Author: Cyhirae
Notes: Mm..so different starting off with an actual PLOT for once..um..nothing else to say I guess. ^_^ BTW andromeda- the bit about the runes was meant to be confusing. ^_^; It'll better be explained here. Sorry if I lost ya on it.

"So......run this by me again?"

Porom sighs as she sets the tea tray down...Golbez and the Elder are ignoring us for now- pouring over the new chart and the second one...leaving the oldest with us..solely for this. It really didn't make any sense to me..

"It's a prophecy, Palom. The person who traced these the first times used lines of a prophecy they were coming up with in place of simple tracking lines. See?" She slides a magnifying glass over the scroll- revealing the tiny runes making up seemingly solid lines. "These predicted the Dark Moon..a very long time ago too. and these..." She slid the glass to a new set of lines now and tapped them. "Were telling us what chart to look at depending on what came to pass..."

"What chart? but there's only one.."

"It's on the back of the one Golbez and the Elder are looking at. Now shush and listen." She leans over the chart and stares hard at the runes- I'd been having a hard time with them too. They were VERY old... "A heart born of Darkness' rage and Light's scorn will rise..." She taps a certain point then, marked by the symbol for one of the cardinal guiding stars in our skies. "That happened here...much earlier than we thought, but we think it may have pertained to Cecil and Golbez's dreams...because here it says 'And the Heart Shall Shatter Earth and Sky to Rend the Stars...' "

"Here's another question for you then. Why are we wasting our time with THIS one if THAT one..." I let my gaze slide over to the older wizards- both of whom are rather blatnantly ignoring us in favor of just staring at that chart.."..is the one dealing with events that haven't happened yet?"

"You've been letting Golbez do the thinking too long, Palom." Porom moves her finger to the last set of rune-lines tracing the star movements and slides the glass along as well- though this time she says nothing. "We aren't sure what these ones mean. Rydia helped us translate alot of these- but the writing changes here. We've seen all the events otherwise depicted in the other rune-lines come to pass at their proper times- all the way up to these illegable ones."

"And these appear on the newer chart as well." Both of us jump as Golbez speaks up from directly behind me- how the hell can a man THAT tall move that quietly? "It looks almost like a form of Lunarian writing- but it will take me awhile to decipher. I was never particuarly fluent in it's current form - this older one is far harder to make sense of."

Well whaddaya know. The smug "Better than you and I'm going to let the world know" wizard was actually admitting to not knowing something. If I had a book on hand- I'd be making note of this. I'll just have to remember to do it when I get home.

"Well now that we've established we don't know a damned thing of what's going on for sure- what do you GUESS is going to happen?" One thing I learned from four years ago- just toss a random thought Golbez's way and let him run with it. I gotta admit- the man IS a genius, just one who doesn't need acknowledging as such. His ego already outweighs the blue planet as is..

"We can't even guess that..beyond that the balance..is going to be challenged."

Some days-it doesn't pay to be smart. This is one of those days..........

"In other words- we still haven't figured out how we're supposed to keep this thing GOING- and now someone's gonna try to tip the scales again."

"In a word, Palom- Yes."

"That was five words." Great- lovely, wonderful and a thousand other words to describe this in a completely sarcastic matter. Four years ago I almost DIED trying to get this balance. All of us nearly did. now someone wants to tip it? "Any idea WHY?"

"If I knew THAT, we wouldn't be here talking about it, Palom." He spreads the other two scrolls out now- the one made in Agart, that was nothing but a movement chart- and then the old, prophecy bearing one. "I have been able to make out this much however. There are three runes that have been given repeated prominence here. Two are similar runes -if you were to combine them, they would mean "Guardian". So somewhere on this world is someone who was meant to keep the Balance-we just have to find him or her- or them. From the placement however..these people may not exist yet."

"So we're looking for someone who don't exist but were predicted by someone who didn't realize you weren't supposed to use word-lines to track stars with. I'm beginning to wish I'd just slept in. -So what's this other rune you're talking about?"

Golbez just smirks a moment, then slides the glass over to the beginning of the line we had been reading- to show a rune I don't need his help translating. All of a sudden, my mouth is feeling very dry..and there's a very unpleasant sinking sensation about where my stomach should be. At present, it feels like it's resting on my feet...

"Chaos..?"

"You didn't really think one of the oldest forces in existance would give up after only one battle did you? The world has reached the stand point it had been at untold millenia ago...only one reality. It looks like things are going to pick up where they left off..."

For once, Golbez isn't looking incredably smug about something. I think I'd be happier if he was. There's just something about the single most egotistical and self-confident black wizard I know being nervous that just doesn't make me feel any better about the over all situation. I stare down at the chart, tracing the lines...I know some stuff about star positions. I never paid it too much mind, though. As it is- I know just enough to see the position of the primary stars in our sky- the North Light and the Southern Silver.

"...one month? That's all we've got to do this with?"

"Glad to know you didn't sleep through all your classes, Palom." Ah, damn..guess the Elder did pay a little more attention back then than I thought he did.. "I shall be going with Cecil to the shrine on Ordeals. Klu Ya, according to Golbez, had leant a helping hand last time- perhaps he can do so again."

"This time preferably BEFORE everything goes to hell with bells on." Golbez simply looks disgusted- He never did like talking about Klu Ya. "Palom, Porom- we are going to be going on a little adventure of our own. The Guardian this chart predicts will not appear until after Chaos has begun to break free if we let things go as it depicts. We have to find him or her ahead of time."

"Great plan- so where do we start?"

Silence falls in the room....all the answer I need. No one has a damned clue, so we're just going to wander. Damn, but why does THIS feel familiar..?

"We've got to talk about these planning sessions sometime..some actual PLANNING would be nice..."

"Palom, stop whining." Porom's hand makes a half hearted strike at the back of my head, just like when we were children- then she stands. "We'll be leaving tomarrow when Cecil gets here. He's using an airship rather than the Road so we'll have a means of flight....since I hear you don't handle Black Chocobos so well."

He told her about that?! I glare over at Golbez- who's just smiling oh so UNkindly back at me. Golbez and my sister...

Damn, this was going to be one hell of a long trip..

(Continued in "Storm Warnings on the horizon")