- A New Beginning -

____________________

A child of light,

born out of darkness...

forever bright...

...forever alive.

The shining light,

gives birth to a legend...

never waning...

...never dying.

A new life,

under a holy essence...

eternally here...

...eternally living.

A new day,

begins the struggle,

always forever...

...eternally never.

* * *

It was over. A deathly silence rested peacefully upon the room as Cecil lay on a knee, braced by the holy sword he had been given, before his immaculate reflection, its eyes softly returning his gaze. He wanted to smile under his great achievement, but he was still so confused inside about everything that he had just endured. It left him with an unwavering face of bedazzlement as his mind continued to race over and over through thick fields of obfuscation. The rush of power within him continuously surged through his mind as though the hand of God had struck him no more than a moment ago. He didn't even notice as the two twin children came quickly to his side, mirrored faces of worry and wonder.

"Are you alright?" Porom asked with a gentle hand laid on the Paladin's shoulder. She wanted to say something else, but the look in his eyes gave some indication that he wasn't even paying attention to his surroundings.

"Oh man, you really did it," Palom was a little more excited than his sister, as if he wanted to give Cecil a high five more than anything; maybe a little too excited, "I don't believe it, you actually became a--"

Palom was quickly silenced by the hand of his sister as it found itself at the side of his head.

"Shh!" the girl shushed her "lesser" half as she knew Cecil would not want to have to put up with Palom's rambling personality after all he had gone through. She continued to try and comfort Cecil as he remained, kneeling like a statue before his reflection, locked in an unbreakable stare until Porom noticed his hand was trembling. Cecil seemed aware of it as well, bringing his hand before his eyes as he watched it shake lightly in his face. Though his expression hardly changed, the slight twitch in his eyebrow spoke endless emotions.

"What's this feeling..." Cecil softly asked himself, still eyeing his hands as the warmth flowed inside and out, all around and down his arms and through his heart, filling him, "It seems so...familiar...what was that voice?"

The questions invaded his mind constantly, one leaving only to allow the next to sneak in behind it. The voice had spoken of him as if he were its son, and it carried such a familiar energy like he had known it his entire life. The answer was somewhere within, he knew it, but there was so much that he had just taken in that sifting through it all would take a lifetime.

"Oohhh..."

Porom turned her gaze from the dazed Paladin at her side to where Tellah had been standing with them before. She saw him stagger back a few steps as he seemed to be trying to force an unbearable pain from within his head with his fingers, pressing them deeply against his temples. She stood up, alarmed, hoping that it was nothing, that he would snap out of it momentarily.

"Oh my!" Tellah gasped as he was sent to his knees under the pressure building up inside of him. There was something grabbing at him, something none could see or feel except for Tellah himself. He was fighting his own battle just as Cecil had, but over what Porom was unsure, yet it didn't stop her from running to his aid. She knelt down beside the old wreck as he continued to wrap his hands around his head, like he was tearing the pain out through the pores of his skin.

"Master Tellah?" Porom cried out to him, begging for some sign that he would be alright, "What's wrong? Can you tell me what's happening?"

"It's okay..." Tellah managed through a solid wall of clenched teeth as he continued to fight back whatever it was that was clawing at him, "Leave me be."

Porom obeyed the Sage, slowly picking herself up and backing away from him as he started to curl up, forehead kissing the crystal. Through eons of pain seething within his body that he had kept trapped in his mind, all the things that had led him up to this point, to this day...he was learning again. The spells were fighting to break out of him, but each spell came with its own spite, its own bit of retribution to be dealt out.

"I'm beginning to remember..." The old man managed before another rush of pain coursed through his worn bones, "I'm beginning to remember all the spells!"

Though the torture seemed unbearable, the simple fact that Tellah knew what was happening drove him past the point of feeling it. His ambition, his desire to have the spells once again at his disposal was pushing him over the edge of feeling the searing heat, the frigid cold, or the electric shock. All of this energy within him began to escape his body, the pain dying down little by little, and he actually began to glow softly against the floor which refracted and reflected every color imaginable throughout the room.

"Porom, what did you do to him?!" Palom screamed across the room as he watched Tellah's body begin to glow brighter, nearly consuming him entirely.

"I didn't do anything, he said to leave him alone so I did!" she shouted back at him through translucent beams of red, blue, and green. Before long the light surrounding the old man became so radiant that the twins had to shield their eyes from him, and the colors bouncing of the walls were soon swallowed by the white light as it filled the room. For a single moment, a fraction of a second so small that it would be impossible to notice, the entire chamber was solid white, no other colors breaking through the curtain, the extreme opposite of complete darkness. After that it was over, and as if some divine presence had stripped it away, the light was gone.

Tellah lay motionless for a moment, the silence that had filled the room before once again invaded their ears. With a grunt, and the sound of finger nails dragging across the floor, Tellah pushed himself back up, trickles of sweat raining from his face. Slowly but surely he managed himself back up to his feet, though not confidently standing on them. He took a moment to gain his balance before he turned his eyes to his hands down at his sides. As though he was teaching himself to move, his arms lifted in synch with each other and continued to move this way as they bobbed and swayed before him. Palom and Porom watched with wondrous eyes as his hands became surrounded by particles of magic. Tellah's hands then began to move on their own, slowly flowing to what seemed to be an incoherent pattern, yet had such rhythm. The magic swirling around his hands changed colors and switched over, jumping from finger to finger and from hand to hand. Colors of fire and ice became apparent as they danced in front them attracting and repelling each other. The colors then changed to streaks of electricity, small bolts of lightning intertwining through his arms. As his display came to an apparent end, his arms ceasing to flail around and the magic dissolving into the air, he stared down at his one open hand as it glared back up at him.

"What's he doing?" Palom whispered to his sister as he crept up behind her. She was jolted a bit by her brother's voice so close to her as she hadn't even heard him walk up next to her.

"Why don't you go ask him your self Mr. Mysidian Genius," she softly but sternly replied to him.

"Meteo..." Tellah called softly in the stagnant atmosphere around him. The twins both gasped in unison at the mention of the forbidden spell, its name rarely spoken. What was even more shocking to them was his face which held the most satisfied smile they had ever seen on any man. It was almost devilish the way he looked at that very moment. In his open hand he had conjured a small orange orb glowing with a certain dark, its energy seemingly melting the air that it touched, "That light...I've learned the ultimate black magic...Meteo!"

"He truly is the Grand Master," Porom stated, nearly dumbfounded at what she had just seen and heard. She couldn't believe that she would ever see anyone with such a powerful magic, let alone see them actually receive it. She could've stared for hours at the old man standing confidently now within his sphere of complete power, but she felt a nudge from her brother beside her.

"Hey, Porom..." Palom grabbed her attention as he motioned back towards Cecil who had stood up, but was still lost in his reflection. Porom wasn't exactly sure what he was asking of her until he pulled her aside, away from the other's earshot. Quietly he whispered, "Do you think we should tell him why we're really here now? I feel kinda bad now that he actually made it."

"Maybe you're right," Porom found herself a little surprised at her brother's candor, and she actually had to agree with him for once. With a short sigh and a nod she replied, "Okay, let's go tell him."

The two kids warily walked up to the newfound knight as he continued to peer through the glass at the new man he had become. Porom tried to get Palom to say something first, but he shook his head quickly, surely not wanting to incur some fearsome reaction from the man. Porom sucked in a deep breath before she started.

"Mr. Cecil..." she began, though nothing much came out of her mouth after that as he turned around to look at them. Unfortunately his eyes didn't give them any indication as to how he was feeling or how he would react to such news as they had for him. Palom took it upon himself to try and finish what she'd started, although it took a bit of courage himself.

"To tell you the truth, we...um," Palom was stumbling around the words as well. Telling the truth was never his strong suit and these conditions weren't helping.

"We weren't really sent here to--" Porom tried to help out her fumbling brother, but she was cut off as the vibrant old voice behind them crushed their words.

"Alright! I'm finally prepared to destroy that fiend!" Tellah announced with a powerful resolve, a smile on his face that proved his will to persevere, "What are you waiting on, Cecil? Come on, let's go!"

"Yeah..." Cecil replied, his voice trailing off as fast as his attention as he turned back around to gaze at the wall of mirrors once more, "But that light..."

Cecil still found it so intriguing that this light he had just encountered felt closer to him than most of the people he had known his whole life. Something about the warm sensations it fed him triggered some emotion within him that he had never felt before. Something that was deep inside, locked away before he could even remember and had finally found its key, unleashing this enigma. Somehow unlocking these hidden feelings had also given him the chance to free himself of the darkness inside and bestowed upon him the powers of light. He knew it was strange, but he felt as though he was somehow a part of that light he had seen, a part its essence that had been with him all along.

"Hey! Hold on!" Palom ran after Tellah as he made his way through what appeared to be an open passage to the outside. Porom remained at Cecil's side as his mind wandered around so many different things.

"It called me...my son..." he pondered aloud, his voice barely above a whisper. Porom gently tugged on his thin, cloth pants as she tried to get him to follow Tellah and her brother.

"Let's go, Mr. Cecil." she said as soft and tender as she could as he averted his troubled eyes to her. She smiled warmly as she gestured for him to follow her out. He finally gave in and started walking out, albeit very slowly as Porom briskly made her way back out on the mountain. Before he could make it to the door, his mind made a final reach for his eyes as it urged him to go back. Unable to fight it completely he turned and took his last look into the mirrors from across the room, his image still so pure and perfect as though he was the only thing they truly reflected.

Cecil was about to turn and leave when he noticed something else in the mirrors with him. There was something beside him that he couldn't quite make out at first, but as his eyes adjusted their focus on it, he found it was not a thing, but a person. Beside him stood a man who could've very well have been the spitting image of Cecil himself, however he was draped in holy armor, much like what he had seen in the visions when the light first brought him here. Cecil was baffled by the image, the man clearly standing next to him in the mirrors, yet there was nothing actually around him. He was further astonished to see the man in the mirror move on his own, lifting his hand and resting it on Cecil's shoulder in the reflection. What he felt was positively amazing, a shot of warm energy flowing from his shoulder down into his heart, as though that of a loved one was there with him, much like a father watches over his son under an overwhelming task. He glanced at his shoulder for a moment, but he saw no hand there. The warmth continued to flow freely within him as he turned back to the reflection, the man beside him still comforting him with his tender touch, but its other hand had now risen up into the air. He was waving him goodbye. Cecil simply smiled as he turned and caught up with the others outside.

He was starting to understand, his blurred mind becoming clearer, revealing this new beginning. This new life to be embraced was set before him in an array of holy emotions and light, guiding him through his destiny. And embrace it he would, as sure as the sun rises and falls he would graciously take what he had been given and use it to destroy the threat of darkness, and it was the light inside that would show him the way.

______________________________________________________________________________

Well now those of you who have been reading this are probably ready to jump me about now, but here me out. I have a perfectly good excuse for why this update was so late...my dog ate my story...i guess you won't fall for that. Now that you've seen this I'm hoping I can make myself start on the next part. I decided to split them like this because I couldn't write anymore without feeling like I had the whole trial on Mt. Ordeals thing finished, so I did and now this whole chunk of chapters can rest in peace here at . As soon as I finish up the rest of this chapter(which will begin the first chapter of the next part) I'll get the next section of the novel started. I'm not sure exactly how many parts there will be, but I can assure you it will be more than one ;). I hope you all enjoyed reading this because it was so much fun to write. If anyone has any questions about anything please feel free to ask, either through a review or by email(i don't mind). Be on the lookout for "The War of the Crystals "... i don't have a name for it yet :P

-Spiff