The Wizard's Quest Chapter 4
By PonkyBL
“Our lives are never whole
without those we love”
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Magus poked idly at the fire with the glimmering point of his scythe.
“Is that really good for it?” Lucca asked, not really all that interested.
Two days had passed since Schala had been rescued. And she was still out cold. The Elder had given them a second hut in addition to the one Schala was in, and most of them stayed there, except for Magus, who never left his sister’s bedside. The others took turns keeping him company. It was Lucca’s watch.
“Fire won’t hurt it,” Magus replied, but he pulled the weapon out of the embers. Lucca returned to checking her pistol.
“So…” she said after a few minutes. “What’re you gonna do? After Schala’s better, I mean.”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” a voice said weakly. Lucca almost dropped her gun, and even Magus jerked a little in surprise. They both looked at Schala, who was sitting up and looking back.
“S-S-Schala!” Lucca stammered.
Magus was at the bedside in a flash. “Are you all right?” he demanded.
Schala rubbed her forehead. “No,” she said. “I feel weak, and cold, and hungry. What’s going on?”
“You were washed up on the shore when we found you,” Lucca said, coming over. “You’ve been in a coma with severe hypothermia for at least two days, not counting however long you were on the beach.”
“When you found me?” Schala repeated. “You were looking for me?”
“The way I figure it, it’s payback for your help in Zeal,” Lucca said.
Schala nodded slowly. “Yes, I remember that. I’m pretty sure I owe you now. Thank you.” Hr gaze fell on Magus’s face. “Hello, Prophet,” she said coldly. “Come to make sure your little tool still functions?” Magus shook his head. “My interest is much more personal than that,” he said. Schala just stared at him. “It’s me, Schala,” he said softly. “Janus.”
Schala’s eyes lit up with desperate hope, but the light died quickly. “Janus is gone,” she said in an emotionless voice. “Lavos killed him. You were there.”
“No,” Magus insisted. “Lavos didn’t kill me. He sent me through a Time Portal, to a whole different time. If you don’t believe me…” he said as he reached down his shirt and pulled out his pendant, “look here.”
The unmistakable piece of jewelry sparkled in the firelight. Schala felt her own pendant reach out a little towards Magus’s. Both jewels flashed, almost as if they were acknowledging each other.
“Janus…” she whispered. “JANUS!” And before Magus could react, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him close. And the weirdest thing, Lucca thought, was that he didn’t seem to mind.
“What happened to you?” Schala asked him once they’d parted. “You’re all…old.”
Magus frowned. “Do I look it?”
“Older than me,” Schala said, smiling. “You’re supposed to be my little brother, remember? What DID happen?”
Magus sighed. “It’s a long story,” he said. Schala looked around at the dingy hut. “I really don’t think I’ll be going anywhere soon,” she pointed out. “Tell me everything.”
Magus’s brow furrowed in concentration. “Well, as I told you,” he began, “Lavos sent me back in time, to about the year 573 AD. I landed in the mountains, where a bunch of monsters found me. Their leader, a big, fat, ugly lizard named Ozzie, took me back to his hideout.
“He could sense that I had magic, as could you. But it was not the type of magic those in Zeal prized. It was combative magic, powerful and dangerous.”
As Magus talked, Lucca quietly left, and returned with the others. Schala and Magus didn’t even notice.
“Ozzie wanted to use my power for his futile dreams of conquering the humans of the time. So, he trained me in their usage.” Magus smiled grimly. “He trained me too well for his own good, because by the time I was twenty, my power far overreached his. I easily took over his forces, but I kept the fool for a general, since he was far from stupid.
“Now that I had realized my true power, I could achieve my dream—revenge on Lavos. After it destroyed Zeal, it returned to the core of the earth, and I knew that the only way to defeat it would be to summon it back to the surface.
“At around 590 or so, the King of Guardia, the major kingdom of the time, decided to attack my monsters. I guess they bothered him. Perhaps a weak stomach… Anyway, his meddling was distracting me from perfecting the summoning spell. I set loose my followers to fight his humans, just to keep him from bothering me.
“And then, in the year 600 I believe, I was finally prepared to summon Lavos. Just as I was completing the casting, Crono, the Frog, and another of their companions busted into my castle, defeated my three best mages and a hundred monsters, and interrupted my spell.
“They…defeated me in battle, but even so, Lavos’s near arrival caused a rip in time, and I was thrown back, to Zeal.”
Schala gave him a funny look. “I just remembered something,” she said. “You weren’t a nice guy in Zeal. Why didn’t you do anything, since you knew what was going on?”
“Time is a complicated force,” Magus said. “Believe me, there were any number of thing I wish I could have done…but I could not. I did all that I did because as Janus, I remember it happening. Who can guess what would change if I had done anything different?
“Anyway, I think you were there for most of that part,” he said. “Now it’s your turn. How did you escape the Ocean Palace when it collapsed?”
“It didn’t collapse,” Schala told him. “It changed, into what Mother called her ‘Black Omen.’ She locked me up in a room near the base. When the Omen was destroyed, the crash into the sea cracked the walls of my cell, and I was able to swim out.
“I think I wouldn’t have made it to shore, except for my pendant, which was always warm, even in the ice.” Her eyes had a haunted look in them, but she shook her head violently. “Not as exciting as your tale,” she told Magus. “But, tell me, what is this place? It’s like the Earthbound Village, but not really.”
“It’s called the Last Village,” Magus said. “Both magic-less ones and those of Zeal are living here together, as equals.”
“Well, whaddaya know,” Schala said. “It’s about time, if you ask me…” her sentence broke off as she suddenly yawned.
“Sleep is the best medicine,” Lucca said. “You ought to get some rest.”
“But I’ve been resting,” Schala complained, but another yawn sealed her fate.
Magus plopped Alfador down in her lap. “He’ll keep you warm.”
As everybody left quietly, Magus stopped in the doorway. He turned back to say something, but Schala was already nestled down in the furs, sleeping soundly, Alfador’s purr the only sound in the hut.
“Welcome home, Schala,” Magus whispered, and closed the curtain quietly behind him on his way out.
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The End
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Author’s note: Yes, I know this story’s been done to death. It’s really just to set up for my future ones, which will often (or always) have Schala in them, since she was my TOTAL favorite character in the game. This was just to explain her presence in future stories, kind of like Star Wars 1.
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