melodiesoflife | Event || Terra Incognita

Wanting to know what this Sage had to say, K'pandolu had followed- but this raised only more questions. She stared at the stained glass, trying to pull all the details she could out of it, one ear flicking briefly in Sephiroth's direction as her mind spun. The last cycle… How? How did they know any of this?

She moved closer to Sephiroth and the others, mouth set in a line. Whatever they were about to find would be better found if they were united.

When they reached the end of the stairs, a door awaited them. Needless to them, some might be exhausted by then as the stairs went up for what amounts to over thirty floors. And upon opening the door, they would find a very simple room. Unlike the entrance hall where there were statues and stained glasses, nothing of the sort in this room. Only shelves with some small figures, old books and tobacco.

There was a man standing before the shelves, probably the Sage. Without looking back, he addressed the Heroes of Light who had just entered the hall.

"Minato, please be a dear and close the door behind you."

He knew them.

Robin couldn't hide the surprise on her face; for that matter, she didn't want to. She suspected the sage would know they were surprised, at this point. The woman tilted her head to the side, before she nodded.

"It's an honor, Sage," she said. "But... you seem to already know our names."

It was a strange sense of apprehension, stuck somewhere between the desire to know more and a natural inclination to turn away, which drove Sephiroth up all thirty floors worth of those steps. He didn't raise his head, not once, to look at those who might be looking at or keeping themselves a little closer to him - out of silent support? Out of concern? It didn't matter. There might well be answers at the top of these stairs and he had no comment to make about the story of his doppelganger.

Each pace, every footfall strongly preceded the next even if, like many, he'd find himself a little out of breath by the time they got to the top. Warrior and Paladin Jobs aside, they're all only human.

Silently he entered the hall at the top, which seemed to be made up as some type of old study, just as the Sage spoke up to the individual behind him. Bright eyes immediately shot up and forwards to take in all they could of the person who had spoken to them. Again, it seemed most prudent to observe only, for the time being.

Zelda walked towards the front, her posture perfect and her chin raised. When they reached the top of the steps her breath was a little heavy and it took her a moment to steady it. A hand rested over her chest felling the effort to climb all those stairs.

When they walked into the room Zelda inclines her head slightly. "It's an honor to met you Saga" She didn't even bother to introduce herself after hearing him speak the name of another hero. There was probably much that he already knew.

"Could you please tell us of what you see?"

There had to be a reason for them to arrive here now and there had to be something that he had seen.

"I do. I have observed you ever since you first arrived in this world."

He then turned to them and sat down on a cushion. With a wave of the hand, he invited them to do the same, before turning to look at Zelda.

"First things first, I don't see the future. I only see what certain other people do. To be specific, I can see through the eyes of those who share a strong connection with Narayana-- Such as you."

"That is quite the specific skill."

Although the statues down below had shaken him a bit, Jade had recovered quickly and by now appeared quite calm. He studied the man with interest. Not as old as he had expected for someone called the Sage -- though you could never be sure based on looks alone.

"I assume you have some connection to the Calamity as well, then?"

"Indeed."

The Sage said nothing for a moment, looking at the Heroes one after the other.

"I am what you would call an Avatar of the Calamity." A pause. "You have met five before. Shakyamuni, Kurma, Mograma, Varaha and Kalki. That would make me the sixth."

"An Avatar of the Calamity...?" Robin's eyes widened. She hesitated; at least some of the others had been their enemies, and yet, the Sage wasn't being hostile. Did that make him different? She raised an eyebrow.

"What makes one into an Avatar?" she asked. "And... Kalki, forgive my saying, had opposed us. You don't?"

Ashelia stepped forward. "Honored Sage, if I may - the nature of the Calamity would seem to be less black and white than we previously thought." The Queen looked around at the gathered Heroes, her jaw set in its way. "And Kalki...her motivations are not necessarily to oppose us. She works to complete the will of the Heroes of Light - she was once one of our number, in the previous cycle. Her methods are questionable at best and abominable at worst, and she is of the Calamity, but only in so much as all of us are."

She sighed, shaking her head slightly. "Those statues - those Heroes worked with her in the previous cycle to preserve our hope, that we may continue the fight, perhaps even end it." She looked at the Sage. "Is that not so?"

Zelda nodded as Ashelia spoke. "I was told that the avatars would watch, hinder or help us. While some didn't even know that they were avatar's." Another hero had told her after their shared dreams and that space with the crystal.

"How is it that memories of the cycle before had seemed to be lost and yet it's depicted here?" They hadn't seen any hints or books that indicated it before they came here.

"An avatar is a being that simultaneously serves as a terminal for Narayana to observe the Heroes of Light and as an embodiment of her will." The Sage replied to Robin, before marking a pause. "Or rather an aspect of her will. Narayana is a being on a scale beyond our understanding. Kalki acted as your enemy, yes. But even I cannot say if she is your enemy. An avatar may embody the despair Narayana feels. Another may embody her resentment toward the Ancients or her hatred toward the Heroes of Light, while another may embody the compassion she feels for your cause. Or one may embody her desire to see all existence end. Should it reassure you, I feel confident when I say I embody none of these things."

He paused once again and then turned his attention to Ashelia. "Those Heroes are the very reason Avatars such as myself exist. The cycle repeated countless time and everytime, the same happened. From Narayana's point of view, it would be like watching the same play over and over again, only the actors change but never the ending. But these Heroes did something different. What they did intrigued Narayana, they caused the Calamity to feel curiosity toward the Heroes of Light."

And finally he turned to Zelda to answer her question. "Memories do not belong to a single person. Those who experienced these memories returned to the source of all life in this world and became one with it, before being reborn as Doppelgangers. Their memories ceased being attached to their own individual experiences and became apart of the collective unconscious of this world."

"I see... it makes sense," Robin mused. She frowned, her hand rubbing at her chin, while she thought it out. The Calamity as a person was something she just came to understand -- and yet, she could see its importance. They weren't opposing an event. They were opposing something that had a personality to it; an existence behind it. "She would like to see the cycle broken, too, then? Who... is Narayana, if you can explain?"

Edited 2015-12-06 22:12 (UTC)

Minato had been stunned when he was addressed earlier on, and after complying with the order now was paying even closer attention to the situation at hand more than he had previously--away from how numb his legs were from the climb through the stairs, and bemoaning the necessity of dramatic architecture. (At least, he asked about the door nicely.)

This was already far from a normal welcoming conversation; hopefully they'd be able to maximize on answers that would shed more light on their limited understanding of this world and the scenario they were fighting against. It was against his usual nature: being, to let others do the talking, but something the Sage mentioned bothered him. He may as well speak up now, before the opportunity to mention it passes.

"How do you exist, if you embody nothing? ... And how many more Avatars are there?"

"Shakyamuni said there are ten. That leaves four we haven't found yet."

Jade went quiet for the moment. This discussion was bringing them a little closer to answers... and yet he couldn't bring himself to be happy about it, knowing that the suspicion that had grown in his mind the moment he saw the statues downstairs was about as good as confirmed.

"She also said the black crystals we've encountered once belonged to Heroes who lost their minds trying to communicate with an entity beyond their comprehension. Moreover, the crystals were originally found at the Crystal of Fire, the exact same place the four Heroes ended the last cycle." He turned to the Sage, his expression grim. "That was how they restarted the cycle, then. By communicating with the Calamity itself, even though it cost them their sanity."

Professor Nebilim, too. True, it wasn't the Nebilim from his version of Auldrant, but knowing what kind of end she'd met was still a bitter thing to swallow.

Mograma. Varaha.

There were two named that Sephiroth hadn't known beforehand, these Avatar's of the Calamity. He nodded silently as Jade answered Minato, taking in also that tidbit of information that he'd either not heard before or not taken into account; with so much else on his mind as of late it was little surprise something important might have slipped through the cracks.

A mental note made, to somehow try to discover later what their roles as Avatars might be. One to test their capacity for forgiveness and justice, the other to observe their prowess when faced with impossible odds? For General Varaha, in particular Sephiroth recalls how strange he found it at the time, that a Hero of Light should be placed in charge of the stand against the Herans attack on Aqures Ixen.

Moreover, to what extent and to what purpose was this overseeing of the Heroes of Light? It felt uncomfortable, to finally have revealed what he had suspected for a long time; that they were all being watched by very many more eyes than they could really count.

He'd have pressed the question with regards to the black crystals himself; these items being of the most direct threat to the Heroes' in his opinion -considering by all reports the Calamity was still stalled- but given as Jade had taken it up Sephiroth looked over his comrade with another nod, before turning his attention back to the Sage.

He wondered, if it might be a similar phenomenon as the reaction which had caused some individuals crystals to turn white and never change since. If it could be the polar opposite effect...if white was being drawn into (since 'reunited' is a particular sticking word for him) the Calamity in some way, then black could mean...freedom from?

Kidd listens to the words being said by the sage and her compatriots. She'd thought she was keeping on top of things as she best she could but clearly there were details that had slipped past her. She was about to nod to Minato as he asked the number of Avatars before she could but she was a little surprised that Jade already knew.

But she listened and she took in what she could. The explanation of the doppelgangers was appreciated and lined up with what they knew so far, but then there were other details that still bothered her. "So those doppelgangers, those versions of us from the past cycle, and the few multiples we have here. We're all the 'same' people but separated by our memories and experiences?"

She pulled her crystal from her pocket, turning the white crystal cube in her hand. There seemed to be a red dot in the center, but it was more an illusion of the way it was cut than any vibrancy of the crystal itself. "If that's true of the Black Crystals, then what of the other colors. What do these mean for us? And the worlds we come from? Some sinister things have been implied but I think we'd like to know for sure."

"Yes and no. Even I couldn't describe what Narayana truly is." He answered Robin's questions and closed his eyes, thinking for a moment. "Think of it like trying to explain a cockroach the thought process of a human being. The cockroach lacks the capability to comprehend such a thing. It lacks the biological advances of humans, their awareness, senses, faculties, intelligence and knowledge. Compared to Narayana, we are the cockroaches."

With that said, he turned to Minato. "I was the first avatar to come into existence. A prototype if you will, that is the conclusion I have reached. This is why I can see through your eyes and that of the other avatars." And then he nodded as Jade confirmed there were ten avatars. "You are nearly correct. The cycle was restarted by Garland, not Narayana. It's always him."

Then finally he turned to Kidd. "There are multiple instances of each worlds. The previous Heroes came from different instances of your world. This means your worlds are safe. For now. If you were to die in a definitive manner… Your world would die along with you. And when your crystal turns blue—" He looked down and shook his head. "Some things I cannot tell you."

"Then... suffice it to say there is a danger to our worlds," Robin concluded, with a nod. "You are limited from telling us more by your duty, then?"

She wanted to press, but she knew how these things could be.

The explanation made sense. A being who was beyond their ken; and, she thought, much like a human did not care if a cockroach died, Narayana might feel the same about them. She tilted her head, though, and raised an eyebrow. Another name in that...

Robin looked back at Sephiroth and Jade. Then, with a frown, she looked back at Vamana. "Garland always begins the cycle," she said. "Then, is Garland here, now? And is he someone we must stop?"

As the Sage stopped with his explanation and turned away at that important point; what the changing of their crystals meant, Sephiroth immediately looked up from where he'd been idly watching the floor while listening and with narrowed eyes fixed them on the Sage. Some things he cannot tell them...

"Garland is the Emperor of the Herans." He was a little surprised Robin didn't know, but didn't even look to her as he quickly pulled thoughts around the more important point.

If Robin wasn't going to press, then someone had to. It was all very well being polite and respectful but some Heroes were already tired enough of being played with. The fact that the Sage knew they'd come here, and even requested them to be escorted here set off all sorts of alarm bells.

"When our crystals turn blue...means what, exactly? The Calamity connecting to our Worlds, or our consciousnesses connecting to this one?"

"If memory serves, no one knows what he looks like, right? Or at least... we don't." Not that Minato supposed it matters, he admits internally with a long sigh. But it figures it would be someone no one would be able to tail, if on top of their facial anonymity, they also chose to have their advisers often act in their stead. One can't help but wonder about the appearance of this powerful man to match the reputation of his actions.

"Excuse me for asking, but your looking through others' eyes... it only goes one way, right? The other avatars don't know what's going on here, or...?" It was a stretch, but after everything they'd been through, it was better to clarify. He also imagined the Sage would have had some other good reason for withholding additional information, maybe if not through this down another line of thought.

At the mention of worlds' deaths, and the meaning of crystal colors, he stayed quiet and looked to the others. This was heavy stuff, and he expected some other Hero to word their inquiries better than he could. He was grateful Sephiroth was able to bring up that honesty... and Minato also pondered, was there really a way for them to perish and not be revived? He thought of the current Crystallized Heroes, and the ones who would come to that state the future; he already had his worries and thoughts up to this point, albeit without confirmation.

"Whether Garland is a friend or an enemy, that will be your choice to make."

With that said, he nodded and turned to Minato. "Technically, yes." He sighed and closed his eyes. "However, two avatars managed to become aware of my presence and reversed the link. I cut all connection with them, but I do not know how much they learnt in the process."

And finally, he turned to Sephiroth "This is for you to discover." He replied to him and also to Robin. "I could tell you everything you want to know. But to what end? Knowledge alone won't serve any purpose. Right now, you are too weak to change the fate of this world or of yours. However, during your journey to learn the truth you may grow strong enough to do so. And I will not rob you of this possibility."

"Ah... I understand that you want us to grow." The 'but' may not be said, but it was unmistakable in her voice. She tilted her head to the side, unsure about discovering the information as they went; it disagreed with her sense as a tactician and her experiences.

But, if amnesia taught her anything, it was that sometimes one had to operate without critical information.

"Many of us, though, had different powers before we came. Some of us were far stronger before our arrival," she said. She wouldn't, necessarily, count herself among them. "Can you tell us why we lost our original abilities?"

Robin beat Twilight to the punch with that question. However, as she pondered it herself, she came up with her own answer. "Because our natural powers aren't what's needed."

She turned to the sage and questioned it. "It's the Onion Knight of legend, isn't it? I haven't read too much about it since I got here, but it's a part of it and we need to master it. Also, like I've surmised, they weren't taken, just locked."

Zelda had been listening but one question which hadn't been asked hung in her mind. "What about the white crystals or the black ones from our dream?"

She assumed that he would know of their trials if he had truly been able to see through their eyes. She knew a little bit about the blue crystals, that they would grow darker the closer they came to Crystallis but what about the others and why did it start off as red?

Event || Terra Incognita

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)