A month later, Drake was home!

Oh, how he had missed being… anywhere but Shivel! The city itself was beautiful, but the blasted girl was Hade’s daughter, Hel!

She had survived Drake’s visit, sadly and barely. She had almost drowned in the indoor swimming pool, though. That had been entertaining.

She told people he didn’t save her because he couldn’t swim… which he doubted anyone believed seeing as they knew where he was from… water everywhere.

He’d told her why hadn’t helped her!

“I do not like you and I dream of your death.”

Which she had twisted into, “You even dream about me?”

… That had been enough to make him shift.

However, he’d waited till night.
While she slept, he slunk into her room. She’d woken up when Drake had opened the window.
She said his name; he turned to look at her and shifted as he turned.
Her scream echoed throughout Shivel, but by morning, she had convinced herself it’d been a dream.

She feared Vanda, too.

Drake took advantage of that as much as possible, and every time he got to the point where he was bashing his head against the wall in the hope that it’d kill him, Vanda flew over and kept him from killing himself.
He'd spent so much time dealing with Pricilla, he'd forgotten why he was mad at anyone else... he'd forgotten... much everything else; just spent all his free time avoiding her and her friends— which was a rather difficult task despite the size of the castle!

Now he was home!

 

After dropping Vanda off in the hawk keep, Drake walked to the public library.
He walked down a pass and was bombarded by items that fell from a lift. He glared at the weapon shop owner who collected his belongings from the pile of things that fell… it happened frequently enough to enough people that Drake knew the shopkeeper would understand the reason for the glare without question.

“Sorry, your highness.” The man hummed, going back to his shop.

“… Blasted lift.” Drake grumbled, “I should break that thing.”

 

 

 

 

 

Time passed, and the weapon shop was unable to conduct business several times over the next two years. The lift was very old; it was there when the library was first built. It was a strong design, not a lot could go wrong. Nevertheless, something did. An earthquake two centuries before had somehow stunted the water supply that fueled it. The pressure just wasn’t enough anymore to rise the pillar to the top.

Therefore, the greatest minds in all of Daguerreo met to discuss what could be done to repair the ancient lift, a famous symbol of Daguerreo’s ingenuity. After a whole week of talking, planning and brainstorming, they had the answer.

A stick!

A hole was installed in the right wall, where a strong wooden beam was placed. It prevented the platform from rising, and therefore allowed enough pressure for the other two platforms to raise and fall normally.

Then another problem; the stick started to disappear. In fact, it seemed to spontaneously combust, forcing the weapon’s shop owner to close his shop until a replacement could be made.


“I know you keep doing this,” Eclipse accused Drake while pouring a handful of blackened ash on the table in front of the boy. It was what was left of the ‘Stick of Wisdom’, as the weapon shop owner affectionately called it.

 

Drake looked away from his book at the ash and then back at his advisor. “... I told you he tripped me.”

 

“Tripped you? How? He never moves from behind that desk.” Eclipse informed Drake, almost exasperated at his poor excuse.

 

“He piles junk on that lift, when the lift raises it spills out that junk.” Drake answered, having given that answer many times before.

Maybe he should stop burning the stick... it always made it clear who had done it.

 

“It wouldn't spill if someone didn't keep jumping on it all the time,” Eclipse argued. Obviously referring to Drake, but not saying it.

 

Drake looked back at his book, “It's been doing it for years. I got back from Shivel and it did it. Now it is my mortal enemy… or… immor— inanimate enemy…?”

 

“Maybe you would like to go back there, where the stick won’t bother you?” Eclipse asked, knowing full well Drake would hate the idea.

 

Drake looked back at Eclipse and stood up, putting the book down. He led the way upstairs to the weapon shop and stopped just short of the actual shop. He looked and saw the shopkeeper was preparing to go grab something from the lift and then looked and saw a box full of books next to him, which Drake promptly handed to Eclipse, the box making it rather hard to see the ground in front of him.

“Now walk,” Drake instructed.

 

“No,” Eclipse replied. He was sure that this would only end in embarrassment... So he handed the books to Ellipsis who was with them, but had until then been mostly ignored, “Ellipsis will do it.”

 

Drake shrugged, “Alright.”

 

Ellipsis looked unpleased, but he did indeed start walking forward. Unsure what to expect, but knowing it wouldn't be good.

 

The shopkeeper had the lift raise and random junk spilled into the hall.

 

Ellipsis tripped a moment later, spilling the books all over the floor, and pulling several muscles.

“Ow...” He muttered weakly.

 

“See? That's why it's my something enemy.” Drake explained, motioning toward the mess.

 

Eclipse was hard to impress, and amuse. Which if he was either, he didn't show it. He just turned back to Drake.

“Then why don't you use one of the library carts?” He asked, pointing to an empty cart like the librarians often used.

 

“Eclipse... either I kill the stick, or I kill the shopkeeper. And I thought about killing the shopkeeper... and I will admit, I was the one who shoved him into the reflection pond, put an axe up so it would fall when he entered the shop, burnt down a ladder he was on three times, and put arsenic in his coffee... but I have yet to kill him... stubborn bastard...” Drake paused to remember what he was talking about, “He lives. To kill him in front of people would cause problems and he never leaves. So I'm after the stick.”

 

Eclipse paused, staring at Drake for a long moment. “No more burning the sticks,” he finally reiterated.

 

He couldn’t really care less about the shopkeeper’s business, but everyone knew it was Drake that was burning the sticks, and it looked bad on Eclipse’s control over Drake’s power, and his ability to make the prince follow the rules.

 

Drake thought about that a second, and then nodded. “Yes, Eclipse. I promise.”

 

Eclipse eyed Drake suspiciously. He didn't usually give up this easily.

“Alright…” Eclipse said, and walked off, stepping over the still fallen Ellipsis.

 

 

 

Drake waited for them to replace the 'lever'. Then he simply removed it and put it in a different room.
“Entire country full of intellectuals. They'll never be able to fix this.”

 

 

Eclipse had noticed the stick was missing again the next day. He sighed when he realized that it had just disappeared this time, there was no ash. He remembered his words not to burn the stick and made a note to try and arrange another visit to Shivel for the prince.

That’s when he noticed the odd group of people, led by a strange young boy about Drake’s age with …a tail? He watched them unnoticed from one of the higher, restricted, levels. They talked to every single person down there, twice, and even fixed the elevator… to buy weapons…

Eclipse wondered if these people had anything to do with the strange happenings that he had heard of around the world of late. Including a war on the Mist continent.

 

 

Drake had managed to sneak out and go hunting. He didn't get back till the next morning.

The first thing he noticed... “Hey! Who fixed the lift?!”

 

“Some young man with a tail,” Eclipse answered absently as if it didn't interest him nearly as much as the book he was flipping through. When in actual fact, that wasn't quite true. It interested him greatly...

 

“Grrr...” Drake grumbled, “How annoying.”

 

“I think they also stole that Capricorn stellazzio coin thing out of that chest by the main entrance.” Eclipse added, turning another page.

 

“Thieves!” Drake cursed, “Worthless mongrels.”
He didn't remember why they had that coin... but who would go into a place and just... take stuff? That was so rude!

 

“And they were sticking lots of Ore into the Dragon god statue's mouth, too.” Eclipse recalled, flipping yet another page, and finding an interesting diagram.

 

Drake stared. He almost didn’t believe it, but this was Eclipse… Eclipse never  joked. Why would someone…? How would they even get the idea to…? How stupid!

“... Interesting. Are they still around?” He asked.

 

“Nope, left on an airship after killing several Grand Dragons from outside and… giving the Gimme Cats things then seeming upset when the battle continued...” Eclipse informed the boy as he finished with the book and put it back on the shelf. It hadn't been that good anyway, so he began his search anew.

 

“Hmm...” Drake let it go almost instantly. “I'll be right back,” he excused himself and wandered off.

A few minutes later, he returned.

 

“That was fast,” Eclipse commented as he saw Drake appear again. By now, he had found another book that held his interest. “What were you doing?” He asked suspiciously, peering over the top of it.

 

“Fixing the lift.” Drake replied, easily.

 

“Go and put it back,” Eclipse ordered with a glare over the top of his new navy-blue book.

 

Drake hung his head. “Yes, Eclipse.” He sighed as he walked back to the levers and put the stick back... for two minutes... then he hid it again and walked back to Eclipse.

 

“Good.” Eclipse said, glad that the boy had followed his instructions without making a fuss. Then began again, “Now as I was say—”

“Why isn't the lift working!?” A gruff voice broke in, startling a lot of scholars that were drifting around the library. It was the voice of the shopkeeper.

 

Eclipse glared at Drake again.

 

“... I did put it back,” Drake stated. “It was returned to its position and was left there. Whatever happened after that is surely a coincidence, I should not be blamed for—... I'll go put the damned stick back.”
He was trying to behave... left without a choice, really.

 

He'd learned that his TF was something people would fear. At first, after Drake had learned to control the shifting, he thought it was fun! He showed off with his powers a lot at first, but... Eclipse had convinced him, and showed him, why that was a bad idea.

Chaucer and Marina could never know… they would hurt him again.

Drake still didn't know why he was so different from them, but he didn't have to know.
Power was important; it meant survival.
Eclipse had explained it. Drake needed to get strong before anyone found out what he was. People feared things that are strong, they would do something foolish.
Eclipse was just trying to keep him safe...

No one else would. Drake's parents... Eclipse had told Drake it was best they not know how strong he was, that Eclipse was doing his best to keep them from knowing.
He said elementals were unusual— people considered them monsters. Drake was exceptionally strong; people would react poorly toward that.

Therefore, Drake obeyed. They would keep the world in order...
“But I make no promises it'll still work...”

 

 

 

 

The next few months were rather hectic. The whole world had been threatened, by Terra, all the little wars. There had been so much death, and the world had very nearly ended. It had become so bad at one point that Eclipse himself very nearly stepped in to ‘help’. In the end, it had been a select group of heroes that had saved everyone. Most of them were from the Mist Continent, and Eclipse had recognized them as the people that had been in the library that one time…

Eclipse had made it his most recent mission to find out as much as possible about everything that had happened. Thus, he had, and he knew a lot more than most world powers would want him to know. He found out that the storm caused by the giant eye that had killed Apsis had actually been technology from Terra. A completely other world.
He learned all about Queen Brahne and her plots. About the Genome, Kuja, and his brother Zidane who helped to stop him. That both of them were thought to be dead.

He hadn’t liked this crisis. It was out of his control, it was a danger to his plans and it was someone trying to take what he wanted. The world.

Still, it had all turned out more or less for the best. His plan was still on track, the world was safe, for the time being and the world was still his for the taking. However, there was a new factor.

Terra

He couldn’t ignore that place. Even with Drake at his side as a loyal servant, the technology of Terra could still beat them. There was a chance it was lost forever, but a chance wasn’t good enough. He had to have it; he had to be the one to wield the power. Once he had that, he and Drake would truly be unstoppable.
Where to start? He had researched the ruins of Ipsen’s castle, and Oeilvert, but the artifacts would not respond to him, and if the rumors were true that only the people of Terra could hear the psychic messages, as it appeared to be, it was another dead-end.

That’s when another rumor came to him, news that Zidane had been seen with his old thief friends in Lindblum. This could be what he needed. The only remaining key to the secrets.

Plans formed in his mind, and the next course of action seemed clear. He had to meet the Queen, Brahne. She would probably be as easy to manipulate as Drake’s father had been, and her greedy nature would only aid him.

 

Brahne grumbled as she walked through her garden. She had, as discreetly as possible, sent word out that she was looking for aid. It took a long while, but someone finally gave her a name of someone who might be able to help.

Eclipse.

Brahne had sent a message to him and now she was waiting for him to show up.

 

It wasn't the easiest task, finding a way to slip away from the palace with no one noticing. Ellipsis could fool pretty much anyone except Drake. It had been done several times. Ellipsis had become so good, Eclipse had insisted on a way that they could be told apart, so they had both had tattoos done, in secret, of course, on the underside of their right wrist.

Eclipse's was a tribal design with an eclipsed moon in the center. The light shining around its edges was orange and yellow, like flame.
Ellipsis' tattoo was a lot simpler, with just three simple dots, a play on his name. The dots had a kind of swirling star in each of them.
Drake was the only other person that knew about this. Both Eclipse and Ellipsis wore robes, so it was rare to even catch a slight glimpse of the tattoos.

Nevertheless, the prince might ask where he was going. So he had waited until Drake was away on a hunting trip, and arranged the meeting with the queen then.

He stepped out of the shadows near the queen, almost seeming to appear out of nowhere. Which might have been true; who could be sure? The guards certainly had no memory of seeing him before, and no one back at Daguerreo would remember him leaving either.

“Greetings.” he said in a quiet, polite voice, but one that held no real emotion.

 

Brahne turned to Eclipse, startled by his sudden presence.
“Oh... I did not see you arrive. You must be Eclipse?”

 

“Yes,” Eclipse confirmed with a small bow; then stepped further out from the shadows, “I received word that you require my services.”

 

Brahne nodded and explained the... situation. She explained about The Secrets of Terra and her desire to get that, she explained about the events that led up to her discovery of The Secrets, and finally, she ranted about her issues with Zidane who was the only one who could open the door.
“The younger one, Mimiko or something, she's worthless. But the boy... I've seen it, the Terran things respond to him.” Brahne finished, already showing her anger.

 

The queen had already given away more than she should have. Her anger and frustration. Her desperation for the secrets. Her dislike of Zidane and the location of his sister. All about her daughter's feelings for the alien. It was really no surprise that her plan for world domination had failed. She hadn't even bothered to remember the Genome girl's name right.

“Do you expect your daughter to marry the Genome? This...Zidane?” Eclipse asked, his tone suggesting only modest understanding of the situation. It would probably make the queen feel less outmatched.

 

Brahne shuddered at the thought, but gave an honest answer. “Unfortunately... That's what she wants.”

 

That wasn't a real question. It was an obvious and logical next step. The trick was to use it in the plan, rather than help the queen try to fight it.

“So, you're not pleased?” Eclipse asked, his voice hinting that he was trying to make a point. The kind of tone that subtly made you think; 'what's he getting at?'

Though he had doubts if the queen would manage to pick it up.

 

“Of course not!” Brahne fumed. “Why would I seek help if I were happy?”

 

“Of course, your highness.” Eclipse said. “What will all the other world leaders think about your daughter marrying the brother of the greatest threat this world has ever seen?”

He turned to look at the flowers for a moment... “He is a great hero. But who is to say they won't forget that?”

 

Brahne wasn't sure how they could possibly 'forget' that, but she was willing to pretend. “That might help... but it would be difficult, I've tried...”

 

“That was before you had me to help,” Eclipse politely reminded her. “And if all of them are opposed to the wedding...” He started, allowing her to finish the thought in her slow mind. He gave her a long moment. The idea had to make its way around thoughts of cake and biscuits, after all.

 

“I'm not that sure of any advantage that will be. I had help once before, that ended lovely.” Brahne grumbled, swiftly checking to make sure no one was listening in.

 

Eclipse would have known if there was anyone close enough to hear, but he did the same, as if her paranoia was having the same effect on him. When he was 'satisfied' there was no one around, he continued.

“What if we were to... set your daughter and the genome against each other?” He asked in very little above a whisper. “We'll have Prince Drake become their friend. Start to get between them, and maybe even win the Princess' affection.”

 

Brahne thought that over for a while. She'd heard the name, but knew little about the prince... still, it was an option. “A wise idea...”

 

Eclipse gave a polite and modest nod. He of course had his own ideas and plans. He kept them to himself, hidden deep down.

“So, now, how will we introduce them?” Eclipse asked. He knew of a meeting of world leaders that the Queen was planning to hold soon. It was ideal, and obvious. Even she would be able to figure this one out.

 

“I'm hosting a little get together with the world rulers soon... That would be perfect,” Brahne decided.

 

“Yes, that would be sufficient...” Eclipse admitted. “So, I'll make sure Drake is there and you will introduce him to your daughter and the genome.”

If she was alert, the queen might notice that what might have appeared to be a question was actually not. It was more or less an order or instruction.

 

Brahne nodded. “Yes, that sounds perfectly fine.”

 

With that, they then discussed the finer points of the plan, and Eclipse left back for the palace. He was unhappy about the respect he was forced to show to the fat queen, but the plan he couldn’t be happier with. His plan, that is. Not the one he told the queen. The next day, he would talk to Drake when he got back from the hunting trip.

The King and Queen were already set to go to the meeting, and it would be a small issue to convince them to take their son. Drake, as usual, would be the trickier part.