A/N: Here it is, the infamous 16,000 word chapter, now split into five parts. A bit of me got inspired by The Neverhood's Hall of Records, which is a wall filled of the game's entire lore written in clay. Yep, you heard it, written in clay. That game is wonderful by the way, very surreal and weird and gross but funny. Let me know what you think about the story so far, and thank you very much!

Midnight, June 26th

...

— Hey, Sig...

— What's it, my Prince? Still awoke this hour of the new day?

— Sig... could you, uh, please...

— Yes?

— Could you tell me... tell me about who I am?

— Who are you? Something is bothering you, isn't it, my Prince?...

— ...

— ...You are awfully quiet, for a Prince who once spent this same night crying for attention, while lying on that crib. Who are you, you've asked. Your name is Gabriel. Son of King Stephanus, the youngest brother of a family of six siblings, the last child given to this world by Racquel, whom I had the pleasure to take care of since the day the Queen whispered the last words. Ever since the day you were born at the palace, when your father went away to a fight, I spent the time of mine to teach you, my Prince. Edgar, as the eldest one, claimed the crown to his own, but you, like your siblings, are destined to heir the crown someday.

— So, Sig... It's been a long time. Yes, I understood who I was. A Prince. My brother used to be a Prince as well. Now he's the King, and when he dies for good, I shall take its place, for the sake of father. Things seemed much easier when I was a child, when he was a child. Easier to learn, easier to understand, I had no pressure given by that time, unlike this one where I stand. You, Sigurd, used to take care of me when my father wasn't there. From the day he never came back, you still stood with me. Even if I, the Prince, had on my reach the nursemaids who took care and feeded my brothers, the duke, who taught Edgar how to become a king since he had 5, the Senate, who ruled for a brief time before Edgar reached its 14, the Dragoon Knights who protected us as the infantry... We had the entirety of Burmecia on our palms, since the day before we learned to walk. And still we have it, for generations.

— Yes. Kain, our first King; you, and my brother, both share of his blood. Now I remembered... before you slept, I used to tell you a story... Might if I tell you once again, but this time, shall it be told into another way?

— 'Another way'? I'm interested. Come on, Sig.

— Very well.

Yasunori Mitsuda - Ties Of Sea And Flames

The Lost Years

...

The story is said to have started in the Year 0.

While the remaining population of the kingdoms that would become Alexandria, Lindblum and Treno built new reigns over the Mist, our nomadic ancestors rebelled one against another, and later succumbed themselves to a warfare that culminated into their shatter. The remaining Vastitas were forced to become from nomads to sedentary people, now fragmented into small reigns, ruled by one leader. Those small reigns used to constantly hate deep in the heart and fought against each other, on what seemed to be a perpetual state of chaos and disorder.

During that period, the people belonging from Bulu were living at the peak of their lives, living of the Frater doctrine, where everyone is equally like a brother of another, while the ones left under the Mist became barbarians, often invading the cities and stealing goods from their inhabitants. They became known as the Vastitas, because of the desolation they left after their attacks and their emptiness of such a thing called piety.

...

— The Vastitas... they were violent.

— They never cry for themselves or ever cry for their comrades. Throughout history, they were regarded as the true monsters lying down below the Mist; a major threat to be compared with other creatures living under the thick layer of Mist, such as the Lizard Men, nearly driven to extinction by the Vastitas, by the way. Furthermore, as the Mist hardened their hearts, the Vastitas became know by survival reports about their cruel torture methods, inserting their spears straight through their body, until they died of agony, to later use the blood to irrigate their plantations, as the remnats of skin and fat were later offered to their god, and pieces of bones were given to the local Demiurge in order to construct houses and other estabilishments. I presume words alone can't describe their violence, my Prince.

— Yes... Sig, do you think we have been returning to their state of mind?

— Never would we. Certainly not, my Prince. We may be part of the infantry, but they aren't as savages as one of our ancestors...

— 'One'?

— Yes, my Prince. You must have forgotten that we, Burmecians, are a product of the blend between the blood of people belonging to two ethnicities. The first are the Vastitas, part of ours, as well as the other people from the civilization of your ancestor...

...

…The situation remained unchanged, until 900, the Year said for The Advent be born in Yashar, the main city of Bulu.

Ever since his childhood, spent at the church, a child known by the name of Kain said he had dreams about a floating river, up in the skies. The same dreams his mother once had , before she gave birth to him and passed away, just like his father.

In his adulthood, Kain felt for Lucrecia, a woman he knew since he was an infant. He married her and the two had a boy, called Nate. Even though Kain had planned to spend his life with his wife and son, he still claimed to his people he could hear a voice from his visions. The voice of Bahamut, as he said, heard through the sound of bells, warned him to flee with his people, the Bulus from the mountains and the Vastitas cursed by the Mist, to another place were their lives would be secured, before the massacre planned by Necro, a self-declared ruler of all Vastitas, deemed to be an immortal, began between both Bulu and Vastita people, with no one depicted as a winner but just carnage and destruction left.

For the Vastitas, wherever it rained, it meant the battle was over, because they believed the sky was about to fall over their heads; since ancient times, Bahamut planned a land immerse on a state of Eternal Rain to end with this threat coming from his own sons, and had chosen the one called by The Advent to serve his purpose.

Kain couldn't do such a measurable thing on his own, so he asked for help. Bahamut described two men to assist Kain on his journey. One, a foreigner whose blood belonged to the sacred Bulu, and the other, whose blood belonged to the Vastita lineage. The descriptions of Bahamut for the first man at Bulu matched with a man called Siegfried, a Chocobo tamer from the Highwind family…

...

— Highwind?

— Is there something in need of an answer, my Prince?

— No, nothing. Just this name... ''Highwind"... it sounds familiar. Are their descendants alive, Sig?

— Maybe. There's a family that claims to belong to the Highwind by blood. Incidentally, there's a man on our side that was born with such a surname. As a Prince, you may haven't seem him yet, but tomorrow will personally see one and another of your men, Gabriel.

— Yes, I know. Could you tell me more about these 'Highwinds' for me, Sig?

— As you wish.

...

…Composed of his father Archibald, his mother Helen, and his younger brother, Baldwin, older than his other infant siblings, the Highwind's ascendants are said to be born at Bulu, but later migrated to other lands. They decided to return to Bulu, after Siegfried, the eldest one son, claimed to see and listen to the same visions Kain described to them.

Kain and Siegfried quickly became friends, and so he, and his family, assisted him to free the Vastitas from the Mist and Necro. Guided by Bahamut's prophetic dreams, they went through the Mist, facing the utmost of a diversity of enemies, from a fierceful hordes of Fangs to the perverse Vices, until they reached the 12th Vastita reign, a small settlement known as Kilde.

Found above the hills like Bulu, near a waterfall whose water supplies its inhabitants, and a fountain in the middle of the city. His citizens, who once lived in other nations, were discontent with the wealth of the other fourteen reigns, allies of Necro, and the imposition of a martial law to oppress their thoughts about a a multiple force, higher than a deity, maybe a God, but certainly not a single one, like Bahamut; more likely a stream, attached to the water, symbol of purity and principle of existence, and the living beings, such as the nature around them.

From there, Kain earned the trust of that people,as much as he gradually earned the trust of a 5-year-old boy, called Gizamaluke. An orphan, like many, left on his own by his parents at the doors of the sanctuary of Kilde.

A vagrant child, found wandering near the marketplace, until Kain caught the kid with his head underwater, drowning at the main fountain. Kain asked him why he would do such a thing that almost took away his life, and Gizamaluk answered that no one else needed him, that he had been such a nuisance like any other kid, and nothing worthy of his small efforts could be able to help the others.

At times, he found himself, in silence, glancing at the reflection of his image, even if it took an hour; the static oneself, given over the tiniest water puddle, to the one found at the city's fountain, whose ripples spread throughout the round cavity gave it the aspect of the bends of a living portrait. Gizamaluk thought that he could spend his life with the reflection he saw each day on water, ever if it meant to drown in it, because the reflection of his seemed to be the only thing near him he knew about, unlike his parents, whom he and nobody else never took a clear look, as he does with the figure and only of his projected on water surface…

...

— …Projection. The act of mirroring your image onto another. Edgar pretends he can be like father, he acts as my father, he's the son of my father. Unlike him, I'm not resemble my father. I'm just his son, and nothing else. Though, I'm just as worried as his. Each day, his hair found a way to fall, and his fur detach from the skin, as his sons left to his wife, my mother. How hard it was for mother and her maids to take care of us, this, I'll never know. But I know for sure that mother did her best, when she was still alive. And father...

— I see a bit of Racquel in you, Gabriel. She, like yours, disapproved of how your father led his life, but still she loved him. If it wasn't for the love your mother felt for him, she wouldn't stay in the palace by those days, as she had done, because of the sons who needed to be raised, a way your mother found to feel the same as the love for your father. You loved him too, didn't you?

— Yes. Of course, because he was my father. To think I grew without him... Unlike Gizamaluke, I had you on my side, Sig. Maybe I mirrored a 'father' into you all this time, but this Gizamaluk had no one to mirror him, so he mirrored another 'himself', the one he wished he was. No one to love, besides 'himself' and his 'image'. What do such loneliness do with a kid, I'm glad you took care of me, Sig.

— Yes. Let me continue from where I was...

...

…Kain looked upon Gizamaluk and his actions. To justify that attempt to take over his life in order to get rid of his life as i f it was something right, or something wrong... If it was something done by anger or sadness; not even an adult like Kain was able to decide.

He was just like that kid. A kid that grew without a father, or a mother to teach him. He certainly would do the same as the boy, if it wasn't for one thing. Through all his time spent as an orphan on the streets of Kilde, Gizamaluke had no opportunities left, unlike Kain, who was the only one there to give him one. Just one, that would change his life in a whole.

Kain decided to adopt Gizamaluke for the sake of both. To think Kain would go that far to support that stranger child, in order to find a way to relieve his pain. Not only did they never meet each other before, he was clearly a descendant of a Vastita, a baby considered weak enough to be left as food for the Grand Dragons across the heights. But that didn't matter anymore.

Since that day, Kain saw through Gizamaluke as his own son. Even if he wasn't the one who truly conceived him, he felt the need to raise him, because of an invisible bond, the same one he felt throughout his mother's arms for a few minutes before she died; the hold of Lucrecia's living hand through his youth until they day of marriage arrived; and the wrapping of Nate's little arm, like the cloth tied on his tail, to hold his father's finger by pure instinct. That bond began to grow at the start both paths intervened with each other. Like a bird raising his featherless sons until he grew his own plumes and wings, Kain needed to stay with Gizamaluke as a father, until that boy got strong enough to learn to fly and face the world and himself on his own…

...

— …Gizamaluke and Kain... Father and son... to think I grew mostly with you, Sig. Have you ever wondered why? You, of all people, was chosen to take care of me?

— Prince Gabriel... I never promised anything to your father. Your father always preferred to engage into a fight, instead of learning to take care of his sons. He left other people working for him in the palace to take care of his sons instead of himself. Your mother, on other hand, gave of her last moments for you to be born. The day before the ceremony, I wondered why you, the one who unfortunately Racquel never saw, meant so much for her. Now that I see you, grown up like this, I realized the answer for the why so long I took to find. That's what a reasonable person would do, and so did Kain. I shall proceed, for you to understand the same matter...

...

…Gizamaluke was willing to help in any case, but Siegfried argued to Kain that Gizamaluke wasn't a man enough to be the one Bahamut choose, because he had the knowledge of how someone leads such responsibility.

Siegfried told Kain that, before becoming the oldest brother of his family, he once had an older brother above him, called Ekkehard. The brother of his also saw the same visions before his sudden demise at the field. He's the one who inspired Siegfried to fight, as he did until the end. Through the generations, the men of Highwind married once and some died young, for a purpose. Siegfriend ignored Ekkehard's demise and preferred to focus on combat instead.

The Highwind family fought for ages to accomplish their goal of securing The Advent to purify the Vastitas souls. Kain learned he wasn't the first one born to be considered The Advent. Eight of them were once protected by the holy sword called Durandal, whose blade is said to cut through even the hardest stone of Gaia.

Passed down from elder to younger brother, the presence of Frater was strongly tied to the Highwind ones. If it was an obligation of god or not, the Fate of those people was lying on their task as skilled warriors. So Siegfried was chosen to secure the coming of The Advent, in order to honor the name of Ekkehard, the Highwind family.

In case Siegfried couldn't accomplish the same goal and failed as Ekkehard, then Baldwin was his next heir; yet, to fight for it seemed the only way possible to secure Kain of his own task given by Bahamut.

Fight with swords or with bare hands, each one struggles on their way to find happiness and security. Since that day, t o have an adult like Kain in his company, believing in his words whether they were near the truth or the bottom of a lie... Gizamaluk felt he wasn't worthless as once in many years…

...

— …A teacher can also learn from its students as well, ain't right, Sig?

— Yes, my Prince.

— You taught me so many things. Basic ones, such as 'don't eat it', for a Prince.

— You may be a Prince, Gabriel, but if it wasn't for someone who taught you an order, certainly you wouldn't be able to stand in there.

— There? I don't want to stay at the field. Never I wanted to be on the same place as father once had been. Here, on the field he died.

— Gabriel, your people need someone like you. Your brother may be in the palace, hid by such a distant boundaries from its people. The reason why he insisted to place you there was because he believe someone as you could maintain contact with the ones he rule. Not only is your task to observe, but to interact with them. Assistance is needed on such times, as your father, for example, once said. That's why he left you with me. You father cared to his people more than he cared for himself, and his sons. This is what Gizamaluk lost in the way, the same valuable thing Kain and Stephanus had in abundance. Even without taking care of his own son, your father believed in someone other than his, because this someone trusted in his words. Racquel may have passed away, but her brother was there to take care of you, Gabriel.

— Sig...

— My Prince. This is just the beginning...

…