Author: Cyhirae
Notes: Whoo......finally got this started. ^_^; This story will be following mostly Palom rather than Golbez- though dun worry, he should get lotsa air time here. Expect a slightly more blatanant sarcastic tone to this one. It IS Palom after all...

For first time readers of my work- this is a sequel to Dark Moon. To truly understand and enjoy this story- I highly recommend reading that first. Also- be aware I'm a slow updater sometimes. ^_^;; I'll try for at least one chapter a month tho. Enjoy!

Do you ever get the feeling that something is watching over you- and getting a damned good laugh at your expense? If you do- trust me, you're dead on. Something is- though in my case, it's that jackass in the tower usually. At other times..I get the feeling it's something much bigger and a hell of alot worse...but I can hope it's just my imagination. After what happened back then after all- what could possibly be worse?

About four years ago now- Golbez returned and the whole world got turned on it's ear as one of the most critical Balances in existance demanded to be set right. With alot of trial and error - none of the former and tons of the latter- we finally got it right.

Yay, the world was saved -again- and everyone could go back to their lives and live happily ever after, right?

Wrong.

Golbez is still convinced this mess was far from over- and in all honesty, I really don't blame him. The balance was restored- but it had been in the past too. And it had always tilted. We'd done alot of research so far and uncovered several of the Champions in the past...it had sure amused the hell out of Golbez to find instances where it was the Dark Champion who was actually the hero if you stepped back and thought on it.

But all these succeeded in doing was showing us temporary fixes. No clues, no hints... nothing showing how this might be maintained. What if we kept it just until Golbez and Cecil died? Sure, they'll have long lifespans since they're half Lunarian- but c'mon. Everyone dies. And I'm young enough that I just might be around to see it, especially with one being in such poor graces with the world in general. I really don't want to go through all that again...

And that's what brings me here- to the steps of Golbez's tower. Placed at the edge of Mysidia- it's become quite a library in truth. Golbez's personal space is at the top- all the other levels are study rooms and endless racks of books. Porom would love it here if not for Golbez's presence. Ah, well- no point in dwelling on that little truth of the universe, eh?

I push the door open and start up the stairs..there's a few other people here today. I can hear them moving around- that's not too unusual. What IS unusual though is when I go to the next level- and hear even more people there. Class trip maybe? "Come see the tower of the scary man of darkness- ooooooooh~!" -nah.

I feel a frown tugging at my lips as I reach the top of the spiraling stairs finally....this whole tower was just BUZZING with people. Given the fact this was GOLBEZ'S home and well- hardly anyone wanted to remember the events of four years ago.....this was no little disturbing. Fate was about to get to the punchline of her joke of four years ago- you could just sense it if you thought on it long enough.

~You're right on that one, Palom.~

That..nearly sends me tumbling down the stairs. DAMN but I hate it when he does that! He could at least come to the door like a decent person and say it. I could pretend like he was just reading my expression and not my mind that way.

"Golbez, will you cut it out already?!" I push the door open and stalk into the front room of his chambers...and find him with the Elder- and Porom? "Er..that is....."

"Sit down, Palom." Golbez is sitting acrossed from them- an old scroll unrolled on the table, with a new one just below it. It looks almost like they've been copying the old one- save for some rather significant differences.... "Before you do fall down the stairs."He waits until I've sat and slides the scrolls over to me- tapping the old one. "This..is an old scroll found in the Land of the Summoned Monsters by Rydia. She brought it back with her when the entrance was reopened. And this..." Now he gestures to the new one. "Is a recent one composed by the professor in what's left of Agart."

"Um.....very pretty. So what the hell am I looking at?"

"Star charts, Palom." The Elder now moved to lay out a third scroll. Again, it looked almost identical, save for a few small differences..."And this one was in our library. Porom and I have been studying it for some time now since the Dark Moon incident...but it's true nature wasn't understandable until Rydia brought this ancient one- and then Golbez had this new one made."

And I guess Porom still knows me well enough- cuz the moment I start to open my mouth,she's holding up her hand.

"The point is, Palom, that the first scroll shows what happened four years ago. The professor confirmed the star locations for the events of the time. These lines here are the movement charts- but if you look closely, you'll see they're actualy lines of runes- describing events to happen at those points." She pushed the next oldest in front of me- tapping the lines. "It's the same thing here. But the events depicted in this haven't come to pass that we know of...yet. This point here, however, indicates a starting position."

And now that wonderful sinking feeling as I look to the final scroll- the new one- on my own. It had no rune-lines- just standard predicted-movement lines...and presently..just a little bit before those depicted in the second scroll.

Dead silence holds the room for the longest moment as they let it sink into my mind just what this all indicates. And when you get right down to it- there's only one possible reaction to give. I groan and drop my head into my hands, hat abandoned to the floor.

"Here we go again...."

(Continued in "Stars and Mysteries")