Sins of the Past Book 1, Chapter 1
A King Rises
By Citadel
Author's note: This story will be divided into several books, each one signifying a significant part or change in the pre-world of FFVI.
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Seventy years prior to Kefka's birth.
"Daddy, why is the sky blue? How come the bees fly? Why do I have to go to tutoring? Huh? Why Daddy?" Thomas Gestahl looked at his sandy haired child Devin. Sometimes he was rather annoying, but that was to be expected of a boy all of ten. He excelled in his studies, he also was top of his class in fencing and swordsmanship. This wasn't just because he was the king's son, he specifically ordered his tutors to be harder on him than the other privileged children.
"I don't know the answers to any of those questions, minus one. You have to go to tutoring because I said so," Thomas used the age old no-reason reason to get his boy to shut-up.
"Why?"
"Because I said so."
"Why'd you say so?"
"Because I'm your Dad."
"How come I have to go? Why can't you just say stay home today?"
"Because I SAID SO!" Thomas yelled. Devin shrank back from his father. Thomas felt bad about losing his temper, he always hated to do that. "I'm sorry. I just, look, you have to go to your lessons or you'll never get smart."
"Why?" Thomas shook his head.
***
"...and then you take the x-axis, here, and then multiply it by..." Devin started to tune out his teacher. He started out the window of his school for rich and gifted. He'd been called both. The fields of Vector looked so fun, he hated this place.
"Why do I have to be in here?" he thought to himself, " 'Because I said so,' his father's voice echoed through his mind. This place is such a bore. X- axis, Y-axis, such a waste of time. Who cares? When I become king I'll hire people to do this stuff for me. Phooey." He slumped down in his chair and day dreamed.
"Devin? You paying attention?" the teacher called.
"Oh yeah, on the edge of my seat," Devin replied.
"I can see that, if you slump any lower you'll be off your seat." A few people giggled at that remark. "Devin, can you give us the answer to number twenty?"
"Uh," he looked at his former night's homework. Just his luck, in his laziness he'd given up at eighteen. In the teacher's haste to check the homework he'd simply missed it. "Uh," he looked over the equation and quickly made an educated guess, "Four?"
The teacher looked rather shocked, "Yes that's correct," Devin knew that the teacher knew that he just did the problem in his head. "Now, we'll go on to chapter twelve dash..." again Devin tuned out. His classes bored him, they were all too easy.
In another two hours the bell rang and everyone scrambled as fast as they could outside. Classes were over for the day, no more worries. The young girls skipped along, and the boys pushed and shoved eachother all the way home. Devin didn't get to join in. Guards from the palace immediately ushered him away toward the palace. Devin felt like he never got to have any fun. He sighed and gave one last glance at all the boys running off and having a blast. He'd have to find a way to have some more fun.
***
Devin stared at the black ceiling of his room. It was ten o'clock and he'd been sent off to bed one hour ago. He got up and looked over the city, he knew his friends weren't asleep either, maybe he could have some fun.
Devin walked over to his closet and put on some of his less regal clothes. Walking over to his door he peered out, only opening it an inch to see if the coast was clear. It was. He closed the door again and peered out his window, coast still clear. He unlocked the latch on it and climbed out onto the window sill. There was a small amount of room to stand on, past that was one- hundred feet straight down. He gulped hard and slid across the side of the castle until he came to the rain gutter. As light as he was he was able to easily slide down the side of it, stopping everyone once in a while to make sure he didn't get going to fast and fall off.
When he finally hit the ground he scampered off toward Mark, his best friend's house. As he was running off he noticed an unusually bright star up in the sky. It seemed to be getting closer, and closer, he thought little of it and continued on his midnight trek toward Mark's house. But something bothered him, the star was heading his way, he didn't know how, but he could just tell. Fear overwhelmed him, he felt naked in the middle of Vector with no one around to protect him.
"What's going on?" he asked himself, everything in his sight, all his emotions felt... off. his hair began to tremble, his knees were starting to shake. He backed up, still gazing at the incoming star; what was that? "Oh!" he yelped as he fell back on his butt. Quickly he scrambled to his knees, and ran back to the castle. Just as he was nearing it he regained control of himself, "What am I doing? If I barge in there they'll know I've been gone! But how will I make my way back up to my..." he eyed the rain gutter warily, he knew that he'd never be able to climb his way up the first thirty feet, let alone a hundred. "Maybe next time I should put some more thought into this," he observed.
The star still got brighter, and larger, Devin seemed to think it was heading toward him!
"Oh! It's coming at me!" he started to run as fast as he could, foolishly away from the castle. "Help! Help!" he screamed.
The star glided through space, it was no bigger than a minivan. When it hit the atmosphere it turned bright red, singed with heat, and let out a large BOOM! Devin cowered and hid his head with his hands. "Help me, help me, help me," he whispered. The thing shot through the air, heading towards Vector. It increased its speed as it headed toward the castle. It slammed into the castle's main tower and continued down. It slammed through the king's room, and straight down through the throne, and into the castle's basement. When it hit the ground it blew apart and caused a massive surge of ground to fly up in a minor 360. Its explosion was surprisingly small, although it decimated the castle. Nothing was left, just a smoldering crater, with a metallic object in the center. Smoke was still rising from it as Devin stood up.
Devin walked over and peered into the crater. The explosion had stopped about ten yards from where he stood, and because of simple dumb luck, his crouching position all the debris was thrown clear over his head and into the city.
"Daddy? Mommy?" he looked over in the crater at the glowing red metal thing. "Anybody? Hello?" at this time the people were exiting from their houses to peer at what had just happened.
Devin started running down the crater's sides as fast as he could, "Mommy, Daddy?" he screamed all the way down. He stumbled about halfway down and tumbled a good ways. As he stopped he jumped back up and began running again in a smooth one-move fashion only little children are capable of.
He kept on moving downward, and ran down to the bright red thing. "Anybody?" he only halfheartedly whimpered this time.
The red thing seemed to pulse once, and a door seemed to open in it. A huge overly muscular man with shoulder length sandy brown hair strolled out. "I see why I was pulled to this place, I can tell it has an aura about it that is incredibly strong, magic. You, who are you?"
Devin thought this over for a minute, and thought what he could say: Either he was the prince (even though in the back of his mind he knew his father was dead) or he could say he was the king, even though he was very young. "I am the king of Vector, and you are on my property, if you don't move, I'll" he thought for a moment, "I'll sick my armies on you."
"Ha ha ha," he laughed heartily, "That's a good one. Since you are a king, tell me, how much do you oversee?"
Devin thought of what his father had sometimes talked about, "I oversee," he thought up another lie, "Everything I survey."
"Big man!" he laughed, "For such a small man you have a lot of power, tell me, would you like yo make a deal? The deal of a lifetime."
"What kind?"
"Die now, or die later, it all depends on if you want to negotiate."
"Negotiate," Devin replied without hesitation. The big man took him into the pod.
.