The Fourth Relevant Truth
By Moonraker One

A/N: Sorry for the shortness of this chapter. I just had a lot to do.

CHAPTER THREE – The Devil’s Throat

Crono had never felt so disenfranchised his entire life.
Not only had the other three Gurus completely disregarded his side of the issue, but they had done it for time constraint reasons. He approached the main palace of the Zeal Kingdom, with mind set to speak directly with the queen. It was a living being that dwelled within the meteor buried miles below the Earth’s surface, and to simply begin drawing power out of it was a mistake of the highest order; it was akin to stealing. He wondered fully how three educated men could make such an obvious mistake with serious regard. It all boiled down to laziness and a lack of desire to get off one’s butt and do the work of studying a living creature’s psyche.
A young servant girl, blue-haired like almost all Enlightened ones, stood at her post at the front entrance inside the palace, writing away at her book of those who came and went. With a smile and a welcoming gesture of her hand, she wrote his name and title in the arrivals column. “Oh, hello there, Master Guru!” she cooed, obviously moon-struck by his physical features. “What is the nature of your presence?”
He cleared his throat. “I must see Queen Zeal immediately,” he replied, putting as much importance in the tone of his voice as possible.
She seemed impressed by his need to speak with the queen at once, and with a press of the small red button on the side of her post she alerted the secretary in the hallway to the queen’s chambers of his arrival. “Right up the main staircase, Master Guru,” she said, giggling slightly as he walked by.
Women, he thought, rolling his eyes. What is it about me that slays them?! He’d come across several groups of teenage girls of Enlightened nature earlier, and they all seemed to have the same crush on him. Was it his Earthbound origins? Was it the fact that he had good muscular development more than most teens due to his years of sword practice? Or was it that he simply was the youngest Guru in over nine hundred years? He wondered, but never knew for sure. He certainly did not want to date; such would require him to subject himself to the opinions of other people, some of which held prejudice against him due to his line of descent being earthly and not Enlightened.
The somewhat long hallway that led to the queen’s chamber was decorated with the kings and queens of Zeal’s past in the form of portraits that all were exceptionally well painted. He marveled at the sheer detail that was put into the decorations of the walls and the ceiling, and wondered just how such a grand amount of detail could be put into a small section of hall between the main room of a palace and a large private chamber, when there were children down earth side that could not eat because they didn’t have enough food. Regardless, such was not his place to question. His job was Zeal kingdom’s magic; he had to watch over it and regulate its use. Anything that required his intelligence was certainly a daunting task indeed, for he had a lot of knowledge in the magical arts for someone as young as him.
“Master Guru, the queen will see you now,” a subordinate said, sitting behind a desk. She wrote his name and rank on her book and pressed the button to allow him entry into the queen’s chamber.
Queen Zeal sat atop her throne, staring at the subordinates who were coming and going, gathering her tea and other requirements. When Crono entered the chamber with his blade sheathed at his side, a servant came to him and politely requested he remove it and place it inside a special bin for items not allowed in the queen’s presence.. “My blade is in service to the queen,” he replied. “Only she can order its removal.” To this, the queen motioned for him to step forth.
“Guru Crono,” Zeal began, “I hear you had the dissenting opinion regarding the Lavos issue. Is that what you came to me to discuss?”
His eyes widened for just a moment; she clearly was a person who cut straight to the chase. He bowed before her and returned to a standing position. “You are correct, your highness,” he stated. “I came to discuss my reasons for not concurring with the other three Gurus.” He waited for a cue of some kind from her so that he could continue with his explanation. She nodded, so he continued. “You see, your highness,” he went on, “from my studies of the energy emissions from Lavos’ meteor, it has become evident that within the meteor is not only a large storage of magical energy, but a living being as well.”
She cleared her throat; such was not something that she expected. She expected that it was pure luck that a meteor with a large amount of energy within had landed countless years ago, and a team five decades prior had discovered it. The prospect of limitless energy seemed too good to be true, and his words proved why. “You’re serious?” she inquired. An almost mournful nod solidified his answer.
“Your highness, would you be so kind as to allow the other gurus and myself to further study this living creature—and if we’re lucky, communicate with it—before we attempt any sort of power drawing of any sort?”
She gave serious thought to it, and he could see that she was considering his side. He wondered if she was worrying about the planet’s energy supply, and as such he stated, “If you’re worrying about how much energy our planet has, don’t. We’ve got more than enough support from Earth to power the kingdom another fifty thousand years. An extra month or so won’t do any harm to your mighty kingdom.” It seemed to be his words that made it official in her mind. She knew that if a living being had control of such power, then to simply go in and take it from that creature would possibly make it very angry. She didn’t want something with as much power as Crono’s previous data stated attempting to destroy almost three hundred thousand people.
“Okay, Guru Crono, the other Gurus and yourself have exactly four weeks’ time to get in any studying and/or communication attempts with this Lavos creature that you need. However, after the month is up, you and the others must begin construction of this ‘Mammon Machine’ that Melchior has drawn blueprints for.” He smiled, and bowing his head, left the chamber of the queen, but her final words were troubling to him. Melchior had already drawn up plans for a machine, without his being told?! They were actually going to build said device without one of Zeal’s most important minds being involved?! He could not stand for this; he’d intended to go to visit his friend Kafta, but changed his mind and decided that visiting the other Gurus was conducive to his plans.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” Crono said, getting the attention of the lady at the front post. She obviously enjoyed speaking to him, which almost caused him to roll his eyes again. “Can you tell me where the other three Gurus are at right now?”
“Masters Melchior, Belthasar and Gaspar are all going over the plans for the new ‘Mammon Machine’ that they will start working on.” Suddenly, she caught her own words, and seemed shocked. “Wait a minute, you’re the Guru of Existence, possibly the most important of the four! Were they planning on getting your input at all?!”
“That’s what I’m going to find out now,” he uttered, slightly peeved. As he walked on, with the palace fading behind him, he felt four distinct presences approach him. Their auras were distinctly Enlightened, and feminine, so they had to be young and relatively experienced in magic. Regardless of their purpose, he knew they were following him, so he stopped a few steps later and turned around.
“Hello, Master Guru! We’re your apprentices!” a cheerful young woman’s voice rang out.
You’ve got to be kidding me, he thought. They looked to be four young female duplicates of him. Their physical features were different, and there the differences ended. Their outfits were white breeches for pants like his and their shirts, boots and socks even, were all exactly like his. Even their shiny blue hair had been gelled, combed, cut, and dyed to look exactly like his. They even had swords that, he predicted, were forged and sharpened exactly like his. Were they apprentices, which would be taught by him the ways of magic and swordplay, or fan girls? Shaking his head, he almost laughed at the sheer ridiculousness that was how much detail they’d put into looking like him. He coughed and raised his eyebrows in a mixture of shock and hilarity. “I’m sorry; this is just such a shock. I mean, I KNOW each Guru is assigned a team of apprentices to be trained and learn from him, but you girls…I don’t know what to say.”
The one in front looked at herself as though she’d skipped an important detail. “Oops, did…did we miss something? I mean, we were ordered by Queen Zeal to fit in with you, and we figured, what better way than to duplicate your outfit!”
“No no,” he immediately corrected. “The outfit is…” he couldn’t think of a good way to describe how perfectly like his it was, “…simply so much like mine. Although,” this time he did let out a mild chuckle, “I do believe this isn’t what the queen meant when she said, ‘fit in with me.’” He opened his eyes wider for a moment as he walked away with them closely following him. They even dyed their eyebrows reddish-orange like mine! Holy crap! How long were they in the bathroom at their houses?!
“Where are we going, Master Guru?”
“To the other Gurus.”
“Is there going to be an important project, Master Guru?”
Crono could not believe that plans for a machine to extract Lavos’s power would be drawn up without his prior knowledge and input. “Not if I can help it,” he uttered, continuing his fevered pace towards the science rooms in the private science building constructed for the purpose of serving the people’s desire to involve themselves in the current activities of the Gurus and their workings. Being the Guru of Existence, he knew he’d only have so long to discuss the matter with the other three gurus before he had to attend his first ever teaching job; a mixed class consisting of both Enlightened and Earthbound students were to learn of the intricate process of controlling and using magic from him. Earthbound people couldn’t simply be considered Enlightened by being able to use magic; they had to prove it by means of testing. Unfortunately, that meant that even those from down earth side that knew how to use magic and could do so, would still be considered lower class until they could turn eighteen and prove themselves worthy. Crono himself was an exception; he was the first time, in the history of the Zeal kingdom, that a natural born Earthbound person was elected to a Guru position while still of earthly classification.
The large, white building with the dome at the top always amazed him whenever he stepped into it. The large, sweeping lobby had numerous hallways leading to different areas, and lots of elevator shafts and doors leading to various rooms, and one particularly large desk at the front where everyone had to sign in. The young man at the desk bowed his head in the presence of Crono and wrote his name down. “Master Guru!” he inquired. “Are you here to see the other Gurus?”
“Yes,” Crono explained. “My apprentices,” he looked behind him at the would-be female clones of him with slight exasperation, “and I are here to discuss with them the plans for a machine.”
“Alright, then. I’ll tell them you’re coming up.”
The punk-haired Guru nodded and pressed the button on the third elevator shaft going up. His female disciples crowded into the elevator, each thinking different thoughts as the doors eagerly slid shut and the car began its way up. Crono was wondering what influence he would have to have on the device that they were building, whereas his subordinates were wondering exactly what they were going to learn from him today. It was a short run from the ground floor to the fifth floor where the Gurus each had their own private work rooms and one large laboratory where they could work together on whatever projects required the four of them. He stormed out of the elevator and practically threw the door to the lab open.
“Why, hello there, Guru Crono,” Belthasar stated.
“HOW dare you draw up plans for a machine without my input?!” Crono shouted.
The other three backed off like wounded animals. Belthasar, the primary mind on the mechanical aspects of the Mammon Machine, did not now how to respond to such an outburst. Melchior, who had been working out the inner workings part of the schematics, believed he had an answer. “Guru Crono,” he replied, “we merely were asked by the queen to have a plan ready. We were going to ask for your input anyway, we just wanted to have the basic drawings down.”
Crono rolled his eyes. “Well, I’m sorry for freaking out, but, I need to give my advice on the actual ‘energy-drawing’ aspects of the machine, which require me to overlook the physical design of the machine.”
Belthasar folded his arms; this kid had just been named a Guru, and already he wanted to oversee the project? Who did he think he was? “How would the physical design of the machine impact the magical aspects of it?”
“I know you don’t take me seriously, Guru Belthasar; I guess it’s because I’m young, or maybe because I’m earthbound. But in any case,” he called to mind his knowledge of magic, and it was vast indeed, “magic flows much easier through some shapes and curves than others. The outer shell can be generic for aesthetic value, but the part that draws the energy into the core must be curved at a precise angle or energy will flow in and out.” He had a small notebook in his pocket that he used for his schedule. The other Gurus considered it primitive for someone who could write on metal with magic, but he had his own reasons. He pulled it out and held up one particular entry. “Today, gentlemen, I’ll be leaving this room in approximately,” he checked his watch for a brief moment, “ten minutes. So I won’t be able to talk long now. However, I’m having a class today, and I’ve instructed the students to wear their winter clothing because we’re going on a field trip Earth side.”
Gaspar, who’d been relatively isolated, entered the conversation. “Guru Crono, what sort of field trip are you planning?”
It was the question he’d been hoping for. “I’m planning to show them how to read magical energy signatures, and that way, I was hoping you three would come with me so that we can get some current aura readings down. Not a full aura fluctuation reading, but just a basic grasp of the pattern of energy changes. You know, a trip down the Devil’s Throat cave?”
“Guru Crono,” Melchior interrupted, “we’ve got a week to build a machine to begin extracting Lavos’s energy emissions.”
Crono shook his head. “Wrong. I’ve spoken to the queen, and she’s allotted us a month’s time to study any aspects of Lavos that are needed. I’ve got a precise list of times I can be free to conduct energy signature and aura fluctuation readings on the Lavos site. Let’s now go over when we can do this. How about, the first aura fluctuation reading we do this Thursday?”
Melchior mentally recalled his schedule. “Works for me,” he admitted.
Gaspar shook his head. “I’ve got a workshop to conduct. Saturday is fine for me, though.”
“Does that work with you, Belthasar?” Melchior asked of his fellow Guru. “Saturday works great for me.” A nod from the third Guru and the final decision went to Crono, who wrote down the date.
“Saturday at noon, then,” he finished. “Bring your tools and any gear you need for cave exploration; it’s a sixteen-minute trek through the cave, then a four hundred foot climb down to the chamber closest to Lavos.”
Melchior seemed confused. “The closest chamber to Lavos is a half a mile down farther; it’s the one right next to the meteor site!”
Gaspar interrupted. “Can’t go that deep, I’m afraid. The one four hundred foot down is as close as you can get without being fried by Lavos’s energy shield.” The aging time Guru smiled as Crono looked to him with confusion. “Yup, after our little debate, I decided to test the water myself, so to speak. Explored two caves; one was near Lavos where I got a good sense of his emissions, and the other, I found a time gate.”
Crono’s eyes shot open wide. “A WHAT?!”