Author: Cyhirae

Notes: This chapter is long. I wanted to address an issue I never did in Dark Moon, so some heavy chara development here, followed by something else (ooh, I'm so descriptive!). Final section is NOT done from Golbez's PoV just for the record. ^_^ I think you all can guess who it is (provided you've played the earlier games. if not- well you'll find out eventually).FFIV and it's characters are not mine- if they were, the game woulda been fully redone with modern graphics to do homage to it's glory. ^_^ Nuff said.

The trappings for the ceremony were fully in place...the crystals were both present, though one couldn't be seen. Not unless you had the power to look through the earth and see it where it hung in the Underground. A long silver rod had been steadily worked through the earth for the past year- designed solely to hold these two crystals for their final moments of freedom.

It was sad, in a way I don't think my brother or his near-sighted companions could ever understand. The crystals had just been tools, and as they contained some elemental essence..you couldn't really help but consider them living things. Unfortunately they were living things who's powers weren't their own and bent all too readily to the commands of others.

Maybe I should just look at it as putting them to sleep rather than locking them away.... semantics, but it made it easier to take. I felt far more sympathy for them than I could for any truly living being..they had no say in their fate.

But before the ceremony came the hurdle I was not looking forward to. Cecil, his wife, and all those of Baron. They knew by now who I was, when some years ago they hadn't had a clue... It wasn't going to be an easy moment. Simply because they expected me to be regretful- when I saw no reason to be. There was shame at having been someone's tool, so easily controlled..and at the time of my release, there had certainly been shock. Little better than a child looking for someone to show me what to do after having not had the ability to make any descions myself. But the actions of the time had not been of my deciding. A puppet has no say in it's actions- so why should it feel regret for them when the strings are finally cut?

I rest on the sill of the inn's window...looking out over the square the ceremony will be held in. Certain places had been selected for this..primarily ones that had not held a crystal for all this time. So many precise miles apart- forming a perfectly balanced circle around the Blue Planet. The final one, the Crystal of Wind, would be sealed here. The Light crystal already resided in it's future prison, guarded by a group of black mages, headed up by Palom of all people. White mages stood behind them- and to either side stood some of Baron's famous Dragoons, ready to fend off anyone who might think this a prime moment for stealing the crystal.

Unnecessary all of it, but it made everyone feel better supposedly. Whatever.

Finally, a knock sounds on my door...I guess the Elder isn't going to let me delay any longer. Previous sealings had all been in distant places...where there had been few people to watch or care. I was used to the subtle hostility of the mages...it was easy to shrug off after awhile. But the overt hostility of the Baronians...that would be a new experience... I step away from the window and open the door...like it or not, it's time to get this over with.

I knew they would hate me- but I had not expected this. The streets are lined with Baron's guardsmen...their backs to me and spears held to form a barrier to an angry, screaming crowd. Names were howled at me..some of them insults, others names of people who's lives my actions had evidently ended. True or not, I don't know- but they pinned them to me anyway.

It was..dizzying. This was nothing like the events of four years ago.. When I had first come to Baron then, precious few had realized who I was. By the time it had become known to those outside of the castle- there was the far greater danger of the Dark Moon to deal with, and the effects of it's rise. There had never been time for a confrontation.

And now it was here. People screamed from all angles, shaking fists, jostling the guards to try to get by- until one does. A woman darts out of the crowd, her shawl left behind in the hand of a bewildered guard. I barely have time to acknowledge her arrival before me when there's a dazzeling pain seering acrossed my cheek, with force enough to have turned my head..

She had smacked me. The little fool had actually had the gall to smack me. The crowd starts to cheer as she draws her hand back for a second strike, yelling at me...

"Monster! How dare you come back here!? Now you're taking the crystals away from us- wasn't what you took before enough? Weren't the lives and honor of this land enough for you?!"

And the cheering then stops...because her hand is caught in mine. I wasn't even aware of when I did it- and slowly it's being bent back, pushing her down to her knees. I can feel it inside...an anger all my own, for stupid little fools who looked for scapegoats for everything.... What did they know? My fingers tighten on her wrist as she lets out a whimper- but no one's stopping me. The Elder is right behind me, but he's doing nothing..

Feeling suddenly numb, I release her hand...but rather than running back to the crowd, something about my expression seems to have given her the courage to draw her hand back again for a second strike...only to find it once again caught..this time in a gauntleted hand. My eyes rise from the woman's surprised face to meet the eyes of my brother as he gently turns the woman to face him. Exactly what's said..I don't know. It was too quiet, whispered directly to her ear. The woman turns to give me another hateful look, but pulls away from her king to vanish into the crowd again...while Cecil falls in beside me.

"Just keep walking, Golbez..no one will try anything else. I promsie worse had been waiting ahead."

Perfectly irrational reaction- from pure insult- nearly makes me shove my brother away into that crowd of his adoring people. Like I would need protection from such a pathetic group. It wouldn't take but a touch of magic to send them running, and he thinks I need protection from them. He's clearly not protecting them- his gaze is rather unsubtly locked on me.

Behind me, the Elder moves forward, placing his hand on my shoulder to urge me on. He doesn't need to say anything- I know what the gesture means. Fits of childish "I can do it myself!" spats can wait until we've completed the ceremony. Side by side, Cecil and I make our way to the seal's future home. I can see what he meant by "worse had been waiting"- if the confisicated bows and arrows watched over by some guardsmen were any hint.

That would have been a disaster beyond belief- for them. Maybe that was what Cecil had been so concerned about- avoiding having half his town burned down because his followers were fools. It's oddly comforting, that thought. And given our history, it makes far more sense.

Every step is a torturous one. I had expected their hatred- but nothing had prepared me for how strong it was. I could almost feel it lapping at me as they fall silent in the presence of their king... but the glares do not stop by any means. If one could kill with a look, I would be a thousand times dead. And I find myself regretting the descion I had made myself back when the sealings had first begun.

"The seals will all be linked to the final one- so we will place it where it will be best protected. Baron is far superior in military might, and with everyone so in awe of the Paladin-King, trouble is far less likely to come visiting it there."

It made perfect sense...but now I'm wishing I had sealed it in the middle of the Damcyan desert or something. Finally we stop before the crystal- and only then do I realize that somewhere in the length of that walk, Cecil had placed his hand on my arm. I hadn't even felt him do it- but I do feel him removing it, stepping away from me as the mages arrange themselves about the square. I turn sharply to face the crystal, dismissing the event from my mind as I recall the spell that will be used here... Old magic, such as I had learned among the Lunarians. No one on this world knew how to do it but me. A pleasant power-rush to banish the disorientation and dizziness of the walk though that hateful, jeering crowd.

Around me the mages begin to chant...their power rising into the air around us and just lying there, awaiting use. I raise my hands to start the spell's weaving, using a counter chant of sorts, weaving that magic as it becomes visible to even those magicless lackwits in the crowd around us..wrapping it strand by strand around both. First black magic about the Light crystal, and white about the Dark..the guide the two along the pole, wrap them..and blend them together.

The world falls away- all vanishing, even the mages. It's simply me and the spell I'm weaving, a powerful joy they couldn't ever understand. The magic begins to thicken about the rod and crystals..spiraling about like some overly large unicorn's horn and engulfing both crystals..they would never see daylight again - never be used again. And as the last glittering light vanishes from sight.the world shifts. Reality comes shattering into this spell-dream, followed by confused shouts and a pair of hands roughly grabbing me by my shoulders, shaking me as if to snap me out of something...but all I can do is stare as the crystal makes it's final flare before it's engulfed entirely- an eclipse of light covered in the dark of the magic I wove..

Then there's cool ground beneath me and then darkness of a different sort than an eclipse...

The scales, constantly tipping in this and that direction, have been evened. I feel it deep in my sleep. The clock has turned back for this world...Eons of damage caused by the meddling skyfolk have been set right..the multiple realities destroyed and the old mistake undone.

My wings unfold as I rise from my prison bed, brushing the ceiling and floor of my domain-turned-gaol. Even that is changing as the world acknowledges the need before it..with the balance having been pulled true, and taking the others with it...it is once again time to test it. The old verdict has been dismissed after all these ages...It must be redone.

Within the halls of my temple, I can feel the others stirring...the ancient harbringers I had once set loose to send this world to it's fate. One by one, they awaken and begin to move to the entrance..their purpose clear once again. The world would be tested- and likely destroyed. It's balance, though true, had failed it once before....it would likely fail again. Human nature would allow no genuine balance to go untested, even when best left alone. When challenged with my harbringers- the first and most powerful of the creatures later known as "Fiends"- they would undo all they had wrought to fight them.

But even as life returns to my temple, the sun kissing it's walls and ancient stones again after all these ages as it's mountainous prison falls away...I can feel something in the kingdom far to the south. A trace of the skyfolk, still lingering...halfbreeds? And the champions no less...only fitting the skyfolk's own kin should fix what they had set awry. A gesture calls their images before me....One lying on the ground, half held by the other, people shouting all around- and the crystals, those hateful little things left by the skyfolk..sealed.

A laugh of pure, amused delight rumbles through me..shaking the pillars of this temple and the land about it. So that was how the seal had come undone. No matter..Perhaps I should send a harbringer to properly thank them..?

(Continued in "Resonating Light")