[FFML] [Fanfic][Ranma/SM] On A Clear Day You Can See Forever Chapter 21

[Mark MacKinnon]

Bert Miller wrote:
> HALLELUJAH!!!!

    Can I get an AMEN, BRUTHAH??
>
> Mark MacKinnon wrote:
>> Well, slow I may be, but here, at long last, is the next chapter.  
>> Two years.
>>   
> Thanks for the perseverance.  Two years it may have been, but that's 
> much better than 'never'!
    You see, that's what I said!

>>   
>     If it's any consolation, it won't take two years for the next 
> chapter to come out.  Promise.
> Looking forward to it!
>
>> seat of power for the entire kingdom.  Ranma, lost in a berserker rage,
>> remained unaware of this development as he managed to destroy Fenrir.
>>   
> You know, the above is really the only firm confirmation of this that 
> we have...
    Well, at this point, yes.  Later, Ranma doesn't remember what 
happened after he manifested his power, so it stands to reason he missed 
this as well.  Unless your point is that this is a bit of a spoiler, 
which I can see since at this point you don't know Ranma wakes up hazy 
on the details.

>
>
>
>> out across the city, but something was wrong with the view.  There.
>> Where the spires of the palace should be was only a tattered pall of
>> smoke rising into the roiling skies.
>>      The palace.  It was ...
>>      It was GONE.
>>   
> Hmm.  The stadium is rather closer to the palace, which is presumably 
> in Highview, than I'd thought,
> if she can pick this right out so fast.  Or else the palace is REALLY 
> tall.
    Well, the reason they call it Highview is that it is physically 
higher than the surrounding city, with the palace crowning the rise 
(bigger than a hill, smaller than a mountain).  Thus the palace 
dominates the skyline (and is probably on all the post cards).  The 
destruction was very evident, especially from high up, which V was.

>
>> scalp as the wind drove it at them in sheets.  The sight of the seat 
>> of the
>> kingdom's power crumbling under the assault of darkness had left them
>> all shaken, but there was nothing any of them could do about it now.
>>   
> By the way, whatever happened to the "curdled magick leftover" of the 
> Underlords' which
> launched this attack, anyway?  Is it still up there in the clouds, 
> hovering?
    Wynneth's spell called it for a specific purpose.  The storm feeds 
on the remnants of the expended power, but the threat has dissipated.

>
>> In truth, she knew little of
>> the basis for, or extent of, Tux's powers, but she'd never seen anything
>> like this before.  He did seem to have some link to Earth Magicks, what
>> with his roses and all.  Had he somehow drawn strength directly from the
>> earth itself?  And why did he seem to have been unaware he was even
>> doing it?
>>      Troubled for no reason she could really articulate,
> In a previous chapter, you referred to a theory about the "spirit of 
> Gaia";
> this might be taken as a direct confirmation that it's awake and active.
    At the very least, Tux seems to have some link to Gaia.  With so 
much going on, Tux has gotten somewhat of the short shrift, but we 
should remember he was once a power in his own right, although not as 
much as the princess.

>
>> roof of the stadium.  Oddly, there was damage to this version similar to
>> that inflicted by Fenrir ...
>>      Whoa.  Wait a second.   
> Heh.  That was very fast on the uptake for V.
>
>>      And then something grabbed her from behind.
>>   
> Heh.  Nice place to pause.
>>      "NO!"  I came up again, shuddering, clawing at the rain like a
>> madman.  And maybe I was just that, a madman, the last madman in
>> Japan, maybe the world, lost in a fever dream and waiting for the end.
>> They'd find me soon, follow the screaming, and then I could go down
>> fighting, and it would end, there'd be peace and I could rest ...
>>   
> I liked this passage.  You haven't really realized this Ranma's 
> baggage so concretely for us prior
> to this.

    I don't want to have him wallowing in it, but when the defences are 
down nightmares still wait for him.  The guy has serious survivor issues.

>>      "Merde!  Stop struggling, they'll hear us!  Please!"
>>   
> French.  Heh.  Well, we know who this is (begging the question of what 
> language on Gaia
> corresponds to French...).
    Languages are tricky.  We can assume that the kingdom uses Japanese, 
including all the familiar idioms that Ranma is used to, but they don't 
obviously call it that.  I try to avoid terms that are too loaded to our 
world; for instance, Saekianna's mansion had French doors on the 
balcony, but I couldn't very well call them French doors.  It is 
possible that an analogous language and culture exists here, but V isn't 
familiar with the any of the words when Peorth starts spitting French a 
few moments later.

>
>> buffer of space between them.  She was dressed in unusual clothes of a
>>   
> scanty unusual clothes
    And how!

>
>>      "I was Hild's prisoner," Peorth told her.  "She used my link to
>> captured Aesir technology to watch you the last time you were here, and
>>   
> Hmm.  "Aesir" technology, rather than "Warden" technology, or "Divine" 
> technology?
> Probably I'm reading too much into that comment, though; either of my 
> alternatives
> would trigger a different reaction by V, and Peorth would know that.
    It hasn't really been discussed yet, but the ships used by the 
Wardens had goddesses like Peorth acting as, in effect, an interface 
between crew and ship, like an AI avatar.  Some parts of the ships used 
modified Aesir tech for compatibility purposes, which is why Peorth 
refers to it thusly. 

>
>> enough to free me and separate us long enough for me to escape.  I can't
>> imagine what could have damaged the human queen's palace that badly,
>> though.
> Peorth has no previous experience with the curdled magicks?  Well, 
> maybe not; we don't
> know where Hild lured her from; Peorth might have spent almost all her 
> time between the
> catastrophe and her capture in Nikhien.
    It's not really clear at this point if anyone has ever successfully 
used these bad magicks as a weapon, or at least in this fashion, 
before.  We know they exist, mostly in certain places in the world which 
are usually avoided specifically because they are so dangerous.

>
>> Fenrir was toast.
> Well, Mara seems to know for sure what happened to Fenrir.  She's the 
> first
> character who has.
    She swooped in just after Ranma nuked the wolf.  She had a front-row 
seat for the finale.

>
>>      Hild was going to be in a truly foul mood.  And she had a way of
>> taking those moods out on her loyal minion.
>>   
> Heh.
    Some days it doesn't pay to be the loyal minion,folks.

>
>> vibrating like the wings of a hummingbird.  "Oh, gods, they killed
>> Professor Lewdine.  He tried to stop them.  With a coat rack.  He 
>> tried ...
>> they killed him."
>>      "Yeah, I got that part.  Tell me about this lab, Mariko."
>>      "What?  The lab?  In the palace.  We were studying the sphere,
>>   
> Oh, this woman.  I thought she was toast long since.  Yet another 
> surprise you've pulled.
    She has a role, albeit very minor, to play in the next chapter.

>
>> guards, handpicked and trained by her.  Hinari, that girl in the kitchen
>> who always got her Kennarian tea.  Yaster Fenni, whose teasing she
>> secretly enjoyed every time their paths crossed.
> Nice touch.
    A whole palace full of nameless people is one thing.  Making them a 
little more human brings some perspective to what has happened.  All of 
them had names, and lives, and they're all gone.

>
>> smile.  "But you are not far from the truth.  The relationship between
>> Shadow and your plane is not well understood, but I can tell you that 
>> the
>> two realms have drawn closer together, perilously so, since the death of
>> the Azakaru Queen."
>>      "The Azakaru have a queen?  I didn't know they even had
>> gender," V blurted.  "And she died?"
>>      "Murdered," Peorth told her.  "How, I cannot conceive, for the
>> Azakaru are an ancient race, believed to be as old as the Osiren or the
>> Phantom Guard.  And part of the natural order of Gaia."
>>      "Who did it?"
>>      "Even Hild could not discover that," Peorth said wryly.  "But it
>> happened fourteen years ago.  Just before the event your people call 
>> ..."
>>      "The Long Dark."
> Okay, let's pick at this hint you've thrown us.  Hypothesis one: 
> Wynneth instigated the Long
> Dark as a distraction for her murder of the Azakaru Queen, which she 
> carried out specifically
> for the purpose of drawing Shadow and the mortal plane closer 
> together, which she
> orchestrated specifically for the purpose we see at the end of this 
> chapter.  This seems the
> most probable.  Alternate hypothesis:  The Azakaru Queen is not dead; 
> she faked her
> murder, and is the voice behind Wynneth.  No, too speculative, and 
> unsatisfactory on
> other grounds.  Hypothesis one it is, then.
    It certainly seems that her death must have been a part of Wynneth's 
plan.  Being able to kill such a being, however, is no small feat.  I 
wonder if the Azakaru have blood?

>
> Any other implications here?  The Azakaru are the "Guardians of the 
> Dark Border", and
> presumably they've been weakened generally by the murder of their 
> queen.  Better keep
> this one in mind; I doubt you're finished with this.
    No indeed.  Remember Rei's Shadow Magicks reference the Azakaru 
during ritual casting.  They have a very strong influence over the 
intangible, including ghosts and shades, shadows, and dreams.  Weakening 
their power may have been Wynneth's goal.  we'll just have to wait and see.

>
>> Mara's opposite number?  If Mara was some sort of demon, did that
>> make Peorth an angel?
>>   
> First mention you've made of "angels" as part of Gaia's human's 
> worldview, I think.
> Wouldn't that be "did that make Peorth a goddess?"
    I think V would be hesitant to name someone a goddess, given that 
the pantheon of the divine is fairly well known.  It does become 
somewhat problematic, dealing with beings of great power, some of whom 
technically are gods (like Peorth) but who seem to be lower on the 
pecking order than the "official" gods.  Dragon, for instance, is not 
bothered by the gods.  Is he strong enough to be considered one 
himself?  Of course, none of this answers your question.  Not much has 
been mentioned of demons or angels, true, although both exist in some 
form ... we will learn more of this matter in the next 2 chapters.  
(Does anyone find it strange that we hear of the hells, and the old 
gods, but not of their demonic counterparts?)

>> this realm, into a pool of rawest darkness.  Unleashing an antithetical
>> magickal force with enough power should sunder the barrier."
>>      V opened her mouth, closed it.  Banri.  The fake Banri.  Jupiter's
>> lightning attack had hit it, and they'd been thrown into Shadow.  So 
>> that
>> was why ... wait.  That meant the fake Banri was actually some sort of
>> Shadow artifact.  That damned vamp again.
>>   
>      "We need a place where Shadow is held, drawn by forces beyond
> Interesting.  I think V missed the point here, that being "forces 
> beyond this realm".  The news
> to us isn't that the fake Banri is composed of Shadow; the news is 
> that forging it required
> more.
    Indeed.  Wynneth is full of surprises.  Mind you, she's been 
planning this for a long, long time.

>
>>      "Peorth, I don't understand.  Ranma ..."
>>      "Your friend is not ... properly a Warden," Peorth blurted
>> between gasps.  "Takzvyrmishammir.  Wild one ..."
>>      That word.  That was the word Ranma had seen in the tunnels.  V
>> grabbed Peorth's shoulder, excitement rising.  This woman had answers,
>> more than the rest of them anyway.
>>   
> Heh.  So, of course, they get separated and we don't see Peorth again 
> this chapter.
    But Peorth was introduced as a character who can finally fill in 
some of the back story.  If she survives.  And ever shows up again.  
Mwah-hahahahaaa!

>
>> shimmering deep in the metal.  And felt, just for a moment, an answering
>> pulse from the key lying against my chest, weak enough that I was left
>> wondering if it had even happened.
>>   
> Interesting.  Just how old is Galiraithe?
    Another question which will be answered in the next chapter.

>>      "My name," the swordswoman said with an enigmatic smile, "is
>> Kendra.  And this is Raine."
>>      "Nice to meet you," I said.  Kendra blinked, like she'd expected
>> me to recognise her name or something.  Famous bounty hunter, maybe?
>>   
> Heh.  I like it.
    If you're the queen, you don't expect to run into people who've 
never heard of you.  In fact, she probably wishes some days that she 
could be just some woman.  Now, for a little while, she gets her wish 
... and thus doesn't hold a grudge.

>
>>      "Police armour," Artemis said with a savage grin as the two
>> heavy mechs opened up on the creature with their cannons.
>> "Wolverines."
>>   
> They should have claws, not cannons. ;)
    And they're the best at what they do.  Snikt.

>
>>      "V, this is Raine," I said as we crossed the deck to meet them.  
>> "And
>> Kendra.  They ... OW!"  I rubbed the side of my head.  V had hit me
>> much harder this time.
>>   
> Heh.
>
>> We are all
>> reincarnated from the defenders of the White Moon Court."
>>      "Remarkable."   For the first time since I'd met her, the shadows
>> seemed to retreat fully from Kendra's eyes.  "You actually lived through
>> that time, nearly eight thousand years ago!
> Huh.  That's double what I had down as a tentative timeline.  Of 
> course, I was going for minimums.
> Which would seem to mean that when Ami said that the Genrous' empire 
> lasted a long time (in chapter
> nine), she meant several times my tentative one thousand years.
>
> The more important point is what it says about Wynneth, of course, 
> given the revelation later in
> this chapter.  The supposed vamp leader during the Long Dark was 
> scarily powerful because he
> was two thousand years old, and we now know Wynneth is roughly four 
> times that old.
    Yeah, but she's a woman.  She just lied about her age, man.  ^_^    
Obviously, she hid the truth from the other vampires.  Maybe she even 
manipulated them.  Who can say?  Oh, yeah, me.  Right.  More on her role 
in the Long Dark in the next few chapters.


>> though?" Raine asked, tugging at the sodden bandage over her eye.
>> "And why here, why now?"
>>      "That we don't know.  Queen Serenity must have done it, I
>> suppose, given us a second chance."
>>   
>      "How did only a handful of you come to be reincarnated,
> Interesting.  In canon (any version, I think), the senshi know these 
> answers after their
> defeat of Beryl.  If they didn't reappear here and now by Serenity's 
> hand, to fight Beryl,
> then maybe they're here at someone else's hand?  (Let's call this 
> hypothetical person 'W'.)
> And why would W do this?
    Maybe W needs them for something.

>> the old spaceport at Carnica?"
>>      "No," Kendra said.  "Wait, you mean Carnica really existed?"
>>      "Oh, yeah, it was real.  A shining gem of a city, Gaia's capital 
>> and
>> home of the royal family back in the day."
>>   
> seemed genuinely intrigued.  "Hey, is it true your people actually found
> Now, from most authors, this detail would just be lending your story 
> color and verisimilitude,
> but knowing you, this old spaceport is going to play a key role in the 
> plot eventually.
    Feh.  That old spaceport?  A more vile den of scum and villainy 
you'll ... sorry.  Wrong spaceport.

>> be a tall bald guy and a smaller woman with dusky skin, both dressed in
>>      "Sergeant Meaghan Piakesti,
>      "DS Otohari," he replied easily.  "Who's asking?"
> Right.  Your two Dark God lookalikes are running around out here, for 
> whatever (real) reason,
> and still aren't giving us any reason to believe they're not fully 
> human.  Red herrings?
> Or Divine Deep Cover?
    Just a couple of hard working cops starring in Fox's new show, When 
Bad Magick Attacks.

>> expected to find!
>>   
> rudely aside.  Someone with answers?  That was something I'd never
> Ranma's already met someone with answers.  Two, actually; Illianka and 
> Dragon.  Neither
> told him much, but certainly he could have expected to meet more such 
> people.
    I don't know if expected is the right word.  Peorth seems inclined 
to talk.  Illianka is dead, and possibly mad.  Dragon is, well, 
unhelpful.  And, so far as he knows, they are the only two who survived 
the battle at the end.  Except the gods, and if they are anything like 
Dragon, telling them about the key would draw a huge bullseye on his 
chest.  So let's just say he's excited at the prospect of answers.  
Like, you know, everybody else.  ^_-

>>   
>      So why did I still feel this vague uneasiness?
> Interesting.  Ranma's sufficiently in sync with the Key now so that 
> capital-D Dark nastiness
> definitely registers with him, even when it hasn't happened yet.
    Or the preparations are detectable.  Either way, he knows 
something's up.  Just not what.

>
>> seemed least bothered by the wet.  "Ranma's path leads toward the Zone.
>> If he had kept going, he would have eventually reached the border of the
>> Old City."
>>      "Exactly," Mars said, the lights gleaming on her rain slicked
>> skin.  "Coincidence?
> I think not!  Seriously, though, Mars brought up the point about the 
> Old City being a reason
> for the vampire to pick Saeni way back in chapter 9, but so far we 
> haven't seen the Old City's
> proximity play any part in the plan.  It's about time.
    Oh, we'll be seeing more of its role soon ...

>> Mars, I had started to feel ... I don't know.  Something.  Like she was
>> shining a light around a dark room, allowing me to catch brief glimpses
>> of the answer, just disconnected pieces of the puzzle.  But I could 
>> put it
>> together.  I had to.  Now that it was out in the open, I felt an 
>> increasing
>> sense that something was wrong, that we hadn't averted disaster, and 
>> that
>> time was running out.
>>      But why?  Why did I suddenly feel this way?  Had using the
>> key's power the way I had opened some door in my head?   
>      "What about someplace other than the temple?" I asked.  Listening to
> This is very interesting.  Ranma is quite OOC in what follows, but 
> then, we expect a Warden
> to maybe put puzzle pieces together like this.  Is Ranma now 
> transitioning from Takky to true
> Warden?  (By OOC I don't mean that his phraseology is, btw, just his 
> genius-level thinking.
> His phrasing is vintage Ranma.)
    Yeah.  I don't know that I'd call it genius-level, really, more like 
putting the pieces together.  Ranma still prefers fighting to heavy 
thinking, but he has become a more internal person over the years, for 
better or worse.  The key's effects are more prodding than anything else.

>
>>      "They abandoned that temple for a reason," Mars pointed out.  "The
>> old temple district was right in the middle of things when the Old City
>> appeared.
> By the way, we've never been told where the Old City came from, have 
> we?  Or how old it is?
    No, because nobody in the story so far has any idea.  But you will 
find out next chapter.

>
>>      "These trailers are the sort used to transport heavy equipment.
>> Like, for instance, a Bander armoured car and a Massovelli Waterbug."
>>   
> Heh.  And yet another apparently-irrelevant detail from several 
> chapters ago now proves
> important.  Seriously, man, you should go into professional mystery 
> writing.
    I'm glad you appreciate these little touches.  They'd probably be 
more effective if they hadn't appeared in a chapter over two years ago, 
though.  It's like trying to watch season 2 of Lost or something.

>> unspoken accord, unleashed a fierce volley of attacks against the 
>> circle's
>> border I was struck by the malice of the thing, the twisted beauty, the
>> malevolent hunger that it radiated.
>>      And the Sisters' expressions of wild joy.      They didn't KNOW.
>>   
> stopped me dead, though.  It was the circle itself.  Even as Mars and 
> V, in
> ...because they aren't Wardens.  This circle doesn't lead to piddly 
> Shadow; it leads to someplace
> REALLY nasty.  Outside?
    Or maybe it doesn't so much lead somewhere as bring something in.  
Or unleash something.  These magick circles are fairly common for 
high-level spells in this world.  ( Actually, I was thinking of an 
example, but you haven't read it yet, so never mind.  D'oh!)

>
>>      It was too late.
>>   
> Nice description throughout this passage, btw.
    Thanks.

>
>> seductive.  "Patience.  All of you will kneel to me, very soon."
>>   
> Wynneth is expecting to come back from whereever she goes at the end 
> of this scene.
> Of course, they may or may not be the Voice's plan.
    Oh, Wynneth is expecting a whole lot of things.  Whether she gets 
what she wants, in the end, is a whole 'nother matter.

>
>>      "Right," I said.  "But isn't that ...?"
>>      "Nemesis," V finished for me.
>>      The moon was red.  But of course, it wasn't the moon really, not 
>> OUR
>> moon.  The baleful bloody eye of Nemesis rode high in the sky, gazing
>> down in madness on all that Wynneth had wrought.   
> Right.  Well, I, for one, was expecting this; Wynneth's spell has 
> swapped Nemesis and the White Moon.
> (Of course, you did give us enough hints.)  But I was expecting this 
> effect to be her goal, and now
> it's not clear that it was.  Or, at least, it's not clear that 
> swapping the moons has had any effect, while
> the spell clearly had another important effect:  transporting Wynneth 
> (we assume) to someplace far,
> far away.
    She brought back the darkness, and our heroes assume that was her 
ultimate goal.  Which makes sense for a vampire, but is a big blind spot 
for them, because she 's still going, like a gorgeous, evil energizer bunny.

>
>>      "If she was telling the truth ..." V began.
>>      "Yeah.  If," Jupiter snorted softly.
>>      "We'll have to tell Hotaru."
>>   
> Heh.  Wynneth called Hotaru "my darling daughter" way back in the 
> beginning of your story,
> if memory serves.  And now it turns out that she meant it.
    I wondered why nobody commented on that at the time.  I expected 
some shock or intrigue at the revelation.  Maybe they thought it was 
more metaphorical, like "daughter of my blood".  Well, it wasn't.  Ha!

>
>> her eyes.  I got her point.  If Wynneth had been around fourteen years
>> ago ...
>>   
> If?  What if?  She was probably the prime instigator.
    From behind the scenes, yeah.

>
>> This place was far from the inhabited planes, and nothing that lived had
>> ventured here for a span of time that was almost inconceivable.
>>   
> Now, where have Wynneth and Saekianna gone?  "Far from the inhabited 
> planes" makes it sound like
> this is inside "this last, lonely sphere", just far away.  So what's 
> the point?  And is the Voice's physical
> body (assuming it has one) with them?

    I wonder ...
>
>>      Scattered shards of dark crystal.
>>   
> The remnants of the fake Banri, I presume?
    Hmm.  What do we know that's made of dark crystal?

>
>
> Great read.  Well worth the wait.
>
> Now for some speculation:  I've been assuming all along the the Eye 
> resides in this sphere.  In fact,
> for a long time I assumed that the Eye was, in fact, Nemesis (the 
> first home of the Gods when they
> came to Gaia).  This now looks unlikely.  But if the Eye isn't to play 
> a key role, then what's so
> special about this sphere?  Or, put another way, if the Eye IS in this 
> sphere, then WHY did the
> keymakers (presumably) build it here?  And, if the Eye ISN'T in this 
> sphere, why did snapping the
> hyperlinks to it stop the spread of chaos?
    Good questions.

>
> We've also been assuming, pretty much since day one, that Ami was 
> right in identifying Ranma
> as The Outsider.  But what if that's wrong?  Ranma is from 
> lower-case-'o' outside, but what if
> the Outside is from upper-case-'O' Outside?  We've seen various 
> in-the-know types make a
> distinction here, where Outside is where the capital-D Dark comes 
> from/came from.
    Oh, a very good point.  What is Outside, after all?  And if the 
Wardens were fighting against it, does it make sense that Ranma is 
really what they would have called an Outsider?

>
> Suppose the Eye was placed in this sphere because this sphere is on 
> the border with Outside?
> Then the chaos that threatened All That Is with apparent destruction 
> in the distant past may NOT
> have been generated from inside this sphere, say from a broken Eye, as 
> it appeared, but it may
> have come THROUGH this sphere, and been generated Outside.
    The truth shall be revealed.  Soon.

>
> This also makes sense out of the Azakaru's title of "Guardians of the 
> Dark Border", as well as
> giving a secondary purpose to the murder of their Queen.
>
> All this would mean also that the real Outsider is now a prime 
> candidate for the identity of
> the voice behind Wynneth.  And if that's true, then Wynneth herself 
> may not return from her
> little trip (or, at least, as herself, assuming she's ever really been 
> herself other than momentarily).
    Interesting.

>
> Still to be revealed:  what good a key, without a lock?  So where's 
> the lock?  And is
> something locked out, or locked in?
    That too shall be made clear, probably by chapter 24 at the latest.  
Almost there, folks.

Anyway, Bert, thanks for all the great comments.  Back to the writing!


Mark