19.

Eternal falling

"Dawn... Why...?" Cecil was kneeling at the edge of the cliff, head bowed, not able to hold back his tears.

Rosa stumbled forward, slowly, a hand before her mouth until she fell to her knees as well, shedding her tears into the cold earth. Even Kain had to turn his head away; lest the others should not see his grief. Yang had his head bowed, as well as Rydia, who was clutching her cloak around her shoulders, shivering. Golbez had turned his back towards the others, looking at the crystal in his hand and shaking his head now and then.

"Why...why did she do this?" Rydia asked, her voice thin and trembling.

"I don't know… But we...we should have listened to her... but I... I did give the crystal away..." Rosa sobbed, hardly able to speak. She crawled up to her husband, gazing down at the waves below them which crashed against the rocks mercilessly. "Is... is she really gone?"

Cecil could only nod as words failed him-- he could not believe what just had happened. "Dawn... She's dead... We'll never see her again... and her last words..."

"Oh my god..." he whispered, full of grief. "If I had known how she felt... I was so stupid. I might have done something..."

"Would you have?!" Golbez whirled around suddenly, his voice thick with bitterness - as Cecil looked up he realized that his brother's eyes were filled with sorrow and grief, but also anger in an intensive form he had not seen since they had met.

As Golbez, on the other hand, saw the tear stained face of Cecil, who never once had cried before the others as far as he could remember, his expression softened. "There was nothing you or any of us could have done. She was able to help all of us, but the one person she couldn't help was herself. Her past with Mallack... her own unfulfilled desires... It was too much for her… In the moment she took the step back, she knew that she would run into Samon's dagger," the dark haired wizard said.

"While she instilled in every one of us hope, there was no hope left for her…" Tears were shooting into Cecil's eyes again.

"I... I don't believe this… I cannot believe that she had wanted to die…"

"No, maybe not. But she also no longer wanted to live…" Golbez stared at him, his face once again expressionless and then, shrugging slightly, he turned around and was lost in his own thoughts.

"There... there must have been a way... she was my friend... I..." Rosa started to cry even harder again, falling into Cecil's arms.

Cecil cradled her close, closing his eyes - though the feeling of each other gave both comfort in this time, he knew, as well as his wife, that it had been one thing that had brought Dawn to her death...

They stayed for a while at the cliffside, each one grieving in their own way, though especially for Cecil it seemed as if a million years would not be enough to cope with this tragedy and the sorrow it had brought over each one of the companions, not to speak of getting over it.

Finally, it was Golbez who was the first to react again. He wandered over to his brother and stretching out his hand, offered the crystal to him. "Dawn wished that we use this crystal to stop Mallack... So we should respect her last wish and do just that..." he said in a low voice.

"He's right," Kain said darkly, his eyes still glassy.

Cecil slowly loosened himself from Rosa's embrace and nodded, slowly. "Yes... Mallack will pay for this dearly..." he whispered, and it was not only a promise but a resolution he would follow until the last…

~*~

Silently, the group continued its way to Mysidia. As dusk was breaking, they finally were able to see the town's crystal tower sparkling in the evening sun. As on the road before, the town seemed strangely without life and the normal bustle of the wizards on the street had been replaced by an eerie silence.

"The town looks like it's dead…" Kain whispered. "Maybe Mallack was faster than us again and is only waiting for us..."

"If this is a trap, it would be best to divide," Golbez remarked. "That way they will never be able to strike down all of us."

Despite this rather depressing view on future happenings, Cecil agreed. "Very well... one group will try to find the Elder, why the other one will search the town... Rydia, Yang, will you please check Mysidia? And--" He shot Yang a meaningful look, which his friend interpreted correctly.

"Sure. Rosa, will you please accompany us as well?" Yang asked her.

The young queen gasped and looked at her husband, accusingly.

"Rosa, please..." Cecil told her. "If we both would get caught, Baron would have had no ruler left... The enemy mustn't kill both--" Seeing his wife's eyes widen, he corrected himself: "They mustn't get us both in their hands…" He stepped closer and stroked her face, softly. "Dear... I promise that I'll be careful. Kain and Golbez are with me, too. And Da--" He stopped, his heart once more getting confronted with the terrible truth: Dawn's voice and bright laughter had died away for all eternity.

Rosa swallowed hard, fighting back tears, but nodded. "Alright. If Dawn could give her life to help, I can as well forget for once my worries..."

They embraced and then split up, Cecil, Golbez and Kain leaving into direction of Mysidia's main building.

~*~

"I wonder where all the people are..." Kain wondered, as they reached the great doors of the impressive crystal tower. No guards were to be seen.

"Reminds me of Baron..." Cecil frowned and tried to open the door, carefully. To his surprise it opened without resistance. It was clear that this could only mean a trap, but still, the three men knew that they had not much choice in the matter.

"Don't let down your guard," Golbez whispered as they entered the unusual dark halls of the sanctum, their footsteps echoing on the marble floor.

The entrance hall of the tower was as empty as the town, but as the door to the inner sanctum came nearer, voices could be heard from the crystal room. Cecil motioned his companions to stay behind him, in order to watch his back and carefully approached the door. The white door was not closed completely but was ajar and the Paladin was able to take a peek into the room through a little crack. What he saw was what he had expected, but still it filled his heart with sorrow to see his fears once again justified.

In the bright lit crystal room most of Mysidia's townsfolk seemed to have gathered, and was listening intently to a Black wizard, who stood on the top stair of the long-empty crystal dais.

As the man spoke rather loud, Cecil was able to catch some details of his speech:

"After the fall of Zeromus, Mysidia has sadly entered the cage of dependence of other countries out of seemingly free will. The Mysidians have always been a strong-going community, a city of science and magic, a pearl of wisdom under the towns of the Blue Planet. So why did we have to make treaties with Baron, the one Kingdom which once tried to destroy our beautiful town and plundered it so ruthlessly? Have the Mysidians lost their honour?"

"Cecil..." Kain whispered from behind, but the Paladin was too intently eavesdropping than to listen to his friend.

The Black Wizard continued: "Many of you have lost loved ones, siblings, parents or friends in these attacks and now we shall trust foul subjects like the King of Baron who was the former head of Baron's forces and lead the attack on our town? A man who's made Baron even more invincible than before by allying with the houses of Fabul and Eblana? A man who, as I know from a reliable source, is now even housing the fiend Golbez in his castle? He may have become a Paladin, but it wasn't our spirits who accepted him, but a Lunarian and his own father on top of that! Our Elder may defend him as much as he wants, as well as some others who do not understand that the treaties with Baron will only lead to an occupation of the town by Baronian forces, but we will show them the truth! Baron with its cursed King is not a country to ally with, but an enemy one has to fight for the sake of freedom!"

The black wizard talked on and on, now accompanied by loud cheers of the crowd - Cecil used the moment to withdraw from the scene and leaned on the door, pale, his heart beating fast.

"By all that is holy... We're too late! They are already under Mallack's control and obviously it wasn't even hard... The people showed even less resistance than the ones in Tororia! And I seem to be the cause of it… The hate against me is so strong... They might even attack the Kingdom, and in this state with hardly any allies left and no troupes I can trust, Baron is helpless… If Mysidia decides to strike at the Kingdom with its full magical force, it--"

He tried to calm down and reminded himself that he had not spotted the Elder amongst the crowd, so maybe there was hope left after all. At the same time he wondered whether Jonas had been listening to the teachings of the wizard - in view of the hate the young man held against him, it was very likely. Cecil turned around to tell Kain and Golbez about what he had heard, but to his surprise they did not stand where he had left them.

"Kain? Golbez? Where are you?" He hissed - only silence answered him. Suddenly he heard a whisper out of one of the dark corridors leading away from the hall. "Kain? Is that you?" Cecil carefully followed the noise, laying his hand on the hilt of his sword.

As he rounded the corner, he spotted the silhouettes of two figures in the darkness of the hall.

"There's just another intruder! Hey - you there! Halt!" One of the figures shouted upon seeing him.

"Okay... wrong direction..." Cecil murmured and turned around swiftly, returning to the hall which led to the Crystal room. As he tried to retrace his steps back to the entrance hall, though, his way was blocked by a group of three other persons. One of them cast light, the bright flash revealing Cecil's identity to everyone.

"It's the King of Baron! How dare he set his foot in our holy halls!" One of the black wizards shouted - Cecil decided to break through the group and prepared himself, but he quickly changed his plans as the door of the crystal sanctum opened and a mass of townspeople came swarming out, obviously startled by the shout of the guard. Several people began to scream at once:

"It's the Dark Knight who led the attack!"

"He has my son on his conscience!"

Cecil saw no other way out than to dart in a corridor next to him, hoping that somewhere there would be an exit. He reached an intersection - to his left and right, voices were audible as well. He hurriedly followed the corridor in front of him, only to find himself standing at another intersection. Trying to navigate his way through a seemingly endless maze of narrow, dark passages, the angry shouts of the Mysidian people ringing into his ears, the Paladin soon felt like he was experiencing his worst nightmare.

From everywhere, angry wizards seemed to emerge, trying to block his way -White wizards and Black Mages, even adepts, who were still children, had changed into a furious wave, trying to crush him. Cecil raced down some stairs, realizing that instead of reaching the exit, he was entering the Crystal tower deeper and deeper and that the crowd behind him had no intention of abandoning the chase on him - there was nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide, as well as no means to soothe their anger.

"What could I possibly tell them? What could I tell them to apologize for what I have done?"

"Now we finally can get our revenge!" The shouts had become very loud, and the constant screams "Murderer! Murderer!" hurt in the ears of the Paladin.

"Murderer… Jonas called me that, too…"

Panting, Cecil ran around a corner into another dark corridor - too late, he noticed that it was a dead end. He turned around - the shouting and the magical cones of light which sparkled around the corner were a safe indication that his pursuers were not far away from him.

"Murderer! False Paladin! You'll pay for what you did to us with your blood!" The voices were so loud now, as if the crowd had already surrounded him - he was caught like a mouse in a trap.

For maybe the first time in his life, Cecil felt real panic surging up in him; a dark, gloomy might seemed to overcome his whole being, clouding his mind and paralyzing every limb of his body. Thoughts swirled though his head - whether he really deserved such a fate; whether he could have done something else… They mixed with pieces of memories showing up before his inner eye:

The attack on Mysidia…The rattling of his dark armour as he had crossed the great hall, blood everywhere to his feet... Rydia's village burning... His ascent to Mt.Ordeals and the light and sound of his father's voice in the shrine… But then: Blood on Dawn's shirt… And once again the rattling of his dark armour as he had crossed the great hall, people begging and crying at his feet…

He remembered the night in which had quarrelled with Jonas and had realized more than ever before, that the past was not changeable. "Were all my tries to atone in vain? Is this how everything shall end? My own dark past finally bringing me to fall…"

The voices and footsteps of the Mysidians came nearer and nearer - soon they would find him. For a second, Cecil thought about fighting to the last, but he knew that he could not win against the crowd and that dragging young people, some of them still children, with him into death would help no one. His back to the wall, he slumped down to the floor, hoping that at least Golbez and Kain were in safety. And…

"Rosa..."

The darkness of his own guilt and past engulfing him was so strong that he no longer could even feel fear in this moment, only utter desperation -- The shouts of the incoming crowd ringing into his ears, he closed his eyes; awaiting whatever might come...

Awaiting his inevitable end...