Note Book 10 Page 5-10

This morning when I woke up I went out to Windurst Woods to do something that, for the life of me, I still can't remember. On my way to do whatever it was I was going to do I ran into Alberic. He seemed lost in thought and only stopped when I called his name. He was still troubled from yesterday and seemed to want to just walk around. I asked if I could walk with him for a while. He agreed and we began taking a walk around Windurst Walls.

At first he was humming a strange tune, but soon we started talking. He ended up springing two questions on me that I was unable to answer. He asked first who my favorite person was. Then asked "If everyone you knew was trapped in a fire and you only could save one, who would it be?" I can never answer these questions he asks me. My indecisiveness is one day going to cost me... I just know it.

While still walking we ran into Tsiife who had apparently been called to see one of the professors in terms of joining the Windurstian army, if I remember correctly. As Alberic and Tsiife talked he mentioned the prophecy and how he feared that the shadow was going to kill Mai. He said he didn't want Mai to know and preferred to keep it a secret from her, but timing being impeccable here, Mai happened to creep up behind Alberic just as he mentioned keeping it a secret from her.

Mai proceeded to scold him while he kept trying to dodge the question and get away from the situation. He eventually pulled himself out of his own tunic and took off running, shirtless, towards Windurst Waters with Mai in hot pursuit. Tsiife quickly followed them. At this time I happened to spot Caenir standing on top of a small hill near where the others had been moments before. After explaining a bit of the situation to him we began heading in the way we thought the others had gone.

When we found them, Alberic and Mai were talking towards the end of a bridge. Tsiife sat away from them further down the bridge making repairs on her automaton, Sparky. Alberic was explaining his conserns to Mai, so I decided instead to stay near Tsiife. At the mention of something by Alberic, Tsiife turned suddenly and accidentally knocked Sparky into the water and proceeded to dive in after it. After fishing out the puppet and dumping the water out from it Tsiife mentioned something about the puppet exploding, to which both Caenir and I nervously backed towards the other side of the bridge. Tsiife warned Caenir not to fall in the water and then a question popped into my head, did Caenir know how to swim? I asked Caenir but he was unsure.

Soon Mai came up to us but Alberic was nowhere in sight. She said he had run off to King Ranperre's Tomb and asked for a Teleport-Holla. Wanting to know what was going on, I cast the spell and soon the four of us found ourselves in La Theine Plateau. We rented some chocobos at the crag and hurried to the tomb. Once we were there it was eerily quiet. The monsters that normally roamed the area were nowhere to be found, even the wind was still... As if making no attempt to incur the wrath of something terrible. As we looked around for Alberic we got close to where a large tombstone lay. Mai and Tsiife stopped suddenly as did I to see why they had, but I forgot to stop Caenir and he wandered ahead.

This is where things go from bad to much, much worse. Although Caenir easily walked in, a barrier seemed to form behind him blocking the rest of us from going any further. Inside the barrier Caenir stood slightly behind Alberic and Briddy, who had their weapons drawn, facing a taru girl and, looming behind her, Diabolos. Tsiife and Mai beat furiously on the barrier but to no avail. From what I could tell, the others on the inside of the barrier were unable to see or hear us.

Briddy suddenly rushed the taru girl, who retaliated with powerful black magics, though not aimed at Briddy, but instead at Alberic. A Burst II spell rained down from the sky but Alberic was seemingly shoved from harms way by something I could not see. The taru girl quickly vanished and when the smoke cleared I could see Alberic on his knees, grieving at something invisible to my eyes. Diabolos called to him, offering him a place in his dream world if he joined him. Apparently he had made Alberic witness an illusion of Mai dieing, but Alberic didn't know it wasn't the real Mai.

There was a sudden change in the energy around us. Though Caenir tryed his hardest to tell Alberic that it was merely an illusion, words no longer seemed to reach him. Alberic was surrounded by a thick black smoke, large dragon like wings soon sprouted from the haze. At this point Mai had slumped to the ground, staring helplessly in at Alberic. When the smoke lessened Alberic had taken on a new form that, even Diabolos, backed away from. He looked to be half dragon... Horns had grown from his head, his fingers ended in claws, and large scaley wings stretched out from his back. Almost nothing about him seemed human anymore...

Diabolos fired a blast of dark energy at Alberic, but he cast it aside as if it were nothing. Briddy stepped in front of Caenir to protect him, though he was still trying to talk some sense into Alberic. Alberic then did something I wish I had never seen. He grabbed Briddy by the throat, his claws puncturing her skin... Then he ripped her right arm clean off her shoulder and hurled her and her dismembered body part into the tombstone. There was blood everywhere...

I don't know what compelled me at this point but I pulled my Purgatory Mace from my bag and began franticly beating on the barrier. "I hear some mice scratching at the door... Let's let them in." I heard those words just before the barrier in front of us exploded, Diabolos vanished with a screech, and I fell foward into the dirt dropping my mace. Tsiife immediately ran to Briddy's side as Alberic stared on at the large pool of blood forming around her. When I picked myself up Alberic took to the skys and Mai chased after him. Tsiife and her automaton were trying to heal Briddy's wounds as best they could when there was a sudden explosion nearby. I ran over to try and help Tsiife with Briddy, but it was apparent she needed a doctor.

Suddenly Alberic's voice came from behind us. When I looked over my shoulder it looked like he was going to breath fire on us. I cast a quick Barfira spell and we narrowly managed to jump out of the way in time. Alberic rose into the air, clutched in his hand was a large golden jeweled scabbard and sword. He began screaming insanely about how he had lost Mai and how now he himself was going to fulfill the prophecy he had made. The real Mai called out to him from below, but he wasn't listening. He began throwing fire at everything around us. The tomb was a raging inferno in seconds as Alberic called down to us before flying off, saying he was going to go destroy the world.

As fire surrounded us I grabbed my dropped mace and everyone gathered together as quickly as possible. Caenir used the spell Escape to transport us outside the tomb. Once outside I stared back for a moment, the flames were leaping high over the walls. Tsiife cradled Briddy's pale, nearly lifeless body, weeping loudly... We had to get her to some sort of doctor and fast. As quick as we all could we rushed to the San d'Orian cathedral. People flocked and followed us who apparently knew Briddy, their concern apparent from their calls towards the church for assistance.

Once there we shouted breathlessly for a medic of any sort. They quickly directed us down into the basement where a member of the church immediately went to work on Briddy's wounds, praying loudly to Altana for assistance the whole time. When he had done all that he could do he turned to us and said that he did not think she would make it through the night. I felt a knot form in my stomach at this point. When Briddy opened her eyes she began talking weakly with Tsiife. I couldn't listen... I turned to Caenir who stood behind me and rest my forehead on his shoulder. I couldn't help but cry. I felt Caenir put an arm around me in an attempt to comfort me, but I just couldn't do anything at this point but cry.

I write this now in the dieing light of the candles in the basement. Briddy is sleeping near the back of the room, her breathing is weak... Tsiife at her side... Crying quietly. Mai was pacing a while ago but she seems to have stopped for now. Caenir is sitting near me, though I don't know if he is sleeping. My eyes are stinging badly from crying so much and from the dim light. I can hear the clergy men outside the door talking about something. I don't think I can keep myself awake any more. I wish I could make this day never happen. I wish this situation never came to be... I know I can't change what happened. I just hope right now that Briddy will pull through the night...