The Fourth Relevant Truth

by Moonraker One

A/N: How long has it been since my last chapter? Geez. I'm sorry, I just lost track of all of it in the chaos of my life.

CHAPTER SIX

Five kilometers from the largest city on the primary island of the Zeal Kingdom sat a sprawling, grandiose six room mansion in which the second most powerful magic user in the kingdom lived with his mother. Crono Tekoris, the Guru of Existence and the kingdom's foremost expert on magic, had gone quite far in his life. From nowhere did he start, and in just the six months since becoming one of the kingdom's gurus he had arisen to the queen's most trusted individual. Janus and Schala, children of the mighty queen, found their skills shaped and strengthened like a diamond under intense heat and pressure, the pressure being the persistence with which the young guru educated them, and the heat being the patience he showed with their relative inexperience. In spite of his extreme power and skill he did not consider himself above anyone; that all beings were on equal level was his philosophy.

He sat at the kitchen table feasting on a magically summoned bowl of fruit slices and milk. He liked his mother's freshly picked fruit cereal better but did not prefer for her to wait on him this particular day. She sat packing a small back pack with the essential goods for her particular adventure; spelunking. Exactly two weeks prior a new cave had been discovered by one of the queen's excavation crews and a magical energy scan by several of Crono's subordinates determined it to be safe, so applications for the group cave exploration started going out and coming back in the same afternoon. Jina Tekoris defeated six other of her friends—all coworkers on the magic tab assembly line—and managed to score a ticket for the last spot on the spelunking trip. She had lived in the main earthbound cities all her life and had never seen the inside of an uninhabited cave before.

“Are you all packed, mom?” He asked in between bites of his fruit chunks.

She hoisted the pack onto her frame and smiled. “I am all set, Master Guru!”

He rolled his eyes and let a quiet grumble. “You know you don't have to call me that in my own house, mom,” he rebutted.

“Oh, but I love to!” she counter-argued. “You have a very noble position! I think it's good that you have an official title, like your father.” She closed her eyes and bowed her head a brief instant, smiling at her late husband's memory. Then she acknowledged her son. “Well, I have to go. It's supposed to be a really well-preserved cave!”

“Now you be careful; don't let anything happen to you. I may be powerful, but there exists no magic in the known universe powerful enough to revive the dead,” he warned her.

“It's okay, son!” she cheerfully cried, grasping the necklace her husband had given her as a gift. “Your dad's with me!” She set off out the door. He smiled at the thought of her actually being able to do something she wanted; the waiting on other people and endless work must have been taxing.

He gathered his belongings and prepared to go to his next assignment: a major tutorial of sixteen different potential students of magic. As Guru of Existence he had the task of preparing Earthbound young people for the placement test. So his very next stop he knew to be a school on the outskirts of the main island.

“Are we all prepared?” the question came from the exploration team leader. He waited for each person to give the needed answer, and then he lifted his clipboard and went over the regulations. “Now, people, we've practiced for the better part of a week. You all know the procedure. Things out of the ordinary probably will happen; when they do, no one tries anything stupid. Teamwork and trust are the key to survival. Those who fail to follow my instructions do so at their own peril. Understand?” Everyone nodded or said their answer. “Good. Now let's go!”

The group stepped into the cave, the team leader utilizing a luminescence spell to light the way. Jina took notice of each of the various rock patterns and textures, picking up rocks here and there that she thought to be pretty. Very few sounds other than their footsteps could be heard. The very air seemed still and lifeless. An ominous feeling lingered over the group as they continued on into the depths of the cavern. Wow, Jina thought. Something must've happened here. Even someone without access to magic such as herself knew. There had to have been a massive event; this whole place seems dead.

“We're coming up on a fork in the pathway,” the team leader whispered, just loud enough for everyone to hear. “My main servant, Kota, will be taking the other half of you the other pathway. So everyone behind him go with him, and everyone with me go this way.” The group split their numbers and went two separate pathways.

Crono, upon completing the class, scratched his chin as he sat on a bench inside the education building; he knew his father had given his mother her crystal necklace, but from where had he acquired it? He had to know; unfortunately, the information remained sealed in the classified documents section. The gurus had no access.

Dalton exited the classified documents section, carrying a file folder. “Ma'am,” he instructed the receptionist, “other than the Queen, no one gets access to this room until I come back.”

She nodded. “Understood.”

I have to find out more information about the Crucicus Battle, he thought to himself. That battle was the one... he couldn't complete the thought, as upon turning into an abandoned hallway, he collapsed from a sleeping spell cast by Crono. He quickly read the imposing bodyguard's thoughts and shape-shifted into him. Finding a janitor's closet he locked the bodyguard inside and sealed the door. He walked back towards the room.

“Mr. Dalton?” the receptionist exclaimed, surprised by his return. “Did you forget something?”

“There was one more thing I intended to look at,” Crono explained carefully. “I don't want to have to make too many trips.”

She let him in with the push of a button. “Go right ahead, sir.”

He nodded. “Thank you.” In the classified documents section, he looked around the large room. The shelves held folders upon folders of documents, and he used his divination spell to scan through them for the precise paper he wanted. The Battle of the Valley of Crucicus, Crono thought to himself. That's the one where my father pulled off a tremendous military upset.

His spell signaled that he came across the folder. He opened the folder and hastily read the document using an information transcribe spell. He suddenly recoiled from the knowledge he'd just gained; his father's greatest military victory left a significant deal of questions opened. His mother's crystal necklace, he'd just learned that it came from the general of the enemy's side, but he didn't know where it had truly come from or what powers it possessed. All crystals had some degree of power, because they were like a sponge for magic, but he'd since been unable to figure it out.

“I'm done, thanks,” he said, leaving the room after replacing the document. He then slid off to where he'd put Dalton, moved him out into the hallway, then altered his memories and revived him.

“M...Master Guru? Did I pass out?” Dalton looked around, slightly confused.

“Yes you did, Dalton. Well, I'll see you later.” He walked off, making sure not to look suspicious.

“Weird,” Dalton uttered to himself, shaking his head.

 Crono walked on, knowing that the only other place for him to answer the questions he had about his father's power, was the cave he frequently sat in and meditated. So he went home and put on his coat. Then he went to the portal and went down to the Earth. He put his fingers on his right hand in a specific formation and moved his arm left, right, up, then in a diagonal pattern; from his fingertip emitted a light that shot in one direction. This'll tell me where the cave is fro m here, he thought. Gods, I pray for answers to my questions. He trudged on.

The room at the end of the cave he sealed with a spell, then lit the candles in the chamber. He sat indian-style on the ground and cleared his thoughts. As soon as he put himself in the proper state, the chamber faded away, and he found himself alone in a massive field of black, surrounded by moving waves of light in all directions above him, and black void below him. This was the ethereal plane, and here one could find the answer to any of their questions if they knew how to find it.

Show me the answers I seek,  he thought out loud. He focused on what he'd learned from the document, and the void faded away, and he found his mind moving an avatar of his body around invisibly amongst a field of soldiers. He took in the sights as he moved undetectably amongst the soldiers fighting. The Battle of the Valley of Crucicus. My father's greatest victory. I want to see the crystal. He walked forward, slowing down the image with his mind, walking on until he came across a man who'd just struck a ranking general off his horse and began sword fighting with him. Crono noticed that the general was wearing the crystal. Show me the effect of the crystal. I need to know.