Chapter Fourteen: In search
of the light
We stumbled through the undergrowth in the Evil Forest, bound for Dominos portal, we called it that for we knew of no other name for it. She had said about Lawrence creating the portal system but hadn’t said much more about it so we had called it ‘Dominos portal’ because it was her who had discovered it.
From what Kuja had said we knew she was in trouble, if that Fury had caught up with her and captured her then there was no telling what he would do with her.
“From what I remember of Yugami telling me,” said Reiganna “The portal is over here.” She pointed to a dark cave, I nodded and walked forward but before we got to the cave a Jabberwock leapt out of the cave and cast light on all of us. I scrambled around for a handhold as I gently hovered a couple of feet above the ground.
“Unusual,” I muttered “Jabberwocks on the Mist Continent.”
The Jabberwock seemed as confused as I, casting Earthquake once we were all floating, of course, because we were in the air it didn’t affect any of us and the Jabberwock paid dearly for its mistake as my Ultima weapon smashed through its finned skull.
As we stepped over the disappearing corpse, the magic cast by the former Jabberwock fading away and returning us to the ground.
“Jabberwocks usually live on the Forgotten continent.”
I nodded and walked into the cave, I could see the portal shimmering at the other end of the medium sized area, I looked deep into the portal, and I could see familiar territory.
“Say, Mikoto…isn’t this the Forgotten continent?” I asked her
She walked up beside me and looked into the portal with me, her blonde tail curled around her leg
“It does look familiar, almost like the area around Oeilvert.” She said after a little while.
“What the heck is the portal doing on Oeilvert? Domino was going to the Discworld, or trying to.” I said
“Maybe she’s not the only one who can use the portal network.” Said Reiganna, speaking all of our thoughts out loud.
My mind couldn’t help but think of Fury, and his mysterious way.
Xola had led us to the alleyway as she said she would and it took me a moment or two to find the portal, for a moment I nearly lost myself to panic, what if the portal didn’t open, what if I was stuck here forever?!
Then I noticed a slight glint by the furthest wall and walked over to it, as I approached the portal it opened up fully but for some strange reason it didn’t display the destination clearly, I could see it was in a cave somewhere but there were blurry things nearby which I couldn’t make out.
Looking around at the gloomy surroundings and listening to the sounds of screams being abruptly cut off in the distance made me make my mind up very quickly.
“Lets go.” I said, waving Alex to go through first.
Alex nodded and leapt through the portal, disappearing in a bright flash.
“Ok, you next Nagy, then Mizrah, Snikity, Kitiara and Xola. You may want to breathe out as you enter the portal. It sometimes helps me.” I said,
Nagy nodded and jumped through the shimmering portal, Mizrah was next and the rest followed in close order. Finally it left just me in the alleyway alone, I fancied I heard movement behind me and without even hesitating I leapt through. The tunnel of blue and purple lights surrounded me as I flew through some sort of dimension, I always loved this part of portal travelling, as brief as it was. Golden birds overtook me, shimmering as they flew across the blue/purple space around me, little dots of white light, or stars as I thought they were, streaked past me as little white lines. Suddenly the horizon became a white wall which rapidly approached and I knew my journey through portal space was about to end as the white hit me and embraced me, the softness of portal space giving way to the harshness of cave air as I flew through the air and hit someone knocking them to the ground.
I rolled the person over on its back and raised my fist to strike it down but as I looked the person in the face I recognised the blonde hair and blue eyes.
“Zidane?” I asked
“Nice to see you too Domino!” he said with a laugh as I picked myself off him.
Around me I could see other members from the Discworld picking themselves up from where or in some cases, who, they had been thrown on. Alex was making a very awkward apology to Kuja who had been knocked flying by her entrance.
“What are you doing here Zidane?” I asked him as I returned my attention back to him.
“We’ve come to give you a warning, there’s a strange guy who knows of you, knows you’re Kuja’s sister, he calls himself Fury.”
I paused, remembering the stranger boarding the airship, that was almost five days ago now though.
“Dresses in black, very mysterious, wears a dragon mask?” I asked to confirm my suspicions.
Zidane nodded and frowned
“Yeah, that sounds like him, how did you know?”
I sat down on a large rock nearby and curled my tail around under my bent legs.
“Just before we left for the Discworld we saw an airship land just outside the Evil Forest, which until then had been very, very quiet. We took shelter and watched the airship, Lawrence, two silver type genomes and this Fury were boarding this airship. Fury came over to me and spoke to me telepathically saying that ‘All of Gaia will soon know his name’ or something like that.”
Zidanes face reacted in horror
“Lawrence? I thought you killed that mad man!” he said
I nodded, I knew this was going to come up again and again, I thought I had been victorious over him, thought that he was now no more than a bad memory which couldn’t hurt me but to see him again in the flesh and blood undermined everything I had pinned my hopes on, undermined everything I had based my life on, I had failed, failed to get away from my past. Now more than ever, without the stabilising force of my husband at my side, I felt closer to the brink between peace and war.
“I failed Zidane.” I simply said, hanging my head in shame
“Well, never mind Dom, at least that explains how Fury knew you were Kuja’s sister, Lawrence probably told him that.”
“What did he say to you?” I asked
“Well, he arrived on a Silver Dragon, attacked and neutralised us as easy as though he was fighting an oglop and then left me a message to pass on to the kingdoms of the Mist Continent.”
I was confused, a Silver Dragon? There were only three people I knew of who had the heart to master a Silver Dragon, two of them were standing next to me and the other was dead.
“What message was that?” I asked
“He said to surrender our kingdoms in one week or be destroyed.”
“He doesn’t do things by half does he?” said Kitiara from the nearby shadows where she had been listening.
“Doesn’t look that way.” Concluded Zidane
“So, you think we have a new force of evil emerging on Gaia?” asked Mikoto as she sat next to me, looking at me with her child like face, so innocent and yet so deadly, like the entire genome race I supposed.
“If he’s working for Lawrence then I think we have a problem on our hands. Does anyone know where he’s come from yet?” I asked
Zidane and Mikoto shook their heads
“And there’s more bad news I’m afraid Yugami.” Said Mikoto with a pained expression
“What bad news?” I asked
“The genomes have gone missing from Black Mage Village, I went back to check there a couple of days ago and there was no-one except the Black Mages there. Mage number four-seven-five said that they had all left shortly I did, saying they were being called.”
I cursed and smacked my hand on the rock I was sitting on.
“Dammit, Lawrence is already up to his old tricks, he must have called them to where-ever he is!”
“But surely you would have been called too?” asked Xola
I shook my head, thankfully it didn’t work that way or I may well have joined my soul-less companions under the rule of Lawrence.
“No, at the moment he can only call soul-less genomes, they’re easier to control than those with a soul, although given time he can build up the power to call in the genomes with souls.”
“Just like Jara did with you, Zidane and Mikoto.” Said Nagy glumly shaking his head
I nodded, Nagy had hit the nail on the head.
“Just like Jara.” I concluded
Once again I stood on a darkened plain, the black ground crunching underfoot, the dark starlit sky surrounding me.
“Who’s there?” I called out, drawing my sword uncertainly.
“Me.” Said my own voice from behind me.
I turned and saw myself but with different clothing, standing behind me. Instead of the usual blacks and greys which I wore, he was wearing gleaming armour and a blood red cloak, he carried a sword which was identical to mine.
“Who the hell are you?” I asked
My double smiled and shrugged
“You…how you should be.” He said
“I’m fine how I am!!” I snarled with anger.
“No you’re not, you hate yourself for what you are. You may not know it because of the hold it has on your heart, but deep down, you despise what you have become.”
“Don’t tell me what to do, you, you impostor!!” I shouted, thrusting at him with my sword, my sword blade struck his armour and went straight through causing him no damage.
“What are you?” I asked, a sudden terror gripping my heart as I looked back at him, my sword protruding from his chest exactly where his heart should have been, that blow should have killed him.
“You can’t kill me Fury, you can’t run from me. I’m inside you and I’m not going away. I can push me aside and try to fight me, but at the end of the day, I’ll run down your defences and move in for the strike.”
“If you want to kill me, do it now dammit!!” I shouted at him, trying to drag my sword back out of his chest but the stupid thing appeared to have gotten stuck.
“I don’t want to kill you Fury, I want to save you, save you before it’s too late, before your heart becomes totally black and there is no chance of redemption.”
“I don’t need your help, I don’t need redeeming!” I shouted as I slowly drew my sword out of him.
“When you come back from this Fury, you’re going to hate yourself for what you are going to do, spare yourself the heartache, don’t do it.” Advised my other self.
Turning my back on the apparition I walked away, the voice of my double ringing in my eyes as a blinding white light flooded my vision.
“Fury, you are not evil. Just misguided.” It said
I opened my eyes and found I had fallen asleep across a book inside the library of Daguerreo, picking my head up and rubbing my eyes I banished the stupid dream into forgotten memories as I refocused my attention on the book.
The Crystal of Light, myths, facts and fears the title read, and as I read more and more of the book, my mind opened up new pathways into power, new ways I could use the Crystal to get my way over the Mist Continent, and indeed all of Gaia.
Chuckling with the thought of imposing my will over hundreds of thousands of citizens I read on, engrossed by the theories behind the Crystal of Light which the author put forward.
“This could be just the thing I’m looking for.” I softly muttered to myself with a smile, all trace of the disturbing dream gone with the exciting discoveries I was making.
We continued on our way to Alexandria, a little closer now than we were before. Now there were more of us it meant that we didn’t need to avoid the Evil Forest we could go straight through it.
Domino seemed very quiet for the usual hyperactive genome, I think she must still have been reeling from the many revelations which had hit her over the past couple of days. It certainly couldn’t be easy for her to get through this, but we were here, her friends, for her to talk to, a shoulder to cry on if you like.
“So, you’re the king of this…Alexandria now Zidane?” said Nagy
I nodded and smiled
“You’ve certainly gone up in the world.” Said Mizrah from where she walked on the far side of the group, her long raven hair being toyed with by the wind, Nagy and Snikity walked together hand in hand, Xola and Kitiara lurked towards the back of the group and Domino and Alex walked side by side in front of me.
“The position as king was always open to me, but I was kinda scared of the responsibilities, I’d always been a thief, it was who I was. It was during the whole Jara Gedyen thing that I realised that I wanted to settle down with Garnet as Domino has…err, I mean had, with Thunderchild.” I said, making an unfortunate slip of the tongue and cursing myself mentally for doing so.
Mizrah nodded but said no more, so the group carried on walking in silence, stopping only to defend itself against the occasional mist monster which leapt out of the trees.
As we reached the end of the forest Snikity spoke up
“I’m glad that all of Gaia isn’t like this.” She said
I chuckled
“No it isn’t, wait until you see Alexandria, or even Lindblum.” I said with a smile
I heard her footsteps long before I actually saw her, I was busy sitting on the top of the tower watching the monsters on the plain below, I turned to see who was coming and saw Rhiana emerge from the staircase, her silver hair dishevelled as though she had just run for miles, judging by how out of breath she was that may well have been an accurate assessment.
“Ilvian, we’re in trouble!” she warned
“Sit down, tell me about it.” I replied turning myself fully around to face her.
She walked over to a nearby parapet and sat down, her hands shaking slightly.
“It’s Lawrence, he’s making a new genome.”
I raised my eyebrows but I couldn’t say I was surprised, Lawrence was Lawrence, he made genomes, it was what he did.
“And?” I asked
“They’re of one particular type, he called the one that was working…Mithril Yugami number three. There was about ten more in glass cylinders, just waiting to wake up.”
I stroked my chin carefully, letting my fingers feel the gradient between metal and skin while my thoughts pondered what Rhiana was saying.
“What else did he say?”
“He said that by the time Fury realised what was happening it’d be too late for him!” she warned me
I snorted, that sounded just like Lawrence, him and Fury had never seemed to get on well but for some reason both of them tolerated each other, I knew that Fury was going behind Lawrence’s back but now it appeared Lawrence was doing the same to Fury.
“This is getting confusing.” I thought out loud
“What is?”
“Double crossings, stealth and skulduggery. It’s getting confusing, I don’t know who to trust anymore.” I cried, smacking my metallic hand on the slab of stone I was sitting on, the stone seemed to crack slightly under the force of the blow, I was quietly impressed by this.
“The only people we can trust are ourselves Ilvian, and lets keep it that way. I don’t trust Fury and I’m beginning to trust Lawrence less by the day.”
I nodded, she was right, but I still remained loyal to Fury, even though he didn’t seem particularly trustworthy, he had repaired me to full health and out of the two dictators in our castle at the moment Fury seemed the more sane one, despite his ambitions.
“When’s Fury getting back?” asked Rhiana
“I’m not sure, could be tonight, could be tomorrow, could even be next week.”
“Well, if he doesn’t hurry up he may not have a castle to come back to.” Muttered Rhiana
I nodded, agreeing with her, after all, I could keep a close watch on Lawrence but I couldn’t stop him from doing anything, I couldn’t even hope to.
Silveria took me away from Daguerreo but my destination wasn’t home, I had one more place I had to visit, one day place which I hoped would help me gain the knowledge I needed. A place which I could barely remember from my hidden memories, a place I’d been before and knew that this dragon knew where it was.
<Silveria, take me to the Twilight Forest.> I ordered him.
<Yes master.> he replied before changing course slightly and heading towards a nearby forest, I didn’t know much about the Twilight Forest, only that there was a tremendous amount of crystal power there, and it was this that I needed.
A name seemed to come attached with the Twilight Forest, and a face as well, I recognised the face as being one of the genomes which Zidane was travelling with.
Reiganna, was the name although I could not remember when and where I had heard it before.
“So much of my past is hidden…so much gone.” I whispered to myself.
Then we were skimming low over the treetops as Silveria sought one particular place, once the silver dragon had seen it he folded up his wings and nose dived at the ground.
“Whoa Silveria what the hell do you think you’re doi…” I said as we hit the ground, or at least hit where the ground should have been but wasn’t as everything suddenly went a bright white around me, once it had cleared and I could see properly I looked around and saw that we were now standing in a clearing in the middle of a dense forest, the trees growing high each side of me. The forest was in a perpetual twilight, hence the name I supposed, and the only light came from the stars above me and the crystals in the ground around me.
Slowly breathing out in astonishment I jumped off Silverias back and went to examine one of the crystals, it changed colour slightly as I approached, going from a bright white to a dull crimson, I crouched down and looked deep into the crystal and I could see the power lying within, I could see the energy, the destructiveness just waiting for me to grab hold of it and use it.
My hand reached forward and touched the crystal, a small jolt of power leapt across and made the hairs on my arm stand on end.
“Silveria,” I said “I think I’ve found exactly what I need.”