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Chapter 9
Kal
Time

As we started down to the water, Eyce pointed out a silver elvish boat.
“Can we use it?” she asked.
“I guess so…” I said helping her into the boat.
As I pushed the boat away from the dock, everything started to become hazy with mist. Soon everything became bright white… I couldn’t see anything, or hear anything. In fact…I wasn’t even on the boat.
“Kal? Are you alright?” I turned around to see Rayne. I was back on the island…I was home.
“Rayne? Is that really you?”
“Course it is, silly…do you feel ok?”
“Yes…I’m fine…” I said holding her close.
“You were dreaming again weren’t you…?”
“Rayne…this isn’t real is it?”
“Course it is. You know it is.”
I let her go and looked her in the eye…to prove to myself that this was real.
“No…its not.” I said, “ It can’t be…you’re dead…you’ve been dead and there’s nothing I can do about that …your eyes…. They’re not gray...one is green…and the other is lilac. I’m sorry but your not her…just an illusion.” I said as she disappeared. The mist lifted and I could see Eyce was there. Sitting on the opposite side of the boat, trapped within her own memories or visions… as time floats by…I wondered if we’d ever get out of here. …Only time will tell…time will tell.












Chapter 10
Eyce
Time will tell

The mist seemed to create a haze…a white vale…I closed my eyes to think of better days…days when I thought I knew who I was, and what my future would be.
“Ma’am? How’s that?”
“What?” I said as I opened my eyes. I was in a fitting room…trying on a wedding dress.
“ It fits fine, but-”
“Oh darling! It looks beautiful! You’ll be the prettiest bride ever!”
“Mom?! Bride?!”
“Course! That Zack fellow came home. You telephoned me yesterday, said you were getting married…aren’t you happy?”
“Yeah I guess so but-wait-Zacks-“ I couldn’t believe what I heard. Zack was alive! I was overjoyed
“Where is-is he-ohmygawd!” I exclaimed
“He’s out in the hall, you told him to wait-you can-“
I couldn’t wait. I wanted to see him. The last I had heard was from a man with a letter saying that Zack had been shot over in Iraq. I never got a chance to see his body or the casket he had been buried in. The only thing I had left was the engagement ring he gave me. A Garnet surrounded by diamonds.
I ran out into the hall and there he was, the same person, or at least an exact copy.
I could feel tears summoning themselves. I ran over to him and wrapped my arms around him.
“My God!!” I exclaimed, “ I thought I’d lost you!”
“Eyce… its fine…your alright-everything’s gonna be alright.”
I looked him in the eyes. It wasn’t him. His eyes aren’t gray…there mahogany… in that moment everything faded. My world had ended. I had to face the fact. Zack was dead and there was nothing I could do about it.
“Welcome back. Enjoy your holiday?” asked Kal coldly. For a second, I couldn’t remember where I was. Then suddenly the mist receded into the water and I looked at Kal from the opposite side of the boat…and I remembered everything…the present and the past. I couldn’t take it. I didn’t want to face the fact that Zack dead…I couldn’t. I could feel tears swelling and I couldn’t hold them back anymore. I couldn’t brush this away again, like it didn’t matter. I couldn’t stand knowing that the love of my life…was gone.









Chapter 11
Kal
Lock
As we got out of the boat, I could see Eyce trying to hold back her tears. Whatever she saw… must have been painful to relive, just as my strange dream had been.
“This way?” I asked as we came to a set of steps.
“Right.” she said, “Up the stairs and to the right…that’s where he is…”
“Well come on, then.” I said walking ahead of her. I turned right into a large caverness room.
Eyce pushed past me and walked up to an old crystal trunk.
I waited for Eyce to open the trunk and bring back the Lock. Simple as that.
“Holy Jenova.” I said under my breath. Out of the shadows behind the trunk loomed a twenty foot spider.
“Holy -!” Screamed Eyce as she stumbled and barely missed the fang-like pincer of the enormous thing.
“Holy…holy-help me!!” She yelled as the spider went in for another dive. Luckily, I managed to chop off one of its legs only to see it grow back and have it’s attention focused on me.
I started to back up, trying to motion Eyce to flee without losing the attention of the spider.
As I continually tried to keep my footing without getting killed I stumbled into the spiders’ mass of web. Barely able to regain my proper footing, the spider was nearly upon me… when it lost its footing caused by the leg that had been renewed earlier. Seeing an opening, I took a chance to set my self free of the massive web and take a whack at the monstrous creature, only to get a spark from a…a metal collar around the beasts’ neck. It backed up surprisingly horrified by the sparks.
It’s afraid of light. I thought, if I was to get more sparks…I might get a bright enough light… to catch it on fire.
I took several more swings at the beast’s neck, causing sparks every time until…it finally caught on fire.
I could see it writhing in pain, I turned and ran to Eyce. Running back to the steps, I heard something running…no more like rampaging toward me. I turned and saw the half burned spider roared with anger. It raised its eight-eyed head and crashed its skull into one of the pearl-like stalactites, therefore killing its self! The entire cavern shook with the last thrashing of the spider.
“WHY COULDN’T IT HAVE DONE THAT EARLIER?!?!?!” I exclaimed angrily.
“You alright?” asked Eyce running down the path with the Lock in her hands, the black pearl chain swinging with every step she took.
“I’m fine” I said, “Are you?”
“I’m fine but I think that we should find another way out of here.”
“Wha-”
“The steps just collapsed from all that spider shaking.”
“Figures…well there’s another way out…that is if you don’t mind walking through an Irohnian temple”
“I won’t mind, but then why didn’t we come from that way in the first place?” she said annoyed.
“You led the way.”
“Touché.”




















Chapter 12
Eyce
Roku

As we walked through the cave I could hear the voice again. I stopped in my
tracks and looked around, I couldn’t see him. Kal gave no indication that he could hear the voice I was hearing.
Down here. the deep voice said
I looked down only to see the incense burner. I put it to my ear to hear if this was the source It was.
I am Roku…who art thou?
“Eyce…”
Kal stopped and looked at me. He shook his head and motion me to follow. I continued walking and listening at the same time.
M’lady…call my name when thy is in danger.
I agreed. I fastened the long strand of black pearls connected to the orb-like incense burner to my waist and followed Kal.
As we exited the cave into the temple…or what was a temple I could see Kal’s expression change from blank to concerned.
I looked around at what once must have been wondrous beauty and elegance. Some natural or man-made disaster had turned it into a sorry state. Kal walked around the room trying to see if anyone was under the rubble and expanded his search to the rest of the temple. I followed and began exploring the area when I came across a partly intact mosaic floor. In the beautiful art piece it read, “ Sadness was the Price to see it End”. In the design was three doors of bright shining light and …a shadow covered person-no a girl with three glowing objects floating above her outstretched hands. One of the objects was able to be identified. The object was the orb-like incense burner, just like the one that I held in my hands.
I continued walking down a corridors and stopped before a door. I opened the strangely carved door to see… the shadowy figure with crimson eyes I had seen when I first entered the forest back home in Maine! It was hunched over a dead priestess, as it hunched, blood seemed to run down along the floor and I could see…he or whatever it was, was eating her. I gasped and tried to back up and run but it turned around and stood up to its full height, six or seven feet to be precise. Its crimson eyes tended to eat away at my soul. I tried to scream, but the horror of the massive creature kept me from it.
As it went in for a dive I tried to move and it barely missed.
Call my name!
“Roku!” I barely said. And in a split second a tiger-like or catfish-like beast appeared. It snapped the thing in two and it vanished like shadows.
Is thou alright?
I nodded. Quickly.
“What was that?” I asked still trying to regain my composure.
A Regalia…horrid beasts… an essence her…awful creatures.
“A what?”
Roku looked at me and as his tail swished with warning he said, Here. He swung his head like an impatient horse and a small burst of blue light shown in front of me. I tried to shade my eyes from the bright light…but something forced me to look at its splendor. When the light faded, so had Roku. But floating in the air… was a small five-sided diamond shaped turquoise rock. It appeared to be no bigger than a peanut. I touched it and another burst of light appeared. In the mist of the air was… a gun…a white gun with an oval shaped turquoise spot on it.
“What is that?” I asked reaching for the oddly formed pistol.
A bombardment rock. Said Roku. A summoner must have something to summon with. It will take any shape that you wish.
“Will it fire…like a normal gun?”
Yes. But only by thy will. Thou won’t have to use thy life force from the orb anymore to summon me.
“Cool-but wait- how does it work?”
If thou wants to use it as a weapon…just fire, don’t give a thought about who thy is firing at or when or where your firing, just fire…and the rock will take care of the rest. It will find the evil threatening you. But if thou wants to summon me, call my name.
“But, there are no bullets.”
“Then here.” He said as another burst of blue light popped in my face like a firework. Before my eyes was a bandolero. The bullets that hung inside the leather compartments, a bright turquoise blue they were…just like the gun. The belt, which held the bullets, was made of a fine red leather.
I got up , slipped the bandolero over my head and swung across my chest. It was incredibly heavy and felt as if each turquoise bullet contained one thousand fighting souls, ready to be set free with the fire of the gun. I started to go look for Kal. When I found him, he was carrying a half dead priestess, about the age of 15.
“I found her under the rubble.” He explained.
“This way.”
At that moment of time a Regalia appeared. I took my bombardment rock in hand and fired. It fired like a bright blue bazooka. The Regalia appeared stunned, and in that moment it seemed like nothing really had happened.
Oh crap. I thought. But just then the Regalia lit up as if electrified, it bubbled like a marshmallow over a campfire, then it disintegrated leaving nothing more than blue dust.
“Nice…” I said to myself.
Kal glanced at me in amazement as we hurried toward the daylight at the end of another corridor..
Go to the northern shoals… said Roku
“Alright.”








Chapter 13
Eyce
Explanations


As I walked around the silent, sleeping aircraft I look out the bay windows that rounded to fit the aircraft. I leaned against one of the windows. I was so lost in thought that I hardly noticed the three moons orbiting each other. I thought of my past…I thought of how I had never smiled in my entire lifetime. How my father had left when I had turned two. How at the age of fifteen my mother couldn’t put up with her ex’s daughter, who had done nothing wrong, yelling I HATE YOU as she threw me out of the house. I began to trudge around town looking for a place to stay. I then got involved with the wrong crowds. In the mist of my insanity I began to pick fights for no reason. And in one of those fights cops came to clear the area. I ran. I ran as fast as I could through the gates of snooty high-class mansion. I climbed up a trellis to a window and found that it was open. A girl my age had just entered and asked rather calmly, ”Are you here to rob me?”
“No”
“Then sit down.” She seemed just as depressed as me. I told her my life story and she told me hers. Her name was Elsie Jane.
“Well, why do you hate being a girl?”
“My father hates me because he wanted a boy to take over the logging business. And to make matters worse, I’m a tree-hugger.” She said coldly, her blond curls bouncing like bedsprings.
We soon became friends. In fact I’ve lived with my friend ever since. Surprisingly, her parents took a liking to me and asked me to stay. They traveled often and figured that I would be a good companion for Elsie. In time Elsie and I were tighter than thieves. And she introduced me to one of her friends…Zack. At first, I thought little of him. That was until I got to spend some quality time with him, alone.
“So...” I began.
“So.” The awkward silence began to sink in.
“What’s new with you?” I asked trying to spark a conversation.
“Does E. J. like anyone?”
“None that I can recall.”
“Oh…so what’s new with you?”
“Nothing much.”
“Look up.” He said pointing to the sky.
“Wow…have you ever seen so many birds?”
“They’re lucky.”
“Why?”
“They get to fly anywhere they want. Free as the wind.”
“But if you think about it…they’re also trapped. If they don’t know how to use their wings or if their wings are broken they can’t go anywhere…so they’re not free as the wind, they’re not free. Never will be.”
“Wings are a sign of freedom to those who have none.” He said blankly still looking at the birds.
“I-I never thought about it that way…I guess your right.”
.
Around the month of January he came to Elsie’s house. I said my hellos. He wanted to speak to Elsie, alone. I didn’t want to know what they were talking about. But unfortunately I had left my shoes in the room they were talking in…so I had to interrupt the “private” talk.
“Will you marry me?” was the first thing I heard as I entered the room. I didn’t hear her reply but I rushed out of there as fast as I could. I walked out the door into the freezing cold snow. I began to run. I tripped I could feel the snow plastered all over my face. But instead of cold it felt warm… I put my hand to my face to wipe away the snow but felt something else. I felt my tears, streaming down my face. It was a surprise to me because I had never felt my own tears…I had just kept all of those emotions bottled up inside.
“ Its useless…he’s not worth it, let it go…” I thought, “they’ll be perfect for each other just do what you always do…let it go…”
I turned around and headed back for the house.
“Pretend it never happened…” I told myself.
“There you are!” exclaimed Elsie
“What?”
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you! …I need your help on a decision…”
“…Ok…”
We walked up the staircase to her room in the west wing.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I’m pregnant…”
“What…whose child?”
“You know the foreign exchange student that just left about a week ago?”
“The idiot or the good looking one?”
“THE GOOD LOOKIN' ONE…sorry I’m just worried…”
“Its alright. What are you going to do?”
“ Well Zack is the only one other than you who knows. I was going…to…that’s what I need help on… what am I going to do?”
“Well, you could raise it, give it up for adoption, or you could have an abort-“
“And feel terrible for the rest of my life?”
“I see your point…Well what do you intend to do? I’ve laid out all my ideas-what did Zack say?”
“He gave all the exact ideas you did and he threw in one more, he offered to marry me! I turned it down though because he’d have to give up on joining the army…and besides he likes someone else…”
“The army? Someone else?” I was doubly shocked and my face showed it.
“Oh I thought you knew…”
“No…who is she?”
“I can’t tell! He’ll be mad!…But you’re in love with him aren’t you? ”
“……….Yes. But we have to think about the baby now! There is one more option…your parents will be in Europe for several months—they won’t even see you pregnant! When they come back the baby will be here and I’ll say it was mine! I’ll raise it ,your parents will never have to know.”
“Thank you…”She said rapping her arms around me, “you’re the greatest friend ever…”
“And you’ll be able to see the baby whenever you want…you know I just don’t want to take it away from you permanently. And Elsie, let go.”
“Thank you…just eight months left.”
Unfortunately or maybe it was for the best, Elsie had a miscarriage later that month. We never had to tell her parents. It made Elsie and me closer. And it made me realize how much of a good guy Zack was.
















Chapter 14
Eyce
Unpleasant meetings

My thoughts of the past were interrupted by footsteps. I looked down the hallway and decided to hide in a nearby storage room…(more like closet if you ask me.) As I looked out I saw the priestess and Kal walking down the hallway… and they stopped and talked in that foreign tongue which sounded like Japanese. She suddenly burst into tears and buried her face in his arm. He then felt sorry for her and put his arm around her. My jaw dropped. Truthfully I felt like punching him in the face and throwing her over board.
My God, what’s come over me? I thought, I’m like some lovesick teen-ager.
I shuttered at the thought and tried to keep my self focused on getting out quietly. I saw a hatch that led out through the ceiling and I took it and ended up on the main deck.
“Your sure are sneaky.”
I quickly turned my head and saw Reno
“You startled me…”
“What were you doing down there anyway?”
“ I…was walking down the hall and I tripped over my feet and fell into the closet and the door wouldn’t-“
“No worries. I get it. We’ll just say you were exploring, alright?”
“Kay…”
“Before you go back to “exploring” where are you from?”
“ The east…” I said gazing into his peach colored eyes. those eyes with twin scars on each side .
“Then tell me,” he started, “Why are we heading west?”
“Well,……….. I don’t have an answer.”
“What kind of quest are you on?”
“I’m on-- can anyone hear us?”
“No, but lets be sure.” Said Reno.
He walked to the wall whacked it with his fist and in a quick motion a ladder fell down from an open hatch leading to the roof of the aircraft.
“Ladies first.”
“You lead… I don’t know where were going.”
“Alright.” He said as he climbed up the ladder.
When I got to the top I finally noticed the moons.
“They’re beautiful..”
“ The smallest one is just called “Moon”. The largest is “Artimes”. The medium one is “Earth”.
“What? Earth?!?”
“Yes. Why?”
“That’s where I from!”
“Your-you- WHAT?!?”
“I walked threw a green forest on the border of Maine and ended up in a glass one.”
“So it’s begun…she is upon us. Holy Jenova this is bad.” Reno rubbed the back of his neck.
“What’s begun? Who’s she? Why is it bad?
“Have you ever had one person on your planet that would threaten the existence of the entire universe?”
“No…no.”
“We did. Her name is Obscurus. She was a Sorceress who once loved a human named Atim. At one time the people of Tides, the Sorcerers, and the Goddesses all lived in one realm peacefully. But everything changed when Obscurus fell in love with Atim, and he did not return her love. He was in love with the Goddess Iriel.
“What happened to him?”
“ Obscurus was so enraged that he loved Iriel that she killed him. After that, she went mad. She blamed Iriel for his death and sought revenge from the Goddesses. She cast a spell to bring his image back from the dead and filled it with her soul giving up her own body. But the spell had a flaw due to her madness. Her soul cannot stay in one body for long. She’s like a traveling carnival…once she is done with one body she leaves it for dead and she moves onto the next. The Goddesses Jenova and Iriel have tried to protect the humans of Tides from this cruel fate. They forged a Staff of Eternal Promise, to seal Obscurus in a space at the junction of your world and ours. But now she has found away to break the Staff and travel between worlds, taking on new bodies. That explains how you got here.”
“That explains the strange occurrences at the forest back home. But there were lots of kids hanging in mid-air, and they didn’t end up in this world like I did!”
Reno looked at me seriously. “That’s because you are different from all of them.
“Why?”
“Because you are the one who can travel between worlds. You must be the Jactare! Does anyone else know about this?”
“I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW ABOUT IT!!!” I exclaimed. “Why can’t your so called goddesses help you? If they did it before why can’t they do it again?”
“Because you are the power from the your world that must come forth to destroy her,” he said
“What?” I asked him with confusion.
“Because the Staff was forged out of three elements, the Key, the Lock, and the Chain . These elements are of this world, and when forged by goddesses of this world , there was a weakness that allowed the Staff to break and Obscurus to escape. This time the Staff must be reforged by the three elements of this world, brought together by the Jactare of another world. This will combine the strength of two worlds in the Staff and make it unbreakable.
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not unless you want your world would be the first to die…”