Cid lay in his bed in the infirmary of the Grand Cathedral. In 
his mind were swirling images of people in his life

Gyn.

Shizuka.

Cecilina?!

A voice broke throught the haze in his brain, as her face swam 
into view.

"So. . .it *is* you!"

"Hello, Cecilina," Cid said weakly.  "It's been a long time."

"Shhh. . . Don't talk. You've lost a lot of blood. You need to 
rest."

"And I'm Lambert. Hah. . . hack, cough, wheeze"

Cid came out of his bed slightly, and coughed as hard as he was 
able to in his weakened state, punctuating each cough or wheeze with a 
curse in either Common, Dwarvish, Ryukin, and Empire of the Moon. When 
his coughs finally subsided, he grudgingly conceded her point.

"All right, so maybe I do."

Cecilina turned to the guard beside her

"Well?" she snapped indignantly. "Go get an Awakened that knows 
curative spells"!

The Guardsman stammered out a quick yes-ma'am, and scrambled off 
to the Cavanaugh home.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it Cecilina"?

She turned back to Cid, and knelt at his bedside.

"It has. I'm sorry I couldn't come back to you, Cid."

"It's all right. It was the only way I could protect you, and 
myself best. Onias would have never taken advantage of your being here, 
but Lambert most certainly would have".

"Lambert. Cruel, evil, despicable Lambert. You know he used 
spells without my authorization"?

"I heard that he's used them. From what young Highwater has told 
me, all of the highest caliber spells, too. I've no doubt that he knows 
some of the nastier ones".

"Knew".

"Knew?" Cid cocked his eyebrows.

"He died by three sword slashes. He was quartered, and then had 
his head chopped off by the fallen one's sword".

"At least he didn't get me," Cid said with a bit of bravado in 
his voice. "Just goes to show that good always prevails over evil."

Cecilina blinked. "You fought the fallen one?"

"Siegvin, yes. I did fight him. Even worse, he has two of 
Ashura's blades now."

"But young Cavanaugh has one now, mounted into a naginata, and so 
does Davin."

"What was the prophecy regarding the blades of Ashura and 
Siegvin, again?"

"I believe that it was that the blades would result in his 
downfall."

"Well, any help they can get is going to help them a lot."

"Them?"

"Them."

"You don't consider yourself a part of their group, Cid?"

-I wish I could, thought Cid.

"No, Celina. I'm an old, senile man, who can't even remember the 
prophecy of the fallen one and the Ashura blades." A grin cracked 
across both their faces. They embraced. 

"Do you realize that that's the first time you've called me 
Celina in years?"

"If Lambert found out that you were my sister, he would have used 
you as bait to get me."

"I know."

Just then, the door burst open, witht the hapless guardsman and a 
middle aged woman. Cid prudently closed his eyes, as if asleep, and 
Cecilina withdrew, and smoothed her robes. 'About time!' she nearly 
snapped, but then caught herself. It wouldn't do for a Mother of Purity 
to act like that.

"Thank you for coming." She said as she bowed her head 
graciously. "I pray that you can heal this faithful Warrior of Light?"

"Marm, 'twill be mine pleasure and honour."

Out of the corner of Cecilina's eye, she saw Cid wink.

==========

The morning after Davin, Mika, and Marcine left found Jil under 
the covers at sunrise, absolutely unwilling to get out of bed.

"This one respectfully asks that Mistress Jil awakens".

Jil Fallensand, captain of the late Lucky Star, accomplished 
fighter, and undisputed queen of the seas, gave a muffled grunt from 
under the covers. For this illustrious person, there was one enemy 
outside that she was currently unwilling and unable to face:

Morning.

A muffled string of colorful curses and compaints came from under 
the covers. "Arrgh, lassie, tis not yet sunup. D'ye have to call the 
dead out o' their graves at such an ungodly hour?"

Shizuka cocked her head a bit "This one does not believe that 
Mistress Jil is truly dead."

"'Tis not. . . ferget it. What d'ye want?"

"This one respectfully asks that Mistress Jil does not return to 
sleep. Mistress Cecilina bades you come. She has need of the Pheonix 
Compass. As it is, this one also believes that it may result in the 
discovery of yet another Heartstone".

"Go away, lassie. Heartstone, Fartstone, I want me beauty sleep."

"This one was also told that a new ship is waiting for Mistress 
Jil."

Jil was out of bed in a flash. "Where? Where be it?"

==========

"So you see, there is a Heartstone in that tower. Therefore, I 
ask that you would go and retrieve it, for the good of the Church, and 
for the good for the world".

Jil, Mother Cecilina and Shizuka stood on the coast of Tienne, 
easily within visible distance of the tower that now loomed a mere few 
miles away. Shizuka stood off to one side, practicing a form that Jil 
recognized as 'Fire Spirit Rages". 

The needle in the Phoenix Compass pointed directly at the massive 
tower off the coast. At a quick glance, Jil knew that there were three  
explainations as to how that tower came to be there. First, it had to 
have either been built in an hour, which was extremely unlikely, 
considering the size of it. The second was that it had been teleported 
there with magic, possibly so, but they would have to be 
extraordinarily powerful or know a spell like X-Zone, as the tower did 
not yet show any signs of corrosion from the sea water. Lastly, was 
that it was magic, and someone's powers were keeping it so. Jil gave up 
on trying to come up with a decent answer, and began to look around for 
her new ship, for only the thirtieth time that morning.

"Mother Cecilina, beggin' yer pardon, but where be me new ship"?

Cecilina turned and smiled. " 'One can remove the sailor from the 
sea, but never the sea from the sailor.' " she quoted

"Aye, me grandda used ta say that too", she replied with a grin.

Cecilina gestured with a robed arm at a barely visible cove 
nearby. Jil took off. 

To Jil's amazement, the Lucky Star sat there, as if it had never 
been sunk.

"Do you like it? I didn't think that Reill's drawings would be 
enough, but they were all we had" called Kyle from the main deck.

"Be he a shipbuilder, matey? 'Tis me old Lucky Star!"

"Not really. He's actually a very talented architect and artist, 
in addition to being a dragoon. Besides, the Lucky Star 2 is probably 
more accurate. Come on aboard!" Kyle turned his head off to the main 
cabin, and hollered. "Attention! Captain coming aboard!"

Immediately, a full crew of men assembled onto the deck of the 
ship. Two of them dropped down into a waiting rowboat, ready to ferry 
her back to her new ship.

-Aye, life be good again. I've me ship, me crew, and nothin' ta 
between the sea and me! Jil thought

"Hurry up, ye scurvy dogs! We've got a Heartstone to get!"
==========

Meanwhile, the Prototype Arachnid-class Steam Walker 37-A, Mark
Three, better known as the "spider-walker" sat by a stream, all 
engines shut down.

Davin grunted as he climbed up to the top of the tallest pine 
tree he could find.

-So far, so good, he thought. A few more days, and we should be 
at Dwarvenhome.

As he surveyed the land, a strange calmness came over him. He 
contemplated the last month of his life or so. In a matter of mere 
weeks, he had been to places he had never seen, done things he had 
never done, and probably accomplished more than he could have ever 
done, if he hadn't broken Marcine out of her cell. Then came thoughts 
of Marcine. She had probably learned more and more spells that she 
thought she ever would. She'd been caught up in something much larger, 
like some kind of massive chess game. Then it finally hit him. They 
were destined to be, by some way or another. He and Marcine, firstly, 
and then every single other person. Shizuka, Jil, Mika, Kyle, Cid, poor 
Syriea, Pearl, and probably others. He quickly kicked off of the tree, 
and began a freefall, landing on the occasional branch whenever he 
began to fall too quickly. He hit the ground in a dead run towards 
camp. 

He snatched his satchel off of the uprooted tree stump he'd found 
in the clearing, and rummaged inside for a certain folded sheet of 
paper. He'd found it one day, when he and Piette were rummaging in the 
Mystical Academy's libraries. It had fallen out of a book they were 
reading, in Davin's haste to replace the book and hide behind one of 
the many bookcases. In his panic, he'd folded it into quarters, and 
tucked it into his tunic. He'd forgotten completely about it until his 
curfew ended, and he was changing into some bedclothes. The words came 
easily to him, as he'd read them many times in the years since. He'd 
returned the original to the library, but not before copying it onto a 
fresh sheet of parchment. The language was old, but with a little help 
from Piette, he'd been able to translate it.

Dark clouds will come upon this world.
But, heroes will arise to meet it.
Together they shall stand
To prevent a new war 
The dark clouds will number three.
Two greater, one lesser
Forsooth, one greater will crush the one lesser
And havoc shall be apparent

The heroes number twelve
One a master of the land
One who strikes with a sword most skilled
One from a land to the east
One from a land underground
One who brings beasts to do his bidding
One who hold the little feathers
One who brings new life to others
One a master of the holy blade
One with a spring like a frog
One who will bring down the heavens
One whose blood is more than salty 
One who will give up all. . .

==========

Author's note: Aiyah! Finally it's finished. I've been waiting a 
long time to do this, and I finally am. Problem is though I had BIG 
things planned for Cid. Oh well. This chapter was more or less useless 
to me since I didn't get to do anything big. It just so happens that I 
had to move everything along so that all these great quests could get 
started. Big stuff is coming along, people! So hang in there!

I'm sorry about the massive shortness of it, and the lack of 
development in the Empire of the Moon, and Pearl/Zalera; didn't have 
time to concoct a suitable plot, as Ter and Scott shot down all the 
plotlines that I had planned. Grrr.

Domo arigato to Demota for doing pre-reading on such short notice 
for me, and thanks to Scott and Terence for lettting me bounce ideas 
off them. I now have more ideas than I can work with, thanks to the 
three of you. Grrr.

								
-Kai