1. Prologue

**Prologue**

The land of Ivalice had long since been removed from history and its knowledge lost to the masses. The times of magic and monsters had been dismissed by historians as fables, myths, and metaphors. Words such as "Totema" lost their meaning in the ever-rushing flow of time, and the races that had mysteriously disappeared had vanished from history altogether. And yet even after the passing of so much time, there was one family that had continued to look after the old world knowledge of Ivalice through the ages so that in the event of the return of monsters and magic humanity would not be completely defenceless to the potential outcry of violence it would cause.

While the Durai family charged themselves with collecting and maintaining the scarce few artefacts of Ivalice that remained, a single piece had evaded them for going on eight hundred years. This artefact was the great book of ultimate magic; the Gran Grimoire. However, the youngest of the Durai family, Leon Durai, finally believed that he had followed all of the clues as to the ancient book's whereabouts, and ironically its supposed location was in the one place that common sense dictated that it was likely to be in, the one place that maintained the use of a single word from the old world: The town of St. Ivalice.

The clues leading to the book's whereabouts where sketchy to say the least, but the known life of the Gran Grimoire was easy enough to track. The Grimoire was known as being a book of pure magic made by the gods when the land was formed, but it was left behind when the gods sealed off the holy realm to mortals. The magic leaked out over time and granted some measure of power almost equal to that of the ancient Espers to the Humans and the other races. However, prior to the founding of the Light of Kiltia (the religion of the age), it was mysteriously lost. Magic continued to feed into the races of Ivalice, and over time the smaller animals mutated as a result of this same power into monsters (airborne magic that did so became known as Mist). The book was found by an unknown group nearing the end of the Age of Technology, and unfortunately for eighty percent of Ivalice's population, opened. The feedback of power began to draw in torrents of magic which annihilated landmarks of the time and caused all of the non-Human races to simply disappear. It is from this that it is supposed that whoever found the book was in fact Human, since it was the only race to have survived.

Supposedly, the book was closed just prior to magic fading from the world altogether, and it again vanished from history for a long period of time, likely whomever had chosen to open it had seen the power of the book first hand and hidden it, or possibly the book hid itself. At this time, the Durai family began to write the history of Ivalice beginning with Alazlam Durai, although it was not for a few generations that the writings turned from slanderous notes concerning the churches of Kiltia and Glabados into information on the magic that was still slowly fading and the mysterious disappearance of the other races.

It later became apparent that the book had somehow camouflaged itself (or been commanded to) with its magic to become an entire city. While it just seemed to spring up overnight, there was nothing to suggest that it actually surprised anyone, although this was to be expected after the mass genocide of all of the Moogles, Bangaa, Viera, and Nu Mou only a few hundred years before. People began to live in the city as they would in any other, as it was a city that effectively built itself and cost nothing to do so, and so to leave it be would have been a waste. After a host of natural disasters hit the city and caused death on a massive scale it became known as the city of the dead, and an unnamed man (likely simply regarded by history as insignificant) found that the city was indeed the great magic book; the Grimoire itself. When the core of the city was found the book was forcefully removed, but in the process the clasp on the side shattered and absorbed the last remnants of magic into itself. The book then vanished before the boy and the city began to crumble around him.

As quickly as the city had appeared, it disappeared again, and the land was once again clear of all life, with the unnamed teen being the sole survivor. And so the book had once again become lost to humanity, and yet a quick check of an accurate world map would have shown that the location of the modern day St. Ivalice was on the exact spot where the city of the dead has stood hundreds of years before. It became clear to the Durai's at this point that the book most definitely had some form of intelligence, and dubbed its consciousness "Li-Grim" (Roughly "The Darkness"). So he had travelled with great speed to St. Ivalice as soon as he realised this, armed with enough money from the family accounts so that he could buy the artefact if the current owner knew its worth, and was equally prepared to steal or fight for it in the event that the owner would not relinquish it.

As he walked quickly and quietly past the local school, a thin sheet of pure white snow began to form on the ground, and it quickly turned into a thicker and thicker sheet as the heavens quite literally opened up. It was early morning and the sheer amount of snow meant that Leon wanted nothing more than to get under cover and wait it out, and yet the children of the quaint countryside town were all too happy to leave their homes at that time in the morning and hurry past him to school. He could not help but smile at their cheerful faces, and even some of the less happy ones, as he knew that he should really be in school like the rest of those of his age. Yet his family had never liked the idea of sending a child who was considered to be so potentially important to the future of the world to a public school where his perception of the world's history would be diluted by the drivel they taught there.

Still, at fifteen he had more than a decent knowledge of the world and was more than able to get by on his own, and yet he could not wait to finish his business with the Grimoire so that he could return to his family. He did not resent what he had been brought up to do, as he understood that the future of the world, or rather it's past, was more important than the life of one boy. His hair was a silvery-grey which he had grown to love because it gave people the idea that he was older than he was, and the length of it only added to this. His shoulder-length hair aside, his hazel eyes seemed to glow with an inner knowledge that reflected his maturity to a larger degree, although his average build often made people wonder just how old he was. Yet he knew from experience that he could pass for about twenty years old at best, because he was of about the right height and he spoke well enough to get away with it.

A boy with brown hair ran headlong into Leon, and fell backwards in the snow as he rebounded off him, Leon had barely noticed as the boy clearly had little or no strength behind him. Leon stopped and helped him up, and the boy stuttered a thank you before continuing to run in the direction of his school. Seconds later, three boys ran after him without a second glace at Leon who glared at the obvious bullies in disgust as they passed. Still, it was none of his business, so he continued to walk off in the opposite direction. He felt something soft under his shoe that most definitely was not snow, and upon glancing at it he saw a small brown bear in the spot where the boy had fallen. He picked it up buried it deep in the right hand pocket in his combat jacket, making a mental note to find the boy when the end of school came to return it. Until then he made his way through the knee-high snow towards the town's pub where he had decided just at that moment to spend the day. Behind him, a blond haired boy walked slowly towards the school keeping to himself as his supposed peers jogged past him.

He ordered himself a drink and was glad when the barman chose against asking for ID or even making any kind of conversation; obviously it was a close-knit community and if somebody had made the effort to come into town they were extremely likely to come all that was to lie about their age for a pint of beer. He paid for his drink and sat in the corner by the window where he had no doubt in his mind that he would not be disturbed. The Grimoire could wait; while he had every respect for his family's self professed mission to collect the artefacts of ancient Ivalice, it had not moved in the last few hundred years, so he doubted very much that its magic would be disturbed at any time in the next few hours. Oh how wrong he was.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One: The Grand Awakening**

The hours dragged by, and my wallet became thinner and thinner. Eventually, I lacked enough Gil to buy another drink, and so I drained my last glass and got up to leave. My senses were a little off where I had been drinking for the past few hours, but since I had no plans to drive any time soon, I did not really see it as a problem. As I reached the door a man walked in and right into me. He seemed to reel from the collision for quite a while, but eventually he straightened himself up and managed a half-hearted "Sorry" before walking up to the bar, ordering a drink, and asking for it to be placed on his tab.

I stood in the doorway for a moment and looked at the man a little closer; he already stunk of alcohol suggesting that he had started his morning's drinking at home, and he looked really dishevelled. I had always prided myself in that I rarely chose to judge anyone on their appearance, but I took an instant dislike to the obvious waste of space that had passed me by. I thought on it for a moment longer before walking out into the cold street, and beginning to look around for places where the book might have been.

I spent the rest of the time up to lunchtime scanning the city for potential owners of the book and fed people with descriptions of it, offering money for information, but none came through for me. Which was probably a good thing in hindsight, as my wallet was empty at that stage and so the packs of money I was keeping concealed in my combat jacket were meant to be used to actually buy the Grimoire from its present owner. I got tired of walking around so I found a cash machine (the only one in town) and withdrew enough money from my personal account so that I could buy lunch and a few more drinks.

I chose not to go to the pub again, but rather to just stop off at the local convenience store and grab something to eat and drink. No matter how hard I try I cannot remember the name of the store I went to that afternoon, although that would probably be because it is a completely insignificant detail and so it has lost its pride of place in the forefront of my mind. I just picked up a cheese sandwich and a coke to keep me going; I reasoned with myself that I had had enough alcohol for the day and to make do with what I had found. I finished my food off on the road, and noticing the time decided to head back towards the school where I might see the child who had lost his bear.

I had to walk back past the pub to get back to the school, and passed the same man who had walked into me before. It lightened my spirits to see him walking away from the pub, and so I thought ill of myself for thinking so badly of him earlier. We ended up walking the same way, but we chose not to speak to each other; or rather, I chose not to speak to him. Once again contradicting myself, I must mention that he reeked so badly of drink at this stage that it actually pained me to walk beside him, and so I sped past him so as to spend as little time near the drunk as possible.

I never did realise that he turned off, but apparently he did not walk behind me all the way to the school for he had disappeared by the time I got to the end of my journey. I arrived just in time to see the end of a snowball fight, and once again looked on in disgust as I saw the same child being bullied. I then watched as a brave red-haired girl stepped forwards and challenged the bullies, at which point they said something to her that I could not quite make out which caused her to advance on him violently. Thankfully the teacher intervened, for I would have hated the brave girl to have done something foolish and caused herself trouble because of the fools that were bullying the other boy. The ringleaders of the group were taken inside with the teacher, while the rest of the class was dismissed for the day. I thought about simply walking over to the boy and handing him his bear, but I had no way of knowing if this would make things worse if the bullies were to notice the handover. Instead I waited until the group made their way off from the rest of their classmates, and then again moved to speak with them.

Once again, somebody interfered. But this time it was the drunk from before being yelled at by somebody who appeared to be his superior; I could not help but think that he had gotten what was coming to him when he was threatened with the loss of his job, but when I saw the bullied child cringe as the conversation moved on, I knew that they had something to do with each other and could not help but feel sorry for them both. Moments later, the discussion ended and the red haired girl made a comment about the drunk, at which he turned around and they all spoke for a while. Then the three moved off further down the street and I followed them, but in looking behind me I noticed that as soon as the drunk thought us to be out of sight, he walked off in a slump back towards the pub. I shook my head in disgust.

The three of them, the blond boy, the brown haired boy, and the red haired girl, spoke for a while longer and then took different routes towards their respective homes, and I took that moment to go and speak to the boy whose bear I still held under my jacket. I would not wait any longer for I knew that knowing my luck something would get in the and stop me, so I tapped the boy on the back at a run and skidded to a halt beside him. He looked up at me and was clearly unsure of what to make of me; and there was shock on his face as I began going through my jacket and at one point I truly think he was ready to make a run for his life. At that I smiled dutifully and shook me head, then passed him his bear from my jacket pocket. He smiled at me and thanked me profusely. I shook my head again.

"I picked it up when you ran into me this morning." I said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Oh, I'm really sorry about that."

"Never mind; what's done is done. Don't let those bullies get the better of you." He looked up at me strangely for a moment and then broke off his gaze. I realised then that I'd been too quick to speak my mind and had said too much. He simply thanked me again quietly and ran off. I think back now and realise that if I had have spent a few more minutes making conversation with him I may have gotten the information I had came to the town for and then I would never have needed to go through the ordeals I did. However, in trying to act older than I was, I frightened him off. I thought he was going home, but he was actually going to the library to check out the very book I was looking for from one of the few places I had not thought to look.

Magic in anyone's hands is dangerous, but to put the power of the Grand Grimoire into the hands of a boy as troubled as him was exceedingly so. Mewt Randell, as I came to know him had a powerful imagination and emotions to match. But the Grimoire feeds on that kind of energy, and Mewt was just a weak child; nothing he could have done could have prepared him for the power that it contained.

I was lying in bed that night at the local Inn when I felt a massive release of magic. Somebody had undone the seal on the Grimoire and was likely to be reading the ancient runes printed on its pages. There was no hesitation on my part, for I knew what had to be done in order to protect myself from the magical release that might ensue: I took the twelve-point amulet from my suitcase and placed it lightly around my neck before getting dressed and running out into the night. The amulet represented something very simple; the Zodiac. However, from that it also bore the writings of the twelve Espers, or the Lucavi, and it was one of the only known artefacts in existence that bore the strength to bestow immunity to at least some portion of the Grimoire's magic. Of course, the Lucavi were long gone, and therefore, the magic of the amulet was nothing compared to what it was in the time of old, but it should have sufficed for long enough for me to reach the book and close it before its new master unwittingly unleashed its great powers upon the unsuspecting world.

I bounded down the flight of stairs at the Inn and crashed out into the street without a backwards glance to the people I sent flying as I barged past. Somewhere in the small countryside town the Grimoire was being activated because someone appeared to be able to read the ancient inscriptions, or perhaps because somebody may have added to the book when it was last opened in such a language that the people of the town could understand. The amulet began to glow with a dull light as people around me began to fade away into the night and entire buildings began to vanish before my eyes, a graphic reminder of the fact that I was defended, but also that the people around me were not.

The world literally began to flash before my eyes; everything was being replaced with darkness and there was nothing I could do about it except to find the source before the damage became too great to be repaired. I could not help but wonder why it was on that day that the book was found again, and why I just happened to be there at just the right time, but I suppose that fate is what drew me there and what brought be through the days ahead. A Pillar of energy erupted from one of the houses at the far end of the street I was on and I knew that had to be where the Grimoire was being held.

I held nothing back and ran as fast as I could will myself to, and given the situation, I was pretty fast. I reached the door to see the entire house encompassed by a blinding light that was slowly moving outwards, supposedly it was the energy that would bend the world in the image that the book's master bid it to. I shrugged and ran into the barrier anyway, reaching for the door. My reasoning was very simple; if I was immune to the magic that was changing the world before my eyes, then I had nothing to fear from this mighty pillar of energy and would be safe. On the other hand, if I was not immune, I would rather have chosen to die, or to change, or whatever it would have done to me, that be forced into it when the tidal wave of energy burst into the Inn and took me by force.

Luckily, the amulet's power held and kept me quite safe, and so my hand tightened around the door handle and I continued to run towards the source of the book's magic. At this point I shut my eyes and followed my other senses (some of which I had just discovered I had) to get there, partly because if they had remained open any longer I would be blind in minutes, and partly because the sheer amount of power that was being released was like a beacon to me. I found what I sensed to be the door behind which the Grimoire was being used, and so I threw caution to the wind and kicked the door in. I confess I was not prepared to see the boy I had helped earlier, Mewt, sitting cross-legged on the floor reading the Grand Grimoire; and for a moment, just a moment, I hesitated.

The moment was all it took; the Grimoire simply assumed that I was another creature to feed off of, and began to probe into my thoughts before I could put up the mental barriers to stop it. Mewt looked up and me with complete indifference, as I was just another using the book's infinite supply of power to get what I wanted, and that, for the time being at least, made me a friend. I could see inside my head what the Grimoire was doing to the world, and I was powerless to stop it, but at the same time I was thinking that the Grimoire was the last of Ivalice's relics to collect and that I must be strong. The book used my thoughts of Ivalice to build on Mewt's wishes by making him powerful and his enemies weak in a world of my choosing. I knew it was wrong and that I needed to fight the magic, but the Grimoire would not allow me to put up any kind of barrier to stop its intrusion into my mind. Suddenly, as quickly as it had invaded, it retreated again; it had what it wanted, enough wishes to be getting on with, and was done with me.

The world was being rebuilt around me, and I noticed then that what was a young boy's bedroom had become some kind of an ancient shrine not unlike those that used to worship the Espers, but a key difference was the lack of doors and windows. We were as good as trapped until the book was done with its reconstruction of the world as we knew it. Despite the fact that I, and the world itself, was clearly in massive danger with only myself and Mewt for support, I could not help but wonder what the book's Ivalice would be like. I had no doubt in my mind that it would not be entirely true to history because Mewt's wishes had been made first and would take priority.

Mewt thought he understood the situation, but he clearly had no idea; he was talking to himself about power and friends, and then suddenly he began to fade away. That was not the worst of it, the book was also fading; unfortunately, something took its place. A creature that had appeared in legend at the time of the Grand Grimoire's creation, Li-Grim, stood… well… hovered… in front of me. I was amazingly calm in the face of such majesty; she, if she was in fact a she, was a blue crystalline entity that was rounded completely. She was like a diamond that had been filed and buffed until no sharp edges remained, and she was beautiful. No, she was not beautiful, she was as beautiful as a demon born of pure magic could be, and thus she was appealing to my young eyes. What she, or it, commanded it beauty, it held tenfold in power; Li-Grim spoke to me telepathically, seeing no reason to waste energy on words and chose instead to manipulate my own mind so as not to seem as my equal.

"_This world was born from yours and the boy's wishes, and you are free to roam."_

I thought of a sarcastic response but she was obviously reading my mind while "writing" on it, and glared at me in defiance.

"_Yes, it is good of me to allow this. This is my world, not yours. That I let you live is a gift."_

Power flowed from her like a tap, and so I suppressed any thoughts that might have been seen as contradictory to her statement and she smiled at my display of weakness.

"_This is Ivalice as it was in the old days. But it is different because you wished second."_

She "spoke" almost resentfully and by now I was genuinely scared of what she would do to me if I was at all defiant towards her, and so I simply thought an affirmative to her statement.

"_Your world is gone now. Replaced. You are welcome at the palace as a courtier."_

And with that she vanished, and looking around me, so was the room I was in. She left because I thought about her disposing of me, and I thought then that she may have changed the subject and left because she could not kill me. Perhaps, I thought, my mind, my wishes, are what keep the world whole.

However, I knew at once that this was not so; the Li-Grim was the thread that bound the world together, and it was her who now effectively "owned" my wish. If she wanted rid of me, she could have rid of me with no consequences. Obviously something more important came to her attention. My thoughts were cut short as I appeared in a vast ornate room with swords and shields decorating the walls; and if my memories of my research were accurate it was an Ivalice Palace Hall.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two: T****he World of Our Fathers**

I stood and stared in awe at the room around me and took in as much as I could as quickly as I could. While the new Ivalice that the Li-Grim had fashioned was built from my wish, since it had existed in the time of Ivalice, it was likely that all of the major details were handled by it and neither me nor Mewt. Mewt, I pondered, would have to be found and spoken to as quickly as possible. Just then, a creature popped its head around the door leading deeper into the palace and looked at me with a cold stare. I rubbed my eyes to make certain that I was not seeing things, and then once I was sure I was not, I turned to face it. It appeared to be a Nu Mou; a bipedal dog-like creature that was heavily in tune with magic, and obviously extinct in the time of St Ivalice. Somebody should have told the one standing before me, however. In the time I had been thinking it, no he, had moved closer to me and gave me a short bow of his head, which I saw only curt to return. He looked me in the eye and addressed me carefully.

"Lord Leon I presume?" He asked me in way that seemed almost regal in tone. I nodded slowly after savouring being called 'Lord' for a moment or two. "Very good, sir. I am Babus Swan; the loyal Runeseeker in service of his Majesty Prince Mewt." I almost chocked when he stated that Mewt was a Prince, but I dared not to let it show in case he took offence. "He will see you as soon as you are ready." I nodded again and beckoned for him to lead the way. He gave me another short bow and walked off back to where he came from. I followed.

He began to talk to me more and more as we got closer to the royal chamber, asking me at one point why I was here to see Prince Mewt rather than Queen Remedi, to which I answered that it was he who asked for me. My answer must have been in-keeping with what he had already been told or had assumed, because he showed no surprise or shock in his hard features. As we reached the doors I saw the two suits of armour that I had believed to be simply that, move. I then saw that there were lizard-like faces poking out of the two suits and I jumped back in surprise when they moved again. Babus turned to me and looked at me strangely for a moment, and then seemed to have had a brainwave.

"Oh I apologise. Bangaa do not inhabit the area which you call home, do they?"

I looked at the 'Bangaa' again, not in fear, but in appreciation of their fine, warrior race of which I knew a lot. I looked back at Babus and shook my head slightly.

"They do not, but I do know a little of their customs. I for one would never address one as a 'lizard' for fear of losing my life."

The Bangaa on the right of the door gave me what could only be seen as a smile, but Babus clearly did not notice. He merely nodded at my unlikely knowledge of the clearly lizard-like race, and asked them for the door to be opened. They obliged without a word and allowed him through, but when I motioned to follow they brought down two knight's swords into a cross to bar my path. Babus looked back and simply said "Weapon."

It was at that moment I realised that I had a short sword in its sheath around my belt, and that I could feel the cold edge of metal on my back where I was likely concealing a knife. I thought jokingly that it was could of Li-Grim to have left me armed where she dropped me, but then I thought that it may in fact have been my wish to be armed, and to be 'dropped' there. I shrugged off the thought, realising that I was likely seeming to be arrogant in the face of the proud warriors standing in my way, and wanted to dismiss that idea as quickly as I could. I pulled the knife from its tiny sheath under my top and my sword from my belt, and handed both to the guards carefully. They both nodded and split their swords again so that I could pass through and I nodded to them both out of respect as I passed through the door after Babus, who was clearly getting impatient.

He stopped outside the door to what I could only guess was where Mewt was waiting and told me to go in. I obeyed him and walked in silence over the threshold into Mewt's audience chamber. I saw him and bowed instinctively, as though I knew it was expected of me despite the fact he was only a boy. I looked him over once and thought to myself how frail he looked; using the Grimoire's magic had really made him look unwell and even the golden royal clothing that he now wore was not enough to make me believe anything to the contrary. I also noticed a woman to his left who I could only assume was Queen Remedi, and a man to his right who I identified at once as his drunk of a father, who now was clad in solid plate mail armour and had an especially expensive and ornate looking sword strapped to him back. Mewt did not return my gesture of goodwill, but something inside me told me he would not anyway. He waved to his mother and father to leave him and once they had left, turned to look me in the eye.

"This is my world, my dream, and I won't have anyone ruin it for me." He said in a pathetic attempt to sound at all of royal birth; he just came across as spoilt. "I want you to discard your place that you've been given in the Ivalice Court, because this is MY world and not yours."

I almost laughed out loud at that statement, but he was the Prince and could probably have had my head chopped off without any hesitation and so I stifled myself. He clearly thought the world to be his personal creation and did not understand that it was the magic of the book maintaining to keep the real world transformed as it was. Still, in a bid to keep my head intact, I chose not to point out that little fact. Instead I bowed my head again.

"If that is what you ask of me, Lord Prince, then I shall obey you."

He smiled the kind of smile that you would only ever see on the face of a triumphant bully, but I did not care; I simply wanted to explore the new world, and then when Mewt's energies ran out, the world would revert. I could not help but think what a fool the boy looked; regardless of what he had gained there, he was no physically or mentally stronger in Ivalice than he was in reality, while the odds were that the world of Ivalice would make adults of Mewt's friends. I bowed again and walked out. Outside Babus remarked on how easily I had bent to the Prince's will, to which I commented that his will was law and I was no fool. He accepted my comment and handed me my weapons, and then I left the Palace without another word to anyone.

I moved outside of the castle grounds looking around myself in genuine amazement at the beauty of the land and wondered to myself how powerful the Grimoire must have been to not only destroy Ivalice, but to restore it again in the dream world it had fashioned. I banished the thought as it was wholly unimportant, and focused myself on instead finding the nearest pub and stopping in for a drink; the odds were that they drank pretty much the same things in Ivalice as they did in St Ivalice. Sure enough, outside the gates of Bervenia Palace was the Nu Mou city of Cadoan, and thankfully, the Human barman was more than happy to serve me ale.

The barman looked amazingly like the one from St. Ivalice, in fact so much so that I now assume that it was the same barman but that he had been transformed in the same manner as myself and Mewt, but that unlike myself and Mewt he did not have his true memories intact and so he did not recognise me. That is not to say he was not polite; he treated me with every courtesy and claimed to recognise me from somewhere called the Ivalice Court. I assume that Li-Grim put me in a position of power almost equal to that of Mewt with the intention of rewarding me as the co-creator of the new Ivalice. That said it obviously did not factor in the fact that Mewt would usurp me so quickly. That or it simply did not care. That in mind, I did not care in the slightest; while power would have been handy for my exploration of Ivalice, without it I was able to travel like the regular population and get some insight into what life was like back in the time of the _true_ Ivalice.

I quickly realised from the rush of so called "Clanners" that in Ivalice the Pubs were considered to be the source of information for the general public, and that they made a good sum of Gil (I was amazed to see that Ivalice also used Gil as currency, although Li-Grim may have made it so to make our introduction into the world easier.) from selling the aforementioned information. I was still in awe that the five civilised races of Ivalice were able to live in such harmony despite having separate capital cities and being completely different in nature. Though looking at how adaptable the races seemed, it was no wonder that it was humanity that survived in the real world to the present day while the other races had died out. If the book specifically targeted races other than Humans where it killed the other four, then it was mere luck that humanity continued to exist, and it could have worked out differently if fate had decreed that it were to not target Viera or Moogles.

On the other hand, if as my father believed, the Grand Grimoire had warped the landscape rather than killing discriminately, humanity certainly came across as the most naturally adaptable of the races and so it was no surprise that the most versatile of the races was the one that survived. The Humans (or Humes) in the Pub around me stuck me as exceedingly versatile, but not nearly as powerful in their choices of profession. They tended to have a wider range of weak professions and skills, while the other races seemed to have a smaller range of stronger professions and skills. Nu Mou were clearly the predominant mage-race of Ivalice, as I knew full well from my research into Ivalice's past. There were a handful that appeared to favour the semi-physical professions of Beastmaster and Morpher, but they were few and far between. They were seemingly the wisest race of the five, but did not appear to be well suited to the front lines, and were also not attuned enough with the otherworld to summon creatures to command, yet they could easily manipulate the monsters of Ivalice.

Bangaa were clearly the physical, brutish race of Ivalice, and at first glance they seemed to be an all-male race. However, it was simply the fact that the female Bangaa were so well-built and also grew small amounts of facial hair naturally that they seemed to the other races to actually _be _male. They had the potential (or at least those who relinquished blades and violence) to become a couple of very basic magical classes, but nothing that could ever stand up to a Nu Mou mage. The physical strength of the Bangaa race makes them ideal guards for prisons, convoys, and even the pub I was sitting in. Viera were the only all-female race, and even with my modern day knowledge of the natural world I had no idea how it was that they continued to exist. They had a massive affinity for nature, and as such tended to lean towards the more agile professions such as Archers, Fencers, and even the deadly Assassins. However they also had a great link to the otherworld and therefore made some of the most versatile mages, and were the only race that could successfully control the so-called "summons" (A select few from other races had managed to call them forth, but never managed to maintain a successful hold over the creatures.).

Moogles were renowned for being many things; they were widely considered to be the cutest race in all of Ivalice, they were the best mechanics and therefore the most technologically advanced race, bar Nu Mous they were the most intelligent, and they also were known for having links to the natural world that nearly dwarfed that of the Viera. They were possibly the second most adaptable race next to humanity, and so the fact that the Moogles were wiped out by the Grimoire suggests that it was a discriminative attack and not one on the world as a whole that wiped out the races. Although at the time they did live, and at that point in the fake Ivalice that had been created was set, the Moogles existed and were well-respected as being slightly less-versatile as Humes while gaining increased offensive capability, greater intellect, and being quicker on their feet.

I made a point of listening in on rumours being circulated by the barman and overheard a human member of Clan Dip mentioning that the laws in Ivalice have become more and more elaborate and unnecessary over the past few years, I was most surprised to hear him say, referring to Queen Remedi:

"She's doing it to please that brat, the Prince."

The barman hushed him and looked around shiftily, and the Clanner later thanked him because at that moment a knight in solid silver armour came walking in, had a quick look around and then said in a loud voice:

"Today's laws prohibit the use of items in battle and reward the use of colour magics in combat."

The knight then turned around and walked outside without another word. It took a few moments for everyone to continue talking again, but a minute or two later they were all chatting away as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. I pondered then the fact that such "laws" never existed in the real Ivalice and that fact coupled with what I overheard the Clan Dip member saying suggested that it was in fact Mewt's doing that the inhabitants of Ivalice were so harshly policed. When I asked obliviously of the barman who the "person in the armour" was, he looked at me strangely and said:

"That "person in the armour" was a Judge. They enforce the laws of Ivalice that they are told to by the Palace, which change daily."

He added that last part in a very matter-of-factly tone that told me that even these people that were used to the seemingly arbitrary laws of Mewt's Ivalice disliked the way in which they were handled. Of course, a child such as Mewt could not have been expected to design a perfect world; he probably had only asked for a world in which he could decree what people do by his whims. Unfortunately, he appeared to have gone so deeply into that same childish state that he was attempting to dictate even the most normal of actions to the people and from this it was clear that they resented him for it. This "Remedi" who I assumed right away was his mother, was the Queen of Ivalice and thus it was for her to dictate the laws and for her husband, Judgemaster Cid, to ensure that they were upheld. Unfortunately, it appeared that Mewt was an only child in Ivalice the same as in the real world and so he had both of his parents clearly under his thumb; it was so obvious in fact, that the people of Ivalice also realised it and resented the royal family as an extension of Mewt as well.

That afternoon, my first afternoon in the ancient land of Ivalice, I made my way slowly around the Pub talking to everyone that would listen to me. I put up the farce of being drunk so that any questions (such as my first one about the Judges) would not be seen as out of the ordinary, although I do not think it would have actually mattered if I had not pretended to be drunk, as everyone was more than happy to chat away to me for hours on end. If nothing else, Ivalice was proving to be a very social land to live in, and I was glad to see that Mewt had not damaged the "look" of the land that kept it looking true to the original. The last person I spoke to was a Bangaa by the name of Pallanza; he was, like the others, more than happy to answer my questions and then he added at the end:

"You're not from Ivalice, are you?"

I stared at him for a moment to check for any change in attitude that would suggest a joke I had not understood or someone playing a game with a drunk, but none came. He was happy to wait for an answer and no emotions showed on the Bangaa's scaly face. I simply nodded to him and a smile crept onto his serpent-like features, and he then stood and pointed to the stairs leading to the Pub's guest rooms.

"We should not talk here. Come."

And so I followed the one person who seemed to understand me with the hope of having some questions answered honestly. At that same time in Cyril and Muscadet respectively, Marche and Ritz, two of Mewt's friends who had not lost their memories were meeting with two of Ivalice's residents who were to teach them about the world in the same way as Pallanza was to do for me. I did not know of the existence of these other two that had not forgotten, nor of Marche's brother Doned, who was getting along just fine by himself and was all too glad to have the use of his legs to be bothered about the fact that he could neither find friends nor family.


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three: All Clanned Up**

Pallanza explained to me everything I asked about Ivalice and its people, and then he answered questions I should have asked but had not. He explained to me how the Clans of Ivalice worked and how the judicial system worked (not very well, apparently) and most importantly how to get along while I was there. It was only when I was done asking questions and he answering that our roles reversed and he asked so that I could answer. It was a simple question with a difficult answer:

"Where are you from if not from Ivalice?"

He smiled at me when I struggled to find an answer and found none, and then he waved me off as though it was unimportant, which I suppose that it was in truth. He then offered me quite offhandedly if I would like to join his Clan. Of course I knew only what he had told me of Clans and knew from what had been said that it was important to be in one to get anywhere in Ivalice (unless of course you were a Judge or a Barman, or a Prince, and so forth), and so without really taking the time to think about it seriously I accepted.

If he was taken aback by my rash decision, he did not show it. Instead he simply suggested that I get some sleep and that we could talk more in the morning. I did, and then we did. But after we were done I knew only one thing more than I had before, and that was that the Clan I had joined so rashly was called Clan Drake, oh and of course the fact that it only had two members, myself and Pallanza. At this knowledge I smiled; good, we were both starting out in the world, and though this was for different reasons it meant that I was being helped along on the path that had been laid out before me, and that my new Bangaa friend did not have to walk alone in the world; win-win, I joked with myself.

He remarked after we had eaten down in the Pub that I was a Soldier. It took me a while to quite understand what he meant and then I remembered how everyone in Ivalice had a simple job title, and supposedly by the clothes I was wearing and the weapons sheathed at my waist I was designated as a Soldier. He then said in his offhanded manner (which I was growing accustomed to by that point) that he was a Warrior, and touched the broadsword slung over his shoulder as if that would answer any questions I had. Well, I thought to myself, if I had any thoughts of trying to mug him at any point (which I confess I did for a moment when I awoke in the middle of the night and saw him asleep) the large bronze broadsword would have well deterred me from committing any such action.

I do not, looking back now, remember when exactly he asked me what he did next, but at some point in that day he offered me an engagement to "test" me. I smiled and was ready with a sarcastic answer and then I remembered the sword over his back and decided against it, and he must have understood my puzzled look for he then explained himself. He said to me in such a condescending way as a parent would talk to a foolish child that an engagement was the term used in Ivalice for a fight, and that they were normally mediated by a Judge to ensure that no laws were broken and that no deaths occurred. I nodded my agreement, and with the knowledge that I would not actually die if I lost fresh in my mind, I shrugged and walked out of the door knowing that he would follow.

We cleared a space outside in Cadoan and drew our swords at each other. Within a second of that gesture, a Judge had materialised between us and asked if we wished to engage. I stifled my sarcastic thoughts again and nodded with a weak grin on my face, despite the fact that I knew all too well from our talk that morning that Pallanza had fought with a sword in his hands for the past ten years, and so I did not really stand any chance at all. That said, my short sword felt somehow "right" in my hands as though I myself had fought with one all of my young life; I thought at that point that perhaps my Ivalice "character" had fought since childhood in engagements like that one and so maybe I would be okay.

The Judge stated that the use of spears was restricted and that the use of daggers was recommended, and then we simply stood back and prepared ourselves for his whistle. The moment it sounded Pallanza was on me like a shot. He flew through the air and his broadsword came down on my ready short sword with a sickening crunch, and for a horrible moment I thought my sword had shattered under the pressure of the blow. Thankfully when I rolled back from under the strike a quick look at my sword showed that it was as clear of marks as it had been moments before, but he was on me again right away. He breathed heavily as he came down with the sword and I realised that it must be taking a lot out of him in order to throw such blows at me over and over again; in truth I feared to land anything on him in case the Judge failed to protect him and I inadvertently killed the only person I had befriended in that foreign and ancient land.

He obviously knew what I was thinking, or could at least tell that I was hesitating because he grunted as his face came closer to mine and his sword edged slowly towards my forehead.

"He who hesitates is lost."

Despite the danger I was in I chuckled out loud to that statement, as it was obviously something that Mewt or myself had been thinking at the time of Ivalice's creation, because that was not said until recent times in relation to the present day and as such Pallanza could not have known it in reality. At that point I also wondered other things; how he could have know that I was from my world, and also whether he was one of the souls stored within the Grimoire for thousands of years or if instead he was a fabrication made from a wish of mine for a friend in that strange place as a guide or some such.

The thought was quite literally blown away when I remembered that his sword was edging closer still towards my forehead and that the only reason it had not already found its way into my head was because my meek attempt at laughter had thrown him for a moment. That moment was long enough for me to gather myself and banish any fear of harming him that lingered in my mind, and so I threw him off me with everything I had. He stood his ground for a moment but quickly became overpowered by my unexpected retort, and jumped back into a ready stance a few metres in front of me. We shared a quick smile as it became apparent that nothing would be help back and then he suddenly lunged forward with his palm and landed it about a metre short of my stomach.

I was genuinely confused. Was it some kind of motion of surrender? A dare to go on the attack? Or something slightly more sinister? Unfortunately, I realised a second or two too late that even the Warrior Bangaas had some measure of magic that they could bring to bare when they needed it. A wave of green energy blasted into my guard and sent me flying backwards into the door of the Cadoan Shop, and it took me far too many precious seconds to gather myself to stand. When I eventually did there was a broadsword at my throat and I saw no way out of my predicament. I laid my short sword on the floor quietly and waited for his reaction to my surrender, and his reaction was to shake his head in disgust. I knew at that moment that he believed me to be a coward and that any chance of joining Clan Drake had vanished with my loss. Luckily, he had not noticed the knife that I kept in my belt around my back and no more than I had forgotten about its existence.

He sheathed his broadsword on the buckles over his back and looked at me with eyes that did nothing to hide his pity. It was then that my hand slipped around to my back and pulled the beautifully adorned knife from its sheath and into his chest in one swift motion that he had not anticipated, and he then realised to his horror that he had no energy left to pull his heavy sword from its cover, and fell to the floor with a startling dignity. The Judge waited for him to stop moving altogether and then blew his whistle again loudly. Within moments Pallanza's injury had vanished and he was standing up slowly making a poor effort to hide his embarrassment. He looked at me with the same disgust he had fifteen seconds before and then shed the look like a second skin. He replaced the frown on his scaly features with a wide smile and put his arm around me as though we had been good friends for years.

"That was an underhanded tactic that showed me no honour."

He waited a moment for any kind of reaction, and mine was a clear fear that left me cold; I thought that he was going to attack me while nobody was looking, and it obviously showed outwardly because he laughed so loudly that people in the next town over must have heard it.

"You will go far in this world."

Bangaa respected ever-so-slightly underhanded tactics, and it had been a gamble in attempting to do so in my first engagement, but that gamble had paid off, and my place in Clan Drake was guaranteed. We returned in silence to The Sleeping Frog (The Cadoan Pub), and spoke to the Barman about officially creating the Clan. He shook his head in apology;

"Four members is the minimum. I understand that Leon here is new to these things, but I expected better of you than to try to break the rules, Pallanza." To which the Bangaa simply shrugged off the comment and stated:

"Well then you clearly don't know me very well then, do you?" The Barman shrugged the comment off and walked to the other end of the bar to serve another customer. The customer, a Moogle child, was trying to purchase information on a contract, but the Barman told him plain and simply:

"Sorry kiddo; no Clan equals no contract."

The Moogle looked so disappointed by the Barman's seemingly cold nature that he looked like he was going to cry. I could not tell what profession the Moogle was supposed to be, in fact I do not think he had actually settled on one at that point, but I felt so sorry for him that I quietly asked Pallanza to call him over to speak to us. The Moogle walked the length of the bar towards us brushing the tears from his eyes in a vain attempt to seem tougher, but I pretended not to notice as I stuck up a conversation. I pointed at myself and said "Leon", and then pointed at my potential Clan leader and said "Pallanza", and at last my finger pointed towards the new arrival to our group and the Moogle smiled broadly and answered "Sorbet". I could see that he was an impressionable boy (although in thinking about it, he was probably just a meek teenager) and a shared glance between Pallanza and myself said that he had no qualms about me going ahead and asking Sorbet outright.

"So Sorbet, are you looking for a Clan, or what?" He looked at me strangely for a moment and sighed. He then took a short breath and spoke quickly back to me.

"I do want to join a Clan, but I'm only little, so people don't want me to join theirs..." My feeling sorry for him almost blew away when he said that; he actually annoyed me in the way that he was clearly fishing for sympathy, and as such I almost wanted to withdraw my upcoming invite for him to be a founding member of Clan Drake. Still, he was only a kid, and I already understood what it was like to be an outsider, and at that moment I did what Pallanza had done for me the day before and offered him a chance.

"Listen Sorbet, we aren't in an active Clan at the moment..." The disappointment showed in his eyes and he was clearly disheartened. "…But we are planning on founding one. If you want to be one of the four founding members, you are more than welcome to be." The hope seemed to return to his eyes when I finished the sentence, and I specifically did not mention that we still needed to find a forth member. He was too overjoyed to actually say anything; instead he just nodded enthusiastically with tears streaming from his eyes. I turned to face Pallanza and beamed in mockery of Sorbet, but in fairness I was truly happy that we had three of our four members. He nodded as though he were psychic, stood up and walked off. I assumed that he was going to look for our fourth member, and when he came back five minutes later with a Viera Fencer, I realised that my assumption was correct.

So while Pallanza went back to the Barman to state the fact that we now had the four founding members necessary to create Clan Drake officially, I sat down with the other two and began to talk cheerfully. I was officially to become part of Ivalice, and I left the real world behind with no hesitation.


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four: New Beginnings**

The Viera that had joined us at the last moment was only a year older than me, her name was Villi, but within her family she was called Little Villi because she had an older cousin of the same name. Still, "Villi" would suffice when we exchanged conversation among ourselves, and so it did on that day as we celebrated the creation of Clan Drake, although I jokingly suggested changing the name to the Lucavi Band, simply because I liked the sound of it, and Pallanza strangely agreed. Thus Clan Drake, which had been Pallanza's hope and wish for almost a decade, was brushed away in an instant when I suggested a different name which everyone took an instant shine to. I smiled at the fact that I was getting along so well with everyone I seemed to meet in Ivalice and I supposed at the time that it was Ivalice itself that was simply a friendly place and that everyone was as nice as the few I had met. It was not to be a few days before I would learn quite the contrary and that in fact the decent people were almost a scarce minority.

Pallanza came back to us and beckoned us to move over to a table so we could talk more privately. We nodded almost in unison and moved dutifully over to a circular table in the back corner of The Sleeping Frog, then huddled together like a family that had been together all of their lives. That was actually how I grew to see my fellow Clan members, and how I hope now looking back that they grew to see me; our relationship went deeper than friendship, and there were particular members with which I developed bonds the likes of which were irreplaceable by anyone else at any time in my later life. When a Clan is started up, that Clan is defaulted to being the lowest in the rankings in the beginning, regardless of the fame or actual worth of its members, and so at that point we were ranked over three thousandth in the official rankings. However, the Lucavi Band was well respected from the beginning because of fame that we "rubbed off" of people we knew, or indeed who we were seen as in the public eye; a fact that we all found extremely enjoyable. I was supposedly a Lord from abroad (albeit a disgraced one, a rumour that Mewt or his 'doormat' Babus had hastened to circulate over the past two days), Villi (or Little Villi) was the cousin of the leader of the Brown Rabbits (rank number one Clan at the time) who was also named Villi, Sorbet had his brothers Montblanc (official leader of Clan Nutsy) and Nono (famed airship merchant), and Pallanza was well known for his raw skill and persistence.

It came as no surprise that we received no contracts that day, and that the Barman would not give us any of the outstanding ones or a bounty request for fear that we were too unskilled at working together, and did not want to be the one to effectively sign our death warrants. I pointed out at that point that the Judges would revive us anyway so it did not really matter, and as I finished speaking the Barman looked at me in genuine shock and left me to speak with my clan while he served an actual paying customer. I looked at the faces of my friends and they stared at me with the same shock as the Barman had. It was Pallanza broke the silence:

"I… ahem, forgot to mention about Jagds." I committed the term to memory right away. "A Jagd is a lawless place where the Judges cannot enter, and thus a place in which the laws that they impose do not exist." I was about to ask why that was a problem when Sorbet pushed himself firmly into the conversation by explaining before I had the chance to ask.

"If there are no Judges to impose laws, and there were no downsides, everyone would go to the Jagds." I nodded in agreement and awaited the bad news. "But when a Judge is not present, the protection that they offer is also nonexistent."

He did not have to tell me the rest as I could work it out on my own. "-So if a Judge isn't present at the time of an engagement, you can die?" Solemn nods came from my fellow Clanners as I struggled to put together the pieces as it was explained to me, and I realised why this had been brought up moments later. "…Ah, and I take it that fugitives with bounties on their heads hide in Jagds?" More affirmatives came up from the three that sat around me. They then explained to me that many people with bounties on their heads did not actually realise that they were marked, and so bounties put on people at Pubs had a limited effectiveness before the higher ranked Clans needed to be called in.

This was because to begin with, a marked person or Clan would continue with their normal lives in cities and the rest of the world and would thus be out in the open, but the moment that they were attacked by a Clan, they would flee to the nearest Jagd in order to escape justice. That was why the Barman would not allow us to take a bounty, not because he was certain we would fail, but because if we were to fail, it would be even more difficult to bring them to justice in the future. So for the time being we decided to organise what little funds we had in order to improve our equipment, and unfortunately the funds that we did manage to pull together were nothing special. I had nothing at all to give, Sorbet had only a few hundred Gil, Villi had nothing, and Pallanza had just over a thousand Gil.

Still, we took what we had to the Oasis Armoury (which was the name of the biggest shop in Cadoan) and brought a few discounted bits of leather armour for all four of us and got a basic mage's rod for Sorbet. That was the extent our funds could get us, and we finished the day a few bits of armour and a rod up, and just under a thousand Gil down. We had only just enough money left over to buy us all accommodation at The Sleeping Frog for one more night, and then if no job offers appeared by morning we resigned to the fact that being in a Clan may not be for us. It was on our walk back to the Pub that we were confronted by a man dressed all in black who demanded that we hand over all of our money. I was the first of us to laugh, followed quickly by the rest of the Clan, and I then lowered myself in a mocking manner to speak to him like a child.

"Let me explain so that you understand. We have next to no Gil left; we have a couple of bits of leather, three swords and a rod to our name. Oh and you, you are one man, and we are four people in a Clan who will tear you apart if you do not get out of my way within the next three seconds." He was obviously taken aback by my audacious nature, and for a few moments I thought he was genuinely worried, but then a smile slipped on to his face, and I took the time to look him over carefully.

He looked at first glace like a Paladin that I had seen the day before, but in contrast they were exceptionally different in almost every way. For one, the Paladin was clearly a good person, or the "gods" that maintained Ivalice would not have imbued him with such holy magic as he wielded, while the man before me looked like the Paladin, his clothes were black rather than the holy white that the other man had taken on, and he was clearly not a particularly "good" person. The sword at his waist was what worried us most of all; it was a dark sword, and after researching at a later date I found that that particular sword variant was imbued with such a powerful magic that it actually devoured the souls of those it killed and served to feed the demigod that gave the blade its power. At the time all I knew was that it gave of a dark aura that I knew well enough of to be scared of the power it gave out, and the rest of my Clan was apparently thinking the same. Still, we held up a united front against the single man that stood before us; safe in the knowledge that he had massively overestimated his abilities if he truly thought that he could beat us all at once.

Unfortunately, the smile on his face told us that it was us who had overestimated ourselves and underestimated ourselves in thinking that he was alone. In the time that we had been speaking a group of creatures had surrounded us in silence. I use the term "creatures" now because at this time of life, looking back on what they looked like, despite the fact that I know they were once human, the look anything but human to me. They were those killed by the dark sword that had somehow been animated again using the blade's magic, and they also appeared to be completely under the man's power. I thought to myself for a moment that I was horrified to become like the zombies that had encircled us, but then it occurred to me that a Judge would stop that from happening, and so I called for one. My yell was met by a wild laugh erupting from the man in black, who stated:

"Why do you call for a Judge? I am already here." The four of us felt the world falling apart around us as we realised that an AWOL Judge would still seem to the rest like a normal one, and so the call for another Judge was ignored.

That also meant that if we engaged, as this Dark Knight (we added the name later, but it fits as-per my telling of the tale) would be able to kill us, and then would take our souls as a trophy; as far as I could see, we were doomed. Still, inexperienced as we were and as hopeless as the situation seemed, there was no way that we were going to back down without a fight. A quick scan of the battlefield told me that there were six "zombies" that had us surrounded and the Dark Knight that stood before us, while there were only four of us, and defeat meant death. A sudden thought occurred to me; perhaps if the holder of the sword was defeated, the curse on the soulless creatures surrounding us would be lifted? I quietly told my allies my plan and we circled the ex-Judge with our weapons drawn while the zombies slowly advanced on our position, and yet the Dark Knight simply stood calmly still with his weapon sheathed.

"I take it, from your hostile movements that you wish to die rather than give up what little gold you have?"

He mocked as with open arms, daring us to attack. We said nothing as we circled slowly, me with my short sword in one hand and knife in the other, Pallanza with his hefty broadsword firmly in both hands, Villi with her long and slender rapier, and Sorbet with his newly purchased rod. I could see that Sorbet was shaking in fear, but I had no time to stop and comfort him because if I did there was no question that we would have died. And yet, Villi did take the time to comfort him. She whispered something in his ear to which he nodded resolutely and gripped his wooden rod tightly. I thought nothing more of it and motioned for Pallanza to attack, while Villi and myself charged at the Dark Knight from the sides. I thought nothing more of Sorbet at the time, expecting him to attack with us, but as we reached the Dark Knight the three of us that were attacking felt a sudden rush of heat around us that stopped us in our tracks. We assumed that the fallen Judge had cast some kind of magic to slow our assault, but upon stopping and looking we found that Sorbet had taken note of Villi's whispered suggestion to cover our backs by casting a massive fire spell that had caught the very air around us ablaze in order to slow the attack of the zombies.

The "Judge" grimaced as though the realisation that he could not beat us all had finally hit him, and he drew his sword in silence. Even after Sorbet's show of power, we were still far weaker than the power that had presented itself before us, and to top it all while he was maintaining that magical flame we were also a man down. We also all realised that Sorbet was only a child and that there was no way he could keep up such a powerful spell for so long, so we propelled ourselves into battle in the hope that it would be over quickly one way or the other. I did not think about losing at the time, just about how difficult it would be to win; I was in fact exceedingly foolhardy with the way that I fought at that time, and looking back I constantly tell myself that I should have been far more careful. So we charged at him as with our weapons drawn and he could do nothing to slow us down as we literally mowed into him from all sides. He had expected us to take things cautiously like we had before Sorbet had his bout of courage, and so his guard was unprepared and me were hacking at him badly before he could do anything to stop us. He finally threw us off a few seconds into the assault with a massive backhanded slash that cut clean into Villi's shoulder while the force of the blow sent me and Pallanza flying backwards.

Villi yelped in pain and dropped her rapier when she clasped her sword hand to her shoulder. The Dark Knight smiled as the rapier clattered loudly to the stone floor and then he swung his sword back for another cut at her, and I tried at that point to scramble up and stop the blow. Unfortunately I stumbled back over when I overstepped the mark and thought that my mistake had cost Villi her life, but I saw a flash of bronze as Pallanza's broadsword arced into the blade at the last second and sent him reeling. At that same second I heard a sharp exhale as Sorbet lost the last reserves of his strength and his magic failed him, and it was then that Villi fell to the ground in agony as the dark sword's magic flooded into the open wound. We were two Clanners down and even as I finally regained my footing I thought that any chances we had of winning had faded away; the zombies were advancing again and it was Pallanza fighting alone against the Dark Knight.


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five: A Premature End**

The world seemed to slow down around me and I took the time that I should have used to tighten my grip on my sword, find my knife and charge at the enemy to glance at the positions of my friends and enemies. Sorbet was on the floor about ten metres from my position with his rod a little way from his unconscious grasp, while Villi was on the ground three metres from me on my other side writhing in pain so bad that she was screaming out in agony with her rapier nowhere in sight. The zombies were advancing on us slowly and I knew that if the fight did not end quickly they would overwhelm us in an instant, and Pallanza was fighting tooth and nail with the Dark Knight. The two of them were locked in combat and neither one showed any signs of letting up despite the fact that the Dark Knight was bleeding profusely and should not have stood a chance against the Bangaa who was on top form.

There was a sudden crack of energy released through the dark sword in the hands of the fallen Judge and a massive splinter appeared right the way up Pallanza's broadsword, and I feared it would break. If such a fear existed in his mind, Pallanza did not show it, and continued to smash his sword against the Judge's guard with no hesitation slowing his advance. Once again I pulled myself out of my daze and charged at the Dark Knight's exposed back as he turned it to me after rolling out from under one of Pallanza's strikes in the same way that I had the day before. I put everything I had left into a fluent movement with which I tore through his armour with my sword and knife. I used the sharp edge of my knife to dig deep into the weakest part of his armour (leaving the knife behind), and the moved onwards with an even deeper cut along the same line with my sword. Despite the copious amounts of blood that oozed from the wound the Dark Knight remained unfazed and simply spun around on me with my fallen knife still embedded in his back, and tore his sword through my upper chest with a force that sent me reeling. I cannot, even now, put the pain into words that do it justice. When I think about the moment even now all I can think of is the fact that nothing else mattered apart from the pain; the rest of the world may as well have ceased to exist as the dark magic from the blade seemed into the deep wound that had been cut just above my heart.

I dropped to the ground without a thought about the danger my team mates' lives were still in, and simply keeled over clutching the wound. By some miracle I stayed conscious, but I cannot say that I knew how the fight went after that point. However, Pallanza has told me since that day about how he remembers the fight, and so that is the recollection I shall follow at this point since mine is too patchy to speak of. Pallanza and the Judge continued to fight for a minute or so more after I fell before the zombies finally past the three of us that had fallen and began to hack and slash with their blunt weapons at Pallanza. He grasped his sword firmly in both hands and swung it around in a full circle and then continued to spin around again and again until he was too dizzy to spin any further. He had succeeded in cutting down three of the zombies and a strike had removed the right arm of a forth, but had done nothing to slow the Dark Knight. He fell to his knees; too dazed to stand without support any longer, and awaited the death he knew must come for him.

It was at that point that my vision began to return as my body became used to the blinding pain that the dark sword had afflicted me with, and I saw that both Villi and Sorbet were watching Pallanza in horror. I then saw that at some point after I had fallen Pallanza had sheathed my short sword in his belt, and that he was prepared to use my dirty tactics to win the fight. He had only feigned defeat to get the Dark Knight to advance with his guard down, and that is exactly what happened. As he stood a metre away from his prey he tore his dark sword through the air at Pallanza's neck and exhaled deeply, only for Pallanza to parry the blade with a single firm stroke from my short sword which he had whipped clean of his belt at exactly the same moment. Then the unexpected happened; rather than the Dark Knight falling off balance or dropping the sword from the force of the blow, the dark sword actually shattered like glass leaving only the wooden hilt clutched in the hands of the loser of the fight. At that moment, the zombie lost whatever power had existed to reanimate them and the bodies of those who had fallen to the dark sword in the past fell to the ground, truly dead at last. While the Dark Knight simply stood rooted to the spot unable to believe the fact that he had been defeated by a novice Clan that should have been no problem to defeat.

Pallanza took no time to hesitate while the fallen Judge was dazed; he used my sword to remove his sword hand (that still held tightly to the hilt of the broken dark sword) in a single forceful slash. He had not done so to be violent, but to ensure that he would not be a problem in the future, and tears then began to stream from the Judge's eyes as he fell to the ground in pain. I noticed then, as Villi had also apparently already worked out, that my wounds inflicted by the dark sword no longer burned with magic. That was not to say the wounds were not there any more, but they were such that they seemed to be normal cuts caused by a normal sword rather than magical wounds caused by a dark sword. We both shrugged the pain from our injuries off and went to see the exhausted young Moogle that had lain back down on the cold ground the second the Dark Knight had fallen. He was alive and in no real danger, he was simply tired from using as much power as he had in such a short period of time, and would be alright after a night's sleep. Villi's wounds were slightly worse, she needed a full week off from using her rapier before she could fight properly again, and Pallanza was basically unhurt aside from a few minor cuts and bruises. I was in serious need of medical attention and was losing more blood per second than I actually knew I had, but I was most amazed by the fact that the Dark Knight was not dead; his wounds were extensive, and because he no longer held the power of his sword those wound were taking their toll on him and he looked like he would faint at any moment.

I coughed violently and Villi pointed out in horror that I had coughed up a small amount of blood, to which I asked calmly that Pallanza call for a _real _Judge to help us. Pallanza yelled loudly for one, and after a minute or so of yelling a real Judge clad in a full suit of silver armour materialised in front of him. The Judge looked as though he was going to shout at Pallanza for calling him when a Judge was already present at the scene, but then with a sideward glance he noticed that the Dark Knight covered in blood on the floor bore a Judge's emblem, and he simply nodded and clapped his hands. We all had a feeling of weightlessness for a moment and then we materialised at a place that looked like a prison. As if to answer my unasked question, the Judge who had brought us to where we then stood stated in a simple and serious tone, while still maintaining a curt sense of servitude:

"Welcome to Sprohm Prison." He then saw clearly our looks of distress in that the Judge had literally dropped us inside a prison for reasons that were unknown to us, and added quickly:

"Oh I apologize; you are not prisoners, quite the contrary in fact, you are honoured guests." We let the term hang for a while before anyone said anything, and then Villi added quietly:

"Uh, Chief? My shoulder is still bleeding… and it seriously freaking hurts." Both the Judge and us were taken aback by her sudden outburst, no matter how withheld it was in tone. She shook her head a moment later and uttered "Sorry". She was completely unused to being in such pain, and I could not help but thinking that if I was not keeping my composure for the single simple reason of keeping the others calm then I would have acted in much the same way.

The Judge called for a group of Templars to heal our wounds, and before we could say a word to the contrary (not that we would have if given the chance) they had used whatever white magic they had under their command to heal the wounds that we had accumulated in the course of a fight that had lasted literally minutes. I made a mental note to thank Pallanza, as it was he that had saved the day and nobody else. The Templars were waved off as soon as we were back on form and then the Judge took us into deep into the prison, past the jail cells and past the large offices and conference halls where it was likely that the conditions by which the prisoners lived were decided upon. We finally arrived at a ridiculously huge room; having been from the real world and not from Ivalice I was able to compare it to only one thing, and that was the great Coliseum in Rome. However, I doubted very much that there was anything as impressive as that in existence in Ivalice, and so I imagined that it was the largest structure built on the planet, and yet it was not for the public eye, and as we were told by the Judge who had taken us there, over ninety nine percent of the population of Ivalice had no idea of its existence.

It was known as Sprohm hall, and I saw it as a ridiculously simple title for a room that was of amazing grandeur in the most unsuspecting of places; the fact that such a great monument could be built under the city of Sprohm, under the prison no less, completely blew me away. More importantly, I could not help but wonder why it was that we had been brought so far underground, and why we were being allowed to see such a secret if it was the intention of the Judge to let us leave, when we could then choose to tell anyone we met outside. The Judge seemed to see such query on my face and decided to answer before I was given chance to even ask, and was pleasantly surprised by my reaction:

"This 'hall' is where corrupt Judges meet to decide how best to usurp the laws of Ivalice without drawing too much attention to themselves." He waited for an answer from one of us because we were all too shocked to do so, and when none came, he continued. "You see, corruption within the Judges of Ivalice is not as uncommon as we would like the public to believe; an unknown leader is ordering Judges to defect from normality by handing out "fortune" which is basically immunity to Red Cards, and thus jail." This time, the shock was so much that Sorbet felt he had to answer.

"You mean that guy wasn't alone? There are more psychopaths like that out there? And when we fight them we can't call for a Judge because you don't recognise corrupt Judges as AWOL? This is ridiculous!" Being from the real world, such corruption only surprised me a little, while Sorbet was completely incensed with rage and confusion that such acts were allowed to continue among the group that was supposed to be protecting the best interests of Ivalice. If Villi or Pallanza had an opinion, they did not share it, and we waited for Sorbet to cool off before the Judge continued.

He explained to us that so-called "Corrupt Judges" were influencing the laws of Ivalice using Advanced Law Cards (items normally only allowed to be possessed by the Judgemaster) and were handing out Fortune for a price so that people could get away with breaking the law, thus making all Judges look incompetent. He also explained the origin of the dark sword that the Dark Knight (yes, it was the Judge that first coined that term of the Corrupt Judges who wielded dark swords) had used against us, and unfortunately that it was possible to make more.

"The swords are made from shards of the Crystals" That meant nothing to me, but Sorbet actually whimpered as though his whole world was falling apart. Ironically, that was exactly what I was told could happen if any of the five Crystals that made up the world were damaged, and yet in making the dark swords the fallen Judges seemed to display no qualms about taking pieces off of them. The Judge we were speaking to displayed his distress that the Corrupt Judges had somehow been able to get past one or more of the Totemas that were supposed to guard the Crystals, and then divulged to us that the greatest weapons against the Corrupt Judges were the Clans of Ivalice. He then suggested that in defeating one of the Dark Knights we proved that we were equal to the task, to which Pallanza stated simply and coldly:

"We would like to leave now. We apologise that we could not have been more help." The Judge was taken aback, and despite the fact that I wanted to help I reminded myself that it was Pallanza's Clan not mine, and I would not go against him on such a matter. Neither Sorbet nor Villi expressed any feelings on the matter and so the Judge saw that the situation was a lost cause.

"I understand. Your reward for capturing the fugitive; a madman who fought you with normal weaponry who you overcame with numbers, is waiting for you at the Long Ear Tavern." He stressed his point about the fallen Judge having been a madman and not, as he actually was, a Judge. And we nodded in agreement stating that his point had been understood. "Also, I want you to remember that if you change your mind, you may come to the Prison at any time and ask for me, Baku, and you will be admitted to here at any time. Also, remember that this place does not exist; you do not know what it is for, and if you are ever confronted by a Judge about this meeting it never happened." We nodded our agreement again and he led us back out into the main part of the Prison. I walked behind deep in thought, and as the others began to walk off while he was locking the door, he grabbed my shoulder quietly and whispered to me "Think about it" to which I nodded solemnly knowing that I would give it serious thought. He obviously knew that I would do so, and he let me go quietly and smiled his thanks to me. I then walked with my friends out of the Prison and towards the Sprohm Pub, which was aptly named "The Long Ear Tavern".


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six: Looming Choices**

I have to admit that despite the seeming urgency of Baku's request to me, I was not in much of a hurry to get on with deciding on my next course of action. Still I can blame that on the fact that the beauty of Sprohm and how it successfully managed to captivate me in much the same way as Cadoan had days before; the architecture was equal in design, but was significantly greater as far as size was concerned. It surprised me that Sprohm was founded and run by Bangaas and yet it was better aesthetically than any of the modern buildings I could think of in the real world, and that fact alone gave me a whole new respect for their race. Despite the misconception that Bangaa were naturally violent brought on by the way they act towards their enemies, they were actually a patient and peace-loving people; it just so happened that because they quickly rose to enjoy combat when it started, they made the best bodyguards and bounty hunters.

Pallanza felt at home in Sprohm and we had no problem with staying there for a few days, not least because with our present money problems we had no choice anyway. But I digress from my tale; I had no idea what to say to Pallanza to change his mind and hoped that he would come around on his own, and yet I knew in my heart from the short time that I had known him that it was not going to happen. I spoke to Villi and Sorbet throughout the day and they saw things in pretty much the same way as me; they did not mind what we did either way however, and had decided together that they would remain neutral in our little conflict. A shame, because I would have liked to see how Pallanza would have reacted to know that all four of us disagreed with the way that he had handled things back in the "hall", and yet I know now that his reasoning was just and that all a confrontation would have accomplished was argument and hurt for both parties. As it is, I have digressed from the tale once again and must endeavour to keep on track.

We stopped off at The Long Ear Tavern to pick up our reward, and then remembered that we did not know the name of the contract that the Dark Knight had been under. Rather than trying to guess as Sorbet suggested, or walking away and forgetting about it as Pallanza suggested, I simply walked up to the Barman (who again, looked uncannily like the Barmen from St. Ivalice and Cadoan, I believe that maybe the Barman in St. Ivalice was the only one that Mewt had ever seen and was the only one on my mind at the time) and stated that he had a package for the Lucavi Band. To which he nodded and pulled a large package (about four and a half foot long, and a foot wide), and proceeded to lay it on the counter. He then asked to see my Clan emblem for which I had to call over Pallanza and ask him for it, he nodded mutely and flashed it at the Barman long enough for him to acknowledge its existence on our persons. The Barman then simply walked away and went to serve another customer; it appeared that our transaction was over, and I lugged the package over to the table that the Clan had rooted itself on and dropped it down hard.

Pallanza and Villi simply sat at opposite ends of the table staring at the package while pretending all the while that they had no interest in it (emphasis on pretending, however), while Sorbet skimmed the corners and lifted it slightly to take guesses on what it could be, at the same time as I simply drew my knife and cut the binding with the Judges seal on it. The box was made out of some kind of relation to cardboard; it resembled a cardboard box but the texture told me it was not. Whatever the box was made out of it tore very easily once the seal was removed (I assume it was enchanted while the seal was intact), and quickly revealed a large leather cloak that appeared to contain weapons of some kind. Villi smiled as she realised what they were made of, and I confess that a moment later when I realised what they were built from that I was no less amazed, though for different reasons. There were two swords (one broad, one long), a rapier, a rod, and inside the leather cloak there were four link-mail cuirasses made from the same material as the weapons. I could not believe that I was holding a sword made from a material that had not existed in the real world since the times of old; Mythril. It was as light as a heap of leather of the same size, and as strong as tempered steel, and, as Sorbet was keen to point out, "expensive as hell".

We all realised that we must have done something right in capturing the Corrupt Judge, and unfortunately the rest of the Pub had realised what we had unwrapped and were soon asking who we had done a contract for to be paid so brilliantly. I calmly told anyone that asked that it was a one off job for a private contract and that we had never spoken in the flesh, and my some miracle everyone believed me. In the next breath I was shouting a challenge to anyone in the Pub who would listen in order to test out my newly acquired weapons and armour, if not simply to do as I claimed, then to get my mind off of trying to change Pallanza's mind on the subject of helping Baku. It took a minute or two, but finally a small Clan came forward that called themselves the Jagd Missionaries; and I could tell right away that I should have been more careful who I asked to engage with us.

Even Pallanza looked worried at the thought of fighting them, and hours earlier he had killed a Dark Knight almost single-handedly (though more through luck than actual skill), he shook his head and suggested that I back down from the challenge. However I was young and foolish and so I once again jumped in without weighing up the odds. They went outside to clear a space for a fight while we remained behind to change our equipment, and my Clan took that time to tell me what and idiot I was. It was Villi who managed to get over her rage for just long enough to shout at me in front of everyone.

"Do you ever think before you act? The Jagd Missionaries are a group who _live_ in the Jagds. You know why? It's because they are so feared that they can safely sleep out in the open in a Jagd without fear of being gutted while napping, unlike most people who get killed indiscriminately while they're wide awake around there!" She took a breath and upon seeing that my face simply showed a blank determination, decided she was wasting her breath on me.

We left it at that; we went outside without another word to one another and thus maintained a cold silence, and yet I could tell when we took our positions that it would be no different than any other fight with any other Clan because if we showed weakness we would have lost. It was only then as we took our places on the roughly made battlefield that I took the time to have a proper look at our opposition. I saw a Human Ninja who held twin katanas of some kind, a Moogle Gunner with a double barrelled gun that caused it to look anything like the normal conation of sweet that people tend to attribute to the Moogle race. There were also two Malboros standing (…sitting? I could neither hazard a guess, nor harness enough effort to care.) side by side and I realised in horror that the Jagd Missionaries, with no Hunter, Animist, or Beastmaster on their team, had somehow managed to tame two of the most vile creatures in Ivalice. It was at that point that I because ever-so-slightly worried, and I no longer felt the need to bet anything on the fight as I had thought of inside the Pub. Luckily I had said no such thing to their faces and they did not seem to expect it of me, but the Ninja stated before the Judge arrived that if any of our Clanners hit the floor that their equipment became fair game for anyone or anything (he pointed to the two Malboros) that may happen to have been trained to ingest items for sale later. He said it almost jokingly, but we could tell from the look in his eyes that humour was certainly not very high up on his list of priorities.

The Judge stated that "Damage to Animals" was illegal in that engagement, and that "Damage to Viera" was recommended and would thus result in a bonus at the end of the fight. I could not help but think that the Judge mediating our engagement was a Corrupt Judge because I was certain the laws that he told us were not the official laws of the day and a sideways glance to Villi suggested that I was at least right about the inaccurate laws. Still it would not have been the first time that laws had been changed in the middle of the day and so we decided in that same look that there was little we could do and that it would have been worse for us if the Judge took a zero-tolerance policy when it came to arguments. We shrugged off the thought and huddled together around Villi, not wanting her to become the enemy's prime target, and kept a careful eye on the Malboros we were no longer allowed to fight (though that did not stop them attacking us), and finally the Judge blew his whistle and the engagement began.

In a flash Villi vanished from the wall we had effectively erected around her, and flew at the Ninja without reservation. She lunged hard at him and I thought that we had won right off the bat; his body keeled over in a sudden and jerky motion, and it was only when his body evaporated into the air that I realised we had been tricked. Beside Villi a puff of black smoke erupted and the Ninja jumped out unceremoniously with both of his katanas drawn tightly in his grip, and he slashed hard down on her before she even realised what had happened, let alone recovered from the attack against the apparition. Luckily, Pallanza was already on the scene with his broadsword unsheathed and held firmly between the two combatants, and by that time myself and Sorbet were on our way over. The Ninja smiled and kicked off of Pallanza's blade so that he seemed to glide backwards through the air, and then vanished into the battlefield. Pallanza did not let his guard down, and motioned for us to do the same, and so we all drew our weapons and readied ourselves for the assault that we knew must come.

Rather foolishly, we had forgotten entirely about the Gunner and the two Malboros, and had chosen to focus solely on the Ninja; a mistake that was very suddenly paid for. There was a crack of thunder, and a second later Villi was on the floor clutching her breast where a thunderbolt had flashed through in a single clean shot. Looking back along the path of the shot gave us a view of the Gunner, who had silently made his way to the edge of the battlefield and had hoped to pick us off quietly one by one. I knelt down beside her and used what little knowledge I had of first aid to cover the wound while causing her as little pain as possible, but I knew right away that she would not be participating in the rest of the battle. Which lead me to the conclusion that we were outnumbered, and once again we were outgunned.

I could tell even then, with so little time to truly think about it, that we had been set up by the Corrupt Judges. I came to the conclusion that Baku had obviously trusted somebody he should not have with the knowledge of who had captured the Dark Knight and where the reward package would be sent. They had then set it up so that a subordinate of one of the most violent Clans in Ivalice just _happened_ to be waiting in that same Pub and were prepared to take us on. What tipped me off? The Judge that was mediating our engagement had suddenly teleported away when Villi was hit, and suddenly we were fighting the Jagd Missionaries by their own rules. I reasoned then that we were all going to die; not in the same cold and fearful way that I had the day before in the fight with the Dark Knight, but in the way that we had been lulled into an engagement such as that one, and even if we were to win by some miracle, around every corner there would be another Corrupt Judge wanting a piece of us. The Lucavi Band was undoubtedly finished.

And yet I was able to brush that thought aside and concentrate on the battle, as my always golden reasoning suggested to me that even if our Clan was blacklisted and we were thus forced to disband, that was not to say that we would roll over and die in a battle that we could theoretically win. As soon as I realised that the Judge was gone I threw caution to the wind; I told Sorbet suddenly to cast a petrifaction spell on Villi so that she would remain in suspended animation until we could settle something more permanent for her. Sorbet obeyed without a word, horrified that he was once again fighting for his life, and I knew then that if the Clan did choose to disband, he would be the first to leave. I did not begrudge him that of course, because we had been in nothing short of mortal danger since the moment the Clan was formed, and he was only a child. Once I knew that he would do as I had asked I turned back towards the Gunner who was levelling his gun at Pallanza awaiting another opening to bring down another of our number. However, it was not as simple a attempt on his life as I would have expected at that point; the Ninja had returned to the battlefield (not that he had probably ever left, just that he reappeared) and was sneaking around to behind Pallanza with his katanas in plain view.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven: Dark Realisation**

The plan was obviously that they would both alert him of their presence and then he would realise that he could not handle two enemies at once and panic. No such plan was able to work however, as I jumped onto the back of the unsuspecting Ninja who had been under the impression that I was preoccupied with my fallen comrade. He tried to shrug me off without success and then began chanting to use some form of ninja technique, and so I drew my knife from my belt and slashed gingerly at his wrists while keeping my forearms locked into his throat. Pallanza had noticed the two of us and had obviously understood the Missionaries' plan right away, and had turned his full attention to the Gunner, who no longer looked very sure of himself. The whole enemy Clan appeared to work on the assumption that their opponents would remain dazed and confused throughout the entire engagement, and thus staying in our line of sight had not been their intention. Sorbet had finished with the gritty business of petrifying Villi, and suddenly broke out his mythril rod and fired a single string of thunder in the general direction of the Gunner, who subsequently jumped out of his skin as he received and unexpected "shock".

And yet, without hesitation the Gunner had angled his gun towards Sorbet and fired. The shot, which appeared to be a fire capsule, missed Sorbet's shoulder by millimetres and Sorbet could not help but smile in the knowledge that he had successfully rattled a member of the Jagd Missionaries. I finally started to grow tired of the Ninja's fighting against my grip and tore my knife along the length of his throat in a sudden motion that caused him to convulse involuntarily and loose his balance as he fell to his death on the floor. Pallanza then sheathed his sword over his back and put both hands out in front of him in the same way as he had done when we had first fought days before, and I knew what he was going to do to the Gunner. The Gunner was on a third storey roof when a sudden blast of concentrated win blasted him in the stomach and sent him reeling, and another shot of thunder from Sorbet ensured that he fell from his perch and landed with a sickening crunch on the paved patio of the Pub.

The three of us that had remained standing turned to Villi to help her only to see that the two Malboros were slithering off with her in the opposite direction. The engagement was as good as over, and yet the Malboros had obviously been trained with a specific objective in mind, and Villi appeared to be it. There was no hesitation from any of us; we all ran flat out after the creatures that had less than a minute's head start and made back lost time quickly. Within twenty seconds the three of us were right behind the first of the two (the one that was not carrying our Viera companion), and were all surprised (no, literally blown off of our feet) when it turned around to us and swiped a hideous tentacle that smashed us to the floor in a heartbeat. Unfortunately the lead Malboro had not stopped to investigate and so one Malboro was slithering quietly away from us while the other was making sure that we could not follow.

The creature inhaled deeply in preparation for a release of poisons from its body known quite simply as "bad breath" upon us, when Pallanza jumped up to full height and tore downwards with his blade. It cut cleanly through the Malboro's body and the brilliance of the attack was only dwarfed by two things; the fact that the second Malboro was still fleeing, and the second that the fallen creature had begun to exhale on reflex, and had poisoned the air around it. Pallanza fell to the floor clutching at his airways and suddenly fell over unconscious. At that point a Judge, the Judge that had started our engagement, appeared behind the dead beast and waved a hand at Pallanza's body. Pallanza simply vanished, leaving only a dull red glow that hung for a moment before fading with him. The Judge chuckled before speaking to us like an adult does to foolish children.

"Your Clan leader broke the laws of the engagement, and since the breaking of said law caused injury…" He looked at the heap of what could only be called green sludge and then back at us. "…and death soon after, he has been reprimanded and held in custody." For a moment we thought that the Judge was then going to simply vanish again, but instead he seemed to think carefully again before commenting on Pallanza further.

"Since he is your Clan leader and is being indefinitely held in custody, your Clan is hereby disbanded." And then he flashed away in a dull light while chuckling to himself again at how well the plan had played out for him. Less than a full second later another Judge materialised in the spot where he had stood, and I recognised him instantly as Baku. To say the least, he looked worried.

"A red card was issued, but the offender was not sent to the prison." Sorbet and I looked at each other dimly as Baku stated that which we had already guessed; the Corrupt Judges had captured two members of a Clan that had humiliated them, and had effectively disbanded them. And in truth they had; with only Sorbet and myself we could not have continued Clan activities in any event, but when it was factored in that neither of us was the Clan's official leader there was nothing that we could do. Baku looked equally disturbed and asked quietly for us to fill him in on the situation, and we told him everything we knew. His expression remained unchanged throughout the explanation and he listened in a state of disinterest without a comment to either of us, and it was only when we finished that he shrugged and muttered "I'm so sorry". What threw me was not the fact that he was apologetic, but the fact that he was being so clearly insincere in his tone and in his weak motions to the contrary. For the first time I had to wonder how honest Baku had been with me up to that point; he had been very quick to help us after the incident with the first Corrupt Judge, and even quicker to arrive at the scene of our most recent bout. The unbelievable attempt he made at acting honest only helped to further feed the doubt in my mind that he had suddenly become untrustworthy.

I had to change my thoughts on him almost right away, however. After all, he had supplied us with weapons and armour the likes of which a Clan of our level would not have seen for years, and he had raised our renown over night. But again my trust was shaken when I put to myself the question of why exactly Pallanza had been so quick to deny Baku's offer to us; although that could have been simply because he did not wish to be a part of the Judge's internal affairs, but I was more inclined to think that it was something deeper. One thing was for certain though; I no longer felt that I could trust a word that Baku said until I was able to speak to Pallanza again to clarify my thoughts on the matter. Unfortunately, it seemed that I would need to trust him for just long enough to reach that crossroads at which I might have a chance of finding Pallanza, my guide and guardian in the world of Ivalice and a truer friend than I had ever had in the real world. I glanced at Sorbet and saw, unfortunately, that he appeared to have reached the same conclusion, and so we silently agreed to trust Baku for a little longer until such a time as we were reunited with Villi and Pallanza. It was Sorbet who acted first, simply by stepping forwards with his head bowed slightly and speaking gingerly to the Judge who was making no effort to hide the look of uncertainty on his face.

"But, surely you know where they would be taken?" For a moment I thought he had spoken too quickly or that Baku had noticed that his voice was too strong and realised that we planned on using him, however he just looked the Moogle in the eye and nodded resolutely. Had I not been around in the moments prior to that, the look in the Judge's eyes would have made me think instantly that he was an honest man whom I could have trusted with my life. Quite the contrary in fact, I had no doubt that he would lead us into more danger further and further away from anyone that might be able to help us, and there was just as little doubt in my mind that would probably not see our friends again. He told us that we were no longer in a Clan (as it was technically disbanded), and so we had no official protection from the Judges. "But not to worry" he told me; he would defend us however possible and would ensure that no danger would befall us. It hurt me to keep a straight face as I was wrought with the certainty that he would vanish just when he was needed the most in the hope that we would die while he was not looking.

He told us that the Jagd Missionaries would have taken our Clan members back to the nearest Jagd where they could do with them what they wished without the interference of the Judges. What he meant of course, was that he would make no attempts to help us once we passed the threshold into whichever of the Jagds he chose. He told us that the most likely Jagd for them to go to, on account of it being the closest to where our Clanners were apprehended, was Jagd Dorsa. He told us that Jagd Dorsa, as far as Jagds went, was a nice easy-going place where the worst thing that happened was the "odd murder". Unsurprisingly, that did not fill me with much hope as to our survival chances, but since I had to keep up the charade of trusting him, I asked Baku how Jagd Dorsa could be one of the calmer Jagds if murder was a common occurrence. He simply told us in reply that there were things much worse than death; I note now that he struck me there as a particularly cheerful person, and I am sure you gather that there is sarcasm in there somewhere.

And so we made our way (under "guard" by Baku) towards the "calmest" Jagd in existence, and I could tell that Sorbet was quite unsure of himself, and the fact that I noticed it so quickly suggested to me that Baku had also noticed, in which case he probably assumed that all of his Christmases had come at once. I could not really make a point of comforting him in a truthful was for fear of blowing Baku's faith in our trust, and so I told him not to worry because I would make sure that we found our friends and paid the Jagd Missionaries back ten fold for the way they had treated us. If this caused any visible reaction in Baku, I confess I did not notice it. It was a three day trek from the outskirts of Sprohm to the outskirts of Jagd Dorsa, and I must admit again that I was amazed every morning when I awoke without some form of mortal wound inflicted upon me, although I summarised that this was due to the fact that whatever the Corrupt Judges plan was, it had to do with disposing myself and Sorbet somewhere that no questions would ever be asked, and so for that time, we were allowed to live under the pretence of friendship.

I would get up on each of the mornings and see Sorbet calling on low level magic in an effort to pin point his consciousness and calm his nerves, and even watching him do so seemed to have the desired effect for me, so I have always assumed that it worked well for him. Of course, that was the lie that we told Baku; the same as telling him that my reasoning behind sharpening my knife and sword every three or so hours was to do with sorting out my concentration, when in fact I was doing so to keep my weapons nice and sharp ready to stab the unsuspecting Baku with, and Sorbet was working his way up the list of spells steadily for the time he would get to use them. That said, telling Baku that we were doing it to improve our concentration was not a complete lie; it did help with our concentration and it was probably our activities that helped to keep us sharp and alert for the days ahead, which we had no doubts would be long and difficult.

In the afternoon of the third day we reached the boarder leading into Jagd Dorsa and saw why civilians would have been deterred from entering; there was a ghost fence put up that surrounded the whole diameter of the Jagd. A ghost fence is basically several skulls or heads placed on spikes, the other end of which is buried into the ground; normally in a line of three or four to block entrance to a holy (or particularly unholy) place. Amazingly, the inhabitants of Jagd Dorsa had killed so many that they were able to surround the entire once-city with one huge ghost fence, and the fear of the omens that it represented struck Sorbet down with horror so strong that he refused to cross it for any reason. However, I refused to leave him behind, and while Baku simply took it as though I was unwilling to leave him behind with the potential of attackers from the Jagd finding him, the reality was that I was worried that Baku hesitated to attack us directly when we were together, but that perhaps he would not feel the same if it was only Sorbet on his own.

I waited for him to calm down before telling him that I would destroy the ghost fence and bare the brunt of the bad luck that came from doing so, and the horror seemed to fade from his face. On the other hand, Baku seemed to inherit that horror, as I realised later that he had not expected us to be willing to pass the fence; he had thought that we would look for a way around it and that when we found none were would turn around and return home. We did no such thing, and so that evening, I smashed the decomposed skulls that guarded the outskirts of Jagd Dorsa into pieces and became officially "cursed", and we then moved on in.

--

I am SO SORRY for letting this go so long without an update. I'm getting back into writing and can't wait to get this story back on the rails. I only hope my readers are still hanging around here somewhere!!


End file.
