FicWad

Sins of Our Fathers
Part 2, Chapter 2

It took Magus quite a while to compose himself. It seemed his plan was crumbling and no matter how hard he tried to hold onto it, it seemed to just slip through his fingers like a handful of sand. There was two options he and the frog could now take; the first being forget the experiments and leave this time period forever or they could press on, and seeing how the damage seemed to be already done, he decided they might as well press on. So, he sent Frog off with a bag of gold he had found in the cave so that the knight could find him some new clothes, a cloak preferably, but if not a hat would do just as well.
The frog returned sometime later with a pair of blue trousers accompanied by a long-sleeved blue shirt and a large blue hat. So much for inconspicuous. At least now his face was hidden somewhat and he was able to blend into the crowds. Some of the people here and there still seemed to find recognition in his face, but at least no one was bowing and 'my lording' him anymore. They made their way through the crowd towards the back of the city. Sitting there was a small booth marked information. As Magus approached the booth with Frog none to far behind, he noticed a small roll of parchment labeled Monstrosity on the loose; 'Kingdom of Zeal and beyond, 5th Zealian year'. 5th Zealian year. The time jumped out at him like a snake leaps at his prey. He snatched the document from the table and before the booth owner could approach ripped it open and threw a few pieces of gold at the man. That should more than cover the cost, and he was in no mood for bartering. The man's mouth closed as quickly as it had opened as he gathered the gold coins from the floor as quickly as he could. Frog stood on his tiptoes in an attempt to read what Magus had procured, but Magus shrugged the Frog down so he could concentrate.
"What, by chance, have ye found?" Frog asked, clearly preterbed by Magus' actions. Magus ignored the Frog for a moment as he finished scanning the document for the information he needed.
"It's some sort of wanted poster." He said as he tossed the document over Frog's head and back into the vendor's booth. "It seems we may have had a stroke of luck in not coming exactly to 12,001 as we expected." With that he began making his way through the crowd and back towards the city exit. Frog, clearly confused and annoyed with the mage's behavior started after him in a huff, eager to learn what his companion's new found happiness was about. Magus on the other hand, was in a hurry; to learn what they could and leave as quickly as they came. He had many qualms about being in the past; anything could irreversibly alter the reality he had worked so hard to create, but he had to know if there were more of the things like Kazar. And if the gurus had been that stupid he had to know when to expect the others. For all he knew the things could be ravaging 600 AD right now, not that he would particularly mind except for the fact if that time period was somehow to be destroyed, Lavos wouldn't be encountered by him in the future, and the monstrosity would continue to decimate the planet, leaving a lifeless rock to float about the galaxy.
It didn't take him long to reach the gates, but he paused and waited for his knight companion, who seemed to be growing increasingly more angry at him by the minute. In fact it looked as if the knight had been yelling and screaming throughout the entire crowd. Magus smiled in spite of himself, a smile he hid quickly when the knight came into view. The frog opened his mouth to talk, but Magus quickly cut off the shouting;
"We may be lucky, because if what that paper said is true, we have come to the 5th Zealian year." Frog looked at Magus questioningly and Magus sighed at the man's incompetence as he began out of the city and towards the next skyway. "You see in Zeal time was not kept in a linear form, such as we know it. 12,000 BC is a term coined in the future; in our time. Here in Zeal they kept time in decades of a sort. With each new King came a new decade, and in this case we happened to drop into the 5th year of my father's rule. This is important because many of the journals about the experiments were written in this year, and if my assumptions are correct, we may be right in time for the largest experiment the gurus' produced."
Magus studied the knight as he finished, but the knight was a slate of stone. Perhaps he had finally rubbed off on the younger man. Not younger by much, mind you, but younger all the same. They continued down the path until they finally reached the next skyway. There was no registration here, and so Magus assumed that the only registration must have been to get into the kingdom, and since he had been mistaken for his father, he likely had free reign inside the Kingdom's boundaries. Another lucky break for him, and although he had never been one to believe in luck, the events of the past few hours were beginning to make him wonder.
They passed into the skyway and were instantly beamed back down to the surface of the Earth. The sun was hidden behind clouds here, and by the look of things it figured to be snowing once again by the time they reached their next destination; the final skyway. He peered down at his reptilian comrade to make sure he had adapted to the weather alright, and smirked when he saw that the knight had bought a heavy winter cloak, hat, and gloves when he had been in Enhasa. How Magus hadn't noticed the bundle before he didn't know, but he paused for a moment while the knight adorned his garments. When the knight was ready he looked like a traveling pile of clothes, which Magus remarked about and sneered openly, but the knight just ignored him, seemingly content with looking funny as long as he was kept warm.
It was a matter of hours before they had completed the long trip north to the final skyway, and the sun, already hidden behind the clothes for the entirety of their trip, seemed to have abandoned them completely, leaving them to fend through the snow by the weak light provided by a ball of fire Magus created and suspended from the top of his scythe. The glow was faint, and Magus was now beginning to chill, which was unusual because often times he had no feeling for the weather whether it be hot or cold, but he supposed that hours in the freezing snow and wind had that effect on any person no matter how well they handled the weather.
Once again there was no registration at this skyway; his assumption was correct. The Zealians' weren't worried about attack from the inside. Perhaps it was good Lavos destroyed this place; if he hadn't who knew what kinds of horrors would take place due to politics, greed, and power; all very clear traits of the Zealian people. He was interrupted by his thoughts when he stepped onto the skyway next to Frog and they were beamed back up to the floating continent. Just as he suspected it had long turned to night, so he told the knight they would just sleep here and continue on in the morning. The knight seemed to agree, and as soon as they found a suitable spot far enough from the road they would not be bothered they settled down and sleep was not far away.

The next morning Magus awoke with a yawn. By the location of the sun it looked to be about midday, and by the sound of things the road seemed to be quite busy this morning. Curious, Magus stood and gathered his things, slipping his scythe's holster back on, his shirt over top that, and finishing off his disguise with the rather large hat. He kicked the knight in the side as he walked by, waking the frog with a start. He heard the knight muttering curses behind him, and inside he laughed a little, but really he was concerned about all this traffic.
As he reached the road Magus approached one of the travelers. "What's all the commotion about?"
The man turned to Magus and looked at him like he was stupid. Magus supposed he deserved that for the amount of times he had given that same look to the knight, but once the man realized he was serious started a bit before fidgeting and giving Magus his answer.
"Well it seems the trial for Kazar is being held at the palace this evening and nobody wants to miss it. Some of these people are for the girl, others against, but most are mainly going to see what will happen. It's also been rumored that there's some bold so impersonating the King and it has him in a terrible mood." As soon as the man finished he looked around at the crowd that walked by nervously before bolting down the path towards the palace. Magus sighed; perhaps things weren't going quite as swimmingly as he had previously thought. He turned to return to where the frog was, but instead found that the man was standing not three feet away, still pulling on his boots. Magus rolled his eyes, it wasn't as if he would leave the man here...though it would be funny...no, the man had helped him more than once and something like that would be less than honorable, and believe it or not Magus did have somewhat of an honor code. Not nearly as rigid as the knight's, but a code the same.
"Seems we're right on time." Magus said as Frog came even with him as they walked towards the palace. "We'll be able to watch history as it takes place, and this time we'll have nothing to do in it." He said, almost bitterly. He wondered why that was, did he actually enjoy making history? He supposed he did indeed, but this wasn't something he wanted to trifle with. He just needed information.
The walk was relatively silent between the two travelers, although the people around them seemed to be making more than enough noise for the both of them. Children whined and cried about the journey, Earthbound and Zealian walked together joking and sometimes actually laughing. Magus thought that was fairly odd, but then again he had been raised in an age of tyranny and life at some point had to have been better than when his mother had been in control. He was jerked from his thoughts as the crowd in front of him stopped abruptly and he ran into the man in front of him. Muttering apologies he squeezed his way towards the front of the crowd to see what was going on.
When he reached the front of the crowd he saw a party of about ten or so in the near distance and heading towards the crowd. The first men of the party, about five in number, though Magus couldn't tell for sure, seemed to be soldiers armed as if they planned to go into battle now. They were fully armored and wielded large spears. The few men behind them seemed to be upper class Zealians of some sort. Scholars or the like was Magus' best guess. As he studied their approach mumurs erupted from the crowd. There was a tug on his shirt and a familiar voice whispered;
"What seems to be the trouble?" Frog asked. Magus looked down at the knight and shrugged.
"Somebody's coming, but why we've stopped I have no idea." Frog seemed content with the answer, but the truth was Magus had an idea of why these people were coming, and he didn't like it one bit. Some of the crowd backed up instinctively as the party neared, but Magus stood his ground with Frog a step behind and to his right. The knight wouldn't be of much use without his sword, but his magic was powerful enough that together they should be able to overpower anyone in the party. Defiant he kept his gaze at eye level, clearly challenging anyone of a higher rank to attack. It was a bold move, but Magus felt that any leverage he could gain the better. An intimidated enemy was much easier to dispose of than one who was level-headed.
"Alright, move it back, there's nothing to see here." The lead man said as he turned his spear so that it lay parallel with the ground, in effect creating a plow. The man planned to shove them out of the way! Magus wanted to laugh, but stifled his laughter as he studied the men behind the soldiers. Three of the men seemed ordinary enough, but the fourth was familiar. He was a good two or three heads shorter than Magus, suited in an orange shirt, teal trousers, and matching teal coat. His hat looked more ridiculous than the one Magus wore, and the thing was teal just like most of the man's outfit. He was a pudgy man, probably in his early to mid fifties, but his hair was fiery red with only small streaks of white throughout. He knew this man...but who?
"I said back!" the lead soldier said, turning his spear so that it faced Magus. Magus eyes the thing warily but stood his ground. The man then pulled the spear away and then towards Magus as fast as he could, but Magus' reaction was too fast for the man to handle. In an instant his hand flew up and caught the spear. He held it in his hand for a moment before using sheer force to crush the shaft, letting the spear head fall harmlessly to the ground. The man seemed shocked, and the other knights dropped their spears, choosing to take their chances with blades.
"What's the meaning of this?" Magus said. "We have no quarrel, just the wish to see the trial."
The man hesitated for a moment before looking towards the man Magus had been studying earlier. Melchior. It was the old guru that stood before him. The next twenty or so years would not be kind to the man, but he seemed to be just as calm and jolly as he had been when Magus had known him. The man seemed to find it amusing that his escort was in such a predicament. The superiority of Zeal indeed! Magus snorted at the thought.
"We have orders to send away all onlookers that have no business in the trial. The palace has already been flooded and this is a trial, not a sideshow." The soldier said this as if he was talking to an Earthbound, well, an Earthbound of Magus' childhood; it was arrogant and borderline obscene, but the crowd behind Magus seemed to dissolve right as the man said this. The man's confidence was increasing steadily now; he actually thought he could beat Magus! A laughable thought indeed.
"I have business." Magus stated. "But I think that only Guru Melchior should hear what that business is." That ought to tone down the soldier's attitude a bit. And indeed it did as the man looked to Melchior for approval. The old man studied Magus for a moment, and then his small companion who was the sole person now not on his way home. He then nodded and stepped forward, through the guards and towards Magus. The guard opened his mouth to object but Melchior cut him off.
"I can protect myself just fine. In fact from the display this man has shown probably better than you or your men could." The man flinched at the ice in the Guru's words, and Magus was a little shocked the man had been so harsh though he kept his face as set in stone. "Move you and your men away so that I may be private with this man."
Again the guard hesitated, but one look from the guru sent him and his men skittering away about ten feet. Melchior nodded, satisfied and turned back to Magus and Frog. "Now what is this business you speak of?" he asked.
Magus hadn't entirely thought this part of the plan through, but he supposed he would just go as it came to him. "I have heard of your experiments and have taken great interest in ones similar to those performed on the girl Kazar. In fact, I have it on good account that you have done more of these experiments."
If the guru's face wasn't pale before, it was now as the blood drained from it. The man reached into his coat and procured a cane which he leaned heavily on while studying Magus over the brim of his dark tinted sunglasses.
"I'd have to say I have no idea what you are talking about."
Magus smirked at the obvious attempt at deception. The man was clearly horrified that their secret had gotten out; except that it really hadn't, he just had the benefit of a history lesson and a journal from this period.
"Well then I suppose you won't mind when I begin telling the commoners about your experiments. I'm sure they would be grateful to..."
"No! No." the guru said as he pulled a hand from his cane as if to silence Magus
"What do you want?" he hissed, clearly annoyed now that he believed someone's tongue had slipped. Some servant would be beaten severely for this, but Magus had other things to worry about right now.
"Merely to observe the trial, and perhaps one of your experiments." The guru studied Magus and Frog once more before he let out a giant sigh and nodded.
"Very well, it seems you chose a good time...to step forward with this information."He had wanted to say blackmail, but Magus knew the Guru was smart enough to avoid anything that would result in confrontation.
"We will be performing our final experiment late in the week following the conclusion of the trial."
And with that the guru turned back towards his men, motioning for Magus to follow. The guru barked a set of orders to the soldiers when he was but a few feet away and they were off towards the palace. As Frog came even with Magus, one of the soldiers said something Magus could not hear to the Guru, but the old man waved uncaring, clearly perturbed over the fact one of his most prized secrets was known by Magus. They would have to be careful now. Even if this guru bought Magus' story, one of the other Gurus might not, and even if they did they may decide to act hostilely. And Magus would rather leave this time period alive and intact.

The large party continued down the path towards the palace well through the rest of the afternoon. They stopped only once, and that was so Melchior could stop and eat. The man pulled a small wrap from the folds of his coat and sat as he began to eat. The soldiers took the time to form a perimeter as if someone would attack at any time. The oddities of this time period were astounding. Melchior offered Magus a corner of his bread, but the mage declined; at this point he was too worried to be hungry. When the old man offered the knight food though Magus swore the man moved faster than he ever had before. And from the rumbling of his stomach as he passed, Magus noticed it was for good reason. Thinking back, he realized that the two hadn't eaten all day, and the last time they had eaten yesterday was just before leaving the cave for the floating continent.
Once the old man was done eating his bread and conversing with the knight, he used his cane to push himself back to his feet. He then brushed himself off and motioned for the knights to start down the path. The soldiers did as he ordered, and so did the scholars that had been silent through the entire endevour. Melchior stayed back with Magus, letting even the frog knight to pass them by.
"An interesting being that Glenn." He said, clearly trying to press some information from Magus.
"Yes, he's been that way for as long as I can remember. The way he talks you'd think someone hit him in the head with a shovel."
Melchior chuckled a bit at the joke and nodded. "Yes yes, though my bet would be he was hit with a sword once too many times. You know he says he was once a soldier? Never heard of him myself, but I suppose there's many that sneak in and out of the service without some old coot noticing them." The old man seemed to be having himself a good time, and Magus played along for a good while longer, chatting about the weather, the scenery, and even the color of Magus' outfit before the old man had fallen silent and moved back up towards his escort.
As Melchior moved forward, Frog moved back, and stopped dead even with Magus. Magus wanted to sigh, he hadn't been this close to so many people since he had traveled with the boy swordsman; and he hadn't liked it then either.
"Tis different somehow." The knight said, referring to the old man. "He seems more on edge, more hostile than the guru in Crono's time." Magus nodded, he had noticed the same thing himself, and silently wondered what could have changed the guru so, but supposed that the answer would not be easily attained; if he was even here to attain it. Hopefully he'd be on his way home by then, but when one wanted knowledge one had to be patient. Especially when the knowledge was guarded as clearly as this secret was. Hopefully the Gurus would decide to let he and the knight view the experiments before trying to act, he was fully confident that if that were the case they could easily escape the old men. But that was a lot of hopefullys. Too many for Magus' tastes, but he had no choice. There was a moment where he wished he had just left this whole business with the remains of Kazar, but his curiosity and boredom had finally caught up to him. Not to mention the fact that he had no intention of helping to clean up the mess that thing had wrought through Guardia. Closing his eyes for a moment he made a silent prayer to anyone up above that would listen, don't let him do anything stupid.

As the party approached the gates of the palace; already through the different gateways to the top of the particularly large mountain that stood on the floating continent, Melchior reached into his coat and retrieved a scarf which he used to dab the sweat on his forehead. It had been quite awhile since he had been given the opportunity for much exercise which explained his growing stomach, and it hadn't exactly been a stress free day.
This man Chronas intrigued Melchior. He hadn't asked the man his name, fearing that he would receive some sort of deception, but the man's frog follower Glenn had given it readily. How exactly they had learned of the other experiments, Melchior wasn't sure, but he intended to find out. He couldn't have done anything about the man outside the castle as the guards he had taken with him would have obviously been no help against a man of this caliber, but together the gurus should be able to rid themselves of the nuisance. And if not, he supposed he could add this to his tally of failures. Thinking about it, if he did succeed, he would have to add this to the ever growing tally of sins. A lose-lose situation indeed. No matter, the gurus would hear of this and they would go from there, though action would not be taken until after the experiment. Too much preparation and planning had gone into this, and they would not fail just because someone had leaked a few details.
The Palace was as grand as ever, with the gates leading straight into the city's paviollion where the finest goods were brought to be bartered for and where scholars could retreat and find peace from the chaos that took place in Enhasa. The walls towered higher than anyone in the city could hope to go, built more for show than for practicality as the creators of this paradise above the clouds had always had a knack for making things big. The large walls also were a means of intimidation. Painted all white, the light the shone in through windows high above reach reflected to and fro throughout the palace, which made sunglasses a necessary thing to have. Melchior turned to study his guests for a moment as they entered the palace. Chronas didn't even flinch at the light and the walls; it was as if he had been here all his life. His frog companion Glenn was fairly composed as well, he had obviously been to the palace before.
"If you'll follow me I'll take you to the guest quarters." Melchior said as he waved his guard off. The soldiers stalked away unhappily, Melchior assumed it was because of all the attention their new guests were receiving. He snorted at their ignorance; what these two would inevitably get those soldiers would not want to receive. He smiled at the two foreigners and motioned for them to follow him.
The three made their way through the thin groups of people spread out here and there, past the booths that contained everything from armor to weapons to food stuffs, and straight through the heart of the ever growing library. Many of the books there had been created most recently, and the most important documents would be magically enchanted so that they would last generations; some perhaps forever if the magic was done right.
Finally they came to a hallway that led out of the main square and into the sleeping quarters. The hall was large and had many twists and turns; hopefully these would discourage the two from wandering around. Melchior navigated the turns with ease, and soon they were in front of a small wooden door. On the wall next to which was a large magical torch that lit the better part of the hallway. Similar torches line the opposite side of the wall along other rooms, but this one was farthest from anything which should help to limit the damage these two miscreants could do.
"Here we are. It's not much, but I'm afraid with the trial and all we're a bit crimped for space." he said fainting sincerity. Chronas looked at him funny, Melchior knew then that this one would be tough to deal with. He had already sniffed out the fact that something was not right here. Perhaps they would have to act sooner than anticipated. The man then opened the door and headed in, and his companion stayed behind to offer some small thanks in his funny way of speech. As soon as the door closed behind them Melchior was off in a huff. How were they going to deal with this?

Magus closed the door as Frog entered and shook his head. The old man had been acting suspiciously; they would have to watch their backs from now on out. Just as he was about to tell the knight this, Frog beat him to the chase.
"Guru Melchior twas acting mightily suspicious."
"Yes, I'm afraid they may just decide to try and get rid of us. Should that be the case you should be prepared for a hasty exit." Frog nodded as he dropped the pile of his winter things on a small chair. He then turned to the door and made his way to it, and it was quite a site when he had to go hop up to reach the handle and hang from it while turning. The door swung open as he pushed away from the doorway and he hopped to the ground.
"Where are you going?" Magus asked as he threw his hat on a table and sat on the edge of the bed.
"To see what I can. Often people are careless around what they can't see." he made a joke about his height as if it meant nothing to him, and with that he left, closing the door behind him. It was then, as he was removing his boots and rubbing his sore feet that Magus realized he would never understand that man.

Frog left the room chuckling. Magus face when he had told that joke was about as priceless a one he had ever seen on the man. Laughing to himself he made his way down the hallway and through the twists and turns back towards the main square. It was a good thing that he had ventured through this castle quite a few times previous to this expedition, otherwise he very well could have been lost in the confines of the maze-like hallways. He wondered if that was what the old Guru had intended. No matter, as soon as they were able to collect information about the experiments, they would be able to leave and do something about those abominations if something even needed doing. It was possible that the other experiments were harmless or that they were in fact prisoned better than Kazar, but Magus refused to believe this, and so Frog had agreed to accompany the man here. There was no telling what he might do on his own if his temper was not held in check, so Frog decided that since he was bored, and not doing anything of particular importance, that he would 'chaperon' this adventure.
He did wish, however, that he could have carried his sword. People gave much more respect to a man that carried a sword, even if that man was a frog. Just being a frog kind ofsomewhat depressed Frog, but he knew that the reason he was without his sword was a good one. As he made his way into the square he made a point of venturing into large groups and seeing what he could hear. Many people looked around before they spoke, but rarely did they look down.
There wasn't much of consequence at first; people rambling about the day's events, special home brewed potions, new minor discoveries, and a little palace gossip but nothing of real importance. It wasn't until he had ventured towards the booths nearest the entryway to the throne room that the talk started to get good. As he stood behind the corner of the booth, he listened as two men of seemingly high stature talked.
"So the whole thing was just a sham?"
"Yes, the only reason they said anything about it at all was because the King said they should, and I heard it took hours for the Gurus to sway him not to go through with it."
The first man laughed heartily. "Yes that's our King. True to the bone, almost too good for politics. No matter, at least the situation is at hand and that abomination has been sent to the Void forever." Could the men be talking about Kazar? Yes, Frog decided, they had to be. He strained to listen in harder, and was shocked at what he soon heard.
"Yes, but those Gurus haven't given up yet. Word is their final experiment will take place in a matter of minutes. I myself have been invited to attend."
"Really? Me too, perhaps we should head there now, I wouldn't want to miss this. If it works, the King's house could be guaranteed generations upon the throne, and wouldn't that be something?"
"The House of Zeal hasn't led us astray thusfar, let's hope the next will be just the same as his father." The men continued to talk even as they headed down the hallway towards the throne room, but Frog made a mad dash the other way, through the crowds and booths, the library and the hallways, all the way back to the room. Not bothering to try to open the door he smashed his right fist into it three times as hard as he could. When Magus opened the door, a little shocked to see the small knight huffing and puffing and probably sweating up a storm, Frog cut the man off. This was important.
"We hath been deceived; the experiment has already begun." Magus let out a guttural growl as he grabbed his hat and cloak, following Frog towards what seemed to be growing uncertainty.