"And she said that there had to be ten, or it wouldn't work." Vivi had just told everyone about his dream, and what Adreana had said.

"What could it mean, essence of those created by magic to use magic?" Steiner, as well as everyone, was baffled.

"Logically, if we can figure out what creature she referred to, we can then decipher the rest," concluded Dr. Tot. "First, 'to use magic' sounds like a caster of sorts."

"Se we need the essence of a caster," Zidane said. "But 'by magic to use magic?'" Kuja spoke up slowly.

"Created beings, made for the purpose of using magical powers." He looked to Vivi as he finished. "Black Mages." They all gasped, but then fell silent, thinking.

"It makes sense," agreed Freya. "The method by which the Black Mages were made, the machines, must have held a little magic in order to function. That would make them 'created by magic, to use magic' as Lady Adreana said."

"The essence?" asked Cid. Kuja and Vivi looked at each other. As one, they said a single word:

"Mist."

"What?"

"Someone's essence is what they're made of," Kuja explained. "And, at least literally, Black Mages are made of Mist."

"But there isn't any more Mist," Zidane reminded them all, sounding frustrated. Which he had a right to be. After all, his wif3 was a victim of this plague, this Spirit Plague. Vivi was silent. As things seemed, Mist was the solution, but a solution that no longer existed.

"Kuja?" Freya's concerned query made all turn their attention to the Genome, who was rubbing his head, eyes closed, as if he had a headache.

"Are you getting sick too, bro?" Zidane asked, worry on his face. Kuja's answer came as a small moan.

"Ugn... I'm... I'm not sure. Mist... it was like I was trying to remember some - arg!" He swayed and toppled out of his chair. Instantly the others were on their feet, and Zidane was at his brother's side.

"Kuja!" The Genome was tossing the turning, as if in pain, his eyes scrunched closed. He murmured things that made no sense, bits of words and phrases: "cave... master... go away... tha... not me..."

"What's going on?" asked Vivi, though none could answer. After about three minutes of this, Kuja lay still, calm, and his murmurs faded. At the end of five minutes, his red eyes opened.

"You okay?"

"I think so, brother." He slowly sat up, but there was an intense look in his eyes. "But that's not important." All involuntarily winced as the coughing of yet another ill mage reached their hut.

"If you're ill - " began Steiner.

"I assure you, I am not ill, at least not yet."

"What happened then?" Freya wanted to know.

"I - I think I tried to remember - something, from my past." Kuja buried a hand in his tick hair. "My memory is so - spotty - but when we began talking about Mist... I saw... things. Places. A cave, and a - a Black Mage machine." He closed his eyes in recollection. "It hurt. But I remembered. Before - before Queen Brahne - before I killed her, I hid a Black Mage creator in a cave. In it is a capsule, about my size, that contains Mist.

"The last of the Mist on Gaia."

"Where is it?" asked Vivi eagerly.

"That's the problem... I'm not sure."