A Searching at an End
By Mercutio
605 A.D., Near Choras
How long had it been? He no longer knew. Searching for the only person who had ever cared for him had taken a lot away from him. Well, the only person who had really cared for him. All the others were just charlatans.
How many time periods had he traveled? He didn't care. Magus scoured almost every inch of almost every day since near the beginning of time. He still hadn't found her.
And here she was. He finally found her. Buried six feet down in the earth. The tombstone read:
Schala Tyrr
Widow of Zachary Tyrr
Mother of Emilia and Fredrich
D. 598
They had both been thrown into Gates to the Middle Ages, but to different times in the time period. She had married, grown old, and died all while he was growing as the leader of the Mystics. He looked at the headstone next to hers.
Zachary Tyrr
Husband of Schala Tyrr, Father of Emilia and Fredrich
B. 567
D. 589 in a battle against the Mystics
Magus looked away. He remembered that bloody battle too well. It was caused by greed between four kingdoms and their trade routes. The whole thing was his fault. He indirectly killed her husband.
Magus tried to imagine her grief that she must have felt, upon hearing that her husband was dead. He imagined her comforting her children, just as she had once done to him when their mother was have another one of her possessed fits.
Why did he do it? Flea's voice rang in his head as he leaned on his scythe. It was red, both from rust and blood...
"You think you are so kind and heroic. Kind and heroic to your Mystics. And yet you send them into battle to their deaths, motivated by power and greed." he recalled Flea saying.
"You do the same thing, Flea. I have seen you kill your fellow Mystics outright when they slightly screw up."
"Perhaps. But I don't pretend that I am sending them to their destruction for their own well being. You are not the person that you pretend to be."
"You're a hypocrite, Flea."
"Am I? Oh, darn, I broke another nail..."
His mind returned from the flashback to the moment at hand. His sister was dead. He lost her when he was a child, at the Ocean Palace Disaster. He lost her again, at the same time, but as a different person. He found her again, but had already lost.
Magus could just use the Epoch to travel a few years back, to see her. But could he? Would she recognize him as her long lost brother, or as the killer of her husband? If he traveled back before the battle occurred, how could he stop Zachary from waltzing to his death? Say "If you go, I'll kill you. Not me, but the other me."? And then, know exactly when Schala would come to pass also? He could not live with her, knowing the exact time that she would die. Why couldn't he just find her when he was searching the same place a few years back? Was he destined to never have her?
No. He wouldn't be able to handle it. It would be even more painful to everyone if he went to stay with her. He sighed. His nephew and niece were still alive, at least Magus assumed so, seeing as there were no graves for them. But what would he say to them? "Hi, I'm your Uncle Magus, you know, the indirect killer of your father. May I live with you?"
He sighed. Maybe he should return to sometime safer for him. Not many people in the Middle Ages had kind feelings towards him. He turned to the Epoch, which his friends let him keep after they found Crono's mother and cat. He pet his own cat, Alfador, who had been quietly dozing in the cockpit. He had stayed with Magus during the entire search. He thrust the key into the Epoch, and flew off, to approximately A.D. 2300. The world was now lush and safe there, since the demise of Lavos. Perhaps he could turn over a new leaf. Few people knew him there as the evil that he had been.
The Epoch landed next to the same graveyard as he had been in. It had greatly expanded, and it was harder to find Schala's grave among the forest of monuments, but he knew that it was the same one.
He finally found her site. Most of the engraving had been weathered away. He looked east to see a woman of thirty or so sitting on a bench, writing.
"Sorry." she said as she looked up. "I hope I'm not disturbing you by writing in a cemetery. I can leave if you want to be alone."
"No... that's all right." he said. "My name is... Janus. I just came to visit someone."
"Oh." she answered. "I'm Jara Iea. I'm a professional writer. My ancestor, Gigan Rufad, was also a writer, and I come here for inspiration from him. He's over there, in between the dung scooper and the homicidal maniac." she indicated with her pen.
"Mmm... Do you know of any places to live for rent that allow pets?" he asked.
"Sure. I live at Ivory Plaza. It's cheap and clean. The landlord's a peach. I can show it to you, if you want, as soon as I reach a stopping place." Jara said. "You're not from around here, are you?"
"No."
"Didn't think so. I'll be just a minute, as soon as I finish the slow, painful death of the hero."
"Thanks."
As Jara finished up, Magus gently placed the keys to the Epoch on Schala's grave. He wouldn't need the Epoch any more. He had left it in the forest, hidden so as not to be an eyesore. Some creature would make a den out of it or something. The Epoch had a habit of making sure it was always useful. Alfador jumped into Magus' carrying bag, which mainly contained some gold, tonics, and an ether or two.
"I'm so sorry." he whispered to his sister.
When they arrived at the apartment building, Magus took the key to his room from the landlord and went to his room. Room B8.
When he entered, he saw that it was devoid of furniture. "I can take you to a cheap furniture store, if you want, Janus.." Jara offered.
"Thank you, Miss Iea." he said.
"Call me Jara. I'm also down the hall at B1, if you need anything later. I can give you all the help you need, unless you ask me my age. You'll receive no help after that." she said, laughing.
Schala used to laugh like that, Magus realized. She never laughed often, after the Machine was built when he was very young, but it was one of the few memories that he remembered from his infantry. That and his mother laughing, also. A real, heartfelt giggle, not the "Mwahahahaha" from the later days.
As they left, Magus also started thinking of the new life that he would carve here. He was surprised at his new openness to others. Schala would be proud to see that her little brother was finally getting along with others because he wanted to, not because he had to. He would stay here for a while, he decided.
After all, he never knew what he would find.
.
Author's Comments
Greetings, to whoever (or is it whomever?) might be reading this. Although this story is a little short to have an "Author's Comments" section, I decided to add one in anyway.
First off, I fear that I must admit that I am not really a Magus fan (don't shoot me!). Of the seven main characters, he is close to the bottom of the scale. From a player's point of view, his attacks were a bit feeble (either that, or I wasn't using them correctly), and well, I just didn't care for his personality all that much. Just because someone leads an evil, deprived, and tragic life doesn't mean that they can't be kind to their friends/allies/ allies' mothers! So why did I write a story about him? Why not?
The main reason that I wrote this story was because I'm having a bit of trouble with Fall From Grace. At the moment that I am writing this, have a prologue and two chapters completely written, and a draft of Chapter Three that I am tweaking until I like it right now. Besides that, well... let's just say that I know where I'm going, but not how to get there.
The characters were not hard to create, as only one wasn't in the game (unless you count Zachary, Emilia, and Fredrich). Jara Iea's name I got from an old sci-fi trilogy that I tried to write when I was younger. Jara Iea was a wealthy woman who befriended a couple clones (one of them died in the ending. Ha. Now I've ruined the plot for you.) who were fighting for their rights and the safety of the solar system. For certain reasons (i.e. silly plot) I never got around to writing it.
Well, I suppose that I only have one more thing to say in this short excuse for an "Author's Comments". Feedback and reviews! I demand feedback and reviews! Mwahahahaha!
Well, I'll be signing off now (and hopefully in the afterword of any other stories that I write there will be less parenthesis.). Remember, all the glitters is not dreamstone (gee... that was a stupid thing to end my afterword with)!
Mercutio