[Chrono Trigger Novel - Episode 56] Light Beneath the Sea
The small figure saw Crono and came closer. He knew that face. He remembered it from the mountain, where it and its brother had barred the way. A being that dwelled in the sword Frog now carried was looking at him beneath the sea, in a much earlier age.
Crono almost spoke its name, then stopped. Before offering any greeting, the little being looked toward the Ruby Knife.
“You brought it.”
“Melchior gave it to us.”
It nodded. White light passed along the floor behind it. A dull resonance stirred inside the walls, and its gaze dropped.
“They're drawing too much power. If they keep going, it'll wake.”
Crono looked down. Beneath his feet lay the sea, and beneath the sea, the earth. He had no way of seeing how deep it went. But the vibration rising through his soles was more distinct than the line Melchior had drawn in Algetty.
“Which way?”
A small hand pointed beyond the doorway. By the time Crono took a step, the figure was already fading. Lucca tried to speak, but its last outline dissolved into the light. Rather than reach into the empty air, she looked at Crono.
“You know each other?”
He nodded.
“One of the brothers in the sword.”
Lucca's eyes dropped to the Ruby Knife. She seemed to have many questions, but checked the way ahead first. Marle adjusted her grip on her bow without speaking. Together they passed through the doorway and farther into the palace.
There was none of the sea smell Crono had expected. The stone walls were dry, and the floor was not slippery. Beneath the high ceiling of a broad chamber, paths descended from level to level. Deep darkness, not water, filled the spaces between the pillars. Luminous lines followed the walls downward and vanished into doors on the floor below.
At first, they all seemed decorative. After watching for a moment, he saw that the light moved in regular directions. Some lines carried it down; others brought it up. Lucca listened near a wall without touching it.
“It's running all the time.”
Footsteps sounded in the distance. Crono looked toward the passage on the right. A figure about the height of a person came out from behind a pillar. Blue light covered its body. A red figure followed, then a paler one. Together they filled the narrow path, leaving no room for the three travelers to pass.
Crono drew his sword. The creatures did not speak. The blue one glided toward him. He stepped aside and cut, but felt only the scrape of a hard surface. The edge did not bite. He withdrew the blade rather than force it.
Marle's cold streamed past him.
The blue surface fractured. The creature recoiled sharply. Crono looked at the opening in surprise. The blue beast in the cave had reacted in exactly the opposite way when they used ice against it. He changed direction, turning to block the pale figure beside it.
“Don't go by the colors!” Lucca called.
Her fire covered the red creature. Instead of growing stronger in the flames, it twisted and struck a pillar. Crono sent lightning at the enemy before him. The thin layer around its body tore open.
They retreated in different directions. The blue one rushed straight at Marle; the red one circled through a side passage toward Lucca. Crono started to put himself in front of Marle, then stopped. She had already set one foot back and was gathering another wave of cold. If he stepped in now, he would block the room she needed to work.
He ran for the side passage. Before the red creature rounded the corner, he planted a foot against the pillar and turned sharply. Instead of cutting at it, he braced his free hand on the railing and swung across to bar its path. As it reached for him, he dropped low. Lucca's fire passed over his head.
The red figure collapsed. Crono landed, changed his footing, and returned to the center. The creature he had struck with lightning was still standing. Light wavered inside it as it flailed its arms. Keeping his distance, he sent another bolt through it. Its slight, hovering body folded to the floor.
Marle had brought down her opponent too. As the last of the cold settled, only the original vibration remained in the room. They did not immediately move on. They listened for more footsteps in the other passages and checked where each of them stood.
Lucca examined the fragments on the floor.
“Nothing like those beasts.”
Crono nodded. What they had learned was not useless. It had shown them what to check. With his sword still drawn, he examined the wide path ahead. A band of light stretched across the central doorway. Smaller rooms lay to the left and right.
“Straight ahead is blocked.”
Marle followed the lines across the floor with her eyes.
“It looks as though they're coming from both sides.”
Lucca did not immediately offer an explanation of the machinery. She went right and examined the surface beside a doorway. One area was worn, as though many hands had touched it. Crono checked inside and beckoned. All three entered together.
Two creatures guarded a low stone structure like an altar. Crono watched the faster one. It darted around as though following the walls, making it difficult to aim at the enemy behind it. Marle stepped forward with her bow. Instead of tracking it, she aimed at the corner it would have to round.
The arrow pierced its garment-like covering and held it close to the wall. Crono moved in during that brief interruption. This time, his blade cut deep. He did not follow the falling body, but withdrew, leaving space for Lucca's fire. The other creature sank into the red light before it could raise its hands.
Marle pulled out her arrow and checked it. The shaft had bent. She left it beside the wall and closed her quiver. Four remained.
Lucca pressed the top of the low stone. Nothing moved. Pushing sideways made no difference. Marle noticed a long mark on the floor and pointed it out. Lucca changed position and stepped on the plate beside it. Something heavy sounded within the stone. One of the lights in the wall went out.
“A footplate.”
She lifted her shoe. The light stayed out. Without pressing it again, she went back into the chamber. The light barring the central path had diminished. They would have to do the same on the other side.
They stayed together. All three went around to the left and entered the remaining room. Two blue creatures guarded the front. While Marle gathered cold, Crono held the narrow doorway so they could not rush her at once. Lucca kept another enemy at the rear occupied. They did not need a lengthy discussion of who would do what. The mistake they had made a few minutes earlier had already changed the way they moved.
When the last figure fell, Marle put a hand against the wall and caught her breath. Crono stood beside her and gave her water. While she drank, Lucca found the floorplate. A low resonance spread out of the room.
When they returned to the chamber, the central path was clear.
Crono crossed first. From the other side, he could see beneath the route they had just taken. Rather than a building laid out on a level plane, the palace seemed to fold its floors inward. He could not tell how many remained below. The sound grew nearer, though he could not distinguish the Mammon Machine from the other mechanisms.
The light turned red as they entered a broad stairway.
A fireball shot from a slit in the right-hand wall and crossed the steps. Crono stopped and raised an arm to halt the others. It vanished beneath the opposite wall. After a short pause, the slit brightened again.
Lucca moved her fingers as though counting the interval. After the third flash passed, Crono went down first. He stopped on a broad landing and looked back. Marle and Lucca followed in turn. When the fire passed again, all three were below the opening.
“Do the people from the palace have to walk through that?” Marle asked.
Lucca looked toward the wall.
“I don't know if it's always been like this.”
Her voice had grown quiet. Crono noticed tools lying near a corner: a hammer with cloth wrapped around its haft, a long pair of tongs with a worn grip. They seemed out of place beside the immaculate wall. A half-eaten portion of food lay wrapped in cloth nearby.
Had some of the people taken from Algetty to haul materials worked here? Crono left the hammer where it was, in case its owner came back for it, and checked the next landing.
This time, the enemy leaped first. Long limbs carried it across several steps at once. Crono did not meet its descending weight head-on. He moved one step aside, waited for its feet to touch, then turned and cut across its flank. As it swayed toward the railing, Marle blocked the path ahead and sent cold into it. A second creature, jumping down behind the first, halted above them to avoid Lucca's fire.
Crono did not chase it up the stairs. The next fireball was already lighting the wall. He tapped Marle's wrist and sprang to the landing below. Lucca followed. The creature swung its arms above their heads, then withdrew from the flames.
No pursuing footsteps came at once. The three moved behind the curve of the stairwell. There was no reason to stay until every enemy lay dead. Crono wiped sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and looked down.
Marle followed his gaze. Far below, a broad platform stood slightly above the floor. Vertical grooves ran down the walls on either side of it. Lucca swung her bag forward, then settled it on her back again.
“Looks like a lift. Let's get closer and check.”
They did not run straight toward it. Behind the wall, they shared water and took a bite of their remaining food. It was only a short pause, but Marle rested her hands on her knees and let herself settle, while Lucca wiped the mist from her glasses. Crono sat on the same step instead of standing over them, urging them on.
The cloth around the Ruby Knife had loosened. He retied the knot. The edge showing between the folds looked darker in this light. He carried a sword he had received on a mountain, and now he had been entrusted with a knife older than that sword. When it had been made mattered less now than where he needed to use it.
Lucca watched the walls below for a long moment.
“Whoever built this must have been happy when they saw it finished.”
Crono looked too. Perfectly fitted stone, machinery reaching down beyond sight, rooms that held the sea outside.
Marle closed the waterskin.
“Probably.”
After a moment, Lucca stood.
“We still have to stop it.”
She turned from the wall to the way down. Crono saw her face and rose with her. She did not have to lose the part of herself that wanted to build things before she could destroy this one. She carried both wishes as she stepped out onto the stairs.
Another vibration rose from below. This time the light in the wall followed a beat late. Crono felt the delay through his hand on the railing. Somewhere, something immense was pushing the machinery out of rhythm.
He waited until Marle and Lucca reached his step, then moved to the next. Their shadows stretched through the red light. None of them turned back. Their footsteps found the same pace as they descended.
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