Kain, out of breath and dizzy from her own spell gone awry, and got to her feet again.
He tossed something to her, and she caught it with a great deal of fumbling as he took back off into the air.
She stared at the item in her hands, realizing at once what it was. She removed the stopper from the phial and downed the liquid over tongue and throat. Subtle magic woven into the components of the phial began to undo the effects of her poorly contrived spell; removing illness and pain and restoring her body to its natural state.
She looked up, noticing that there were only two dragons she could see. Out of the original four, Kain had dispatched one, but the other….
Rydia, didn't feel like finding out as she took off again at a run, leaving the corpse of the silver dragon behind her.
She approached the narrow mouth of the next passage, seeing Rosa and Cecil standing there. She was close—so close she was a stone's throw away—but the glittering scales of a golden dragon flew between herself and the opening, cutting her off from her escape.
She stumbled as the dragon glided past, its tail flicking mere inches from her nose.
Thoughts of magic returned, and her mind flitted back to Mist and her mother, the memory that had spared her from the Wyvern. She would make her words and thoughts align again.
Sounds of battle drew nearer, as she clung to her memory like an anchor in the sea, just as Edge had advised. She focused on Thundaga for a second time, willing for the spell to cooperate.
She almost had it—the power she required in the form that she'd demanded. But it was more—more than she'd meant, another miscalculation.
The spell began to fluctuate again and she frowned, unable to stop herself even if she wanted to. The dragons were circling closer, their magic humming on the air and raising the hair on her head and arms. Subduing the spell was like trying to capture the tide, and Rydia knew she couldn't hold on for much longer, clenching her eyes shut in the final seconds.
Suddenly a hand batted the rod forcefully from her fingers and her eyes flew open, the spell half-formed. It left her lips, in a voice that hardly sounded like her own; still potent enough to blaze through the air and shatter fissures into the cavern ceiling in spectacular fashion.
The spell had missed its intended target, and the dragon that flew toward her now, opened its mouth as if to laugh, its whiskers glowing with magic. Its own lightning formed out of nothing, raining down in painful, blistering torrents.
The spell struck Rydia to the ground, paralyzing her and the person beside her. Kain or Edge, she wasn't sure.
This was it, then, she thought; her muscles, seized, and her body, immobile.
The dragon lunged, but the portion of the ceiling that Rydia's spell had broken, fell just then to the ground. A jagged stalactite, like a giant's dagger, bore into the dragon's spine behind its skull. The creature had no time to save itself, as it was driven into the ground and pinned there—the life crushed out of it.
Arrows sang overhead, aimed at the last remaining dragon, and Rydia watched helplessly; the paralysis slowly giving way to pins and needles. She heard Kain's sword clang against hardened scales, and the screech of fury when Rosa's arrows struck softer flesh. The Artemis bow she had found certainly had an aim that was true.
Rydia was furious, finding she had been useless for this battle, too; still unable to get up.
She heard the final dragon crash to the ground some distance away, and pushed herself up to sitting with mostly numb arms.
Edge was beside her, kneeling as he too recovered from the dragon's magic.
"Why did you do that?" She demanded, glaring at him.
He glanced briefly in her direction. "You were about to lose control," he scolded.
"Because you caused me to," she yelled back, unsteadily climbing to her feet.
"I'm pretty sure the magic is not supposed to do that to you," he pointed out, nodding to her arm.
She frowned, examining the arm in question. Her armlet and robe were singed from the dragon's spell, but beneath those, she felt her skin itch uncomfortably. She pulled up her sleeve and saw, with no small amount of horror, that her arm had dried and cracked like scorched earth. It was almost as if the Stardust rod had been a torch she'd been holding and she hadn't even noticed when it began to burn the length of her arm. She sighed.
"Why didn't it work," she muttered to herself, staring at the rod as if it had betrayed her; trying not to think about the numbness that remained in her ruined arm.
Edge looked at her placidly. "It was never supposed to be easy," he told her, also standing up.
She glared at him.
"I'm not trying to undermine you," he said exasperatedly.
"Why is it so much easier for Rosa to control her magic?" she complained. "Why couldn't she have inherited the magic of the dragons."
Edge looked at her peculiarly, deciding to ignore her last.
"Don't count out its effects on Rosa," he told her. "White and black magic manifest differently. It would make sense that they would affect you differently."
"I don't understand," she replied, still annoyed. "I did exactly what you'd said. I chose my memory—I used it to channel my spell."
A frown flickered across his brow. "The same memory as before?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yes, why?"
He sighed at her, briefly looking at where Kain was retrieving his weapon, as if to be sure the last dragon was truly downed.
"You can't use the same memory twice, Rydia," he said, looking back at her.
She stared at him as Rosa approached.
"It's the most powerful memory I have," she protested.
"Are the two of you alright?" Rosa asked, stepping into the middle of their conversation.
"Fine," Edge answered distractedly, still looking at Rydia. "Because no two doors can have the same key," he said in a lower tone.
"Why didn't you tell me that to begin with?" Rydia demanded, still ignoring the white mage.
"Rydia," Rosa finally said, taking hold of her wrist.
Rydia hissed with surprise at the touch, feeling tremendous pain shoot from her wrist to her shoulder.
"And there's my answer," the white mage muttered, speaking quiet incantations to heal the summoner's wounds after she had taken a moment to inspect them.
Rydia sighed, watching Rosa at work out of the corner of her eye.
"I did," Edge said finally, talking around Rosa. "I said anchors, not anchor. You don't use the same words for each spell, why would you use the same memory?"
Rydia pursed her lips and noticed that Rosa had already stopped chanting and that full feeling had been restored to her arm. She flexed her fingers experimentally.
"What is going on between you two?" Rosa asked, looking at each of them in turn.
Rydia angrily strode past Rosa. "Ninjas," she retorted over her shoulder.
Rosa placed her gaze on Edge. "What did you say, now?" she asked.
Edge shrugged. "The truth."
0-0-0-0-0
Rydia racked her brain, not saying a word to Edge as she mulled over his last advice. Of course, no two memories were the same as any two spells. How had she been so stupid?
But she had no other memories she considered more powerful, more pivotal, than Mist. If she couldn't shackle her less powerful spells, what would it possibly take to harness the most powerful spell of all?
"We've reached another cross-way," Cecil called out from ahead.
Rydia looked up, not realizing that she had been staring at the cavern floor. She glanced around, trying to remember if it was the path to the center or the left that they were meant to take. Her conversation with Kain had colored that memory with irritating details, and she sloughed them away to pinpoint the direction of the true path.
"The left," she said, with some hesitation.
Cecil accepted her direction with a raised brow and checked ahead to be sure. "There seem to be stairs," he called back, gesturing.
They all followed, climbing down chiseled steps in the cavern floor and crawling over pillars that looked like they had been purposefully toppled. The ceiling began to close in around them, as the path tunneled deeper instead of meandering endlessly.
"How far did Bahamut take you, exactly?" Edge inquired, helping to hoist Rydia over one of the more troublesome fallen pillars.
"I'm not sure, but these caverns stretch on for miles," she replied, noticing his sudden goodwill.
"You'd think the Lunarians would have built a system to reach the core more quickly," the ninja complained.
"They probably did," Cecil mentioned from ahead. "But that would mean only one of us could use it."
Rydia flicked a quick look in Cecil's direction. "The Lunarian technology only answers to Lunarians," she recalled.
"Or half-Lunarians," Cecil said stiffly, assisting Rosa with a steep drop in the floor. "In the meantime, we're stuck going the long way around."
"They must have reached the core days ago," Kain pointed out. "Would we have known if they'd failed by now?"
Cecil shrugged. "This dark presence would suggest they haven't succeeded."
Rosa glanced at the group, noticing the tired gaits of her companions.
"We should stop for a while," Rosa said, placing her hand on Cecil's arm.
Cecil didn't seem pleased by the idea, eager as he was to keep going, but Rosa's look brooked no argument. He surveyed the walls around them, searching for a good place to rest. The walls were riddled with pockets and nooks from whatever process had formed them, and Cecil walked until he found one that looked large enough to house the five of them.
"I'll take the first watch," the paladin told them, guiding them off the main path and into a chamber that was more nook than anything.
Cecil paused at its entrance, and Rydia squeezed past him into the narrow opening, scraping her cheek on a sharp jut of crystal before finally pulling herself through to a wider stretch of the tunnel. Once she was standing inside the tiny chamber, she realized they had stumbled across a small wonder. Miniature crystal chandeliers grew from the ceiling of a small dome. Some of them glowed under their own power, shedding a pale gleam to everything beneath.
As she stood there, staring, she was taken aback when Rosa was suddenly at her side, swiping at her cheek with a finger.
Rydia glanced at the other woman, and then noticed the smudge of blood on Rosa's thumb.
She frowned and dabbed at her cheek. "Am I bleeding?" she asked.
Rosa's smile was fleeting. "You'll live," she said, and then paused, giving Rydia a shrewd look.
"What is it?" Rydia asked, alarmed by Rosa's regard.
"Meteor," the white mage said gravely.
Rydia blanched and looked away, feeling a strange numbness extend down to her fingertips. "It's still there," she admitted, poking at her head.
"Holy has been on my mind often enough," Rosa said quietly. "I can't imagine how the black arts are affecting you. Doesn't it drive you mad, always hearing it?"
Rydia glanced furtively at Rosa and then remembered the rod on her back, tucked between her shoulder blades.
"That's what the rod is for—for control," she answered, realizing for the first time that whenever it was in her hand, thoughts of Meteor became insubstantial and distant.
Rosa's eyes wandered to the amber jewel in the rod's crest. "Each time I think I understand it, I'm shown how much I don't know," she said absently. "The Lunarians put so much thought into this magic, so much nuance; but I think at last that I know Holy's purpose."
Rydia waited expectantly, seeing the faraway look in Rosa's brown eyes.
"It undoes beings bound together by magic," Rosa said eventually. "It divides each thread until they're laid bare; or, like a prism separating light."
It made sense, Rydia thought. White magic could undo time, could undo injury and illness, so for it to be able to reduce other magicks to their simplest elements, made perfect sense. Her own magic on the other hand….was like gathering chaos.
"It's a heavy burden to have this spell, and Meteor is the greatest of them all," Rosa told her quietly.
"You're worried it's going to do to me what it did to Tellah," she said.
"This magic is beyond us, admit it" Rosa said. "I feel like a child who's been entrusted to secrets she has no business keeping."
A fleeting smile flitted across Rydia's lips. Rosa had just explained her predicament perfectly. Even with the Stardust rod and Edge's advice, it felt as though the world and its mysteries were slipping away from her.
She hadn't been able to successfully train her thoughts to subdue her magic, though the rod had mitigated some of the danger. The mental drain still left her exhausted and irritable. And then there was Meteor, a song being written on the pages of her mind; taught to her subconscious by crystals belonging to a race from the stars.
"When it comes down to it," Rydia said hesitantly. "When the time comes for Meteor to be used, I won't let myself be pulled under."
"Does it have to be used at all?" Rosa asked.
Rydia's eyes fell to the ground between them. "I hope not."
Rosa smiled wanly. "You think that rod can help you…?"
"Edge gave me some advice on that subject."
"Edge gave useful advice?" Rosa asked jokingly, glancing at the ninja who was discussing something with Kain at the entrance of the tiny chamber, no doubt arranging the order of watches.
Rydia looked at him, feeling unusually grateful. "Sometimes, apparently."
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
It had been several hours that Rydia had been lying down, unable to sleep. Edge was sitting nearby, and she could hear him rearranging his pack, trying his best not to be heard.
She frowned, not able to ignore the sound, and not able to force her racing mind to sleep. Instead, her fingers drifted over the beaded belt at her waist, the ends of its strands resting beside her on the cold ground. The mystery behind the beads was finally enough to get her to sit up, her fingers holding onto one small bead in particular; one that Edge had given her.
"Which memory is this?" she asked, holding up the pale blue bead from her waist.
Edge seemed surprised that she was awake, but gave a perfunctory glance at the object in her hand.
"If I tell you, it'll lose its power," he remarked, still rummaging through his pack.
"Is that the truth, or are you lying to me again?" she asked, turning it on the thread.
He sighed, annoyed that he had awakened her and was now the target of her questions. "Consider it a little bit of both," he answered.
She stared back at the bead and frowned. "It worked, you know. That one time."
He nodded, remembering. "But not the others."
"No," she admitted, chewing the inside of her lip. "The memory didn't have the same power as before."
"As I said—no two doors can have the same key. It's become fixed," he said simply. "It belongs to Bahamut now."
She paused, glancing at him. "Belongs to him?"
He looked reluctant to explain. "That emotion, that memory. If it's what drew Bahamut to you, it will always and only be that memory that calls him forth."
She straightened. "Am I going to lose my memories?" she asked, alarmed.
"Not lose—dull them, maybe."
She stared at him, noticing the distant look in his eyes before he distracted himself with his weaponry. "Who did you give up?" she asked.
He looked up at her with a tight, rueful smile. "That blue bead."
She looked again at the bead she'd held up. It was small and well-worn. One that had been kept close.
"Is that why you prefer to stay detached?" she inquired.
"It's easier," he admitted, preoccupied with pulling off his gloves and cinching his pack closed.
She fell silent.
"Some might call it a form of healing, separating yourself from your past," he went on, inspecting his bloodied knuckles and dabbing salve onto them.
"Does it always have to be…" she began, trailing off as she watched his hands. "A painful memory?"
He shook his head. "No," he said. "In fact, the memory for the bead you're holding was a happy one. Once."
Rydia exhaled slowly, and then found herself wondering how much else she could learn from him.
"How young were you—when you first began your training?" she asked curiously.
He looked at her sideways. "Trying to learn more of the secrets of my people," he mused. "Nice try, but no."
She frowned at him. "You've already broken enough of your own rules, why not this one? You always do this," she said, pursing her lips.
He studied her shrewdly, then chuckled. "Look at you, taking me at my own words. I kept asking you to bend rules and here you are doing it. You remind me of my mother," he laughed.
She was so startled, she rocked back on her heels. "What?"
He grinned at her. "She also had a penchant for bending rules," he explained.
"Is that what made Mysidia such a poor fit for her?" she asked, taking a chance at revisiting the topic that so often ended in silence.
Edge rested his chin on his steepled fingers, and considered her—how much he was willing to tell her. "It's what drove her away."
Rydia screwed her face into a curious expression. "But why Eblan? Of all the places to go, why there?"
He shrugged. "She was in search of answers for a power that threatened to consume her."
"Did she find them?" she asked quietly, afraid to meet his eyes.
"I like to think so," he answered, looking back at her calmly. "She didn't speak much about the life she'd left behind, but she brought her penchant for rule-breaking with her. She was never satisfied with things as they were."
"So that's where you get it from," she joked, getting him to crack another smile.
"I'm still not telling you," he reminded her. "My people keep some secrets for a reason."
"I thought I was 'one of your own'," she said airily.
He tilted his head at her, nodding. "For now."
"Be honest with me," she said instead, dredging up another question that hadn't been answered to her satisfaction. "Why is it always me? You've fed me all sorts of excuses, but what's the real answer?"
He took a breath, looking harried. "Because of the two of us," he paused, scowling, as if what he had to say pained him. "You're the more valuable."
"You said mages were useless," she pointed out, feeling vindicated.
"I lied."
She scoffed, and folded her arms. "Why do you have to be so patronizing about it?" she muttered.
He looked at her sharply, saying nothing, and she narrowed her eyes at him.
"Me protecting you isn't what bothers you, is it?" he asked. "You'd rather not have to be protected at all."
She opened her mouth and closed it again, flustered. Finally, she sighed. "If it wasn't you, it would be someone else," she confided, the words falling flat to her ears.
"You're not that useless," he pointed out, confused. "You're a little more frightening than you were before, but—"
"I shouldn't have to hide behind others," she interrupted him. "Not like I have my entire life."
" You were a child, then," he argued.
She laughed. "Yet even now, I can't control this magic let alone save any of us with it. It's not enough."
He stared at her. "Stop whining about things beyond your control and accept help for the things you can control," he told her.
She snorted. "Again, backhanded advice from you."
"Did you expect anything else?" he remarked. "If you didn't want the truth, you shouldn't have asked."
She sighed and leaned back, gazing at him calmly. "You're right," she relented. "I think I'm just shocked that you've actually been honest with me."
"Must be this place," he said, sounding resigned. "Or you."
"Me?" she pressed. "Because you've finally decided you trust me?"
He gave her a quick look. "You thought I didn't trust you?"
"Was there another reason for you treating me like a fool?" she asked. "Or needling me for information; disguising it as some weird form of brotherly affection?"
He blinked at her. "Brotherly…" he muttered to himself, his brow furrowed.
"What?" she asked, not expecting him to look so offended.
He schooled his expression. "I trust you, Rydia," he said seriously.
She frowned at him. "Then why the games?"
"You took some figuring out," he rebutted.
She crossed her arms again, looking to the side. "And it's not that I'm lonely," she added stubbornly.
He raised his brows at her. "No?"
"But I think I understand…" she said, slowly gaining confidence.
He scrutinized her, waiting for her conclusion.
"That you'd treat me like a younger sister," she decided with a shrug. "Someone to protect."
She caught his eye, and saw an expression bordering on dismay that she chose to ignore. For all their past conversations and for all the grief he'd caused her, she preferred their relationship this way. Defined in such a way as made sense to her.
"Rydia—" he began, looking at her cautiously.
She waited.
He frowned, as if he couldn't force words out of his mouth. Finally, he shook his head. "Cecil's watch is over," he said, standing up. "Stop thinking about magic and go to sleep," he told her quietly.
She watched him step over Rosa's sleeping form and then Kain's, before finally curling into her sleeping mat and rolling the small blue bead between her fingers.
She closed her eyes; trying to memorize its smoothness and shape, and wondering whose memory it signified. Who it was that Edge had loved enough to both hold on to and let go….
0-0-0-0-0
(Kain)
It had been hours since Kain had relieved Edge of his watch, taking over the night's duties.
The dragoon stared into the long cavern passage, careful to remain concealed with no wards to protect them. His sword lay across his knees, ready for battle. His eyes however, betrayed his exhaustion. They were heavy and dark with the burden of deep thoughts.
The presence of Zemus was like being confronted with a wall. A wall made up of bricks he had constructed himself out of his failures and doubts; a wall mortared with regret. Kain had thought answering for his crimes in Mysidia would be torment enough to live with, but this was far worse. He was reminded, always, of the friendships he had ruined and a life he would now never have. Perhaps this was where his path was meant to end….
He heard a rustle of clothing, and glanced up to see Rosa standing behind him looking equally tired.
He tried to smile, but the gesture was feeble.
"I thought I might relieve you," she said quietly.
He stood up, his knees cracking in protest. "We meant for you and Rydia to recover your strength," he contradicted with a wince.
She raised both brows, nodding knowingly to his knees. "But you seem to need it more, and I can't sleep anyway," she said.
He looked past her, thinking fleetingly of sleep, and had to look twice when he saw how the sleeping arrangements had shifted.
"Do you think they know?" Kain asked, as he nodded to the odd couple sleeping side by side. Rydia's face was pressed against Edge's shoulder blades, exhausted. Had either of them been awake, this would have been cause for alarm.
Rosa smiled, glancing back at them. "No, I don't believe they do," she answered, her smile slowly dipping into a frown.
Kain glanced at the white mage and saw the worry lines on her face. She surprised him by looking back; meeting his gaze and holding it. "We've been through a lot," she said after a moment's consideration.
Kain felt rooted where he was, unable to pry his eyes from hers. "We have," he conceded, and then licked dry lips. "I'm sorry…for my part."
"You haven't been able to look me in the eyes since Zot," she observed quietly.
Kain swallowed, sensing that he was being tested. "Golbez knew my weaknesses—knew exactly which wounds to salt."
"Is that what I am to you—a weakness?" she asked.
Kain turned the question over in his mind; considering the danger of answering. "You had to know," he said, putting some distance between himself and the camp.
"If you had feelings for me you should have said so," she said reproachfully, following him. "You were a friend; Cecil's best friend."
"Cecil treated you poorly," Kain retorted, turning. "You worried and fawned over him, and for that, he left you behind. If it were up to him, you wouldn't be here now."
"It wasn't always that way," she protested.
"It was when he picked up the dark sword."
"And was your version of love any better?" she asked. "To place me on a pedestal to be admired and kept?"
Kain clenched his jaw and stood, taking a few slow steps away. "This is the impression you have of me?"
"Is it wrong?"
"Rosa, I admit there were things that I said in Zot," he began and paused when his tongue felt too thick to form words. "Things that were never meant to be said."
"They had still been on your mind."
" If your mind had no filter, I wonder what words would tumble out," he replied. "No one is completely above reproach; not even Cecil."
"And you wonder how I made my choice," she criticized, appearing on the verge of leaving. "This bitterness, this competition, has poisoned whatever might have been for us. Even when you 'had' me, I was locked in a cell and not in your arms."
Kain stared at a space on the ground between them, until her words stirred him into action and drove him forward. He took a step toward her and then another, pausing when he noticed something out of place. He reached out and took a lock of her hair in his palm. The strands had lost their golden luster and faded to dull silver. How had he never noticed it before?
He glanced at her, worriedly. "It's aging you," he said, and saw the same worry mirrored back in her eyes.
She smiled wanly. "There's always a cost," she said.
"Like words left unspoken too long," he realized, frowning.
She gazed up at him, unmoving despite his closeness. The silence felt like it stretched interminably, and his fingers twitched, wanting to be closer still.
He was hesitant at first, his fingers slowly trailing through her hair until he grew bolder and slipped his hand to rest at the back of her head. She said nothing, did nothing—watching him. He studied her for a moment. This was his one chance—his final chance.
He had long imagined how their first kiss would taste—eloquent; warm, perhaps—but this kiss was as much an apology as a confession, and it fell far from his expectations. For a fleeting second, he thought she might have answered, until she jerked back and slapped him hard across the face, putting distance between them again.
Kain blinked and likewise stepped back, feeling the sting of her hand on his cheek.
She was glaring at him, her own cheeks splotchy with embarrassment.
"I needed to know," he told her thickly, not meeting her gaze.
She looked equal parts ashamed and spiteful.
"I should have left you in Mysidia," she fumed, breathing hard.
He paused, and another awkward silence rose between them. "What happened to that forgiveness you spoke of before?" he asked quietly.
"Forgiveness is not the same as acceptance," she said, turning swiftly and leaving him to ponder the difference alone.
0-0-0-0-0
The next morning as Cecil led the way from their meager shelter, Kain kept his distance.
The time for rest had ended, but the group returned to the path with more on their minds than before.
Kain took careful pains to avoid attention, knowing that his face showed evidence of Rosa's feelings from the night before. His lip still stung where one of her nails had grazed him, and he re-played his conversation with her in his mind, wincing every time he remembered the expression on her face….
He noticed how Rosa clung to Cecil's side, not even sparing him a glance. He wondered how long it would take for Cecil to read the signs and confront him….
He sighed. He had lost her, but at least he had tried; which was more than could be said for Edge, whose own demeanor had been dull and irritable since they'd awakened.
Kain had been so wrapped up within himself, that he'd hardly noticed that Edge had hung back to walk beside him.
The ninja was staring at the summoner, one brow angled as he worked out some mental puzzle.
Kain could only imagine what blunder the two of them had stepped into this time, remembering that they had shared some private conversation the night before.
The stairs of the passage began to curve and grow steeper, and when Cecil had disappeared around one of the bends, Edge finally turned toward him, his forehead furrowed.
"Why Rosa?" he asked, his eyes flicking to the tell-tale cut on Kain's lip.
Kain paused, rocking back on his heel to give the other man a flat look. Observant bastard.
"Why Rydia?" he rebutted, not caring what nerves he struck.
Edge crossed his arms, surprise and denial written across his face.
"I've swallowed my bitter pill," Kain went on. "When are you going to take yours?"
Edge was silent a moment, his expression caught between wanting to refute the claim or admit to it.
"When the opportunity presents itself," he decided, starting to walk again.
"Wait as long as I did, and you'll find yourself in my predicament," Kain advised, following slowly.
"You assume I have feelings as powerful as yours," Edge retorted, still in denial. "Maybe my interest is superficial."
Kain rolled his eyes. "Like all the other women you've played?" he guessed.
"I don't have time for entanglements," Edge said briskly. "They tend to be a pain in the ass when they go wrong—and they always do."
Kain studied the ninja quietly, thinking he might have found the man's weakness at last—pride notwithstanding.
"Yet she manages to make you so angry," Kain observed, receiving a scathing look in return.
His last comment seemed to have done the trick, and the ninja left him alone, keeping his thoughts to himself.
"Superficial, my ass," Kain muttered to himself, momentarily distracted from his own problems.
There would be consequences, he knew. Mistakes always bore rotten fruit eventually, and Rosa's demeanor had been suspiciously anxious since the morning.
Kain continued to keep his distance, trailing the group as the path spiraled downward. The fiends had become staggered and predictable, and the five of them plowed forward without flagging, dispatching their obstacles with ease. In one of the nooks along the path, they discovered an armored corselet which they fitted to Rydia.
Kain raised a brow as Rosa tugged its laces tight around the slim waist of the summoner. It lent Rydia a more grown countenance—that of a warrior and not of a mage. One look at Edge, and he could tell the ninja was fighting against making a comment.
Kain laughed through his nose, wondering when Edge would finally make a move, and not feeble, veiled overtures.
"Zemus' presence is stronger here," Rydia announced, grimacing as the laces of the corselet were cinched and tied.
Kain's eyes caught Cecil's for a brief moment, and the paladin's eyes had dark circles beneath them. As if he hadn't slept….
Kain swallowed hard and looked away.
"We're close, then," Cecil agreed, waiting until Rosa had finished with Rydia's attire to resume walking.
Cecil kept a brisk pace and the others did their best to maintain it. The stairs finally gave way to yet another passage; one with a sheer drop on one side and steep walls on the other.
It looked almost like the nave of a crystal cathedral; with pillars stretching high at even intervals along the walls.
Edge, as always, kept his eyes on the path, casting a net for fiends.
The group tightened, and Kain found his proximity to Cecil intensifying his guilt. Whether it was Zemus' dark power, or his own conscience, he wasn't sure; but the air was rife with tension ready to burst.
They passed the pillars one by one, columns on a façade of what Kain guessed might be a structure of some kind. A sleeping chamber of the Lunarians, perhaps.
Rosa paused past one column, gazing to the left. When Kain's eyes saw what hers had, he felt his palms grow cold.
A door carved out of the crystal led to a long, ornate chamber. This was no sleeping chamber for the ancient race. It was more tomb than anything, and something rested all the way at its end, glittering in blue light.
The doorway felt like it had been cursed by Zemus himself, exuding an imagined wind—a magical warning for others to stay out. Kain crossed his arms, willing the darkness away.
"A shrine," Rosa murmured, squinting.
Without thinking, she took a step forward, nearly crossing the threshold, when Kain hastily reached out and pulled her backwards.
Rosa stared at him in shock, taking a moment to wonder what had happened.
"Why-?" she began, just as Cecil's arm flashed between them, shoving Kain out of the way faster than either of them could blink.
"That's as far as you go," Cecil seethed, placing himself between the two of them.
"You'd let her go first?" Kain asked, disbelieving. "Another shrine, and it doesn't bother you that she steps headfirst into a trap?"
"It's not your place to protect her," Cecil said angrily, with more anger than the situation warranted.
"I wouldn't have to if you were paying attention," Kain snapped, unable to help himself.
Cecil clenched his hands into fists, bristling with fury.
Kain met his gaze, sensing that the moment he had been putting off had now become unavoidable. It had been a long enough time coming.
"Something happened between the two of you," Cecil stated, not waiting to hear from either side.
"You're still in love with her, aren't you?" Cecil asked, his expression implacable. Rosa gasped beside him, reddening.
Kain looked at Cecil evenly.
"I am."
Cecil's reaction was swift, merciless. He lunged forward, striking Kain hard in the jaw.
Kain tasted blood and spat onto the ground. He glanced up, dabbing at his lip.
Finally—Cecil had stopped holding back.
Cecil narrowed his eyes and took a few steps forward, forcing Kain to take a few steps back.
"She trusted you. I trusted you," Cecil snarled .
"And I was waiting for her to realize I'd always been there," Kain retorted, egging the paladin on.
Cecil struck him again, a jab that brought a shower of blood from Kain's nose. Kain groaned from the blow, pinching the bridge of his nose as the blood dripped onto his armor.
"Kain!" Rydia cried out, wondering why he had chosen now to admit to his feelings.
"But you were more in love with proving yourself to the king," Kain challenged with a wince, just getting started. "You wanted so much to be his pet, his most treasured subject, that you left her on her own—for too long, maybe."
Cecil drove the hilt of his sword into Kain's gut between the plates of his armor, and he buckled, retching.
"Cecil!" Rosa shouted, staring at both men with her arms outstretched.
"What was I supposed to do?" Kain gasped, glancing up at Cecil. "Stay silent forever?"
"This is insane!" Rosa cried out at them, trying to grab Cecil's arm but being batted aside.
"You'll find that I'm not so forgiving on that subject," Cecil snarled, ignoring Rosa and drawing his sword on Kain.
Kain eyed his companion, sensing that Cecil was out for blood. He drew his own sword and shield, prepared for a battle.
"Stop!" Rosa ordered, finding her words had little effect.
Rydia stood to the side, watching events unfold with a mixture of surprise and shock. Visions of Fabul's crystal chamber flashed through her mind, and she clenched her fists, remembering how that battle had ended.
"Zemus is driving you mad!" she screamed, beginning an incantation she wasn't sure would cooperate. Certainly one of her spells had to-she had to stop them from killing each other.
Edge suddenly shook her shoulder, and she broke out of her chant to glare at him. "What?" she hissed.
Just then Cecil lunged, his sword bearing down upon Kain's shield. The resounding clang echoed off of the cavern walls as the two knights engaged in combat.
"Why did you stop me?" Rydia demanded, whirling on Edge and shoving him away. "They're going to kill each other!"
Edge looked unimpressed. "That's what Rosa's for," he said.
"Have you lost your mind, too?" she wondered aghast, as Cecil and Kain employed their years of training and arranged it into a deadly dance. The blows were strong and calculated, strung together in forms that Rydia rarely had the chance to witness after months of fiendish battles against untrained opponents.
"If they don't settle this here, they never will," Edge told her, as she jumped back to avoid their circle of combat.
"You're the one who's so acutely aware of his surroundings and you don't sense that?" she demanded, looking at him.
He appeared perplexed and decided to take a moment to ignore the two combatants and focus on the cavern itself.
The air felt like it was closing in, as if an unseen malice was taking pleasure in the discord of the group.
Rosa leapt out of the way as Cecil and Kain continued to exchange blows. Cecil pivoted and swung, throwing Kain backwards. The dragoon took two steps—three steps—past the doorway to the shrine, and then charged forward, carving an arc toward Cecil's shield with enough power to force the paladin off his balance.
"Shit," Edge finally uttered, pinpointing the problem at last; his eyes sweeping the cavern.
"What is that?" Rydia seconded, her eyes flitting to either side of the group.
A flicker, a shimmer of light, was all the warning they had.
"Get out of the way!" Edge and Rydia both shouted, moving instinctively. But their cries fell on deaf ears, as Kain and Cecil failed to realize the threat borne of the shrine behind them.
An Ahriman, different than the others, stretched its wings behind Rosa; its eye glowing with deadly intent.
Neither Rydia nor Edge could get to her before the fiend unleashed its curse.
"Rosa!" Rydia screamed.
Rosa gasped and stumbled, glancing too late over her shoulder.
The Ahriman unfurled its leathery wings again and screeched, preparing its next attack. Rosa fumbled for her bow and found it, nocking an arrow to the string. The creature shrieked again and vanished in a shimmer of light, eluding her shot. The arrow plunged into crystal, its fletching bobbing to and fro.
Not even the Artemis bow could hit a target so ephemeral.
Cecil and Kain finally—reluctantly—broke away from each other, deciding on a temporary truce as they waited for the Ahriman to reappear.
"Rosa?" Cecil queried, glancing at her with concern.
She frowned at him, her expression scalding. "Just kill it!" she snapped, holding her bow before her with another arrow readied. The black mark of the death brand had already appeared on her arm between her armlet and robe.
"It's the guardian of the shrine," Edge said, gripping the Murasame in his right hand, preparing to spring.
"The left!" Rydia cried out, pointing.
The Ahriman materialized out of the air, and it was Kain who leapt first, his powerful legs hurtling him toward the fiend.
The Ahriman laughed—not a sound any Ahriman had ever made before—and struck Kain in mid-air with a blow forceful enough to knock the dragoon to the ground like a stone.
I am the Plague Horror, it told them, laughing. None of you will escape my gaze.
Edge hurled a shuriken past Kain's shoulder in reply, but the Ahriman anticipated him, teleporting just before it could land, and leaving the projectile to soar through empty space.
"You were so busy trying to kill each other that you completely forgot the reason why!" Rosa scolded, firing two arrows in quick succession as the Ahriman played games, almost materializing and then flitting away again.
When the creature did appear again, it paused long enough to cast a spell—Haste.
Rydia felt her heartbeat quicken as her body accelerated with the spell. It lent her thoughts a sharp focus as she calculated a spell to halt its movements.
Her mind fished for a suitable anchor, some memory that would give her spell stability, but her conversation with Edge clenched her stomach into knots.
It will dull your memories.
She flinched, unable to focus again.
And in the span of an eye-blink, the Ahriman was gone again. Rydia's eyes swept from side to side, but the creature was nowhere to be found.
Then she felt it, the presence at her back. She made to move, but a powerful shove knocked her from her feet. She dove hard into the ground and rolled onto her back to see that Edge had taken the curse meant for her.
Three, she thought, keeping the tally in her head. Three of us branded with walking death.
Edge appeared unfazed, and threw a dagger with un-matched speed, finally landing a hit before the creature teleported elsewhere.
They were on borrowed time, Rydia knew, and if they didn't subdue the creature before each curse took hold, there would be no revival for any of them. One by one they would fall.
Her fear of failing quickened her thoughts. If only she could freeze the Ahriman in place…
Leviathan came to mind—how he had used ice to his advantage during her trial. And then her thoughts trailed to a time when she had almost been lost at sea…facing hopeless odds with no one able to save her then either. No one except the mighty sea dragon.
There it is, she realized, allowing the words for Blizzaga to infiltrate her mind. She focused on the memory of the ocean; of its strong, frigid current, and the dragon who governed it.
She hoped the others would keep the creature occupied long enough for it to matter.
Blizzaga flew from her lips, and the Stardust rod glowed with a reassuring brightness.
Kain had just then landed a blow on the Plague Horror's stunted leg, fixing its attention on him.
Blizzaga swirled out of the air like an icy vortex, piercing the Plague Horror's wings and crystallizing its tears into a frozen lens.
No sooner had the spell taken effect, it incited a counterattack from the Ahriman like some cruel mirror; an eye for an eye. The Ahriman countered with its killing curse, Rosa let an arrow fly, and Cecil put himself between Rydia and the fiend.
All of it so fast, that Rydia had to take two breaths before she realized that Cecil had taken the curse for her.
"No!" she yelled, finding herself furious that the spell had caused more trouble than it had solved.
Rosa's arrow struck the fiend in the shoulder, eliciting an unearthly howl, and Edge let loose another dagger, but it soared again through empty air. The fiend had vanished once more.
Rydia and Cecil exchanged a glance. She was the last one standing.
"Rydia—"
"I know," she answered, her voice catching in her throat as she glimpsed Kain launch into the air.
Rosa held the Artemis bow in front of her, and Rydia saw that the black mark had sent tendrils across the white mage's neck and jaw. The look on Rosa's face, however, was resolute. If she was to die, she would die on her feet.
Another arrow sang through the air, striking the Plague Horror just as it materialized. The Plague Horror spun, fixing the first thing in its sight with its glowing eye.
Rydia froze, struck with an immense and irrational fear.
She didn't have to see the death brand to know it had marked her, and she felt it extend its poison through her veins like a slow-moving dread.
Five.
"Cecil, we have to kill this thing fast!" Edge shouted, employing a move Rydia hadn't witnessed in a while—his ability to quick-step as if he were made of shadow.
The Plague Horror had become more desperate to stay beyond their reach, and the ninja was trying to match it for speed.
And not a moment too soon.
The Haste spell the fiend had cast had increased the speed of its curse, and with a pained gasp, Rosa fell the ground, unable to loose her next arrow.
The Plague Horror materialized again, and Edge anticipated its point of entry, unleashing three expert vertical slices that left spattered trails of green blood on the ground.
The ninja sped away before the Plague Horror could counterattack, and Kain descended just then from his perch, his sword held at a deadly angle.
His sword plunged into the Ahriman's eye, and it screamed, its wings unable to hold it suspended in the air.
Kain left the sword embedded and landed beside the creature, never getting up again. The curse had claimed him, too.
Minutes were ticking by, Rydia knew. Minutes until no Phoenix Down nor Raise spell could bring their companions back.
Rydia cast Blizzaga again, hoping to buy time for Cecil as the Plague Horror flailed and screeched with Kain's sword still impaled in its eye. Suddenly, the creature began to glow with a familiar blue sheen. The light encapsulated the fiend as it began to reverse its own time, the sword slowly being pushed from its eye like an unwanted sliver.
"It's healing itself!" Cecil shouted angrily, running forward as Edge arranged his hands into careful symbols; Blitz raining down on the fiend from above. The lightning electrified the sword in its eye, causing it to abandon its attempt to heal itself and wail in pained fury.
That last attack was all the time Edge had left, as he too fell to the ground from the death curse.
Cecil would be next.
The Plague Horror then resorted to more feral tactics. Its patience had worn thin and rather than waiting for the curse to take its toll, it lurched into the air and dive-bombed the two remaining humans with haphazard lunges.
Its swipes were easy to dodge, blinded as it was, but it left little time to reach the others in order to revive them.
Six minutes.
For Rosa, time was almost up.
Rydia leapt from side to side from the Plague Horror's talons, frantically trying to think of how she could simultaneously revive the others and destroy the fiend. She had time for only one spell.
If only she hadn't abandoned white magic as a child, she seethed.
Cecil struck the fiend once before his legs buckled beneath him and he fell to the ground, his heart no longer beating.
Rydia was on her own, now. With less than two minutes to claim.
There was no spell in her arsenal that would do what she required, but she had one summoning that might.
Rydia had yet to summon the queen of the Feymarch. Either out of fear, pride, or some combination of the two, she had avoided that particular summoning thinking that she would face disapproval when she finally did—motherly disapproval. The trepidation that even after all this time, she was a disappointment to her Eidolon family.
There was no time for such reluctance now, and she knew that under such a strange circumstance, only the queen could aide her. She closed her eyes, remembering a particular day in the Feymarch so many years before. She remembered the scent of the ancient library and its books, ensorcelled so she alone could read them; the flicker of the torches in the great hall, creating strange shadows on the honey-combed floor.
She could see Asura vividly in her memory. The queen faced her wearing a gown of sea-foam green and azure blue, an homage to her husband, the Lord of all Oceans. Rydia's hair had been damp from a shipwreck that had wrenched her from her friends and set her on a journey that had been barely on the verge of beginning….
Rydia sensed a response to her inward cry; a tug on the line. Asura had answered.
The queen's presence fluctuated like air currents caught between seasons. Which face of the queen she would witness, Rydia wasn't certain, but when Asura finally took corporeal form, the force of her presence enveloped the entire space.
Dark thoughts lifted briefly, like a veil being torn. The queen had worn her mask of healing, and her whole being shone with gathering magic. She was at once fearsome and beautiful; one of the greatest sorceresses to ever be graced with immortality. Rydia wondered if the queen's gift of Sight had caused her to anticipate her need, and she sank with relief as Asura's magic revived not one, not two, but all of her fallen companions.
Tears spilled from Rydia's eyes. Tears of relief with so few seconds to spare.
Asura knelt beside her suddenly, cupping her face in her hands.
"I'm sorry, my daughter," the queen said, staring into her eyes.
Rydia nodded with understanding, and severed her connection to the queen, knowing what would happen if the curse claimed her while they were still joined by magic.
Asura dissolved into motes of light, and Rydia had no idea who it was that finally dispatched the Plague Horror as her heart gave into painful spasms, and her breath, to gasps….
It was Rosa who revived her a few minutes later, pulling her spirit back into her body and staying by her side as Rydia slowly sat up and took note of their situation.
"Is it over?" Rydia asked, dully noticing that neither Cecil nor Kain were nearby.
Rosa saw where her eyes had strayed. "It's over," she said tiredly, then added, "But I could kill both of them myself."
"Where are they?" Rydia wondered, remembering the duel that had gotten them into this mess in the first place.
"To discover what it is we almost died for," Edge answered from behind her.
She glanced at him with an angled brow, but just then the other two knights returned from the doorway of the shrine.
In Cecil's hand was a long and intricately bladed spear. Its handle looked like it was made of pearl, iridescent in the light. It had a warm presence, and Rydia's eyes had a hard time fixing on any one point of it.
Kain was eyeing the paladin, wondering if their truce had ended. His sword still lay embedded in the corpse of the Plague Horror, and he had no weapon with which to defend himself.
Cecil scowled, suddenly grabbing Kain by the collar of his armor. He leveled the spear at the dragoon with one hand, and his stance was rigid, prepared for violence.
Rydia and the others tensed.
"She chose you, Cecil," Kain said finally, resignedly.
"When this is over, I want you gone," Cecil seethed.
Kain was silent, meeting Cecil's fierce gaze. "I know."
Cecil's grip on Kain's armor slackened, and he adjusted his hold on the spear, thrusting it into Kain's baffled hands.
"You're the only person trained to use such a weapon," Cecil said disgustedly over his shoulder as he walked away. "May it find you worthy."
Rydia saw how Kain stared at the weapon in his hand, his expression bleak.
Worthiness, she wondered, finding that his situation pained her in a way she hadn't expected.
Would he spend his entire lifetime chasing after it—never to have what he wanted in the end?
His eyes suddenly looked up and met hers, and she saw it—that he was wondering the exact same thing.
0-0-0-0-0
A/N:
Phew. The end…still feels a tad disjointed to me, but I also wrote it listening to a weird piece of music that had some strange cadences to it, lol.
If you were one of the people who had to physically stand up and leave the room while reading some of this chapter…no wait, that might have been me ;)
CECIL. Finally taking some ACTION. Kain…finally getting punched in the face…more than once.
Edge getting friendzoned…
Some of you may have noticed some modifications…
For instance, the final save point…which is the FIRST in a set of three doors…I'm making it the last. Game-wise, it makes sense for it to be first so you can save before the boss battles. Plot-wise, it makes sense for it to be last.
I'm also skipping certain battles for the sake of the plot once again (the monsters in chests, the armor, etc, etc…) I know that TECHNICALLY game-wise, the party has already battled the blue and red dragons, but since those are THE HARDEST fiend battles in the damn lunar subterrane, it feels weird that you should fight them BEFORE Wyvern and the other big boss fights which are plot-wise more important. Plus…it leaves more of the scarier beasts for the very end.
Plague Horror…was a struggle from beginning to end. STILL don't like it. But it is what it is.
The conflict between Cecil and Kain. I HOPE it wasn't too fast. It might seem longer and more built up to ME because I had to stare at it for three months, but I hope it doesn't read lightning fast for the rest of you.
Speaking of which, YES THE ROSA SCENE. YES, I WENT THERE.
I think I may have POV-slipped toward the end…I noticed it later on, and was like…dang it, I would have to re-write this WHOLE SECTION. So…there's some POV-slippage, which hopefully isn't too terrible to follow.
Ummm…no, the Lunar Subterrane makes no logical sense.
ASURA. She finally makes her appearance! Lol. Durrr, self, use more Eidolons. I THINK I've used all of them now, except for Odin and the Sylphs?
Finally—thank you thank you thank you to all of my reviewers and followers. Wow. You guys are pretty amazing. And the PMs and the faves…
I'm not lying when I say that January and February were some of the most TERRIBLE OF MONTHS and I appreciate all of you sticking around and waiting for the "spring thaw". THERE IS STILL SNOW ON THE GROUND, HERE. WHY.
I appreciate all of you for reading this—without whom, again, there would be no point to this story. So thank you, and WE ARE SO FREAKING CLOSE.
Also, someone owes me a bottle of wine when this is done, hahahaha. Kidding. …Okay, not kidding XP
Until next chapter…
~Myth